Callen decided to stay behind at the scene to make sure everything went well with LAPD. Even if the detectives were vouched for by Bates, they still wanted one of their own to keep an eye on everything. And if anything important was found, they didn't want to wait around until someone decided it was pertinent enough to share. Kensi wished she could be in both places at once, but it made more sense for Callen to be the one to stay. He was lead agent, so least likely to be pushed around. But she still wasn't happy. She wouldn't be able to relax until she could talk to Deeks.

"I should've insisted on driving back," Sam scoffed, holding onto the door of the car as Kensi took a sharp turn. Deeks always teased her about her driving too. "It's a good thing we're already on our way to the hospital."

"I should've gone with him," Kensi mumbled, wringing her hands around the steering wheel.

"You should've gone with who, when?" Sam asked.

"I should've gone with Deeks when he went to interview his contacts for our stupid case," Kensi hissed, slapping her horn when someone dared to think about changing into the lane in front of her. "We never go places without backup, but we let Deeks do it. And look what happened."

"No one could've seen what was going to happen to Deeks. Hell, we still don't even know what happened. Playing the 'what if' game isn't going to help anything."

"No, but a little introspection might. Like thinking about why we treat Deeks differently. If anything, we should have his back more, since he isn't even an agent," Kensi pointed out.

"I'm sure Deeks would appreciate us acting like we don't trust him to do the job," Sam snorted.

"But you don't trust him, do you? There's no point in pretending you do," Kensi snapped.

"This isn't the time for this conversation. Emotions are running too high and you don't want to say anything you don't mean," Sam warned.

"Okay, how about this? I should've known something was wrong the second Nell got that text, saying he was going back to LAPD. I should've known as his partner that something wasn't right, but I didn't do anything. If I was a better partner, I would've been able to help him," Kensi ground out, finally directing her anger at the person who deserved it the most. "This is my fault."

"Kensi, I know you haven't had the best luck so far with partners and I understand the guilt you're feeling, but I'm going to hit you with some hard truths right now, because I know you'll be able to understand it," Sam said, waiting until she pulled into the hospital parking lot to continue. "You have to put your own feelings aside and think about Deeks right now."

"I am! Deeks is all I've been thinking about," Kensi insisted.

"I know that's what you think, but you're making it about yourself. You're thinking about all the things you could've done, but that isn't doing any good right now. It's okay to realize what you need to change in the future, but you can't focus all your efforts on your faults right now. All the energy you spend beating yourself up could be used to help Deeks," Sam said firmly, unbuckling his seatbelt. "I know that's hard to hear, especially while we're in the thick of things, but it's a lesson we all have to learn sometime. So take a minute alone in the car and get all those complicated feelings out before you go inside and be the person your partner needs right now."

Kensi ground her teeth together as she watched Sam climb out of the car, knowing he was right. She couldn't go into this worrying about how she felt about things. Deeks had gone through something, although it was still unclear exactly what went down, and he needed support, not someone lamenting what should've happened. None of this should've happened, but hindsight wouldn't take away that stab wound or anything else.

And she couldn't fall back on her old standby of lashing out to cover up her true feelings. She'd already done that with Sam and Callen and luckily she'd been called out before it could spread to Deeks. Because there was a part of her that told her she was angry with him for getting into this mess, even though it was completely inappropriate. Once he was better, they could have a real conversation and get their relationship to a point where something like this wouldn't happen again.

Kensi climbed out of the car, determined to be who Deeks needed right now. She texted Sam to get the room number, then headed up, imagining what she'd find. Maybe Deeks would be sitting up in his hospital bed with a cocky smile on his face, asking if they missed him while he was gone. He'd regale them with a tale of fighting his way out of an impossible situation and wonder why they all looked so worried. But that wasn't what she found when she got there.

"Oh my God," Kensi mumbled. Instead of looking better like she'd hoped, Deeks looked worse. Bruises around his neck that hadn't been there before had time to settle in, painting his throat an ugly red. He had tubes and wires seemingly everywhere and Kensi couldn't tell if they were just there to help or actively keeping him alive. His face was pale, with the only color the spots of red high on his cheeks.

"Relax Kensi, nothing's changed," Sam said, walking over to pull her further into the room from where she'd frozen in the doorway.

"How can you say that?" Kensi hissed, waving her arms in Deeks' direction. "He looks awful."

"I'm going to tell Deeks you said that when he wakes up," Sam said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"The doctor will be in shortly to give an update on some test results, so you may ask him any questions you have," Hetty said from where she was sitting at Deeks' bedside.

"Where's Bates?" Kensi asked.

"He went to join Mr. Callen and his detectives at the scene. He wouldn't admit it, but I think he has a bit of a soft spot for our Mr. Deeks," Hetty said, looking softly over at Deeks. "He will make sure the investigation runs smoothly and Mr. Callen won't have any issues staying behind."

"That's good, I guess," Kensi muttered. She wasn't going to trust the man, especially not after the things Deeks had said about his time with LAPD. Where had Bates been when he was treated poorly by his fellow officers? But then again, would Deeks say the same thing about NCIS to other people? They hadn't been so great to him either.

