The moment Callen sees Sam step out of Deeks' hospital room, he knows that something is wrong.
Callen is leaning against the wall of the hallway leading up to the Intensive Care Unit. It had been agreed before Sam had left to visit Deeks that Callen would go next, followed by Hetty, Eric, Nell, and if she could handle it- Kensi. While Sam had been in the room, Callen had slowly paced up and down the hallway, trying to plan the perfect speech for Deeks. A part of him felt silly trying to create an inspirational , overly-loving speech for a person. He had now just gotten comfortable into being a part of family and trying to be delicate and precious was still something he was trying to perfect.
However, all of his plans for the speech go out the window at the sight of Sam. His partner quickly walks out of the room and straight to the nurses' station where he frantically tells her something and points back to the room. When two nurses grab their stethoscope and sprint to the room, Callen gets off the wall and jogs over to Sam.
"What the hell is going on?" Callen demands. He doesn't intend to sound harsh on Sam, especially after seeing the rarely shown shell shocked expression on his face. Sam rubs his forehead and in the quietest voice Callen has heard from him in a very long time, he states, " Deeks is seizing."
"He's what?"
"He's seizing!" Sam drops his hands to his side and mutters, "I didn't do anything, G. He just randomly started seizing."
Callen takes a few steps to the right and peers into Deeks' room where he can see the nurses tending to the ex-detective. It's also the first time that he gets his first look at Deeks and what he sees is far worse than he had imagined.
Sam watches Callen stare in complete shock at Deeks for a minute to allow his partner to truly see the repercussions of the assault. Their goofy, chatty, unique teammate and friend is lying in a hospital bed like a wounded animal. When the minute ends, Sam steps close enough to Callen to where no one close by can hear them.
"I want them," Sam says slowly, " I want those bastards here so I can make them pay."
Callen nods in agreement. "The doctors will help Deeks with his seizure. In the meantime, let's go get those SOBs."
"Eric, I know you've been looking into the case despite Granger's warning not to. Please tell me you got something," Callen states when he and Sam walk into the conference room a few minutes later. Only Eric sits at the conference table as Nate has taken Kensi and Nell to get lunch, Michelle has gone home to pick up her daughters from the half day of school, and Hetty is off with Granger for reasons unknown to the team.
Eric shoots his head up from the laptop in front of him and stammers, "How did you guys know? Wait, that's kind of a stupid question. Anyway, I did find something and if Hetty asks, I wasn't working on the case."
"You're safe," Callen replies tiredly. He makes a quick plan to teach Eric not to fear Granger and Hetty as much in the future. Sam stops in his tracks and keeps a semi-relaxed stance. Eric narrows his eyes at Sam's stance as it doesn't match up on the clearly distraught look on his face. "What happened?" the analyst asks.
Sam looks to Callen, who answers, "Deeks had a seizure. Eric, please tell me you have something, anything at all."
Eric glances down to laptop keyboard and mutters, "A seizure? Like an actual, legit seizure?"
Sam nods and pleads, "Eric…..anything."
"Yeah-uhm-yeah," Eric stammers. He coughs and sits up to compose himself. The thought of Nell being in Deeks' position quickly flashes across his mind and it makes him wary. Eric decides to push through it anyway. "First off, Granger's agents haven't returned yet from the L.A Times so we don't know who did the leak yet. Now for what I found- there are similarities that are showing up in the first seven cases that as far as we know aren't showing up in Deeks'."
"What do you mean?"
Eric stands up and walks over to the most northern part of the conference table where there are eight stacks of case files for each victim. Deeks has the smallest pile, insignificant to the bulging two case folders that come from victim #4. Eric pats the pile of victim #1 and explains, " Victim 1-7 were all dumped off near their homes and had their 911 calls placed within minutes after being dumped. Deeks was dumped 18 miles from his apartment. Also if you listen to his 911 call, the caller claims that Deeks had been lying on the side of the road for a while."
"It's like they were sitting there, watching him suffer for hours," Callen comments, ignoring the rising anger piercing through his veins.
"There's also this anomaly- Victim 6 was attacked on October 16 last year. Does the date sound significant to anyone?" Eric turns his head to see if Callen and Sam want to guess, but the exhausted scowls on their faces show that they aren't in the mood for games.
"Ok, then," Eric turns back around, "October 16 was the day that you guys left the country to go to Dubai. I remember it because it was the day Nell and I went to Arcade- thon and that…was..a good day…"
Ignoring Eric's blushing, Callen crosses his arms as he's not sure where Eric's going with this. "What's your point?"
"Sorry- so I thought it to be coincidental that those two dates collided. Then when Nell and I were looking up the Cadillac's travel information that was in Deeks' LAPD file, I saw a notation that matched another date of an assault, victim number 3's to be exact. "
"And what day was that?"
"The first day that Deeks was officially part of the team. And it goes on and on, guys. Victim 2 was attacked the day after he helped us on that club case for the first time, victim 5 was when he shot the Aryan and was supposedly done with us, and victim 7 was when Deeks started taking NCIS prep classes, which I didn't even know he was taking. It literally seems like every time something positive happens in Deeks' life, an assault happens."
