The Family

Chapter 14

…

The sun had burned the mist away by the time the medevac chopper set down in front of Jefferson Hyde's log home. Callen failed to convince Deeks to go inside the house to rest. He wanted nothing to do with anything associated with Hyde, sitting instead in the back seat of one of the sheriff's department vehicles parked haphazardly in front of the house and barn. Kensi stood just outside quietly speaking French with Lily. They had both suffered at the hands of monsters and it had brought them even closer. Lily was able to offer Kensi consolation and empathy, and he was happy for her. He had found no such solace. Now he just wanted out of here so he could process what had happened. He closed his eyes when he saw the medical team come out carrying Jefferson Hyde on a stretcher. He was still alive but wounded. Deeks wished he had just died. A man like that didn't deserve to live. He probably should feel bad about thinking that, but he didn't. When the car door opened he flinched.

"Time to go, Deeks," Callen said as he leaned in. "The medevac crew wants to get in the air."

"I'm not going."

"You need a doctor," Callen said. "And don't say you're fine. We both know that would be bullshit."

"I can't be that close to him again, G," he replied. "I'll drive myself to the hospital."

"That's not happening, Deeks."

"Neither is me being on the same helicopter with that sonofabitch."

Callen hung his head for a moment before reaching out to grip Deeks' shoulder. "Okay. I get it. I'll figure something else out."

Callen walked over to the chopper and pulled one of the EMT's aside. Elan and Joe joined them, and they all looked back his way as they talked. Deeks hoped they didn't try to force him onto that chopper, because he wasn't sure how much energy he had left to stop them. The opposite door opened, and Kensi eased herself in beside him. She put her hand on his arm and tears suddenly filled his eyes. Dark memories came with them, and he turned to look at her, needing to assure himself that she was okay…that she had truly survived and was sitting next to him. He took her hand in his, but neither one spoke. They didn't need to, they just needed to be together. It was the only comfort he sought or needed.

"Hey, Cuz," Elan said as he knelt by his open door. "Lily and I are going to drive you to the hospital in Rawlins, but first this EMT is going to take a look at you and give you something for the pain. Her name is Nina.

"Thanks, brother."

Nina was a native woman with a soft smile and sharp eyes. After a brief physical exam, she took his vitals. Before he could say anything, she administered a shot for the pain. It didn't even phase him, making him realize he was hurting so bad he'd hardly noticed the prick of the needle.

"You should be feeling better in a little bit," she said as she took the blanket Elan handed her and tucked it all around him. "You're showing signs of shock, so you need to stay warm. It's a long drive to the hospital. Sure I can't convince you to take the medevac flight?"

"Not a chance."

"Elan said you were stubborn."

She shook her head as she smiled, handing another blanket to Kensi. "Do you need any pain medication, Mrs. Deeks?"

"No. I can manage."

"Kens…"

"I don't want anything, Deeks. Okay?" She jerked her hand free, surprising him.

Nina gave them both one last look and patted Deeks' leg before stepping back. She spoke to Elan in her native tongue, but it didn't sound like Arapaho. Lily climbed into the front passenger seat and turned to look at him.

"Nina's Shoshone. They grew up together on the reservation." she said, before sensing the tension between them. "Pardonnez-moi, chers amis. I will give you a moment."

She got out and closed the door, and Deeks could hear her talking softly to Elan as she led him away, leaving them alone and unsettled.

"Why are you mad at me?" He asked, stunned by how snappish she'd been.

"You don't want to get on that helo and I don't want someone poking me with a needle. Okay?" She said without answering his question. "I've been poked and prodded enough today."

"Yeah…you have. And I'm sorry…I just thought…"

"I know what you thought," Kensi said softly. "You deal with your pain, and I'll deal with mine."

"Okay, but why are you mad at me? You know I love you…right?"

"Then why wouldn't you let me help you in there, Deeks?" Kensi said, wiping furiously at her tears. "I knew what you were doing…You kept taunting them…and…"

"What the hell did you want me to do, Kens? Just let that bastard assault you?"

