Chapter 21

Deeks woke up and rubbed his head.

"What happened?" He asked, sitting up, groaning when he saw Nate sitting at the table patiently sipping a coffee, waiting for him.

"Where do you want to start?" Nate asked. "You attacked Agents' Gibbs and DiNozzo and tried to kill yourself."

"Damn." Deeks cursed.

"Yep pretty messed up," Nate agreed.

Deeks looked away at the wall. He was mad with himself as he had failed his final mission and was still alive. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now. He should be dead.

"You're wrong you know," Nate said cutting off his thoughts.

"Sorry?"

Nate leaned back, an air of relaxation all around him that seemed to permeate the whole room.

"I said you are wrong." Nate smiled, "You shouldn't be dead. The factory deceived you." He held up his hand as Deeks started to protest, "All your life they deceived you."

"It's not true," Deeks argued. "They saved me. You have no idea what my life was like before ma took me away from them."

"Them?" Nate asked.

"My biological parents...The Brandel's. They were nasty...well, my father was...you've seen my file, you know I shot him."

"I have seen your file. I know...I know that the Brandels are not your biological parents."

Deeks blinked in disbelief. "What? That's not true...why are you lying to me?" he stood up trying to see the file on the table.

"I would never lie to you Marty. What would I have to gain?" Nate asked keeping his voice calm and steady.

"Gain? You want to twist me into thinking that someone deliberately placed me with the most violent...evil..on purpose? Who in the Hell would do that?"

Nate looked at him full of sorrow, "I'm sorry. This isn't going to be easy for you to hear."

Deeks sank slowly into the chair across from Nate and gripped the edge of the table tightly.

"OK, go on," he said, the skepticism palpable in his voice.

"Alison and Mike Davis are your parents."

Deeks gave a small laugh, "They have the same name as my mom and my grandpa."

"No...they are your parents." Nate said deadly serious as he looked Deeks straight in the eye. The horror of what he had just said was sinking in.

"I...I sh...killed..my…." Deeks bent over and vomited into the trash can. "No!" He looked at Nate, "Please...please tell me you're lying...you are aren't you?" Deeks couldn't help the tear that fell as he processed the horrific newfound information.

Nate shook his head, "Look." He pulled out a DNA chart.

"What is it?" Deeks asked, "I mean...I know it's a DNA chart, but...mine?"

"Here...There are three, all transparent. This is yours, this one is from Mike Davis, and this one is from Alison Davis."

Deeks looked at it carefully. "Ok so mine match up, but how come hers and his have matches? They are not supposed to do that are they? Maybe the test is wrong."

Nate hated the fact that he had to do this to him. "No Marty the test is right. Mike Davis was Alison's father as well."

Deeks paled at the implication of his words. "I shouldn't have even been born." He gave a derisive laugh, "Thank God I don't have kids, they'd be mutants. You should have let me die! My mother was right, I am a freak of nature."

He dropped his head into his hands and silently sobbed. There was no way he could fall in love now and have a life like a real person. He was a freak.

"Why? Why didn't they tell me the truth? Why did they put me with the Brandels?" He asked, his eyes tearing up as he looked at Nate.

"I can tell you what we know," Nate informed him. "But it won't be easy for you to hear it."

Deeks gave a guttural disbelieving laugh, "Is it worse than what you have already told me?"

Thinking about it Nate had to shake his head, it really wasn't much worse.

"Tell me," he said feeling resigned to his fate.

"From what we've managed to uncover, you were born to Alison Davis when she was a teenager. She was training at The Factory and Hetty and Mike Davis were at that point, as far as we could tell, running The Factory. They decided that it would be a good idea for you to be trained as well."

"That's not what happened. I've never been trained by The Factory." Deeks argued. "I had mom, my grandparents and a normal life...I mean, I know what I remember."

"Ok...so harder than I thought," Nate said quietly. He walked to the table in the the corner of the room and took a laptop off it and placed a disc in the DVD drive.

"This is you," Nate said.

Deeks watched as a small, bruised and beaten blond haired eleven year old walked, shaking into a training ring. He was attacked by five older boys while Hetty and Alison stood watching at one side. A few minutes later a whistle blew and the boys moved back leaving a crying and beaten child in the center of the ring.

"Martin Brandel, Session 1." A voice was heard in the background on the disc.

The disc faded and then came back on again.

"Martin Brandel, session 5."

Deeks was a little taller and a bit more muscular. A dark look was on his face as he climbed into the ring.

Three of the five boys from earlier came in and looked warily at him but moved fluidly at the sound of the whistle.

This time he took the three boys down, but not without receiving a few punches in return.

The disc faded out for a third time before Hetty appeared.

"Phase two of the plan is now in motion. Martin has just been arrested for shooting his father. The Brandels did magnificently. They have been conditioned to treat Martin in such a manner that he would be pleased to be rescued and raised by Fern Deeks, who is in actual fact, his birth mother and my daughter, Alison Davis. We offered the Brandels the chance to be reunited with their own son. This will be happening as soon as Martin is settled in his new situation." Hetty smiled at the camera and laughed, "Of course they will be buried together, after all I am a sentimental old fool."

