Chapter 11

I don't own P!ATD or NCIS:LA… yet. Muhahaha…

'Well, in fact, well I'll look at it this way,

I mean, technically our marriage is saved…'

Callen looked up from his laptop and over at his partner. 'Have you got anything yet?' he asked dully.

'No,' Sam replied, looking up and taking the opportunity to stretch. 'I've been looking at Staff Sergeant Gould's bank account statements. He's been hitting his credit card hard for the last month, but it's all been for wedding stuff. He must've given his fiancé a card as well, because there are charges for flower arrangements and dresses and makeup and shoes on here. But there's absolutely nothing unusual here.'

'Would you know what would be unusual in a when buying for a wedding?' Callen asked his partner curiously.

'You didn't see my credit card statements after I married my wife,' Sam said dryly. 'Trust me, I went over that thing with a fine tooth comb to make sure that every single thing was necessary. Apparently, it was.'

Callen chuckled softly. 'How's the little one?'

'Not so little anymore,' Sam admitted.

'And the wife?' Callen asked.

'She's doing alright,' Sam nodded slowly. 'Been asking about you. Wanted to know if you could come to dinner tonight, actually. Are you free?'

Callen thought about it for a moment. 'Yeah, I am.'

Sam grinned. 'I'll text her, then. What have you been working on?'

'Well, we never found the Staff Sergeant's car at the crime scene, or at his home,' Callen said, frowning at his laptop.

'You think it might have something to do with his murder?' Sam asked.

'It might have evidence in it,' Callen said. 'But I've had no luck looking for it.'

'Have you had Eric start a Kaleidoscope search?' Sam asked.

'Not yet,' Callen said.

'Well, what are you waiting for?' Sam asked.

'I was waiting to exhaust my own search techniques first,' Callen said. Suddenly, his laptop beeped, and he checked it. 'And that was my last one.'

'And how did it turn out?' Sam questioned.

'Badly.' Callen shut the laptop with a sigh. 'Nothing.'

'Time to go to the tech team,' Sam said with a smile.

Callen nodded. 'Time to go to the tech team. Eric!'

Eric appeared on the balcony. 'Yeah?'

'Do a Kaleidoscope search on the Staff Sergeant's car!' Callen called up to him.

'Way ahead of you there, Callen,' Eric replied, stretching out the "way" as he pulled something up on his iPad. 'I knew that you'd end up asking me, so I did it hours ago. I've got to teach you how to use Kaleidoscope. Address is on your phones.'

Sam pulled out his phone as it chirped. 'Huh. Eric, can you get Densi's current position?'

'Yeah.' Eric frowned slightly as he tapped something on his iPad. 'They're two blocks away from it.'

'Alright,' Callen said. 'I'll call Densi, tell them to check it out.'

'Cool.' Eric ducked back into the Ops Centre.

…

Deeks hung up the phone.

'That was Callen?' Kensi asked.

'Yeah. Apparently, Gould's car is three blocks from here,' Deeks said. 'He wants us to check it out.' He put an address into the GPS. 'Hey, Kens, we're going the wrong way.'

'On it,' she replied, and immediately swung the car around, narrowly missing a messenger on a bike.

Deeks winced at the sound of horns blaring as she did the u-turn. 'Did you even check your rear-view mirror then?'

'Yes,' Kensi insisted.

She pulled up behind a small red convertible.

'Wow,' Deeks said. 'I should join his business. What's he a partner in, anyway?'

'Um, I think he's a partner in a musical instrument shop chain,' Kensi said, getting out of the car.

'Well, I guess that makes sense,' he replied. 'I know that just the accessories for a violin cost a lot, let alone the instrument.'

'Do we have the keys for the car?' Kensi asked.

Deeks shook his head. 'No keys were found with him, or in his apartment.'

'Terrific,' she groaned. 'I hate picking the lock on newer cars. The alarms always go off, and it takes forever to turn them off.'

Deeks ran a hand under the back right wheel arch and grinned at her over the car's boot. 'Guess I what found that won't make that necessary?'

She sighed. 'The keys.'

He grinned brightly. 'The keys.' He lifted a hand and pressed a button, and the car unlocked with a bright beeping sound.

