This is the last chapter of my story about Marty's life. Hetty makes him an offer he doesn't refuse and he finds out something about her. What can it be?

I only own my original characters which include Mrs. Richardson, Samuel Deeks, David Herrera, Henry Cole, William Watkins, Brian Groves, Richard and Angela Osborne, 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 the "Hand to Hand" episode of the show.

My minions and I really appreciate all the reviews this story has received. If you've enjoyed this story, especially this last chapter, please leave me a review.

Enjoy.

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CHAPTER 36: Marty Deeks, NCIS Liaison

Hetty's premier team was currently a person short and consisted of Callen, Sam and Kensi. She had other teams as well, but Callen's team was her favorite and was considered the 'creme de la creme' of teams in the Office of Special projects. She was very protective of all of the agents under her command but regarded Callen and his team more like surrogate children than subordinates and was very protective of them as well. She hadn't been surprised when Eric discovered that Marty's alias was only backstopped with a driver's license. LAPD didn't have the resources to do much in the way of backstopping their officers when they went under which was why Marty was in such danger every time he went did so. He always got the trickiest assignments and the lack normal backup not to mention backstopping made it inevitable that he would get killed one day sooner or later if he stayed with the LAPD but she was determined to not let that happen.

Hetty made her move to bring Marty into her NCIS family as soon the Zuna case was closed. She knew she would be able to protect him much better if he was part of NCIS and she had made a solemn promise to Sam that she would watch over his son. She pulled some strings, called in some favors and worked her magic to get her boss and his boss to not only agree to the idea of a liaison officer between the LAPD and NCIS but even set it up so that they thought it was their idea. She was not called the Duchess of Deception for nothing!

Now all she had to do was persuade Marty to agree to become that liaison officer. Once he accepted the position of the liaison officer between the LAPD and NCIS, she already had her plans in place to provide him the additional training he would need to become a full-fledged NCIS agent. That was in the future though. Right at this very moment, she wasn't going to take no for an answer as to whether he would agree to accept the liaison position. She had all the paperwork ready for his signature when she went looking for him at the end of the case. She knew just where he would be.

She had noticed him studying her when she first introduced Mr. Hanna and him to each other. She wondered what he was thinking when he kept glancing her way with a slight frown and a look of determination on his face. It was almost like he was trying to place where he had seen her, but she knew he hadn't ever seen her except at Sam's funeral, so she was a bit perplexed by what she saw on his face. She decided "What can that young man be thinking of? If I didn't know better, I would think he recognized me from Sam's funeral, but he was running on fumes then and I'm sure he's never realized I was there. Oh well, time will tell. I'm sure I'll find out one of these days. Maybe it's nothing but finding out his undercover case overlapped ours."

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Marty decided he was going to go down to his favorite bar for a cup of coffee and some conversation once he stopped off at home, greeted Monty, changed his clothes and cleaned himself up. He still had some blood around his nose from the beating he had suffered at Lazik's hands. He was in pain, but figured a pain pill and a hot shower would help a lot. Besides, tomorrow was when the pain would really make itself known.

He was still smarting from where he had to sit and listen to Lt. Bates rail about the 'lack of cooperation on the Fed's part', how they 'had taken over like LAPD was incompetent' and 'now the brass thinks it's a good idea to have a liaison officer between them and NCIS'. Lt. Bates was unhappy with the brass and everything related to the case. Lt. Bates was still pissed from the run-in he had with Hetty when she found out their undercover operations overlapped each other; on top of that he then had to listen to his boss tell him to "fix it, now!".

Unfortunately for Marty, Lt. Bates was taking his foul mood out on him. "Oh well, shit rolls downhill and I'm the one at the bottom. The boss is usually much more laid back, so I'll give him a pass on his shitty attitude toward me today" Marty was thinking to himself as he completed his journey from the precinct to his apartment to get cleaned up before he went to the bar. He continued to think about the case that had just ended and the enigmatic Hetty Lange. He couldn't seem to get the idea that he had seen her somewhere before out of his mind and it was beginning to frustrate him. "I know I've seen her somewhere, but where? I was younger, I know that. But when was it? Come on Marty, think! Oh wait…I think it was when Sam was still alive…what were we doing? That's it! We were looking at pictures in one of Sam's photo albums."

Marty pulled out the albums that he had saved after Sam had died and sat down to begin looking through them. In one of the oldest albums, he found what he was looking for. There were several pictures of Sam, Evelyn and another woman enjoying a picnic at Sam's house. He looked closely at the pictures and decided that the woman looked a lot like what he imagined Hetty would have looked like as a young woman. He looked at the back of the pictures but there were no names to prove him right. He continued looking through the album and found a few more pictures with the same woman in them, but still no proof.

He was about to give it up as a lost cause when he found one last picture where Evelyn had written their names and the date. It was a picture of the three of them taken sometime when Evelyn was big with child. On the back, there was the inscription 'Hetty, our baby's future godmother' written in ink. "I knew it! I knew I had seen her somewhere before, I knew it! But if she knows me, why hasn't she said anything to me? Of course, she is quite mysterious, so she might have her reasons for not saying anything to me. And then again, she might not realize who I am. I don't remember her being around when I was living with Sam, so maybe she doesn't know he adopted me."

