Alright everybody, this is it. The fic that I've been dying to write since Raven and the Swans.
As I said in my first oneshot, if you're deeply committed to a version of Hetty who cares about and values her people enough to put their wellbeing above her own vendettas and secrets, this is probably not the fic for you.
This is for anyone who's ever looked at Hetty and wondered 'why in the HELL doesn't she have her own villain arc yet, she certainly deserves it'.
The story will follow three sets of characters, and though Sam and Kensi weren't really in this chapter, they will feature heavily in the next one as their plotline gets started.
The Art Of Lost Causes
Dark Blue 'Verse – Part Two – The Boiling Point
Will wisdom we learn as our minds they do burn
All the ties to naivety and youth
To adults we grow and maturity shows
Oh the terrifying rarity of truth
As you turn to your mind and your thoughts they rewind
To old happenings and things that are done
You can't find what's past make that happiness last
Seeing from those eyes what you've become
- Bastille, 'Haunt'
Looking back on it after, it's almost funny how normal things seem at the time. As far as G, Sam, Kensi, Deeks, and even Nell and Eric are concerned, on the day the James Gallagher case crosses their paths, nothing has changed. In the end, it only takes four days for things to never be the same again.
The weather since Jethro Gibbs' unexpected drop in visit and subsequent, equally abrupt departure has been unseasonably unpredictable by Los Angeles standards. The day itself dawns cool and clouded, though in all likelihood, the clouds will have dissipated under the relentless California sun.
In an unprecedented turn of events, when Eric calls everyone up to get briefed, the only portion of 'everyone' present is limited to G and Deeks. From the moment he sets foot on the balcony, Eric's expression has blown right past 'hesitant', surpassed 'reluctant', and crashed into downright unwilling. This combined with the double absence of both of their partners has G and Deeks deeply alarmed by the time the call is actually put out.
"Shouldn't we wait for, uh, for Sam and Kensi?" Deeks hedges when Eric awkwardly gestures towards ops. Eric, at that, grimaces further.
"No, actually. Hetty says she wants you two up there now, and that she'll explain when she sees you."
Much as Eric seems uncomfortable with whatever it is that's going on, all three of them know better than to keep Hetty waiting, especially with how tense things have been with her in the past few days. Particularly where G is concerned, Deeks thinks, staring at the back of G's head as he follows the agent up the stairs. He's been avoiding thinking about the scene he and Kensi witnessed during the case involving Agent Grace, but it keeps surfacing whether he likes it or not. That confrontation wasn't exactly the kind of thing you just forgot about. It's going to stick with him for a long time, Deeks can tell.
Hetty and Nell are waiting for them when G, Deeks, and Eric reach ops. Nell carries the same nervous, reluctant appearance Eric does, and while Hetty just wears her usual look of imperturbable, unreadable solemnness, from the moment they set foot in the large, blue-washed room, G and Deeks are highly on edge. The notable absence of Sam and Kensi is glaring, and when added to the off-putting way Eric and Nell are acting, there can't be anything good about what Hetty is about to say.
"Where's Sam?" G asks, biting the bullet and launching the conversation immediately to his most obvious and pressing concern. "Why did Eric say you didn't want us to wait for him and Kensi, is this one extra time sensitive or something?"
"No, Mr. Callen," replies Hetty slowly, giving him a look. "This case is going to run a little... differently, I've decided."
Well. That doesn't sound reassuring at all to either G or Deeks.
"How do you mean?" Deeks' voice is guarded and he folds his arms across his chest, shifting where he stands.
"Just run it, Ms. Jones," orders Hetty, gesturing to the screen and ignoring Deeks' question entirely. Nell hesitantly complies.
"Research Analyst James Gallagher, twenty-four years old, he was found dead at Camp Pendleton last night. Shot, once in the leg, once in the chest." With a click of a small remote, up pops a set of blood smeared photographs. The young man dead in the pictures is dark haired, and brown-green eyes stare out into the distance, sightless and clouded. "From the photos, it's clear to see he was shot in the leg first, then attempted to escape. He got about ten feet before the shooter finished him off."
G nods along slightly, eyes raking over the picture of the swaths of red dragged across the floor, culminating in the place where James Gallagher was felled by the second bullet. It appeared that whoever had killed him had, in all likelihood, stood and watched as Gallagher tried to save his own life, giving him several seconds to struggle agonizingly across the floor before ending it. That thought isn't a pretty one, and the level of cruelty involved makes G shudder. A glance beside him shows Deeks to be similarly bothered. They've both seen a lot on this job and on previous ones, but the terrible things humans are willing to do to one another still manages to shock them sometimes.
"Alright gentlemen," Hetty announces, looking at G and Deeks. "It's your job to figure out what happened to poor Mr. Gallagher. The murder was committed in a keycard locked building, which means either someone found another way in past security, or his killer worked for the navy and has access to the top secret intel project he was working on. I don't think I have to impress upon you how important it is we catch whoever is responsible quickly, given the sensitive nature of the information analysts such as James Gallagher routinely handle."
"I'm sorry," cuts in Deeks in a voice indicating he is anything but. "What bout Sam and Kensi, though? Are you trying to teach them some kind of lesson about coming in early by making them get the details on the case from us later, or?"
Nell cringes and Eric won't look at anyone. Cataloguing this, G turns to Hetty, stance going abruptly confrontational, as it has so often in recent days.
