Synopsis of last chapter: Sam and Kensi searched Deeks' apartment, finding an old subpoena in his mail. They also found a locked safe and a bunch of old case files hidden beneath a loose floorboard. Nell and Eric are searching through a list of Deeks' LAPD arrests for potential suspects. Deeks is off to conduct surveillance on Lucas Roberts. Callen reluctantly agrees to allow Deeks to do it alone, instead choosing to stay with Alex at the cabin just in case something goes wrong.

Please forgive me for the long wait, and enjoy!

He focused the camera on the silhouette in the window across the street.

Open the window. Just a peek.

That's all he needed to identify the man inside. To confirm his suspicions.

His phone vibrated in his pocket for the third time since he had parked his car.

Are you ok?

He smiled sadly at Alex's text, typing out a quick reply. I'm okay. Get some sleep.

He shoved the burner phone back into his pocket when there was no response. He'd see her soon. There was no need to worry. Deeks wasn't sure if the thought was more for his or Alex's sake. He supposed it was both. She took care of him almost as much as he took care of her...they kept each other sane.

With a shake of the head to clear his thoughts, Deeks picked the camera back up and refocused it. He squinted...there was no shadow in the window. The lights had gone off. Roberts certainly wasn't sleeping in this dingy motel where anyone could find him. No, he must've left. With a frustrated huff, Deeks glanced in the direction of the car he believed to be Roberts', a dark BMW. A bit flashy to be inconspicuous, but Roberts always was a cocky asshole. The vehicle had not moved from its spot, so Roberts would be leaving the motel any time now. Deeks put his keys in the ignition, ready to tail whoever got into that BMW.

He was so focused on the car across the street that the tapping on his window caught him by surprise. He jumped slightly, instinctively reaching for his weapon. But it was no use. He was already staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Shouldn't he be back by now?" Alex asked, fiddling with her phone. She wanted to text him again, but something was stopping her. He should be home already. And if she texted him and he didn't respond, she didn't know what she'd do.

Callen said nothing to her inquiry. She suspected that he didn't want to worry her, but if his obsessive gun cleaning was anything to go by, she should definitely be worried. She noticed that even he kept glancing at his phone resting on the counter. It hadn't made a sound. The sun was slowly peeking through the sheer curtains, and neither of them had attempted to sleep. Callen didn't really seem like the type to need 8 hours of shut-eye, and he seemed to recognize that she was too wound up with worry to rest. Instead, they sat in silence for most of the night. Alex waiting for the door to burst open and a tall mop of blond hair to walk through, and Callen taking apart and putting back together his gun at the kitchen counter.

"Are you hungry?" Callen suddenly asked.

She shook her head. There was no way she could stomach food right now. It would be a matter of minutes before her nerves pushed them back up. Callen didn't seem to care much for her answer because he began bustling around the kitchen, pulling out pots, pans, and spatulas.

"Boiled or scrambled?"

"Huh?" Alex asked, finally turning away from the door to give him her full attention.

"Eggs," Callen responded. "Do you like boiled or scrambled?"

"Um...neither. I like fried."

"Fried it is. You and Kensi would get along."

"She likes fried eggs?" Alex could tell he was trying to get her mind off her brother, but for a minute, she welcomed the distraction...even if it was just a conversation about eggs.

"I think she just likes anything that's not green." Callen chuckled.

Alex smiled. "We probably would get along then."

Deeks jumped as a chill spread quickly down his spine. His head throbbed like it had been split open. He quickly realized where the chill had come from, his hair dripping cold water onto his cheeks and his shirt sticking to his skin.

"Wakey wakey, Marty!"

The voice sent a wave of anger through his body. His chest burned, spreading deep down into his abdomen. He clamped down on his tongue, lashing out in anger would do him no good now. Especially when his hands and feet were bound, and he was at the mercy of his captor.

The man bent down to look into Deeks' eyes. His thin lips curled into a demented smile. He lifted his fingers and caressed Deeks' face softly, the gentleness at contrast with his rough calloused fingers and flaming eyes. Deeks didn't say a word, he simply met his gaze head on. Lucas Roberts preyed on fear. It fed him like honey to a hummingbird. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Not today. Not ever.

"You took longer to track me down this time," Roberts said. "Too much time with the feds has you losing your touch."

