Location: Back at the Gym

"You can come in," Sam said to the LAPD staff with a smirk. "We don't bite."

"Speak for yourself," Kensi muttered, eyeing them with suspicion.

Callen barely held back a snort, he had promised Hetty that he'd behave, and glanced over to Deeks to see what his reaction was. Their Detective was still frowning. Uh oh. Callen had hoped that the team's antics would have distracted him from whatever worries he had about working alongside the LAPD. Apparently not.

As the ragtag group of LAPD Officers and Detectives edged themselves cautiously into the gym (eyes darting between a purposely intimidating looking Sam and a threatening Kensi) Callen took the chance to sidle up to Deeks.

"Everything ok?" he asked.

Deeks just shrugged in response. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because we're going to be working way too closely with people who don't respect you on a good day and would happily leave you to crash and burn on a bad one," Callen informed him bluntly.

Deeks winced at the harsh truth of his statement.

"I'm used to it," he stated weakly.

Callen frowned. He didn't think the situation between Deeks and the rank and file of LAPD was this bad. Sure, he had noticed the handful of Detectives that had poor opinions of Deeks, how could he not when they had to deal with them so much? Callen had always put that down to some incident that had happened whenever Deeks was undercover for him. Heck, even Deeks had said as much. Apparently, that was not the case.

Glancing over to a very terrifying looking Kensi, that was the look that made terrorist mess their pant for heaven's sake, he highly suspected only she really knew the extent of this behaviour. Those two were extremely candid and open with each other, especially after that Internal Affairs fiasco.

Of course, it had to be hurtful. These were the people he should be depending on and who should have his back while protecting him from them. That couldn't be anywhere close to the truth.

"Your more ours than theirs," Callen reminded his teammate and friend, unconsciously repeating what Sam had said earlier this week.

It actually seemed to sink in this time as it got a shadow of a grin from him.

"You've actually been allowed out into the real world?" one of the Officers taunted foolishly.

"With no nanny too," another added jeeringly.

"We good?" Callen asked Deeks quietly before he took charge of the situation.

Deeks nodded and his trademark grin broke out across his face. "Definitely," he told his leader and then called across the room. "Nah, we escaped!"

"Naughty boys," came a sickening familiar voice.

Callen groaned. Why was it always Detective Whiting? She gave them a sarcastic wave, if that was possible, with a sneer on her face.

"More like you got thrown out!"

That comment got the unfortunate Detective an absolutely terrifying glare from both Sam and Kensi. Eric and Nell were glaring too, but only Nell's dipped into 'scary' territory. She should stick to the Hetty stares, she was much more intimidating that way.

Unfortunately, neither Callen or Nate were feeling particularly charitable towards the LAPD at the minute or they might have cooled the situation a bit. The foolish man actually took a physical step back in his fear.

Deeks quickly stood next to Kensi, reading the situation correctly and wanting to be close on hand in case he had to stop her from leaping at the guy and maiming him. Another thing that they had explicitly promised Hetty that they would not do. They had been promised all sorts of horrible paperwork and retraining if they did anything of the sort.

"What? I thought you weren't allowed out without a chaperone?" taunted McHughes more nastily.

As if he had timed it, Granger strode purposefully through the door. The Detectives actually backed up in obvious fear, much to the confusion of their Officer colleagues. The Detective knew what their Assistant Director was like, they had had few dealings with them but they were enough.

"You were saying, McHughes?" Granger asked blandly, stopping in front of the man.

"Nothing," he gulped.

Granger nodded shortly at him and strode over to Callen.

"Why haven't you started yet?" he demanded.

"Waiting for Nate to get us going," Callen replied, shrugging.

The tall Operational Psychologist blinked at them both in confusion and shook his head.

"I'm here to ensure that trust is actually established," he said, frowning at his notes.

"To be a tattletale," Deeks coughed.

"I'm not leading this session," Nate informed them, ignoring Deeks.

Granger just looked frustrated, Callen would feel a measure of sympathy for the man (he suspected that Hetty had told him to stay) but he wasn't going to be the one actually doing these stupid so-called trust exercises. Though, that would be a sight to see…

"Then who- " Granger started with a growl to be interrupted by, who else, Deeks.

He was pointing toward the door.

"Don't tell me you are!" he exclaimed, making them all swirl around.

Lieutenant Bate was standing, smirking.

"I thought you pulled rank and bailed on us, sir?" an Officer asked curiously.

"To not do the exercise," Bates said with a wave of his hand. "You didn't think I'd actually want to miss this?" He nodded cheerfully at their Detective, "Deeks."

"Hey, Bates," Deeks said with a careless wave.

Bates looked around the room inquisitively.

"What? No mighty fairy midget?"

Al the NCIS team spluttered incredulously. Granger just quirked an eyebrow.

"I dare you to say that to her face," challenged Deeks.

Bates shuddered, "Never fear, I learnt my lesson from the last time."

"That she wasn't allegedly around for either," Kensi pointed out.

The man shrugged, "I'm sure I'll live. Aren't you supposed to be getting started?"

"We have no-"

"Who is rrrreadyyyyyy to RUMBLE?"