Hi everyone,
This is a new version of my other story - Saving Kensi which I am still working on.
Hopefully you enjoy it. I am grateful for all reviews and suggestions of my Saving Kensi original version. I tried to make this one more realistic and have kept in mind all review suggestions from the original fic so please let me know if you have any other ideas. I love hearing what you guys think.
Some DENSI in this one in the next chapter! Looking forward to write that.
PLEASE NOTE
SPOILERS for episode 'The Debt' in season 3.
Rated M+ - watch the episode before reading!
Kind regards.
...
CHAPTER ONE
Kensi slipped into the backseat of Deeks's car quietly. He didn't seem too surprised to see her given that Callen and Sam were somewhere in the area and she was obviously going to be with them anyway. He had been half expecting her to show up sooner or later, although he wasn't sure she would want to see him so soon after what he'd done to her earlier that day.
It was evident that she was still pissed at the team and her partner for keeping her in the dark about the case they were working but she'd decided to keep her emotions in check until the case was over. Then she could go home, lock her door and do whatever the hell made her feel better – that being beer or a hot bath… maybe both.
Deeks studied her for only a second before he spoke, "has anyone ever told you how cute you look when you're homicidally angry?"
"I'm not angry," she replied calmly, meeting his eyes in the rear-view mirror as he watched her. "In fact I could slit your jugular vein eleven different ways from where I'm sitting and I wouldn't lose my temper."
"Alright," Deeks wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that so he simply nodded and went on to apologise. "I'm sorry that I had to lie to you. I thought I was protecting you,"
"Protecting me?"
"Us… I was protecting us,"
"Us?" Kensi asked coolly.
"Our ... our thing." Deeks stuttered uncomfortably.
"Whoa, so there is a thing?"
Deeks lowered his gaze and slightly shook his head in confusion.
'Did I really just say that?' He thought in a bit of shock. He tried to say something but found no words would come out so instead he took a deep breath and met her eyes again,
"Can we not talk about this right now?" He asked awkwardly, "Maybe we could do it over drinks or something?"
"No I have plans,"
"Well maybe I could…"
"I have plans every night, for the rest of my life!" Kensi stated boldly, glancing out her window.
Maybe she shouldn't have done this. Maybe she should've stayed in the car with Callan and Sam. Maybe she was overthinking this whole damn thing!
This case had shaken her to the core. She felt lost and hurt and angry all at once. Her team, the people who meant the most to her in the world, had lied to her! She felt cheated and frustrated. She forced herself to focus on the case, swallowing her feelings and once again clearing her face of all emotion.
No one was going to see her weak. No one was going to see Kensi Blye cry. Not today. Not because of this case. Not because of Deeks.
"What the hell is Bates doing?" Deeks wondered aloud, interrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to the case.
"Isn't he leading the raid?" Kensi pondered frowning.
She quickly moved from the backseat to the front passenger seat, climbing through the middle of the car and learning against Deeks's seat to steady herself. For a split second her chest was only millimetres from Deeks's face and he tried not to show his excitement.
"Ok that just happened," he whispered turning his eyes back to his boss's car parked a few feet in front of them. He handed Kensi a photo showing a guy wearing a black leather jacket and a baseball cap with his back to the camera. The same jacket and cap that his boss had just put on before getting into his car.
Kensi raised her eyebrows, "and you think this is Bates?"
"Bates really is the mole," Deeks nodded feeling both sad that his boss has betrayed him and relieved because the case was almost over.
Kensi glanced at her partner with sad eyes. As much as she wanted to thump him one right there and then, she also couldn't shake the feeling of compassion that welled up inside her for Deeks. It mustn't have been easy for him to watch someone he knew turn on him like that.
Before she knew what she was doing, she had reached over and placed her hand on his knee, giving it a gentle squeeze.
He turned to her confused and she quickly withdrew her hand, looking down at the floor instead of meeting his eyes.
"I'm sorry Bates is the mole," she said quietly.
Deeks half smiled at her, "thanks."
He was about to take her hand in his and pull her in for a hug when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. He shifted in his seat to get to it and answered, putting it on loud speaker so Kensi could hear the conversation too.
"What's up, Quin?"
"You got eyes on Bates?" Quin asked on the other end of the phone, getting straight to business.
"Yes... Yes I do."
"Great. I tapped his phone, he just got a call from Fisks's lawyer and they're about to meet at a red van outside an abandoned warehouse on Market street… Stay close to him. Don't let him out of your sight! We'll need your testimony to take him down. I'll meet you there shortly to back you up when we arrest him."
"What about the raid on Fisk?"
"What raid?"
"Never mind. I'll tail Bates, see you in a bit." Deeks stated hesitantly.
Something about this meeting was setting alarm bells off in his head. He thought it was because he was about to arrest his boss which in any good cops mind would understandably be difficult.
