Season of Renewal

Disclaimer: I still own nothing, just borrowing my favorite characters.

Chapter 14

Deeks kept his eye on his mark but still managed to notice the familiar Jeep pull up in front of the hotel just down the street from him. He saw Kensi stomp inside and couldn't help but chuckle. Even from this vantage point he could see the attitude in her stride. He hoped Hetty's contact masquerading as a housekeeper would survive the encounter with his badass partner. Deeks was glad he was able to relocate Henriqua and ask her to approach his partner when she arrived. He also hoped Kensi would be quick to realize the woman was there to report back to Hetty on the goings on of her two absent team members, unlike he had been. He had no doubt Henriqua would continue to shadow them for the rest of the operation. Deeks didn't know if the powers that be in DC knew Henrietta Lange had immersed herself in the middle of Tobias and Deeks' little mission or not, but it was reassuring to know there would be additional back-up if things went south.

Dialing in his focus to the man now standing in front of him while acting disinterested, he settled in to the role of Stew Gilmer. He noticed the other guy look him up and down suspiciously.

"Are you Stew?" The stranger inquired.

Deeks remained aloof. "Depends on who's asking," he replied, continuing to scan the surrounding crowd, always returning a watchful eye to the Jeep.

The man's face broke into a huge smile. "P says when you get back up north he has just the place to take you for the friendly ladies."

Stew smirked, "He does, does he? Good to know. We got a bit sidetracked the last time."

"I'm Jose. Yes, P mentioned you got rid of a little problem. He was impressed. Please, follow me. We will go see my boss. He is interested in your...services."

Stew nodded, glancing down the street one more time, relieved to see Kensi climbing back in the Jeep. He moved to keep pace with Jose, satisfied Tobias had eyes on him by the quick flash of the headlights just before he turned away.

Kensi had barely pulled the door shut when Tobias threw the Jeep in gear. "Don't lose him, EJ," he ordered as he checked traffic, pulling quickly away from the hotel at the first break in the line of cars.

"I got him," she called out, holding on tight as the FBI agent launched the Jeep out of the lot.

"Don't lose who?" Kensi demanded as she, too held on to steady herself as the Jeep lurched out into the street.

"Deeks!" Both Tobias and EJ replied simultaneously.

EJ turned in her seat to face Kensi in the back. "He's with someone in that red Toyota about a block and a half up," she cocked her head towards the front.

As she settled back in her seat to keep a watch on the red car, none of them noticed the car pulling out behind them from the hotel lot they just vacated. All three were too focused on not losing sight of the car Deeks was now riding in.

Hetty sat back in her chair at her desk in the Mission. She took a breath, then reached for her cup of tea. A smile threatened to appear on her face as she thought about the quick message she had just received from Loreto, Mexico. Calling in a favor from one of her many contacts, it hadn't taken long for Hetty to hit pay dirt. Her associate had wasted little time in finding her favorite liaison. Still unaware that Eva had been killed earlier in the day, Hetty was relieved that she at least knew where one of her currently reassigned team members were with certainty.

Up in Ops, Nell and Eric had just finished up their part on a case that Sam and Callen had just closed. Callen had just called to let them know they were on their way back from the boatshed. A gasp from the analyst got Eric's attention. He turned to her, worried at the look on her face as she stared at her phone.

"Nell? Is everything okay?"

She turned to him, eyes wide and a sorrowful, yet shocked look on her face. "Eva is dead!"

Eric's eyes went wide, as well. "What? Is...is Deeks okay?"

Nell shook her head. "He's not hurt. Well, not physically, anyway. Kensi said he and Eva were caught up in a shootout this morning. When they got to Loreto, they found him at the morgue with her."

"We better inform Hetty." Eric suggests. Nell nods in agreement as Eric picks up the phone to dial down to Hetty's desk. Nell begins digging for more information on the shooting that took the life of the woman they had all been impressed with when they encountered her those years ago.

Downstairs, Hetty's phone rings. Seeing that it is a call from upstairs, she answers quickly. "What can I do for you, Mr. Beale?"

"Hetty, um...you should come up here. We have, uh, we have some news about Deeks."

