Promises to Keep
Chapter 14
...
He sought out the sound of crying. As it grew louder, the soft staccato of hiccupping reminded him of Ruthie and he felt drawn to offer some comfort, needing to for some deep reason he couldn't quite grasp. He heard Diane talking sweetly to her son, soothing whatever fear had caused him to cry out and he paused, afraid to interrupt such a personal moment. He couldn't help but watch though, instantly fascinated by the scene he was witnessing, curious about how words the child couldn't understand still somehow managed to calm him. Diane turned to look at him as she cradled the baby and she smiled and beckoned him inside the room. He hesitated only for a moment before coming to her side and looking down into the teary eyes of his nephew and he couldn't keep the smile from his face no matter how sad he truly was.
"Want to hold him?" she asked.
"He'll probably start crying again," he answered, feeling shy about holding the child.
"Don't take it personally," she laughed. "He probably just has to poop."
"Great, thanks," he laughed in return. "Give the little stinker to Uncle Marty. Is that the plan?"
"Just be thankful I won't make you change him if he does," she said as she handed her son over to him.
"Hey Stinky Butt," Deeks whispered as he brought the little boy up to his face and kissed the top of his head.
"That name better not stick, or Joe will kill you," Diane said.
"What nicknames does he use?" Deeks asked as Chris's little fingers grabbed unto his hair.
"He calls him Goofball sometimes," Diane answered.
"That's what he used to call me," Deeks said softly. "Don't worry, Little Chris, he says it with love. At least he does to you. I think he believes it's true about me."
"You scared him, Marty," she said softly, taking the baby back as a telltale smell wafted up between them.
She stepped away and quickly began changing the baby, her back to him. He wasn't sure what to say, knowing his actions had caused concern for the people he cared about.
"I wish everybody would just stop treating me like I'm Chris's age," he said, suddenly bitter.
"He's not over what happened to you, Marty," she said softly. "None of them are. Can't you see that? I heard you all talking this morning. They say angry things because they don't know how to deal with their feelings for you."
"Joe doesn't act that way," he said.
"Joe has never been afraid to love you," she said. "I could see it the first time I watched you two together at the ranch. He was like a kid with a favorite new toy and couldn't believe he was so lucky. You filled a void in his life and in George's life. You were like water to a thirsty plant. They both needed you in order to be healthy again. Letting them love you was your gift to them."
"I'm the lucky one," he reflected, smiling shyly as warm memories flashed across his mind.
"Don't push your friends away, Marty," she cautioned. "If they didn't care they wouldn't have bothered to come and see how you were. You know that."
"They're all pretty mad at me," he said.
"You disappeared," She replied, giving him an exasperated glare. "How would you have felt if Joe had just disappeared, or Kensi? You'd have done what Joe did, look every place he could think of. He went to every surfing spot you ever mentioned and he and Callen almost came to blows, they were so worried. Don't you get it? Don't you understand how much you've come to mean to those two men? They're even jealous of each other when it comes to you."
"Bullshit," he said without hesitation.
"Marty Deeks you really are a dumbass if you can't see the truth of what I just said," standing tall as she spoke.
"Callen cares, but he thinks of it as babysitting and that pisses me off," he said angrily.
"No. He wants to love you, he just doesn't know how to do that," she said. "Men can be so damn dense sometimes. What the hell are you all so afraid of? Is it some sort of threat to your masculinity?"
She carried Chris out into the living room and headed for the kitchen. Deeks could tell she was angry and frustrated with him, but it made him smile anyway, remembering how he could see she was in love with Joe before he did.
"Do you think George is any less of a man because he tells you he loves you?" Diane asked as she turned and handed him the baby.
"I didn't think you were finished," smiling his crooked grin, hoping it might slow her down.
"You and Callen have been on your own for too long," she said. "You think it makes you stronger to do things on your own, but it doesn't. Why do you think you have a team? Because you're stronger together and you protect each other because you care for each other like brothers."
"I don't think of Kensi as a brother," he said with a laugh.
"And you're not afraid to tell her you love her, are you?" she asked, her eyes flashing and surprising him.
"No," he replied softly, looking down at the little boy in his arms. "But she's a little bit afraid to hear it."
