I feel like a broken record, but thank you again for all the reviews and encouraging words! This chapter is a set-up chapter for future events, so it's a little case heavy. Read it and enjoy it for what it is.

"You guys broke up, didn't you?" Sam asked, staring at his co-worker's desk. There was a feast of every genre of junk food spread across the space. An open bag of cheese puffs was in one corner, and a tray of cookies stood open on top of her inbox. A package of miniature chocolate bars spilled across unfinished paperwork, and a two-liter of soda kept guard near the phone. In her hands was a plate with a large slice of cheesecake and a fork.

She nodded her head and swallowed. "How did you know?"

"Because the only time I see women surround themselves with that many calories at once is after a break-up," he responded. He surveyed her breakfast buffet again. "What time did you get in this morning?"

"I've been here a long time. I couldn't sit at home alone anymore. It's over. I thought he was the one, but obviously I was wrong." Sobbing and sniffling followed the last word.

"Who's wrong, and about what?" Callen strode into the bullpen and set his bag down.

"Barbie and Ken broke up," his partner informed him with a tip of his head to the side.

Callen looked up, oblivious to the sounds of despair coming from the female agent. "Sorry." He shrugged his shoulders. "See Sam, another good reason to not be in a relationship – don't have to worry about impending break ups."

Sam shook his head at him. "But I just want to see you happy, settled down with a nice girl, G."

"Don't start with me, Sam. We've had this conversation before. You're not my mother."

"Yeah, that would be really weird," Deeks added to the conversation as he entered the bullpen with Kensi. "Good morning… or not," he said as he noticed Jenny's puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "Wow," he whispered to himself upon seeing her desk.

Kensi immediately went over to her. "How are you doing? When? Did he, or did you?"

Jenny accepted a hug from Kensi. The two women made their way over to the couch to talk, hug and cry it out. Deeks kept stealing glances over his shoulder at them, and made juvenile faces as he felt the need. After a death glare from his girlfriend, however, he quickly turned around and focused on the growing pile of folders on his desk.

Callen laughed. "How's that data entry going there, probie?"

"Looks like he might be done before his son's 18th birthday if he's lucky," Sam contributed, brushing cookie crumbs back onto Jenny's side of their workspace.

"You two are hilarious. You should really take your show on the road. I think I-5 is a good road in particular, right around 5 pm," Deeks tried to joke in return.

Just then a whistle sounded. "Everyone up! We got a new case," Eric announced from the top of the stairs. The team hurried up and assembled in Ops.

"We've got a dead Marine," Eric began. He flashed a picture of a man in bloody civilian clothes onto the large screen. "PFC Michael Looten was found in an alley near the Flat Top bar."

"The Flat Top is a bar just outside Pendleton popular with the local Marines, their hang out you could say," Nell took over. "A few guys found Looten's body as they were leaving around midnight and called the cops."

"The cause of death is severe trauma to the head. It appears he was beaten to death," Eric reported looking between his tablet and the team.

Callen studied the image on the screen. "Why are we getting involved? It sounds like a brawl outside a bar with some drunken Marines that went too far. The cops or the agents in San Diego should be handling this."

"Glad you asked," Nell responded. "They called us because of this." She tapped an icon and swiped the screen of her tablet. A picture of a piece of paper with some writing came up on the screen.

"What is that? Some secret code?" Jenny asked, having recovered her voice from her earlier sob session.

Before Nell or Eric could respond, Callen jumped in. "No, that's Russian. I'm just skimming quickly, but it looks like something about a delivery, but the corner of the message is ripped off," he said reading the notations on the screen.

Eric read something on his tablet. "One other thing. There were trace amounts of heroin found on his clothing, but his tox screen came back completely clean. No drugs of any kind in his system."

"Maybe he was just the delivery boy. E2's don't make much," Kensi commented.

Callen looked over all the images on the screen one more time. Turning to his team, he started giving directions. "Deeks, Jenny, I want you two to head down to Pendleton and talk to Looten's CO, guys in his unit, find out more about him, where he's from, what he likes to do, who he hangs out with, etc. Sam and I will go check out the crime scene and the bar. Kensi, I want you to work with Eric and Nell. Find out if there is any surveillance video from the area last night – from the bar, nearby businesses, traffic cams, paranoid neighbors, I don't care. There's got to be something to give us a clue about who did this and why. Also, get in touch with the lab and see if there is anything on that paper like fingerprints or a watermark, anything we can use to identify who wrote the note."

The team dispersed into their separate directions. The rest of the day was spent chasing leads, questioning persons of interest, and following up on details. It was a long time before any of them had a chance to sleep that night.

"Please tell me someone found something useful to this case," Deeks said yawning the next morning. "Jenny and I found a whole lot of nothing yesterday. Looten's CO and fellow Marines all said he was a great guy, no trouble, eager to move up the ranks in his career."

"G and I talked to a few people yesterday. Said they heard arguing outside the club around 11 pm in some language they didn't understand, but they didn't bother checking it out. People argue outside bars all the time," Sam reported.

"That's an hour before his body was found," Kensi observed, walking toward her desk with a large cup of coffee.

