Their lives were about to change…forever

Adrenaline was in major abundance as the NCIS team stormed a two-story house on the North side of L.A.. The team had been investigating the kidnapping of a Navy Commander's foster child, and earlier in the morning the Commander went missing as well. Luckily though, their resident tech wizard had thought to place a hidden tracking device on the commander's person.

Callen and Sam waited at the front door, while Kensi and Deeks were setting up around back.

"Move in on my mark." Callen said through his earwig. "Sam, you ready?" Sam nodded silently. "Kensi? Deeks?"

Around at the back of the house, Kensi and Deeks were finally in position, and awaiting the signal from their team leader. "We're all set here." Deeks responded, looking over at Kensi.

"What?" Kensi asked. She saw the look on her partner's face, and found it to be very distracting.

"Nothing." Deeks just flashed that goofy grin of his, and it threatened to unsettle her completely. "You got my back right?" he asked as he readied himself for the signal.

Kensi returned her focus to the mission. "Don't I always?" Deeks nodded with a satisfied grin.

"On Three…Two…One, Go!" Came Callen's signal. All four agents burst into the house simultaneously—guns drawn at the ready.

Callen and Sam entered through the front door, while Kensi and Deeks came through the back. At the front, Sam squeezed off the first shot-dropping a lone sentry who was waiting just inside the door.

"On you're left!" Sam warned his partner suddenly. A tattooed thug appeared to one side of the duo as they entered the living room. Callen easily dropped him with a single shot to the chest.

"Thanks." Callen replied. The two men then proceeded to move on once more. "Don't mention it." Sam replied seriously.

"Let's split up." Callen told his partner as they reached a branching path. "You go towards the dining room. I'll take the study."

"Right." The two men split off in two separate directions to search for their missing commander.

Kensi and Deeks entered the house, and immediately found themselves in the kitchen. Deeks turned to the right, and found a set of stairs that led from the kitchen up to the second floor.

A thug was just entering the kitchen from a short hallway at that same moment. "What the F-" The man started to raise his assault rifle, but he was too slow. Kensi quickly squeezed off a round that buried itself in the man's shoulder—dropping him to his knees while he clutched at the newly acquired gunshot wound.

"Kensi, up here!" Deeks called from the stairs.

"Be there in a sec!" She feisty brunette called back. Kensi then kicked the man in the face, and he was instantly knocked out cold. She turned afterward, and headed back for the stairs to join her partner.

Deeks was already at the top, and Kensi heard a several shots ring out above her head. Her heart jumped into her throat, and panic crept over her as she started to run faster up the stairs. "Deeks!"

She reached the top, and searched desperately for her partner—fearing that the worst had happened in her absence. Her gut said to go right so she did. The first room she entered after that was empty, and so was the next. That just left one more room.

She entered the last room, and was almost gunned down by a thug with an Uzi. She managed to pull herself back out of the room just in the nick of time though. Her heart was pounding really hard against her chest at this point.

Silence now came from within the room. She counted to three, and started to move back into position to take another shot at the armed thug. "Freeze!" she yelled as she jumped into the room. Three shots later the thug was dead on the floor.

On the other side of the hallway, Deeks met with very little resistance until he reached the second room on the end. He stepped into the room, and found it empty. Nothing in here but air…well, that and dust.

He started to turn around when he heard a familiar clicking sound coming from just behind him.

"Turn around!" Deeks did as he was told, while raising his hands in mock defeat at the same time. "Drop your weapon!"

"Dude, so not gonna happen." Deeks said with a half-grin. Anyone who knew anything about Marty Deeks would know that he always tended to 'wing it' in situations like these—always hoping for the best.

The thug looked confused by Deeks' statement, and shifted nervously where he stood in the doorway of the room. "Why not!" he demanded.

Just then a shot rang out, and the man crumpled into a heap upon the floor. Deeks saw his partner standing just outside the room with her gun pointed straight out in front of her. "That's why." Deeks said to the lifeless form lying at his feet. He couldn't help but flash that goofy grin of his at Kensi.

"Just like I planned." He said confidently, with a quick wink as he exited the room. Kensi rolled her eyes at her shaggy-haired partner. Oh, give me a break.