"Hello again everyone," the doctor greeted as he walked into the room, followed by a nurse. The nurse started checking Deeks while the doctor flipped through a chart, standing by the foot of the bed. "I have a few updates I'd like to discuss with you all."

"Is Deeks okay?" Kensi asked, hoping the doctor would answer a direct question instead of leaving them in limbo.

"We're seeing early signs of infection, which we suspected would happen, so we are pushing antibiotics as heavily as we can to try to head it off before it develops further. After hearing more about the circumstances surrounding how Mr. Deeks came to be in this condition, we've sent samples to the lab to do a tox screen. Preliminary testing when he first came in only showed trace amounts of painkillers, but some things flush out of the body faster than others, so hair follicles will give a better idea of prolonged drug ingestion. I've put a rush on it, at the request of your agency," the doctor explained, pointing that last bit of information in Hetty's direction. She was good at getting what she wanted.

"I'll text Callen to send a list of any drugs they find in the house. Maybe we can narrow down the possibilities," Sam said, pulling out his phone and sending the message.

"When will he wake up?" Kensi asked.

"That's hard to say. His body has been through a lot and the best thing for him now is rest," the doctor replied. "We're giving him pain relief, but not sedatives, so when he wakes up is up to him. But I wouldn't be surprised or worried if he didn't wake up until sometime tomorrow morning, especially with the slight fever he's running."

"Okay," Kensi sighed, not liking the answer, but knowing she couldn't do anything about it.

"There will be nurses in regularly to monitor him and I'll be back during my rounds in a few hours. The call button is there if you have any other questions or concerns," the doctor said, exiting the room with a polite nod.

"He was drugged?" Kensi hissed, feeling an overwhelming urge to go back to that house and hurt those dead bodies. It was ridiculous and didn't make sense, but none of this did. What kind of cowards had to drug someone they already had tied up and possibly battered? This new information just made her even more desperate to find out everything that went on.

"Mr. Hanna filled me in on what you found at the scene," Hetty said seriously, shaking her head in dismay. "It seems our Mr. Deeks happened upon a bit of trouble." And wasn't that a bit of an understatement.

They hung around the room for a few more hours, with no signs of Deeks waking at all. Callen eventually came back after the scene fully processed. There had been a stash of all kinds of pills in one of the bedrooms, from oxycodone and valium, to things you couldn't get with a prescription. It was easy to figure out what Deeks had been given, since he found residue on the kitchen counter. It made Kensi sick to think that someone had ground up pills to feed to Deeks, as if they were spices to add to a dish.

Kensi supposed she could've taken comfort in the fact that Deeks likely hadn't been given something like heroin, since that could lead to a whole host of other issues. It wouldn't be fair to him to make it through something like this, only to end up with an addiction that he was forced into. After seeing him refuse taking any sort of prescription painkiller before, even when using them would be a valid choice, she knew even something like this would be hard for him to accept. And soon enough, she'd realize how right she was about that.

It was early evening when Deeks finally started to stir. Kensi immediately pushed the nurse call button, which she would end up regretting a few moments later. Deeks was weakly tossing his head from side to side when the nurse came in, mumbling something that they couldn't understand.

"Mr. Deeks, can you hear me?" the nurse asked, checking a readout on a monitor as she moved around him. When Deeks didn't respond, she tried again. "Marty?" Deeks' eyes snapped open at that and he started struggling on the bed. He was still weak, but all the movement detached one of the cords and an alarm started going off, adding to his agitation.

"No, no, no," Deeks mumbled, jerking his limbs spasmatically. The nurse called out for further assistance as she wasn't able to calm him down and stop him from moving. Each touch only made things worse. Soon a whole team of hospital staff were in the room, pushing all the agents to the side.

"Let us help! He's just confused," Kensi demanded, pushing against an orderly who was trying to hold them back. She thought about flat-out decking him, but she didn't want to be banned from the hospital.

"Let the nurses do their job," the orderly said blandly, which only added to her frustration. This might be just another day on the job for him, but this was her partner. She couldn't stand back and do nothing. Deeks was still moaning incoherently on the bed, but all of the bodies were blocking her view of him. He was finally awake, but she still couldn't be there for him.

The doctor finally pushed through the chaos, working his way to the bed. He called out commands to his staff that Kensi didn't understand, but she tried to crane her neck to see what was happening. When Deeks suddenly stopped making noise, she panicked, yelling at the doctor to tell them what was going on.

"Get them out of here," the doctor directed, pointing toward the door.

"Wait!" Kensi yelled, as they were all herded toward the door. The others weren't fighting nearly as much as she was, which just pissed her off even more. They needed to be there for Deeks. The first faces he saw after his ordeal shouldn't be strangers.

"Let them work," Callen muttered, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the waiting room. Kensi wrenched around as best she could for one last look, only catching a glimpse of Deeks' limp hand hanging over the side of the bed.