I just wanted to get the feeling right in this chapter before the case really kicks off. I may have written Granger OC, but I like the character, so I give him the benefit of the doubt. I hope everyone isn't disappointed.

Thank you everyone for the favorites and follows. I really appreciate it. Please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. I don't always answer back but I certainly read them and consider them.

Disclaimer: Still don't own NCIS:LA.


"Kensi?" Callen decided to change the subject. "Can you and Sam get a list from Nell here of anything she needs from her apartment and go and retrieve it for her?"

"Sure." Kensi wrapped her arm around Nell's shoulder and lead her away from the group. "Just tell me what you need."

"So how are you going to play the call?" Granger asked.

Callen actually had a good answer for that. "I'll say we were helping with surveillance. The crew that went after Deeks has worked in Phoenix before, I'll say we met there. That story should hold for what we are trying to get here."

Granger just sort of grunted. Callen took it as a sign of agreement. He walked over to his desk and sat down. The waiting was the worst. At least they were almost out in front of this thing. Deeks was secure. Nell was secure. They had a plan. Things were much better than they had been just twenty four hours ago.


"How's Deeks?" Sam asked Kensi as they headed toward Nell's place.

"A lot better than I am." Kensi said, too tired to give anything other than the absolute truth. "I wasn't there again Sam. A third time. I wasn't there." Kensi's head never turned from looking at the window.

There wasn't a lot Sam could say about that. He knew the feeling of guilt that came with thinking you had let those around you down. He had been there, more times than he cared to think about. It was a place you had to pull yourself out of. No one could help you if you didn't try to help yourself. But still, he couldn't just let the statement go unchallenged. "It wasn't your choice not to be there. He was just going home, you didn't leave him out in the field. You didn't fail him, Kensi. He's going to be OK, as long as you forgive yourself, everything else will be OK as well."

Kensi turned to look at Sam. "I didn't want to leave him alone at the Mission, Sam. It's the safest place he can be, and I didn't want him there alone. I didn't want him out of my sight." Kensi turned and looked back out the window. "I'm going to move him into my place while he looks for a new place to live."

Sam wasn't exactly surprised by this. "Have you told him yet?"

"No."

"Are you going to before you drive him home and take him inside?"

"I haven't decided."

Sam took a quick glance at her then looked back at the road. He drove another block before asking the obvious. "Do you want him to find a new place?"

Kensi just looked over at Sam smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

Sam laughed quietly and shook his head.

A few minutes later they pulled into Nell's driveway. As they got out of the car a thought occurred to Sam

"Why am I here?"

"Huh?" Kensi said as she reached the door while removing Nell's key from her pocket.

"Well, I'm certainly not about to go into Nell's bedroom and I refuse to go through any of her clothes. So, besides driving the car, why am I here?"

"To watch my back of course." With that Kensi opened the door and entered her house. "Whoa."

Sam just reacted and rushed in directly behind Kensi expecting to see trouble but everything looked fine.

"What? Nothing looks out of place."

"Exactly. Look how clean this place is." Kensi walked by the little table near the front door and ran her finger over it. "There isn't even dust." She said showing Sam her clean finger.

Sam started laughing. "You have been to her house before, right?"

"Stop laughing and yes I've been here before, but I thought she had picked up because she was expecting company. I didn't realize it always looked like this." Kensi turned toward Nell's bedroom sighing deeply. "I really am a slob." Kensi immediately whirled on Sam. "You don't repeat that to anyone. Especially Deeks."

Sam was not about to antagonize an angry Kensi. "I didn't hear anything."


Deeks wasn't exactly asleep but was resting very comfortably. It was definitely the pills that were allowing him to rest so well. He knew the minute the pills wore off he was going to be a mess again. He was contemplating what he was going to do when that happened. He didn't know where Kensi had put them.

"Hey Shaggy."

Deeks couldn't help but smile. "Hey there, Velma." He opened his eyes and looked at Nell. Even in his drug induced haze he could tell something was wrong. He tried to sit up but the drugs weren't that good. "Oof"

"Lay down Shaggy. You are going to pull a stich."

