I started another story that falls in between the fifth and sixth chapters of his story titled Kensi's Psych Eval. You don't need to read it to follow this story, but I do reference it a bit. I wrote the stories all together, but decided having two separate stories devoted to two story lines would have been easier for the reader to follow. Thanks for all the reviews, it has encouraged me to continue on this story line. Let me know what you think and if you would be interested in reading more in this genre. Nate is by far my favorite character on the show and I'm always disappointed at how little the writers give him. Hope you enjoy. Again, I own none of these characters.
Monday morning. Nate was the first to arrive, shortly after Hetty, at NCIS OSP. He spent the entire drive sitting in L.A. traffic for forty-five minutes as he did every morning, but Monday's always seemed the worse. The long drive gave him time to think about the previous week's psych evals with his agents. He spent most of the weekend processing, watching TV, reading through the DSM IV and other psychology books, and processing some more with still no answers. He heard stories from two of his agents that worried him and shook him at his core; he feared he would need a therapy session with someone when this week was through. More importantly though he worried he wouldn't be able to build his team back up or help them enough to clear them for work emotionally.
Nate had great confidence in his profiling abilities. Reading people and noticing non-verbal cues was his greatest strength, but when it came to what they said he had a hard time picking out the truth between the lies if they weren't on a screen being interrogated by someone else. Therapy was an art in many respects, and Nate, while still new to it, was struggling mastering his craft with the agents. So far he had discovered he could break them down, but he wasn't sure he had what it took to build them back up. Nate spent all weekend coming up with plans, scenarios and possible conversations trying to anticipate the coming week's interviews, but he knew no matter how hard he prepared it would all be thrown out the door the minute his agents stepped into his office. They were so unpredictable and mysterious because of their ability to cover up their identity, after all that was their job and all of them were very good at their job.
As he grabbed some coffee before he walked to his office Hetty came up behind him. "Good morning Mr. Getz. How was your weekend?"
"Oh, hey Hetty. Good. How was yours?" Nate said. He hadn't forgotten the last conversation he had with Hetty. She confessed a devastating part of her past to Nate in an effort to shed some light on his conversation with Kensi. He wondered if he would ever get the opportunity to finish that conversation. It was Hetty, after all, that told him that people would reach out to him under the guise of some other intention. Nate still hadn't confirmed whether Hetty was reaching out or not.
"My sister is in town." Hetty said in an annoyed manner.
"I didn't know you had a sister. It must be nice to spend time with family." Nate said pushing his previous thought to the back of his mind.
"Mmm. I wouldn't put it that way, but we'll go with that." Hetty replied. "You have a plan for how we're going to get this team up and running again?"
Nate took a sip from his mug looking at Hetty and simply said, "Nope."
Hetty was shocked and outraged, "We have cases piling up Nate. These agents either need to be moved to another line of work or cleared to resume their undercover work."
"Can't recommend either Hetty." Nate said calmly.
"Well what am I supposed to tell the Director? He wants his agents back!" Hetty said concerned.
Nate responded soothingly, "Give them time Hetty. I can't make them talk to me and I can't miraculously heal their childhood demons or undercover traumas. They have to come to me when they're ready."
Hetty was uncomfortable with Nate's answer. He noticed and replied before she said another word, "Its ok Hetty. They know they are on the clock and they know what's at stake. They'll come around and if they don't I'll have my psychological recommendation for the Director ready by Wednesday either way." Hetty nodded feeling defeated, but understanding Nate's point. He continued in a more gentle voice, "I'm worried about them too, but I gotta believe they're stronger than all of this otherwise they wouldn't have made it this far. I gotta believe they'll pull through and you should too."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Hetty said calmly giving in.
"Something small to take their minds off of paperwork and whatever demons are swirling around their heads. Might help morale." Nate replied.
Hetty nodded, "I have some new recruits that need undercover training. Would that suffice?"
"Perfect."
Hetty exhaled deeply still concerned. Nate noticed and tried to offer some words of comfort, "They'll be ok Hetty, trust me." With that he patted her arm and walked away ending the conversation. There was nothing more he could tell Hetty to comfort her, she just had to trust him. He understood her fears and he himself was praying he was right otherwise he could be ending the careers of two incredible agents.
Sam and Callen walked in together drawling their usual banter about this and that, seemingly back to normal, yet there was still an apprehension in Callen's voice; a nervousness about being back in this place again. Hetty stopped both of them at the coffee pot, "Good morning gentlemen. I take it you had a good weekend?"
"Sure, we'll go with that," Callen replied. Hetty wasn't much in the mood for small talk either, so she didn't push. "What do we have on the 'in house' agenda for today Hetty?" Callen asked changing the subject.
"Paperwork Mr. Callen." Hetty replied.
"Come on Hetty. How long are you gonna have us benched?" Sam asked irritated.
