I'm coming out.

Chapter 3

Callen held his breath as Hetty entered the lounge area where he was sitting with his hands clasped tightly in his lap.

"Mr. Callen I talked with the containment team and convinced them that you were working under my direction as you have a plan to help find this group and take them out." She said, "So now…We need to come up with a plan don't you think?"

Callen nodded.

"How are we going to do that?" Sam asked from his seat beside his partner.

"We will send someone undercover." Hetty said flatly. "Mr. Callen I need a word with you." She walked down the corridor away from her office and opened the door that belonged to the operational psychologist. "In here please." She said with a small smile.

Callen looked at Sam and shrugged, and then he followed Hetty into the office.

Hetty closed and locked the door and Callen couldn't help but gulp. Then she pulled a key out of her pocket and opened a locked filing cabinet.

"I am sorry, Mr. Callen, I have some things you need to know, but they are vital to completing this mission." She placed the file on the table and sat on the chair facing him.

Callen looked at her worried.

"First things first, I am sorry for your loss." She said flatly and Callen blanched.

"My…My…?"

"I assume you were in a relationship with Miss Moore which is why you removed your credit card from her car at the crime scene," she said having seen the LAPD crime scene photos and noticing the discrepancies.

Callen looked in fear towards the locked door, had Hetty turned him in?

"Never fear Mr. Callen, I have so many of your secrets, I assure you I will not be reporting you to the containment team because you are straight."

Callen blinked, he opened his mouth a few times not knowing what to say, then he spoke, "My secrets?" he asked.

"I should be asking your forgiveness, but please be assured that everything I kept to myself was for your own safety and mine."

Callen watched as Hetty with a slightly shaking hand opened a file and looked at him.

"I knew your mother," she said quietly.

Callen looked up in surprise, "You did? You knew her before I was assigned to her?" he asked.

"No…Mr. Callen, I knew your birth mother, her name was Clara, and you lived with her till you were five years old."

"I…I…can't have, I know births don't work like that, the child is taken from the brood mare and assigned to a family."

"You are a natural born child." Hetty said and watched as the horror crossed his face.

"I?...I can't be…to be natural born is illegal, I would never have been allowed in the foster system, I would have been left to die on the streets as an infant. It's the law." He stood up and tried to go for the door.

Hetty stopped him, "Wait Mr. Callen, I need to explain."

Callen moved over to the chair again and sat down. "OK." He said he was shaking, but he didn't care at that point everything he knew was being turned on its head.

"I was married to your mother a long time ago." She said matter of factly. "I met Clara in the early 1960's she was beautiful and we fell in love, however it soon became clear to me that she was straight. She tried to hide it of course, but in her own way she loved me too, and I accepted her for who she was, and who she was, was a loving and kind woman, who loved her job."