No Ordinary Love - G.Callen NCIS L.A

Chapter 30

Sam stopped the Challenger next to the curb and looked at the house. "It looks relatively calm."

"Hmm." Callen's eyes scanned the area and he nodded. "Take the back just to be sure?"

"Yeah."

They got out; Sam going around back and Callen walked up to the front door with a key in his hand. Sam wasn't really surprised anymore when he walked into the yard. His partner had kept so much from him these past couple of months; he wasn't shocked that the back yard had changed as well. It just made him feel left out. Even Kensi and Deeks knew about Deja and all the changes Callen had made.

Meanwhile, on the front, Callen checked the street once again. Then he checked the front door to see if it was rigged. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. At last, he opened the door. Pulling his gun out of the waistband of his jeans, he circled through the house, opening the back door for Sam in the process. "Downstairs is clear," he whispered and went up the stairs. Sam followed suit, but upstairs was just as clean as the ground floor.

"All clear." Clearly relieved, Callen put his gun away and went to the closet. He threw some clothes in a bag, picked a picture of him and Deja from the nightstand and went back down again.

Sam quietly eyed the furniture and fresh wallpaper, the dining room with its paper-covered table and homely kitchen. It was a far cry from the house Callen had been living in. It was as transformed as Callen was himself.

Callen took something from the mantle that Sam couldn't see, threw it in the bag and took one final look around the room before deciding that he had everything he needed. "Come on. I need to talk to Gibbs."

The drive back to the boat shed was again a silent one. But Sam could feel himself on the boiling point. He needed answers and he needed answers fast.

"Shut your mouth." In the seat next to him, Callen shook his head and sighed. "You have every right to feel left out, okay? I'm sorry it came down to this. This was not how I pictured introducing you to her, but it has to do. And yes, Kensi and Deeks know. Deeks knows because he is a far better agent that the two of us give him credit for, and Kensi knows because she had to drive me home when I broke my shoulder. I couldn't not tell her."

"Why could you not tell me?"

"Because you push and meddle and treat me as if I can't do this on my own. I want to. I want to be able to do this on my own and it felt as if by telling you, this thing with her would be out of my hands and you'd try to get control over it. And you having control over or meddling in means that it'll end. It's not ending. This is it. And it's all it is because I made it happen."

Sam took a deep, angry breath. "You don't mean that."

"Other than me saying 'I love you' to Deja, I've never been so serious in my life."

"You've kept the facts that you have a name, and a girlfriend that you're living with and a furnished house that I barely recognize all to yourself because you think I meddle?"

"I don't only think so, Sam, I know it. Even your wife thinks so. You would have my proposal ready when I wasn't looking and would just present me with the fact that it's time to get engaged and I would feel like I earned nothing of it. I wouldn't even be sure if it was the right girl."

"Is she?"

"She is way more than I deserve."

Sam huffed. "I don't meddle. I try to help."

Callen shook his head. "You don't try to help. I need you to be my partner and my friend, and I need you to help me solve this and find this guy so we can go back to our lives."