Ok I know I know, what happened to the up-dates? Waiting for season 3 to arrive on dvd took longer than I expected.

First of all, I would like to thank a few reviewers.

Shestarsky

SilverSentinal21

Chaplinsgirl

CM-x-SN-x-HP-x-roxmysox

kath46

Ambrosia Rush

And everyone else and all those guests who stumbled onto the story and were kind enough to leave a review. Your words and comments put a smile on my face.

This chapter starts toward the end of season 3 episode 1 and flows from that. The lines in bold are from the show and I do not own them or the characters. They belong to Shane Brennen.

Callen knew that Hetty had been at her place 'recuperating' for several months and he figured that she might like to see Barry. After another hectic day, a kid hacker and several breaches to the DOD he went round. After letting himself into the house he let Barry out. As he watched the cat take in his surroundings, Callen looked for Hetty. He headed out the back door when he noticed a guard standing next to the opening in the hedge. He walked up to Hetty.

"So this is how you recuperate?" as he walked closer to her, what he had been planning on saying flew out the window as he spotted the file in the briefcase with his name on it. He was sure that Hetty had made sure that he did.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to visit me? How are things at work?" She knew that he had seen the file as his footsteps faltered.

"Well I'm sure you know better than me." As he sat down, Callen threw a look toward the briefcase that Hetty had shut a second before.

"You and Hunter playing nice?" the pleasantries would only last for so long and she was waiting for the moment that Callen asked the question that she could not answer, not yet.

"When are you coming back?"

She paused a second before answering "Soon enough."

"You owe me some answers."

And there it is. "Is that so? Answers to what specifically?"

"What happened in Romania, why I knew that beach, who my mom was? All of it. You knew things you never told me, why?" he couldn't help it, a little longing tone crept into his voice as he said the last word.

Hetty caught the tone of longing in his voice. "If I didn't tell you something it was for your own good. To protect you." She leaned forward to try and get her point across.

"I deserve the truth." He pleadingly demanded. She knew something and wasn't telling him.

"Ah the truth. It's not always so simple. I don't have all the answers you think I do. The last thing I ever wanted to give you was false hope. I know how much it all means to you." She knew it was weak, but it was the truth.

"Do you?!" He allowed his disbelief to show in his words. He reached over, opened the briefcase and pulled out the file he had seen.

"And something tells me everything I want to know, everything I deserve to know is right here. Am I right?"

"No, but go ahead and open it if you don't trust me." She regretted having to pull that card on him, but it was a last ditch attempt to get him to let it go for now.

Callen fondled the envelope, looking at it longingly. She pulled out the trust card, a low blow. "I will find out who I am and who my family was with or without anyone's help." He threw the file back into the case and slammed the lid before walking away without a second glance.

Inwardly, she sighed as he threw the file back. "Yes you will Mr Callen." She said as she sat back in her chair.

After Callen had left him in the living room, Barry had wondered around. He had never been here before and he didn't know why Callen had brought him here, until he caught Callen and Hetty's words. They were heated. They had never spoken to each other like that in the whole time that he had been with them.

He headed out toward it and saw the small woman who had allowed him to sleep in the old building lifting the lid of a silver case. And the only sign of Callen was his back as he left the courtyard. Thinking that Callen had gone to get him from the living room, Barry decided that by staying here, Callen might return and make things right with Hetty. They had never been mad at each other like this. As he waited for Callen to return, Barry decided to play.

He stole toward Hetty, keeping out of her line of sight. As the woman turned back to a laptop on the table, Barry leapt for the table. He landed on the top of the silver case and it shut under him, causing him to lose his footing. He fell off the table and landed on his feet beside Hetty. He turned to look up at her as though to say I meant for that to happen.

Hetty jumped as something large and orange landed on the case she had just opened, causing to close. She grabbed at the tea cup on the table as the 'thing' caused it to shake and followed the orange thing as it landed on the ground beside her. "And what are you doing here, Mr Barry? Did Callen bring you over?" Hetty looked around in case her senior agent in charge returned. She had not meant to hurt him, even if it was for his own good. There was still so much that she herself did not know.

She sighed and bent to pat the cat that had started to lick the dust from his 'fall' off his tail. Once she had straightened Barry surprised her by jumping onto her lap. He looked straight at her and Hetty could see the lecture behind his eyes. For a cat, he was remarkably readable.

"If I had more to tell him I would. But there would be no point if I myself am unable to understand what happened." She looked directly at him, daring him to swat her with his paw, as he had in the past. She wished more than anything that she had the answers for him, that all she had been able to collect was more than a file a centimetre thick. She didn't want to break any confidentially agreements she had signed over the years, so what she had was to be handed to him when she died.

Barry looked at her and listened, hearing and sensing the sadness and truth in her words. He turned and leapt onto the keyboard of the laptop, hitting Hetty on the nose with his tail as he turned and walked across the top of the case. To remind her that she had hurt his friend … and hers. He sat on the case looked at her as she shook her head at his cheekiness. It had been nearly half an hour since Callen had left, and it was clear that he had forgotten that he had brought Barry over. No doubt the file in the case under his cat had driven everything else from his mind. Hetty called for the guard and asked him to organise some supplies for the cat, who would be staying for a few days.

A couple of days later found Hetty opening the sealed file that she had for Callen. She once again poured through it, hoping to find something that she had missed the last few hundred times that she had looked. But, no there was nothing, again. She sighed and went to the kitchen to organise something for dinner. She noticed Barry had finished his bowls of pellets and milk. Adding more milk to his bowl, she wondered where he was.

After fixing a healthy meal of steak and vegetables, she went back to the living room to eat. She saw Barry sitting on her table where she had left the file. She looked around suddenly, fearing that Callen was in the room. He had managed to sneak up on her on occasion and the last thing she needed was him doing it now. She didn't want him to see the contents of the file just yet.

Satisfied that her senior field agent was not in her house, she quickly ate her dinner, all the while looking at Barry. Something had caught his eye among the few pieces of paper and he was looking at it with such intensity that Hetty finally gave in and got up to see. It was a black and white photo of a woman with black hair and white jumper. The photographer had caught her as she turned around, flinging it out in a black wave over her shoulder.

"Of all the things for you to find, it had to be this one." She said sadly to the cat. As she went to pick it up and put it back in with the others, Barry slammed both front paws on it and growled. Hetty stepped back in shock. She had never seen the cat act like this, and while it sounded a little silly, it frightened her. "What has gotten into you Barry?" She went to get the photo again and the cat growled again, picked up the photo in his mouth and headed off toward the front door. "Oh, so you're going to take it to Callen are you? I don't think so buddy." She pulled out a remote from her pocket and hit a button that had just been added to it, sealing and locking the cat flap shut.

Barry went to push the cat flap so that he could head out only to find that it wouldn't open. He batted at it again and when it remained close he went back to the living room and sat at the opening, head tipped to one side, photo of the woman still in his mouth. You have to open a door sooner or later, and when you do, I'll be waiting for it.

Hetty could see that he was determined to take the photo to Callen, no matter what she did, so she compromised. She crossed her hands in front of her and spoke quietly, "I plan on being back at the office in two days. I will give him the photo and tell him a little about her. You figured out that she was his mother, didn't you?"

Barry looked at her and heard the honest tone in her voice. He walked back over to her and sat holding the photo out to her. She took it and sat in a nearby chair. "Her name was Clara."

Hope this sounds ok. The episode where we learn about Callen's mother, Hetty's words sounded like they had been rehearsed, so this is my reasoning why.