A/N: So sorry about last week. My vacation was wonderful but left no time for posting, and I've been slammed with work since I got back.
After a night spent at the same Glendale safe house, Marty returned to the station bright and early the next morning, his veins already pumped full of caffeine. He arrived at Bates' office to find him engaged in conversation with a petite brunette with long, wavy hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. He hesitated in the doorway before Bates gestured for him to enter.
"Good morning, Deeks. Let me introduce you to your new girlfriend, Maria Jimenez, a role to be played by LAPD Detective Carmen Vasquez." Carmen stood with a serious expression on her face. She nodded toward him and offered her hand, which Marty shook while his brain attempted to catch up with the new information. He did register Carmen's firm grip and that her big, brown eyes had a friendliness to them even as they looked him up and down. He braced himself for the judgments she'd no doubt make based on the combination of his appearance and the absolute mess he'd made of his case, and his whole life.
"De-... Detective," he managed to stammer out.
"Counselor," she replied, looking far more relaxed than he felt.
Almost reflexively, not having fully processed the situation, he told her with a smile, "Call me Marty."
Bates instructed, "Sit down, Deeks, and we'll catch you up."
Marty did as he was told, ruffling the hair on the top of his head and waiting to hear just how ill-advised the Sergeant's plan would turn out to be.
Bates laid it out, saying, "You're going to contact Nikolai Petrov's dad, Sergei, and tell him you want to meet, that you want to propose a trade: your life for LAPD intel." Bates paused to allow Marty to respond but he gestured for Bates to continue. "You'll meet in a public place and tell him that the woman you've been dating works as a secretary for the Organized Crime Task Force, and if they promise to leave you alone, you'll get her to share intel on what the Task Force knows about the Ivankov family's operation."
"I have so many questions I don't know where to start," Marty told him, alarmed that the plan already sounded incredibly dangerous.
"Just hold your horses a minute and let me tell you more… They're gonna want to meet your girl and you're going to make a half-hearted attempt to keep her away from them. You'll let them convince you you need to give her up and you will reluctantly do just that. Once they have their claws in her, they'll toss you aside and deal with her directly. Carmen will work as a double agent, feeding them just enough truth to get them to trust her, while collecting intel along the way."
"Why would they trust her enough to tell her anything useful?" Marty asked, not yet seeing the point of this risky endeavor.
"They probably won't, but she can pick up phone numbers and plant bugs and make observations every time she interacts with them. This isn't the only part of our operation. She'll be positioned to feed them misinformation any time we think it will help us, like when we go to set up a big sting. This won't be finished overnight, but eventually we'll get 'em."
Marty raised his eyebrows and huffed out a bitter laugh at the apparent flimsiness of the plan. He was putting his life and his future in the hands of these two and their so-called operation? "This feels a whole lot more like wishful thinking than a legitimate plan," he told Bates. He peered over at Carmen, who sat with her arms crossed, observing. "Is this the way you always work?" he asked her. "On a wish and a prayer?"
"Sometimes," she said calmly. "The biggest difference here is that I'm putting my life in the hands of a civilian. A public defender, no less."
Carmen's comment elicited a whole new level of concern that caused Marty's heart rate to begin climbing as his anxiety rose. He told her, "Look, Detective, I think you're crazy to do that. And I don't think I can ask you to do that. This really doesn't sound smart for me, or for you. Maybe we should reconsider… Maybe I should just move to Iowa."
Bates exchanged a glance with Carmen, who shrugged her shoulders slightly, at a loss as to how to deal with her new partner. He turned to Marty and said, "Relax, Deeks. Carmen is a highly skilled professional. She's great at her job, and she'll keep you and herself safe. Don't panic. In fact, let's call that rule number one of undercover: don't panic."
Marty sat still, mouth downturned and brow furrowed, staring into space.
Bates continued, saying, "We can take this one step at a time. No pressure. You can back out at any point, and go pick up your U-Haul for the drive cross country… How's that for a plan?"
Not seeing any other choices at the moment, Marty responded with a sigh, "Fine."
"Fine?"
"Yeah, fine. What do we do first?"