"Of course. I'll be right up." She returned the handset to its cradle, sighing as she wondered what those two had found that had Eric sounding so worried.

Hetty stood from her chair, readying herself for whatever news she was about to hear. No sooner than she did, Sam and Callen returned from the boatshed. Seeing them go for their desks, she called out to them.

"Mr. Callen? Mr. Hanna? Why don't you gentlemen join me in Ops. It seems as if we have some news about our Mr. Deeks." She turned without another word and made her way up the stairs.

Sam and Callen glanced at each other, not liking the tone with which their operations manager had spoken. Both of them sighed as they headed up the stairs themselves.

Eric and Nell both looked surprised when not just Hetty, but Sam and Callen also walked through the door. They shared a worried glance, not sure if they should say anything about Deeks with the two senior members present. Knowing the look on their faces, Hetty dashed that concern straight away.

"Ms. Jones, Mr. Beale, please tell us what you have regarding Mr. Deeks," Hetty nodded towards them as the three settled in to listen.

Eric just stood there, not really sure how to begin. He caught Nell peering at him out of the corner of his eye. He took a deep breath, readying to speak, when Nell beat him to it.

"Kensi sent me a text. She is in Loreto with Agents Fornell and Barrett. They arrived a little while ago. They were unable to make contact with Deeks, who was supposed to be waiting to hear from them as soon as they landed. They found him in the morgue." She saw the reactions in her boss and the two agents as they absorbed what she had just said, and realized she could have worded that announcement a little better. "No. Uh, no! I'm sorry - I... Let me finish. Deeks is alive, it's Eva! Eva was killed this morning. Deeks had accompanied her body to the morgue and had been there all day."

"Lead with that next time!" Sam snapped, concern for his shaggy friend evident in his tone.

"What the hell happened?" Callen demanded to know.

Nell tapped at her tablet, turning to the big screen, where an official report appeared. "As far as I can tell - and mind you, I just found this moments ago - it was a drug deal gone bad. Deeks and Eva just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The report says that Officer Espinoza was off duty and had been having breakfast with an unknown male subject, Deeks, when the shooting occurred down the street. She heard the commotion and went to investigate. She was hit by a stray bullet right in front of the restaurant she and Deeks were at. According to responding officers, Eva died at the scene almost immediately."

Sam glanced at Callen and then Hetty. He shook his head slowly. "He's not going to deal with that very well."

Hetty breathed a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid you're right, Mr. Hanna," she agreed, clasping her hands in front of her.

Nell's phone pinged and she glanced at it quickly.

"Kensi will take care of him, keep him in line," Callen stated, although he sounded as if he didn't really believe it himself.

"Yeah, about that," Nell responded skeptically, "Kens just texted me again." She was studying her phone, reading the text Deeks' partner had just sent. "Guys, Deeks has gone off on his own. He has made contact with someone. She says they are following a car they believe Deeks is a passenger in. Kens is worried that Deeks is acting irrationally due to-"

"Losing a close friend," Sam finished for her. "He's probably blaming himself, wondering what he could have done to stop it from happening, and-"

"He's angry, and now he's focusing that anger on the mission to help ease the pain he's dealing with in his heart." Callen broke in. Sam nodded in agreement.

"So what do we do?" Sam questioned everyone in the room.

Not wanting to let the others know that she had the matter well in hand, but knowing the team would be relentless in their desire to help their friend, Hetty addressed the question. "We do nothing. Understood?" She pointed a finger at the two senior agents. "Mr. Deeks is capable of looking after himself, and he has Ms. Blye and the others to back him up."

Callen looked at Sam, his brow raised. Sam looked disgusted, but nodded in acknowledgment of the warning from Hetty.

The operations manager bid her goodbye to the team and exited Ops. She needed to make a call and she needed to do it in private, away from wondering eyes and curious ears.

Deeks led Fornell and the two women on a wild goose chase that lasted nearly three weeks. After several close calls and many meetings, Fornell launched his part of the operation to get inside the workings of those behind the threat. Deeks had given them enough breadcrumbs and sent cryptic texts to give Fornell another contact. Now he could start to work his way in from another angle.