Di looked at him thoughtfully then and gently squeezed his hand.
"Once you and Joe fell in love you never looked back or questioned your feelings," Deeks said as he stared at the baby. "And look what you got, a beautiful little boy and a future together as a family. I'm not sure that's in the cards for Kensi and me."
"Don't say that Marty," she said.
"When I met Ruthie I was blown away," he said quietly. "She reminded me so much of Kensi and I wanted to have one just like her. Now I've lost her and I'm afraid if I don't get her back I'll lose part of myself too. She was so full of fire, she deserves to be alive."
He choked on his final words and quickly passed the baby back into his mother's arms and hurriedly left the room.
...
...
Callen fired another round into the flimsy paper target, hoping the sound and the gun's recoil against the palm of his hand would snap him out of his funk. The repetitive process of firing his gun at a stationary target had always helped him focus on what was bugging him, and right now there were a lot of things that were unsettling. When the clip was empty, he pulled it and rammed in another, realizing he did it in anger and that made him pause. Then the questions began to crush in on him and he lifted the pistol and rapidly fired at the same target, shredding it. Slamming the empty gun down, he found himself breathing hard and silently cursing. Why had he left Deeks with the impression that he wasn't on his side? Why hadn't he or any of the others even taken into consideration that he could be right? They hadn't recovered Ruthie's body and had only circumstantial evidence that she was dead, so why was it so farfetched to entertain the possibility she was alive. Deeks seemed to have no doubt and all of them had just dismissed his idea out of hand, rejecting not only his theory, but also the man himself, hurting him in the process.
"Something you want to talk about?" Sam asked as he stepped up behind him.
"Remember how quick we were to accept all of Granger's clues that Deeks was dead?" Callen asked.
"Don't remind me," Sam said softly. "I still haven't forgiven myself. Why are you thinking about that?"
"Because it was an error I never should have made," Callen answered. "Even though the photographic evidence was convincing, we never stepped back and considered any other scenarios. We took the evidence at face value, never digging deeper and never considering Deeks' earlier opinion. He didn't believe the evidence back then that Proczko killed his own family and he doesn't believe the evidence now. So why don't we believe him that Ruthie is alive? What makes us so sure we're right and he's wrong?"
"You think we should look at the evidence again," Sam said quietly.
"Maybe we missed something," Callen said. "Things have been happening fast on this case and I don't think I've had my head in the game like I should."
"I think we've all just been so worried about Deeks being back in the field for the first time," Sam reasoned. "Him getting shot shook us all up."
"It distracted me," Callen admitted. "And I've been so afraid of getting too close to him that I pushed him away. I thought that would help me concentrate on the case but it didn't, it just made me discount whatever he had to say like some sort of defense mechanism."
"You're not the only one, G," Sam said. "None of us spoke up when he asked if we believed him."
"Why is that, Sam?" Callen asked. "Maybe we have to quit thinking of him as that broken man lying in the snow. We just need to remind ourselves that he's a full-fledged member of this team again. He's fought his way back, but we've never quite believed he's okay now."
"Or treated him that way, either," Sam agreed.
"We need to show him, Sam. Words won't be enough," Callen said. "Especially after what I said to him in the hospital."
"Yeah, dumb move, partner," Sam said. "I bet Joe's still pissed about that."
"You noticed, huh?"
"You mean because he was ready to pound you into the ground yesterday after we showed up at the FBI?" Sam laughed. "You're lucky I was there."
"What? You don't think I could have taken him?" Callen smirked, his eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"I think he was ready to take both of us down when you told him Deeks had disappeared," Sam answered. "Deeks is his little brother now, G."
Callen became introspective at that and he saw the curious look on Sam's face, so he turned away and secured his weapon.
"A man can have more than one brother, G," Sam said, laughing as he walked out of the room.