"You owe me one." She told him. "Okay," he replied. "How about a beer after work?" Kensi nodded her approval. "Works for me." She said with a grin, as she punched Deeks playfully in the shoulder.

The partners started back for the stairs, but stopped when they heard a strange sound coming from the only room that they hadn't bothered to check.

"You hear that?" They both stopped, listening intensely to make sure that they had actually heard something.

"Yeah," Deeks replied, looking around until he spotted a room with a closed door. "Sounds like it's coming from over there."

They ran quickly to the door. Kensi jiggled the doorknob, and found that it was locked up tight. "It's locked." Deeks pressed his ear to the door and listened. The sound he heard on the other side was like that of a child whimpering in fear. "We're here to help…step away from the door." Deeks said loudly.

"Move back." He and Kensi moved back from the door, and then a second later Deeks lunged forward ad kicked the door in—allowing them access to the once closed room.

They rushed into the room, and stopped instantly. Kensi let out a horrified gasp.

The little girl looked so fragile to the two partners. She was only about 4 or 5 years of age with soft, dirty blond hair and brilliant green eyes that sparkled like perfect emeralds. She was kneeling next to the lifeless body of her foster father—she seemed as though she were in some kind of trance or something.

"She looks like hel-" Kensi started to say, but Deeks cleared his throat loudly. She got the message, and quickly shut her mouth. "Deeks, look. That chain around her ankle—its attached to the bed." Kensi pointed out.

"Call it in." Deeks told his partner. "I'll get her."

Deeks slowly moved to the little girl's side. "Hey there munchkin. My name's Marty…I'm here to help you." He said softly. "Just gonna get rid of this chain for you."

Outside the room, Kensi pressed a finger to her earwig. "We're all clear upstairs." She informed the rest of the team. "We found the Commander and the girl…but the Commander's dead." Kensi's voice was really low at that last statement. "Damn." Callen swore over the earwig.

"Kensi, we're all clear down here. Stay put. We'll come to you." Sam chimed in.

"Roger that."

Inside the room, Deeks had managed to liberate the little girl from her restraints. "Do you uh…do you have a name?" Deeks asked. His voice remained calm and soothing as he spoke to her.

She nodded. "Alyssa." She said quietly. Deeks smiled at the little girl, and gently patted her on the head. "Well, Alyssa, you're in good hands now—my partner and I are going to take real good care of you."

The little girl nodded that she understood. "Sorry about you're…dad." Deeks said, nervously. He wasn't sure what she normally called the Commander, but he was trying his best.

The little girl threw her arms around Deeks' neck, and hugged him tight. "Hey," he said softly, returning the gesture sympathetically. "You're okay now. I've got you."

Kensi stepped back into the room a second later, and looked at Deeks. "Sam and Callen are on their way up now. They said Alvarez got away."

Deeks huffed. "What else is new?" It was a rhetorical question of course, and Kensi knew all too well how her partner felt.

"Kensi! Deeks!" Callen's voice was full of urgency as he called to them over the earwig transmitters that they wore. "Alvarez is trying to burn the place down—we can't get to you."

Panic washed over Kensi as she listened to Callen's warning. Deeks could see the expression painted on his partner's face, and it told him that they needed to leave—quickly.

"You guys need to get out of there, now!" Sam told Kensi over the earwig.

"Deeks, we need to go now!" Kensi said urgently. Deeks was already on his feet with the little girl held in his arms. "Take her." He handed the little girl to Kensi—who had a horrified look on her face.

"Deeks, I-I can't." she stammered. She tried to push the girl back into Deeks' arms, but to no avail. "Kensi, take her—please. I've got to get the Commander." He explained hurriedly.

Kensi was very nervous about having to make actual physical contact with the fragile looking little girl. She had never really been great with kids before. She had convinced herself, once, that all kids just naturally hated her. They just did, and nothing she did made any difference at all. Deeks finally forced her into it at last, and she accepted the task—albeit reluctantly though.

"Just hold on, and keep her close." He instructed her.

Soon the pair of agents was racing down the hallway, back towards the stairway. Deeks was carrying the Commander's body across his shoulders. He grimaced under the body's shifting weight as he ran.

There was smoke already billowing up from the first floor, and Kensi heard the little girl whimper as they moved closer to it.

