AN: Thank you so much for such LOVELY feedback. I am SOOOO SORRY for taking so long to update. I got a second job as an adjunct and it's been taking up quite a bit of my time the last few weeks getting ready. I would like to give a LOVELY HUGE thank you to my amazing beta Lou. Like any great beta, Lou makes sure I sound much better than I actually am Hope you enjoy. A lot of action next chapter!
To save their trip from being in vain, Callen asked Deeks if he could stay to process the scene and see if he could get an ID on the second victim.
"Deeks, send the pictures to Eric. Then get over to OPS."
The grungy looking undercover LAPD officer stared at the NCIS team leader, confusion in his eyes.
"We need one of our guys here. You know what to look for."
"Alright, man," The undercover officer replied, the confusion in his eyes turning to pride at being included. "Take care of Kensi."
"Always," Sam stated with a look that spoke of how much they appreciated the LAPD officer's assistance.
The car ride back to OPS was tense. Sam and G both looked like they needed some ass to kick and frankly, the pacifist Nate, would not mind joining in.
"He was one of us," commented Sam, finally breaking the tension-filled silence.
"Was, being the operative word. Why was he at Kensi's?"
Nate frowned. "I think the real question is why would he try to kill Kensi?"
"You're the Doc, you tell me."
"Every agent gets thoroughly vetted. Tons of background checks. It's not an easy process. Hell, Dom almost didn't make it because of a war protest he attended in college. Hetty had to fight for Kenz because of a couple of trespassing charges she had when she was 14."
"Yeah, but there are ways around that. Documents can be faked," Callen added.
Sam ran his hands over his face, and sighed. The others turned their attention to him. Callen was team leader, but the training of new agents was Sam's job, and one he took seriously. Kensi had been a born operator who knew what she was doing. After her, there had been a slew of agents who just had not cut it. In reality, he shouldn't have kept Dom either. The younger man had been far too green but his courage, determination, tech skills, and refusal to fail had helped him worm his was into the team. Now the woman who had become his sister was in trouble. He had to find strength to deal with this.
"Sam…" Nate prompted.
"Has anyone considered that maybe he really didn't try to kill Kensi?" He paused and then continued quickly, sensing the other's anger and confusion.
"I'm not saying she's lying. But she was catatonic. Something happened inside her. Things could be distorted. If this were any other witness, we wouldn't accept her testimony. How do we know she's not confused?"
"She's not any other witness and we are not going to treat her like any other witness. She is Kensi. Our Kensi."
Nate opened his mouth to recognize the validity of Sam's statement but decided against it. Sam did not need back up and at this moment and Callen did not need to be contradicted. Part of working along side of them was knowing who needed what and how to react. At this moment, Callen needed to know that he could still protect his friend.
They passed the rest of the car ride in tense silence, each man lost in deep thoughts. Nate was already wondering what would be required to bring the group back to normal, whatever that was. Sam sat contemplating where he would find the strength to get through another personal devastation for a member of this team. Callen thought only of vengeance.
Kensi slouched on a chair, tapping her feet in agitation and nervousness. Hetty sat at her desk on a phone conference with Director Vance but her eyes had not left the brunette. Kensi sniffed, thinking about how this was the end of a career she loved, she lived for. In addition, she would lose the only family she had left. Eric, who was currently running searches to find the second vic's identity, kept stopping every few seconds to stare at her. He probably saw her as a murderer. Eric was a pacifist and had a strict non-violence policy. He had even refused Sam's many attempts to train him how to use a gun for self-protection. There was no way he would forgive her for killing a fellow teammate, even if that teammate had it coming.
Kensi would have continued the self-destructive spiral of thoughts if it hadn't been for feeling a pair of arms wrap her in a hug. She looked up, surprised to see Eric's face.
"I'm glad you're okay."
He smiled at her and turned his attention to somewhere over her left shoulder. With a gasp of surprise, she quickly found herself in the strong arms of G Callen. She knew that scent of aftershave and something decidedly manly anywhere. He spun her around so he could look at her. Callen, a man of few words, kissed her forehead and drew her into another hug.
"G, don't suffocate her before I get a chance," came the deep and unmistakable voice of Sam Hanna.
With that, Kensi Blye once more found the air being squeezed out of her small frame, this time by the ex-Seal. He, too, placed a kiss on her forehead before stepping back and letting Nate have his turn. She was pleasantly surprised that Nate didn't even stop and have a mental debate about invasion of personal space or stutter something no one understood; he just enveloped her in his strong arms and placed a kiss on her forehead too.
He stepped back, letting his training take over for a second, and ran his eyes over her in a quick check.
Usually, the open concern would have annoyed her. For now, she was glad to see their faces. Standing face to face with a teammate with a gun to her head earlier today she had questioned whether she would ever see their faces again. She rewarded them with that huge Kensi Blye smile.
Hetty purposefully cleared her throat, cutting the moment short. The operations manager would have preferred to let them have this moment, they deserved it, but there was someone out there targeting her team and she had a lot to tell them. No words were needed. They all stood up and followed her upstairs, five pairs of eyes giving her their undivided attention.
"I had been waiting for a call today. It had come to the Director's attention that there was a leak coming from this office. Recently, a terrorist cell was made. They had information that only individuals in this office would know. Countless targets we have been watching have been compromised." She paused, and Callen used the opportunity to ask the important question.
"Why didn't you say anything before now?"