"I'm tough, Deeks. You know that. We're partners, but you didn't let me do my part. We could have shared the pain. Instead, I had to watch him torture you and…and beat you. How do you think that made me feel?"

"You told me once that it was your job to protect me," Deeks replied, and took her hand. "Well, that's my job too...to protect you, Kens. I needed to do that in there."

Kensi wouldn't look at him, and it took him a moment to gather himself. "When I was a kid, I couldn't stop my dad from hurting my mom. I wasn't strong enough. I had to watch it happen, Kens. I had to watch, and I promised myself that when I was strong enough, I wouldn't let that happen to anyone I loved…ever. You can hate me all you want for trying to keep those monsters off of you, but I won't apologize for it."

"I don't hate you," she said, turning to look at him. "Deeks…baby? I wanted to kill them for what they were doing to you. I felt so much anger…I thought I was going to explode."

"You did, Kens. You kicked Kyle in his junk so hard I felt it myself. And he wasn't even French," Deeks said, smiling at the long ago memory. "I was so proud of you, Kens. Still am."

"I'm not mad at you, baby. I love you."

"Prove it, partner. Kiss me like you mean it."

"I always mean it."

The kiss was long and deep and just what he needed. Between her kiss and the drugs, he was feeling almost human.

Elan and Lily were smiling when they got in. As Elan drove past the barn, Deeks stared at the smoldering remains of Jefferson Hyde's helicopter. Questions still swirled around in his mind. Why wasn't Hyde on that helo. Was he so determined to kill Elan that he ignored his own survival? That didn't sound like the man.

"Is Hyde gonna make it?" Deeks asked when they finally turned onto Spring Creek Road.

"He probably won't walk again, but he'll survive," Elan replied. "Dickerson got to him first. Guess he wanted to take him alive, so he aimed low, just not low enough…unless he hit him exactly where he wanted to."

"I really thought he was on that helicopter," Deeks said. "Did Hyde say anything…like why he wasn't?"

"According to Joe, he was really pissed. Kept cussing about his pilot leaving without him," Elan replied.

"Rats leaving the sinking ship," Kensi said.

"Hyde said his dad taught him about loyalty," Deeks said. "Said it was the first commandment of their special family. Guess the trickle-down theory didn't work very well in the end."

"There was no love in that so-called family, just fear and corruption," Kensi said.

"And hate," Lily added. "You can't build a family on hate and fear. Sadly, he didn't know that."

"From father to son," Deeks whispered. "He couldn't break the cycle."

"Maybe he didn't want to…like you did," Kensi said, and slid closer.

Finally succumbing to the pain and the heavy dose of drugs, he slept on her shoulder all the way to the hospital.

…

Deeks woke up in a dimly lit room. A flicker of remembrance from his nightmare made him sit up too quickly and he grimaced as a slice of pain shot through his ribcage. He sucked in his breath and then blew it out several times before noticing someone in a chair beside his bed.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Deeks," Hetty said.

"Hetty? What's happened? Why are you here?"

"It's my job to check on my team, Mr. Deeks. Especially the ones who end up in the hospital."

"Wish I hadn't."

"And I'm sorry you did."

"Is Kensi okay?"

"She insisted on being discharged earlier today," Hetty said. "Lily has taken her out for an early dinner. They're good for each other."

"How's Jefferson Hyde? Dead yet?"

"I'm afraid not. But he is out of surgery. Paralyzed from the waist down, but alive."

When the door opened, he expected to see one of the nurses. Instead, a tall, robust man dressed in a dark suit walked in wearing a DEA tactical vest.

"Are we under attack?" Hetty asked with a smile.

"After the intel I read on the drive over here, it certainly could be a possibility," the man replied gruffly. "Is this him?"

"Don't be rude, Christopher. You know it is," Hetty said as she stood up and moved to stand next to Deeks' bed.

"You know who I am, but who the hell are you?" Deeks asked, not in the mood for guessing games.

