Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a good New Year's and such - it's taken me up until now to get past Christmas!

Thanks to everyone who has favorite-ed, alerted, reviewed or messaged me about this story - you guys are great. I love reading your thoughts (and in all honesty, a major chunk of this chapter was written because of your comments!) and keep them coming!

As usual, I still don't own the show.

Enjoy!

The newly-risen sun elongated Kensi's shadow as she walked toward the abandoned building that housed the Office of Special Projects. She had insisted on taking a cab over Callen's objections – her vehicle was at work already and she refused to let him bring her anywhere near the building. The team was suspicious enough as it was and they didn't need to see her driving around with their prime suspect.

Her head had been on a swivel all morning, watching and waiting for one of Barden's men to jump out behind every parked car and dark alley. The idea was unlikely seeing as no one had found their undercover headquarters yet (even though more determined and pissed off people had tried). But the threat alone was all too real. Unease flooded her mind as the cool metal of her gun provided reassurance that helped her keep her focus.

Kensi knew that it would be quiet in OPS this early in the morning. Optimistically, Deeks wouldn't show up for another couple of hours and Sam would head straight for the gym, probably dragging Dom with him whenever the junior agent turned up. But as she hoped for her team's slow arrival, she knew the person she had to see would already be working in these early hours.

While the agents were allowed to show up a little later in the morning, the technical operators were almost always there early, taking on the long and arduous task of research for cases. And for all that Kensi and the team liked to complain about the danger of field work and the emotional toll of cases, she wouldn't ever trade her job with theirs.

Her footsteps made a haunting sound as they echoed off the halls of the building, the steady thuds all that could be heard. Against the voice of hopeful reason in her head, she found herself looking at everything as though it was the last time she would see it. The worn out couch in the bullpen, the desks overflowing with reports…this was her home.

She couldn't imagine not being an NCIS agent – everything she'd done in her life had brought her here. But if that was the price to be paid to take down a man like Barden, it was worth it. Wasn't that how they justified everything that had to be done before; every questionable mission, every insincere promise to an innocent person? Kensi sighed and steeled her resolve. The answer was yes; it was always yes. The ends would always justify the means – they had to.

Kensi made her way up the stairs and into the blue-lit tech room. She could see Nell in the corner of the room, using one of the many computers to do background checks for someone else's case. She made no indication of noticing the agent's arrival, only continued in her work. It was only when Kensi spoke that she turned in her chair.

"Morning, Nell."

"Kensi," the tech replied, glancing at her briefly before continuing her work. "You're here early today."

Kensi had considered going to Eric but ultimately decided that Nell would be better for this particular task. After all, the other operator was already suspicious of her and was known to crack under pressure from Hetty. Nell had proven before that she could keep people in the dark on things, even their formidable operations manager.

"I needed to see you, actually."

This seemed to get Nell's attention for she stopped typing, turning to give Kensi her full attention. "What for?"

Kensi pulled the flash drive from her pocket and held it out. "I need the information on this drive," she stated, watching as Nell put the drive into the computer and hit a few keys. When the familiar lines of random letters and numbers appeared, she continued. "Can you decrypt it?"

"It's going to take me a few minutes," Nell answered just as the phone behind her began to ring. "What case is this for?"

Kensi went to the ringing phone. "It's a case I'm working," she evaded, reading the extension number on the phone with a sense of dread before picking up. "Yes?"

"Good morning, Ms. Blye," Hetty's clipped accent came through the wire. "I would like a word with you."

"Okay," she responded before the line went dead. "How long?" Kensi asked, turning back to Nell. She didn't want to leave the drive alone but knew that not meeting up with Hetty would only be asking for trouble.

Nell hesitated. "Give me fifteen minutes?"

Kensi nodded and walked out of the room, bounding down the stairs and over to the small platform in the room. She hoped that whatever Hetty had to ask wouldn't take long and she could get back to Nell. Because some part of her felt safer just by keeping the drive within sight, as if she could protect the information on it simply by being near.

She elongated her steps and made it to the platform in record time while keeping a composed and calm exterior. Hetty was puttering around her desk when Kensi spoke.

"You wanted to see me, Hetty?"

"A most unusual case came to my attention," she started casually, turning to face her agent. Kensi impatiently looked up the stairs and didn't register her op manager's tone or her stare. "A high-speed chase and shooting over the weekend."

"Was anyone injured?" Kensi asked absently and Hetty shook her head in way of an answer. "Sounds like a case for LAPD, then."

"Normally it would be," Hetty responded. "But as you were a passenger in one of the vehicles, I thought it would be better suited for NCIS."

Kensi's gaze widened and snapped from the door upstairs to the small woman in front of her. Her mouth fell open and she closed it, repeating the motion several times as she tried to find a response. How in the…?

Hetty put a hand up. "I didn't tell you this so you would explain. In fact, I would like to do some of the explaining," she stated, walking around to sit behind her desk.