"Big deal. I always pull a stich. Usually I get in a gun battle as well."

"I would like to avoid gun battles if you don't mind."

"If I told you to stop worrying, would it help?"

"No. This isn't like the other times. Those just sort of happened. This, I've been thinking about this for a while now. All the things that can go wrong. I'm deliberately going somewhere to get shot at."

Deeks turned his head. "Nell, the team has you. Callen, Sam, and Kensi will keep you safe. You stay near them, you trust them, and you will come through this." Deeks took a deep breath. "Sorry you have to do this Nell. I should be the one to draw the bad guys out."

"You can say it Deeks. Bait. I'm bait."

"No. You are not bait. Bait is dead or gets killed in the process of getting a larger predator. You are a decoy. You are the trap. You come back here. Then we go get a beer. Then you go home."

"Yes sir." Nell said with a laugh.

"With Eric."

"Marty."

Deeks just smiled, closing his eyes affectively ending the conversation.

Nell let out a breath and rolled her eyes. "Great talk."

As she walked away she heard. "I suck at communication, just ask Kensi."


Callen walked up the stairs back to OPS and found Eric hunched over his keyboard.

"Any more messages on the site?"

Eric didn't look up. "Nope. A few visits but they all look legit. People just trying to help other people."

"Yeah, it's easy to forget that there are just genuine good people out there sometime." Callen turned to leave. "Well let me know if anything changes."

Eric looked up from his monitor. "Callen?"

G stopped right before walking out the door. He turned and looked at the analyst.

Eric paused for a minute. "Please don't let anything happen to her."

G looked Eric right in his eyes. "The team has her Eric. We will keep her safe. She's been in the field before. She can handle this."

"What if something goes wrong?"

Callen walked back in OPS and waited for the door to close. When it did he hit the electronic locks effectively isolating the room from the rest of the mission. He saw the color drain from Eric's face and put his hands up in surrender.

"Calm down Eric. Calm down." Callen walked back over toward Eric. "Eric, I know this is different for you. You view Nell differently, both professionally and personally, and there is nothing wrong with that."

"I feel a but coming." Eric cut in.

"But, you cannot talk to Nell like that. She is already nervous as it is. She has been a in the field and she has training, what she needs is confidence. You, being over protective and voicing everyone's fears will not help her. She can't afford to doubt herself." Callen placed his hand on Eric's shoulder. "We will take care of her."

"OK."

Callen took his hand off Eric's shoulder. "We good?"

"Yeah, yeah. We're good."

With that Callen walked over to the door, his the locks, opened the door, and walked out of OPS.


Granger walked over and stood in front of Hetty's desk.

Hetty finished a sip of her tea and set it back down in the saucer before looking up at the man.

"Yes Owen?"

"Miss Jones looks like she about ready to bolt, Hetty. On top of that, this plan has some serious holes in it."

"I'm not overly fond of the plan myself, if you have a better idea that doesn't involve using any of my agents as a decoy, please, share with me."

Granger grunted. "No Henrietta. I don't have a better idea. I've been trying to think of one, but I can't think of another way to end this so that six months down the road they don't try and abduct her again."

"And therein lies the crux of our problem."

Granger watched Nell walk up the stairs to OPS. "You think she is ready for it?"

"Are you every ready to be shot at or risk your life?"

"Now is not the time for your Jedi mind games Hetty. You know what I mean. Don't you think we've done enough damage to this team? Callen, Deeks, Hanna, Blye. Do we really need to start damaging the analyst?"

"Why Owen, I didn't know you cared."

Granger stood up from the desk and leaned on it staring into Hetty's eyes. "Dammit Hetty. Do not screw with me on this. I know the risk and I now the job more often than not calls for it, but do not, for one second, think it doesn't burn me to my core when it happens."

Hetty took a deep breath. "Owen, Agent Blye was not your fault. That is on me."

"Yeah? You weren't the one that promised her father you would keep her safe and then took her to a war zone where she got captured by terrorist." Granger leaned back up off the desk and rubbed his temples. "Let's deal with the problem we can affect and not the past."

