Alex peeked through the curtains, her eyes trailing after her brother who paced back and forth across the thick grass, cell phone pressed to his ear. He had been out there since she had woken up this morning. Whoever he was speaking to, it seemed important. And dangerous. Because when she had tried to tell him 'good morning', he had shooed her back inside. He clearly didn't want her to hear the conversation; and the only time he hides things from her is when they're dangerous. This was one of those times.
Instead, she had busied herself with her cellphone - making up stories for friends wondering why she wasn't at school this morning. She rolled her eyes when she thought of how dramatized her excuse would become as it spread through the school grapevine. In a few months, the whole student body would probably be convinced that she was a murderer on the run. They'd say she was pregnant. That she was in the hospital. Anything more entertaining than the actual truth. It was just the nature of high school drama. The ludacracy of it drew a slight giggle from her chest.
"What's so funny?" Callen asked her from the kitchen counter where he stood picking apart his firearm.
Alex turned away from the window, allowing the curtains to fall back into place. The agent had been attempting to make conversation with her all morning. It was strange. She never would have pegged him for a small-talk type of guy. Yet here he was, asking questions that she had no interest in answering. Alex decided to throw him a bone though. He was doing Marty a huge favor after all.
"The fact that you've taken apart that gun about seventy times in the last hour." She climbed up onto the wooden island, crossing her legs underneath her.
Callen sent her an amused, yet slightly surprised glance. He still seemed taken aback by her smart comments, even after the past two days of nonstop sarcasm.
When he didn't respond, Alex chose to continue. "When Marty's upset, he has to move." She gestured in the general direction of the pacing detective. "But when you're upset, you take things apart and put them back together."
"What makes you think I'm upset?" He asked.
Alex examined the magazine from Callen's weapon laying on the counter, grabbing it and carefully twirling it around in her hand. "Who compulsively cleans a gun when nothing's wrong? You're either upset, or you need a therapist… Maybe both!"
Callen sent her a glare, grabbing the magazine from her fingers and attaching it to the firearm with a click. "I'm not upset." He said simply.
"Is that what you tell your therapist?" She smirked.
Callen chuckled lightly. "You really are Deeks' sister, aren't you?"
"Marty always said we got the sarcasm from Dad." Alex shrugged before jumping from the counter and wondering back over the couch, ending the conversation as she jammed her headphones into her ears.
Callen was thankful she had turned around, or else she would have noticed the tenseness that came over him when she mentioned her father so casually. The man that had made Deeks' childhood hell. The man that had nearly killed his own wife and son. The man that had beat his family within an inch of their lives. And here Alex sat, looking back on him with only the fondest of memories. It was puzzling. Deeks refused to tell her what a horrible man Brandel was, how the only thing standing between her brother and death was a shotgun. Yet, he had no problem telling her the traits she had inherited from him...like their sarcasm. How had he kept this secret for so long? Such a painful secret?
Alex deserved to know.
Deeks deserved to live without such a burden.
Brandel didn't deserve to be remembered fondly.
Yet here they were. Living a life where no one seems to get what they deserve.
"This doesn't feel right," Kensi said to Sam. The two stood on Deeks' doorstep, the door slightly ajar with Kensi's hand wrapped loosely around the doorknob.
It didn't feel right. It didn't feel right to look through his apartment. It didn't feel right to be here without his permission. It didn't feel right not to see Deeks' bright grin on the other side of the door. It didn't feel right to show up without a bag of Chinese takeout in one hand and a six-pack of beer in the other. None of this felt right. Deeks should be here. Deeks should've told them. He should've trusted them.
"I know, Kens," Sam responded. "But this is the only way we'll be able to help them."
With a shake of her head, Kensi pushed the door the rest of the way open. She stepped aside, pulling the curtains open to shed some light on the dim room as Sam made his way into the apartment, disappearing into the hallway that led to Deeks' room.
"Where do we even start?" Kensi sighed to herself. She had been here a million times, and yet without Deeks standing next to her, it felt like her first time stepping foot inside. She took a seat on the couch and began sifting through the mail strewn across his living room table. Phone bills, bank statements, coupons, subpoena, magazines. Wait...subpoena?
Kensi flipped back, glaring at the offending piece of paper. What was Deeks doing with a subpoena? She wondered. Skimming the document, Kensi found that the court date had already passed...nearly two months ago. The envelope was open, the edges of the page bent and the paper crinkled. This clearly had not gone unnoticed. Yet, it had gone unknown to her. Kensi was quickly finding that there was a lot in Deeks' life she didn't know about.
