Outside of Deeks' room, Kensi told Nell to go home. "I am sure you will be needed in ops tomorrow, but I want to stay until Deeks is conscious. You go home and get some rest, and I'll rest here."
"Let's find something to eat at least," suggested Nell. They have yogurt and scones at the coffee shop. Come on."
Kensi was truly glad to have Nell as a friend, but she was ready to be by herself so she could deal with her emotions. The only thing stronger than her need to let go right then was her hunger, so she walked with Nell to the coffee shop. Nell wanted to go home and sleep for a couple days, but she was afraid Kensi wouldn't eat at all if she didn't stay and push her to do so. The two had a meal of yogurt, fruit, and blueberry scones. Not exactly a hearty meal, but it was satisfying.
Nell told Kensi she would stop by her apartment and bring a change of clothes for her tomorrow. Kensi turned toward the room that Dr. Nixon had spoken of, then remembered she hadn't told the doctor about the welts on Marty's back yet. Kensi walked back past the nurses' station at the intensive care ward, where the nurse at the desk stopped her.
"Ma'am, visiting hours are over," she said sweetly.
"Oh, well, I'm not visiting, but I have to tell Dr. Nixon something about the patient in room 210," answered Kensi, with only a hint of impatience.
The nurse saw the bandage on Kensi's ear, and remembered hearing about a lot of excitement connected with the patient in that room just before she came on duty. This must be the federal agent who had thwarted an attack by another agent earlier—how awesome! "Yes, well go on in. I'm Holly, and I'll be on duty until 7:00 AM. I understand you are staying in room 207 tonight. I'll make sure no one comes in to check your blood pressure or anything so you can get some rest."
"Thanks," said Kensi. I must look as bad as I feel. She turned and opened the door to Deeks' room, and discovered the doctor had removed both the chest tube and the drainage tube in Deeks' abdomen.
"Agent Blye…"
"Kensi," she reminded him.
"Right. Kensi, I thought you were going to rest. Did you get something to eat?"
"Yes, thanks, and I am headed off to get some sleep. You look like you have good news," she said excitedly.
"He is breathing better, and the abdominal drain stopped showing any sign of infection, so yes. However, he has a long way to go," he answered cautiously.
"I understand, I'll take any improvement at this point. I did want to mention an injury you might not be aware of. He has, umm, welts on his back and shoulders."
"Welts…like from an allergic reaction?" asked the doctor.
"No, not at all. He was struck with something. Maybe a belt," she explained.
Dr. Nixon instructed the nurse to replace the rigid breathing tube with a flexible one so Deeks could be turned on his side. When he and the nurse turned him, the nurse drew in her breath sharply while the doctor muttered, "My word! I am glad you mentioned this, Kensi. We will try to help reduce the possibility of scarring, but I'm afraid the skin has toughened over several already. There must be ten, at least."
Kensi began to look anxious again. "Could they cause complications, Dr. Nixon? I can't believe I forgot to tell you about them."
"Well, the ones that broke the skin don't look infected, and he has been on antibiotics at least. Was he...tortured?"
"He managed to escape even though they had already hurt and weakened him," she explained, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. "To find him, they paralyzed him so that he couldn't run—that's when he got the head injury and broken arm. Then he was kicked and whipped with the belt."
"While he was paralyzed?" asked the nurse, incredulously.
"Yes," Kensi whispered. The nurse and doctor lowered Deeks again, and then Dr. Nixon turned to face her. "He must be very strong to have escaped under those conditions. We are going to do all that we can for him—I promise."
"Thank you," Kensi said shakily. "He's my partner, and the person I care about most in this world. You could probably tell that already. What you don't know is that he, uh, he kind of volunteered himself for this to protect the rest of the team." One silent tear slid down her cheek, and the nurse had to turn away to hide her own welling eyes. She said another quiet thanks, then left the room to walk down the hall. Once back in room 207, she closed the door and headed straight for the bed. She barely got her shoes off before she succumbed to the emotions she had only been able to mask part of the time. She sobbed into the pillow until exhaustion overtook her.