Deeks bit the inside of his lip, resisting the urge to spit insults and struggle against his bindings. When Deeks failed to respond, the sinister smile turned into a scowl. The fire behind his eyes burned even brighter. He drew his hand back and swung it across Deeks' cheek, leaving a stinging welt in its wake.

"Answer me!" He screamed. His voice echoed off the walls, bouncing around the hallow room.

Deeks hissed slightly at the throbbing pain in his cheek, but said nothing. He lifted his head to stare defiantly back into Roberts' eyes.

"Fine," Roberts said. "Keep your words. You'll be needing them."

He backed away and pulled a cellphone from his pocket, pressing a few buttons before the periodic humming of a ringing phone began. The person on the other end answered after a few rings.

A gruff voice called out "Yeah?"

"Any development?" Roberts asked.

"Still inside. No one's been in or out."

"Good," Roberts paused and turned to Deeks. "Would you like to send little Alex a message, detective?"

Deeks froze in his seat, holding his breath as the realization settled in. They found the cabin...they found Alex. "If you touch a hair on her head, I swear-"

"Now now, Marty," Roberts interrupted. "Be polite. My men went through all this trouble to find her for you."

The demented smirk returned to his face as he addressed the man on the phone. "Bring her to me. She must be missing her brother."

"Going in now," the gruff voice responded before the line went dead.

Roberts laughed manically at the fearful, hateful expression on Deeks' face. "Family reunions are just the best, aren't they?"

"You have to go after him. What if something happened?" Alex pleaded.

She sat at the counter poking at a burned fried egg as Callen attempted to make another. It was no use. She was thankful for his determination to make her food, but this just looked poisonous. Besides, they had more pressing problems to worry about. Like her brother that had been missing for nearly 12 hours.

"We made a deal, Alex. I told him we'd wait here until he got back."

"And what if he doesn't come back?"

Callen didn't respond. He couldn't very well tell Alex that the plan if Deeks didn't show up was for the two of them to go underground until it was safe to resurface. She'd lose her mind. She'd never agree to leaving her brother behind. But Deeks could take care of himself...to a certain point anyway. Alex was the one in danger. If Roberts got his hands on the girl, he'd have everything he needed to get Deeks to do his bidding. Not to mention, Callen would never forgive himself. The teenager had started to grow on him, despite her smartass comments and annoying aptitude for reading people.

"C'mon, I'll be fine. No one will find us here. I'm safe, Marty's not." Alex was about ready to cry. "Please go after him."

Just as Callen was about to continue reasoning with her, there was a knock at the door...more like a pounding. Alex instantly jumped off her stool, ready to pull open the door and embrace her brother. Callen grabbed her arm before she could leave the kitchen though. He gestured for her to get behind the kitchen counter as he grabbed his gun and swiftly peaked through the windows.

Deeks wouldn't knock on the door, he had a key. And the shadow across the window was far too large to belong to the tall, lean detective.

As Callen peaked out the window, careful not to reveal himself, he caught sight of the man in dark jeans and a leather jacket. The jacket did little to hide the blade tucked into the waistband of his pants. He was huge, almost bigger than Sam, and the expression on his face said he was getting impatient for the door to open.

Callen turned back to Alex and gestured to the back door. She nodded in understanding, quickly grabbing her things. They needed to leave. Now. Preferably without confrontation.

Callen kept a close eye on their visitor as he waited for Alex to escape through the backdoor so he could follow her. She slowly pulled the door open, and Callen's attention was drawn to the high pitched scream that sounded through the cabin. The backdoor was forced open as another man, only slightly smaller than the first tackled Alex to the ground. Their bodies were obscured from his vision by the kitchen counter. Before he could run to her rescue, the front door was kicked off its hinges and their first visitor pushed Callen to the floor.

"Callen!" Alex screamed for help. The man on top of her was heavy. She had managed to get her hands free, kicking and thrashing about. All the self-defense training her brother had taught her seemed to flee her mind in an instant. She could feel herself panicking, and she couldn't quite remember what Marty had told her to do in this sort of situation. In her manic thrashing, a boot managed to connect with his face, and she felt a small crack beneath her heel.

He let up finally, and she was able to scramble to her feet. But it wasn't long before he regained his bearings and began stalking toward her. She backed toward the stove, eyes darting around looking for any way out of this mess. She had to get to the door, but there was no way she was making it past him. She didn't want to see the devilish smirk on his face. The face of a lion stalking its prey. He chuckled when he realized he had her backed into a corner.