Step number one turned out to be paperwork that made Marty an official confidential informant who also forfeited his right to sue the LAPD if they got him injured or killed. After that, they covered the basics of how the op would run. Bates would be Marty's handler, the person he'd report to or call if problems arose that Carmen couldn't address. Bates would use a burner phone with both of them so neither of their cell histories would reveal his identity. Marty would sleep over at Carmen's regularly, but he didn't have to move in unless they decided it was best for his safety. They wanted it to be clear that "Maria" was in love with Marty, deeply enough to let herself be used and her life threatened without running to the cops she worked with.
"This is feeling like it could take months if not years to accomplish," he observed.
Bates responded, "We've already been working on bringing them down for a while so hopefully your little contribution will be the final straw. But yeah, it could take a few months. Once we get Carmen situated, you're gonna go about your life like always- go to work, see clients, go surfing – god forbid you give that up. The only change will be that you won't get to play the field." Another smirk.
Deeks found no amusement in Bates' words. "You make it sound so easy."
"No, kid, there's nothing easy about this. Undercover operators like Carmen have years of experience to do this work without getting themselves killed. You need to follow her lead and her instructions without hesitation while you're working together so you and she can survive."
Would he be able to rise to the moment and keep Carmen from being hurt? The responsibility weighed like a ton of bricks on him. She broke him from his thoughts, instructing him in a surprisingly gentle voice, "You should call me Maria all the time, even when we're alone. It'll help, believe me, so that you don't slip up under pressure."
"Maria… OK," he told her, relieved to have some specific advice to cling to. But then the fact that Carmen - Maria - was to play his girlfriend hit home and yet another layer of nerves introduced itself in the pit of his stomach. He asked her, "And what about the, you know, pretending to be together? I mean, how do I make that look natural, look real, when I've only just met you?"
"Good question," she said, looking into space for a moment as if contemplating the answer. "The first time I had to do that kind of thing, I was stiff as a board. I mean, literally, I could not get my body to relax into the detective who was playing my boyfriend." She chuckled as she remembered the experience. "My partner whispered to me, 'Consuela, you need to channel Gumby, or Elastigirl, and loosen the fuck up.' They were ridiculous references, but they got the message across."
"So I need to be Gumby?"
"No, Marty, that's not what I'm saying," she responded in an encouraging tone. "You're supposed to be tense- people want you dead, right? But when it's just you and me in a place we can be observed, try to relax your body and your breathing. And it's OK to be physically close, to show affection. In fact, you need to in order to sell our cover. Do you think you can do that?"
He smiled, as a smart remark about getting some practice in now flitted through his mind, but he wasn't about to make her think he was disrespectful or failing to take the operation seriously. He might be a player, but the idea of pretending about a level of intimacy with a near stranger sounded challenging. He was no actor. He replied, "Yeah, I think so. But it might be best for you to take the lead if I don't, you know, put on enough of a display?"
She smiled back and told him, "Will do. Remember, relaxing will help."
"OK," he said, blowing out a breath to try to do just that. "Don't panic, and relax." The responsibility continued to weigh heavily and he asked them, "Any advice about getting them to believe my lies?"
Bates laughed. "Aw, come on, Deeks. You're an attorney. You lie for a living."
"I'd beg to differ, but I'm also serious. Carmen - I mean Maria - could get hurt if I screw up."
"Well first of all, you have the benefit of getting to play yourself. You don't have to remember who you are or why you're there. You are actually afraid for your life, so you can feel free to let your emotions show. Being afraid, nervous, angry, bitter at the turn your life has taken, those are all legitimate feelings they'd expect to see... As for the ruse with Carmen, keep things simple, don't volunteer extra details you'll have to keep straight later. And don't ever feel guilty about lying to those sons of bitches. Think of lying as truth, reimagined for the higher good."
"Colorful. Is that what you tell yourself when you don't come clean with the missus?" He noticed Carmen smirk at his comment; she likely didn't have the luxury of talking to Bates the way he did.
"Hilarious," Bates replied. "Just think about times in your life when you've embellished the truth to keep yourself out of trouble. This is no different, and somehow I'm guessing it'll come natural to you."
When Ray had shown him the .38 revolver, he'd found it terrifying. Such a small thing that held so much power. He hadn't wanted to touch it, let alone hold it or use it. Yet his older friend had gently bullied him into it, telling him, "Listen, Marty, you wanna be able to protect yourself and your mom? This is the way to do it. Keep this around, and then if things get really, really bad? You'll be able to save her, and yourself."
