A/N – the bold dialogue is from the trailer for Internal Affairs. The wait is killing me!
Nope, still don't own them, even checked under the bed this time.
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Chapter 3
Hetty sat at her desk, staring into space. This thing with Detective Deeks was occupying most of her mind and the situation was rapidly getting out of hand. It was time to end this. She looked up when Callen approached her desk. "I understand you and the rest of your team went to see Mr. Deeks."
"We did. At least Kensi and I saw him. He wouldn't even talk to Sam. I don't know what's going on in his head."
"Maybe he expected a little more support from his team mates?"
"What's that supposed to mean? We went down there as soon as we heard. Kensi is beside herself."
"From what Mr. Deeks told me, you and Kensi have led him to believe that you think he's guilty."
Callen paused, not sure how to respond.
"Really, Mr. Callen? How many years have you known Mr. Deeks? Do you really think him capable of cold blooded murder?"
"Maybe it wasn't cold blooded. Maybe it was self-defense or in defense of someone else. LAPD wouldn't just arrest him without evidence."
"Then why would he cover it up? And I believe the FBI once arrested your partner for murder. Miss. Blye was arrested by this very organization for multiple murders. You stood behind both of them. Why not him?"
Callen sighed, not really sure himself why he hadn't immediately reassured Deeks that he thought he was innocent. He couldn't speak for Kensi. He did know that Sam had given him an earful. The big guy firmly believed that Deeks had nothing to do with this and was being framed somehow. Callen was concerned that Sam's judgment was clouded by his own false arrest for murder as well as his still feeling like he owed Deeks after the Sidorov abduction.
Hetty shook her head and said "Get Detective Deeks out of this mess!"
Again Callen hesitated and then said "What if we don't like what we find?"
Hetty decided to update her team leader on exactly what had been transpiring since her detective's arrest. "I visited Mr. Deeks myself and gave him an earwig and button camera. Mr. Beale and Miss. Jones have been monitoring his situation. Detective Rivera has mysteriously been taken off the case and a Detective Whiting has taken over. Mr. Deeks alibi has recanted her statement but Mr. Beale found a large deposit made to her account around the same time that the investigation heated up. A deposit from an old friend of ours by the name of Clarence Fisk. Remember him? This Detective Whiting is also claiming that they found Mr. Deeks's fingerprint on a bullet inside Detective Boyle's gun but Mr. Beale can find no mention of it in the case file. Interesting that it suddenly showed up after all this time. We are currently looking into both detectives."
She paused, taking a moment to decide if she wished to inform Mr. Callen about the beating Mr. Deeks had taken. Her decision was made when Callen asked "Anything else you want to tell us before we dive into this?"
"The truth doesn't take sides. Only we do that." Hetty took a deep breath and sighed. "Mr. Deeks was assaulted by the deceased man's partner while in an interview with this Whiting person. She made no effort to intervene. It wasn't until Lt. Bates showed up to pull the man off Mr. Deeks, that she take any steps and then it was nothing more than telling him to control his man. Lt. Bates, himself, appears to believe the charges against Mr. Deeks. We need to take sides Mr. Callen. I know which side I am on. Do you?"
Callen looked at her and nodded, shaken that Deeks had been attacked while in police custody. "How is he?" he asked quietly.
"He appears to have shrugged it off. He was being his regular cheeky self with both the detective and his lieutenant. He actually made a comment on the man's mustache and asked him if he was undercover again in gay porn. He frustrated Whiting to the point that she terminated the interview."
Callen had to laugh. This was the Deeks he knew. "I'll get Kensi and Sam and we will figure this out."
"Thank you, Mr. Callen."
Callen went to find his team. Sam was in the gym, whaling on the heavy bag. He knew this was where Sam went when he was worried or upset. Right now he figured his partner was both. "Sam? Come on, we have things to do. We need to figure out how to get Deeks out of this."
"What changed your mind? I thought you were convinced he was guilty?"
"Not convinced, no. Just more…cautious."
"Bull. You believed it and now you've changed your mind. What did Hetty say to you?"
Callen sighed, wishing once again that his partner didn't know him so well. "There are some inconsistencies in what Deeks is being told and what's in the case file that Eric hacked into. Also, the detective running the investigation has changed with no explanation. Eric and Nell are looking into both of them. We need to go talk to this woman who was Deeks's alibi. See if we can get her to admit that she changed her story after eight years because she was paid to. By Clarence Fisk no less. Hetty just told me Fisk deposited a large payment to her account. Then we need to track down the original detective and see if we can get her take on why she was removed from the case."
Sam nodded and started removing his gloves. Callen knew he had to tell him about the attack. He would be furious if he found out later that it had been kept from him. "Sam. There's something else you should know."
"What, G?"
"Deeks was attacked during the interview. He's fine but it has both Hetty and me concerned for his safety there." Unbeknownst to him, Kensi had entered the gym. She overheard the last part and stormed over to Callen.