"I'm Christopher Russo. Special Agent in Charge of the task force looking into Jefferson Hyde."

"You should have looked harder," Deeks grumbled.

"Mr. Deeks…please," Hetty pleaded. "He's on our side."

"Really? Well look around Mr. Special Agent in Charge. He's not here."

"He's being damn insubordinate, Hetty, but then you've always been partial to agents who are rough around the edges," Russo said. "Agent Deeks, I need to debrief you on this clusterfuck. But first I need to know how my agent, Taylor Longstreet, got himself shot."

"You've seen him? How's he doing?" Deeks asked, feeling contrite about his surliness.

"Awake and asking questions," Russo replied.

"Does he know we got Jefferson Hyde?"

"Yes, he does. Asked me to thank you."

"He'll have to thank an FBI agent for that," Deeks said. "I was just Hyde's punching bag."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," he replied.

"It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was, Agent Deeks. Like you said. I should have looked harder. It was my responsibility to make sure we held onto that bastard…to know where he was at all times. That didn't happen. If it had, you wouldn't be in a hospital bed, and neither would Agent Longstreet. And for that, I am truly sorry."

Deeks was stunned by the apology, and slightly embarrassed by it, and it seemed as if Russo was too. Hetty gently patted his arm and took it upon herself to fill the silence.

"So, what are your plans now, Christopher?"

"To go over every inch of Hyde's ranch house and barn," he replied. "The sheriff has agreed to turn over all the electronics they took from the house. He's also providing us with one of his conference rooms to work out of. As you probably know, Hetty, we have to keep what happened here under wraps. We need to take down the rest of Hyde's family in Charleston before they cut and run."

"How long will you be staying?" Hetty asked.

"Not sure. At least until Hyde is ready to travel," he replied. "Hopefully by that time I can convince my undercover agent to come back to work."

"Longstreet quit?" Deeks asked.

"Yes, he did…right after I told him about Agent Foley," Russo replied. "He thought I should have known that he was the leak that got his partner killed. Can't say I blame him for that."

"Does he know Foley's dead?" Deeks asked.

"I informed him, and that Foley saved you and your wife," Russo replied. "He was surprised."

"Me too. Love does funny things to people," Deeks said. "It changes your life. In Foley's case, it helped save ours. I think he really loved Tilly…if that's even her real name."

"It isn't, Mr. Deeks," Hetty said. "According to Interpol her name is Tatiana Svobodova. The Czech Republic has an outstanding warrant for her. They believe she is responsible for the death of one of its top officials. He was corrupt, and believing he was about to be incarcerated, he committed suicide. At least that's the story they released to the public, but not the real one. Their intelligence agency, the BIS, believes Miss Svobodova caused his death and made it look like a suicide. Before they could arrest her, she disappeared with a rather large sum of the dead official's money."

"The DOJ is processing the paperwork for her return to the Czech Republic and into BIS custody," Russo said. "That will happen after we interrogate her. I'm fairly certain she knows where all the bodies are buried."

"I'm sure she does," Hetty said. "I spoke with Mr. Callen on my way here. He's been at Hyde's place most of the day and informed me that a body was discovered in the charred remains of a shed out behind the main house. We won't know for sure until the forensics are in, but Callen believes it to be Jefferson Hyde's wife. It fits what Tilly told them."

"Longstreet always called them monsters," Russo said softly. "Hyde had his partner's entire family murdered, but to kill your own wife and dump her body in a shed?"

"Something wicked this way comes," Hetty whispered.

"Ray Bradbury?" Deeks asked.

"Shakespeare. Macbeth," Hetty replied. "Bradbury stole from the best."

"And your team ended his reign of terror," Russo said.

"Yes, but his mistake was attacking the wrong family in the first place," she replied. "The Atwoods fought to protect their own."

"And won," Russo said.

"Kinda."

"You're battered and bruised, Agent Deeks, but you're alive and he's in custody," the big man replied. "I call that a win."

"I hope Taylor Longstreet does," Deeks said.

