It's time.

Nate stands in the operations room alone behind the main table. He's staring at the large white evidence box that had just arrived from Olive View- UCLA Medical Center. Right after leaving the OPS center, Deeks had given the Evidence Release Form to one of the agents that Hetty had sent to protect him. The box had arrived half an hour later and Nate had been staring at the box ever since. Even though he doesn't know Deeks like the rest of the team, he knows the detective enough to feel sick to his stomach at the thought of what could be inside the box.

Nate rubs the bridge of his nose. The exhaustion from flying only hours earlier from Rome for a meeting is beginning to take a toll on him. It isn't the only thing- after receiving the box from the agent; Nate received a phone call from Deeks alerting him that before going home to rest, he would go back to the Sofitel hotel pool with the agents to swim a few laps. Nate knows that swimming can be therapeutic for some and safe, but something about a severely traumatized detective going swimming at the same time as the team finding out about the assault doesn't feel 100% right to Nate.

The earlier you tell the team about the assault, the faster you get to end all the tension and get Deeks the help he needs. Nate walks out of the operations room and stops at the top of the stairwell in the bullpen. Below him; Kensi, Sam, and Callen are working at their desks on the psychological profile of the assailants. At first, Nate doesn't see Nell or Eric, but soon sees them walk out of the conference room on the second floor. Nell hands Eric her small blue tablet before looking up and seeing Nate.

"Nate, oh my God- when did you get here?" she exclaims in excitement. Her voice catches the three agents' attention from the bullpen- Sam looks up and grins at the psychologist while Kensi and Callen call out, " Hey, Nate!"

Nate scratches the back of his head and sighs. There isn't an ounce of energy to even say hello in him. Nell quickly notices the tired, hardened stare on Nate's face and asks nervously, "Everything ok?"

"I need you guys in the operations room," Nate states darkly. Eric raises an eyebrow at his friend's behavior, saying, "Not even a hello- did something happen?"

"Just – just go, please," Nate pleads. He turns back to the bullpen where Callen, Sam, and Kensi all now standing, "I need you guys up here ASAP. It's an emergency, of sorts."

The word emergency gets an immediate response from the three agents. Sam and Callen briskly walk up the stairs, neither saying a word. Callen has his game face on and Sam is mentally prepping himself for whatever the 'emergency of sorts' could be. Kensi reacts a little quicker, taking two steps at a time as she climbs the stairs. As usual, Hetty appears out of nowhere at Nate's side, giving the psychologist an encouraging nod before walking into the operations room. The nod doesn't do much of anything- in ways, it makes Nate more nervous.

Once everyone is the room, Callen notices the evidence box on the table. He immediately recognizes the small blue logo that he had seen on the Olive View- UCLA Medical Center hospital sign when he and Sam had attempted to get the 8th victim's evidence released the day before.

"You got the evidence released- nice job," the lead agent states, "But for the future, buddy, I wouldn't use the word emergency for a situation like this in the future." Callen waits to hear a chuckle from Nate, but only sees the same, hardened stare Nell had observed earlier. "Wait- how exactly did you get the evidence?" Callen adds.

Nate ignores Callen's question and turns to Sam. The Navy SEAL is looking at the box as if he's expecting something illegal either in the box or associated to how Nate got the box. The psychologist ignores Sam's suspicious look and asks, "Do you have a pocketknife that I could use?"

"Um, yeah." Sam pulls out his Navy pocketknife that he always carries in his back pocket. He hands it over to Nate and watches the psychologist cut the tape that was sealing the evidence box shut. Nate takes off the box cover and peers inside, seeing five evidence bags.

"Nate, what is this abou-"

Nate doesn't register who had asked the question. He says quickly, "I know who your eighth victim is. It's…..um…the victim's name is Detective Marty Deeks."

Sofitel Hotel

Deeks slides into the pool and turns to grab onto the edge. In the corner of his eye, he can see his two protection agents standing cross armed at the pool room entrance. Besides the request for the evidence release forms and the simple question of why he wanted to go swimming is the only communication Deeks has had with the two agents. Deeks can see grim looks on each man's face and realizes that he'd have the expression if he was watching a victim who randomly decided to go for a quick swim.

Deeks brings his feet to his chest and pushes off from the wall. He twists his body to where he's on his stomach and begins freestyle swimming across the pool. It makes him feel a touch less antsy than he had felt walking out of the OPS center- in his mind, it's much better than he would have felt if he had listened to Hetty and gone straight home.

"He's coding!"

"Get me a crash cart!"

Deeks knows that he's having another flashback from the day he was taken to the hospital. He doesn't stop swimming this time because he doesn't want to. The detective doesn't want to stop and then have to go home to face his nightmares and the team.

"Come on, stay with me! Stay with me! Dr. Caden, John Doe needs surgery right away or he'll die!"

Deeks swims faster and harder- he quickly turns around when he reaches the other end of the pool before starting again back across the pool. He tries to change the subject in his mind, which quickly turns to the team. Deeks tries to picture Sam, Callen, Nell, and Eric's reactions and comes up blank- he doesn't know how they'd react- hell, he doesn't know how he'd react if he were in their position. Suddenly, his mind falls on Kensi and the thought of his partner finding out makes him swim even harder.

"John Doe, you need to fight for us, ok? Everyone here at the hospital is cheering for you. Please, just fight- fight for the woman that you keep calling out for…..Kensi, I think it was. Fight for Kensi."

