A Friday Happenstance
Deeks gets a phone call that changes his Friday night plans with Kensi.
As the whole team was slogging their way through mountains of paperwork, Deeks's cell phone started ringing. Not his normal phone though, oh no, it just had to be the phone he uses for Max Gentry. He pauses for a second to put himself in the proper frame of mind and then answers. "Hullo. This had better be damn important to call me on a Friday morning. Who is this?" As soon as he started to speak on the phone, the heads of the other three agents picked up. They've all heard that voice before and they all knew he didn't like the persona of one Max Gentry.
"Max! It's Sully from Sully's Tap. Thought I would let you know that there were a couple guys in here last night lookin' for ya. They looked pretty strange and they talked funny. Not English, but foreign. I just thought I should let ya know Max."
"Thanks Sully. I'll check it out." And they end their conversation.
As soon as he puts his phone down, Kensi is there beside him running her hand through his hair trying to settle him down. He gives her a smile and calls Lt. Bates.
"Bates" he hears on his phone.
"Hey L.T., it's Deeks. Just got a call from Sully, from Sully's Tap, letting me know that there were a couple of foreign speaking gentlemen in there last night looking for Max Gentry. Do you have any undercovers running down that way?"
"No, nothing from us. Maybe some other agency?"
"I don't think so. If there was, we would have heard about it here, I would think. Well, good talking to you L.T. See ya later."
"Later Deeks"
He looks at Kensi and tells her, "I need to talk to Hetty." Then he stands up, gives Kensi a little hug, kisses her on the top of her head, and walks over to Hetty's area. He explains to Hetty about his phone call earlier and that he may have to go undercover for a bit. She wishes him luck and asks him if he needs back-up.
"I'm not sure Hetty. I'll know more later. Right now, it's two guys looking for Max Gentry."
"Well, people looking for Max Gentry are normally not very nice. You be careful Mr. Deeks."
"I'll try Hetty." And then saunters over to his locker. His team mates are watching him as he takes out the gun Max uses and then puts on the jacket with hoodie Max wears. Then he pulls Kensi to the burn room and locks the door. "Fern, I'm not sure what is going on yet, but I will try to call you tonight. I love you princess." He pulls her to him and gives her such a kiss that she loses her breath and the ability to even think. WOW! That man can kiss she thinks. And then he was gone.
The day turned out to be miserable as it started to drizzle after lunch as he was hanging in the haunts that Max frequented. He finally ended up at Sully's place around 10 pm and realized he was hungry. He went to the last booth on the wall and sat facing the bar and door to keep things in his favor if anything occurred. He ordered himself a big, greasy burger with a side of fries and was waiting for it when the door opened. In walks two guys wearing trench coats. I mean, c'mon, who wears trench coats anymore? Especially in LA? These must be the guys that Sully was talking about. As he watches them, his food arrives and he takes a bite of one of the best burgers he's had in a long time. He wishes he could bring Kensi here but it would blow his cover. Too bad because she loves burgers.
As he continues eating, he notices the guys looking around. As soon as they see him, they stop looking. They found who they were looking for. But with the place so crowded, they looked like they were going to wait until he left to talk to him, so back to his burger he went. As he takes a sip of beer, he spots a man on the other side of the room who looks familiar and then he remembers his name. Waldorf Eddie, a high rise thief who works for the Molina cartel. As soon as Wally spots Max, his face pales and he finishes his drink and throws some money on his table and leaves. Max knows he's going to have to be careful now. That cartel has been keeping an eye out for him for several years. They want payback and they had to have been the ones looking for him yesterday. He was almost finished with his burger when a gorgeous lady sat down across from him. There was something odd about her he couldn't place but it was impolite to stare so he went back to his burger thinking she could have at least asked me if that side of the booth was taken before sitting down. Although, the place really was crowded. He takes one more look at her because she is so breathtaking but with Kensi at home, that's all he does, is look. As he goes back to his burger he hears her. "Can you talk without looking at me?" she asks.
"Go ahead honey." He replies
"I'm in trouble."
"It figures."
"You'll have to help me."
"Why?"
"Because you're the only one in this place that looks halfway capable."
"Of what?"
"Killing somebody if you have to."
Why is it me that always gets the crazy ones? "Come off it," he tells her softly.
She said, "My name is Holly O'Brian. I'm a government agent working with Operation Snapshot. In my hand is a mini SD card that needs to reach the FBI as soon as possible. It's a matter of national security. Is that clear? National security is involved. I'm going to wipe my mouth and put it in my napkin. You take it and you get it to the nearest FBI agent. Can you do that?"