Callen was touched by the truth of his comment. He remembered the twinge of longing he'd felt when Deeks had introduced Joe Atwood as his brother at one of Hetty's get-togethers. He didn't want to admit that he had been a little envious of their connection, but always pushing that feeling aside as ridiculous. Now, he wasn't so sure. He'd felt a touch of it this morning when he saw how protective Joe was of Deeks and how kind and gentle he had been as he bandaged his wound. He hadn't been self-conscious about it; he had just taken care of his brother as if it was the only thing that mattered. He'd even stood up to Sam and made him back down and that was not easy to do. Deeks had gone to the one person he knew would support him no matter what and that made Callen realize just how far away he had pushed him and how little he knew about being a true brother. His guarded fears had held him back, but now he realized he had nothing to lose. Deeks may not think of him as a brother, but he was still a good friend and a team mate and Callen knew he could help him find what he needed the most, the truth about Ruthie.
He walked purposely up to Hetty's desk and stopped and said nothing, his mind and his heart one for a change. She rose and poured him a cup of tea and silently motioned him to sit and he did, calmer than he'd been since Deeks had been assigned to this case.
"I'm going to proceed on the assumption that Deeks is right, that Ruthie is alive," he said, tossing the idea out and letting it float between the two of them. "We'll dig deeper into Preston Burke and look at all the angles and connections and if the evidence doesn't support his belief then we'll have done everything we could and have no regrets."
"And if he's right?"
"Then we might need a bigger budget," he said with a smile. "How expensive is Paris this time of year?"
"For you or for me?" she asked.
Callen just smiled and set the delicate teacup down on Hetty's desk and got up and headed up stairs to join Sam and Kensi in Ops. The anxiousness he had displayed yesterday had vanished and Nell and Eric slowly relaxed as he shared his idea with the team. No one questioned him, all looking relieved by his calm direction.
"I want everything you can find on the two dead pilots, including tox screens on the bodies," Callen directed the two techs. "Look for any connection to Preston Burke or his companies. Same with Millard Shaw, Paul Walters' co-worker."
"I found out the money deposited into Millard Shaw's account came from a company controlled by Hamid Shahpur," Nell interrupted. "Shaw was deeply in debt, but I have no idea how he and Shahpur connected in the first place."
"Have you found anything that connects Shahpur and Burke other than they both have offices in Dubai?" Callen asked.
"No, but I do have a little surprise," Eric stated with a flourish.
He quickly turned his chair toward the big screen as a muddled video began playing. The black helicopter moved silently across the screen in the dim morning light and then suddenly shuddered and began to drop, crashing hard into the dark waters and floating briefly before the sea swallowed it. There was no sign of anyone afterwards, the image blurring as the camera began moving erratically and they heard one softly spoken word–"Shit"–and then it was over.
"You found a witness?" Callen said.
"Found this on YouTube if you can believe it," he said proudly. "I'm still tracking down who posted it, but that shouldn't be a problem."
"It looks like it was shot from one of the islands or maybe from a boat," Sam said.
"Rerun it Eric," Kensi said, moving closer to the screen as the short piece of video ran through its sequence again. "Pause it. That's a cargo ship in the background and a couple of yachts. Maybe someone on board saw something."
"I'll try tracking them down," Eric said.
"I've got something guys," Nell alerted them. "The helicopter was rented by none other than our former French Gendarmerie Gerrard Duval, the attack leader. The pilots were part of Duval's unit and were former French military. And before you ask, I've found no connection between Duval and Preston Burke."
"What about to Malcolm Webb?" Callen asked.
"Burke's security guy. I will check that out," Nell said and began rapidly typing.
"And check out Ross," Sam ordered. "We need to know who he was taking his orders from, Duval or Burke. If it was Duval, then who shot him and why?"
"And if he kidnapped Ruthie for Burke, why shoot him at all?" Callen questioned. "Hetty said Burke seemed happy that Ross was dead."
"And when was he shot?" Kensi asked. "We didn't see anyone get out of that chopper after impact."
"Maybe the shooter shot him right before something went wrong," Callen speculated. "Or there was a gunfight on board and one of the shots hit something that caused the helo to crash. Whoever the shooter was, his body may still wash up on shore somewhere."
While Eric and Nell researched, Callen and the team stood staring blankly at the frozen image on the screen. The helo had hit the water at a high rate of speed, slowly turning as it dropped and had broken slightly apart on impact. It had sunk rapidly and anyone inside would have had a hard time escaping, especially a little girl.
"Where were they going?" Callen wondered aloud.
"Eric, can you determine what time this video was shot?" Kensi asked.
"5:03 am," he replied.
