A/N: I can't think of much to say other than wow! I cannot believe the response I am getting to this little fiction of mine. Over 100 reviews for 5 chappies? I am ever so grateful! I just hope that I can keep you all intersted and entertained for as long as I keep on writing this.

Right, so this is the longest chapter of the story so far. Whether that'll help or hinder, I'm not sure. Hope you enjoy and please R&R =D


Kensi sat on the couch once again, one hand holding her head while the other one was stretched out in front of her towards where Nate sat on the chair that he had pulled up. Ever grateful for the secluded area of the position of the couch, she rubbed her head once again before looking up at him expectantly. She had to wait a couple more seconds before he reciprocated, letting go of her hand.

"Orthostatic hypotension." He announced after having felt for her pulse for the past 2 minutes. She had refused to go to his office or, worse, the medical room like he had suggested to check her over, so he had had to make do with what he had.

"What?" She asked, not bothering to hide the fact that she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"It's what caused you to faint-"

"I didn't faint." Kensi corrected him abruptly. Nate pursed his lips and nodded before carrying on.

"Almost faint. It's caused by your blood pressure dropping suddenly when standing up." He explained, leaning back against his seat to give her a bit more space to breathe. "I can't be sure until I check your blood pressure, though, but it fits."

"Does it explain the headaches?" She ignored the heavy hint that he tried to send her, knowing that there was no point in addressing it when she had no intention in changing her mind.

"Headaches and excessive thirst can be symptoms." Nate confirmed with a tone that took her back to the days of doctor visits as a child.

"Excessive thirst?" Kensi questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Instead of replying, Nate nodded towards the trash can where she had thrown the water bottle that she had drunk in less than 5 minutes. Realisation came to her as she noticed what he was indicating towards. "Right."

"Also explains why you said you felt better after you laid down for a while. It helped your body to raise the blood pressure." He explained casually. Kensi was glad for that.

After spending the past hour with the constant pounding in her head, she had wondered what it was that had caused it to go away earlier that day, and how to replicate it. Although it wasn't gone entirely, the light-headedness helped ease it slightly. That, and the fact that she had more pressing matters on hand, which didn't include playing 21 questions with their operational psychologist.

"Have you ever had low blood pressure before?" He asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Don't think so." Kensi frowned when he took on a pensive look. "What?"

"Nothing." Nate immediately replied, earning himself a sceptical glare that he did his best to ignore. "Been eating properly?"

"Yes."

"It can be caused by stress."

"I'm not stressed." She insisted.

"Being an operative is a very stressful job." Nate tried to reason, though to no avail; something that he could have predicted after knowing the agent for as long as he did.

"I've been doing it for a few years now. I'm not stressed." Kensi reiterated with a bit more emphasise, hoping that he would get the message and let it go.

"Stress can be built up." He pushed on, standing up and taking the chair back to where it belonged in the main area of the bullpen.

"Nate! I'm not stressed." She practically growled in impatience. "Annoyed, frustrated and a bit agitated, sure. But not stressed."

"Ok." Nate said, giving in at the sound of her words. The last thing that he wanted was to make her feel worse, either physically or emotionally. "Try to eat something salty or doing some light exercise. That'll raise it."

"Am I ok to go now?" Kensi asked after accepting at his advice. She might not like talking to or seeing a doctor, but she trusted Nate, and if he gave her instructions on how to feel better, she would do it.

"I'd suggest resting-" He began, only to cut himself off when she stood up anyway and began to walk past him. "But yeah, ok. You can go."

"Thanks, Nate."

...

Heeding to Nate's advice, Kensi had snatched herself a small packet of salted chips from a cupboard before ascending up the stairs. She had eaten half of it by the time she reached the upper landing, not realising just how hungry she had been with everything that had seemed to have happened since she had last taken the time to have bite to eat.

"Hey. So, look what I got my hands on." Deeks announced almost as soon as she entered the room. The words were spoken with a hurried excitement, mixed with a hint of smugness that helped her leave some of her concerns about everything behind. He wouldn't be so chipper if he hadn't came through with something good.

"I'll consider being impressed if it helps." She retorted light-heartedly, coming to a stop next to him and facing the big screen. His eyes jumped from the screen to her, and then down to her hand, landing on the now-empty packet she held. Rolling her own eyes, she tossed the item onto the table behind them to put it out of sight and get back onto what they were previously focusing on. "Well?"

"Oh. Eric, roll it." Deeks commanded, blinking himself out of the small faze he had gone into as he turned towards their tech operator. The latter was currently sat with his chair turned towards the screen, still holding the handheld device to control the video that was at the moment paused. As soon as he was given the command, Eric pressed the play button, only for the footage to replay itself from the beginning. "Wait, not this bit..."

