A/N: Sorry for the delayed update, and for this chapter being so short. I just had to end it here to get it up today. It was a case of either short and now, or long and another week. I hope the contents make up for the length, though.

Once again, thank you all so much for the reviews, favs and alert adds. I did try to reply to them all, but if I missed you, I apologize vehemently. And thank you to all those who reviewed anonymously. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Callen pulled up as close as possible as he could to the crime scene. It was a rather large park, and he had never really paid it a second glance whenever he passed it to and from Kensi's place, but right then, buzzing with LAPD and forensics, and the public, it certainly stood out.

There was a wide perimeter around the area where most of the people seemed to have gathered, giving him the sense to reason that he was in the right place. Slipping under the yellow tape with a quick flash of the badge, he took a couple of steps and stopped to take in the scene. From what he could tell, it was like any other crime scene that they had been to.

"So, where is she?" Deeks asked him, having done the same as him and scanned across he crowds around them for their fellow agent.

"Let's go find out." Callen said before nodding towards where a single LAPD officer stood, going through some papers. The hint that he threw him was fairly obvious before he added the words. "Start liaising."

Deeks cringed visibly at the thought of having to speak, and try to work something out, with the LAPD. However, that didn't keep him from walking up to the officer. Callen followed a couple of steps behind, giving him enough space to try to work something out without making much of a fuss.

"What do you want, Deeks?" He heard the LAPD cop growl at the other man.

"I hear you have my partner under arrest." Deeks replied, ignoring the clear stains irritation with the words.

"And?"

"Fancy giving her back?" He asked, turning on his typical boyish charm act, though Callen doubted it would work on a fellow law enforcement officer.

"Nope." The officer said, eyes jumping from one of them to the other. There was a steely look in his eyes that only emphasized the disgust in his words. "She killed a cop."

"What?" Deeks exclaimed with the same shock as Callen had had when the detective had called him. Turning to look at him, he carried on in a dry tone. "You didn't mention that little bit."

"Forgot. Besides, she didn't do it." Callen shrugged nonchalantly.

"NCIS?" The uniformed officer directed the question towards the agent.

"Yup." He nodded. "Where is she?"

There was small pause where Callen could feel being eyed in suspicion. He knew what it was like to lose someone in their team, and what it would mean for them to let him take away one of their suspects, but he also knew that there was a mistake somewhere along the line.

The officer's eyes never left either of them as he spoke to, it seemed, his boss over his radio. The reply was masked by crackling and the noise of the surrounding park, making it inaudible, but if the tight jaw and frown was anything to go by, they were well on their way to getting what they wanted.

"Over there." He finally told them. They followed his eye line to a distance behind a few vehicles and trees to where Kensi was currently waiting. "She's still under arrest by LAPD, so don't try anything smart. We won't hesitate in shooting you. Either of you."

His eyes lingered longer on Deeks than the NCIS agent, making the threat clear that it wasn't a joke. Dismissed with a turn of the back, Callen stifled a laugh at his words until they were more and halfway towards their destination.

"They really don't like you, do they?" He said with a hint of amusement.

"They're just jealous." Deeks brushed off, walking ahead when Callen responded with a sarcastic chuckle.

They had clearly been spotted by the time they reached where Kensi stood, by both her and the officers surrounding her. Leaning against the car with her hands behind her back, the look of relief was easy to read when she finally saw them, though it was quickly marred by annoyance that had no doubt to do with the situation at that moment.

"Oh, thank God. Can I go now?" She exclaimed with a sigh once they got close enough after being asked for ID.

"Never thought you'd ever be happy to see me, right?" Deeks teased, flashing her a grin that usually had her teasing him back. Instead, this time, it just pushed her further to the edge.

"Really? Right now?" Kensi said slowly, eyes narrowing dangerously that made him regret his words almost immediately before shoving him hard in the shoulder. "You want to start with me, right now?"

"Why aren't you cuffed?" He asked while rubbing his shoulder and taking a step back, eyes altering from his partner and their team leader who stood next to him. Callen didn't reply but smirked in a 'you should know better than that' way, confusing him more. Looking back at Kensi, he watched as she produced the object in question from behind her back. "You got out of them?"

"Without breaking a bone." She confirmed grimly before hiding her hands behind her back and leaning against the police car once again, proving that no-one else knew about her little trick yet. Turning her attention to Callen, she repeated her original question. "Am I free to go now, then?"

"Not yet." He told her before turning the questioning on her, making sure to keep his voice low to prevent from being overheard. "What happened? They're saying you killed a cop."