"So this all ties back to him?" Callen exclaims, "That doesn't make any sense- why would these victims be assaulted all over the country every time Deeks did something good?"
Sam pauses to think for a second. "G, it specifically happens every time something positive happens to Deeks at NCIS. What did he do to piss of a group of men to the point that they start attacking other people before finally assaulting him? And these aren't just any guys- they have to military or some kind of agents to be this skilled."
Callen steps away from the table and mutters, "We need to get him off that ventilator. We need his statement."
"There's no way in hell the hospital or Hetty is going to allow that," Sam replies. His Hetty senses suddenly start tingling and he turns around to see Hetty standing patiently behind him. Like Callen and Eric, Sam's heart skips a beat.
"I hope I didn't frighten you, Mr. Hanna," Hetty states.
"No, I'm just a little jumpy. Listen Hetty, Deeks-"
"Had a seizure," Hetty finishes. With a stoic look, she adds says, "The hospital just called to inform me this."
When Hetty doesn't say anything more, Callen takes an uneasy step towards her. He's pretty positive that she's holding onto important information. "Hetty…."
Hetty sighs, somehow still keeping her stoic composure. "Granger's agents have returned from the L.A Times with news about who spilled the assault to the media."
"What did they say? Callen exclaims.
"A man who called himself John Smith met with a Times reporter in a parking garage at night and told him everything that was released to the media. He was very adamant about having the information released as soon as possible and seemed overly excited about it."
"Do we have a physical description?"
"No physical description, but the LA Times employee was able to describe the car- a blue Honda with a broken side mirror and tinted windows in the back seat. Granger has ordered a few outside analysts to look for the Honda and will take in account with the information you found, Mr. Beale," Hetty says, pointing at Eric.
Sam on the other hand knows exactly what Hetty is going to say next and isn't remotely happy about it. " In the meantime, you want us to still stand down."
Hetty nods. "Yes- Mr. Hanna, you should return to Mr. Deeks' room immediately. It's best that he see the same face that was there before he seized also be there when he comes to."
Ten minutes later, Sam steps back into Deeks' room and finds him laying in the same position that he had been in before. This time, Deeks is much paler than before and has a much more childlike guilt in his eyes.
"Don't scare me like that again, Deeks," Sam says. He once more sits down next to Deeks' bedside and sits forward.
Deeks wants to mouth the words I'm sorry, but can't. Instead, he uses one of the few phrases he knows in American Sign Language. It's the sign his mother signed to him right before she had died in the hospital- I'm sorry. Deeks closes his fist and rubs it clockwise around his chest and it breaks Sam's already broken heart.
"Don't be sorry, Deeks," Sam chokes up, "We'll catch them and when you get better, I'm going to be a much better brother than I was before."
Deeks' eyes flicker away from Sam and land on something that makes his eyes widen and his heart race out of control. In response, Sam stands up and holds up his hands in front of him as he thinks that Deeks is going to seize again. The ex-detective can see a tall, dark haired man in nursing scrubs standing in the hallway outside the room. Everything about the man reminds Deeks of a person he had prayed to never see or hear from again.
It's one of his attackers.
Sam raises an eyebrow at Deeks' fearful expression. He turns, following Deeks' gaze just in time to see the man in scrubs walk off down the hallway. Sam only has seconds to take in the man's appearance and it doesn't take him long to put two and two together.
"Is that one of them?" Sam asks. Deeks frantically nods and looks up to Sam with fearful eyes.
"Ok. Ok…..look at me, it's going to be ok." Sam takes a step to go after the man, but is stopped when Deeks grabs onto his hand tightly.
"I won't leave, Marty," Sam tells Deeks while pulling out his cell phone. With one hand, he speed dials Callen, who answers on the second ring.
"Sam, did something happen?" Callen asks.
"They're here! Deeks recognized one of the men-"
Sam can hear the sounds of Callen running over the phone. " One of his assailants is here?! Are you sure?"
Sam remembers the look in Deeks' eyes and answers, " He's petrified. It has to be one of them.
"Ok. I'll call security and get the team to you ASAP. Don't-"
"Leave him," Sam finishes. He sits down in the chair while still holding Deeks' hand. "Don't worry, I won't'."
Twenty five minutes later, the team with Michelle and Nate stand in the hallway in front of Deeks' room. The ex-detective is nodding off in his closed off room. Most of the ICU has been cleared, leaving only essential personal , LAPD officers, and the team.
"Are we sure that Deeks saw this guy? He has a concussion, just suffered a seizure and had a fever last night. Maybe he mistook the guy for one of the assailants." Michelle suggests.
Sam shakes his head. " I have never seen him so scared of anything in my life. It was a dark haired male about my height. Nell, show everyone the camera feeds."
Nell holds up her tablet where everyone can see. The tablet shows a video of the man in scrubs donning a hoodie while walking out of the hospital's laundry entrance. The man keeps his back to the camera as he casually walks out of the entrance, up the ramp, and into the east parking lot. Nell slides to a new video where the man is being seen getting into a blue Honda and driving off.
"The Honda matches the description of the one that was at the meeting between the L.A Times employee and John Smith," Nell states, " They're here. They're stalking him."