Lines Crossed

Disclaimer: NCISLA characters belong to Shane Brennan. All original characters and this story are mine.

Chapter 15

A/N: This is the last chapter in the first of the Nallen trilogy. Hunted is the next part of this story.

Callen bit onto the inside of his right cheek, as he tried to rein in his emotions. Nell laid deathly pale in the hospital bed. She shouldn't be in there sick like this. Monitors and drips connected to her, to help her get well again. He should have persisted that she came to the hospital sooner. He knew she wasn't well.

Quiet footsteps entered the private room. He looked up and saw the worry in Hetty's eyes.

"How is she, Mr Callen?"

Callen swallowed hard, trying to find words to say to the woman who'd saved him at age fifteen.

"It's too early to say. They had to remove one of her kidneys, it's been badly infected from a virus she'd contracted." Callen shook his head.

"I have no idea where she got this from." Guilt washed over him.

Hetty stepped forward and sat in the chair beside him. She looked at her Intelligence Analyst and sighed.

"She requested I never told you things, because she couldn't have you look at her with guilt."

Callen's head turned, his breathing became rapid. "Hetty! I know what happened. I just wished she'd told me. That she could trust me enough to tell me this."

Hetty gently squeezed his hand in hers. "I know. But she wanted to be strong for you."

"She is strong. She's has this inner strength that helped me get through breaking up with Joelle. I've seen it in her over the years, when we had to rescue her on a few occasions. She's got what it takes to be an agent, to lead a team, like you do. I know what she's capable of achieving. Far more than I ever could."

"Never put yourself down, Mr Callen. You have overcome far more than anyone should ever have to endure. Nell is well aware of your past and she sees your pain. She felt she'd failed you when Fellows kidnapped her. But once again she proved to us her strength and escaped. These past four months have not been easy on her." Hetty drew in a deep breath before she continued.

"She should have let me in, Hetty. Let me be there for her."

"You have."

"Not as much as she needed me to be."

Hetty nodded, she understood. "Nell needed to do it this way. She understands all that you've been through already."

Callen shook his head. "No. She did this because you've trained her to become this way. To keep secrets from me."

His anger burst through. "I'm not allowing you to do this to her anymore. No more secrets. I know you did what you think you had to do to protect me. But I am a grown man. I have survived more than most. Yet, I am a survivor. You told me that you would do anything to help Nell and I be a family. Yet you continue to keep things from me that concern us."

He stood up and looked outside the window. It was raining outside, such an odd event in Los Angeles. He liked the rain, it suited his mood perfectly.

"What else have you hidden from me, Hetty?" He turned and stared her down.

"Nothing…"

"No. Tell me the truth."

"G!"

Callen's head snapped towards Nell, her hazel eyes were clearing and her focus remained on him. He stepped forward and leaned on the edge of the bed.

"Nell. How are you feeling?"

"Don't be mad at Hetty. I asked her not to tell you." She could see his rage, she hated to see him like this. "Be mad at me."

"No. We promised no secrets, remember?"

She nodded. "I know, but I saw the guilt you carried after Fellow kidnapped me. I couldn't let you destroy yourself—-once I remembered, I couldn't tell you." She swallowed hard and looked for the water. Her throat was dry like sandpaper.

Callen leaned over and handed her the cup. He watched her swallow the contents and close her eyes briefly.

"I needed to fight back on my own terms, G. Make Janvier see that he didn't affect me."

Callen furrowed his brow. He turned and saw the guilt flash over Hetty's face.

"You took her to see Janvier?" He moved away, too angry to continue. "I need some air."

He walked to the elevator and took it down to the ground level. He walked outside into the rain and allowed the cool droplets of water to wash his pain away from him. Tears intermixed with the rain on his face. He held onto the edge of the building for support and fell to his knees. His nemesis had done this to his wife and to him. If he'd stayed away from Nell, she would't be going through any of this. He should have pushed her away.