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"Kensi, wake up." Did someone really say that?
Hey, she thought to herself, Deeks must have been cleaning again. This place smells like a hospi…Kensi sat up with a start. She panicked when she realized light was streaming in through the windows, wondering how late it was. "Deeks!" she mumbled, looking around frantically.
"Kensi, it's all right," said Hetty. "Callen, Sam, Nell, and Eric are on their way with breakfast. I thought you might want to shower and change first. Nell dropped off your things at the mission when I said I wanted some time with you and Deeks before they got here."
"Oh, Hetty," said Kensi, putting her shoes on, "can we please go and check in on Marty first? I need to see him. I can't believe I slept so long."
"Certainly, my dear. I rather thought you might want to see him first. Lead the way."
As they walked down the hall, Kensi pulled her hair into a ponytail. Her muscles were stiff from the struggle with Dr. Stone yesterday. Was that only yesterday? Kensi's sense of timing was thrown off.
Opening the door to Deeks' room, Hetty had to use her years of covert ops training to hide her true feelings. To see her jovial, carefree liaison swollen, bruised, and quiet broke Hetty's heart. She knew this could happen every time she sent her team out into the field, but she was able to keep her personal feelings at bay in order to complete a mission. Knowing that Deeks had essentially volunteered to put himself in danger instead of his teammates deepened the affection she had always felt for him.
When the attending physician turned around, Kensi was surprised to see Dr. Asana again. "Doctor Asana, it's not your shift again, is it? Shouldn't you be resting?"
"I'm not here for a full shift, but I wanted to check on Mr. Deeks. Dr. Nixon left me a message about the chest and abdominal tube being removed, and the treatment of the welts on his back. I want to personally check out any changes to his treatment."
Kensi was impressed by the level of care that Dr. Asana provided for Deeks. "Thank you for taking such good care of him," she said earnestly.
"How is he, Doctor?" asked Hetty.
"His vital signs are all good. We are continuing to monitor his kidneys and liver for signs of failure, but so far, so good. His temperature is down to 100 degrees. It may not return to normal until there is more healing in the wound on his thigh. His body sees a wound that size as a threat, even if infection does not set in."
"What about his appendix?" asked Hetty. "Don't you have to remove it? Can he withstand surgery?"
"Actually, the newest technique discourages surgery unless there's no choice. The antibiotics along with the drain seem to have worked. We don't want to put Mr. Deeks through any procedures that are not absolutely necessary."
"What about the breathing tube?" asked Kensi. "When do you think it can be removed?"
Dr. Asana looked at the chart again. "If there are no setbacks, then I will remove it when I come back on shift tomorrow morning. I want to make sure his lung is healed properly so that it won't cause a strain on his body. All in all, I think his condition is the best we could hope for."
Kensi felt a euphoric sense of relief. She walked over to Deeks and took his hand, bringing it up to her cheek. She leaned over and spoke quietly, "Did you hear that, Marty? You are so strong. You can do this. You are my miracle. Soon, you're going to open your eyes." Kensi found her own eyes were wet with tears.
"Indeed he will, Kensi," said Hetty, putting her hand on Deeks' shoulder. "Now, will you trust me to sit with Mr. Deeks while you shower? I'm sure the rest of the team will be here soon."
"Sure. Thanks, Hetty." Kensi felt so good and so grateful that there was reason to feel good, that she gave Hetty a warm embrace before going to shower and change.
When Kensi and Hetty met up with the others in the family waiting area thirty minutes later, everyone was encouraged by the good news. It made them feel like eating, and they feasted on take out from the nearest IHOP. Kensi was filled in on the team's progress in tracking the buyer of the biochemical. Erik was being hailed as one of the greatest tech minds ever, not only for tracing the source of the communication concerning a fake antidote, but staying one step ahead of the CIA and SecNav while doing so. Nell beamed at him.
