No One To Catch Them

Callen walked towards the bullpen after what had proven to be a long day.  The takedown at the hospital had gone without a hitch and Vandenburg was now being questioned by Sam and Grace in the boatshed.  After the near chaos of the earlier operation at the hotel, the only complaint to be heard that evening was Deeks in the hospital corridor, moaning that this was the last time he was ever going under cover as a janitor.

He glanced towards Hetty's office and paused. The row they'd publically had earlier needed to be resolved. The air needed to be cleared if Callen and Hetty were to regain any iota of their previous working relationship. Trust. That was the one word that Hetty repeatedly threw at him. Hetty had once told Callen that the one wish she had for him was that by the time he left NCIS, he had learnt the art of trusting others, personally and professionally. Callen still had complete confidence in Hetty as an Operations Manager, however the personal trust that he did have in her was being slowly eroded. She had withheld valuable information about his past, his mother – OK he'd dealt with that and moved on – but finding orphans and training them to become spies...Callen sighed heavily and strode towards Hetty's office, knowing that he was going to have to move on from this somehow, or else move on from NCIS altogether.

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The conversation with Hetty had proved extremely enlightening for Callen, and they had both sat in silence for a while, enjoying the whisky and their recovered status quo. The enigma that was Henrietta Lange had chosen to reveal one of her many secrets, and Callen was somewhat satisfied with this. However he figured it best to end the evening on this level playing field. Yet again he had so many questions he wanted to ask about 'Hetty's Orphans' but if he continued to drink such smooth whisky, the questions would fester in his mind and had the potential to cause yet another explosion of his temper. The consequences of this would be much more severe than a chat over whisky; it would more likely earn him suspension for insubordination. And it had been a while since he'd been that out of control of his own emotions.

So Callen made his excuses and left for the boatshed to catch up with the rest of his team. He'd only had the one drink and he jumped behind the wheel of his Mercedes and within ten minutes was observing Grace and Sam interrogating Vandenberg. His earlier assessment was right; Vandenberg was exercising his right to remain silent and no amount of tactics, from threats to cajoling were currently working. It had been a long day for the team and Sam and Grace were showing signs of fatigue and frustration. Callen decided that they all needed a break and he called them out of the interview room.

Sam and Grace gathered round the table and Callen spoke. "Look, Vandenberg is not talking. We need to keep him in the interview room under armed guard with bright lights and all the comms links up. Make him uncomfortable. Make sure he can’t sleep.  Kensi and Deeks can go back in 3 hours. He might be ready to talk then."

He looked at Sam, waiting for the inevitable protests that would follow. Sam didn't disappoint.

"Aw, come on G" Sam complained. "I reckon another hour and he'll crack. Grace?" Sam gestured with his arms as he spoke and appealed to Grace to back him up.

Grace looked at Sam and Callen as she deliberated. "No, I think Callen is right. Vandenberg is a tricky bastard and we could use a different approach. We're all tired.  We should go eat, rest and refresh ourselves while he's sitting on a wooden chair at a table for hours and hours on end." She looked slyly at the two men, who had both adopted a defensive stance, having crossed their arms. "Vandenberg is used to comfort and getting his own way. He doesn't like being ignored, so this will get to him. If we leave him until tomorrow morning and I'm the first person he sees, we'll probably break him easily."