When Hetty called the team in to Ops at 2:00 am their reactions understandably ranged from slightly vexed to downright irritable. Sam had been enjoying a romantic night in with his wife for the first time in a few months after their daughter asked to stay the night at a friends house. Since it was Friday night he and his wife had all but packed her over night bag for her, so eager were they for some alone time. Eric had been at a surfer buddy's house involved in an all night W.O.W. Gaming marathon, something he'd tried to hide from the other guys of the team and Nell, but for very different reasons, and was very disappointed to bail on his friend. Deeks had gone to a bar with a couple of guys he knew from the L.A.P.D. In hopes of finding someone to share his bed for the night but had failed, a rather uncommon occurrence for the scruffy detective. Callen had crashed on the leather couch at ops after finishing his paper work, even though he had a house of his own, thanks to his meddlesome but well meaning boss, he never felt more at home than when he was at the office and close to the people on his team.
After the grumbling arrival of the male team members Deeks tried to reach his wayward partner again. He had already tried calling her four times, but if he had to be at the office in the middle of the night than so did she. Knowing Kensi though he guessed she was past out on her couch with a pint of ice cream sitting beside her on the floor and the T.V. Still playing the end of whichever sappy movie she'd decided to watch that night. After climbing the stairs to Eric's lair the boys were met with Hetty and the unpleasant presence of Owen Granger. In the short time they had known Granger his presence had always brought a lot of trouble to the team. The screen in ops displayed what appeared to be footage of a fancy party taken from security cameras.
"So to what do we owe the pleasure of your company at this time of night, Granger?" asked Deeks. With a slight narrowing of his eyes Granger responded "can it Deeks, this footage is from an party thrown by Matthew Hildredge of Hildredge software for some of their more elite clientele, including MSC which supplies ships to the Navy. About an hour ago the pentagon received death threats against Hildredge, and I personally assured SecNav that Hildredge would be kept safe. So I need your team to keep him alive until these threats and whoever is sending them can be dealt with." "You want us to go to that party? We aren't really the type of people that can hobnob with these kind of people successfully." Sam said. "You'll be fine Mr. Hanna, this is Hardly your first time mingling with the upper echelons of society, I will put you each in a good suit and you'll fit right in." Hetty declared. "Should we wait for Kensi? I've tried calling her a few times but she hasn't picked up, probably fell asleep on the couch" Deeks said. "That won't be necessary, Agent Blye is already at the party. It is because of her relationship with Mr. Hildrege that we were the ones asked to protect him." As the boys shared confused looks the screen showed a dolled up, smiling Kensi in a short black dress talking to a handsome man with his arm comfortably placed around her waist.