Chapter 11

Smells came back to him first and it was disorientating, where he was, smelled clean, there were no smells of alcohol or urine or vomit which had been the usual smells he woke up to in the morning and feeling around no body, male or female in his bed, so where ever he was, he was probably broke.

He felt cold and achy. In his head, a deepest part that he had locked in a box told him it was withdrawal, he sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand, his eyes still closed, "Stupid flu." He grumbled under his breath.

He slowly opened his eyes and realized, he wasn't in his room, or anyone else's…he was in hospital.

"What the hell?" he snarled.

"Quite Mr. Deeks." Hetty said sitting on a chair in the corner of the room.

"Got the wrong man lady." Deeks snarled. 'Shit, shit, shit….she found me!' he thought his brain scrambling like a teenager looking for his clothes after being caught by his girlfriend's dad.

"Ok…So who are you?" Hetty asked; she knew it was him although he said it wasn't. "Max Gentry? But not I think….Mr. Deeks you are hiding behind him this time."

"I….Why are you here?" he asked defeated, he knew he couldn't pretend not with her.

"You need us." She said simply.

"No I don't I'm doing fine, you just came to gloat, to see how far your little project failed…well you got your answer….G…G..Get out!" he stammered as a wave of pain shot through him.

Ignoring her he sat up and tried to pull out the IV, "I…I need to get out of here." He started shaking… "I….I need…."

"A drink?" Callen snapped leaning against the doorway and motioning to Hetty that he'd take over. "A hit, a guy, a girl…tell me Deeks; what exactly do you need."

"I need you to leave me alone!" Deeks shouted at him and then grabbed his head and groaned, "I didn't ask you to come find me…I was doing fine."

"Fine…You call that fine, Deeks you're a stripper and a hooker, you're a drunk and on drugs and you're…."

"EXACTLY WHERE I SHOULD BE…..NOW GO!" Deeks screamed at Callen.

"No." Callen said quietly, "Because I'm exactly where I should be…here helping you."

Deeks started sobbing, all the pain of the last few months washing over him.

"Why, I'm no good for the team, I can't even hold a gun…hell I can't hold a cell phone in that hand, I'm useless, Hetty said herself I'm not on the team."

"Bullcrap." Callen snapped.

"I HEARD HER!" Deeks shouted and this time a nurse entered.

"Mr. Gentry, you need to calm down, I have your medication here," she said walking over to him with a needle.

"No! No needles."

"You can't snort your meds Deeks." Callen said.

"I'm sorry Sir; you are upsetting my patient I will have to ask you to leave." The nurse said.

"Sorry love," Callen flashed his badge, "He's in custody."

"Bollocks!" Deeks spat as Callen smirked.

He turned away, "I'm not worth the paperwork, Just go home Callen and take Hetty with ya."

The nurse turned to Callen, "Mr. Gentry's doctor will be along shortly. Does he have family that needs to be notified?" she asked.

"Yes."

"NO!" both men answered simultaneously.

Callen glared at Deeks, "His name is Marty Deeks, and I will give you his details so you can get his medical records." Callen said following the nurse out.

Deeks waited, and no one came.

Good, He thought and slowly swung his legs off the bed and sat up.

His head swam and he steadied himself wincing at the pain that shot through his shoulder.

He wasn't doing this; he wasn't ready to face them and them all telling him that Frieda had ultimately been right. He had been no good like his father. He knew when he took the job at Jake's that that was as low as he could get, but after meeting Andy in the bar and Andy getting him hooked on cocaine and drinking more than he really should have, he knew something in him was broken and he didn't want to fix it. He didn't want to be responsible anymore he just wanted it to all go away.

He had met his grandfather. That was huge a side of his family that wasn't Brandel's but Frieda's warning had been in his head the whole time.

Just before it had all kicked off, just before he had lost everything she had said to him, "You will destroy everything, you will hurt people Marty, not because you want to, but because that's who you are, you can't fight genetics." She had looked at him then, sadly. The only time his grandmother had ever looked at him with anything other than hate.