Still he couldn't shake the uneasiness rapidly settling in his gut. He couldn't remember ever being this tense about a case before. Sure he had been in more dangerous and potentially deadly situations than he could count but this case just felt wrong in so many ways!
He was about to hang up the phone when Quin stopped him,
"Oh and one more thing Deeks,"
"Yeah,"
"Tell your pretty girlfriend to stay out of your business. We don't need her messing this up. We need this arrest to go smoothly and she'd just get in the way,"
Deeks's eyes widened and Kensi started searching the area for anything that could be deemed suspicious. They were looking for someone watching them, either from a car or a bystander. But there was no one around.
"Don't bother looking for me, I have you on the security camera across the street. No need to be alarmed, I'm just trying to do my job and make sure you do yours too." Quin explained quickly. "I will be there soon."
"Got it," Deeks replied. He pressed the 'end call' button on his mobile and put it down in the centre console. Kensi was looking at him worriedly. She didn't like this either, he could see the nervousness on her face.
"It's ok. I can handle this one," Deeks told her with as much confidence as he could muster. "It'll be over before you know it and then we can go grab a beer because I'm sorry but your plans are going to have to wait tonight. I need to be with you for a while, talk to you."
She nodded, "ok but I still don't feel right sending you in on your own."
Before they could finish their conversation Bates pulled out of his parking spot and started driving down the street. Deeks started his engine and followed him, leaving a small distance between them so Bates wouldn't know he was being tailed.
"Guys, I'm with Deeks. Fisks lawyer just gave Bates the meeting place. We're going in after him," Kensi informed Callen and Sam through her earpiece.
"Ok we're going to stay in position to take down Fisk. You guys handle Bates," Callen's voice replied in her ear. "Sam says you've got this."
"Yeah well Sam is always right," Kensi smiled briefly.
She heard Sam laughing and Callen snort over the coms.
"I told you she was my favourite agent," Sam chuckled just loud enough for her to hear. Callen quickly shot back, "She was my favourite first."
"Ok guys seriously, don't make me come over there!" Kensi warned playfully. "Cause if I have to come over there I'll kick both of your asses and you know I can."
She was feeling a little bit better having the guys fighting over her, but she knew they were only trying to cheer her up. An attempt at being forgiven and moving on from the whole drama of the mornings events. She took the bait for now, allowing herself to laugh just a bit.
"Never doubted your strength Kens," Callen countered smiling before adding in a more serious tone, "good luck Kensi."
With that they both turned their earwigs to mute. Kensi could only imagine the conversation going on in their car for the afternoon. Sam would be giving Callen hell over her comment all day, probably tomorrow too.
Deeks threw her a sideways glance as he drove, "what was that all about?"
Kensi had forgotten he didn't have his earpiece in, "oh just letting them know the plan."
"Sounded more … interesting than that," he raised an eyebrow, amused. He hadn't missed her smile or her laugh while she was 'letting them know the plan'.
"I'll tell you later," she lied. "Bates is turning into that lot."
Deeks refocused on the road and pulled into the abandoned carpark his boss had disappeared into.
"Game time," he said, checking his gun was loaded and he had everything he needed.
"I can't just sit here," Kensi replied.
Deeks ran his hand over his stubbled chin and peered around the car, "I need someone to check the perimeter. Want to do that?"
"Beats sitting here," Kensi agreed, loading her gun. "If you need me just call."
"Ok," he nodded, watching her get out of the car and start cautiously moving towards the wire fence surrounding the lot.
The yard was full of abandoned trucks, cars and machinery. There were a lot of places someone could hide if they didn't want to be found. It was also a great place for someone to ambush you. Kensi would make sure he was at least safe from that aspect for which he was grateful because he was nervous enough as it was.
"I'm going to get closer to Bates and the lawyer, try to hear what they're saying until Quin gets here." Deeks crept forward a few steps. "Kensi,"
She stopped and looked back at him,
"Be careful yeah," he said before disappearing from her sight. She nodded and ducked her head, continuing to move towards the first place someone could be hiding. It was a heap of metal sheets stacked up on top of each other which made a shelter like cubby underneath. It was also behind a car that didn't quite look like it belonged in a beat up, empty yard like this one.
She kept her eyes on it, getting closer and closer until she was beside the car. She quickly secured the shelter before paying more attention to the car. Inspecting it more thoroughly, she found it didn't appear damaged as far as she could tell. The outside looked almost new. It had no marks. Not even a scratch.
Maybe this car belonged to the lawyer, but why would he park it here when the meeting was on the other side of the lot?
Kensi pulled the side front door handle and to her surprise and a little bit of disappointment, it opened. Damn she was in the mood to break into a car!
