Wat has news for Marty and Hank. And finally, Lt. Bates appears again. He gets first hand experience with Marty's humor, but he gives as good as he gets. What's he want from Marty? My minions are worried because they say I have that gleam in my eyes whenever I think of hurting Marty. What can I say but I'm a really nice person and I promise to put him back in as good condition as I found him in. You'll have to trust me on that. In the words of Maxie Kay (Check her out; if you haven't read her stories, you don't know what you're missing!) "He maims so beautifully!"

I only own my original characters which include Mrs. Richardson, Samuel Deeks, David Herrera, Henry Cole, William Watkins, Brian Groves, Richard, Angela and Michael McDonald.

All characters from the show are the property of NCIS Los Angeles. Sadly, I will never own the show or the characters.

Anything in italics are thoughts. Anything in bold type is a quote from one of the episodes of the show.

Reviews are always welcome and let me know the story is being enjoyed. Please keep them coming.

Enjoy.

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CHAPTER 25: Meeting Lt. Bates

Marty met with the police psychologist as soon as he could. He didn't want to waste any more time away from work. As soon as he was cleared he was back in the office working cases. With every case Marty worked on, he continued compiling one of the best arrest records in the department. After he was instrumental in taking down Manuel Guerrera, everyone throughout the department knew he was a straight arrow. No one dared offer him bribes or ask him to look the other way when something illegal was occurring. He didn't condone any shady deals and had an absolute hatred for dirty cops which the whole department now knew about. He continued doing his job and received several more commendations. He became the youngest Detective 2 the LAPD had. His talent for taking on aliases became well known in the department and he usually drew the trickiest assignments because he was the best they had.

His arrest record and his unswerving loyalty and honesty led to jealousy on the part of some officers who were either not as good as he was, didn't work as hard as he did or weren't averse to looking the other way on occasion. Marty heard some of the taunts and scuttlebutt about him being a goody two shoes, but didn't let them or the veiled insults bother him. He had heard much worse as a child than anything that was tossed his way in the department. He used his humor, quips and smart-ass remarks to good use when someone insulted him.

Many of the cops were uncomfortable around him because he was an undercover officer. He knew he couldn't do anything about that. The other detectives working undercover had told him it was the nature of the beast; that undercover cops made other cops uneasy because sometimes when they were under really deep they had to do things that weren't strictly legal to get the job done. There was always the suspicion that a cop under deep cover might forget right and wrong and become who they were pretending to be.

He had his friends in the department such as Richard and Mac as well as a few other cops who were as dedicated as he was. His friends in the department along with his friends from outside the department were enough for him. As always Wat and Hank watched over him and made sure he wasn't working too hard. Along with Wat and Hank, Marty knew Angela would get on his case if she felt he needed it and Brian would set him down and give him a tongue lashing. Whenever he thought about his friends, he knew they had his back no matter what happened.

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Marty was relaxing at home on evening looking through his mail when he found what looked like an invitation. He was thinking "Who would invite me to something that requires a formal invitation?" as he opened the envelope. When he realized it was an invitation to the wedding of Wat and Sara, he was completely surprised. He hadn't even known Wat had gotten that serious. "Wow, he has it bad. I hope she's the one for him and that he's found his soul mate" he thought. "Now if only I could find mine." Grabbing his cell, he immediately called Hank.

"Hank, Did you know Wat was getting married?" he asked as soon as Hank answered his call.

"What! Are you putting me on Book? I haven't heard a word about Wat getting married. Don't mess with me Book."

"I'm not messing with you. I have the invitation right here in my hand. He's been holding out on us again, the little sneak! What are we going to do about it?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm all for grabbing his ass and making him come clean with the both of us! You up for that?"

"Sure, come pick me up and we'll go kick his ass first and then congratulate him."

Hank picked Marty up about thirty minutes later and they picked up some beer and showed up at Wat's condo. Hank knocked on the door and when Wat answered, he growled at him "Just when were you going to tell us. Marty here had to find out when he got the invitation. He told me because I haven't even gotten one! Some friend you are!"

"Whoa guys, I was going to tell you this Friday when we met for dinner. I didn't know Sara's mother was going to send out the invitations so soon."

Marty piped up "You going to invite us in or aren't we good enough for you any more now that you're going to be a married man?"

"Don't be a wise ass Marty. Of course you can come in. I have something I want to discuss with the both of you. I was going to do it on Friday, but since you already know about the wedding, I'll do it now."

Wat stepped back from the door as Marty and Hank walked into his apartment with the beer. All three of them sat down in the living room while Wat began telling them about Sara and the wedding. "I asked her to marry me about three months ago. We didn't want to have a long engagement which is why the invitations have already gone out. As you've probably realized, Sara's mother is a little controlling. It's been a struggle to keep her from taking over completely."

"So what did you want to talk to us about?" Hank asked.

"I can't have both of you as my best man as much as I would like to, so I want you two to decide who will be the best man and who will be my chief groomsman. Knowing you two, I figured you would come up with some kind of bet or something to decide it."

