I'm coming out.

Chapter 14

Callen sat stunned, his fork full of food stopped in mid-air halfway to his mouth. "You think you can fix this?"

Hetty nodded, "Eat now we will talk after the meal, Nikita has graciously offered me a room at the main house so we can talk back there."

Callen turned to Michelle, "You staying tonight?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded, "Jacob is staying with Charlie tonight."

Sam looked over at his son, "May I spend a few hours with him tomorrow? I have no wish to take him from you, he seems settled and happy here. However maybe if I could get to know him and one day bring Rachel to see him?"

Michelle grabbed at Callen's hand under the table. He gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"You can see him tomorrow, but I would like Charlie to be there. Just so Jacob has someone he knows nearby."

Sam nodded, "Fair enough. I know you don't know me well enough to leave me with your son. but I would like to get to know him."

"Daddy drink?" Jacob asked and both Sam and Callen reached for the juice at the same time, Sam pulling his hand back.

"Sorry man." He apologized.

Callen smiled as he handed Jacob his drink, "He's small Sam. He decided to call me daddy, I didn't force it."

"I know." Sam smiled showing the others he didn't hold any hard feelings.

They all ate happily chatting away, a few questions being posed to some at the table about the workings of the compound and some children asking them questions about life outside.

Deeks watched all the happy children and wondered if this was the norm here, could it be that outside, everyone could be accepted as normal.

He never thought it would happen that straight people could move around freely not having to hide who they were. But if they could have the same kind of love he had for his husband and soon to be son, how could it hurt?

An hour later, coffee's, cognac, scotch in hand the small band settled in the main room of the large house.

Nikita and Hetty took the chairs. Arkady had his desk chair to sit on and the others took up the two couches.

Sam, Deeks and Kensi on one and Callen sitting in the smaller one his legs curled around comfortably as if he belonged there and Michelle snuggled into his side as Hetty started talking.

"As you know Mr. Callen, I was married to Clara, your mother, before she went undercover and met Nikita." The others looked shocked by this but she continued. "What I did for you Mr. Callen, was out of not only love and loyalty for my dear Clara, but as a need arose to save as many children that were natural born as I could."

"You did this for others?" Callen asked amazed.

"You were among the first to be helped." Hetty said nodding at Callen's question, "However your mother was not the first to ask me."

Everyone waited as Hetty took a sip of her scotch and started her tale.

"In the 1960's there was a man who became our president, his husband after his death approached me about a different side to the man that we all knew and loved.

John and Jack were a great couple, they loved each other fiercely and John loved his calling. Jack was thrilled when John was picked to be President of the United States. I remember when he called me with the news. Jack and I had been roommates at college and we had remained friends even after graduation. I had travelled down to be there during his husband's inauguration ceremony. John's Mother's, Rose and Josie had been so proud seeing their son sworn in as President and Jack's father's both travelled down to be there as well. It was the start of a great era." She waited as everyone listened to her tale.

"John wanted peace, more than anything he wanted America to be a great nation and the leaders of World acceptance. The one thing the world didn't know, only Jack and I knew was that John was straight."

"What?!" Sam exclaimed shocked, "That can't be right!"

"Hetty? Really?" Kensi asked surprised.

Hetty nodded, "Jack knew, but for the sake of the country he said nothing. They had their children and John loved them as much as Jack did. John did what was best for his country at all times. Never did he let his feelings compromise his duty. Although we knew. One day I was visiting with Jack and the children when John took a call from a famous movie star. She was very famous and both John and Jack were taken by her talent. As a surprise for his birthday Jack invited her down to the White house where she sang for John. He was starstruck, or so we thought, later that evening Jack and I found him in a compromising position with the actress, her name was Marilyn Monroe."

Arkady smiled, "I remember her, she was a big star in Moscow. She was Russian I think."

Nikita shook his head with a smirk that so resembled his son's. "No brother, She was an American. I am sorry, my brother has the mistaken impression that everyone famous should have been Russian."

Arkady laughed and Hetty continued the story.

"Of course, it would have been terrible if the truth had been known. John had just written his book, Profiles in courage, about senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs and it had been published and won the pulitzer prize. but he was hiding his own biggest secret, that he was straight."

"But he was one of the best President's ever!" Sam argued, "It was a tragedy when he was killed by Oswald."

Nikita shook his head at that. "Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill your President Kennedy. Oswald was a fall guy. He was a natural born son of a Russian mother and an American Father who had tried to join the US armed forces but had failed due to the new tests that had been passed through congress to exclude natural born children from society. People high up in the government found out about Kennedy and his new peace initiative. He was planning on repealing the law that made being straight illegal. He wanted integration. I think your government was not ready for it then. My Clara told me once she had seen the files, Kennedy was assassinated by a shadow group within the CIA who wanted the myth that there were no straight people in the US to continue."

"That is just nuts, we all know there are straights out there... Sorry G." Sam said as he looked up at his partner.

Callen nodded, "I am straight, I have always been. But I am still who I have always been and despite the propaganda I am not a threat to any of you. I am not going to turn your children straight and I am not going to make any of you straight by just touching you. I just would like to be myself and do my job to keep the country safe."

"It is this propaganda and the containment squads that need to stop Mr. Hanna. One of our greatest Presidents was straight and he had no intention of infecting the world. All he wanted was integration, which was easier to achieve with the racial prejudices of the day rather than the sexual prejudices we have now. But in the case of race, children were not being consigned to the gutter, for no other fault than how they were born." Hetty said making sure that he understood her point.

If being racist was wrong today and yet fifty years ago it was the accepted norm, how would being Hetrophobic be seen in fifty years.

Hetty watched as she saw Sam thinking about her words and reflected on some of the children she had managed to save, Hunter, Sullivan, Stevens, Vail...all dead now but all made a valuable contribution before they died. Proof positive in her opinion that segregation and abandonment of natural born children was fundamentally wrong.

"So Henrietta," Arkady said, cutting across Sam's train of thought. "You said you had a plan?"

Hetty smiled, "More like an idea. I have talked to Nikita and this afternoon I made a skype call to a man who owed me a favor. He will be coming here in a few days as I have vouched for his safety. He will be meeting with a few other people and we are going to show them what life's really like here and the truth about those awful broodmare farms."

"A meeting?" Deeks asked.

Hetty smiled, "Well....more like a Summit. I have promised that you all will provide security. That includes you Mr. Callen. Both Parties involved will be leaving their security details behind. This has been arranged with a lot of secrecy so I hope you will respect that."

"Who's coming Hetty?" Kensi asked.

Hetty merely smiled, "Just wait and see my dear."