"Yes, he does."

"Am I interrupting?" Callen asked as he walked in. "Came to see how Deeks was doing."

"Ready to get out of here, actually," Deeks said.

"Let me go see what I can do to make that happen, Mr. Deeks," Hetty said. "I've arranged for a small conference room, Christopher. I think a sit-rep is in order. You can debrief Mr. Deeks there and Mr. Callen can update us on his findings. Is Taylor Longstreet in any shape to join us?"

"If he is, and agrees, I'll get him there," Russo said.

"Call in the troops, Mr. Callen," Hetty ordered. "We need to wrap up our part of this mess so Mr. Russo here can take over. Then we can let the chips fall where they may."

"They're falling faster than you might think, Hetty." Russo said. "Before I walked in here, I was informed that four Colombians were intercepted as they got off a plane in Denver. They were in business with Jefferson Hyde. Unfortunately for them, they were heard on a wiretap preparing to fly out here. We didn't know why until Hetty called to inform me Longstreet had been shot."

"Another firefight averted," Callen said. "Sheriff Sogard will be pleased. He claims the Atwood family is the reason his hair is turning gray."

"It's been crazy few days," Deeks said. "Is it safe now? Can the Atwoods come home?"

"Joe says George and Jim Littleshield are already on their way back to the ranch," Callen said, and Deeks smiled for the first time.

"What about Di and the kids?" Deeks asked.

"My friend Margaret has rented quite a large house next door for any and all to enjoy," Hetty said. "She has become quite fond of the Atwood children. Especially Soldier."

"Where's this?" Russo asked.

"A wild and beautiful place called Sea Ranch," Hetty replied. "It's on the north coast of California."

"Is that the Margaret I think it is?"

"Keep that location to yourself, Christopher."

"Of course. I always wondered what happened to her."

"And I won't tell her you know where she is," Hetty said. "I'm not quite ready for a funeral, especially yours."

…

The debrief and sit rep didn't take place until the sun had set and four large pizzas had been delivered and partially devoured. Deeks had trouble finishing his when Christopher Russo asked him to describe his kidnapping and torture. Kensi got so mad, he thought she was going to stab the man with a fork. Lucky for him, all the utensils were plastic. Sam quickly interrupted that line of questioning to go over the discoveries in Jefferson Hyde's house. One was a huge safe that took a local locksmith over two hours to open. Inside was a stunning amount of cash, his financials, several burner phones, and a black book. It listed all the people on his payroll, including family members, dirty cops, district attorneys, federal agents, and government officials up and down the east coast.

"There's even a couple of congressmen, one congresswoman, and two state senators he was paying off," Sam said. "Your task force has a lot of work to do, Special Agent in Charge. Why don't you let Deeks have some pizza. He's been through enough over the last few days."

"I agree," Hetty said. "Now why don't you tell us how you flipped Brother Ambrose, Christopher."

That story was a long one and gave Deeks a reprieve from all the questions, although he noticed that Kensi was still glaring at the man. He took her hand and kissed it and she immediately relaxed.

"It's over, Kens." She nodded, her eyes glistening with tears as Lily came up and whispered something in French.

They walked off together to talk, and Joe took her seat. "You okay, brother?"

"I will be as soon as all these damn questions are over."

"The government always has to dot all the i's and cross all the t's," he said. "Especially on this one, because they know they screwed up. Jefferson Hyde would never have gotten to Wyoming if they'd done their jobs. They're pissed about that and covering their asses. And believe me…they're damn good at it."

"You mean because we took care of all the bad guys for them?"

"Something like that, brother. The bureau likes to believe they're better than everybody else," he said. "We kinda made 'em look bad."

"Bet they're sorry they let you get away," Deeks grinned.

"Doubtful, but it's nice to think they might miss me," Joe said quietly, and took a long draw on his beer.

"What's going on, Joe? I can tell something's still bugging you."