"That better be decaf," Deeks said as he pointed at her beverage. She looked at him and nodded while rolling her eyes.

"Eric, Nell, what did you guys find? Anything on video?" Callen asked the tech team. They looked as tired as the rest of the group.

"Not much. Bar owner doesn't have video surveillance, said it invades his customers' privacy too much, and none of the home owners nearby had video systems either," Nell said.

"But we did get a small lead, maybe," Eric reported. He tapped his tablet and a video showed up on the small screen in the bullpen. "This is from the traffic cam at the intersection about a half a block down. We can't use facial rec because the images get fuzzier the closer we zoom in, and can't clean it up well enough to make an ID. It looks like there were four people total in that alley – Looten and three others. If I had to make a guess, I would say they are all male based on body shape and build."

The team watched the screen as a group of four men gestured wildly and mouths moved in silent anger. Then suddenly three men began beating on the fourth. A still body was left lying on the ground as the three disappeared.

"Eric, can you zoom in on their clothes? Right… there." Kensi looked intently at the screen. On the back of the men's shirts were two characters. She pointed to them. "See those right there? Can anyone tell what they are?"

"Are those Greek letters? Like my sorority in college. We were the Alpha Delta Pi," Jenny chimed in. "We had the Greek letters on t-shirts and sweatshirts and all sorts of things."

Callen frowned. "Not Greek. Those are Russian letters, like in the note yesterday that was found with the body. I'm guessing the three men are members of a Russian brotherhood or gang." He looked at Jenny. "I'm fairly certain there wasn't a fraternity out last night beating up a Marine."

Deeks snapped his fingers. "I've got just the guy to talk to over at LAPD. Charlie Jensen is with the gang unit and has worked with eastern European and Russian groups for several years."

"Great, give his contact info to Kensi. Kensi, call this Jensen and find out what you can about Russian gangs or groups in LA, especially any that might be involved in heroin or any drug trafficking."

"What about the rest of us?" Jenny asked.

"I want you two," Callen motioned to Deeks and Jenny, "to go back and talk to Looten's platoon buddies. There has got to be some connection between the Russians and our Marine. Sam and I are going to pay a visit to my old friend Arkady. If anyone knows something about the Russians' activities here, he will."

"Yeah, but will he tell you about it? He's not always up front with what he knows, G," Sam reminded him.

"Then we will just have to ask nicely."

Later that afternoon, Sam and Callen returned from their visit with Arkady.

"So we still don't know a whole lot, other than yes, Russians have been known to deal heroin," Sam said. "No specifics, no names of gangs. I told you he wouldn't give us anything useful."

"Did he seem weird to you? More than usual I mean. There was something off about Arkady today – he knows more than he's saying. I definitely think he's withholding something, and I'm going to find out. Tomorrow," Callen responded to his partner as he sat down at his desk. "Hey Kensi. Find anything out from LAPD?"

Instead of a spoken answer, all he heard was a sniffle. Callen looked at the female agent and saw that she was softly crying. There were tear stains on her cheeks, indicating that she had been crying for a bit before they came back.

"Kensi? Are you ok?" Callen asked.

She shook her head back and forth and tried to wipe tears away.

"Hey, whatever it is, it's going to be… ok, I think?" Callen reached his right arm out and patted her shoulder in an almost robotic fashion. He was not real comfortable with crying females and pregnant crying ones made him feel even less at ease. Kensi started to cry harder.

"Kens, I'm sure it'll be ok." Callen looked over to Sam. "Where's Deeks?"

"He's still out with Jenny at Pendleton," he replied.

Kensi closed a file folder in front of her and buried her face in her hands. She was close to sobbing. Callen tried again.

"Hey, Kensi, it's going to…" He removed his hand from her shoulder as she continued to cry harder and harder. "Yeah, no. I have no idea what to do here. Sam, you take this." Callen stood up and muttered something about crying women and Nell being next before he walked away.

Sam frowned at his partner's actions but came over and crouched down next to Kensi. Very gently, he placed a hand on her back and began rubbing in a circular motion. "This always helped Michelle when she was pregnant. Can you tell me what's upsetting you? I'd like to try to help," Sam said softly and sincerely.

Eventually Kensi calmed down enough to speak. She pointed to the closed file folder and explained that she was upset about the case.

"He was just a baby," Kensi started. "Only twenty years old, and now he's gone." She quietly started to cry again.

"Kensi, we see cases like this all the time. While it's never an easy thing, what is it about this one that has you worked up more than usual?" Sam asked her.

She wiped a tear away. "I just keep thinking about his mom. What must she be going through? What was it like for her when the chaplain showed up at her home? I can't imagine losing a child, and mine isn't even here yet."

Sam nodded in understanding. Kensi's maternal feelings were kicking into overdrive with this case and she was empathizing with the victim's parents.

"Come here," Sam told her as he stood up and held his arms out. "It will be ok. We're going to do everything we can to solve this case so no other parents have to lose a son or daughter. You with me?"

Kensi sniffled and nodded her head as Sam embraced her. "Thank you Sam."