To be completely fair, it wasn't uncommon for any of them to appear in court as witnesses. It was part of the job. They were always receiving subpoenas for one case or another. But usually, court documents pertaining to a case were delivered straight to the Mission, dropped off by the courier. But this envelope was addressed to Deeks' apartment, so it had clearly not reached him via NCIS. What other reason would Deeks be in court if it didn't pertain to his job?
Before Kensi could continue her train of thought, she heard Sam call for her from the hallway. Carrying the letter and envelope with her, she made her way toward his voice.
"This must be Alex's room," Sam stated when Kensi joined him.
Kensi shook her head, trailing her hand over the yellow, flowery bed sheets. "Deeks told me the water heater burst and flooded this room."
The room was personalized. Perfect for a teenage girl. The walls were off-white, decorated with posters of Tyler the Creator and Kid Cudi. The mirror of her vanity was filled with photos - pictures with her brother, her friends, her parents, even Monty. There were clothes hanging from open drawers, textbooks lying open on the floor...
"Girl after my own heart," Sam chuckled from the bookshelf. He turned around, revealing a stack of vinyl records. "Tupac, Method Man, Dr. Dre… Deeks was raising the kid well."
Kensi chuckled for the first time in what seemed like days. "I don't know if she gets her music taste from Deeks. He's more of a classic rock, metal type of guy."
"So she found the legends on her own then...even better." Sam smiled, replacing the record on the shelf. "I have a feeling she and I'll get along when we finally meet properly."
Kensi looked around the room. It was so real. It was all so real. She had music tastes, books, clothes… She was living here. For years. Long enough to make enough memories to decorate an entire bedroom. And yet, Kensi never knew. A teenage girl secretly building her childhood right under the nose of a trained NCIS agent.
"How did I not notice he was keeping things from me?" She asked rhetorically.
"None of us noticed, Kensi." Sam turned to her, sensing the self-doubt in her voice.
"But I'm his partner, Sam. Even if no one else noticed, I should have."
"Deeks is smart." Sam crossed the room to put a hand on her arm. "Smarter than we give him credit for. This isn't about you being a bad partner, Kens. He's good at keeping secrets, it's his job. It's all of our jobs. You didn't know because Deeks didn't want you to know. He's been doing this alone. But we know now, and we can help him. He's not alone anymore."
Kensi nodded. She didn't bother mentioning that Deeks was always able to read her like an open book, whether she wanted him to know her secrets or not. She didn't bother mentioning that she felt alone too, or that she didn't know how she and Deeks would ever be able to trust one another again. She simply locked her stray emotions into a box and pushed it to the back of her mind. Whether or not she was angry at Deeks, there were two dead teens whose killer was still on the loose, and another who could be in danger. She had a job. And she was going to do it.
Sam crossed the room back over to the bookshelf next to the window overlooking the busy road. Each heavy footstep tapping on the wooden floor...except for one.
"Did you hear that?" Kensi asked. She began to tap her feet on the boards near the area she had heard the sound.
"Hear what?"
"One of these boards squeaked when you stepped on it."
Sam began tapping his own foot across the floor, listening intently for any unusual sounds. The soft taps soon became a hollow thud under Kensi's boot.
"Here," Kensi signalled to Sam. She got down on her knees, placing the subpoena envelope on the floor beside her.
Pulling out her knife, she wedged it into the side of the loose floorboard, lifting it out and placing it to the side. Beneath it lay a rectangular compartment, a stack of thick manilla folders resting inside. Kensi pulled out the stack, held together with a few rubber bands, and handed them to Sam as she examined the other contents of the hidden compartment. Beneath the folders was a metal box, fused with an electronic lock. She gently lifted it from the compartment and rested it on the bed.
"These look like court documents. Information from past cases? I don't recognize any of these names though. This must've been before his time at NCIS." Sam said as he flipped quickly through the contents of the folders.
He gestured to the small safe Kensi was examining. "Can you open it?"
She shook her head. "The lock is electronic, I don't know the password. Maybe Eric can figure out."
"Why would Deeks keep things like this in his little sister's room?" Sam asked.
"It's the one place in this building no one asks questions about," Kensi replied. "What reason would anyone have to search an empty, water-damaged room?"
None. Especially if there was no reason for Deeks to lie.
"You think these may be from LAPD cases?" Sam asked, gesturing to the folders.
"They must be. But Deeks has worked on a ton of LAPD cases, why only keep information on those?"
