Nicole Martindale...ex-wife of Marty Deeks' best friend and Criminal informant, Ray Martindale. Ray was now living with Jenna under aliases away from LA. Hetty alway kept Deeks up to speed on his old friend. He and Jenna had a 10 year old boy named Ray Martin, it was a great combo of his old name and friend. Hetty informed Ray that Marty's thing with Wikepedia was going strong and Marty has finally found the family he deserved. Ray begged Hetty to allow him to be at the wedding, but she deemed it unsafe at the time. Nicole was sentenced to five years in a minimum security women's prison due to her involvement in the attempt on Ray's life. She was out on parole after three and a half years. She had been out for nearly six years now. Her first few months in prison she focused on her hatred for Max. How he broke her heart. He played her in her eyes. The man she had fallen in love with, was not real. The man she was less than faithful to her husband for was fake. No truth behind it at all. Worst of all, when she asked him if any of it was real, all he could say was he didn't know. How could he not know. All those times, all those words, he didn't know if it was real? She tried to let it go, she figured she was getting off easy, after all she had a part in her husband's believed death. It could have been far worse off than the prison she was in. She could have been placed in confinement with more violent offenders, so she swallowed her pill and was out on good behavior. Every night those three words, I don't know, ate away at her. When she was released, she picked up her old life as if the years hadn't flown by. Obviously, Ray was gone, Jenna had vanished, and Max, Well Max never existed. So she researched. She wanted to know who the man she fell in love with Really was. She fell hard for Max Gentry despite being married to another, his best friend nonetheless. She now knew he was a cop, he told her that much. He knew he was the one who had turned Ray. She knew where the boat shed was from being taken there to be questioned about her involvement with Ray's attempted murder. She called LAPD a few times only to be told Detective Marty Deeks was on assignment and couldn't be reached. She had tried to give up being angry until one night.

As luck would have it, she dropped her keys that night leaving the bar. She bent down to retrieve them noticing they had fallen on a small card. She picked up that card. Detective Marty Deeks LAPD, she read. Her fingers traced across his name. She knew this was a sign. She wanted him to hurt as she did. Sam and Callen thought it would be quite amusing if they passed all Deeks' business cards out to the entire homeless population in LA, one of these cards fell directly in the hands of Nicole. She pocketed the card figuring it might come in handy one day.

She was a model prisoner and befriended a lonely security guard named Dan. They became fast friends. Nicole has found out He knew Marty from his lawyer days, visiting inmates and helping the ones he could that he was assigned public defender to. Another thing she didn't know, Max Gentry AkA Marty Deeks has been a lawyer. He could have helped her sentence be even lighter and yet he didn't. Dad never thought Marty was a bad guy, and Nicole played along. This gave her information she needed and wanted.

"Did you hear Marty got married last year? I never thought I'd see the day Party Marty let a woman tie him down. He always had a good heart, but didn't think he was a settling down type. He always seemed to be straight forward business only. No time to settle."

This made Nicole's blood boil. Married! He was always a playboy, or least Max was, but said she would be the only one he settled with. All lies for his undercover. More and more she realized she never knew the true man that spent many nights beside her when Ray was out playing the town. After she was released from prison, Dan and Nicole began regularly meeting for coffee. Dan wanted to progress their friendship into more, but Nicole always held back. She explained she had been burned by a guy named Max, never letting on that Max was one Marty Deeks. If she could have just let go of the past, she could have moved on with a nice man and started a new life, but she couldn't. I don't know, just wouldn't get out of her head.

"Interesting? Do you know who he married?" She asked curiously.

"Get this, his partner, what a story," Dan laughed. "Heard it from some of the guys bringing in prisoners. Guess being partners all those years, they fell in love. Regulations out the window huh?" Nicole chuckled along with him even though she was hiding her anger.

Nicole has an idea. She was not about to let Max or Marty have a grand life while she had lost both him and Ray. She hired a local private investigator that often frequented the bar. Luck would have it, he was a patronage, two nights after Nicole found out the news about Deeks and Kensi's nuptials."

"Want a job?"

"That depends on what kind?" The man eyed Nicole.

"A job, job," she gave him a dirty look. "I want you to follow someone and get some pictures."

"Easy enough."

Nicole looked warily at the man, "there's a catch."

"And that is?" The man asked putting down his drink.

"The person I want pictures of is an LAPD detective, so you have to be careful not to get caught."

"I got this. I've taken pictures of thousands of unsuspecting people, from celebrities, to law enforcement, to your run of the mill cheating housewives of Beverly Hills." The man said cockily. "It's my job," he eyed her back.

Nicole explained to him she needed picture in compromising situation. She explained how he fooled her and wanted to get back at him. The private eye was known for being a shady creature and was all in as long as his name stayed out of it. He was all about a quick buck.

