The replacement
Chapter 12
"Look guys I don't really know what to tell you?" he was fidgety, the rag he'd been wiping the bar down with was twisting in his hands. Sam raised an eyebrow,
"Anything abnormal, anything different than normal?" the ex-seal asked his voice lowering slightly causing Jerry to wring the material even harder,
"Do you remember seeing us?" Callen asked before the man could answer causing both Sal and Jerry's eyes to widen. Sam shifted his gaze to his partner – he'd thought the plan was to not make it personal but he could go with it,
"Sitting in that booth over there" he explained gesturing to one not too far from the bar itself. Jerry shrugged before nodding,
"Yeah I remember you all, there were a group of you, you two and another guy and the girl stayed" he shrugged looking at the bar as he began shifting back and forth,
"The girl?" Sam asked his voice tight,
"I mean yeah…there was a chick with you"
"You remember her in particular then?" Jerry frowned,
"Come on boy this young lady might be in trouble you need to tell them what you know" Sal said from where he stood beside the agents,
"Trouble? …..what kind of trouble?"
"You first" Sam countered abruptly,
"Look man it was nothing the boys were just saying that she was hot and stuff. And she seemed into that guy you lot were with" the words tumbled out of his mouth as his ears turned red and Sam sighed.
"Anyone take an interest in her in particular? Who was serving her drinks?" the young bartender had begun to shake his head after the first half of Callen's questions but frowned,
"What son" the owner said and it was obvious he was fairly fond of the young man,
"That night we took on a new kid…job interview type thing..he was ..yeah he was serving her drinks" Jerry looked up at them hoping it would help, the tension on his face clear.
"You have a name?" Jerry took several steps to the right before pulling several sheets of paper from behind the bar.
"Resume help?" Sam looked at the kid with a new appreciation before he nodded and accepted the paper,
"We'll still need those tapes" Sal nodded,
"Of course"
"So is she alright?" the agents looked back to the young man and with a sinking feeling in Callen's chest he realized he still had no real answer to the question.
"If you think of anything you give us a call alright, even if it could be nothing, is probably nothing you give us a call" Callen said handing Jerry a card who nodded quickly,
"Of course"
Her eyes were wide, stinging with the need to close as she stared intently at her fingertips where her wrists were bound in front of her. She was furious with her limbs, her muscles and joints. Just move. Her internal yelling had failed to do anything bar create a worsening migraine and her sheer will power seemed pointless. She'd been trying for how long she had no idea. All she knew was that her bones were still frozen but she also knew it was infinitely better than staring down than at the wall in front of her. She'd moved her fingers once what seemed like hours beforehand and it had been the sun shining through a lifetime of clouds. It gave her hope and it sparked a twinge of determination in her that the drug whatever the hell it had been had managed to somewhat numb within her.
The room had gotten dark obviously the night had passed and she knew that at some point she'd lost consciousness. She'd awoken her incredibly saw neck falling backwards as she'd figured it may have balanced her. Her thighs ached as did her cramping back. She was over it, all she wanted was home and a bath. Wine wouldn't hurt – or something with a little more bite. And maybe some company. Her eyes flickered up to the pictures before she could even stop herself.
Blue eyes stared back at her. In the hours of idle time she appeared to have she'd managed work out the latest photos. She and Callen had gone out for breakfast earlier in the week, before everything had gone wrong, before Fields had ever slammed into her life and before Sam would have finished his run so he couldn't find out the amount of calories they had been planning to consume before the sun had finished rising. The senior agent has swung by her place that morning and drove them both to their usual deli where they'd purchased breakfast for more than two and headed down to the beach to eat it. It had been a good morning tainted now by the fact that there was photographic evidence on the wall. Someone had photographed them in Callen's car. Someone had followed them. How had they not noticed? How had this happened?
Her anger welled along with her frustration. She'd gathered that Fields had been away long enough the day before to be at work. Her work. She was furious that he had been there and she had not, while he'd kept her locked away. While he went and posed as the concerned partner. Her only hope was that they would notice something amiss with him – then again they'd all thought that from the moment they'd met. Hetty…..Hetty would know, she was after all the one who'd asked Kensi to 'get to know him better'. Kensi wanted to frown although whatever it was in her blood forbade it she knew that Hetty owed her at least sometime free of paperwork once she got home.
Once they'd finally retrieved the tapes they'd headed back to the office to deliver them to Eric and Nell to go through. Seated around the table in the centre of the room was Nate, Deeks and Fields sifting through files and Callen could see the LAPD stamp from where he stood.
"Forensics have come back with a big definitive zero" Nell said, before he could question the three men, regret on her face and Callen nodded solemnly before she turned back to load the footage from the bar. He knew he didn't want to stay, didn't want to watch it, didn't want to see Kensi flirt with the man standing to his right all over again. The first time was enough.
"Eric can you look up a Luke Trellors" the young man nodded but didn't verbally reply already typing.
"Only one in the area….ah recent college graduate who is he?"
"He was working at the bar" he explained,
"That's not him though" Nell said causing everyone in the room to look towards her. She pulled up an image on the large screen it was grainy but it was clearly a young man standing behind the bar serving both Fields and Kensi drinks. However despite the picture quality they could clearly tell it was not the man Eric had found.
"New in town maybe?" Deeks offered,
"I'll run the picture through the database see what I can find" Nell replied and Callen nodded before turning on their newest agent,
"He the guy that was serving you both all night" Fields nodded quickly, staring at the screen. Callen could see Jerry not too far from him but his eyes were drawn to the hand that Fields had placed on Kensi's lower back. He caught Sam shake his head almost imperceptibly and followed his gaze to Deeks' who had a questioning expression on his face. No doubt had Kensi been there she would have copped a fair amount of flak from the LAPD officer. But she wasn't.
"Alright well he's our best bet for now so let's see if we can track him down, what have you guys got?" Callen asked turning to where Deeks sat who shook his head,
"Not a heap. Can't find any link between Kensi and the other victims" a sick feeling washed over Callen as he heard Deeks call her a victim but pulled himself from his thoughts when he realized the man was still talking,
"….or a link between any of the victims really. Other than they are similar physically there's no real link, nothing" the dejected tone of Deeks' voice reflected how Callen felt.
"Remind me what the result of these cases were" Deeks considered the man who sat to his left for a moment. Had he not been sifting through the cases for hours alongside him?
"The women haven't been found, it's been seven weeks since the first and none have been recovered" he said quickly and could see the glare both agents had for their newest team member. Fields nodded before standing and nodding,
"Right then" he said before he turned and headed out the room leaving only silence behind him,
"Strange" Deeks remarked dryly and Callen felt his respect for the officer grow exponentially. At least he knew it wasn't just him.
"So my alibi stand up then?" for a moment Hetty simply stared at the young man before gesturing to the phone in her hand. Fields nodded and sat before her desk conscious of still being under Hetty's gaze,
"Indeed it did Mr. Fields" she replied and he nodded,
"I wanted to apologise for before I just…..I was shocked that you could have thought I had something to do with this…I really liked Kensi you know, we were getting on really well I mean a bit of a rough start but I think I grew on her" the agent left off with a grin and it didn't take too long for Hetty to encourage the young agent to put himself to use in recovering his new partner then. As he left an uneasiness settled within the operations manager. I really liked Kensi you know. Liked.
hey guys anyone who's still around :) Hope you like i know it's been forever but i really hope to get back into these stories! Please review let me know if you're still here :)