"Shhh, its okay." Kensi whispered reassuringly. She wasn't sure how, but it seemed to work well enough. The little girl's grip around Kensi's neck tightened a little bit more as they started down the stairs.

Something was awakened deep inside Kensi at that moment, and she couldn't explain exactly what it was—but it was definitely not something she had ever experienced before.

They were all coughing insanely as the heavy smoke quickly filled their lungs. "Hold you're breath, and keep moving!" Deeks shouted through a strangled cough.

By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, the kitchen area was already on fire, and the flames were slowly spreading. The first thing that Deeks noticed was that the backdoor had been blocked, and set on fire.

"Damn!" he swore through another choking cough. "It's blocked."

"We'll have to find another way!" Kensi shouted back.

Outside the house, Sam and Callen had already liberated themselves from its fiery hold, and were waiting on the lawn for signs of Kensi and Deeks.

Sam was standing off to the side with a finger pressed to his earwig. "Eric, we need the fire department out here Pronto." Sam said over the earwig. "You got it Sam. Help's on the way now."

"Thanks." Sam replied.

"Come on." Callen said quietly, as he paced back and forth. "Where the hell are they! They should be out by now."

"G. Relax—they'll be fine." Sam tried to reassure his partner.

"That's it. I'm going back in." Callen said, as he began to strip off his heavy Kevlar vest.

Suddenly the front door flew open, and Kensi and Deeks emerged from the smoke-filled house into the fresh, open air of the great outdoors. "There!" Sam pointed ahead of them as he spotted the others coming out of the house.

Kensi and Deeks were barely out the front door when a mini-explosion erupted outward from inside the house. All four agents were knocked to the ground as a result.

Kensi was falling forward before she even knew what was happening. She instinctively wrapped her arms all the way around the little girl, and tucked into a roll just before they hit the ground.

Miraculously, no one was seriously injured through the whole mess.

The team gathered at the mission several hours later for a debriefing from Hetty. Everyone was exhausted from the long, trying day that they'd just gone through and all were itching to get home to bed.

"So what's our next move, Hetty?" Callen asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We wait." The tiny woman replied seriously. "Alvarez is still out there—but we haven't a single new lead to go on."

While all of this was going on, Deeks' mind was still on the little girl that he and Kensi had rescued from the house. He had actually spent the better part of the last few hours keeping her company. Needless to say, he was becoming attached to her already.

"Mr. Deeks!" Hetty said loudly, tapping her hand against the table to get his attention.

"Hunh, what!"

Hetty shook her head at the shaggy-haired man. Sam and Callen both snorted in amusement at the liaison officer's apparent lack of focus.

"How's the girl?" Hetty asked once again. "Alright, I hope."

"Oh, she's-she's good. Quite the trooper actually." He said with an adoring smile.

"I see." Hetty thought silently for a long moment, before speaking again. "She'll need to be placed into protective custody for awhile—at least for the time being." Everyone in the OPS Centre was looking at Hetty. "She could be used as a witness against Alvarez in the future—should the need arise that is." Hetty told them.

Deeks raised a hand without thinking. "She could stay at my place. I've got plenty of room." He offered.

"That's not a bad idea Hetty." Callen said. "And kids seem to really like him anyway—so it does seem logical." He added.

"Indeed. However, I think that it would be more appropriate if she stayed with a woman.

There was a collective nod that ran silently through the entire team. "Nell could do it." Kensi pointed out. "Or, even Callen—I mean, he's been through the foster care system so he has experience that I don't." she tried desperately.

Hetty nodded, but then a wicked smile began to spread across her lips. "I have another idea though…Ms. Blye, I am going to release Ms. Alyssa into your custody effective immediately." She informed the female NCIS Special Agent.

"What!" Kensi started in protest. Her jaw dropped slightly from the shock of Hetty's words. "No. No, Hetty I can't. I know nothing about kids—not to mention they don't seem to really like me anyway." She tried, but Hetty wouldn't hear it. "Let her go with Nell, or Callen…or-or Deeks—just not me, please." Kensi begged.

"My decision stands, Ms. Blye." Hetty said firmly, raising a hand to the brunette NCIS Agent.

…TBC…

…Stay Tuned for The Next Exciting Chapter Their Knight in Shining Armor…