Lost Too Much

LOST TOO MUCH Chapter 3

Sam pulled his challenger into a parking spot near the entrance to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. He walked inside and scanned the area to see if he could find Callen anywhere. No luck. He pressed the button on the elevator to try the next level. By level four, Sam was ready to give up and just wait for his partner to come back out to his car. Finally he had success! On level four, he found Callen, Gibbs and Bronte talking to a doctor.

Gibbs was the first one to notice Sam's presence. He whispered into Callen's ear before Callen walked over to him. "You can't be here." Callen told him. "Let's go back to your car. We can talk there."

The ride down the elevator was silent between the partners until they climbed inside Sam's challenger. "What the hell is going on, G?" Sam was annoyed his partner had kept him out of the loop.

"I'm sorry, Sam. I only found out myself this morning and I had to ask Bronte, as Hetty had avoided the subject." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Hetty is sick, Sam."

Sam waited a moment to let Callen's words sink in. "What's wrong with her?

Callen turned to his partner. "Cancer," he stated simply.

"Shit, G. This is big! Why have we been kept in the dark?" He was annoyed that they hadn't been told. "And why can't I be here?"

"It was Granger's idea to make it appear Hetty's on vacation." Callen wasn't happy about it either. "Bronte wished he had been honest up front and told us all." He sighed. "The Doctor found a tumour on her liver. They had to remove half of her liver to remove the tumour. But they think they have removed it all and are hopeful she won't need chemo." Callen fiddled with the wrapper of the sour pop he'd found in the car. "No one from OSP can visit Hetty while Bronte's Father is here. He doesn't know either of them are Federal Agents."

"You're on first names with Agent Smith already?" Sam was puzzled over his partner's willingness to trust her so quickly. Sam noticed his partner's avoidance of eye contact. "What has Bronte and her Father have to do with Hetty, G?" Sam tried to get his partner to look at him. "What do you know about her, G, that we don't know? Even you don't trust people this quickly."

"She's Hetty's daughter," Callen breathed out. Sam nearly choked as he heard his partner's words.

"What? Hetty has a daughter?" Callen nodded. "How long have you known?"

"I found out by accident this morning. I drove over to Hetty's as I told you. She had a Frenchman visiting, and it was he who had answered the door. I could tell straight away that something was not right with Hetty, but she didn't let on about it. I waited to see if she would tell me, but before I could, Bronte came walking down the stairs rambling on about her mother keeping her drawings from when she was a kid. And she continued to called the Frenchman, Père."

"French for father!" Sam added.

"Yes. Bronte introduced herself to me, and so I asked her about the fact she had called Hetty her Mom. Hetty sat there amused over her daughter's embarrassment of being caught out by me being there. But she didn't say a word. She let Bronte explain."

"And you were obviously satisfied by her explanation, by the fact you have followed her around like a lost puppy ever since!" Sam chuckled.

"It's not that simple, Sam. When she shook my hand, we both received an electric shock from the contact. I managed to hide noticing it, but she reacted and jumped further away from me."

Sam laughed. "Love at first sight, hey G? Good one. And Hetty's daughter too!"

Callen glared at him. "Laugh all you want, Sam. But there's more. She had a picture she had drawn back when she was growing up, about her family. In the background was a map with her father in southern France making chocolate eclairs with a plane flying from Los Angeles to him. Then there was Hetty, Bronte and Lauren back here in L.A."