"Hold on. The file isn't the normal format that we use, so I'm... There." Eric faltered as he did what he did best, finally managing to get the video to the beginning of the part that they wanted. The camera had clearly been a bit far from where the incident had occurred, but it was all pretty easy to see after it had been zoomed in to the specific area where Kensi had been in that park. It was over in less than a minute, and even though it showed exactly what she remembered from the actual event, it still seemed surreal to see it play out so fluently in the screen before her. "And there we have it."

"Have the LAPD seen this?" Kensi asked immediately, trying not to sound too eager, nor too affected by what she had just seen and was still sinking in. After seeing it from another point of view, there was no more doubt about it; those bullets were definitely meant for her.

"Yeah, and they've dropped any charges and suspicion." Deeks informed her and she let out a reluctant sigh. Although it was great to have that off her shoulders, it didn't make a difference to anything else. She always knew that they would figure out that she was innocent, but the rest of it was what was eating at her more.

"Right." She nodded and crossed her arms, turning towards Eric as she went onto the more pressing matter at hand. "Can we see where the shots are actually coming from?"

"I can't see the exact place from this angle, but I can get us a much more accurate area to focus on." He told her, zooming out to the original view once again as he started to do what he had said by tracing back the trajectories of the bullets. This time, with the actual angles and pinpoint places, the result would be something more reliable to go on.

"Looks like you were right, though. They seem to all be aimed at you." Deeks pointed out while tilting his head slightly to watch the footage that was being played a few screenshots at a time as Eric worked on it.

"Yeah." She agreed with a bit of uneasiness as she watched the images again. Getting shot at wasn't anything new, but usually, it was a general thing. Even after being made, or making a bust, whilst undercover, she had never been shot at because of her. And she'd be lying is she didn't admit to at least herself that it was a little scary.

"Except for the one that hit the cop." He added, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"I was close." Kensi shrugged, watching the scene play in normal time to see just how close she really had been.

"Misaim?" Deeks suggested, and she could only offer him another shrug in response.

"Maybe."

"Could be dealing with an amateur." He carried on. When she failed to reply, Deeks looked over at her, fixing her with a questioning look that she brushed aside by not even sparing him a glance.

"Do we have a location, yet, Eric?" She asked, pushing herself away from the table and a bit closer to the screen ahead of her with careful steps.

"Yes, and I'm sending it to Callen and Sam right now. They're there, anyway." Eric informed her with his typical innocent smile. The sight of it snapped her back into her role of an agent; pushing aside her personal feelings for a while in hopes that no-one would see or comment on her small bout of withdrawal. The last thing that she needed, and wanted, was to be pulled off the case and put under surveillance because she was getting too emotionally invested for all the wrong reasons.

"Ok, good. Let's see where." The area in question was suddenly highlighted in red on a new picture that offered a wider view of the park and more. It was a fairly large space, with everything from buildings, both residential and offices, to roads, alleys and open spaces. Taking it all into consideration, Kensi did her best to try and help out by using what she could remember. "Alright, so each shot rang out pretty loud, and considering the range of where the bullets were aimed is moreorless specific, I think we can narrow out anything high up."

"Height equals distance, equals less noise." Deeks offered in explanation, though neither of the other two present were interested. Instead, Eric eliminated any tall buildings without a possible view from the ground floor, and Kensi watched the red rectangular area change to a spotted blob. "You know, I'm surprised they never used something to cover the noise."

The nonchalant comment made Kensi pause for a second, before turning to face her partner. His words were surprisingly correct, making her wonder whether she was missing something that seemed so obvious now.

"Maybe..." She started as it all fell into place. "Maybe they were too close. Maybe they did use a muffler, but it didn't work-"

"Because they were so close, it would be heard anyway." Deeks finished off, catching onto her train of thoughts

"Which means it was outside somewhere. If it was inside, the noise would have been muted more." Kensi concluded. Without even thinking about it, the case became just like any other one that they dealt with on a daily basis. It was only when she took the time that it hit her that it was more personal this time, but she forced that away as she did with the mild headache that has decided to come back again.

"Ok, so ruling out all buildings. That leaves the main road, side roads and alleyways." Eric informed them as he cleared the red highlighting from every building that was in the initial possible area where the shooter had been.

"Take out anywhere where visibility is less than 100%." She told him, momentarily putting herself in the shooter's shoes and trying to get into his mind set.

It took a moment for the logarithm that Eric must have already set up with the picture, clearly from their own database, to rule out places where there would be a perfect sight into the park and at the place the shooter at aimed at. When it worked, though, the redness on the screen was considerably less than before. Walking up to the screen, Kensi zoomed into the places left for a better view.

