A/N: Sorry for the wait guys! Too much fan fiction too little time! Enjoy!
"God, I hate the desert," Deeks griped as they walked.
"Yeah, you've mentioned that," Sam replied.
"Why is there so much sand here? Who wants to live in a giant sandbox?"
"Deeks," Sam stopped walking. "I swear if you complain about one more thing I will leave you here."
"You're cranky," Deeks told him.
"Damn right I'm cranky," Sam stated. "We've been out here for three days and we've got nothing. We've been eating nothing but MRE's. I've got sand in my boots and a cramp in my back. And we're going to run out of water by tomorrow which means that if we don't find something today we'll have to go back to camp and then come back out again and do it all over."
"Now who's complaining?" Deeks asked, kicking at a rock.
"I will leave you. And you will die," Sam threatened.
"I think I want Kensi back now," Deeks told him with a glare.
"You and me both," Sam agreed as he started trudging along again.
For three days they had been searching the countryside around the area where their other two suspects were camping with the rest of their team. So far they'd turned up nothing but a lot of rocks and dirt, even with GPS and satellite help.
"Are we walking in circles?" Deeks asked.
"No, Deeks. I know how to read a GPS," Sam told him as he squinted at the device in his hand.
"Because I swear we've passed that rock shaped like Mr. Bean like four times today," Deeks continued.
"Get down."
Deeks complied immediately, all the humor gone from his body. "What's up?"
"Over there," Sam pointed. "Look. That's our other two suspects, Trevor Adams and Hunter Porter right there."
Deeks pulled out his binoculars and focused them in the direction Sam had indicated. "Are they doing what I think they're doing?"
"If you think they're packing up priceless artifacts to smuggle back to LA then you would be right," Sam told him.
"All of this for some jewelry and tacky artwork?"
"That tacky artwork is worth eight times what you make in a year," Sam informed the detective as he snapped pictures.
"Damn," Deeks nodded appreciatively. "This is some Indiana Jones type stuff going on here."
"Deeks."
"I mean this has been fun, but I'll just be going to the dark side now."
"Slow your roll Darth Vader," Sam told him with a roll of his eyes, clearly too exhausted and cranky for Deeks' humor. "We need to get back to camp."
"What we're just going to let them keep packing up?" Deeks asked.
"How are we going to arrest them out here? Do you see how many armed Iraqi's they have helping them?"
"Point taken. Back to camp it is," Deeks conceded.
They descended the rocky slope as quietly as possible. "Why would they kill Peter Atherton?" Deeks asked. "That makes no sense. They've got plenty of stuff to fence back there. You'd think they'd want as many guys as possible."
"Maybe he got cold feet," Sam suggested.
"I just don't get it," Deeks shook his head.
"Sometimes things just don't make sense, Deeks," Sam told him. "Come on. If we hurry we can make it back before dark."
"So tell me Trevor. Why'd you do it?" Deeks asked the man seated on the other side of the table.
"Sir?" the young LAPD officer said.
Deeks and Sam had taken the two men into custody when they'd returned early that morning from the field with the rest of their unit. They'd spent hours with Hunter Porter to no avail. So far their efforts to crack Trevor Adams had been equally fruitless and Deeks was drained. He just wanted this case done.
Deeks sighed. "Look man, I really, really want to go home. So your stonewalling me here is not making me very happy. And when I get unhappy I let the big guy over there do whatever it takes to speed things up."
He glanced pointedly at Sam who leaned against the wall in a dimly lit corner of the room, arms crossed, a menacing look on his face.
"Sir, I don't know what you think I did, but I can assure you I am an upstanding soldier. My record is impeccable," Trevor maintained.
"Okay. Since you don't seem interested in telling the truth I'll just do it for you."
Deeks took out his phone, holding it so Trevor could see as he flipped through several pictures. "That is you and your buddy with a bunch of locals, packing up art and jewelry that I'm pretty sure, isn't yours. You were going to take it back to LA and sell it on the black market making all of you a tidy little profit. How am I doing so far?"
Trevor's face remained stoic but sweat began to bead on his forehead, and he swallowed hard.
"From the look on your face I'd say pretty good. What I don't understand is why you killed Peter Atherton."
"Pete is dead?" Trevor finally spoke, fear evident in his eyes. "How? We didn't do it!"
"Of course not. The drugs did it right?" Sam asked. "What'd you have your friends whip it up special for you?"
"We didn't give him any drugs!" Trevor cried. "Pete was our friend, we would never do that!"
"Well then you'd better start talking," Deeks told him. "Because right now you and your buddy are the only suspects we've got."
"Well gentlemen, I hear you made a discovery today," Bonner said as they walked into his office. "Can I assume we're case closed?"
"Just about," Sam told him. "Adams and Porter admitted to the whole thing. Took full responsibility for all of the black market artifacts."
"We've just got a couple questions to wrap things up," Deeks told him.
"By all means," Bonner leaned back in his chair. "Ask away."
Deeks took a breath. "Where exactly did you get the heroin you gave to Peter Atherton?"
Bonner laughed. "That's a good one Detective. You almost had me for a minute there."
"He's not joking," Sam said quietly.
Bonner's face hardened. "Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You can't just come in here accusing me of something like this."
"Actually, we can," Deeks told him. "And this will go a lot better for you if you just tell us the truth."
"You have no proof of anything."
"One of your men saw you talking with Pete that night. Saw you walking him to the infirmary saying something about a muscle relaxant."
"That's circumstantial."
"We also found an Iraqi man who says you paid him to smuggle in the drugs," Sam continued.
Bonner sank back into his chair. "It was just supposed to get him kicked out. They were ruining my unit!"
Sam shook his head. "Come on Bonner. You knew better. You should have let us handle it."
It didn't take long to have Bonner taken away and put in holding.
"That didn't end how I expected," Deeks said.
"It never does," Sam replied. "Now all that's left to do is to retrieve those artifacts and shut the whole thing down."
"And then home sweet home," Deeks sighed. Home to Kensi. Home to fix all the problems he'd left behind. He was ready. "Let's get this done."
A/N: So? Did it end like you expected? Three more chapters to go! Leave your love in the reviews!