"What happened to him? Who attacked him? Are you sure he's okay?"
"He's fine, Kensi. Hetty has eyes and ears on him."
Both Sam and Kensi looked at him in shock. "What?" they both said.
"Really, G? You didn't think that was important to tell me, to tell us?" asked Sam.
"Truthfully, I kind of forgot."
Sam just shook his head and went to get changed. Kensi turned to Callen and said "We need to get him out of there. Right now! He isn't safe."
"We're going to Kens. We need to focus now on figuring out what's going on. When Sam comes back, I want all of us up in ops so that we can get up to speed on what the wonder twins have found and come up with a plan of attack." He paused. "Do you think he's guilty?"
"What? No! I mean, maybe at first I was so surprised that I might have wondered why he did it but now that I've had time to think it over, I know there's no way that he would ever do something like that."
"Hetty says Deeks believes both of us think he's guilty. I wonder if that's why he shut down on us. Why he wouldn't talk to Sam at all. Tell me exactly what you two said when you talked to him."
Kensi closed her eyes and related their conversation word for word until she got to the part where she asked him why he did it. When she realized how she had worded it, how it sounded even to her own ears as she repeated it, she felt sick. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What did you say to him?"
Callen frowned thinking back over their conversation. He sighed when he remembered asking Deeks if he was worried about what else he thought LAPD might have on him. He repeated the conversation to Kensi and then said "He said something weird. He said I asked him the wrong question and called me Agent Callen."
"He told me the same thing, that I'd asked the wrong question. At the time I thought he meant I should be asking him for information on the case. I think he meant we were wrong to doubt him. Oh God, if he really thinks we believe the charges against him are true, it'll crush him. We need to go talk to him! Let him know that we know he's innocent. That we're going to get him out."
"We can tell him over the comms from up in ops. We need to spend our time on other things right now, we can't afford to waste it driving over there and waiting for them to decide whether or not they'll even let us in to see him."
"Then let's go." Kensi ran out of the gym and up to ops. She refused to look into the bullpen and see her partner's empty desk. She burst into the room, startling Eric and Nell. "What do we have? Do you have Deeks online? Can he hear us?" Eric and Nell both frowned at her. They knew that Hetty and Granger, as well as themselves, believed in Deeks's innocence. That only left Kensi, Sam and/or Callen as the ones Deeks thought believed him guilty. Eric wasn't about to forget about that quickly. He finally nodded and pointed to the Bluetooth receiver in his ear.
"Let me talk to him!" Kensi reached out to pull the receiver out of Eric's ear. He backed away from her, freaked out by her intensity.
"Miss. Blye. You need to calm down before talking to Mr. Deeks. He can't respond and I don't want you upsetting him to the point where he reveals the presence of the earwig." Hetty had entered ops unseen and caught her junior agent's attempt to grab the piece from the analyst's ear.
Kensi opened her mouth to argue when Sam said "She's right Kens. We all need to take a deep breath and be calm when we talk to him." He and Callen had come through the door right on Hetty's heels. Sam reached her and put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him and nodded. They looked up at the big screen to see what Deeks was seeing. She shuddered at the sight. The inconsequential thought went through her mind that Deeks didn't like to pee in public. How the hell was he going to deal with that?
"Mr. Beale. Can you put the comms on speaker?" Eric made the necessary adjustment and Hetty said "Mr. Deeks. You are on speaker. Your team is here. Can you hear us?" Tap. Hetty motioned to Kensi.
"Deeks? I need you to know that I don't believe you're guilty. I was taken by surprise and I didn't think before asking you why you did it. I know you didn't. I know you couldn't." There was no response. Kensi looked at Callen.
He cleared his throat and said "Look. Deeks. I'm sorry for what I said. We all know you didn't do this. We're going to do everything we can to get you out there as quickly as possible. You just need to hang in and watch your back. Can you do that?" Again, no response.
Eric frowned and clicked some keys on his computer. "Um guys, he turned off the earwig."
Kensi's heart sank. "Can you tell when?"
"No. But he responded to Hetty when she asked if he could hear you, so it had to be right after that. The camera is still up and running though." They all turned to watch the screen and realized why he had turned it off. He was being cuffed and taken from his cell.
"He must have turned it off so he wouldn't be distracted by everyone talking. Probably figured he'd give something away." said Sam. Kensi was relieved, for a moment she thought Deeks had turned off the earwig to avoid listening to them. She needed to do something, anything to get him out of there.
"Mr. Beale, continue monitoring Mr. Deeks and recording everything that happens. The rest of you, we need to come up with a plan."
Callen nodded. "Nell, do you have the address on the woman who was Deeks's alibi?"
"Yup. Just sent the address for Stephanie Wheeler to your smart phones. I also sent the address for Detective Rivera. We haven't found anything on her yet. We're still working on it."
