A/N: Wow! I dunno what to say except thank you all the reviews, adds, favs and alerts! I cannot tell you how much each one has made me get a move on with this chapter. I have tried to reply to all the reviews, but if i did miss you, I apologize sincerely! And to all the anonymous reviews-thanks a million!

Righto, onto the chappie. This one is definately longer than the last one. And it had the entire team, once again! I hope you all enjoy it. Please R&R and let me know =D


"So you never took a single shot?" Sam asked her.

"No! God, why is that so hard to believe?" Kensi snapped, throwing him a challenging look that the ex-SEAL smirked to.

"Because I would think that the LAPD would actually have something to hold you on." He retorted. The comment made her smile reluctantly, relaxing against the table once again.

The entire team, Hetty and Nate included, had gathered in the ops room upstairs as they got started immediately on proving Kensi innocent. She had gone through the details of the afternoon after Deeks had dropped her off about 5 times now, each time having to repeat different parts when someone or another commented on it. The only person in the room who seemed to take her version of things at face value was Eric. Though she was pretty sure that was simply because he was their technology operator and was more interested in gathering the evidence physically.

"So why do they think it was you?" Nate questioned, not having gotten this far in the story as of yet.

"I was the only one nearby with a gun out. Dead cop plus me, with a gun. It was easy logic, I guess." She shrugged tiredly, leaning forwards onto the table to rub absent-mindedly at her forehead. The pain had eased up considerably since that morning, even without the use of any painkillers.

"And you never saw the shooter?" Sam asked.

"No. Honestly, I don't think he was in the park. The shots, they were..." Kensi thought back to the event.

It had only been 10 minutes since she had left her place when the first one rang out. It had missed everyone but the second one had hit the officer before either one of them had the chance to grab their weapon. She had only been a few feet behind him on the path, and had quickly taken cover behind a tree when another shot was fired. From the sound of the impact, it had hit the very tree she was using to keep safe. The fourth one whizzed past her when she tried to get a look, unsuccessfully.

Only when everything felt too quiet to be fine did she peek out again, inching out slowly and carefully. Her eyes had raked every place possible for the shooter, but couldn't find the correct place. And before she could do anything to call it in to her team, another cop had found her with her weapon out, standing not too far from the dead officer and putting her in a very incriminating position.

"They were...?" Callen's voice broke her out of her thoughts. Each time she went back there, she tried to think if she had missed something, but always came up blank.

"They were far apart. Like, they were reloading or taking aim, or... something." She concluded with a heavy sigh, turning her head to look over at the screen where Eric was pulling up as many pictures as he could from the current scene. "Are any of these going to help?"

"They're the only ones that LAPD are willing to share. Legally." Eric added on the end with a sly smile that was soon wiped off when Hetty gave him a reproachful look. "I can't get into security cameras around the area, though. They've effectively blocked us from that."

"Deeks?" Sam asked, turning to the other man, who nodded and pulled out his phone.

"I can try to get someone to be nice enough to give us something." He informed them.

"We need something about the bullets that they found, too. Both in the body and the surrounding area." Callen said whilst looking at their liaising officer, knowing that he would get the hint.

"Yeah... I don't think there's enough dirty info on the whole precinct to get us that." Deeks replied with a sheepish smile as he let out his secret of how he made his own people cooperate with him. He gave Kensi an apologetic look as he passed her that she brushed aside with a smile that was trying to be amused, but instead looked tight.

"I don't doubt that Mr. Deeks is correct there." Hetty spoke up, making them all look over at her where she stood at the end of the central table that they were all around, just a bit further up at the other end.

"There's a first" Sam muttered, brining small smiles to the others' faces. "What do we do now?"

"Well, they're going to figure out sooner or later that Kensi wasn't the shooter. How about we get one step ahead?" Callen suggested, sparking everyone's curiosity with his cryptic words that only his partner got.

"Find the real shooter?" He replied, to which Callen nodded. "You know what, if he was using a sniper or a riffle, they might be casings left behind."

"Very good idea, Mr. Callen." Hetty appraised him, almost in surprise.

"Hold on." Kensi broke in before they got too carried away with the new direction. "We're just going to leave it to the LAPD to prove my innocence?"

"You are innocent, aren't you?" The operational manager asked her sceptically.

"Of course!"

"Then you have nothing to worry about, dearie. They'll come to the right conclusion in the end." She informed her with a sense of nonchalance that made Kensi wonder if it was only her who was worried about being accused of murder.

"If Deeks gets some of the footage from the park and we prove your innocence, they'll see the same thing too." Sam reminded her, picking up on her uncertainty. "We're not getting anything that they aren't. Except that they don't know who this shooter was aiming for, yet."