The soft, warm voice of one of the nurse's that had taken care of him pops in his head and her comforting words hurts the detective. It also distracts him from his swimming- in the midst of swimming so hard, the detective forgets about the pool wall. It's the farthest thing from his mind when he accidently swims head first into the wall and loses consciousness.

OPS Center

For a minute, no one says anything.

Nate doesn't know whether it can be considered as a good thing or not- the blank, confused expressions on the three agents and two analysts' faces force him to call out, "Guys?"

"This is a really sick joke," Sam says. He nods his head in disbelief, "Deeks put you up to this, didn't he? This is just-"

"You think I'm joking?" Nate snaps, much louder than he had intended. He then softens his expression and pulls out the shirt in a bag. The shirt is almost completely stained in blood, from the collar to the hem of the shirt. Nate feels like he's going to vomit at the sight and is positive that the rest of the team is feeling the same way too.

"Is there anything about this shirt that stands out to you?" Nate asks, directing his question towards Kensi. He already knows the answer, but finds it best to have the team come to the same conclusions by themselves. Kensi eyes the shirt hesitantly before muttering, "Deeks has the exact same shirt. It's his favorite one."

"When was the last time he wore it?"

Kensi swallows and looks away from Nate for a second. When she returns her gaze, she states, "Two months ago, but the chance of this shirt and his shirt being the same is one in a million! There's no possible way that Deeks could have been the victim and us not know about it!"

"Check the shirt, Kensi," Nate replies quietly. He hands it over to her and takes note that Callen's eyes are flickering left to right as he is frantically running through ways that the news couldn't be true and Sam is staring at the evidence box, his eyes showing him teetering between confusion and fear of the news actually being true. For the two analysts, Eric is trying to run through every interaction he's had with Deeks in the last two months and Nell is at Kensi's side to see the shirt.

Kensi pulls the shirt out of the evidence bag and takes the sleeve in hand. What she sees makes her stomach drop: a large pink blob- the same one that Deeks had made a fuss about her putting there after borrowing the shirt- is on the inside of the shirt sleeve. In a panic, she moves over the collar of the shirt where Deeks had begged her to rip the tag off the collar after it had driven him nuts for two days and as she had hoped it wouldn't, the small hole in the collar was where it was expected to be.

"It can't…." Kensi gasps, "He can't…"

Nell touches her shoulder and whispers, "Kensi, it's his shirt….."

"Wait! Wait!" Eric suddenly exclaims. He spins around in his chair and starts frantically typing away at his computer. "Deeks was on a thing- a thing- an op, I mean, two months ago. I remember because Lieutenant Bates came into the boatshed to tell us and he scares me."

From his corner of the room, Nate called out, "Eric-"

"…..So if I pull up the ops paperwork, I can prove you to be wrong…"

"Eric…."

"….because Deeks would not have been-"Eric stops when Nell places a hand over his to get him to stop. Sam sadly looks at the two before looking back over to Nate. "There was no op, was there?"

Nate winces because he knows the next part is going to be the hardest. Hetty once more gives him an encouraging look to proceed which does him no good. Very reluctantly, Nate pulls out a white envelope from the box and pulls out a stack of photos from it. He places each photo down onto the table individually, each photo getting a gasp from each individual of the room. The photos are of Deeks in the hospital- in most pictures, he's hooked up to an IV, intubated, and covered in bandages.

"We don't know much about what happened- Hetty and I just found out," Nate states while the others stare in disbelief over the photos. The only one who isn't looking at the photos is Kens, who is standing perfectly still far from the table. She can't move, she can barely breathe, and feels as if her world is going to collapse. Nate prepares himself to talk to her, but is stopped when he feels the vibration of his phone in his pocket.

Nate quickly glances down to the screen to check who had called or texted. It's a short text message from one of the agents that is on protection detail for Deeks that reads Detective received head injury swimming. On route to hospital.

The psychologist doesn't get a second to process the message before he hears, "Is it something to do with Deeks?"

It's Callen and his voice shakes as he asks his question. Nate sees a shattered look in the lead agent's eyes, the same one that he can also see in the others'. The look makes Nate feel even worse when he states, "Yes. Deeks was supposed to go home and rest, but had asked to go swimming for therapeutic reasons…and while swimming, he slammed his head against the wall and lost consciousness in the pool. That's all I know."

The team's reaction is immediate- everyone rushes to the doorway, only to be stopped by Nate blocking off the entrance. "I can't let you go to the hospital yet," he pants.

"Is this to punish us?" Sam exclaims angrily.

"No, I would never do that! You all have been pissed off by Deeks' behavior for two months and now you find out that he's been hurting this whole time. That's a myriad of emotions that you all need to get under control before you go see him. You all can't help him if you're all dealing with guilt, anger and sadness all at the same time."

"No- hell no. We're going to see him right now," Callen states.

Nate stands his ground. "I'm not saying that you can't ever see him. Go home and process everything that I just told you. When Deeks wakes up in the hospital, I'll explain to him how this went and give him time to wrap his head around everyone knowing. If he's in the emotional state that I think he's in, everyone rushing in with hugs and questions is only going to freak him out. I promise you will see him at the latest, tomorrow morning."

Hetty, who had been quietly standing by the front screen the entire time, quickly observes her agents and analysts' faces. From the tears in Kensi's eyes to the more determined to catch the assailants than ever expressions on Sam's face, Hetty can see Nate's point. The team is in a state of shock over just the photos and the blood stained shirt. They still had no idea when and how this happened or even about the mysterious manila envelope in her desk that had her detective's name on it.

Yes, a time to cope was needed.