A firm hand gripped his shoulder. "G!"

He turned and saw the concern in Sam's brown eyes.

"You need to get out of this rain."

"It no longer matters. He's won."

"Who's won?"

"You know who."

"Only if you allow him."

"Well I've failed then, Sam. My promise to myself that I would never be seduced to kill him, and I've failed Nell."

A cynical laugh escaped Callen's throat. "It's ironic really. I ended things with Joelle to protect her. Only to end up falling for Nell. Now look at her."

"She's strong, G."

"I know. Don't any of you see I know that already?"

"I do. We're just doing what family does for each other. Protect because we care."

"Well perhaps I've never had a good example of family life, Sam. But this secret keeping that Hetty's had you all do just isn't working for me."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Callen looked up at him. "Are you?"

Sam knitted his brows together. "You know I am."

"So you would go behind Hetty's back for me?"

Sam heaved out a heavy breath. "Yes. Haven't I proven that to you already?"

Callen thought back to when Hetty zapped him with a taser. He was trying to get information about Arkady in Russia. Sam caught him, but soon let him go when he asked him.

"Yes, you have."

"Good. Now what do you want me to do?"

Callen stood up beside his partner. "When Nell is well enough, I need you to help us disappear."

Sam furrowed his brow, "you sure you want to do it this way?"

"It's the only way I can keep Nell safe from Janvier. He's out to get everyone close to me. She's been through too much already. If it was Michelle…"

"Okay. I'll help you." Sam pulled him in and wrapped his strong arms around him. "For you, G, I'll walk to the ends of the earth for you."

The next day

Callen had fallen asleep in the chair beside Nell. He didn't want to hurt her, if he slept beside her. He heard a noise, like someone was in pain. At first he thought it was part of his dream, then he realised it was coming from Nell. His eyes opened and he looked around. Her body was writhing in pain.

"Nell!" He pressed the buzzer next to the bed, a nurse came rushing in immediately.

"What's wrong?" The nurse took one look at Nell and moved swiftly beside her.

"Her temperature's risen. She's in pain." Rochelle Davies took a quick look at the wound on Nell, from where they removed her infected kidney. It looked fine.

"I'll get Dr Russell." She moved fast and before long, Dr Russell returned with her.

"Let's take a look." Dr Russell gently pressed into Nell's abdomen. She pushed his hands away. It was then he saw the blood.

"She's miscarrying. We need to get her back into surgery." He looked back at Callen. "We need your permission. I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do for the baby."

Callen nodded. "I'll sign the form."

He followed the nurse out to the station and quickly signed it. He gave Nell a kiss on the temple and spoke reassuring words. He watched the staff wheel her into the elevator for the third floor.

"I'm sorry, Mr Callen. I know this has been a hard few days for you and your wife." Dr Russell handed Callen an envelope.

"I know this isn't going to help much, but it may give you some peace."

Callen knitted his brows together and stared at the envelope. He looked up as Dr Russell left to prepare for surgery. He took in a deep breath and huffed it out heavily. He returned to Nell's room and sat on the window bench seat, looking out at the night's sky. City lights were like jewels on black velvet. He opened the envelope carefully and pulled the medical report out. His eyes scanned over the report. Not a match.

It didn't matter. No matter what the report said, the tears fell. Pieces of his heart shattered. Fellows had damaged his wife, by kidnapping and raping her. He'd passed on a virus that made her sick, resulting in one of her kidneys being removed. Now he knew for certain, the bastard had gotten her pregnant. It wasn't fair. It was like she'd been held prisoner for four months, with the pain she'd had to endure. The nightmares were sure to return, now they knew that Janvier had escaped. Dr Russell was correct when he said that this news wasn't going to help. The baby may not be his, but it still didn't matter to him. The pain and the grief Nell was going through, was punishment enough.

