Chapter 21

Deeks walked slowly into the Mission, his body complaining with every step. He knew he should still be in the hospital but he'd been desperate to see her. It had been just over three weeks since he'd heard her voice, seen her face. He'd had no contact with anyone at NCIS during that time and he missed them, all of them, hell, he'd even missed Granger. Three days after the disastrous deposition meeting, he'd been called into LAPD for an undercover op. It had been expected to last a week but had ended up going on much longer. He had been under to infiltrate a drug ring he had had contact with before as Robert Jordan, a drug smuggler who would sell anything to the highest bidder. Everything had been on track when a rival ring had suddenly encroached on his target's territory. Miguel Rivera had not been happy and the buy had been put on hold while he dealt with his upstart rival. Deeks had had to hang around, pretending to support Miguel in his vendetta against Jorge Castillo. The rising tensions had come to a head earlier that day, the bullets and fists flying when Miguel had finally tracked down Jorge's headquarters and raided it. He'd been caught by three of Jorge's enforcers, two holding him while a third had beat the hell out of him. He'd been rescued by one of Miguel's guys who had shot all three. He, in turn, had lost half his head to a bullet from one of Jorge's guys, splattering blood and other things he didn't want to think about all over Deeks. The gun had then been trained on him when the cops had finally arrived.

He'd tried to give the code words to the rookie cop who had stumbled on them but, either the rookie had never been told what the words meant or he was just too caught up in the action and adrenalin rush to pay attention. Deeks had taken a baton to the head and woken up chained to a gurney in a hallway at Pacific Beach Medical. Once he'd been able to focus his eyes and started seeing one of everything instead of two or three, he'd caught the attention of the same rookie cop, who had been assigned to guard him, telling him quietly he was an undercover detective and needed to have the handcuffs removed. The rookie didn't believe him, thinking he was being played and Deeks had had to talk him into calling Lt. Bates. Once Bates had confirmed his identity, the guy had been quick to release him, apologizing profusely for bashing his head in, introducing himself as Officer Stan Wolinsky. He'd gone easy on the younger man, wanting nothing more than to get off that gurney and out of the hospital. He'd snuck out as soon as Wolinsky's attention had been directed elsewhere. He would deal with the fallout later.

Pausing outside the bullpen, out of sight of his team, he listened as the guys berated Kensi for something she had pulled earlier that day. It sounded like his girl had not been taking care of herself in his absence and Callen was calling her to task for it. He looked over at Hetty's desk and found her staring at him. He cocked his head at her and gave her a crooked smile. She nodded at him, her face breaking into a relieved smile. Stepping into the bullpen he said "I can't leave you guys alone for five minutes without you letting Kensi get into trouble!"

"Deeks!" shouted Kensi as she threw herself at him. He couldn't stop the groan that escaped when she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him hard. She stepped back and looked closely at him, taking in the almost swollen left eye and the bruises that were starting to form all over his face. "What the hell have you been up to?" she asked as she poked him in the side. The gasp of pain brought her hands to his t-shirt, starting to untuck it from his jeans.

He put his hands on hers to stop her. "Bit public for that kind of display, isn't it, Princess?" waggling his eyebrows at her. She brushed him off and finished pulling the t-shirt out from his jeans, lifting it up to expose the bruising starting to cover his abdomen and rib cage. She gasped at the sight.

"Deeks, what the hell? Not that we're not glad to see you but you should be in the hospital!" said Callen. Both men had crowded around Deeks and Kensi, happy to see the teammate they had missed sorely, not that either one would admit it out loud. Sam reached out and clapped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. Deeks grinned at all of them the best he could, the bruised muscles in his cheeks making their displeasure known.

He was about to respond when a red headed bullet launched from the bottom of the stairs that led up to ops and Nell landed in the dead center of his chest. He put his arms around her, partly to hug her and partly to stay upright when his vision started to grey from the pain her assault had triggered. She hugged him back saying "Shaggy! We missed you so much! I'm so glad you're back and you're okay."

He placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "I missed you too Velma. It's not the same running an op without you and Eric to keep watch over me." Looking up, he saw Eric standing just behind Nell, grinning from ear to ear. He was about to greet his surfing buddy when he heard rapid footsteps coming down the hall.

"Did I hear Deeks was back?" the familiar gravelly voice asked. Deeks eyes widened, was it possible that Granger had missed him?

His attention was brought back to Callen when the team leader said again "You should be in the hospital Deeks. You look like death warmed over."

"I needed to come home for a minute, I needed to see you guys." he said, too tired and fuzzy to realize he had just called the Mission home. His team picked up on it though, all of them looking with concern at their bruised and battered Liaison Officer. By this time, the man was swaying on his feet.

"Miss. Blye? Would you be so kind as to take our Mr. Deeks back to the hospital and make sure he is thoroughly checked out by a doctor?" Hetty asked.

Kensi nodded and turned to get her bag and keys. "I don't really need a hospital Hetty. Kensi can just take me home." he whined. Hetty just shook her head at him and turned to Kensi, raising her eyebrows. Kensi nodded at the unspoken order and came back to him, taking him gently by the elbow. He protested again, not wanting to go back to the place he just escaped from. He realized he had no memory of how he had gotten from the hospital to OSP.

Nell piped up. "Be a good boy Shaggy and do what Hetty asks. If you do, you'll get a treat when you get back."

Deeks looked at her in confusion. Treat? What the hell was she talking about? Why did everyone always insist on referring to him like he was a dog? "Nell, what exactly do you mean by that?"

She looked at him and grinned as she said "We got him Deeks! We got Timmons and it's everything you suspected and so much more. Now, the quicker you go to the hospital, the quicker you can come back and find out what Eric and I uncovered!"

Her words had the opposite effect of what she'd hoped. There was no way Deeks was going to walk out of this building without finding out what the twins had discovered. He shook Kensi's hand off and took a step towards the analyst just as his world turned to black and he collapsed. Sam had recognized the signs as Deeks's eyes had rolled back in his head and was able to catch him before he hit the floor. He lifted the detective easily into his arms and told Kensi to go get the car, he'd bring him out. The rest of the team, including Hetty and Granger scattered to various cars, none of them having any intention of staying at the Mission, waiting and worrying about Deeks's condition. They also wanted to be there when he regained consciousness and they could give him the news about the man they had all come to despise.