Isobel

ISOBEL Chapter 10

Ten months later

Isobel woke every few hours during the night from nightmares that invaded her mind every night since that night in Russia. Simon's execution, her torture, and rape kept going over and over in her mind. Callen would gently massage her back and whisper sweet words of comfort to bring her out of her nightmares. It was a long road to recovery for Isobel, and Callen made sure he was there every night after work for her. He knew how bad she had suffered, and he knew her guilt for Simon's death ate at her, so he took things ever so slowly with her. He would lie next to her and she would snuggle up next to him before she would drift off to sleep. He had always slept better when he was was with her, so he didn't have to worry that he would be awake and away from the bed whenever her nightmares came.

Slowly her colour returned to her face, the sparkle shone again in her eyes and the tension left her face and body. Hetty knew it was all to do with her Senior Agent, G. Callen. She asked her self numerous times, why did she ever forbid her Isobel to be with him? They were meant to be together, that was obvious to her and everyone else around them. But she knew why she had forbidden it, it was to keep Jack and Sophie safe from the Comescus.

Hetty noticed Georgia and Caitlin began to trust her like a grandmother, and they started to spend more time with her giving their mom time to heal. It had been hard at first, as they were wanting to cling onto Isobel for dear life. Yet, Callen had managed to quickly bring down their walls and she was amazed at how good he was at adapting to family life. After all, Callen had been through without his family, she was amazed at how quickly he had adjusted to being a father, not only to his own children but also to Simon's girls as well.

However, Callen's relationship with Owen remained strained, even after that emotional day at her home, when Owen brought Amy with him, alive. Her own spirits had been lifted, finding out that Amy was in fact still alive, married with children of her own. What Owen had done all those years ago to save Amy from being found and given her a normal and safe life, was heartwarming to anyone who heard the story. Even Callen was over the moon with joy to know his sister was alive and well. But it also burdened Callen with the feeling that he wasn't good enough for his father, seeing he was left on his own for all those years. Indeed Owen had admitted to Callen, that it was he who felt he was not worthy of being his father. But Hetty knew that Callen would still feel the rejection as being his fault. She had tried speaking to him about it on numerous occasions, but he had brushed it off as if it wasn't important. She tried getting Owen to return to Los Angeles just to speak with his son, but he managed to find excuses to evade their office unless a case warranted his presence at the mission.

Callen and Owen managed to be professional when dealing with each other at work, and she was pleased they could at least manage that. Hetty tried to get Amy to see if she could help mend the wounds Owen and Callen were both suffering from, but even she could not achieve success on her own. However, Callen welcomed his sister with open arms and welcomed her into his family. She returned with her own family and the two siblings and their families together was an amazing sight, filling Hetty's eyes with tears of joy.

Then there was the Hughes case that had left her team all heartbroken and shaken to the core. Owen had flown quickly to Los Angeles to help Hetty and her team rescue the Hughes family from the Mexican Cartel, south of the border. Only to be too late, and find the battered and broken bodies of Steven Hughes, his wife Patricia, and their three little girls, Zoe, Michaela and Willow. On the large screen in the Ops Centre, Eric, Nell, Hetty, and Owen stood in shock as Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks broke into the Romero Cartel compound. Once they had shot and killed the guards, it was Callen and Sam who first found the Hughes family's bodies in the basement. They were too late in saving them. Too damn late was all Callen could say over and over again in his mind. It broke him to see what had happened to this family. It hit him hard that this could have been his family or Sam's, lying there dead. It shook them to the core, and when Kensi and Deeks joined them, they were silenced by the horror they had found. None of it had made sense. Steven Hughes was an intelligence gatherer for the navy. To the outside world, he was just a civilian, a loving husband, and father of three gorgeous little girls. But his job had put all their lives at risk. This case was too close for Callen and Sam, with the risks their jobs put on their families. They were the good guys, wasn't good supposed to overcome evil? It was this philosophy that had kept them going each day in their jobs, to keep people safe.