A week later

It had been a long week for Callen and Nell. Finally after the antibiotics had kicked in and she'd been signed off from her surgeries, Nell was released from hospital. Sam met them downstairs and helped Callen with carrying Nell's bags, as he wheeled Nell in the wheelchair.

"I feel like a princess, with her two princes taking care of her." A smile edged on her lips, the first in over a week.

"You need to rest for a while longer, Nell." Callen helped her into the front seat of Sam's challenger.

"I know. Doctor's orders. Unlike some people I know, I follow them."

"Good." Callen slid into the back seat. I'm counting on it." He met Sam's eyes through the rear vision mirror and nodded. Sam returned the nod and started the engine.

Nell looked over at Sam quizzically at the route they were taking. "Sam, where are we going?"

"I can't tell you. G will explain."

"G?" Nell's eyes widened when Sam pulled into a private air strip, and a familiar face greeted them. "Arkady's back from Russia?"

"Yes, he is."

"Why are we here, G?"

"We're disappearing for a while."

"No, we're not. I'm not running away from Janvier. I'm not afraid of him."

Callen furrowed his brow and shook his head. "You should be, Nell. I am. My mind is made up. Arkady's good at making people disappear."

"But we have jobs to do. People to save."

"Hetty will receive our resignation letters once we're gone."

"What?" She turned as well as she could and gave him the gorgon stare.

"Nell, I'm taking charge of our lives. No more secrets. We've got a chance to start fresh and live a life without looking over our shoulders."

"You say no more secrets, but this is one big one, G." She turned to Sam.

"Isn't there anything you can do to stop this?"

Sam shook his head. "No, Nell. I'm with G on this. If this was Michelle and I, we'd vanish like a ghost too. It's too dangerous while Janvier is alive. I know how to contact you if I need you."

Callen helped Nell out of the challenger, he brushed his lips on her tear streaked face. "Please, Nell."

"G, I haven't said goodbye to Eric or any of the others."

"I'll pass it on to them. They'll understand," Sam told her.

"But…"

"Nell." Callen held her by the shoulders, making her look at him.

"You've been through so much in the past four months—-too much in fact. All because of me. I cannot let this continue. This is me taking care of us."

"What about my parents, do they know?"

"Sam has a letter to post to them. I've come up with a story, not to discredit your cover—-that you've gone away to recover from your illness and then you'll be overseas for work, and that you'll be gone for a while."

Nell's body shook from the shock of everything. She never thought that when the team and her family came to visit her in hospital, that it would be the last she'd see of them in a long time. She melted into Callen's shoulder as he carried her onto the private jet.

Arkady was polite in his greeting, but even he appeared short of his usual cheery personality. His recent trip to Russia had mellowed him, Nell supposed. But perhaps it was for her purpose, knowing what she'd been through.

She looked out the the scenery, the west coast of her home country laid out below her for the last time—-for who knew how long. Never had she envisaged her life would come to what it had in the past five months. Callen was right, she realised. She'd suffered so much since he'd let her in and fell in love with her. She had told him adamantly that he was worth it. She turned to look at him, he sat beside her, talking with Sam. He'd come with them for a few days and would return with Arkady, after they'd settled into their new life.

She still had no idea where they were heading, nor what they would do for a job and where they would live. She knew Callen had money hidden for a rainy day, she had done the same and told him where it was. She'd caught on fast to his paranoid way of thinking, but now she realised they were on the run. No banking transactions to be made, and they were no longer Nell and G. Callen.

A fresh start, Callen had told her. Her head nodded up and down. Yes. That's exactly what they needed. She'd tried it Hetty's and her own way—-to remain strong and protect Callen. But there was only so much she could withstand. She also hated the secrets. Perhaps she should've listened to Callen in the first place and kept her distance. No. He was worth it. She loved him more now than she did four and a half months ago, when she married him. She would travel to the ends of the earth and start fresh, if that was what Callen decided. Because he was worth risking everything, just to be with him and to live a normal life.

The End!

A/N: Thanks for reading. Reviews welcome.