The Office of Special Projects had known times that were hard. Agents had been lost, cases had slipped away unsolved. Even when someone had retired, there was a sadness in the building. No-one could ever remember feeling something like this. This was new, and how to deal with it...the answers just wouldn't appear. OPS was silent, Sam, the first to shake himself, noticed the silence. He had heard silence that deep once before, in a tomb, a mission in Afghanistan, while serving with his SEAL team. Only the fans blew, cooling the equipment. The equipment...keys! He moved to Eric, the tech staring at the screen, too stunned to even move.
"Eric." His voice sounded wrong here, obscene in its loudness. "Eric come on," he said, willing him to snap out of his daze. He saw anguish on his face. For Deeks, for Kensi, for all of them, to hear something...horrifying. "Sam...I...how could."
"I know, but right now, we need you to work your magic, so we can find Deeks. You gotta dig in Eric. Dig in and work like you've never worked before."
Eric swallowed, nodding at Sam, then turned back to his keyboard, the clatter of keys resuming. Soon, more figures joined his, the other two resuming their work. Sam found Hetty staring at the monitor, a look of stunned surprise on her face. He had never seen his boss at a loss for...anything really. "Hetty?"
She turned, her eyes finding Sam, focusing on him, an anchor in a sea of uncertainty. "I have never witnessed something so cruel, so...evil in my life as what I just saw. How could someone do that to his own son?"
"Deeks isn't his son. He stopped being that the moment he defended himself and his mother. He's his own man, always has been." Raising his voice, he spoke to the room. "What we just saw, was hate. We find Deeks, get him back. Then we find these bastards who did this, and we make them pay. Let's go, take your feelings, use them to find our guy."
Movement started, slow, but steadily gaining purpose as the words spoken sunk in. Anger replaced horror, fueling their work. They wanted revenge for their detective.
Hetty, casting a grateful look at Sam, began her rounds of the room, orders and comments flowing from her at a steady rate. The room began to come alive. Suggestions were made, orders given. The juggernaut that was OSP began to wake, wanting to rescue the detective, then drop the hammer on his attackers. Justice? That would come later.
Nate stared at the screen, dumbfounded by what he had just heard. He was a psychologist, trained to deal with the pain, and yes, evil that could infect the human psyche. He agreed with Hetty, never imagining the brutality, the hatred that could consume a man to unleash that on his own son. His focus remained on Deeks, watching as the figure in the chair looked smaller, a subdued version of the man he knew that was so full of life. Moving to a tech, he whispered instructions, her head jerking up, eyes wide at his request. She nodded, stiffly returning to her work.
Sam, walking to stand beside Nate, asked the question he was dreading. "Nate, how does he come back to us from this? I know he's strong, I've seen that first-hand, but..."
"I don't know Sam. I truly don't know."
Kensi stood, her body rigid, her features that of a stone. Throughout the whole vile speech of Brandel, she had never budged. Her tears, still falling, the only indication of her reaction. She had stood, bearing the shame of her actions from yesterday made public for all to see. Her treatment of Deeks, her dismissal of him. Last night, when watching herself, she had been horrified, angry at herself. After Nell left, a promise extracted from Kensi to call for anything, she had sat in silence thinking. She had vowed to fix her mistake. When Deeks returned, she would sit him down, take whatever he threw at her. She wouldn't argue, wouldn't even try and defend herself. She had no defense. She could only hope that Deeks would forgive her. See that he was the man she loved...the one she wanted to marry. Hoping that would be enough to save the one relationship that mattered more to her than anything else. Now she wondered if that was even remotely possible.
She felt Sam and Nate stand beside her, they're presence meaning to comfort. Instead she felt nothing. She had set this in motion, and for the life of her, she couldn't find the reason why. Agent Dinozzio was good at his job, highly respected, and yes he was attractive...but he wasn't Deeks. So why?
"Kensi, hey," Sam began, trying to break through.
"I"m going to lose him Sam," her voice hollow.
"No you're not," his voice rising, startling even himself. "We'll find him, and bring him back. They you two will have to..."
"Have to what Sam? Talk through...this?" She stared at him, the first sign of life. "He's going to hate me Sam! Even if we do find him, then what? Would he even want to be in the same room with me, or even look at me? I humiliated the one man who loved me, no matter what, and I can't tell you why! I had everything with Deeks, everything I ever wanted, everything I believed I would never have, and that's gone now!" Her voice rose with each sentence, the pain bleeding out. She knew everyone was listening, knew they were judging her, and she deserved it. Those women, the ones Nell mentioned, they were right. She didn't deserve a man like Deeks. Sam, now close to panic at seeing Kensi losing is, grabbed her, pulling her into a hug, trying his best to comfort her.
