"Hey Kens, have you heard from Deeks since the boatshed?" Sam asked as he walked into the bullpen. Two hours had passed and neither Callen nor Deeks were answering their cellphones.

The interrogation shouldn't be taking this long. Sam thought. Especially if that kid is as innocent as Deeks claims she is.

"Why would I know where he is, Sam?" Kensi asked monotonously as she kept her eyes trained on her paperwork.

"You're his partner, Kens," Sam growled with irritation as he flopped into his desk chair. "And unfortunately mine won't answer his damn phone!"

"I thought I was his partner too, but apparently I've been making a fool of myself for the past eight years," Kensi smiled at the older man, a little too sweetly. "Deeks doesn't trust me."

"That's ridiculous," Sam glared at her. "Deeks has trusted you with his life half a million times alone since he got to NCIS. You know that."

"Exactly my point, Sam. He trusts me with his life, but he doesn't trust me with his little sister or his-" Kensi stopped abruptly, realizing the words that almost slipped from her lips.

"Or his what?" Sam probed.

"Or his...his heart," Kensi admitted. Kensi slowly left her desk, approaching Sam's so as not to broadcast their conversation to people passing by. She quietly sat down in Deeks' chair, turning to face the man as he did the same. "Deeks had years to tell me about this, and he never did. Even if we got past this somehow, and everything had a happy ending. I'll always know that he doesn't trust me."

"Kensi, he just wanted to protect her, you know that." Sam shook his head with sympathy for the younger agent. "I've known you and the team longer than Deeks has, and it still took me years to tell you all about my family. Take it from someone who understands, he never meant to hurt you with this."

"It's not about that, Sam. I know Deeks would never hurt me." Kensi sighed. "What if...one day everything is fine. We're happy and everything has worked out exactly how it's supposed to. You're with your family, Nell and Eric are happy, and Callen is with...a cat or something, and Deeks and I have finally figured things out... If he doesn't trust me enough to take care of his little sister, how could he ever trust me enough to take care of...other things...?"

"...Other things?" Sam stared with confusion.

"Yes, Sam." Kensi lowered her voice. "Tiny living things...that poop, and sleep, and breathe."

"Ohh," Sam's eyes widened with realization.

"Exactly." Kensi shook her head with grief. "He doesn't trust me with a sixteen year old, who, I'm pretty sure, can keep herself alive. How will he ever trust me with a smaller thing that needs other people?"

"Well first off, stop calling them 'things.' It's not very reassuring." Sam patted her knee lightly as Kensi glared at him. "And secondly, family is complicated, you've had your own experience with that. Sometimes there's a certain dynamic-"

"A dynamic that I would mess up, got it." Kensi nodded with frustration.

"That's not what I'm saying, Kensi. I've barely spent ten minutes with the kid and I can already tell how much Deeks loves her," Sam reassured the younger woman. "Sometimes love requires you to put aside what's best for you and do what's best for them, no matter how painful it is or who might get to hurt."

"So you think he did the right thing then?"

"I think whatever he did or is planning to do, will be in the benefit of his sister." Sam stood, grabbing his phone to try Callen once more. "And as long as he's doing what's best for her, I think he's doing the right thing."

-LINE BREAK-

"Sam is calling me," Callen stated as he thumbed through the line of missed calls and voicemails.

"He called me too," Deeks responded, gesturing to his own phone on the dashboard.

"If we don't answer, he's gonna stick Nell and Eric on our backs." Callen turned to the detective. "For all we know, Hetty already has."

"That's why we'll be switching them off once we arrive."

"Why didn't we switch them off when we left?"

"In the very likely case that something does happen and we need backup, I wouldn't want to make the task of tracking us down too hard."

"Just hard enough that it won't slow us down."

"Exactly."

"What exactly is the plan here, may I ask?" Alex interrupted. "You turn off your phones so your coworkers can't find you, go on some super secret spy agents' road trip, and then...what?"

"Don't worry about it," Deeks responded nonchalantly.

