Seriously another story? Yes, unfortunately, inspiration struck again. I blame the song Pet by A Perfect Circle for this. Enjoy! Updates to my other story are coming, promise :)
*The Team after Sidorov*
Callen and Kensi were given a month off to recover emotionally from the ordeal with Sidorov. Nate was brought in to work with them extensively before clearing them fit for work again.
Sam and Deeks had needed two months off work to recover from their injuries, both physical and emotional. Deeks had been the worse off out of the two spending more time in the hospital to heal from the injuries inflicted during the torture.
*Three months after the episode with Sidorov*
Callen, Sam and Deeks were all sitting together in the bullpen working on paperwork from their previous case. It had been the third case they had worked on together since the one with Sidorov and the stolen nukes. They were slowly getting back into the swing of things. They had been lucky enough to work three fairly mundane cases that didn't require a great deal of effort or exertion. Hetty surely had a hand in ensuring that. She knew that her team was still dealing with the fallout from that case, she wanted to ensure that their re-introduction to the job was a gradual one.
"Yo Deeks, what are you doing Saturday?" Sam asked, folding the lid of his laptop closed, directing his attention to the detective sitting next to him.
"I dunno, probably surfing, why?" Deeks replied, letting out a yawn as he stretched in his chair, he hated paperwork with a passion.
"Me and G are going to the Lakers game, you in?" Sam offered, pulling the tickets out from his bag he began using them as a fan. Deeks counted them, there were three in his hand. Sam threw one of them to Deeks, smirking.
Deeks picked the ticket up from his desk, reading the seat number. "Wow! These are courtside! How did you get these?"
"I gotta friend..." Sam shrugged "so you in?"
"Of course! Thanks man." Deeks replied, standing up to shake hands with the Navy Seal. They used their new custom handshake, one that Deeks had invented and insisted that they used from now on. Callen smirked as he watched the two, he knew that Sam hated the handshake yet he put up with it trying to embrace the differences between the two instead of fighting against them.
"This is going to be awesome" Deeks smiled as he looked down at the ticket again.
The fun was interrupted a few seconds later.
"We got a case." Eric yelled, bypassing the usual whistle, his tone serious.
"What's up with him?" Sam asked, looking over at his partner. Callen shrugged, "maybe he had a fight with Nell?" Sam chuckled in response, it was obvious that those two had it bad for each other.
"Poor guy, I know how that feels..." Deeks added himself into the conversation as the three men began their ascent up the stairs.
"Well you do fight with Kensi everyday." Sam quipped jokingly.
"Exactly, I know how it feels." Deeks smirked.
The three men entered the upstairs ops center in good spirits, only to meet a very drastic change in tone.
"Introducing Mr Lance Ames, United States Army veteran." Eric began the briefing as soon as everyone entered transferring the images from his tablet to the big screen. Hetty was standing at Eric's side, watching her team closely as he began the briefing.
"And this is Jack Matthews, retired U.S. Marine, current anti-war campaigner." The images that flashed up on the screen revealed two very contrasting images of the man. The first was a clean-cut young man in military uniform. The latter, showed a man with long brown hair and a beard.
"Wow it's Jesus." Deeks joked. Sam and Callen laughed slightly in response, Deeks had afterall said what they were both thinking. However, one look from Hetty and the joking was over. Hetty loudly cleared her throat in displeasure, "continue please Mr Beale."
"Right, okay so we've got it from a very reliable source that these guys are planning on taking some very drastic actions over the next few months." Eric brought up photos advertising different upcoming political conventions across the United States.
"Who is this reliable source?" Callen asked, slightly skeptical of the intel.
Eric looked at Hetty for guidance, silently asking her to take over from him. "Mr Beale please pull up footage from the latest anti-war rally in Washington."
They all directed their attention to the screen as a video began playing. They watched as a politician got red paint thrown over him by a woman wearing a hoody. The camera followed her running away from security before it abruptly ended.
Sam scoffed "That's hardly grounds for getting us involved..."
"Mr Beale, please replay the video, this time zoom in on our offender." Hetty replied, folding her arms, slightly frustrated by her agents' reactions.
Eric did as he was told, replaying the video, stopping it as the hooded woman was revealed to the camera. The image was grainy at best, yet as Eric zoomed in and enhanced the image it became clear who the woman was.
"Wow, wait Kensi?" Deeks asked, quite frankly shocked to see her there.
Hetty nodded in response. "Yes Mr Deeks, Eric continue the video."
Eric complied, un-pausing the video to show Kensi joining up with a bearded man, running away with him hand-in-hand to an awaiting vehicle.
"Matthews?" Callen asked, noticing the man immediately from the images earlier.
"Yes Mr Callen, that is Jack Matthews." Hetty waited, anticipating the barrage of questions.
"Wait, how did Kensi get in with these guys? She hasn't been working this case very long?" Sam somewhat questioned Hetty, wanting more information about the case immediately.
"Indeed Mr Hanna..." Hetty turned her attention to Deeks, she could see the cogs in his brain turning as he studied the images up on the screen.
"Wow wow wow Hetty... that's not who I think it is... is it?" Realization was hitting Deeks like a tonne of bricks. Surely that wasn't...
"Yes Mr Deeks, it is indeed Kensi's ex-fiance..." Hetty clarified, receiving shocked gasps and questioning looks from her two older agents.