"We got lucky, Marty. Our family dodged too many bullets on this one," Joe replied solemnly. "Our whole family could have been wiped out. My dad, my wife and kids, you and…"

"But that didn't happen, Joe. We survived. Our family's tough. Jefferson Hyde found that out the hard way," Deeks said. "What ifs don't get you anywhere. Just be thankful we're all still standing…sort of."

"Yeah…you and dad are a little worse for wear, and Elan took a bullet, but you're right…so amen, brother. Amen."

Deeks managed to finish a couple of pieces of pizza and steal a few sips of Joe's beer, before Sam gave him a warning look. He was surrounded by friends, and they were all family, except for Russo and Longstreet. It was good to see Taylor Longstreet, even though he was still weak and entered the meeting in a wheelchair. Deeks once again noticed the bond that was developing between Elan and the former agent. It wasn't hard to see how protective Elan was of him when Russo tried to get Longstreet to reconsider his resignation. The man steadfastly refused. And when Russo raised his voice Elan stepped between the two to tell the agent in charge to back off.

"You're too good as an undercover agent to walk away like this, Taylor," Russo continued. "It's a damn waste of talent. I won't let this go, son. When we get back home, you know I'm going to try again."

"I'm not going back," Taylor said. "All I have is a tiny apartment in Arlington with not much in it. And it was never home."

"He'll be staying at the ranch with us for a while," Elan said. "He needs to rest and recover. The ranch is a good place to do that."

"I can vouch for that," Deeks said.

"You're going to give up Washington DC for a little ranch in the middle of nowhere?" Russo snorted.

"In a heartbeat, sir. I'm done."

It was obvious that Christopher Russo was a proud and determined man who didn't like taking no for an answer, but before he could try another tactic, one of his agents poked his head in the door.

"Sir? We have a situation."

"What the hell kind of situation?" Russo snapped, but the man looked unwilling to say. "Spit it out, man. I can vouch for everyone here."

"It's Brother Ambrose, sir."

"Well, what about him?"

"Somebody just slit his throat…"

"How the hell did that happen? He was under guard," Russo bellowed, and charged out of the room, followed by Callen and Sam.

Elan shut the door behind them, and Joe pulled his gun. Lily and Kensi did the same.

"Guess this isn't over," Deeks said wearily.

"It's Jefferson Hyde's family. He must have called them," Longstreet said. "Brother Ambrose was a loose end. He would rat them out, and they knew it."

"Will they come after us?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "They could be trying to cut their losses before they pull their head in and go dark."

"Who are we talking about here? I thought Jefferson Hyde was the top dog," Deeks said.

"That's what his father wanted, so that's what happened," Longstreet replied. "But he has a couple of uncles. Old school kinda mafia guys. They may see this as an opportunity to take control. If it is a coup, then Russo better have guards on Hyde, or they may try to take him out too."

"So, you think our family is safe? Is that what you're saying?" Elan asked.

"It's possible. They might think that what happened here was Jefferson's fight, not theirs," he replied.

"Are you saying we may not be worth the effort?" Deeks asked with a slight grin.

"Y'all may have done them a favor. Or maybe just scared the shit out of 'em so they don't want to tangle with y'all," Taylor Longstreet drawled out with a smile. "This is your stomping grounds, not theirs. It's out of their comfort zone. Y'all were just local yokels to Jefferson Hyde and his boys. He thought you'd go down easy. He was wrong. His family doesn't like mistakes, and tangling with y'all was a big one, and unnecessary. He lost. His family doesn't forgive mistakes. They make you pay for them."

"You think they're gonna kill Hyde," Kensi stated.

"Yeah, I do."

"You gonna tell Russo?" Joe asked.

"Nope," Longstreet said. "It's a family matter. Besides, I don't work for Russo anymore and I'm just guessing anyway."

No one made a move to warn Russo or call Callen, or Sam. Hetty had remained silent through all of it, and Deeks had forgotten she was even in the room until she cleared her throat.

"I think I like you, Mr. Longstreet," she said. "When you've rested up and healed, give me a call. You'll be needing options for your future."

…

…