Sam walked into OSP that morning with no inkling his life would be turned upside down once again.
Strolling through the heavy Mission doors, he looked around the courtyard for the rest of his team. Seeing he was the only one in yet and Hetty was mercifully absent (he may have avoided her last night when the team finished their latest case because he managed to destroy a $6,000 suit and was trying to avoid the inevitable scolding he was bound to receive) he sighed and turned the corner leading to the teams desks before halting abruptly looking at what he could only assume was a carefully constructed mirage, placed there by Hetty. Realising Hetty would never be that cruel to the team Sam was force to consider the fact that what he was seeing was real , leaving him unable to decide which was worse.
5 years ago L.A.P.D. Liaison Officer Detective Marty Deeks was working as a member of their NCIS OSP team as Kensi's partner. He helped them with their cases and supposedly was meant the assist with co-ordinating the cases shared by LAPD and NCIS. The only problem being that the LAPD Officers hated him until he was needed undercover and then he was the most loved and respected man in the Department.
Nearly 4 years ago to the day Deeks had been called away on a deep cover assignment, the team were not happy about it but could do nothing as he wasn't a NCIS Agent. So they let him go, each person giving him a solid piece of advice, knowing that they wouldn't see him for up to a year, and Deeks took their advice to heart knowing that even though the advice they gave was rather basic and he had been undercover before, it was the teams' way of saying goodbye.
So he left the Mission that afternoon in August and went back to LAPD for his briefing and from there to his undercover assignment. The team kept tabs on him for a while, for as Hetty had once said "He was their Liaison, and as close to family as it gets". They monitored his GPS and Hetty used her connections within the LAPD to receive notification every time he checked in, and everyone was happy. Well as happy as they could be with one of their own away and in danger with no backup. That was the thing Sam hated most about Deeks doing undercover work with LAPD, was he hardly ever had reasonable backup and the people Deeks was forced to rely upon within LAPD weren't exactly trustworthy or caring; there was no sense of team like they had at NCIS, one had only oneself and a gun and Sam knew that often it wasn't enough. So the team kept tabs on him as much as they could (which seeing as they had Eric and Nell doing the tracking was pretty well) until; about 3 years ago and 11 months into Deeks' undercover op, he vanished. He was gone from satellite and GPS and his alises home was found shot up and empty with bloodstains inside. It was as if he vanished into thin air.
The team had immediately wanted to jump straight into the case and find him but were forbidden by Hetty until they were officially notified of his disappearance by LAPD. The team went ballistic over that and argued for hours with Hetty, finally giving in after Hetty told them all to shut up and how she would love to go find him right that minute because he was like a son to her but did they stop to think how they may do more harm than good because maybe he wasn't missing but instead his cover required him to go off the grid for a while and he may have already notified his handlers at LAPD. Charagrined the team gave in to her request. A vigorous search was conducted by NCIS a week later after Hetty was officially informed, LAPD having kept them out of the loop on purpose while they did their own piss poor investigation, but even then no trace could be found.
The team was devastated. Callen beat himself up for not training Deeks harder, Eric and Nell blamed themselves for not tracking him better and Hetty blamed herself for not applying more pressure for him to become a full time Agent and for not starting the search earlier.
The team was falling apart, fighting with each other, taking on each day like it was a deadly campaign; the word with the criminals on the street became 'Stay away from Navy Personnel cuz the Navy got cops scarier than the KGB and deadlier too'. It grew to be so bad, the director, having sent Gibbs to Los Angles to asses the situation and got him sent back frazzled, rundown, irritable and tired; with his conclusion that it would be easier to work in an aircraft engine than at OSP at that moment; recalled Nate from an active war zone to help the team.
Sam had been the rock through all of this trying to keep the team together while desperately missing the man he had come to think of as a little brother. But by far the worst member of the team was Kensi, not wanting to allow history to repeat itself she worked tirelessly every night going over clues hoping to find his whereabouts, hounding both LAPD and NCIS personal, refusing to work with another partner until she was eventually banned from stepping foot into the LAPD precinct and Sam and Callen pleaded with Hetty to order her to see Nate, all three knowing she was unlikely to talk to anyone but Deeks but needing her to talk to someone.
So it was to Sam's immense shock and disbelief to turn the corner to his desk that morning and find none other than Marty Deeks sitting at his desk filling in paperwork as if he had never left. Looking closer Sam could see noticeable differences between the two time periods, he was thinner and sharper looking than he was when he left and he held himself with an awareness Sam was surprised to see from the laid back detective.
Deeks glanced up from his desk briefly saying politely "Good Morning Agent Hanna"
AN: SO? Do you guys like it? Let me know please :)