"It wasn't me." Kensi said at the same volume. Her words were worn with tiredness, clearly having stated the same thing many times before they had arrived. Their attempts to keep the conversation between the three of them hadn't worked, as neither got the chance to respond when a nearby LAPD officer jumped in.

"Who was it then?" He asked, or rather demanded. The three of them simultaneously turned towards him as he walked up to them. The badge on his chest identified him as Officer Jones, and Deeks could only shrug when Callen gave him a quick glance to see if he knew who he was.

"The person I was trying to shoot at." Kensi replied. Though her words were steady and calm, anyone who knew her well enough could tell there was a whole bubble of angry emotions underneath her fixed mask that was close to bursting.

"There was no-one else-" Jones began to scoff, only for her to cut him off.

"You have witnesses saying there was!" She informed him with irritation and unknowingly dropping her pretence of still being cuffed and taking a step forwards to let her arms fall to her sides.

"Kensi." Callen cut in warningly, knowing that doing anything that might piss off the LAPD in the slightest could make things much worse for them, if there was such a thing.

The glare that had been aimed for the officer switched to him, to which he merely raised an eyebrow. It was a concerned questioning look that he knew she got. Out of everyone on his team, including himself, Kensi was the one who could always keep her cool even when it got tougher than tough. Being an undercover agent meant having to keep emotions in check all the time, something that she was a natural at. So when she came to the brink of losing it, it worried him.

"I didn't even shoot a single round. I swear, Callen." She insisted, relaxing slightly and turning towards him as she did.

"Well, we'll have to wait until forensics to prove that." Officer Jones informed them disdainfully.

His words caused her to tense once again, and Callen could just about see her hands clench into fists. Her restraint to keep herself from doing something entirely unprofessional was admirable, because he was sure, had he been in her shoes, he would have gotten close to shooting them himself long ago.

"You have my gun." Kensi stated slowly and tightly to the officer. "Take a look at it yourself."

"Why don't we get out of here?" Deeks spoke up when no-one else said anything. The tension was thick enough to suffocate any one of them and he could almost feel the frustration radiating off of his partner in front of him; a mix of which he doubted would end with a positive outcome.

"Yeah, let's." Callen agreed and then turned back to Jones, who was still standing guard but silently. "You got anything solid to hold her on?"

"I'd take that as a no." Deeks commented wryly on the lack of response.

"She's coming with us then. We'll get you proof if you can't."

"If this jeopardizes the case-" Officer Jones began with a scowl, this time getting interrupted by the senior agent.

"You can hold me responsible." Callen finished indifferently. He touched Kensi's arm lightly to get her attention when the conversation around her didn't do anything to change her demeanour. "Let's go."

"She's still a person of interest in the case." Jones informed them before they walked away, though none of them offered any acknowledgement that they had heard.

Except for Kensi, who Callen saw falter in her step, pausing slightly before he urged her on with a hand on her back. He knew that she would rather have this sorted out right there and then; he would too, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon, and staying there would only elongate the process when they could do more and help from their HQ.

Removing his hand when they made it out of the most of the crowd, it was only when they got nearer to the car that the noise of the hectic park began to drift away. Each one of them had been lost in their thoughts as they made their way through, but now, Deeks took the opportunity to try and lighten the situation in a way that only he knew how.

"That's a lot of mess for someone who was ill." He joked after letting out a low whistle, earning himself a smirk from the other man. Kensi, however, didn't show anything but a small frown.

"I felt better." She shrugged. Even as she spoke, she reached up a hand to massage her temple as the mention of the illness brought forth the headache she had been fighting off for the past half hour now.

"You sure?" Deeks asked, dropping his light-heartedness for seriousness when he saw her actions.

"Yeah..." Kensi muttered distractedly, causing the other two to glance at her worriedly as they approached the car.

"What is it?" Callen asked her, not bothering to beat around the bush to find out if there even was an 'it'.

"The person who shot the cop..." She began slowly before pausing to swallow and ran a hand through her hair. It was clear that whatever she was thinking about wasn't something good. And if the hesitation was anything to go by, she hadn't shared it with anyone else as of yet either.

"It was a case of being in the wrong place in the wrong time, Kensi." Deeks reasoned, to which she shook her head to.

"No, that's the thing. It was that cop that was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She informed them, making them stop in their actions to get into the car and turn their attentions back to her.

"What are you saying?" Callen asked carefully, looking at her from over the top of the car. Kensi met his gaze with determination, but there was a hint of fear in them that she couldn't hide quickly enough from him.

"G, it was me they were aiming for." She stated plainly. "Not the cop. Me."

...