It was with that information that Kensi and EJ found themselves sitting in the Jeep they had borrowed from Officer Zarazua back when they first arrived in Loreto. Fornell was down the street, inside an old dump of a house meeting with someone named Aldeberto. They were keeping an eye out from a safe distance. Tobias had been in there for over an hour and the female agents were getting restless. As the sun dropped lower in the afternoon sky, EJ reached up and pulled the visor down to shade her eyes. Sitting there in the driver's seat, she noticed the corner of something sticking out of a little pocket on the back of the visor. She had won the toss on who would get to drive. Kensi was none too happy about being chauffeured around by someone she was not used to riding with, but she had lost and begrudgingly let EJ drive. When EJ reached up and pulled the object out of its hiding place, her eyes widened at what she had found.

Kensi sat in the passenger seat, a scowl on her face as she kept an eye on the house Fornell was in. The heat was almost unbearable and the stupid Jeep didn't have air conditioning. She wiped her brow, and out of the corner of her eye saw EJ pull something from the visor.

"What did you find?" Kensi asked curiously, having caught EJ's reaction to whatever it was that she now tried to hide from Kensi.

"Nothing, really. Just an old picture. Nothing important." EJ stated guiltily.

"Nothing, huh? You sure aren't acting like it's nothing. Let me see it," Kensi demanded.

"I don't think so, Blye. Forget it. Let's keep our eyes down the street. Focus." EJ tried to change the subject, knowing she was only delaying the inevitable.

"No way. You keep an eye down the street. Give me the picture!" Kensi leaned towards the other agent, swiping at the photo. She was quick, but EJ was able to block the attempt. "Let me see the damn picture, Barrett. It can't possibly be anything impor-"

Knowing that Blye would not quit in her quest to view the picture, EJ relented and held it out so that it was facing Kensi. She waited with bated breath on the reaction of the jealous agent.

Kensi stopped mid-sentence when she realized who was in the picture. Her eyes widened much like EJ's had when she saw it. She reached out slowly and took the worn photo from Agent Barrett's hand. She grasped the picture gently, just barely touching the edges to keep from ruining the image with her sweaty fingers. She studied the photo closely, in awe - and at the same time, heartbroken. Not for herself, surprisingly enough, but for both people in the picture. It was Eva and Deeks. Someone had caught the two of them in an intimate moment they had shared. They were standing on a beach. Both were in swim suits; Deeks in his normal trunks and Eva in a very revealing bikini. She had been a knockout, Kensi had to admit. They were embracing each other, but were looking towards the camera. Deeks had his arms around Eva's waist, while she had her left arm around him with her right hand resting lovingly on his chest as she leaned into him. The look of happiness on both their faces took Kensi's breath away.

EJ stared at Kensi as she looked at the photo, not sure what to make of the woman's reaction. She definitely was not expecting the look of sadness she saw on Kensi's face. She expected, anger, jealousy, yelling...anything but the quiet that now enveloped them both.

Before either could say anything else, Tobias jerked a rear door open and startled the pair as he climbed in and slammed it.

When they got over the initial surprise of Tobias' arrival, EJ asked him how it went. Kensi hurriedly tucked the photo in her shirt pocket and waited for his reply.

"It was going rather well," he replied slowly.

"I don't like your tone. Something is up. What is it?" Kensi asked with a concerned voice.

"I got us a meeting with the person wanting Gibbs' team taken out." He started to explain.

"Well that's a good thing, right?" EJ responded.

"You'd think, yeah. But we have a slight problem." Tobias paused as he looked from EJ to Kensi.

"What's the problem?" Kensi demanded.

"He wants my shooter, you, to take out somebody they think is leaking information. Tying up loose ends, they said, " he continued.

"Okay, so I take out some scumbag to get us in and then we, along with Deeks, can close in and wrap it up."

"It's not that easy, Kensi. They think the leak is Stew Gilmer."

EJ gasped. Kensi looked confused for a split second, and then it hit her who they wanted her to kill.

"They want me to shoot Deeks?"

TBC

Author's note: Thanks to MJ2709, RhondaLara, honus47, Hoosier65, fanficforyou, and CoastalReader for the reviews/PM's. Special thanks to honus47 for the prompt about EJ and Kensi finding a picture in Eva's Jeep.