She started going through the contents of the vehicle. Papers scattered on the floor, coins in the ashtray (pretty normal so far), an empty coffee cup that reeked to high heaven 'God how long has that been in here?' She thought. A half-eaten chicken and cheese sandwich, heaps of takeaway containers (new and old), a pair of old boots with dry mud covering the bottoms, some receipts from a local café and other small coffee shops, a black leather jacket sitting on the backseat, a pair of dark leather gloves and a black baseball cap!
'Shit Shit Shit!' She felt her stomach churn as she walked around to the driver's side. She almost couldn't bring herself to pop the trunk in fear of what else she was going to find in this full of shit car.
When she heard the boot open she was half expecting the car to blow up… but it didn't. Although what she found inside more than justified her initial fear of setting off a bomb! A whole lot of packaged explosive material stacked up in the boot could result in a pretty loud boom!
Whoever owned this car was obviously not looking to make friends. He meant business and to her horror there looked to be some explosives already missing! Where the rest of the packages were lined up neatly, there was a space on top where at least two had been removed. She didn't want to think about what this guy might be planning to use them for.
Kensi grabbed her phone out of her pocket and took a photo of the number plate to send to Eric. It sent automatically and a few seconds later he was calling her.
"Yeah Eric,"
"I am running that plate through the system again," Eric stated quickly.
"Again?" Kensi prompted impatiently. "Do you have a name?"
"Yes." Eric responded quietly, "that plate is registered to a Detective Quin, Internal Affairs. Blue Sedan."
"Crap! Thanks Eric," Kensi hung up and hurried to get Deeks's number up on the screen. When it came up she pressed 'call'.
Her hands began to shake as she waited for her partner to pick up. When her call went to voicemail she tried again… And again and again…
"Come on Deeks!" She yelled desperately at the device, "Answer your bloody phone!"
She had to tell him that Bates wasn't the mole! Quin was the mole and the van they were meeting in front of was going to explode! She'd figured this out as soon as Eric had told her about the registration. She understood why Quin had told her to stay away, he hadn't wanted to kill her in the explosion but he did want to kill Deeks and Bates and of that she was certain!
She turned her earwig on again, "Callen, Quin is the mole! Not Bates. The car Deeks is standing in front of is going to explode! I found Quin's car full of explosives… I can't reach Deeks! I'm heading back to him now but I'm on foot. You have to warn him!"
"Whoa Kensi, slow down!" Callen tried to understand what his junior agent was shouting at him.
Her voice was beyond frantic and she was speaking really fast. She was also panting, like she was running. And that she was. Running as fast as she could towards where her partner and Bates were standing, directly in harm's way. The bomb could go off at any moment. She had to get to him in time, she would do anything to get to him in time.
"Kensi, tell me again!"
She took another breath, "Quin is the mole! There is a BOMB in the car where Deeks is standing! You have t…." her voice suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
"Kensi… Kens?" Callen cried on the other end of the line. "Kensi are you there?"
…
Kensi hit the ground with a loud, painful thud.
She looked up, trying to figure out what happened. It felt like she was underwater and everything was moving in slow motion. She could hear distant voices in her ears but couldn't work out what they were saying. Her vision was blurred and her eyes unfocused.
Her hand came up to gently touch her throbbing forehead and winced when she made contact with the decent sized bump forming there. She felt blood run down the left side of her face and saw a few droplets of red splatter on the dirt below her.
She glanced around and groaned loudly as her head began to spin. She removed her hand from her head to try and steady herself on the ground, even though she wasn't moving.
Taking deep, shaky breaths of air seemed to ease her nausea a little and she was grateful when her vision started coming back.
"Callen?" she whispered desperately hoping her earpiece hadn't been damaged and she could still contact her team. "Callen?"
"I'm here Kens," her team leader's voice came through the line and she sighed. "Oh thank God!" she muttered to herself, "You have to find Deeks and get him away from the red sedan! It's rigged with explosives."
"Copy that," Sam said, "we're on our way now."
"What happened?" Callen asked, concern in his tone. "Kensi?"
Before she could answer him, two black boots appeared in front of her causing her to reluctantly look up. She'd never seen this man before, she didn't recognise him.
He offered her a hand and she took it, allowing him to help her to her feet. Her legs were shaky and she was still dizzy but she was standing.
She turned to him again, "who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Well that's not a very nice way to say thank you," he stated with an amused smirk.
She continued to glare at him, "first I want to know who you are."
"Deeks told me about you," he skimmed his eyes over her body hungrily, ignoring her. "He said you were pretty hot but this…" He breathed, "This is perfection!"
Kensi pulled a distasteful face, "I'm not going to ask again."
"I told you to stay away but you didn't listen," he shook his head at her. "You should've listened."
Now she knew who he was and why he was there, "Quin!"
"Clever girl," he mused. "And you are?"
"NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye," she replied bitterly. "I have people already on their way here… don't try anything stupid."