"Sam and I will go talk to Stephanie Wheeler and then on to Rivera. Kensi, you need to go to your place and start looking through Deeks's computer. See if there's anything on there that can help us. See if he took notes, made any kind of document of the things he thought IA could have on him."
"What? No! I can't do that, that's an invasion of his privacy!"
"Kensi, we did it with your laptop when you were arrested during the Claremont case. Deeks was the one who figured out your password. He did it because he knew you were innocent and wanted to help you. We need to do the same for him!"
Kensi was stunned, not sure how she felt about the guys digging around in her apartment and through her computer. And just how did Deeks know her password? She thought about it and realized he knew her well enough, even then, to guess it correctly. She nodded when she gave in to the fact that this was something she would have to do.
Granger stepped through the doors, having finally arrived back from Washington. He had gotten on the earliest plane he could when Hetty called to let him know IA had finally made their move. There was no way in hell he wasn't going to be involved in exonerating the annoying detective. He told himself it was just so that he could hold it over him later; not wanting to admit that the detective had wormed his way around the tough armor Granger surrounded himself with. He found himself smiling more since he had made the move to L.A. and, deep down; he knew it wasn't the weather.
"What can I do to help?" he asked.
"Owen? Good, you're back. Perhaps you and I can talk to Detective Rivera instead of Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna."
"Let's go then." He turned and went out as quickly as he had come in.
Sam and Callen exchanged looks. "Did Granger just drop everything to come running back to L.A. to help out Deeks?" asked Sam.
"You know, Sam, I think he just might have. Hetty?" Callen turned to Hetty to find she had already left. The little ninja came and went like a ghost. "Let's go partner. Kensi, are you going to be okay?"
Kensi nodded hesitantly. She really didn't want to go searching through his laptop but knew it had to be done. She followed silently in her team mate's wake, wishing this day would just be over. She didn't think she'd driven home so slowly in her entire life. She kept hoping that the call would come to tell her he was out, that the charges were dropped, before she had to face what she was about to do. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. She pulled up outside their apartment. Yes, she thought about it as theirs even though she still had her own. She just never stayed there much anymore.
She opened the door and the first thing she saw was the laptop sitting on the dining room table where he'd left it. She sighed and walked up to it, running her finger over the top where he'd placed a decal of a surfboard. She opened the top and booted it up. The password prompt came up and she froze. Would she be able to figure his out the way he had hers? Did she know him as well as he did her? She was starting to think she didn't. She thought of all the cheesy nicknames he called her, wondering if one of them was his password. She sat down and stared at the screen. Suddenly she had a thought and entered the words. The laptop accepted it. Sunshine&Gunpowder. Somehow it made her feel better.
She started by looking at the files he had last viewed, something she had learned from the wonder twins. There was a document on finances, definitely not going to go there. They rarely talked about money. Finally she found a file simply called IA. Before she could open it another file caught her eye. It was a video file and was named Kensi. She hovered the mouse over it, wondering if she dared open it. What she would find if she did. Her finger clicked on the mouse before she finished deciding and the file opened. His face filled the monitor. She reached out and stroked it, then hit the play button.
"Kensi, if you're seeing this it means you're going through my laptop either because IA has arrested me or I'm dead, probably due to their investigation. I'm pretty sure I know why they're after me. I told you the story about my first partner and how he died. What I didn't tell you was that I was their number one suspect until my alibi panned out. I'm sorry for that. I don't know why I feel it necessary to keep some things from you but I do know that I always want you to see the best of me. That time was not the best. If they're after me for this, then something happened to my alibi and that would be Stephanie Wheeler. I haven't been able to reach her to find out what's going on. I'm worried about her. We haven't talked in years but she was a good person. See if you can find her, make sure she's safe." He paused for breath. Kensi took a moment to think how like Deeks it was, he was up to his neck in hot water and he was worried about a woman he hadn't seen in years. She wondered how he felt now that he knew the woman had taken money to change her story. She focused back on the screen when he began to talk again.
"You have to know I didn't do it. I would never kill someone in cold blood like that. What was done to Frank was brutal and even he didn't deserve it. Jail time, maybe, but not to be shot with your own gun in a cheap motel, high on drugs. No one deserves to go out like that. If this is the case that IA is trying to pin on me, then someone is trying to frame me. I was nowhere near that hotel that night. I didn't actually hate Frank as much as others assumed. Yes, it led to no one wanting to work with me but it helped me to find something that I was good at. And I was. I was good at undercover assignments. My record would stand with just about anyone else's and that's something I'm proud of. I love you and I hope you can trust me enough to have faith in me. To believe in me. It's the only thing that will get me through this. I love you Kensi Marie Blye, now and forever."
The screen went black as the video ended. Kensi blew out the breath she was holding, closed her eyes and bowed her head.
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A/N #whatever – the last scene in the trailer was Kensi in front of a laptop, obviously not at work. We have no idea what she was looking at but she closes her eyes and bows her head, looking so sad. This is simply my take on it.