He had tried to shake off her words, but then she had been arrested and He had caused his grandfather to fall out of a tree and he had seen the pain in Sarah's eyes as she caught him, he knew he had hurt the baby and she didn't want to tell him. The baby was probably dead because of him.

He had cared for them, he had cared for the team and his sister, his foster father and his new family and all had been hurt at different times because of him.

He made his mind up he was not going back, he would leave and carry on, he knew because of how fast they had dropped him when he was hurt that they didn't need him.

Everyone would be better off without him.

That was it his mind was set and he stood up taking a few unsteady steps.

He opened the door and started off down the hall.

Callen watched him go; he opened his mouth to call out to him and was stopped as Hetty put her hand on his arm.

"Mr. Deeks needs to fight his own demons…But maybe you could follow, and watch out for him, Find out where he has been staying and let me know, I feel an intervention is in order, but maybe on his own ground." She said and stood sadly as Callen followed a staggering Deeks out of the building and Hetty turned to a nurse.

"May I use your phone please?" She asked.

Jeff was trying to get Monty in the house as the phone rang, Cursing as he tripped over a shoe Monty had left in the middle of the room he went to pick up the phone.

"Deeks." He said.

He listened as Hetty filled him in on his son's condition.

"And you let him go?" Jeff asked amazed.

He waited as Hetty replied, "I will pick up Jen, Sarah and Carl and we can be there in about four hours." He said and hung up.

Callen followed Deeks, keeping his distance; he was amazed that after all the training he had had that he couldn't spot the tail. He watched as Deeks went down an alley to a seedy backstreet motel.

Deeks walked inside and the guy on the desk looked up.

"Boss has been looking for you." He said.

"And?" Deeks asked.

"You have clients later, he said take an hour, you have Charlie first….Max, and you owe rent!" he called as Deeks flipped him off and climbed the stairs.

Keeping to the shadows Callen left the motel and called Sam who relayed the call to Kensi and they met up outside Deeks' motel.

"He's been staying here?" Kensi asked surprised.

Sam looked at the place; he hadn't ever thought anyone would voluntarily check into a place like this.

"It's a dump!" he exclaimed.

Callen shrugged, he himself had lived in places a lot worse.

They walked inside and up to the reception desk. A greasy, overweight and balding man sat, smoking a roll-up cigarette ignoring the no smoking sign on his desk.

"Max Gentry." Callen said asking for Deeks' alias.

"Client?" the man asked.

"Is he a detective?" Kensi asked.

The man laughed, "Gentry a cop! Na, he's a hooker love, you booked in with Jake for a bit of time with Max, he's Jake's best you know?"

"EW! No!" Kensi replied, "Friends." She said and the greasy guy laughed.

"Max doesn't have friends, so your either selling him drugs, in which case he's got money and he owes me rent or you're here for sex in which case he'll have money and he owes me rent, either way you tell him, he's late this time and I'm taking it out of his kneecaps." The guy growled, "If you're selling, you have ten minutes; I know the Boss booked him some clients later." He laughed…. "Or are you guys like bible bashers…" He fell about laughing; "Coz that boy ain't got no soul!" he fell about laughing, but stopped as Sam dropped his badge on the table.

"Federal Agents….now what room?" He growled.

"2A, Up the stairs and out the back, Boss likes him to have privacy for his clients."

Walking through the building the walls shook at the sound of the music from Jakes' club which was next door. Kensi cringed as a rat ran down the hallway.

"Eww, he's been here all this time?" Kensi said stunned.

They reached the door, the paint had peeled so long ago you couldn't even tell what color it had been.

Callen knocked on the door.

"I said an hour, I ain't seeing anyone till then…I don't care how much Charlie's paying to fuck me, I need some time!" Deeks yelled from behind the door.

"OPEN THE DOOR DEEKS!" Sam bellowed.

Suddenly all sound from behind the door ceased.