I'm coming out.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Callen got himself together and arrived at the crime scene thankfully after the body had been taken away.

He walked over to Gerry’s car and looked through it as Sam talked to the police.

Looking over at the passenger side he let out a sigh of relief, there just in the side of the seat was his credit card from the other night. He looked around and Sam was still engrossed so he slipped it in his pocket.

He checked the rest of the car out; there was a stub from the nightclub where Callen had met Gerry on the Friday night. A watch, that was a man’s, but wasn’t his. He felt a stab of pain at that, had she been cheating on him?

He didn’t know and right now it wasn’t an issue, in the back was a small notebook, names and numbers of friends. And a pamphlet for NBSCA, A far right fringe group he had heard of the group but didn’t know what it stood for.

“What ya got?” Sam asked.

“This?” Callen said holding up the watch and the card.

“A man’s watch?” Sam said, “Looks expensive…and…oh…I wonder if she was a member of this group, being straight she might have been.” He said looking at the card with distaste.

“You heard of this group?” Callen asked.

“Yeah a far right group; Natural borns and straight couples of America.” Sam said, “They have been known to carry out terrorism acts, like the bombing last year of the ‘New Births’ breeding center in San Diego,” Sam walked off and looked out over the edge of the cliff they were standing on.

“Sam?” Callen said remembering what had happened last year.

Michael had been six months into his pregnancy, Sam had been ecstatic and was telling Callen all about the little brother they were due to give Rachel in the fall.

Sam brought along the current sonogram pictures that they had received by courier that morning, Michael, and Sam were already halfway through painting the nursery, when Hetty came in to tell them the news.

Sam turned to show her the sonogram picture and stopped at the look on her face.

“Mr. Hanna.” She said her eyes full of emotion.

“Hetty? What’s wrong?” he asked swaying a little, “Is Michael or Rachel hurt?”

“There’s been a bombing.” She started.

Sam paled, “Michael…is he…Hetty you have to tell me is my husband dead?”

Hetty shook her head, “Your husband and your daughter are fine, it’s your son…”

“My…?” Sam slumped into Callen’s chair.

“There was a Bombing at the ‘New Birth’ center in San Diego; a number of the Brood Mares were killed while the terrorists tried to free them, something about it being inhumane. I am sorry Mr. Hanna…Sam…the Brood Mare carrying your son was one of those killed.” She said laying a comforting hand on Sam’s arm, however right then nothing could have comforted him as he tried to; defiantly hold his emotions in check.

“Does Michael know?” Sam asked, “I need to be with him.” He said.

“Michael is on his way here, he is going to the medical center to have the pouch removed before he arrives.” Hetty told him.

“What! No! He can’t do that alone, Hetty I need to be with him, please…let me go, I will be back as soon as I can, but he can’t go through this alone.”

“I agree, I fully intent to accompany you to the hospital Mr. Hanna, if you will allow me I would be pleased to have Rachel for a few days so you and Michael can grieve properly.”

Sam looked over at her and nodded, as the rest of the team in the bullpen looked very shocked.

Sam stood up as Callen handed him his bag, Kensi was crying and Deeks looked stunned as they watched the strongest part of the team being led out by Hetty to go and support his husband as they had the last vestiges of their unborn child removed.

The team had been rocked to the core by this terrorist attack, Sam and Michael had taken a month off to grieve and finally Sam had come back to work.

The government was hunting down all natural born Americans and had insisted on them registering with the government so that if any of them were terrorists they could be weeded out.

During those few months Hetty had kept Callen busy, every time the testers came into the building he had been on assignment, eventually Hetty had offered to take the DNA sample herself and send it off to the registry, she had never done it, but they hadn’t brought it up either.

Now the group was back, or at least it looked like their victim was a member of this group.

Callen knew that he couldn’t let his link to Gerry come out; the death of Sam’s son was still so raw that it would ruin the trust between them irrevocably.

Sam took a deep breath and walked over to Callen, “This time we’ll find them.” He said, “No one should die like that and If this Gerry was a member of NBSCA maybe we can find a way in and take that group down too.”

Callen had texted Eric with all the information they had gathered at the scene and they headed back to ops.

“How are we going to infiltrate the group though?” Callen asked. “None of us are straight and I heard they do DNA tests to make sure you are a natural born, I mean…they don’t have the government markers in their DNA.”

“I don’t know…” Sam said trailing off, “But maybe Hetty will have some ideas.”

They entered the mission and Sam went over to Hetty to tell her what they had found while Callen went over to his desk.

He looked up the NBSCA group, he downloaded, as much as he could that would be needed for the case when a large yellow triangle flashed up on his computer and an alarm blared in OPS.

Hetty looked up as Callen jumped away from his computer as if burned.

“What’s that?” Sam asked looking over at his partner.

“Oh Bugger!” Hetty said and walked over to Callen.

“What are you doing Mr. Callen?” Hetty asked.

“Sam said about a terrorist group, the NSBCA?” Callen said looking at Sam.

“No NBSCA, Natural borns and straight couples of America, they may be the ones behind the attack on the Marine this morning.” Sam replied.

“See, I thought I’d see what we could get on them…this hasn’t been an issue before not with other terrorist groups?” Callen said.

Hetty’s insides clenched.

“Mr. Callen there is a reason that these searches are done from the operations center, they are cleared to access this sort of material, and your terminal is not. Protocol demands I ask you to step away from your workstation and I know have to phone a containment team, hopefully, we will be able to explain that this was just a misunderstanding,”

Callen looked calm but inside he was scared, the containment teams were legendary, many people had just gone missing from their homes, workplaces and schools for accessing the wrong material. If they found out he was straight…he could lose everything, his job, his home and if he wasn’t farmed off as stud for the Brood Mares, he’d be killed.

He walked over to the couch, and sank down onto it heavily watching as Hetty hurried to her phone.

“It’ll be ok…” Sam said trying to console him, “It’s not like you’re one of them, after all.”

Callen nodded holding his hands in fists to stop them from shaking.