"I got to Burke's place just after three in the morning," Callen said sharply. "They had to have stopped someplace. No way it took two hours to fly from Bel Air to the Channel Islands."
"But where?" Sam asked, shaking his head in frustration.
"Ross might have been shot wherever it stopped," Kensi said. "But why leave him in the chopper?"
"Maybe they were gonna dump his body out at sea," Sam answered.
"He was a loose end, just like Paul's co-worker, Millard Shaw," Callen reasoned. "The real question is whether Ruthie was taken off the helo at that stage."
"So Shahpur paid Millard Shaw for information about Paul Walters and then hired Gerrard Duval and his crew to go after Walters and his family in order to get his research," Kensi recapped. "So how does Preston Burke get in the middle of all this? It doesn't make sense."
"Unless Burke was involved the whole time," Callen said quietly.
"Now you sound like Deeks," Sam said with a smirk. "We have no proof, G. There is still no evidence to tie him to Ruthie's abduction."
"I know," he said dejectedly.
"Ross is the closest connection to Preston Burke we have," Nell said quietly. "We'll keep looking for more for Deeks' sake."
"Let us know when you find something," Callen responded as the team headed for the door.
...
...
Kensi and Callen carried the pizza boxes toward the house, barely making it half way to the front door before Joe came out and shushed them, leading them to the driveway and along the side of the house to the backyard. They followed him to a patio in the back garden, softly lit and comfortably furnished with teak chairs and a table that was already set for dinner.
"He's sleeping," Joe said as he handed out bottles of beer.
"How's he doing?" Kensi asked softly.
"He's moody," Joe answered. "He goes from being sad to angry in a split second. The baby is the only one able to distract him. I had to forcibly stop him from going over to Burke's office a few hours ago."
"He wouldn't have found him," Callen said as he slumped into a chair. "He's in Paris."
The two were silent as they waited for Joe's reaction.
"Shit! Marty's gonna freak," Joe said angrily.
"About what?" Deeks asked as he walked across the grass in bare feet.
Kensi got up and moved to intercept him, stepping in close and wrapping an arm around his waist as she reached up to push his disheveled hair out of his eyes. He looked at her, his jaw rippling with tension and his eyes dark and questioning.
"Tell me, Kens," he said huskily.
"Burke flew to Paris last night," she said calmly. "And he took Malcolm Webb with him."
Deeks didn't say anything. He looked over at Callen, staring at him for the longest time, raw emotion burning in his turbulent blue eyes as the muscles of his jaw continued to flex under his skin. He stepped out of Kensi's grasp, shrugging off her attempts to hold onto his arm as he turned back toward the house. Callen rose quickly and walked past Kensi and reached for him. Deeks turned and hit him, opening a cut on his cheek and before anyone could say anything, Callen hit him back, knocking him to the ground and Joe exploded in anger.
"What the fuck?" He shouted as he grabbed Callen's shoulder, turning him around roughly and hitting him solidly in the mouth, causing blood to spatter down his shirt. Callen charged him and the two men grappled with each other, Joe shouting curses as Callen struggled to get the upper hand.
Deeks sat stunned on the grass, a hand pressed over his rapidly swelling eye as Kensi knelt down next to him.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Diane shouted, as she stood just outside the back door holding a large bowl of salad in her hands. "You're acting like overgrown teenagers instead of federal agents. You might as well be brothers; you sure as hell act like mine. If you wake the baby, you're each taking turns trying to get him to stop crying. Now if you're got all that piss out of your system and are done being idiots, someone help Deeks up and Joe, you can go get the first aid kit. The pizza's probably cold by now and it serves you right."
She continued to berate them and order them around and they sheepishly did as she said. Callen pulled Deeks' hand away from his swollen, blackening eye and apologized, while Joe stood awkwardly close to his wife trying to placate her. She just shook her head and ordered them to shut up and eat while she tended to Deeks' second black eye.
"Sorry, G," Deeks said. "Didn't expect you to hit me back though."
"You told me not to baby you," Callen said as he shoved a cold slice of pizza into his mouth, wincing at the sting from the cut on his busted lip. "Besides, your big brother here seems to have your back."
"FBI guys don't take shit from anybody," Joe said seriously, causing Callen and Deeks to both laugh and point at Diane.
