Chapter 12: Upset
Usually he would be talking the ears off any Uber driver who was chauffeuring him, but right now, he welcomed the silence. He appreciated the driver turning off the radio when he had kindly requested it, just listening to the traffic around him and nothing else allowed Marty to anchor himself, reeling his feelings in once more.
He had been so lost in thoughts that he only responded the third time the driver was telling him that they had reached their destination. He shook his head quickly, attempting to clear his jumbled thoughts. He thanked the cab driver and got out the vehicle, making sure to tip.
He started walking the long driveway leading towards the enormous white building in front of him. Seeing as he had turned off his phone and removed the battery, he had not had a chance to call in advance. Honestly, he was not sure if removing the battery was necessary, but they did it in all the movies so there must be some reasoning to it, he thought to himself.
As the door in front of him opened, a man that could rival the dark skinned agent, he had just seen, in size stood in front of him. Obviously the security detail of the day, although Marty knew many of the bodyguards his friend had through the years, he had not met this one.
"Hey man, I'm here to see Kip." He greeted, holding out his hand to meet him properly. Marty had a thing about shaking hands, it showed that one respected the other and could help create an instant bond. Although not always, he knew all too well the disdained handshakes he had given to prosecutors, board members, and other stuck up people throughout his career.
"Is he expecting you?" The man's gruff voice asked, making no attempt to reply to the outstretched hand.
Marty sighed, he respected people in the protection industry, but always disliked when their seriousness for their craft was combined with an authoritarian rudeness.
"Would you please tell him that Marty is here to see him?" He asked kindly.
As the man guarding the door turned around to go look for permission for the shaggy, half-beaten man to enter, a voice rang from inside the mansion.
"Marty Mar!" A tall, dark, muscled, and… bare chested man, stepped into his field of vision.
Taking this as his permission, he could not help but shoot a smug look towards the man who had prevented him from entering, walking straight past him and towards his old friend. The same greeting as always followed, a stretched high-five and then leaning into one another for a quick 'bro hug' and slap on the back.
"Long time no see, brother! How've you be-" the man cut himself off when he saw the bruises still present, albeit faded. "What the hell happened to you?" He demanded information, obviously worried about his friend.
"How about a beer first?" He suggested, knowing the calming effect it would have on him, but also knowing that a little liquid courage would make explaining what happened at his house last week and at that boatshed looking building today a lot easier.
The next hour and a half went by with Marty explaining everything from when he was assaulted in his own home, to the interrogation in the boatshed where old emotional wounds had been torn open again. He did not have to go into detail or explain why being reminded that he had fired a weapon was such a painful memory, Kip was one of only two people he had ever told about that.
As he finished explaining the whole ordeal, he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Even though he was used to handle the majority of his problems on his own, he could not deny the cathartic effect airing his thoughts had.
There were only less than a handful of people in the World, in which he would ever feel comfortable enough to let that close. Luckily, one of those people was sitting right next to him.
Kip had for the most part stayed quiet, letting his best friend unload all of the emotional distress he had built up. When it became clear that he was finished unloading his burden, Kip spoke up.
"Are they sure that Bak-dude-whatever, was the last threat to you?" Concern and protectiveness evident in his voice.
Marty shrugged, "They aren't completely sure," he responded, referring to the NCIS agents he had the 'pleasure' of meeting. Of course, only one of the meetings had been pleasurable, he thought.
Kip knew that he had come here for another reason than just being able to clear his mind, he felt safe here, felt secure around his best friend. "So you came here to be safe," he stated.
Marty looked embarrassed at the admittance his friend made on his behalf, but tried to put on a brave smile as if asking for permission.
"You know you're always welcome here, Marty." His friend soothed, and nodded towards the big guy now standing by the kitchen island, "I'mma have George call his company and issue a few more people here until we know for certain you're safe."
"Thanks Kip, really do appreciate it." He said, his voice gaining more strength feeling the safety that being at his best friends estate gave.
"That's what family is for, brother." He assured, patting the man sitting next to him on the back, now being a bit gentler, since he had knowledge of all the injuries the man next to him had.
Across the city of Los Angeles, a very angry special agent was striding back towards the building she had previously just left.
As hurricane Kensi entered the building, she could hear the conversation between her coworkers instantly come to a halt. When she entered the main room, Sam and Callen were standing next to each other, Callen defensively holding op his hands as if she was wielding a weapon.
"Before you say anything, we've just talked it over, and we were in the wrong." He started, softer than he would usually.
"Damn right you were!" She hissed back, before he had a chance to continue.
This time the team lead actually visibly flinched at the anger laced words. "Look, we needed to be sure that he hadn't shared any information with Bakaj or anyone else in The Facilitators who might be in LA." He took a break to catch his breath, "I... we… obviously went around it the wrong way."
"You think?" She spat rhetorically.
Callen took a deep breath, the whole situation had affected their female team member more than he could have imagined, not quite sure why she and the lawyer had already connected like that. She obviously felt protective of him, even dating back to last week when she went with him to the hospital ensuring he was all right.
Luckily, his partner stepped in, trying to calm his friend.
"Kensi, we overreacted, we know that now." She was about to make another snarky comment but decided against it, attempting to reel in her immediate disdain for the two standing across from her, but knowing that this situation would be affecting the atmosphere on the team for quite a while.
"…and we'd like to apologize for it. We were concerned because you'd gone out to get food with him alone, and if he'd been working with Bakaj…" he let the end of his sentence drift off, knowing he had explained the reasoning behind their strong reaction.
"I can take care of myself." She stated coldly. Feeling somewhat better that the team was just trying to have her back, but still outraged by the way they had gone about it.
"We know you are, Kensi," Callen now joining back into the conversation, "But we also look after each other. And we are sorry."
