December 8, 2011

"Do you swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth- so help you God?"

Deeks looks up from his hands and into the eyes of District Attorney Erik Patterson. He's sitting in his dusty, wrinkled police uniform in a courtroom at the Central District of California United States District Court. Deeks has no desire to be there as he's testifying on a case he just wants to forget and the two day long testimony is taking him away from his duties at NCIS.

The case was a seventeen month long joint agency sting to take down New Mexico's leading sex trafficker Luiz Gyo. LAPD had worked very closely with the FBI because of Gyo's trade line running from Los Angeles to Santé Fe and then into several towns in South America. Deeks' role had been limited to being four undercover cops' contact person for check-ins and emergencies. His role in the case had been so limited that he's completely unaware of why exactly the D.A needs his testimony.

"I do," Deeks replies quietly. He quickly glances over to Luiz, who's staring him down from the defense bench. Oddly for Deeks, the man's appearance- gold chain, tattoos on his arms and neck, and his 6'5" bodybuilder frame- gives Deeks a pit in his stomach.

"State your name for the record," D.A Patterson requests. Deeks leans forward as close as he can to the microphone and states, "Detective Martin Deeks, undercover division and liaison to NCIS."

"Thank you, detective. Now you led the infiltration Mr. Gyo's business, correct?"

"Yes."

"And can you say on the record what you saw?"

Deeks wipes the flashing image of a 12 year old prostitute tied under a car that he had seen when he went to Santé Fe to make the arrest a month ago. "Luiz Gyo was running his prostitution ring where he sold cars with girls as young as twelve inside between South America and the United States. I saw this first hand when I arrived in Santé Fe to make the arrest."

D.A Patterson turns to the jury and begins re-explaining his claims for the third time. Deeks doesn't hear a word of it as he's watching Gyo whisper over to his lawyer and then stand up to face Deeks. The D.A doesn't notice that Gyo is up until the man states, "Detective Deeks, I just wan' you know that because you turn on me, I'm goin' be on you like Angel of Death. It's what I tell my girls, see, I tell them that I have a special connection to the Angel who brings death on those who betray me. And dat is a promise."

Present Day

Deeks' eyes fly open after dreaming about his testimony against Gyo.

He frantically scans the room he's in and finds that he's no longer in the helicopter and now in a large suite bedroom on one of the softest bed he's ever laid on. On an armoire across from the bed, Deeks can see the reflection of himself through the mirror. He looks like hell, a whole lot worse than what he thought he would look like. The warm, tan walls, the sight of tall Californian trees through the window, and Kensi's bag and wallet on the dresser gives Deeks such a calm feeling that he doesn't panic at the sight of his reflection.

I have to write down what I remember from Gyo. I know he's in prison and we got all of his friends in jail as well, but he does hate my guts with a passion. I have to write this down.

Deeks spots a blue notebook on the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed. To make it over, he decides to roll onto his side and reach for it the best he can. He extends his arm to the edge of the bed and readies himself- he knows that this has to be one of the top five dumbest things he's ever attempted, right under pulling out his oxygen tube and seeing how fast Hetty's Segway could down the hill behind the OPS center.

Here goes nothing. He takes in a shaky breath just before a hand pushes down on his shoulder. Deeks squirms in alarm, only to see that the hand belongs to Callen.

The lead agent is standing at the edge of the bed with one hand on Deeks' shoulder blade and the other on the bed. Callen looks like hell as well- he's wearing the same shirt from the day before, he's sweaty, and on his tenth cup of the strongest black coffee available within a 48 hour period. It's the worst Deeks has seen Callen look since the Brownstein case from the year before where Deeks was finally not the one to go undercover as a bum.

"This is the second time that I've caught you trying to move when you aren't supposed to," Callen states, "I'm not going to have to handcuff you, am I?"

Deeks relaxes his body, thinking, Sorry for being squirmy, G. And a handcuff joke? Way too soon.

Callen takes his hand off of Deeks' shoulder and sits down on the bed. "Well first off, you are safe and sound. We shouldn't have left you out of the mix, Deeks. It won't happen again. In other news, we are in Redding in Northern California in one of Hetty's friend's safe house. Don't ask."

Finding out about a secret location from Hetty has become so common that Deeks doesn't even blink. Wasn't going to ask.

"Secondly, you've been sleeping for almost ten hours and in that period, we've gone over only a quarter of your cases, which was a lot of cases by the way, and came up with nothing. You've done a lot of work with LAPD."

You don't have the slightest idea of…wait; I have to tell him about the five cases. Deeks turns his head so that he's facing Callen directly. He's about to do something he hasn't done in about four days- speak.