"I was working off the same theory as astronomers who detected Neptune and Pluto without ever having seen them." He was met with blank stares. "You know, that the only thing that can make one planet wobble in its orbit is another planet? No? Well, there was a 'wobble' if you will in cyber space created by the pinging of the signal through so many decoy destinations meant to hide the origin. It requires a strong processor to handle these dark ops sites, so communicating through the site leaves a ripple." Everyone chewed silently, not sure how or if they should respond. "I tracked the bad guys to China," he finished, eliciting congratulatory remarks from his co-workers.
"So China was listed as an enemy to throw us off," said Nell.
"Yes, we think so. Their resources are incredible, and they can certainly produce the computer components to control the chemical. They must have known the chemical was produced here by a government entity and thought the seller was holding out on an antidote. They wanted to force us to give it up, figuring if they injected someone on U.S. soil rather than outside the U.S., that we'd be more likely to comply. I believe they targeted NCIS and this team in particular because our position on the west coast afforded them many options for access. Our team has had so many successes at uncovering foreign operatives here, that I think they wanted a little retaliation. The evaluation forms were to ensure they would choose the team member whose sacrifice, in their opinion, would make the most profound impact," finished Hetty.
"Are we going after the Chinese?" asked Kensi, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
"Kensi," said Callen, "they have us in a double bind. We can't accuse them openly without exposing the fact that the U.S. actually created a biochemical. There are no agents left who were involved. The lead agent killed all the others on the ship before getting into the chopper, and the ship and the chopper were blown up over the Pacific. No bodies, no evidence."
"What about the couple who pretended to help Deeks? Are they still in custody?" Kensi pressed, wanting revenge on someone.
Sam answered, "After Granger and Nell questioned them, they were being transported to a holding facility. Their transport was involved in an accident. Brake lines were cut. The driver was killed, too."
"The only people involved that are still alive are Thompson and Stone," finished Hetty. "After the CIA collected Stevens and Zimmerman from the hospital, we were forced to hand over those two. Assistant Director Granger was called to Washington last night to be handed his ass for holding and questioning the agents. We are fortunate we were able to get so much information from them in such a limited time."
"By the way, Tuhon says hi," said Callen. "He didn't stick around."
"What about the second vial of the biochemical? Weren't there two vials missing?" asked Kensi.
"Yes," answered Eric. "We know the CIA sent a crew to search the residences of Thompson and Stone, and they removed some items. The CIA is not exactly in a sharing mood right now, though, so we don't know if they found the missing vial or not."
"I'm almost certain the Chinese would not have injected Deeks with their one and only vial of the chemical. The probability that they produced more already is high. Having the ability to use a chemical to control the actions of a foreign operative without killing him, but having the power to kill him if necessary is attractive indeed," Hetty surmised.
"But we have to do something about it!" Kensi insisted.
"SecNav is working on releasing information to our allies about the biochemical and what we know about surviving its effects. It will be presented as though this was intelligence that we picked up and are passing along. Anything else would provoke too many questions."
Callen added, "I know how satisfying you think revenge can be, Kensi. Remember Janvier, and how that backfired on me, almost costing us Sam, Deeks, and Michelle. We have to let go of that—at least for now—and focus on helping Deeks recover. He's going to need all of us."
When breakfast was finished, the team decided to go and see Deeks. Dr. Asana had to come out and assure the nurse on duty at the desk that it would be all right for them all to come in.
Eric was the only one who hadn't seen Deeks at all since the whole ordeal started, except through the video feed, and he was greatly affected by his friend's condition. He kept thinking of Deeks surfing, free and fluid as he defied physics to ride a wave. In contrast, the ventilator and other machines seemed to tether Deeks unnaturally to the bed. He should never be this still.
Pulling Dr. Asana aside, Sam asked for a rundown of Deeks' injuries. Finishing the list, the doctor remarked, "Those are his current injuries."
"Ah…. so I take it you have discovered evidence of older injuries?" Hetty asked, having approached them.
"Yes."