"Alright Owen. Miss Jones…"

"We need to go over rules of engagement. Miss Jones never leaves the teams care. There will be no handover of any kind."

"Agreed."

"The rest we figure out after the phone call."


Sam and Kensi walked back into the Mission with Kensi pulling Nell's suitcase behind her. Kensi took the suitcase over to her desk and set it beside it. Sam looked her as he started up the stairs.

"You coming?" Sam asked.

Kensi looked and saw Deeks still lying on the sofa he was at when they left. "I'll be there in a minute."

Sam nodded in understanding. "Alright."

Sam went up the stairs and walked into OPS. He was surprised that Hetty and Granger weren't there.

"I assume that they haven't called since you haven't said anything."

Callen turned at the sound of Sam's voice. "No, they have not. Eric says that there hasn't been but a couple of visits since you left. They most likely haven't check the site again yet."

Eric spoke up. "Yea. The visitors are different than all the previous visitors as well. Looks like people just browsing the site."

Sam grunted in frustration. "The sooner they call the sooner we have a workable plan. This waiting is really starting to get on my nerves."

Nell spoke up from her station. "How do you think I feel?"

G shot Sam a disapproving look. Sam winced.

"Sorry Nell. I know this can't be easy for you. But we've got you, you know that right?" Sam walked over to where she was. "If things look to dicey we come up with another plan. We aren't just going to send you out there and see what happens. We are out front and you are behind us where we can keep you safe."

Nell looked up from the workstation. "I know Sam. This just isn't the way I thought I would be an agent. I always assumed I would be proactive. Not bait."

Kensi walked in the OPS center and caught Nell talking about bait. She could read Sam's and Callen's face getting a feel for the tension in the room.

"Hey it could be worse." Kensi tossed out. "You could always be a honey trap."

Nell laughed a little. "Yeah, having some big, sweaty, smelly guy pawing all over me would suck."

Kensi looked at her growing serious. "That's not the worst part. The worst part are the ones who are good looking, smooth, and smell good. Your mind and your body get all confused and you have to remember the job and forget you hormones and instincts."

"Suddenly, being shot at doesn't sound so bad." Nell responded.

Callen walked around behind Kensi whispering. "What the hell sort of pep talk was that?"

The questioning look from Sam said the same thing.

Kensi frowned and looked around the room. "Sorry. It's been a weird day." She quickly changed the subject. "Nell, I've got a suitcase of your things down at my desk. I didn't know where you wanted it."

Nell started walking toward the door with Kensi following. "I'll just bring it up here. I don't know that I'm going to get much sleep tonight."

As they walked down the stairs Kensi tried to apologize. "Sorry about that Nell. I really wasn't trying to make things worse."

Nell stopped on the stairs turning toward Kensi. "Actually Kens, I appreciate the honesty. If I heard one more alpha male 'protect the little lady' pep talk I would probably shoot myself."

"They don't want you to worry and they don't like throwing us out there. Being alpha males kind of make them feel that way. They are built to be over protective. The job just makes it worse." Kensi paused for a second, like she was going to say something else but stopped. She grabbed Nell's hand and led her to the gym and into the lady's locker room. She made sure it was empty then turned to Nell.

"Nell, there is still a lot of guilt floating around from what's happened in the last two years. Deeks and Sam got tortured, the mess that was and fallout from Afghanistan. What happened to Michelle. What happened to Deeks, again." Kensi took a breath. "That guilt is going make us over react and be over protective. Just let us and trust us. We will keep you safe. Alright?"

Nell just looked at Kensi and let her words settle in. "Alright Kensi. Alright." Nell gave Kensi and hug. Kensi returned it.

"Let's get back up to OPS." Nell suggested.

"Right." Kensi said as she led the way back to OPS.


Back in OPS, Callen's phone let out a shrill tone. Callen, Sam, and Eric all looked at it. The screen clearly said 'Shelby Reece'.

"Here we go." Callen said as he hit the answer button. "Yes?"