And so the adventure to set up Max Gentry...Marty Deeks began. The detective was certainly good, but the team had let down their guard a bit with the lack of supervision. They still had to get things done to protect the country, but became less adamant with protecting their own lives. The daily ins and outs at the office wore on them emotionally as well as mentally.

Kensi and Deeks has become the most relaxed. After marrying, they were ready to just live. As they moved closer and closer to getting out, they fell into a more monotonous routine, even though they knew better. All the close calls and near deaths, life was calling and so they followed. They often frequented the same beach, although they set up at different areas each time, it could almost be predicted if weekend surf was good, they'd be there. Tourists snapped photos all day, so nothing seemed off in their de heightened sense. It was so unlike them, but they just wanted to be A boy and a girl hanging out sometimes, even though they still had a huge take of a world to save.

Nicole got her payday when Talia and Deeks were assigned together. The over flirtatious Talia, unknowingly gave Nicole more ammo than she thought imaginable. It seemed things were falling nicely into place. The private eye was able to help her photo shop several of the images to her liking. She then headed off to the boat shed to deliver her trap. The card she found for Deeks iced the cake for her cover story of being a CI. Working like a charm, the plan was in motion. Adding to the perfectly placed pieces, was a hormonal pregnant Kensi, who would have scanned unconvinced over the photos, had a little growing baby, not been making her thoughts out of the norm.

Nicole was highly satisfied when her shady PI gave her photos of the Deeks' fight. He was quiet a good investigator and was even able to compromise their current house.

"I figured you'd like these as a memento he winked."

Nicole handed over the remainder of his pay day and he was off to find another not so up and up job.

Now here they were. Face to face, over 10 years had passed. The woman hadn't aged much, but sadness and anger was visible in her eyes. He knew he was responsible. He was angry and the hurt she had caused his wife, but knew he was partially to blame. His anger softened a bit.

"Nicole," he softly began.

"No you don't get to speak right now!" He anger filled her.

He tried again, Nicole, please listen to me," when he felt a stinging shock to his neck. Deeks had only been paying attention to her from the moment he walked into the back room and didn't notice the two thugs standing in the dark corner, that Nicole had waiting in the wings. They tased him and zip tied him to a chair when he went down.

His wrists were zipped behind him and his leg to the chair legs. This has been long thought out and well prepared. Nicole wasn't playing. Damn him and his need to end this and confront her. Damn him for letting down his guard. If he didn't die here, he was certain his Kensilina would kill him for scaring her and plying the hated Max Gentry once again.

She grabbed his face as the shock wore off and brought him into a deep kiss, "now," she stared into his deep blue eyes, "was any of it real?"

"Nicole, that was so long ago. I don't have an answer for you."

She cued one of the thugs to punch him. He took several rounds to the gut and a few upper cuts to the jaw.

"Not so tough now Maxie?" She tormented.

"You don't want to do this Nicole. You know that I'm a cop, you know what that means if I don't get out of here."

"Oh but I do, do you think I care, I've been waiting a long time for this moment. I couldn't have dreamed it would go so well," she pulled him into another kiss. Deeks refused to kiss her back. She pulled back and glanced at the other thug who pulled out a knife. "Was ANY of it real?" She emphasized.

"I don't know." He looked up spitting out a bit of blood from the previous uppercut.

The man with the knife cut into his jacket slowly ripping at his skin drawing blood.

Deeks winced in pain.

"I want answers! How could you say those things to me, make me want to be unfaithful to Ray and not mean any of it."

"I had a job to do. I'm sorry you got caught up in it. I was just trying to help you. Help Ray. I don't know what else to say Nicole."

"Tell me how much was real!"

"Truth?" He asked gritting his teeth still feeling pain.

"It would be nice."

"I can honestly tell you I never felt with you like I do with my wife. She makes me feel alive. But I was playing a part. Max wasn't me."

Hurt more by his revelation, She nodded again at the man with the knife, who preceded to shove the knife into his shoulder above the first cut, making Deeks whimper a bit.

"You can stab me all you want Nicole, but it won't make you whole again. Only you can find peace from this. I'm not worth you throwing the rest of your life away."

"You broke me Max Gentry, Marty Deeks! You!"

He shook his head, blonde locks falling in his face, "that's not true, and you know it's not," he felt a little bit guilty, but continued. "You were broken long before I met you."

The man on cue stabbed him again. This time he stabbed him between the shoulder blade, on the side of the last cut, then crept eerily around front and stabbed twice in the stomach. Turning the blade and slowly removing it. Deeks scrunched in pain. He closed his eyes, he pictured Kensi, just as he did all those years ago when Sidrov's men were drilling holes in his mouth. This time, he pictured her holding a beautiful wavy brown haired girl with eyes as blue as the ocean. The other man came around giving him a few more rounds of beatings. He could feel the blood seeping out of his body. "I'm sorry princess," he whispered. He didn't have a chance to turn his phone on, he mistakenly deemed Nicole harmless. He never thought it would come to this. The pain was increasing and his eyes were becoming heavy from the blood leaving his body.