"Alright." She gave in, knowing that it made sense to focus on the part that no-one else was currently on. Taking herself out of the centre of the case, it did seem like something that they would normally do, and she was grateful that the others hadn't forgotten that.

"Pull up the map again, please, Eric." Callen instructed him. He did as asked, clearing space on the screen for the birdseye view of the park and the surrounding areas. "Kens?"

"Ok. So I was about here." Walking over to it, she enlarged the map and circled the areas that she spoke about. "And the dead cop's about here, I'd guess."

"The other shots?"

"I didn't see the first one, but it was close. The others were here and... here." Drawing the additional marks on the screen, Kensi took a small step back to look at it whole before carrying on. "And they were coming from this direction. I'd say around this area."

Nobody said anything as she stepped back a bit more to glance at the rough diagram that she had drawn on the map. They all waited patiently as she went back over it in her mind, putting herself back at the scene and making sure that what she had drawn and was now considering matched up. Finally glad that it did, Kensi looked over at the others with a small nod before turning to Eric expectantly.

"Right, so using the points, I can get you a rough trajectory." He said with a small smile, already linking up the four circles that she had drawn towards the area that they had came from. "Luckily, the more shots fired, the more accurate the trajectory."

"I don't think getting shot at would be deemed as lucky, would you?" Sam commented dryly. The smile on Eric's face died as he stopped with what he was doing and froze momentarily.

"No, of course not. Sorry, Kensi." He apologized with a hint of a blush colouring his cheeks that she could only see because of their closer proximity than the others.

"It's alright." She brushed off, knowing that he didn't mean anything by it but just had the tendency to speak before thinking when getting into his work.

"There." Eric exclaimed when he completed his job and narrowed down the possible area where the shooter may have been.

"We'll start there, then." Callen said as he and Sam already began to leave. "Tell Deeks to get onto anything he finds."

"And I'll just sit around here?" Kensi called after him.

"Yeah." He replied, not bothering to turn back to look at her before exiting.

"But-" She began even though they had already left. There were still 3 other people in the room with her, and was cut off pretty quickly anyway.

"Ms. Blye." Hetty effectively stopped her before she could express her irritation. With her words strict and careful, Kensi knew better than to argue when there would be no winning, on her side, at least. "Not only is this case about you, and therefore, you risk compromising it if you go after the evidence that is currently under LAPD jurisdiction, but until we find out for sure if there is someone after you, letting you out in the field right now is dangerous. Staying here will kill two birds with one stone. "

"Great. So I'm basically benched." She scoffed, letting her anger seep into her words before following the other woman out of the room, though undoubtedly to another place. "Dammit."

"Is she really ok?" Eric asked softly once he was sure that the agent was out of hearing range, turning towards Nate as he did so.

"I don't know. I'm just going to..." He trailed off uncertainly. Pointing in the direction where the others had gone, he also left the ops room after catching the other man's nod out of the corner of his eye.

Eric sat back down at his work station, replacing his hand-held computer tablet on the side and getting back to the bigger and better version. He didn't have much time to sort things out when permission for a file transfer popped up on his screen. Checking that it was legit, and finding out that it was from a known IP address that he knew as the local police department's, he accepted it. Not a minute later, Eric heard footsteps enter the room once again from behind him.

"Hey, so my guy goes that he'll be able to-" Deeks began until he took in the empty room. "Where's everyone gone?"

"Callen and Sam have gone to find clues about the shooter, Nate's gone after Kensi and Hetty's...gone." Eric informed him, swivelling his chair to look at him as the computer carried on with it's current process.

"I would really start appreciating if someone would start telling me things some time soon!" The liaison officer exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Callen said you should get onto anything you find." He told him with a smirk before turning back to his computer.

"Thanks." Deeks muttered sarcastically before settling himself into the spare chair on the opposite side of the room to where the other man sat. The transfer of the footage was taking it's time, and with nothing to do, his eyes started to wander around the room that he rarely ever spent any time in except to learn more about a case.

He appreciated that the place was probably filled with more advanced technology than he knew what to do with, and even more probably costed more than he thought was possible. But it was a pretty neat place. That was if he ignored the fact that it wasn't the brightest place, and that there was no window.

"You have a girlfriend, Eric?" Deeks asked suddenly, not knowing what to do with himself or the silence. He watched as the man in question stopped typing and turned around slowly with a suspicious look.

"No. Why?"

"Just wondering. Thought it would be nice to get to know the team a bit better, you know?" He said with a light shrug. "Seeing as no-one bothers to tell me anything themselves."

"Ok..." Eric replied, unsure what else there was to say to the self-pitying words. A beep on the computer drew his attention back again, but unfortunately, not Deeks'.