"Doubt they would risk the main road, especially if no-one saw them." Deeks said, pointing out to the road that ran almost parallel to the park, but she merely shook her head at his words.

"No-one claims to have seen them. Big difference." She dismissed, scanning across the places that they were left with. Coming across an empty area of sorts, Kensi zoomed in a bit closer, wondering why it was still highlighted when there was a thick coverage in the form of bushes around it.

"What's that?" Deeks asked after watching her pondering over it for a few minutes, hoping she had just remembered something, only to let that go when she failed to share any bright ideas she may have had.

"Um... A fence of some sort." Kensi murmured, still carefully going around the area to find the place that hadn't ruled it out.

"Private property." He added in understanding just as she found the small gap that she was looking for. It wasn't much, but their database picture quality was second to none and became easy to see once she got to the right place.

"Trespassing gets past that. Looks like a clear view to the park, too." She informed him after zooming out once again and drawing an almost straight line from the gap in the bushes to where the shots at been aimed at her in the park.

"That's impressive." Eric commented from where he had been sitting quietly, watching them do their jobs, from his seat near his work station.

"Thanks." Kensi smiled before tapping on the empty plot of land. "Find the address?"

...

Having received Eric's initial coordinates, along with a map, for the area that they had managed to narrow down their search parameters too, the two of them had made their way over to the corner of one of the side streets that ran off the main. The possibilities were endless, and neither one of them were sure where to begin. Sure, they had had harder tasks before, but when someone shot at one of their own, time was of an essence. Luckily, before they could get into another argument about how they should tackle it, Callen's cell began to ring.

"Callen." He answered in his usual fashion, briefly glancing at the caller ID that simply said 'withheld'.

"Hey, so we think we've found the place where the shooter hid. Eric's sending you the address right now." Kensi's voice came over the line, sounding a little less angry than earlier. Her words were exactly what he wanted to hear. Seeing Sam throw him a questioning look, he beckoned him closer from where he surveyed the surrounding places from the other side of the street. The phone beeped as it received another file.

"That's right over there." Sam commented as Callen put the phone on speaker so that they could all confer easier. He followed the line of sight that his partner had just pointed out, frowning when he saw an obstacle in their course.

"Behind the fence?"

"It's private land." Deeks informed them.

"Who owns it?" Sam asked as they made their way over to it. Although it was surrounded by bushes, there was a clear entrance in the form of a fenced door on the side facing a smaller road; almost like an alleyway.

"Some business guy. Bought it with the intention of building new offices, but got his proposal turned down. He's been out of the country for the past week." He filled them in, tagging on the last bit in anticipation of the following question. Although he might have been the newest member of their elite team, he had gotten to know them pretty well in the time he had been there.

"Lock's been picked." Callen observed when they got there, turning the said lock over in his free hand before tugging on it with a bit of strength to pull it off completely.

"This stretch of land has got to be worth a bit, and he uses a simple lock on it? There's something wrong with rich people." Sam scoffed, earning himself an amused look from his partner.

"He must have surveillance just to be on the safe side. Eric-" Kensi began, her voice fading as she must have turned away from the phone to talk to their tech operator.

"Already on it." They heard him tell her even though his voice was much further away than the agent's had been.

"There's a lot of coverage around this place. Makes sense, I guess." Sam noted as they carefully entered the fenced off plot of land and took a wary look around. The high bushes prevented them from being able to see out except for the small excerpts between the leaves and broken branches.

"Not being seen means not being able to see out, though." Callen stated blankly, following the perimeter of the fence with his gaze.

"There's a small gap about 15 feet to your left. It's got a perfect view, too." Deeks instructed them over the phone; they must have been tracking them via GPS to know their exact location. Turning to face his partner, Callen rolled his eyes to see that the other man had already started to make his way towards the place.

"And a perfect hiding spot." Sam told him as he approached where the ex-SEAL was standing by a small hill that came up waist high and looked like it had been chopped in half by the fence. The weird part, in his opinion, was that the hill was still in shape inside the plot rather than the outside. But true to what Deeks had said, there was a small gap between two hedges just off the centre of the top of the hill.

"Guy on the grassy knoll?" Callen asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow as Sam merely shrugged back.

"History does repeat itself." He remarked with a small smirk.

"Ok, I've got the surveillance footage." Eric's voice sounded much clearer this time, bringing back the two agents' attention to the people on the other end of the phone. The same, however, couldn't be said for them. A little buzz could be heard, most probably from the footage that they were watching, along with some murmurings that indicated that they had most probably moved away from the phone.