"No! Stop dodging my questions! What's going on? I'm not stupid, you know? I can tell when there's something wrong," Alex leaned forward in her seat, glaring at her brother through the rearview mirror. "Stop lying to me and tell me what's going on."

Deeks flicked his indicator on, turning onto a dirt track on the right side of the road. The track ran through the green luscious forest for several meters before ending abruptly. All that was visible were the acres of trees and the path back towards the main road. Switching off the car, Deeks turned to his younger sister, earning a confused glance from both her and Callen.

"Al, there is a lot going on that you can't possibly understand right now," Deeks sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "But the gist of it is that there is a very dangerous man and I am beyond tired of his continued need to go after the people I care about. I am putting an end to it, once and for all."

Alex looked at Deeks with wide eyes, glancing back and forth between him and the agent in the passenger seat. "Alone?" She asked disbelievingly. "You're going after a very dangerous man without your team? Isn't that the point of a partner and a team? So that you guys can work together?"

"This is bigger than our team, Alex. I have to do this alone, and they'll only try to stop me."

"Yeah! Because it's a stupid plan, Marty! Good to know your team has more common sense than you do!" She turned to Callen, staring at him with he same disbelief. "And you're just gonna let him do this?"

Callen glanced at Deeks tentatively before responding to the girl. "It isn't my choice, you and I both know he would be doing this whether I agreed or not."

"I didn't call you here to encourage his self-destructive nonsense! I thought you were going to make sure he didn't get himself murdered!"

"And that's exactly what I plan to do, but I can't do that if I'm not here."

"Wait, hold on." Deeks held up his hands and narrowed his eyes. He pointed towards Alex. "You called him?"

"Yes! Obviously, Sherlock! Why else would he be here?" Alex shrugged exasperatedly and rolled her eyes. "Don't leave your phone unlocked around me unless you want me to snoop."

"This can't be happening," Deeks mumbled to himself. "Alright, out of the car, let's go!"

"Where are we going?" Alex yelled again as she pushed the car door open and grabbed her bag.

"There's a cabin a few miles from here, we better start walking if we want to get there before sunset."

"Who exactly does this cabin belong to?" Callen asked the younger man.

"...It's registered under Gordon John Brandel." Deeks stared at Callen, reminding him of their previous agreement. Alex had no idea of their father, and wouldn't know.

"Dad had a cabin out here?" Alex asked, glancing between the two. There was something going on and it was a lot more than the freaky murderous dude they were hunting down. "How come you never told me about it?"

"I kinda forgot it existed until now," Deeks explained. Callen looked aver at the way he fidgeted his fingers and ran his hand through his hair. Deeks was lying.

"How do you forget that our family owns a cabin?" Alex asked, more out of curiosity than suspicion.

"The last time I was here was during winter break of fourth grade with Dad and Ray."

"Uncle Ray used to come here too?" Alex asked with wide, surprised eyes. "How come everyone knew about this thing except for me? I would've loved to come here for Christmas..."

Deeks shook his head subtly, closing his eyes tightly and beginning to walk ahead in the direction of the cabin. Callen could guess that it wasn't a lack of remembrance than caused Deeks to never come back here, it was bad memories...very bad memories.

"Well, considering that it's been more than twenty years since I've last seen the place, it would be a good idea to start going. I won't be very good tracking our path in the dark," Deeks called after them as he locked the car with a beep and trudged ahead, leaving both Alex and Callen behind.

"He's being weird," Alex said, staring after him. She turned to Callen, "Do know what's wrong with him?"

"I do," Callen responded. He didn't want to lie to the girl, but he also couldn't betray Deeks' trust like this. He had promised not to tell her after all.

"So you'll make sure he's okay, then?" Alex narrowed her eyes at the agent.

"I will," Callen agreed. He furrowed his brows at the young girl, surprised at her willingness to let the problem go and trust that it would be handled.

"Good," Alex nodded and began to walk away. The next time she spoke, it was with such softness that Callen could barely dicepher her words. "Because I need him."

-LINE BREAK-

Heyyo! I'm trying to come up with a good book of the month for my Reading Therapy page on Tumblr. It's for this upcoming July. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very grateful!

Review, review, review!