Here goes nothing. "…H…'p…" Deeks' voice comes out as a gasp with a squeak so high that it embarrasses the ex-detective. His eyes widen and he stares at Callen, praying that the older man doesn't laugh or take whatever the hell that just came out of his mouth as something other than words.

"Is something wrong?" Callen exclaims in a panic. Deeks nods his head and moves to a different tactic- he mouths the word paperand presses his lips together on every p sound. It makes him feel like a child, but it's the only option besides rolling off the bed and crawling to the desk that he's got.

After the tenth repetition of the word, Callen finally gets it. "Paper?"

Finally! Deeks nods and holds out his hand. Callen turns his head left and right frantically until he spots a notepad on the dresser on the other side of the room. He runs over and grabs the pad and pen next to it and holds it out to Deeks. The detective takes the pad and begins to write down five names and case numbers. Not using his hands for a few days kicks in and Deeks finds his writing to mirror that of a child.

"Luiz Gyo, Marcus Henry, Ivan Brovak, Lukka Haden, and Angelina Vasquez- Whendt," Callen reads slowly, "Is this a list of old enemies with a grudge?"

"Y…..'s." It doesn't come out with a squeak, but Deeks' voice still sounds like a croak. Callen nods and stands up to walk away. He takes a step and then pauses before turning back to Deeks.

"There's one last thing I need to tell you before I go," he says, "Two days ago, you had a seizure, remember? Well, the doctors called about an hour ago with their conclusions about what triggered it. Deeks, you had a psychogenic non-epileptic seizure- it means that your PTSD and emotions most likely triggered the seizure. This means that you have to keep it together, ok?"

As long as you don't bring any more bad news, we should be ok.

Boatshed- Los Angeles

"Are we going to do this all day, Sammie?"

Sam crosses his arms and tries to think of any of the meditation tricks he can use to ignore the annoying voice from Jimmy. He's been spending the last ten hours in the boatshed with Jimmy, making sure that the suspect stayed on lockdown and got the bare necessities, not including food or sleep. Ten hours of silence in the interrogation room had passed and Jimmy is sitting bright eyed across from Sam.

And if it continues for ten more seconds, Sam might kill the man.

"Let me guess- you're trying the crouching tiger hidden dragon meditation response?" Jimmy jokes. Sam bites the inside of his cheek and starts thinking of the lyrics to his favorite Al Green song.

"Oh, Sammie… why are we doing this? You know that you aren't going to get a word out of me. All I did was give the insignificant pain in the ass what he deserved. You know how it goes in the army for people like Deeks."

Sam immediately loses it. He isn't aware of his actions until he finds himself holding Jimmy against the wall by the man's collar. Jimmy is gasping for air and for once, doesn't have a stupid grin on his face. Uncharacteristically, Sam doesn't let go- he only glares angrily into Jimmy until his cellphone suddenly goes off in his back pocket.

Sam lets go off Jimmy's pocket and ignores the yelp as the man falls in a heap onto the ground. Sam turns away and looks down at his phone to see a list of names sent via text from Callen and a note stating,

Deeks told me these names. See if Jimmy knows who they are- G.

"Luiz Gyo, Marcus Henry, Ivan Brovak, Lukka Haden, and Angelina Vasquez- Whendt- do any of those sound familiar?" Sam asks without turning to face Jimmy. The suspect coughs again for air and then croaks, "Of course. You didn't think we hadn't done our homework on Deeks, did you?"

"Just answer the damn question."

Jimmy looks to the ceiling with a fake pensive look on his face. He takes delight in Sam's obvious annoyance before finally stating, "Each of those men and woman have a dirty, dirty beef with Detective Deeks. I wonder if anyone of them is in the business for nationwide assaults….."

"You know Deeks so well, as you claim. You don't seem interested in any of those five so I'm assuming that I can cross them off the list," Sam states as he texts Callen back to say the same.

"Thought I'd save you the trouble. Plus I don't do very well if the attention isn't 100% on me."

"I figured…." Sam replies while he continues to text. Jimmy narrows his eyes at the uninterested agent and then asks, "So you texting your partner about Special….Agent….Deeks? Are you assuring him that the news of Special….Agent….Deeks'…new upgrade won't be a problem?"

"Why are you repeating-"Sam freezes when his mind finally wraps around Jimmy's words. It's an important detail of the case that the team had somehow forgotten in the chaos of moving Deeks around and Jimmy. It's so important that Sam has to run out of the room to contact Hetty and ignore Jimmy's methodical laughing in the background.

Every time Deeks had accomplished something with NCIS, an attack around the country had been triggered.

And with Deeks now being considered an agent, there's a chance of another attack.