"Sure." He couldn't think of anything else to say but he added, "Why are you being so clandestine?"
"Because there are two teams looking for me at the moment and one of those teams is sitting at the bar. They're going to kill me to try to get the card back and we can't let that happen.
He was almost done with his burger and the two guys at the bar were growing restless. "I need more info Holly."
"They almost had me on the street but I lost them. They know I have a contact at a certain place in the city so I'm hoping they just figured I stopped here to settle down before going to my contact. They don't know that I spotted them earlier."
"Look, if you're serious . . ."
"I'm serious."
"Hell, Holly, I can . . ."
"You can do nothing, mister. If you want to help, do as you're told. That's the only way this information can be passed along to the right people. You're the only chance I have. I hate to have to pass this to an amateur but when I picked you it was because you had all the signs of the kind of man who can live outside of the law and still hang on to certain principles. I hope I'm right." She wiped her mouth with her napkin and stood up, "Thanks," she said and then turned and walked away.
He took another bite of his burger and then wiped his mouth with her napkin and took the SD card and put it in his watch pocket. If this was a joke, it was a dandy. If it wasn't then Holly could be in some serious trouble. As he thought of what he was going to do, he noticed the two guys at the bar give him a cursory glance and then got up to follow after Holly. Seeing that, he put some money on the table for his food and beer and followed them out the door. he was just opening the door when two shots blew the night apart. When that happened, everyone in Sully's went crazy trying to get away through the back entrance. As he looks towards the street, he sees Holly go down, holding on to her gun, still shooting at something. Several more shots were fired and then the two guys from Sully's were standing over her with guns in their hands. He takes the tops of their heads off with his .50 and then all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose. There is somebody shooting at her and now there is somebody shooting at him. Crap! Wally told the cartel. He can't really shoot back as there are too many people running so he runs with them letting them cover him. Finally getting clear, he calls Hetty. "Hetty, I need to talk to you about something involving national security. I met a woman tonight whose name is Holly O'Brian. She claimed she was a government agent working with Operation Snapshot. She gave me a mini SD card and told me to get it to an FBI agent. But, I figured since it involves national security, we should look at the card also, just to see if it's for real."
"You figured right Mr. Deeks. Head to OSP and we'll meet you there."
As he pulls into the lot, he sees the Audi is there already. He can hardly wait to see her. He gets to the bullpen and gets rid of Max into his locker and looks for Kensi. He needs a hug. Everyone must be up in ops. No hug then. Turns out he is wrong. As he enters ops, Kensi throws herself at him and gives him the best hug and a small peck on the cheek. "Welcome back Deeks."
"It seems that maybe I should leave more often with hugs like that." He chuckles.
"I believe you have something for us Mr. Deeks?" Hetty quizzes.
"Yes. This is the card. I'd also like to find out about Holly O'Brian. The last I saw of her, she was falling against a car with two guys standing over her ready to shoot her. She'd been shot at least once already. I shot them instead and then the Cartel showed up. I had to get out of there."
"Well, let's see what's on the card, shall we?" Hetty says.
When Eric put the card in the reader, all sorts of flow charts opened up.
"Nell, get hold of Agent Fornel of the FBI. These are all the sleeper cells located in the US. They need to see this." Hetty seems to be beside herself with excitement. "Something good has finally come our way. This information will set terrorism in the states back several years. This is amazing!"
Monday morning, Deeks tells Kensi he was going to the hospital to see how Holly was doing. Eric and Nell had been able to find out that she'd been shot, as Deeks had surmised, and taken to Pacific Beach Medical where she was expected to make a full recovery. Apparently, when they didn't find the SD card on her, the shooters had left her for dead. An anonymous 9-1-1 call had gotten an ambulance to her in time. Kensi said she would drive them as she wanted to see her also. As they walk into the room Holly sees them immediately and asks Deeks if everything worked out with the card. He told her everything was taken care of and then she notices the badge on his belt. "You're a cop?" she asks incredulously.
"Yep. Detective Marty Deeks, LAPD Undercover division. And this is my partner, NCIS Agent Kensi Blye. We both work for NCIS OSP here in LA."
"Wow! Of all the bars in the area and all the people in that bar, I found a cop. What are the odds of that happening?"
"Well, I was undercover at the time or I would have been elsewhere that evening. I'm just glad things worked out for the better."
"Deeks, we gotta get going or we'll be late for work"
"Ok Kens. If you need anything Holly, here's my card. Good luck to you."
And they leave, a very grateful FBI agent watching them go.
A/N A BIG THANKS to nherbie for reviewing my little story and helping me over the hills and valleys.