He'd gingerly taken hold of the gun and found it heavier than he'd expected, and he'd fired a few shots at some cans Ray had sat out on a log in the woods behind the elementary school. The popping noise it had given off hadn't been as loud as Marty'd thought it would be, but he'd still been scared they'd be caught and refused to do more.
The two boys had plotted how to get the gun into his house without anyone knowing, and decided that Ray would hold onto it until a time when they could be sure Marty's dad was out of the house. When that day came, Ray dropped by and snuck it to Marty while his mom was cooking dinner. Marty raced up the stairs with it, careful not to trip lest he accidentally fire it, and then shut his bedroom door. He could put it under his bed, but wanted someplace no one would think to look. Then he remembered the old cardboard box filled with Legos that he hadn't played with in a while, and decided to bury the gun under all the colorful plastic bricks.
As he finished jamming the gun down as far as he could into the box, his mom knocked on the door and then opened it. He turned around to face her, his breath catching in his throat.
"Hey, boo, whatcha doin'?" she asked.
"Nothin'... I was just thinking about playing with these Legos. I forgot how fun they are." He looked up at her with as much innocence and enthusiasm as he could muster.
"Yeah? Well that's great, but how about you do that after we eat? Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."
"Sure, Mom. I'll be right down."
Still rattled by the near miss, he had closed up the box and pushed it to the back of his closet, hoping he'd never have to reopen it. He never liked to lie to his mom. It was wrong. But if the worst ever happened, she might be glad he had done such a naughty thing as hiding a grown-up weapon in the house and lying about it.
They reviewed a few more operational details, and began to wrap things up. Marty had yet to learn anything about the Russians and their criminal enterprise. He asked, "Don't I need to review, I don't know, all the intel you have on Sergei Petrov and the whole Ivankov family? Won't that make me better prepared?"
Bates exchanged another of those glances with Carmen and then replied, "Actually, no Deeks. I'll tell you what you probably already know, which is that the Ivankov Bratva is into all kinds of bad shit. Extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, credit card fraud, prostitution, narcotics, murder for hire. They've even tried- and likely succeeded- in smuggling Russian arms into the country to sell to Mexican cartels. They definitely have cartel ties and are actively working to deepen them." He paused, letting his description sink in. "You do need to understand just how dangerous these people are. You do not need to know any other details about who they are or how they operate. It'll just overwhelm you. Plus, your cover is a desperate attorney who is maybe a little naïve about what these men are capable of, someone who thinks he has more bargaining power than he really does."
Marty pondered before responding, "OK, I get that. My brain is already filled with too many instructions about what to do and not do. But you'd tell me if there's something about Petrov that would help prepare me for talking to him, right?"
"Absolutely, kid. We would. We don't have a lot of detailed intel on him, though. We just know that he's willing to try anything to get ahead. We think he's going to look at you and Maria as assets who can help him do just that. Just don't underestimate his willingness to do anything, and remember how angry he might be with you for screwing his son over. Show him lots of respect, lots of deference. Play to his desire to be seen as powerful. But don't overdo it- he won't take kindly to insincerity."
"Wow, OK, thanks. You're right, more information may just freak me out more than it helps," he said glumly.
"Cheer up, Deeks. We'll be watching your back. As annoying as you are, we still don't want anything bad to happen to you… Too much paperwork involved," he said with a glint in his eye.
"How reassuring."
Then Bates and Carmen sent him back out into the world, where he was quickly engulfed by the same sense of vulnerability that had led him to sleep in the parking garage at work. Only now he needed to put himself at risk, to purposely open himself up to danger. This operation was going to test him in ways he'd never been tested before. Or maybe in ways that would bring up issues from his childhood. Either way, he'd likely learn something about himself, so long as he could stay alive. His head spun at how quickly his life had gone off the rails just when his future was finally planned out. He needed to roll with the punches though. At least that was something he already knew how to do.
He popped into the office to touch base with Jeannine and then drove home to Venice. The plan was to swing by his house, change his clothes, and take a walk over to the little Washington Street pier, where the chaos of the Boardwalk ended and a peaceful stretch of sand began that ran all the way down to the inlet to the marina. He was to meet Carmen in front of the pier. If they were lucky, his apartment was being watched and he'd pick up a tail so their meeting would be observed. Either way, his first experience with undercover work would take place in a hopefully safe public setting.