"Nah, I'll be the groomsman." Marty replied. "With working undercover like I do, it's better if I'm in the background a little bit. Hank here can have the glory of being the best man and standing up there in front of everybody holding on to the rings." Turning to Hank, he snarked "Just don't go losing the rings man. That wouldn't be cool."

"Moron! I wouldn't lose the rings. Besides, what if I don't want to be the best man?" Hank jumped in. Turning to Wat, he continued "Did you ever think of that?"

"Too late! You're it." Marty started laughing at the look on Hank's face.

"I'd be honored Wat. Even though this moron is trying to get my goat about it." Hank groused.

"I'll be honored to be your groomsman. You didn't think we wouldn't want to be part of your big day did you? We're just giving you a hard time."

"I can tell, it's nothing you haven't done before." Wat answered them. "So are we going to drink those beers or just look at them?"

The three of them spent the rest of the evening giving each other a hard time. Hank and Marty kept teasing Wat about his life as he knew it being over and Wat teasing them about becoming grumpy old bachelors because they couldn't find and keep a girl.

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It wasn't until after he became a cop that Marty began to play his beloved violin again. It started one evening after he completed a long tough undercover assignment as what would become his most hated alias, Max Gentry. He was sitting in his apartment trying to divest himself of the last remnants of his alias. He was a little banged up so he hadn't been able to hit the beach and surf like he normally did when he was under a lot of stress. It was the first time he had used an alias loosely based on his father and he was finding it difficult to rid himself of the feelings of rage and guilt he felt since the Max Gentry alias was a total asshole who liked to hurt people. Trying to think of something he could do to get rid of his feeling of Max, he remembered Sam's violin and pulled it out of his closet.

He spent some time cleaning, polishing and tuning it before standing in front of his window that faced the ocean and beginning to play a simple tune. With every note he was able to pull from the violin, he remembered Sam and could feel the dark feelings slowly dissipate. He played tune after tune until his fingers began to ache before putting his instrument away, marveling at the feeling of lightness that now ran through his body. Playing the violin had been exactly what he needed to git rid of his Max Gentry alias.

From then on, he tried to play several times a week to keep his fingers and hands in shape. The violin wasn't an instrument that could be ignored for years and then picked back up and played effortlessly. It took commitment and dedication, something Marty had a lot of. He would play after especially trying days or whenever he needed to shut the world out for a while. Playing his violin was like surfing in a way. They were both things that required effort to do well, reminded him of good times with Sam and always brought him peace of mind. He could think of Sam with love and joy every time he picked the violin up and knew Sam would be proud of him for continuing to play, if only for himself.

He still wasn't about to play for anyone else. His playing was too private and meant too much to him to share with anyone who wasn't as close to him as Sam and his mother had been.

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Marty had been working undercover cases for four years when a particularly heinous case was assigned to him. It involved going under cover at a gay bar that catered to a more flamboyant gay clientele to catch a hate group targeting young gay men and assaulting them. Each time the group found another target, they escalated their violence against the victim. The last time they had struck, the victim ended up in the hospital in critical condition. The fear was that the next victim might end up dead which was why he got the assignment. He had cemented his reputation as the best undercover cop the department had. Lt. Bates had become his superior officer a few months before the undercover operation was assigned to him and called him into his office to get to know him a little better before deciding whether or not to give him the assignment or find someone else in the department.

Marty arrived at Lt. Bates office and knocked on the door.

"Come in Detective Deeks." Lt. Bates said as he looked up and saw who was standing there.

"Thank you sir" Marty replied as he stood in front of his lieutenant.

"Sit down, I don't bite."

"You sure about that boss?" Marty quipped before sitting down in the chair across from his desk. "What did you want to see me about?"

Lt. Bates gave him a look then continued "I wanted to talk to you. As your new Lieutenant, I like to get to know the detectives working for me. Tell me a little about yourself."

"What do you want to know?" Marty asked. He didn't feel comfortable telling anyone about his background so wanted to get an idea of what Lt. Bates really wanted to find out about him.

"I understand you used to be an attorney. Tell me why you decided to quit practicing law and become a cop instead."

"Better pay and prettier girls?" Marty snarked.

"There's that humor I've heard a lot about" Lt. Bates replied. "Just answer the question, okay. I already know you're a smart ass."

Marty thought about what Lt. Bates was asking before he began. At least now he had some idea of what to say. "Well, in all seriousness, I guess it came down to the fact that I feel I can do more good for the victims and intended victims by catching the bad guys before a crime occurs than I can prosecuting them once the crime has been committed. By then, it's really too late for many of the victims, especially the children. They've had their childhoods taken away from them by that time and no prison sentence that the perp might receive will ever give them back their innocence or their childhood. No one, especially a child, will become a victim of violence if there is anything I can do about it. I have a better chance of preventing it from happening as an undercover cop than I did as a lawyer." Marty stopped for a moment before continuing. "The final case I worked on…well, what can I say. It about destroyed me. You probably heard about it, the Ethan Colfax case?"

"That was you working that case in the DA's office? I thought your name sounded familiar. You did a hell of a job and nailed that bastard. I remember thinking the attorney prosecuting that case was masterful. Instead of getting a plea bargain, he got everything he deserved."