"Something about them must be special." Sam mused.
"It could have something to do with this," Kensi exclaimed. She grabbed the subpoena from off the floor, passing it to Sam to examine. "I found that in his mail. I thought it was weird that a subpoena would come to his home address instead of OSP."
"This court date was months ago," Sam noticed. "Why would Deeks keep an old subpoena with his recent mail?"
"My thoughts exactly," Kensi said.
"Alright, we need to figure out what this subpoena was for. If Deeks testified against someone and they ended up getting off…"
"They might be holding a grudge," Kensi finished.
"And we need to sort through these files," Sam held up the stack of folders. "And get that safe open."
"Hopefully, Eric and Nell have made progress on that list. We're gonna need it."
"You're going alone?" Alex screamed.
"Al, not now. This isn't up for discussion," Deeks responded.
Alex turned to Callen. "And you're just gonna let him do this? What if something happens? No one will be there to protect him."
"Your brother is more than capable of protecting himself, Alex."
"What is the point of you being here?" She screamed at Callen venomously, throwing her hands up in the air before turning back to Deeks. "Marty, you can't do this. You can't go alone."
When Deeks heard the tremor in her voice, he stopped his movements instantly. Alex wasn't just throwing a tantrum, she was afraid. She was afraid for him. Afraid of being alone. Slowly, Deeks approached her, placing his hands firmly on her shoulders.
"I'll be fine, Alex," He began. "I'm the only one who knows how this guy works. And if things don't go according to plan, I need Callen here to make sure you disappear until it's safe again."
"And what about you?" She whispered, a tear trickling down her cheek as more welled up in her stormy, hazel eyes. "If things don't go according to plan, who's gonna make sure you're safe?"
Deeks paused. The real answer was no one. He'd have no one. But he was willing to take that risk. He and Callen had spoken before he broke the news to Alex. One of his contacts at LAPD managed to dig up a possible location for Lucas Roberts. Tonight, Deeks was going to check it out, and if he was lucky, put a bullet through Roberts' skull. Callen was not too enthusiastic about the last detail, only agreeing to stay with Alex if Deeks promised this would be a simple surveillance mission to confirm LAPD's suspicions. Begrudgingly, Deeks gave his word, agreeing that if he found anything, he'd call it in.
Despite Deeks' promise, Callen was still not too pleased with allowing Deeks to do this alone. Lucas Roberts was clearly dangerous. But they couldn't leave Alex alone with such a dangerous, and powerful man with his eyes set on harming Deeks' loved ones. And Callen couldn't possibly convince Deeks to stay with Alex and let him check out the location instead… Which only left one option. Callen was to stay with Alex and await any possible signal that Roberts was on to them. At the first sign of trouble, Callen would get Alex out of the cabin and somewhere safe. The agent was certainly no stranger to living under the radar.
Alex clearly had not taken the plan well. And now here they stood, tears streaming down her freckled cheeks as she buried her face in her brother's chest. There was nothing Deeks could say to comfort her...nothing true anyway. So he did the one thing he could do.
He lied.
"Al," He began, pulling her away from his body so he could stare into her eyes. "I'm gonna be okay. It's a simple mission, nothing will happen. I'll come back to you."
"You promise?" She sniffled, wiping at her face.
"I promise."
She nodded, giving him another tight hug before retreating to the bathroom.
"You shouldn't have said that," Callen commented once Alex had shut the door.
"Said what?" Deeks asked. He slung his bag over his shoulder and clipped his gun into the holster at his side.
"You can't guarantee that this won't go wrong, Deeks. You said so yourself, Roberts is dangerous. You shouldn't make promises to her that you can't keep."
"You wanna know what I promised her, Callen?" Deeks questioned. "You wanna know what I promised that little girl that I found abandoned in my parents' kitchen, bawling her eyes out? I promised her that I'd do whatever I could to keep her safe. And if that means telling a lie here and there, you can be damn sure I'll do it."
"Lies have a way of coming out, Deeks," Callen responded. "If the past two days have taught you anything, it should be that."
"What are you trying to say, Callen?" Deeks hissed.
"I'm saying that if you don't come back here in one piece, she'll be heartbroken, especially after that promise you just made."
"Yeah well, I'd rather her be heartbroken than dead."
Don't worry, I'm not just giving Alex MY music tastes. I personally am not even crazy about Tyler the Creator. I just felt like she'd be a really big hip-hop fan, and those artists just worked with the personality that's developed.
Anyway, reviews feed my soul.