"Says the one with blood running down her face and no gun," he laughed and held up her weapon. "Got it off you when you fell and hit your head on the side of that truck," he pointed to a nearby truck where blood was smeared on the bottom corner of the trailer. "You were so out of it you didn't even know I was there."
Kensi gasped, 'shit shit shit!'
"Now I think we need to sort out a few things. Firstly I'm in charge," Quin quipped with satisfaction. "You're now my hostage."
"Think again,"
Without warning Kensi lashed out at him, taking him by surprise. He skilfully missed the punch to his chest but wasn't expecting her to immediately counter attack with a perfectly aimed kick between his legs. He went down with a painful growl and Kensi smiled triumphantly.
"That was actually really easy," she pulled out her handcuffs and went around to restrain him. "I'm a little disappointed to be honest. I thought you'd put up more of a fight."
As she leaned down to secure his wrists she watched him carefully. His body was tense and she knew he was about to strike. She braced herself and jumped out of his way when he tried to head-butt her.
"Nice try," she remarked.
She fastened one cuff to his wrist and reached for the other, forcing his arm behind his back to get the restraints on. He thrashed and managed to twist out of her grasp, pulling his hand from hers and delivering a very quick, painful blow to Kensi's stomach with his elbow.
Kensi groaned but stayed on her feet. She knew she wasn't 100% with her head pounding and her body aching. She didn't have as much strength to fight as she usually did and her adrenaline was pretty much the only thing keeping her going now, masking the worst of her pain.
Seeing his opportunity to take control Quin quickly stood up, though still clearly uncomfortable as he swayed slightly trying to adjust his footing to lessen the agony radiating from his groin, and turned to face her, "That was both very clever and very stupid Agent Blye."
She eyed him intensely, "if you had any brains you'd have stayed on the ground."
"Funny," he laughed with an evil smirk, "I could've said the same thing to you."
Kensi stepped forward slowly, studying his movements. He came at her and she held position, launching a well-timed punch at his nose that resulted in a satisfying crack as the impact of her knuckles hit his face and a steady stream of blood instantly seeping down from his nostrils. He tenderly brought a hand up to inspect the damage.
"Impressive," he said with a raised eyebrow. "Not bad for a girl."
"You haven't seen anything yet," she grinned and took another swing at him which he easily dodged as he'd seen it coming.
He threw the next punch and hit her hard across the face, catching her lower jaw and her cheek. The force of the hit sent her backwards and she landed against Quin's car. Her head narrowly missed the back window, saved by her left hand taking her weight as she crashed into the vehicle with a loud echoing thud!
'Shit! Shit! Shit!' Pain started to spark up her arm and she grunted, breathing heavily. 'Can't give up. Must keep going…'
She forced her body to move and spun around just in time to see him coming at her again, this time with a decent kick to the chest. She staggered for the briefest of seconds before straightening her frame and defensively using her good arm to stop several attempted punches to the torso. She began fighting back and landed some nasty hits, ignoring the pain in her wrist as much as possible. After all, she wasn't nicknamed 'Bad Ass Blye' for no reason and she certainly wasn't going to let him win this war!
The two agents were both quite evenly matched as far as strength and speed although Kensi would've easily kicked his ass by now if she wasn't injured. Even he realised that.
In her current condition, with a concussion and a possible fractured wrist, she was still putting up a hell of a fight but she was starting to feel woozy and a second blow to the face didn't help in the slightest. She held her ground, kicking and punching Quin until she finally felt him loosen his grip on her and then she was able to turn him and deliver the final blow.
With her feet now planted firmly on the ground, Kensi spun Quin so that his back was towards her and wrapped her arms firmly around his shoulders. She used every ounce of remaining energy to try and take him down.
Applying pressure and holding tight, she felt him struggling frantically, trying everything in his power to escape but Kensi had him in a head-lock and he wasn't going anywhere. She was a highly trained federal agent and he was just another bad guy who picked the wrong girl to mess with.
Kensi held Quin until his body went limp and she was sure he'd passed out. Then she carefully lowered his unconscious body to the ground and rolled him onto his stomach. She cuffed him before rolling him back, taking his gun and her gun from his reach. She was surprised and relieved that he hadn't used either weapon on her during their combat.
"Quin's down," Kensi stated quietly, hoping Callen was still listening to his coms. "Callen? Sam? You guys there?"
"Here Kens," Sam's voice came through her earwig and she smiled weakly. "We're pulling into the lot now. Where are you? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," she lied. "GET DEEKS OUT!"
"Copy that," Callen replied before the line went crackly.
Now completely exhausted, Kensi sunk to her knees and leaned up against the car, her back resting on the front tyre. She tried to keep her eyes open but she was losing her way. It was so hard to stay awake…
Her last thought before giving into darkness was Deeks. Was he going to make it out safely? She prayed to God that he would!
…