"It's not me you need to apologize to." She huffed, but pleased nonetheless, that they actually had felt the need to atone to her.
Her two other team members both sighed deeply, they had screwed up and was now feeling the wrath of Kensi Blye, whose glare presently could bring most people to their knees.
"Where is he?" Sam cracked. He knew that the best possible course of action currently was to accept and agree with everything their female teammate was currently demanding of them.
She shrugged, "I don't know." Both Callen and Sam looked astonished at her, how could she have such a drastic reaction to what had happened and then not know where he was. "He didn't want to have anything to do with us anymore," she started again, knowing her statement was mostly true, "Said he was going somewhere safe, to a friend."
"And you let him?" The team leader asked incredulously before he had time to think about what he was saying.
"It's not like we could forcibly keep him here, right?" She snapped, "And you two didn't really make him feel like he was safe here either!" And there was. The reason she was furious she had tried to keep herself from realizing. She was no longer able to safeguard the injured lawyer, whom she had come to care about.
Kensi removed herself from the boatshed before she got any response to her accusations, not wanting to hear their response, not sure if she could keep herself from spewing any more insults towards her colleagues. She was going back to OPS to update them as to what information Callen and Sam had gotten, but also to see if Eric could see where Marty was currently.
Just before walking through the automatic doors she stopped herself to breathe deeply a few times, just because she was angry with the two male agents, did not mean she should transfer any of that aggression out on the technical operator or analyst.
"Ms. Blye," Kensi visibly startled at the sound of the operations manager's voice behind her, "Would you mind joining me for a cup of tea?"
When the Kensi finally registered what had been said, Hetty was halfway down the stairs already, giving the female agent no chance to decline the extended offer of tea. She gave one last look at the door in front of her, before turning her back to it, heading down the stairs and after the tiny woman.
"Please have a seat," she offered, gesturing towards the empty chair across from her, "I have made some calming chrysanthemum tea. It was one I used to drink with George Hamilton from time to time."
Kensi knew better than to decline the hot beverage already poured in front of her, deciding that anything calming sounded pretty good right about now, she tried a tentative sip. Finding out that, for once, the offered tea was not trying to kill her, she grabbed the cup with both hands, showing the operations manager that she appreciated her gesture.
"I understand that there has been some… disagreements between you and your colleagues." She stated calmly.
Kensi knowing fully well that the tiny woman sitting in front of her knew exactly what had happened, she somehow always did. Deciding that the truth and her honest opinion would be most appreciated, besides, she was incapable of lying to her boss for the most part anyways. She nodded and spoke up.
"They rushed to conclusions, offending the protectee and effectively driving him away from us. Potentially placing him in danger once more."
Hetty studied the younger woman, it had not slipped past her that she had used uncharacteristically formal speech in her reasoning, a telltale sign that she was attempting to push down her emotions by appearing more professional than needed.
"I see," the response sounded, followed by silence and tea sipping. After what felt like forever but more realistically a few minutes, Hetty spoke up procuring an anecdote from her exciting life.
"You know… back in the seventies I was assigned as protective detail to Paul McCartney during his stay for a concert in West Berlin, since I was already there. A threat had been made on his life, but he insisted on still performing that night. And since I could hardly just stand on the stage looking sinister, I decided to play the drums during the concert, that way I could keep a close eye on him."
"You played drums at a rock concert?"
"But of course, Ms. Blye. I even fought off the assailant using my drumsticks at the intermission." She smiled crookedly at the younger agent, oh how she loved telling these stories, knowing that the younger audience would not know whether to believe them or not, although she always spoke the truth when recalling her past.
"Uhm… is there a point to the story, Hetty?" Kensi asked still chuckling from the end of the anecdote.
"My point is that if you are in charge of protecting someone, you do whatever it takes to fulfil that assignment."
Kensi looked at the older woman for a while, trying to decipher what she had been told. It suddenly clicked that Hetty had given her permission to have Eric track down Marty's location, to ensure that he was indeed safe and that her 'task' of protecting him was fulfilled.
"Thank you, Hetty." She said cheerfully, having forgotten her earlier sour mood some time during the short storytelling.
The operations manager merely lifted her cup of tea and nodded towards the stairs leading to OPS, effectively dismissing the young agent. Kensi walked briskly towards the stairs, and with renewed vigor at the permission to ease her mind, she walked through the automatic doors.
As she the doors parted, she saw Eric launch across the room in the office chair, Nell excitingly cheering as he ended up exactly at his workstation, obviously not a lot to do for them right now. She cleared her throat not so subtly, making her presence known to the two who had previous been oblivious to the sounds of the automatic doors.
"Oh, hi Kensi," the technical operator greeted her, somewhat embarrassed in being caught goofing around. Making Eric uncomfortable was something all the agents were able to do with ease.
"I thought you were in the boatshed with Callen and Sam?" Her pixie like colleague asked.
"They had a handle on it," she answered, doing her best to not let the sarcasm seep through, stopping any comments by making a request, "I need you guys to track down Marty Deeks for me."
"Wasn't he with you at the boatshed?" Nell asked, not confronting her in any way but genuinely curious and trying to understand.
"Yeah, well… he left the boatshed to be somewhere safe," she let the last word hang in the air.
"And you want to be sure it's actually safe," her female colleague summarized.
"We're on it!" The shorts wearing, blonde-haired man answered cheerily, "Did he tell you guys anything that might help find him?"
Kensi thought about the request for a minute, "He said he was going to a friend's safe property and that he would turn off his phone."
Eric nodded, smiling to his colleague, "That might help."
"Alright when you find something…" Kensi said heading for the door.
"You'll be the first to know." The team of two chimed together, knowing what she would have requested.