"Well, we are in a line of work that is more dangerous than most, so I'm not surprised," Hetty reasoned.
"I'm guessing he was in a dangerous home as a child, too," remarked the doctor. "The fracture to his arm, skull, and ribs were not the first ones he had suffered in any of those places. Did you know he came from such an abusive home?" Sam turned to Hetty with a stern look on his face.
"I didn't know Marty until a few years ago, and I have always admired his joie de vivre. Nothing in his demeanor would have suggested it. I knew through some detective work myself that he had a difficult childhood. I had no idea it was as bad as that."
"Well, I think most of these injuries could have been attributed to sports, and were probably treated at different hospitals so as not to raise suspicion. Unfortunately, I have seen it before," said the doctor, who turned and walked away.
"Deeks was abused?" demanded Sam. "Hetty, why didn't we know about this?"
"It wasn't my information to tell, Agent Hanna."
"No wonder it took so long for him to come back to work after Sidorov," Sam remarked. "Abuse carries a lot of trauma, and to have it compounded by torture must have affected his recovery."
"Indeed it did. But, overall, don't you think Deeks' carefree personality is the perfect release for such stress? Maybe you will understand him better now."
"I'm beginning to feel like I don't know Deeks at all," Sam said, shaking his head. He approached the group gathered at Deeks' bedside. Kensi was sitting as close as she could, holding his hand. Nell was sitting on the arm of the chair with her hand on Kensi's shoulder. Eric sat on the opposite side, his elbows resting on the bedrail and his head in his hands. Callen stood near the window. "Eric," asked Sam, breaking him out of his reverie, "is there any way to retrieve the fake evaluation forms?"
"I already did it," answered Eric, to no one's surprise. There is an auto recovery system to make sure all documents sent through email can be retained within our network, so I pulled all of them. Do you want me to send you each a copy?"
"Please," answered Sam.
"OK, as soon as I'm back at ops," agreed Eric.
Nell had made the team aware that someone needed to look in on Kensi as she kept a vigil at the hospital, to make sure she ate and rested. So, when the group decided to head back to ops for the afternoon, Callen announced he would stay for awhile. He and Kensi sat and made small talk, all the while Kensi holding Deeks' hand. Callen began to feel that Deeks' face was looking less swollen, even though he knew the darkening purple bruises would be visible for a couple weeks. With things remaining calm, Callen was able to pry her away to go and have a sandwich around noon.
Returning to the room, both Kensi and Callen received an email simultaneously. "Read it and weep. That's what Nell and I did," read Callen aloud. He and Kensi pulled their chairs close to each other next to Deeks' bed, and they each opened the attachment on their individual phones.
First came the forms filled out by each of them. There was the question that started it all three days ago: "In the case that the team had a mission requiring one member to potentially sacrifice himself/herself, list the attributes you possess that make you the best candidate for the job." There were no surprises on the forms filled out by Callen, Sam, and Kensi. Their responses read like a job application, although both Kensi and Callen recalled their uneasiness with the word sacrifice. More interesting was the ranking of team members at the bottom of the form. Each of them had listed themselves first and Deeks second.
Kensi had not expected Deeks to place so high on the rankings. "Wow! Deeks was getting some real respect from both of you! You know, I've always felt completely safe with him backing me up, but I kind of thought you and Sam would list each other second."
"To be honest, I thought Sam would list me second, too. For me, Deeks made sense because he looks at situations so differently than the rest of us. I know what you and Sam will think, but Deeks has a unique perspective. Maybe that's what Sam was thinking, too. I guess we should let Deeks know how valuable we think he is."
"I know that would come as a surprise to him. It would mean a lot. A whole lot," she said, swallowing past the lump in her throat. Now they both clicked on the last form. They expected the responses from Deeks to be peppered with wisecracks and wit, with little or no serious content. They couldn't have been more wrong.
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The evaluation form will be out by the end of the weekend. I just didn't want to wait any longer to post this chapter. Turns out I broke the internet this week (or at least the rural Hughesnet part of it.)