She pressed her back up against the stove and flinched when her side connected with the hot metal. The light bulb finally went off.

She reached her hand out behind her, ignoring the searing pain that engulfed her palm when she grabbed the hot frying pan and launched it at his face. He didn't anticipate her movement, too caught up in the fear that was in her eyes. When the pan connected, he yelled in agony, grabbing his reddening, blistered cheek and closing his eyes.

He was still in the way. He growled at her, and Alex could tell that the playfulness he had wrestled with earlier was gone. Now he was furious. She had to think fast.

She glanced around the kitchen again, there was nothing save for the bottle of oil Callen had used to fry their eggs. She smirked, thank goodness for fried eggs. He lunged at her, but like a deer to a lion, she was quicker. She knocked the bottle on the floor, covering the kitchen tile in a thick sheet of oil. He took little notice to her action and continued in his attack, but it wasn't long before his feet were flailing in the air and he landed flat on his back, his head bouncing off the tile. She watched as his eyes rolled back in his head, and his movement ceased.

She almost took a bolt to the door when two more struggling forms caught the corner of her eye. Callen was struggling in the living room, a knife pressed to his neck and his gun lying forgotten a few feet away. She grabbed the gun, neither man noticing the girl as they struggled for control of the knife.

What had Marty said again?

Feet pointing forward, both eyes open, front sight on target, dominant hand pulls the trigger. The bang was so loud, she almost dropped the weapon. For a moment, she couldn't see, the muzzle flash blinding her. Tears started pouring down her face. Her head was pounding, her ears were ringing, her fingers burned, everything smelled like fire, and no matter how many times she blinked, the black dots just wouldn't clear from her vision. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder as the gun was lowered and taken from her hands. Her brain was too scrambled to decipher whether it was Callen or one of their attackers. At the moment, she couldn't bring herself to care. She just wanted her body back. Nothing was working. Her senses were out of whack and she could feel a panic attack brewing. Her breathing was too shallow, she could tell, but she couldn't do anything to stop it. She didn't know how long she stood there, but it was the last thing she remembered before everything fading to nothing.

The explosion took Callen by surprise, but he was even more surprised when his attacker yelled in pain and dropped the knife to reach for his neck. Callen quickly took advantage of the distraction, pushing the guy to the ground off of him. The bullet had gone straight through if the shattered window behind them was any indication. Callen didn't take the time to check on the man gasping for oxygen, instead he turned to see Alex standing stock still, his gun in hand still trained toward him. Her eyes were glazed over, and almost like a popped balloon, tears started streaming down her face.

She didn't seem to see him get up and walk toward her, or hear him calling her name quietly. He simply put a hand on the shaft of the gun, lowering it and taking it from her. She began to sway lightly as her breathing picked up, and thankfully, Callen noticed the signs of a panic attack when he saw one. When her legs crumpled beneath her, he caught her before she hit the ground.

They needed to get out of there. Now. Callen laid Alex on the couch for a moment as he ruffled through the now deceased man's pockets and breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled out a ring of keys. Lifting Alex, he made his way out the door.

It was time to disappear.

"We got a hit on Deeks' car!" Eric yelled from atop the stairs.

Sam and Kensi shared a look before rushing out of the bullpen.

"What'd you find?" Kensi asked as she and Sam walked through the sliding doors.

Eric typed a few things on his tablet and brought up footage from a security camera. "This morning, police tagged an illegally parked car with Deeks' license plate. It was across the street from a Motel Olive. I pulled up security cam footage from last night and found this at around 11 pm."

Eric zoomed in on Deeks' car on the corner of the street. It was difficult to see through the windows, but they could tell it was Deeks as he periodically peered at the motel through the lens of a camera. He didn't seem to notice the armed man approaching his window until it was too late. He was dragged from the car and tied up. Kensi gasped when the man plunged a needle into Deeks' neck and he fell to the ground. A dark van pulled up and several men hopped out to lift Deeks into the vehicle before speeding away.

Eric stopped the video. "The van doesn't have a license plate, the windows are tinted, and I couldn't follow it through traffic cams. I don't understand how. It just disappeared once it left the neighborhood."

They could all hear the frustration in Eric's voice. "I'll keep looking, I promise. These guys couldn't have just vaporized into thin air. I'll find them."