"Did you know that Sam's ma-?"

"Married? Yup." He finished off for him, half distractedly, eager for him to drop the subject and get on with their work before someone, mainly Hetty, learnt that they weren't.

"And that Kensi's go-?" Deeks carried on, either ignoring or not catching on to the hint.

"Going out with Callen? Yes." Eric sighed, pushing away from his desk and picking up his smaller version. "Want to see what your friends sent now?"

Looking at Deeks for the obvious reply to the rhetorical question, he frowned at the blank expression on his face. It was gone sooner than he could even think about it, and Eric began to wonder if he had even seen it or was just imagining things.

"Right, so, the footage." Jumping to his feet, Deeks faced the screen where Eric had pulled up the videos, determined to get back to work and push the new-found knowledge to the back of his head until he could use it.

...

He could hear her before he could see her, slamming shut the door to the small fridge that was in the alcove behind the team's bullpen. Following her with his eyes, Nate wasn't surprised when she looked over and stared straight at him as she took a seat on the couch. Taking the last few steps through the work area, he leant casually against the arch opposite where she sat.

"So..." He began, crossing his arms. "How you feeling?"

"Is that in a psych way, or a general way?" Kensi asked dryly, glancing up at him before returning her glare to the water bottle in her hands.

"A little bit of both." Nate offered. A wry smirk tugged at her lips as she sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the couch. "And a medical way, too, if you want."

"I'm fine." She brushed off per usual. "It's just been a long day, and it's not even close to ending yet."

"Can I ask you something?" He questioned when it became certain that there was going to be further conversation based on her well being. Sure, he had ways to coerce her to talk, but right then, that wasn't his priority.

"You're going to anyway." Kensi remarked. She opened her eyes when he failed to carry on, and he could see the curiosity in them as she sat up straighter.

"Why do you think someone would be coming after you?" Nate asked her. He thought it was a pretty serious question, but from the scoff that he got in response made him rethink.

"It's part of the job description, isn't it, Nate? I mean, I don't have as many enemies as Callen or Sam, but I'm sure there are a few people out there I've pissed off, too." She commented with a small roll of the eyes. He opened his mouth to argue, that it wasn't a normality to have enemies because of a job, when he spotted the subtle smile that had been on her face fade to a more pensive look.

Nate gave her a few moments to think about whatever that it was that currently ran through her mind. Her hands turned and twisted the water bottle around in her hands, each movement so methodical and exact that it was obvious that it was an automatic reflex.

"Kensi?" He finally said, bringing her out of her thoughts. Her eyes snapped up to his as she shook herself free from herself and putting on a mask that to tell the tale of being fine, when she was not.

"No, it's nothing." Nate raised a silent eyebrow at her, letting her know without words just how much he believed that. "Just... Maybe I'm being paranoid. Maybe they weren't aiming for me."

"You're not sure?" The words were mixed with both surprise and slight worry as he pushed himself away from the wall.

"I was. But the more I think about it..." Kensi leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her knees as she stared at her hands and the bottle in them. Sighing, she glanced up at him with something that he couldn't ever remember seeing her portray; uncertainty. "It could have been a coincidence, right? Think about it. How could they have known I would be there? I never go to that park. I should have been here, instead. Or at home."

"Maybe they tailed you?" Nate suggested, earning himself a satirical look instead. "Ok, maybe not."

"What if it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?" She shrugged, biting her lower lip as she considered the hypothesis with the shooting. Nate knew that trusting your first instinct was something was drilled into the agents, but he deep down, he probably wasn't the only one who wished this instinct was wrong.

"Then we'll find that out. But until then, you know you're basically grounded, right?" He reminded her cautiously, knowing that technically, he only had the ability to keep someone out of the field based on a medical reason.

"Yes, sir." Kensi laughed dryly before sitting up once again and letting out a deep breath. "I think I'll go see if I can help Deeks or Eric without compromising anything. I can't just be sitting around."

"Ok. And Kensi?" Nate started, claiming her attention before she got up. "If you turn out to be right, that officer's death wasn't your fault."

"Yeah." Her tone betrayed her acceptance, but Nate knew that that would be a conversation for another day, or perhaps later on, depending on how soon they found out the truth.

Lost in his own thoughts, he barely noticed when she threw her water bottle into the bin near to where he stood until it hit it with a metallic clang. Unimpressed, Nate met her amused look with his own that was the total opposite. He kept his gaze on her as she stood up though, noticing the slight change in her demeanour as she did so.

"Kensi?" He asked as he saw her blanch suddenly, standing unsteadily on her feet. When she failed to reply, he stepped closer and just about managed to grab a hold of her elbow before she could possibly fall, making him wonder what exactly was wrong with her.

...