"Hetty," he starts, only to be interrupted by the woman herself.
"Mr. Hanna and Ms. Blye won't be accompanying the pair of you to Camp Pendleton."
The reaction from G and Deeks is instantaneous and overwhelmingly negative.
"What?"
"Why?"
"That doesn't make sense."
"What's-"
"Hetty-"
"That's quite enough. I've made a decision and despite how you may act, as your superior at this office I do actually have the right to do that without your go ahead. Now, I don't have to justify my reasons for my decisions to you to head for Pendleton right away. Time is of the essence!"
With that set of instructions and admonishments in place, Hetty gives one last appraising glance around the room before turning and walking purposefully out.
It's a testament to how completely thrown he is by all this, G thinks, that Deeks doesn't immediately make a crack about the two of them being partners. Luckily for Deeks, really, as G is in the opposite of a joking mood. Sam has been even more of a grounding presence as of lae, keeping G's head above water in the aftermath of his confrontation (for lack of a better word) with Hetty. Since then, for some reason it has felt like the earth is slowly tilting off its axis, and the sudden disorienting shift from G-and-Sam and Kensi-and-Deeks to G and Deeks starting a case with Sam and Kensi nowhere to be seen... It's disconcerting, to say the least.
With Hetty out of arguing distance, and it being pointless to argue with her in the first place, G turns back to where Eric and Nell are wearing twin concerned looks, standing by the big screen.
"Finish running it," he says, probably sharper than he'd meant to. Though a look of concern flashes quickly across her face, Nell complies quickly, turning to the screen.
"The only calls or texts on Gallagher's phone were either to his boss or two people logged in his contacts as 'C' and 'K'. We're working on tracking down those numbers now, but they're both out of state, one with a Duluth, Minnesota area code, the other from Lansing, Michigan. The project open on his computer was shut down automatically on a timer after he didn't respond for a certain amount of time, so we didn't get a look at it before the encryption kicked in. However, records indicate it was copied onto a USB drive at what is estimated to be shortly after the time of death. I've sent the address for where he was staying to your phones, and if you get started you can be there before the worst of the traffic hits."
Finishing her spiel without a single mention of Hetty or her bizarre order for G and Deeks to leave their partners behind and head for Pendleton together, Nell falls silent, standing with her ahnds clasped in front of her, expression speaking of poorly masked nerves. G takes a couple steps closer to her and Eric, looking at her intensely.
"Nell, do you know something?"
"I know a lot of things," she answers with a stiff voice that has canted higher in pitch.
"You know what I mean. What the hell is up with Hetty? She tells you things she'd never tell the rest of us, not even me, and if you know something, then-"
"Something's wrong." Nell's rushed admission spills quietly out seemingly before she can find the willpower to hold it back. "I don't know what, not exactly, but Hetty keeps getting calls from Director Vance." Her voice is tiny and soft, speaking low with a meaningful look at the monitors around them. The translation of that look is plain as day.
Be careful what you say. The walls have ears.
It's common knowledge that Hetty has the entire office bugged, though when Kensi had first casually mentioned this, Deeks thought she was bullshitting him. There are a lot of oddities about the way Hetty runs this place, things everybody seems totally used to that threw Deeks for a loop when he started there. Over time he supposes he's grown as complacent and used to it as Sam, G, and Kensi have, but there are still moments where he feels like he's stepped into the Twilight Zone and he's the only one who can see what's wrong.
The surveillance all over the office, so no one knows when Hetty is listening in, no conversation ever private, is one of those things. Hopefully Nell's hushed comments have escaped notice. Mentally tallying how long it'd take her to get back to her office and weighing that against the likelihood that she would choose to be monitoring this room at this precise moment, Deeks cringes.
Finally, Deeks' anxious paranoia that someone is listening gets the better of him, and he steps up next to G, looking from him to Nell and back.
"Can we talk about this later?" he hisses. "Preferably outside of the building?"
His words cause Nell, Eric, and G to stop still and look around the room. Nell nods and turns off the projection. Together, G and Deeks head downstairs towards where their cars are parked, ready to get going, but both wanting to speak to their partners before leaving for Pendleton. But when they reach their desks, Sam and Kensi are still nowhere to be seen.
"Better hurry, gentlemen," comes Hetty's calm voice from not too far behind them. "I will inform Sam and Kensi of their role in the investigation when they get here." Her tone leaves no room for argument from either of them. With one last look back at his desk and Kensi's empty one, Deeks scrambles to follow G out of the building.
"So, whose car are we taking?" he asks, trying to sound as bright as possible in an attempt to preserve some normalcy among the turbulence that has hummed in every interaction since that fateful fight between Hetty and G.
G gives him a look. "I'll drive." His words are clipped and a little strained, and Deeks holds up his hands, relenting immediately and following him towards the other man's car.
"Alright, alright. Sure."
"Just as they swing out onto the street, Deeks catches a glimpse of Kensi's car, and moments later Sam's as well. Just for a blink of a second, Deeks' eyes lock with Kensi's then it's over, and she's gone.
"How soon do you think our phones are gonna start ringing off the hook, huh?" Deeks asks, and is rewarded for the jab at their respective partners' habits of worrying – to them what seems excessively – by a soft puff of a chuckle from G. Above them, only a few slight wisps are all that remains from the clouds of that morning.
Looking out up into the bright blue sky, Deeks is struck by the feeling that, despite the clarity of the day, there is a storm coming.