He found comfort from the gun he carried, but he still spent the entire time peering over his shoulder. Thank god his worry was "in character" so he could feel free to put his hypervigilance on full display. He made it to the meet and saw Carmen waiting for him at the beginning of the pier, right where it met the beach and where there'd be more people around than if they walked out to the end. The acting portion of this assignment was beginning, and he hoped he could pull off the performance they'd planned.
Carmen walked toward him, looking upset, and flung herself into his arms. He caught her, managing to keep a look of shock off his face by twisting it into one of concern. He muttered a "Maria" in greeting and tried to breath, to relax into the conversation.
She hugged him tightly and whispered, "Kiss me," into his ear. He followed her lead as she pulled back just enough to allow the kiss. She imbued it with a sense of desperation that left him gasping, unsure if he could keep up with her as she performed for anyone who might be watching. Shit, this much intensity this quickly had his head spinning. Carmen was not playing around. Thank goodness no one was close enough to hear their conversation, allowing her to provide explicit instructions. She led him a few feet out onto the pier and over to a bench where they sat facing one another, holding hands. They sat just above the wave line, and the steady whoosh of the water below them ensured they wouldn't be overheard.
"I'm asking you to tell me what's happened to you," she said. "Start talking, and look upset."
"OK," he said. He blew out a breath and tried to put his fear on full display, again glancing around for would-be assailants. "This is me telling you how incredibly fucked up my life has been since I got in the middle of your case. I'm convinced they're going to try again to kill me, and it's only a matter of time before they succeed. I'm terrified to go back to my apartment tonight, and I'm wondering how long I can continue sleeping in my car in the gated parking lot at work."
Carmen nodded, looking downright terrified herself and peering behind him as if to ensure their current safety. Then she reached up to cup his jaw in her hands, stared intently into his troubled blue eyes and said, "Good job, Marty. This is me being the worried girlfriend, asking you what you're gonna do to protect yourself."
"And this is me telling you that I'm going to try some cockamamie scheme that two cops convinced me was my best option, although at this point I'm pretty sure they're going to get me killed." He paused and then added, "Or I'm gonna get you killed."
She hugged him again, saying, "Nice job with the sincere concern there, partner. I appreciate that it's real, and I think it's playing well too." Pulling back, she added, "Now start selling me on betraying my co-workers and breaking the law."
Getting into the flow of the conversation, he summoned a genuinely guilty expression, trying to imagine how awful it would be to ask someone he loved to break the law for him. He felt like a schmuck.
"OK, I'm asking you to become a criminal. Do LAPD employees regularly allow themselves to be turned into traitors by the people they love, or is this a unique circumstance?"
She looked troubled, shaking her head as if to deny his request. "It has been known to happen, although thankfully not often… There is a reason we have an Internal Affairs Department though," she said as she pushed away from him and then stood and stepped over to the railing to stare out at the waves.
"Car- Maria," he corrected as he jumped up and followed her over to the pier's side. He tentatively took her hand and tried to turn her back toward him. "I'm sorry to ask you to do this. I'm an asshole. And I'm scared to death. If you could just do this one little thing, I'm sure Petrov will be happy and will leave us both alone after that. What could possibly go wrong?"
Carmen allowed a small grin to creep into her expression, and she said, "You're winning me over, but you need to keep working for it."
He kissed her hand and brought it to his heart, saying, "OK, now I'm begging for your help. I don't know what else to do. You're the only one who can save me, who can keep me alive. If you do this then I'm sure we'll live happily ever after."
Carmen nodded her assent, allowing her alias to give in to her boyfriend's charm. Marty reached out to pull her into a full hug, one hand twining through her long hair, and whispered in her ear, "Thank you. Thank you, Maria, for trying to keep me alive."
She wiped a pretend tear from her eye and said, "OK, let's go home, Marty."
"Home?"
"Yeah, after such an intense conversation, I think you would want to smother your girlfriend in gratitude. Plus at this point, you'll be safer there. That'll change if they take the bait and start working with me. Plus, you can get a decent night's sleep so your mind will be sharp when we take the next step."
"I am grateful. And exhausted, so lead the way, Maria." He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, imbuing it with all the genuine emotion he was feeling in the moment. As she led him away from the pier, he began to worry not just about his safety, but about how emotionally confusing this whole operation might become.
A/N: The use of Iowa as Deeks' choice of possible new home is taken from the fact that Eric Christian Olsen grew up there, and from Deeks' reference to it in "Bounty" when he tells Brandon the made up story about his father moving there.