"Just until Wednesday Mr. Hanna." Callen looked up concerned when he heard Hetty's response. He knew she was referring to his psych eval, what he didn't know was that Kensi was lumped into that comment too.
"What happens on Wednesday?" Sam said pouring some coffee.
"Nate turns in his recommendations." Callen responded almost in a daze.
Hetty didn't confirm nor deny Callen's response. "Ops Center, five minutes Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna." Hetty turned and walked away ending their conversation for now.
Sam turned to Callen, "You gonna talk to Nate?"
"I don't know." Callen replied. In all honesty, Callen's heart beat with anxiety when he thought about talking to Nate. This must have been what Nate meant when he said Callen would know when it was time to talk again. It was as if his body was urging him to go see Nate, but his mind was telling him to stay away. The minute he walked into the building the first thing he did was look around for Nate, uncertain of why he even cared where the psychologist was. He pushed the feeling to the side and headed to his desk.
Hetty knew since her LA team was pulled out of the field for the week for psych evals their skills could be put to use in training some new undercover agents for another agency. She was tired of seeing them mope around the office; it was time to get them working on something to take their mind off the turmoil in their heads.
Callen and Sam walked into the Ops Center finding Kensi standing next to Eric around the table. "Do any of you know what this is about?" Callen asked.
Kensi shook her head, "Nope."
Hetty walked in, "We have some new recruits that need undercover training Mr. Callen."
"Rookies? Alright." Sam said with some excitement. Callen and Kensi also had smiles on their faces.
"Really, you're letting us out?" Kensi asked hopeful.
Hetty shook her head, "No, not exactly. They need training in civilian firearms protocols, surveillance in electronics and field work and finally escape and evasion skills. They are all former military, but brand new to the undercover game and certainly not ready for field work Ms. Blye."
The team was slightly less excited about Hetty's response, but still eager to have something to do that didn't involve talking to Nate or filling out paperwork. "Well, who are they?" Sam asked.
Eric pulled up all their files on the big screen. He read off their names, background and psychological assessments thus far. Sam and Callen all had comments to say regarding each agent whether they thought they would be good, clumsy, trouble or a pain in the ass to train.
The team spent an hour going over the files and another hour preparing some training scenarios. Kensi agreed to take on the training in firearms protocols since she was the best shooter of the group, Eric and Callen were going to help with surveillance skills both in the field and in the office and Sam volunteered for the more physical part of the job, escaping and evading suspects. Within minutes the morale of the team seemed to do a 180. Hetty felt relieved.
Nate very much wanted to join his team on their new assignment, but he didn't think he would be well received yet. It would be a lonely day for him. He decided to walk the halls and see if there was anyone else who needed his help with anything just so he could feel productive today. He walked by the bull-pen and noticed none of his agents were there so he headed to the Ops Center to see if Eric needed help with anything. When he walked in through the automatic doors he saw his entire team standing there laughing and bantering with each other, just another reminder he didn't belong.
They stopped immediately and looked at him. Nate paused, "Sorry, I didn't know you guys were up here. What's going on?" Nate asked casually. The team simply looked at him. Callen's heart started racing, Sam's blood was boiling and Kensi was almost embarrassed. This was the first time they had interacted with Nate since their psych evals and the thought that he knew things about them that they were ashamed of made them all uncomfortable.
"Training new recruits." Eric replied. He didn't have the same feeling the rest of the team had.
Nate nodded his head, "Oh. Anything I can do to help out?" There was a long pause from the team. Nate figured they were giving him the cold shoulder so he turned around and walked out, but before he reached the door Callen spoke up, "Yeah."
Nate turned back around.
"These new recruits could use a briefing on profiling and interrogating suspects. That would be your area of expertise?" Callen said slightly nervous. He felt just as uncomfortable as everyone else, but he was the team leader and if his team was ever going to get back to normal someone had to break the ice first. Besides, Nate had already proven his loyalty to Callen; to Callen Nate was his brother and even brothers fight sometimes.
Nate nodded relieved, "I could do that."
Callen looked over his shoulder back at his team contemplating, then suggested "Maybe all of us, together, could talk to them about the psychological effects of undercover work." Nate lifted his brow somewhat surprised. "You know? You give the 'technical talk' and we could give them it straight up?"
Nate was definitely caught of guard. That was more open than Callen ever volunteered to be in front of anyone and he just volunteered his team to do the same, "I think that would be really beneficial." Nate paused gauging the reactions of the other team members. They seemed apprehensive about Callen's suggestion, but not objecting to it. "I'll write up some notes and you tell me when and where."
Callen smirked, "Thanks Nate. We will."
With that Nate left the Ops Center pleasantly surprised. He expected his team to be more closed off; he didn't expect them to invite him to collaborate with them considering he still held their jobs in his hands. The fact that he underestimated how threatening he was to them was a good sign. Nate headed back to his office eager to get started on his task for the day.