Sam placed a hand on his shoulder. "It might not be any use, Eric. Give us the address, Kensi and I'll check out the car. Deeks must've left something there that could help us."

Eric nodded with a sigh. "I'll try to track down who he was surveilling in that motel too."

"Any progress on the safe or arrest list?" Kensi asked.

"Not on my end, but Nell's been working down in the armory. We were kind of at each other's throats earlier, we needed a break."

"We'll find them, Eric, just do your best," Sam reassured him. Eric nodded and slumped back into his computer seat, typing away.

Sam and Kensi left OPS, making their way down to the armory. They had spent all morning working through the stack of cases they had found hidden in Deeks' apartment and playing tag with the justice department to find the reason behind the subpoena they had uncovered. So far, they couldn't seem to find a link. Why would Deeks keep information on so many cases? What was the significance? There must be one, but somehow they were missing it.

"So now Deeks is alone. He doesn't even have Callen for backup," Kensi murmured.

"Callen must be with the kid," Sam responded. "They wouldn't leave her alone. Hopefully, wherever they are is a good enough hiding place cause clearly we're not the only ones looking for them."

They made their way into the armory to hear Nell grumbling to herself.

"Eric get on your nerves?" Sam asked playfully.

Nell looked up. "You have no idea."

Kensi chuckled lightly. "Any progress?"

Nell sighed deeply. "I've tried every passcode I think of and they're all wrong. This safe won't open!"

"What about Alex's birthday?" Sam asked.

Nell stared at him as if she were insulted and didn't even bother answering. "I've had a little progress on the list. Numbered it down to about seven potential suspects. If you wanna help me go through them, I'd be thankful. I need a break from this thing." She gestured to the safe.

"Go ahead," Kensi said. The car could wait a little while, LAPD would already be on the scene after all.

"Great," Nell perked up. "First is Isaiah George, Deeks arrested him for petty theft over ten years ago, but was arrested again for illegal drug use three months after his initial arrest. He was released two months ago."

"Petty theft to murder is a big jump," Sam commented. "Let's eliminate anyone who wasn't involved in a violent crime."

"Okay, that leaves two," Nell typed on her tablet. "Jeremy DeLeghatto, armed robbery, released on parole four month ago, he is currently living with his fiancee, who is totally dealing drugs if her schedule and bank account are anything to go by."

"Doesn't really strike me as the type to kill two teens and abduct Deeks," Kensi commented. This was ridiculous. Three days he had been missing, and they still didn't even have a viable suspect.

"Okay, last we have a suspect that screams second-offender...or maybe thirtieth offender? Solomon Armad, he has a very long list. And when I say very long, I mean very long."

Sam and Kensi snuck a glance at each other. This didn't sound good.

Nell continued. "His file is heavily redacted, I'm working on getting clearance, but from what's available it seems that Deeks arrested him almost nine years ago and was the prime witness in the trial. He served...oh."

"What is it?" Kensi asked. Nell's eyes darted across her screen as her eyebrows scrunched together.

"It's um…" Nell shook her head. "Wow, I missed this on my first glance. How did I miss this?"

The last question was asked so quietly, Sam and Kensi weren't sure if she was even talking to them.

"What is it, Nell?" Sam asked, walking around to look at her tablet himself.

"Armad was Deeks' informant for three years."

"He arrested his own informant?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but most of the charges are redacted...The ones I have access to are minor." Nell shrugged. "Failure to register a vehicle, expired driver's license...this isn't the type of stuff you arrest your informant over."

"When was he released?" Kensi asked.

"Two weeks ago...but there's no record of him anywhere. No credit card use, nothing rented in his name, it's like he disappeared."

"We need to get clearance for those files. Something tells me this is our guy," Sam said.

"I'll bring Eric up to speed, we'll have a background on this guy in no time." Nell grabbed her tablet and the small safe, making her way back to OPS.

"In the meantime, we've got an abandoned vehicle to check out," Sam commented. Kensi nodded her agreement with a sigh. Finally they were getting somewhere, but it still didn't feel fast enough. Deeks was in real trouble, Callen and Alex were on the run, they needed to find their team before someone else did.

If you like the chapter synopsis at the beginning, let me know. I've seen a few reviews saying that my infrequent updates kind mean that rereading the previous chapter is necessary to stay up to speed. I'll try to update more often, but I can certainly include this synopsis to make it easier.

Thanks for sticking with me! Stay safe out there

Reviews feed my soul.