"I'm not dishing out shit," she argued sharply. "I'm just reminding you that you're all on the same side and that you're family."
Her comment silenced them for a while and the dinner was quickly polished off, as were several beers. Callen took a beer away from Deeks and when he protested, Joe and Callen joined together to remind him he was on pain meds.
"They're ganging up on me Kens," he said, looking for support and finding none.
Diane headed back into the house when the baby began to cry and the others finally got serious about why they were there.
"Deeks, we're looking into all of the people involved in Ruthie's disappearance," Kensi told him. "And if there's a connection to Preston Burke, we'll find it."
"We're going with your assumption that she's still alive," Callen said intensely as he looked at Deeks. "I shouldn't have dismissed you so quickly without checking things out."
"How did Webb get out?" Deeks asked. "You let him hit me so the charges would keep him locked up."
"The federal judge who released him is an old friend of Burke's family," Kensi said. "His attorney claimed it was an inadvertent response after you accidentally knocked him in the pool."
Deeks let a slow grin briefly spread across his face, but it quickly disappeared, replaced by a touch of sullen anger no one missed.
"So, no sign of Ruthie?" he asked.
"No. And so far we have no evidence he had anything to do with the attack on the house," Callen told him, his voice hesitant.
"But Ross worked for him and helped me kill two of the attackers," Deeks said quickly. "Why would he do that if he was working with them?"
"To convince you he could be trusted," Joe reasoned.
"Deeks, the men flying that helicopter were part of Duval's team," Kensi said.
"I don't care. Burke has her, so she must be in Paris," Deeks said angrily. "And if she is, that's where I'm going."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Callen cautioned. "Eric and Nell are still looking at everything. There are a lot of questions to be answered before we all fly off to Paris."
"You would go with me to Paris?" Deeks asked, looking slightly surprised by Callen's comment.
"We're a team, Deeks," Callen said. "But right now you're not in any shape to go anywhere."
"Try stopping me," he growled.
The ringing of Callen's cell phone interrupted his response and Kensi slowly rubbed Deeks' back trying to calm his simmering anger as Callen answered. His features hardened and his eyes narrowed as he listened, saying nothing throughout.
"I'm coming in, Eric," Callen said before ending the call.
"Remember that cargo ship in the video, Kens?" Callen asked. "That ship belongs to Preston Burke's company."
"Wait! What video?" Deeks asked quickly.
"Eric found a video of the helo crash and there were ships in the background," Kensi told him.
"That particular ship has a helipad," Callen said. "And its destination was the Port of Oakland, just across the bay from San Francisco, which was the first stop on Preston Burke's flight plan."
"Somebody want to fill me in here," Deeks said roughly.
"The video shows the crash happened two hours after Ruthie was taken," Kensi explained. "If she wasn't on the chopper when it crashed, then they had plenty of time to drop her off somewhere. Until now, we had no clue as to where that might be."
"The fact that a cargo ship belonging to Preston Burke was in the vicinity and equipped with a helipad gives us reason to believe that's where she may have been taken," Callen said quietly. "Burke could have picked her up from the ship when it docked in Oakland and then flown her to Paris on his private jet."
"That sonofabitch," Deeks shouted and pushed himself out of his chair and walked off into a dark corner of the garden and Kensi quickly followed.
"They'll be no holding him here now, if that's true," Joe said.
"Yeah, but we still have questions and we still have to prove that's what happened," Callen said. "There's a lot of research to be done and that should give us a couple of days. Hetty might not even let him go to Paris, considering his physical condition."
"Callen, he cares very deeply about that little girl and he made promises to her he is bound and determined to keep," Joe said earnestly. "He won't ask permission."
"You're his brother. He'll listen to you," Callen said.
"You've never had a brother have you?"
"No."
"My older brother Chris was killed in Afghanistan, and he went even though I tried to talk him out of it," Joe said softly. "Marty's a lot like Chris. He's stubborn and determined and he's going to do what he thinks is right, no matter the cost."
"I know."
"You may not be his brother, Callen," Joe said, staring intently into the other man's eyes. "But Marty thinks of you as one whether he's told you that or not. So, I'm asking you to watch out for him over there."
"You don't have to ask."
...
...