Deeks smiled at the sight of his grandmother laughing, a memory of happier times intruding on the seriousness of the situation. Nate looked concerned as he smiled at that point but decided to wait it out.

Hetty continued, "I am of the opinion that unlike the removal of the Comescu twins in the original inception of this program, which was although clean in it's execution, it still had a flaw, as we are still being chased by the Elder Comescu in pursuit of his children. This is a complication that future operatives will not have. Moving the Comescu boy every time his father gets close is proving costly. We were fortunate that my own daughter was punished and as a result became pregnant with the boy. So this seems to be more profitable. Of course, as investors in The Factory you may be able to either provide or father a child with any one of our female operatives who will be willing to have a child for this great cause." She smiled for the camera. "All operatives fathered by anyone will be promised protection in the future by The Factory and a return in their investment where applicable."

It faded again.

"Gentlemen… As you know The Factory is a long term operation, This is Martin Brandel today and is now known on the outside as Martin Deeks who is seen here graduating from the Police Academy."

His graduation was filmed from an acute angle, showing a proud Hetty, Alison and Mike all clapping as a smiling Deeks walked up and collected his badge and diploma. He grinned cheekily and waved at the trio.

It faded and the voice came on again.

"That was the implanted personality of Marty Deeks. Martin Brandel is shown now two hours later on the same day."

Deeks looked up at Nate in shock and then watched in horror as he was seen on screen beating six men, snapping the neck of one, laughing, egging them on and begging for more.

"That's not me!" he exclaimed shaking his head. "Or is it?"

"Eric and Sally verified it's unaltered footage."

"I'm...a murderer?" Deeks looked stunned. "How can this be? This is not what I remember. Not this...They were kind and loving. We took vacations as a family. This is wrong, but…" He reached out his hand and slammed the lid of the laptop shut, "I...I can't...I need some time, please?" he asked.

Nate nodded and stood up, "I'll see if we can find you something to eat and some tea…maybe some painkillers." He walked out and left a broken Deeks with his head in his arms bowed over the table.

Anya jumped as within seconds of her phone call, Laney walked in, "You were outside?" she asked.

Laney smiled, "I was on my way back to your house. Remember, I am staying at Ami and Greg's house. I was just next door."

Anya nodded, "I forgot. I need your help with Ami," she said filling her in on what had happened.

"Damn, you try calling G? He needs to calm down as it explains why I am so stressed and smoking more. Are you sure she said she was pregnant?" Laney asked, remembering something Hetty had said when she was a teenager.

Anya nodded, "I do not know how far along she is." She waited as Laney nodded. Her sister in law had got the term right. "However I fear what this will do to her. I have heard your brother talk about what happened to him at that awful place. I can't bear the thought it's happened to my baby girl."

"Let me talk to her, she needs to feel like she has some control over this."

Ami sat on her bed and cried as Laney knocked on the door.

"Ami...It's me, can I come in?" Laney asked.

Ami opened the door, her eyes red from crying. "Aunt Laney?"

Laney opened her arms and allowed her sobbing niece to cry into them.

"I'm so scared," Ami cried between breaths. "I don't want to do this alone, but...I need to talk to Martin. I need to know if he ever really loved me. I need to know if he wants to be a father to this child."

"Then we will go and see him." Laney stood up and handed her niece a tissue.

"But papa has forbid me. I can't get in there without him or a badge."

Laney grinned, "Your father isn't the only one with a badge. Now fix your hair and wash your face then let's go and see if we can sort things out."

Ami's face broke into a hopeful smile as she cleaned herself up, "Mama?" she looked up as Anya walked in with her purse.

"You think I am letting you out of my sight again for a while? Besides, someone will have to distract your father so you can get in."

Ami grabbed her bag, the positive pregnancy test it contained and followed her mother and aunt out the door.

Tony and Kelly jumped and let go of the other person's hands as Nate was leaving the interrogation room. The main door slammed as G came storming in. They both sat there for a second feeling guilty.

"Agent Comescu, with all due respect sir, I thought Director Vance ordered you to go home?" Tony said moving to intercept him.

"I did go home, that's the problem," G growled. "Has Nate finished with him yet?"

Nate walked out, "He's taking a break. He's had a hard session G. What do you need?" Nate asked.

"His head on a platter," G growled.

Nate stood his ground as G tried to push past.

"You are not getting in to see him right now. As his doctor, I won't allow it. He needs time to process what he's just learned."

"I need to process what I've just learned by pounding his face into the floor of the boatshed!" G went to pass Nate again and he moved.

"You never managed to make it past me when we were in therapy, what makes you think you can do it now?" Nate asked.

G grabbed Nate's arm, flipped all six feet and four inches of the man onto his back and put a boot on his throat.

"Because I was holding back then." G snarled and turned to walk towards the interrogation room.

Kelly and Tony pulled their guns.

"G. Don't' move. Deeks is in custody and under protection." Kelly looked at him worriedly. "Have you been activated again?" she asked.

G turned and cocked his head to one side looking at her like she was crazy, "No!" He dropped his hands and turned around, "It's not them Kel's...it's...well...Ami...She's...he's got her…." His hands balled up into fists, "I just wanna…."

Gibbs walked in with Laney and the girls on her heels.

"DADDY! STOP!" Ami yelled.