"Because, Mr. Callen, the names were traced back to members of this office. More often than not, any evidence we found led back to a G Callen, Sam Hanna, Kensi Blye, Nathaniel Getz, Eric Beal, Mike Renko, and even a Martin Deeks occasionally. You were all suspects."
"But you know we would never do that," Eric said, shocked that his name had been mentioned.
"Of course I did, Eric; however, if I told you I would have compromised the investigation and I was positive that you all would come out clean. I was wrong."
The tension was palpable. "Yesterday, our leak finally made a mistake. He took out a car in Mr. Callen's name. I was able to get some video footage. Miss Scuito was kind enough to examine it. It was Mr. Renko. I suspected it was him, but had no hard evidence. Miss Scuito did not call until after this morning's incident."
Kensi blushed as all members of the team gave her a concerned look before turning their attention back to Hetty.
"Ok, so Renko not only looks like a rat, he is…was one. So what does this mean? We caught the bad guy, right?" Sam asked.
"So Renko is a rat, but why kill Kensi, specifically? He always said she was the smallest, but the meanest. It would be dangerous to try and kill a very well trained agent," Callen said. "Something doesn't add up."
"Kensi, would you mind telling us what happened this morning?" Nate asked eyeing the woman with concern trying to gauge her mental wellbeing at this point.
She fidgeted in her seat.
"I went to a bar last night and met a guy."
"Who was this guy?" Sam could not hide the big brother concern from his voice.
Kensi's normally olive skin tone turned pink as the gentlemen in the room glared at this unknown and decidedly dead man. Before she opened her mouth to remind them they all were guilty of the occasional lapse in judgment, Eric stepped in for his friend. Despite his carefree surfer attitude, he often was adroit enough to step in and save a teammate from embarrassing moments.
"Deeks sent me photos of the guy. I ran some identification searches; our second victim is Chance Rivera, a 27 year old Marine Captain."
"You took home a guy named Chance?" Nate questioned, voice filled with disbelief.
"Yes. How did Deeks get involved?"
"He heard that there was double homicide at Fern's house and ran interference with us so we had time to do some investigation. Please tell me he didn't use some cheesy pickup line like, 'take a Chance on me.'" The redness that had finally faded had made its way back up to her ears.
"So. I don't think that's a bad pickup line."
"People, can we please get back to the topic at hand?" Hetty normally would have been much harsher on her bickering brood but they needed the banter. Once the five pairs of eyes looked at her in contrition, their leader continued.
"Miss Blye, I assumed your gentleman friend stayed the night. What happened next?" Hetty glossed over Kensi's sexual encounter as much for the men's well being as for her junior agent's. The four men were fiercely and often annoyingly protective of their female agent. The less attention brought to her sexual experiences the better.
"When I woke up, Chance wanted to take a shower. I directed him to the bathroom. I was looking for clothes for work when I heard gunfire. I grabbed my gun and headed to the living room. Chance was bleeding out on the floor. Renko was standing there. He looked confused. I thought you guys sent him and that Chance was sent to kill me. But he raised his gun at me. Then he gave a nasty smile. I don't even remember shooting him. There was lots of blood. It was everywhere. I knew the neighbors would have heard. I panicked. I thought if he had tried to kill me maybe he had already hurt one of you. I didn't even think about my phone or anything. I was afraid he had done something to my car so I grabbed his keys and drove here. I know I should have stayed at the scene but I needed to know you guys were okay."
She scanned their faces, seeing understanding reflected back in every pair of eyes.
"You're lucky he didn't kill you, too. You did the right thing, you protected yourself," Sam rasped, looking decidedly emotional. "And after this is over we'll talk about the importance of not bringing strange men to your home. It's a liability." Kensi knew this message was as much about protecting her from strange men as it was safety.
"Nate, why do you think he would do this?"
"I don't know. I've had to do psychological observations and analyses on every member of OPS, Renko included and this doesn't fit his psychological profile. Something serious has had to change. No one could fake this behavior. Kensi said he looked confused at first. That's not someone who is completely confident in their behavior. He used all our identities. This suggests that he wanted to get caught. He had to know someone would have caught on and we all would be scrutinized. He had to know we all would have been investigated. It is almost like he wanted to be caught. Eric, can you see if you can track his whereabouts for the past few days? Maybe we can see what triggered his traitorous behavior and why he specifically went after Kensi."
The phone rang, preventing the team from coming up with an action plan.
"It's Deeks," Eric announced before picking up the phone.
"Fern baby, you know how to bring the drama. I got two black SUVs following me since I left Kensi's. They both have some big guys in some big black shades. I'm trying to stay on crowded roadways, but I think I'm going to need some help. They're trying to force me off the Santa Monica."
"Eric's tracking your GPS, we'll be there in fifteen. Try heading towards the Mission and we'll make it ten. Stay on the line with Hetty. She and Nate will debrief you and get you up to speed. Sam, now it's time to put all that useless highway knowledge to some use," Callen ordered.
Eric began tracking Deeks' car via Los Angeles' traffic cameras. Hetty and Nate began filling in Deeks as he also told them what he learned from the crime scene. Kensi smiled silently as they treated her like an agent rather than a victim. Even in this complete chaos, all of these separate individuals, these separate lives, knew the complicated roles they all had to play. Like some complicated play, each player knew their role and their cues. The question left unanswered was whether this play would be a tragedy or not.