Kensi rolled her eyes and yanked open the drivers' side door. 'Wow. It is disgusting in here.'

Deeks got into the passenger seat and pulled on his black latex gloves. 'I'm afraid to open the glove box for fear of what might jump out at me.'

'That's why I took this side,' she said, grinning at him before nudging some of the fast food wrappers out of the foot-well. 'This guy did not have a balanced diet.'

He took hold of the glove box handle and yanked it open. Something flew out at him, and he jumped, letting out a yell and swatting at it. 'Eugh!'

Kensi shuddered. 'What was that?'

'A roach,' Deeks shivered, twitchily looking everywhere for the insect. 'I think it's gone.' He frowned, spotting something on the dashboard beneath all of the trash. 'Is that a camera?'

Kensi frowned. 'Yeah. It is.'

Deeks picked it up and tried to click it on. 'It's out of battery.'

Kensi shrugged. 'We'll get Eric to get the footage when we get back to the Ops Centre. Hey, I found the Staff Sergeant's phone. I'll check his last calls.'

'Yup,' Deeks said, gingerly reaching into the glove box and closing his hand around what felt like a garage door remote. 'What's this?' he pulled it out, only to find a small black box about the size of a cassette tape adorned with a single red button which was lit up by a small red LED. And then they heard the beeps.

Deeks exchanged a look with his partner before saying 'Really?' and exiting the car with great haste. Kensi followed suit, but neither were quick enough to escape all injury as the red convertible blew up.

He was on his feet and on the other side of the car before Kensi could lift herself to her hands and knees. 'Hey, take it easy, Kens,' he said gently, kneeling beside her. 'Any serious injuries?'

She raked a loose lock of hair out of her eyes and looked at him through a stream of blood. 'I don't think I'm dying, so no.'

'Well, that's okay then.' He took her hand and pulled her up before reaching up and brushing her hair away from her face. 'You've got a scratch above your left eye.' He wiped away blood with the pad of his thumb.

She reached up and loosely grasped his forearm. He winced anyway.

'You've scraped your arms,' she said gently, running a gentle finger over the scrape.

'You've got scratches all over your palms.' He took hold of her hand and examined the damage.

'I'll live,' she said dismissively. 'The car, however…'

Deeks looked from the ex-car to the remote. 'Really? How clichéd is this?' he asked, holding up the remote. 'Remote with a big red button?'

'Obviously not clichéd enough for it to work,' she replied, wiping away blood that was trickling down the side of her face. 'You know we're going out to dinner tonight?'

Deeks looked at her with a wince. 'It was a bomb. You're excused.'

Suddenly, Kensi's phone rang. 'It's Eric,' she informed him before answering, putting the phone on loudspeaker. 'Hey, Eric.'

'Oh, thank God, you guys are okay,' Eric said thankfully. 'I got reports of an explosion through LAPD and then I realised that it was where I'd just sent you, and I didn't know if you were okay because the explosion knocked out the security cameras and-'

'What he means, guys, is that he's very glad that you're okay,' Nell's calm voice interrupted. 'We're both glad.'

'Miss Blye, Mr Deeks, what happened?' Hetty's voice demanded.

'We were going through Staff Sergeant Gould's car and then I found a remote in his glove box and then we heard beeping and legged it,' Deeks informed her.

'Are you seriously injured?' Hetty asked. 'Should we send paramedics?'

Kensi and Deeks exchanged a look and as one shook their heads. 'No. We're okay,' Kensi said. 'A few scratches, but nothing that won't heal up with a Band-Aid.'

'Good,' Hetty said. 'Mr Callen and Mr Hanna are currently on their way to your location, so when they get there to secure the location, you can come back here so that I can check you out properly.'

'Okay, Hetty,' they said as one.

'Good.' And Hetty hung up.

'Sheesh,' Deeks sighed, wiping his palms on his jeans. 'Is it just me that feels exhausted after a conversation with her?' He looked down to find a large gaping hole where the left knee had been, and a fair amount of blood to accompany it. 'Damn it.'

'Looks like that might need a kiss better,' Kensi said with a wry smile.

'Are you offering?' he immediately asked.

'No,' she replied.

Deeks shook his head. 'You put a guy's hopes up, and then you pull them right down again.'