Kensi was still trying to figure out how she knew about that night and didn't immediately register what Hetty had just said. She finally found her voice after she realized that this would be a rare opportunity for answers from a woman who typically gave few.

"How long?" she questioned, setting herself down in a chair without taking her wide eyes off Hetty.

"Some time." Kensi was baffled that Hetty responded as though it were just a simple question and not the mess it really was. But her voice soon grew solemn. "Your team hasn't asked questions out of respect for your privacy. I do not have that luxury when it comes to my agents."

Kensi sat stunned for a moment and gazed at the desk. It had been naïve of her to think she could keep anything secret from Hetty, especially with the way she'd been acting as of late, but the operation manager's apparent wealth of knowledge (added to the fact that this was the first time she'd mentioned knowing) was still surprising. The fact that she knew so much about what was going on made Kensi wonder what else she knew.

"So you know about him?" she asked, watching the older woman's impassive face. There was no need to elaborate, as she was well aware that Hetty heard between the lines she spoke.

"Yes, I know. I know that you have been meeting in secret with none other than Mr. Callen. I'm not condemning you, dear," she added hastily at the expression on Kensi's face. "I only want to stress the implications of what you are doing."

"So you believe Callen is innocent?" she asked after a pause, leaning in closer to the desk. "You must, since we're talking like this."

Hetty paused. "I had hand-chosen Mr. Callen for his position in NCIS," she said carefully. "And while I have been wrong before, I knew he wouldn't have murdered a suspect. If he had, we wouldn't have found out," she said as an afterthought.

"But Sam and everyone else believed it."

"Sam and Callen had only been working together for a short time. And as I'm sure you've noticed, Callen has a tendency to do things on his own terms. And it did not always sit well with Sam's SEAL mentality. But they were an effective team," she added. "And they trusted each other. Sam merely sees it as his duty to bring Callen in, not determine his guilt, even though I doubt he believes it himself." There was another pause as Hetty watched her agent with a somber expression. "We never did find who really killed Trent Durke, which doesn't help Mr. Callen's case at all."

Hetty's last statement caused Kensi's head to snap up. "You don't know about Barden?"

The older woman's face gave nothing away, but there was something glinting in her eyes that went against her words. "I know that James Barden is an extremely powerful and influential man who is running for Senate and has a lot of friends in very high places. I know he was a Colonel in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Pendleton the same time as your father. He is a man who has served and continues to serve his country."

Hetty mimicked Kensi by leaning forward slightly in her seat. "And any information beyond that falls on deaf ears unless you or Mr. Callen can prove, without a doubt, that he is otherwise."

"But can't you do something?" Kensi asked incredulously. "If you've known all this time, why hasn't anything been done yet?"

Hetty fixed her with a hard stare. "Do not think so lowly of me, Agent Blye. If this were only a matter of my personal job security, I would have had this mess cleared long ago. You don't think people haven't suspected Barden before? Mr. Callen put a few of the pieces together but he wasn't the first to do so, as I'm sure you know. Unorthodox methods are best in this case, and Mr. Callen's frame-up put him in a better position to use those methods. It's why the case was buried so quickly and why you had never even heard of an Agent Callen until recently."

"So you've been keeping Callen hidden?"

"Oh no, Ms. Blye, that was Mr. Callen's own ability," Hetty answered. "I simply kept NCIS from looking too hard."

"Does he know?" she asked after another long pause.

Hetty sighed, a rare occurrence for her. "I'm sure he suspects as much. I've always wanted to do more but there isn't much I can do – which brings me back to my original point. I cannot sanction anything you do outside of this agency. If you are caught working with him, you will likely be painted in the same light as Mr. Callen and blacklisted from NCIS. And you know everything that entails."

Kensi took a deep breath and stood from her seat. "Are you going to tell the team?"

Hetty fixed her with a gaze for a few moments as though considering her question (even though, as Kensi was well aware, Hetty always knew what her answer was before the question was asked). "They can't be kept in the dark forever, Kensi. Mr. Deeks has already come to me with questions and worries. Sam knows better than to ask, though it has been weighing on him. But," she paused, "they would undoubtedly join you if they knew what was going on. And so the question falls to you. Do you want them to know?"

Kensi considered her. Did she want her team, her family, to go through everything Callen had already gone through and everything she had ahead of her? Would she let them sacrifice their careers and possibly their freedom to take down Barden? It was never a question of whether the bastard was worth the risk, only a question of who should be responsible for the consequences.

Kensi knew that she would rather lose everything herself than ask anyone else to do the same. And if fate was on her side and she somehow made it out of this mess, their trust was all she would lose. And as painful as that would be, it was better than losing them all together. Steeling her reserve, Kensi faced Hetty's question head on, answer ready and unwavering.

"No."

But somewhere deep in the city, dark plans were in the works that made Kensi's response pointless.