Marty felt a sense of relief that he hadn't been imagining how familiar Hetty had looked. He decided since he would probably never see her again, he would let the past remain in the past. He put the albums away, grabbed his jacket and headed out after taking Monty for a short walk to relieve himself.

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Marty was sitting in his favorite bar nursing a cup of coffee still smarting from having been 'ripped a new one' by Lt Bates. By the time Marty had gotten out of Bates' office he didn't know whether he wanted to drink himself into oblivion for the night, or just hide somewhere and lick his wounds. He knew that Bates was just frustrated about everything that had happened and then to have to sit and listen to the brass tell him it was all his fault had to have been difficult, so he had taken it out on the nearest person who just happened to be Marty.

He was glad he had decided on a middle path because if he had gotten as drunk as he had contemplated, he might never have put two and two together and come up with why Hetty looked so familiar to him. So here he was at one of his favorite bars sitting at the bar drinking coffee instead of beer while thinking about the case and Kensi Blye. He couldn't seem to get her out of his mind. "I wonder if I'll ever see her again. I don't know why I can't get her out of my mind. She's beautiful, but I've had my share of beautiful woman. She's tough as nails, and can hold her own, but she has as many sharp edges as a porcupine! She comes across as fearless, but I can tell she's afraid of something. She really does remind me of Angela…interesting…maybe one of these days, I'll have to look her up and see what happens. We might have a lot of fun together. I mean, what could it hurt, right. I'm a decent guy and I know how to show a woman a good time. Maybe it's time I tried dating again."

He was on his second cup of coffee when he heard the door chimes indicating someone had entered the bar. He glanced up and was surprised to see Hetty walking up to him. He greeted her and found out her last name and that she preferred being called Hetty. Hetty told him she suspected he was still smarting from where the chief of police had ripped him a new one.

"You have no idea. I also received the same chewing out from Lt. Bates. But, how did you know?" Marty asked her while searching her face and comparing it to the photographs he had seen earlier that evening.

Hetty let him know she'd had to endure a similar experience from her director. She then informed him that her boss wanted to assign a liaison officer from LAPD to NCIS, and his LAPD boss thought it was a good idea. "Yeah, but you guys don't need a liaison officer." Marty looked at her and replied while continuing to think to himself. "Okay, Hetty Lange. Why are you really here? Are you here to tell me that you knew Sam or something? And if so, why didn't you tell me sooner?" He continued to look at her while waiting for what she would say next.

Hetty replied "I agree. I told them we already have one" as she pushed the file folder she had been holding over the bar into Marty's hands.

Marty looked at Hetty quizzically before opening the folder and looking over the contents. The first thing he noticed was his picture on the inside of the front cover. He quickly glanced at Hetty again with a raised eyebrow and then back down to the file. He was both surprised and somewhat unsurprised at all the information she had compiled on him because it proved to him that he was right and she was the same woman as in the pictures. "The only way you could know some of this information is if you knew Sam. I know your logistics guy is good, but some of this information isn't anywhere in cyberspace. Just what do you want with me? What the hell is going on here?"

He continued perusing the file and discovered that Hetty hadn't missed anything about his background. She knew where he lived and even how much money he made. That wasn't the surprising part though. The surprising part was her knowing he played the violin and his friendship with Ray. The only thing missing in the file was his signature on the line to agree to become the liaison. "Who are you people? I mean, I mean, h…h…how did you get all this information?" he asked as he continued finding more 'unknowable' facts in the file. Hetty just smiled enigmatically; then handed him a pen and told him all he had to do was sign it. Everything else was completed already.

He looked at her for the longest time trying to decide whether or not she was joking about the liaison position. While she continued to wait patiently for him to make up his mind, he was having second and third thoughts about what decision he should make. "If I accept this position, I'll get to see Kensi again. That would be fun. I know I can handle the job but do I really want it? It will get me away from the assholes in LAPD that don't trust me just because I'm an undercover cop. Also, I might be able to do more good as the liaison officer than I'm doing now. I guess if I don't like it once I accept it, I can always walk away and go back to the LAPD. I've walked away from a job before anyway. Oh, what the hell!" He finally took the pen and signed the papers. Little did he know at that moment it would completely change his life, and for the better. It was the beginning of what he had longed for his entire life; a true family and the woman who would become his soul mate.

FINI

AN: We've come to the end of another story. I just re-read all of the reviews I received and I wanted to say once again to all of you: you're the reason I keep writing. Your responses to my stories are such an encouragement to me. I strive to get better with each story I write and from what you're telling me, I'm doing that so THANKS SO MUCH to all of my reviewers, and to all of my readers whether you found the time to review or not.

I hope you've enjoyed my take on Marty's childhood and how he became the man he is. I'm currently working on two new stories, so you'll hear from me again.