"Well?" Callen prompted when they both got fed up with the waiting. They were, after all, technically breaking the law by being where they were, and one run-in with the law was enough for the day.

"He knows the place." The distant, and slightly distracted, voice of the only female agent came in response. The frown in her words was clear for anyone to hear. "He's keeping his face away from the camera."

"Can you see where he stood? Or what he used?" He asked, hoping that they hadn't come to a dead end on the only lead they currently had already.

"Blind spot. Of course." Deeks replied after a brief pause where they must have gone over that part of the footage again.

"He must have staked the place out." Sam said as he took a look around to try and spot the cameras. Unfortunately, not knowing where they were exactly, he could only see the one that was pretty obviously on show for trespassers to know there was surveillance.

"Or knew the owner." Callen countered.

"Wait, what's that? Pull in closer here." Kensi's sudden change in tone caught their attention, both turning back to the conversation that was happening on the other side of the phone. There was nothing they could do except to wait for one of them to explain what it is that she had seen,

"Looks like a...hole?" Eric replied in confusion, piquing the interest of the two agents in the field. Simultaneously, they both looked around where they stood for a hole, even though it would have been something they would have seen before if it were out on show.

"Did he just put something in there?"Despite Deeks' incredulous tone, it was enough for them to at least try and search for.

"Where?" Sam asked immediately.

"Go further left from where you are." Kensi instructed them. "About another 5 feet or so. There's some grass and leaves covering it."

Doing as she said, they treaded carefully and kept an eye out for anything odd. Callen kicked some debris out of his way just to be sure that he wasn't going to sudden fall into a dug out hole. The method paid off when, more-or-less 5 feet from where they had been before, he cleared away from leaves with his foot, only to find more underneath. Although it was mostly hidden by the bushes, giving it a reason to be covered in many fallen leaves, he was sure there wasn't just more earth underneath these leaves.

"Found it." He said to both his partner and the others back at the headquarters. Sam glanced down at the clearing once he had reached there before turned back to Callen, who simply nodded towards the hole after meeting his eyes.

"What? You found it." Sam shook his head and crossed his arms, knowing exactly what he was getting at.

"I'm holding the phone."

"Give it here, then."

"No." Callen dismissed coolly, unconsciously holding the phone a bit more out of his reach. At Sam's unimpressed look, he held back a smirk and offered him another method. "Flip a coin for it?"

"Do you have a coin?"He asked, sceptically. The smirk that Callen had been holding back pulled at his lips sheepishly. Rolling his eyes, Sam held out his hand, tightened into a fist in the universal gesture to an invite of a game of 'rock, paper, scissors'. "On three."

"Anytime today, guys..." Kensi said in a mix of amusement and agitation, no doubt already knowing what it was that they were taking their time doing. It did nothing to hurry them up, though; both still concentrating hard on which one to choose to win. In the end, there could only be one winner, and as Sam drew scissors and Callen stuck with rock, the matter was solved.

"Yeah, Sam. Anytime today." Callen repeated mockingly, waiting by the side of where Sam had crouched down and pulled on gloves in preparation to see what was inside the hole, if anything. Clearing out the rest of the grass and leaves that had been used as a fairly good cover in addition to the bushes, they both peered down into it to see if they could possibly make anything out. It wasn't much wider than a foot in diameter, but it was pretty deep. "Can you see anything in it?"

"Nothing but darkness." Sam replied, trying to push away a few of the branches of the hovering hedge in hopes that it would allow more light through and into the hole. Unfortunately, it didn't work. "Do you have a flashlight?"

"I don't have a coin; why would I have a flashlight?" He retorted dryly and earning himself a glare from the exasperated agent who was still trying to see through the darkness and into the hole. "Can't you just... You know, stick your hand in?"

"Why don't you?" Sam rebuked, raising an eyebrow when Callen merely held up his hands in defence.

"Hey, you lost, fair and square." He reminded him, who sighed in response and did what the senior agent had suggest. There was not much else that he could do without wasting any more time.

"If I lose my arm-" Sam grumbled, slowly reaching down and making sure to brace himself on his knees before he fell.

"-I'll buy you a new one." Callen finished off with a laugh, only to turn serious when a small crease formed on the other man's forehead. "What?"

"I think I found something." He muttered, digging further down until the edge of the hole came to past halfway of his upper arm and he could feel something solid beneath his hand. "Oh, I've definitely found something."

"What is it?" Deeks asked over the phone as Sam grasped onto the item and pulled it up gently.

"Looks like you were right, Kensi." Callen commented wryly. "It was a rifle."

...