AN: Inspired by my anonymous reviewer "French fan" who always reviews faithfully. It will be at least a three part story.

"Why, Hetty?"

"I thought we'd already been punished?"

"This is a bad idea."

"It's not fair."

That last one came from Mr Deeks and made all other complaints stop in fear of her reaction. Hetty solemnly watched "her boys" who were all looking at her in varying displays of dismay. Honesty, they were all so dramatic.

"I assure you, fairness has nothing to do with it, Mr Deeks," she informed him.

Mr Deeks muttered unintelligibly under his breath with a pout gracing his face.

"Hey, at least they're your colleagues," Mr Hanna pointed out with a frown. "Think of us," he indicated to himself and Mr Callen who was looking particularly brooding at her announcement.

"What about me?" Mr Beale complained.

Hetty had to hide a grin, were they really arguing about who this affected the most?

"They don't even know you exist, Eric," Mr Callen dismissed. "Me and Sam-"

"Sam and I," Hetty automatically corrected.

Mr Deeks and Hanna sniggered at him.

"Sam and I, on the other hand-" he continued, not missing a beat only to be interrupted again.

"Intimidate the fu-I mean, stuffing out of them," Deeks interrupted morosely. "They just don't like me."

Yes, yes, they were. Of course, they would argue over this. She really shouldn't have expected anything different. Time to get them all on track again.

"This is not a punishment," she addressed Mr Beale's earlier comment. "I think this is just the perfect moment to strengthen our interagency cooperation."

The four of them just looked blankly at her. There was a look of horror dawning on Miss Jones' and Miss Blye's faces.

"Surely you just mean for them to be involved?" Miss Blye asked, waving her hands at the boys.

"Isn't that what Deeks here is for?" Mr Hanna demanded.

"I didn't realise you cared, Sammy," Mr Deeks taunted impulsively.

Mr Hanna shot him a look that promised death or mutilation. Hetty sighed heavily, would the boy never learn?

"You are Mr Deeks' partner, Miss Blye, and a member of this team. Of course, you will participate," Hetty said firmly to her female agent before Mr Hanna could act on that look.

"I shouldn't be punished, I wasn't involved in their incident with LAPD," she argued, really not pleased with this decision.

"This isn't a punishment," Hetty repeated with a straight face. "We need to learn to interact and work with LAPD better and vice versa, what with all the task forces we have with them."

"But a training exercise, Hetty?" Mr Callen protested in disgust.

"Actually, a trust exercise," a voice, that Hetty had been waiting to hear, corrected her senior agent.

"Nate!" everyone exclaimed, with Miss Bye diving at him-immediately claiming her hug.

Mr Getz returned the hug and let her cling to him for a bit as he used his free hand to shake everyone else's hands and give Nell a quick one-armed hug.

"So, she got you involved in this," Mr Callen teased.

Mr Getz shrugged with an easy smile. Oh, she was glad she could drag him back for a while, even if it was just temporarily. Family was so important.

"Maybe it's because you already trust me and can't fool me, much," he retorted.

Most Blye snorted from his side and released him to put her hands on her hips.

"You're just here to do some mind tricks on us with Hetty's permission," she accused.

Everyone nodded rapidly in agreement. Neither she nor Mr Getz denied that statement and just smiled at the team, Mr Getz more uneasily. It was nice to see that some things didn't change.

"Technically trust exercises are a very effective part of training," Mr Getz hastened to explain, a familiar eager look coming across his face. "It's a very important component-"

"Yeah, yeah. We know," Mr Hanna said sharply. "We risk our lives every day. We know how important trust is."

"I never said you didn't," Mr Getz said quickly as they all frowned at them. "But trust is important between other people, other agencies as well as each other."

"It's earned," Miss Blue said bluntly, arms now crossed.

Mr Getz nodded and replied, "Yes but I'd rather you didn't go through an active shooting to develop the basis of trust. These exercises are a much safer way to start the whole process. The rest will come the more you work together of course and-"

"What Mr Getz is trying to say," Hetty interjected. "Is that these are mandatory and you're all going."

Varying levels of groans came from her highly trained team. They sounded like teenagers.

"Um, Eric and I have to do those server upgrades," Miss Jones stated hesitantly, speaking for the first time.

"Yeah, it's a security patch," Mr Beale added hopefully. "It's very important."

Hetty gave them both a look. They gave her guilty grins.

"That is scheduled for this Saturday, if I'm not mistaken," stated Hetty, a rebuke in her voice.

Both of them hung their heads in defeat.

"This is really going to suck," Mr Deeks said, voicing everyone's thoughts.