"Eric do you have anything?" Callens' voice broke through, reminding them he was still watching.
"I'm sorry, there's just too many of them. Whoever Pearson has, they've set it up to increase the number of proxies whenever we take them down. The more we break,
the more pop up. At this rate..." His voice trailed off. "We may never break them all."
Kensi wiped her eyes, pulling from Sam, watching Deeks. There was no movement, no struggle to break free. He's given up. The thought struck her, pounding her heart. She noticed movement from the corner of her eye, someone shifting their stance. Callen, Dinozzio, and Agent Gibbs stood, the screen showing them in DC.
Never taking her eyes from Deeks, she spoke in a flat voice. "Why would you say that?"
Everyone knew who she was speaking to. When no answer came, she walked to the monitor, still staring at Deeks. "Answer me Dinozzio. Why would you say somethin like that to him? What were you thinking?"
"Dinozzio!" A voice barked out. "Answer the question."
Dinozzio began to stammer, caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. "I just...I was trying to..." He stopped, his face helpless as he tried and failed to explain his thoughts. Before he could speak, disaster struck.
The monitor that showed Deeks cut out, a black screen their only sight. ***
Steven Daniels really hadn't wanted to take this job. Unfortunately, he was desperate, and the pay was more than he could pass up. His regular sources of income were drying up, and he desperately needed the money. For months, he had done his best to scrape the cash together, to finally leave the States, wanting to move to Europe, making a fresh start. Too many debts, too many people wanted payment that he couldn't give. When he was contacted, he knew the job would be difficult. A lot was required to provide the type of security Mr. Pearson was demanding. He almost turned the offer down, but when hearing the pay, realized this was his best chance to get out. He was taken to the warehouse, shown what was wanted from him, and told the time frame. Making a list of all the equipment needed, he waited, planning where to set everything. Finally, the equipment arrived, and he had set to work.
Through Friday night, and until late Saturday afternoon, he worked, consuming energy drinks and the occasional tablet of speed. He finished, thankfully with enough time to catch a few hours of sleep, then was back, wide awake, a hit of speed and a can of energy helping him monitor everything.
With his bladder nearly causing him pain, he had leapt for the door as soon as Pearson and the others had left the detective alone. Standing there, the most relieved he had ever felt in his life, he began to daydream, his mind wandering to what awaited him. First go home and crash. Then pack up what little he wanted to take, buy a plane
ticket, and haul ass out of here. He could find someplace to stay to get him by, then start establishing himself. His skills would be in demand there, even more than they were here. Six months, a year, he would be good.
So when the lights dimmed, his mood sunk. He finished, hurrying back to his station, he heart lodged in his throat. Checking, he was relieved everything was fine. All systems were up and running as they should be. His proxies were stable, still blocking their location. Through all of this, he had laughed as he watched the fools break his security, only to have numerous others pop up. They would always do that, one of his skills that he was so in demand for.
Pearson strode through the door. "Is everything secure Daniels?" He stared at the monitors, a slight frown on his face. He really didn't care for or understood any of this. It was necessary yes, but to him, a necessary annoyance.
"Everything's fine Mr. Pearson, see." He pointed to the monitors. "All my proxies are active. We're safe, they won't be able to break them in time."
"Good, I'm sure this will be over shortly." He turned, walking out the door, problem investigated, and forgotten.
When the monitor had blackened, Kensi became frantic. She ran to it, pleading for someone to fix it. "Get him back," her voice rising, desperate and terrified to see him. Less than a minute later, the picture was back, Deeks still bound to the chair, head hung, shoulders slumped. Reaching out, her fingers brushed his image, doing everything she could to send him as much strength as possible. Her hand jerked back, realizing he wasn't alone.
Brandel was there, standing just under the camera, staring at Deeks, his silent form terrifying her.
"We got it!" Eric yelled, nearly scaring everyone in the room. "We found him!"
Sam rushed to his side. "You sure Eric?" His face was hopeful, praying this wasn't a bust.
"Positive! Whatever that was, it lasted just long enough to give us a fix. We had a program running in the background, one more way to break the things. The program caught it."
Sam, clapping all three tech on the back, headed for the door. "Send me the address, alert LAPD and..."
He stopped, realizing Kensi wasn't with him. "Kens...you coming?"
"No, Mr. Hannah, she is in no condition to run a rescue. Take both tac-teams, and a few of the other agents. Miss Blye will stay here."
Kensi, still staring at the image, never argued, proving Hetty was correct. "Sam," her voice cracking, "bring him ack to me, please."
"Done," he agreed, moving out the door, issuing orders over coms.