Kensi patted him on the shoulder. 'Maybe you'll convince Hetty to kiss it better.'

Deeks shuddered at the thought. 'No, thanks. Not that I'm not certain that Hetty would make an excellent maternal figure when it comes to applying bandages, but I was raised self-reliant – I can deal by myself.'

She paused before staring at him. '"Self-reliant"?' she asked incredulously. 'Deeks, your father abused you!'

'Exactly. I got good at fixing up my own injuries. And my sister's, so I can help you if you like.'

She stared at him for a moment before moving forward and hugging him tightly. He let out a surprised whimper before gently returning the hug.

'What's this for?' he asked, burying his face in her hair.

'I'm just sorry that you had such a crappy childhood,' she mumbled into his chest.

He chuckled, and she could hear and feel the rumble through his chest. 'Your father was murdered.'

'At least he didn't try to kill me.'

Suddenly, there was a horn honking, and they drew away to see Callen and Sam in Callen's blue Mercedes Benz parked behind Kensi's slightly killed silver SRX.

Kensi sighed and patted the hood of the car as she passed it. 'This was a good car.'

'Was. Is no more,' Deeks said glumly, following her to lean into Sam's open window.

'What the hell happened?' Callen asked, motioning to the two dead cars in front of them.

'Bomb,' Kensi said laconically.

'Here.' Deeks reached into Sam's window and dropped the remote into his lap. 'That set it off.'

'Why the hell did you press the button?' Callen asked.

'I didn't mean to,' Deeks defended himself. 'I was looking in the dude's glove box. There were roaches in there, okay? I was flying blind. The thing was crammed with trash.'

'Probably to hide the remote,' Sam said. 'I guess you guys need a ride, huh?'

'It'd be nice,' Kensi said. 'You know, if you're feeling generous.'

Callen nodded to the back seat. 'Get in.'

'You guys look like hell,' Sam said conversationally.

'Gee, thanks,' Kensi said blandly, wiping blood from her forehead and grimacing before wiping it on her jeans.

'Hey, I liked those jeans,' Deeks said, frowning at her.

Kensi looked down at herself. 'Really? I've got like, twenty pairs of jeans. How can you tell the difference?'

'Those were an eight,' Deeks said immediately. 'You've only got three eights.'

'And how many tens do I have?' she asked, raising her eyebrows.

'Eleven,' he said immediately.

'Why are these only an eight?' she asked.

Deeks wrinkled his nose. 'They're too… tight.'

'I thought you said you liked those,' Sam said from the front passenger seat.

'They're tight,' Deeks said as if it explained it all.

'So, their downfall is also their upside?' Callen asked.

'Uh huh.'

'Deeks, I don't know how your mind works,' Callen said.

'I've been trying for two years now and I don't,' Kensi admitted.

Sam chuckled. 'One case with him was enough for me. Are you two okay? No huge injuries?'

'No,' Deeks said.

'Nothing that can't be fixed with a Band-Aid,' Kensi added, wiping more blood away from her face.

'You sure that doesn't need stitches?' Sam asked, watching her in the rear-view mirror.

'It only looks bad,' Kensi assured him.

'Head wounds always bleed more,' Deeks informed them.

'Now who's Wikipedia?' Kensi asked him.

'Oh, trust me, you'll always be Wikipedia.'

'Thanks,' Kensi said blandly. 'I'd rather not.'

'Because you'd rather be Fern?' he asked curiously. 'Or Sugar-Bear? You liked Sugar-Bear, I know that.'

She groaned. 'I take it back. Callen, take us to the hospital, because Deeks will need it.'

He chuckled. 'Too late, Kens, we're already here. You're just going to have to deal with Hetty.'

She sighed. 'You mean that you're just going to have to rely on Hetty to save you?' she asked.

'Yeah. That.' And he got out of the car before she could punch him.

…

The hug; whenever Deeks talks about his childhood, I just want to hug him. And so, when I have control of the characters, I can give him a hug. Sure, it's not me that giving him the hug (because that would just be weird), but at least I can get Kensi to give him the hug.

Anyhoo, review if you liked it! And definitely review if you want me to update!

XD PurpleHipposRock