"That was me. By the time that case was over, I wasn't sleeping and was close to burning out completely. I had been thinking about changing careers for a while and that case solidified the feeling. I talked it over with some friends, applied to the police academy, quit my job as an attorney even though I've kept my license up to date, and here I am."

Lt. Bates watched as well as listened as Marty talked about why he became a cop. He knew more about Marty than Marty himself realized. Lt. Bates was ex-military intelligence and a very thorough man. He looked into the background of every cop under his command. He had read everything he could find about Marty's childhood, his time as an attorney and the cases he had worked on since he became a cop. He couldn't believe he had missed the fact that Marty was the prosecuting attorney on the Colfax case. He had discovered an extremely strong moral thread running through everything Marty did. Along with that was the highly protective nature that showed up in all of Marty's dealings with victims, but especially with children. Everything he read and everyone he talked to brought up Marty's empathy when interacting with abused or frightened children. He could get them to talk to him and tell him things they wouldn't tell anyone else.

Along with that ability, Lt. Bates had discovered just how very good Marty was at undercover work. Everyone talked about his ability to slip into any undercover persona almost seamlessly, from a homeless bum to a junkie, to a badass jerk and on up to more high-society aliases. Whatever the alias was, he was able to become it to an astonishing degree. His handlers had nothing but praise for his abilities in the field. Lt. Bates had also heard about Marty's humor, quips and smart-ass remarks. He instinctively knew it was a way for Marty to protect himself.

Lt. Bates knew some of the other officers resented Marty, but he wasn't going to let that color his perceptions of him. He was a man who liked to make his own judgements about people and he had a lot of respect for the man sitting in front of him. He knew both Richard and Mac and had talked to them extensively about the man he was now getting to know for himself.

He asked his next question "How do you like undercover work? I've been reading your file and you're clearly extremely good at it."

This question was much easier for Marty to answer "I love it, plain and simple."

"Do you ever worry about getting made?" Lt. Bates really wanted to know the answer to this question. It was one of the questions he had been leading up to.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be a very good undercover cop if I didn't. That worry has to be there for any undercover cop to do a good job. You can't let the worry turn into fear but you can use it to make sure you've done everything possible to prevent being made. If you don't think you can be made, you get sloppy. When you get sloppy is when you start making the mistakes that will come back to bite you in the butt at the worst possible moment."

"How do you come up with your aliases?" was the next question Lt. Bates was interested in asking.

"Look, you know I was an attorney, right? And if I say so myself, I was a damn good one. I know how to do research and that's the first thing I do when I'm coming up with an alias. I research the operation and the people involved. Then using what I've learned, I try to come up with an alias that will fit in with the people involved. Once I have the broad outlines in my head, that's when I start working on the look, the speech patterns, the walk and anything else that's necessary to create a believable alias. I had great training officers and they both taught me a lot about going undercover and aliases. The more I learn in this job, the more I appreciate just how good of a training officer both Richard and Mac are. Any alias I come up with has got to be believable and I have to be able to be that person indefinitely if required. It's what you pay me to do. Does that answer all your questions?" Marty was beginning to wonder exactly why Bates wanted to know so much. He was starting to feel like he was in a job interview. "Are you going to give me a raise? I could sure use one" he quipped.

"No, no raise; sorry kid." Lt. Bates could tell that Marty was getting antsy but he had learned enough. "Yes, you've told me everything I wanted and needed to know. I wasn't lying when I said I like to get to know the detectives working for me and I've learned a lot about you. But I also wanted to get a personal read on what type of undercover cop you are because a particularly nasty undercover operation is being mounted and I think you're the right person for the job. I have one last question for you though. What do you think of gay people?"

Marty looked at him in confusion. "Wow, that question came out of left field. Is he trying to find out what my sexual orientation is? Just what does he expect me to say? All I can tell him is the truth and we'll see where this goes from there. If he's a bigot I'll find out now, I guess." Thinking about Brian, he was able to answer with honesty "One of my best friends is gay." Being Marty, he had to continue "Why, you interested in me? Really, I know I'm awesome, but isn't there a rule about fraternization?"

"You have a high opinion of yourself don't you kid." Lt. Bates came right back at him. Even with the smart-ass remarks Marty had thrown out in the talk with him, Lt. Bates was impressed with the detective sitting in front of him. He had also heard what he wanted to hear.

"Let me give you the broad outlines of the undercover operation we're mounting." He laid out the entire case for Marty including the escalating violence against gay men and what he wanted to do to catch the assailants. When he was finished briefing Marty, he asked "Do you want to take this case? I'm asking for a volunteer because this is a very dangerous undercover operation. I think you're the best officer we have and the right one for this job, but I won't order you to do it. I want someone who is at least confident they can pull it off successfully. Do you think you're that person?"

Marty took his time thinking about everything he had been told before answering "Yes, I think I have the best chance of success in this operation. When do I start?"

"We're getting some officers placed undercover in the club now. Once they're in place and have established themselves, you'll go in undercover as a gay man. In essence you're going to be the bait to set the trap. Are you okay with that?"

"Sure, as long as we catch these bastards" Marty replied.

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