Chapter 2

Deeks stood there his mouth agape. "What?" he asked.

"Ellie, she's yours." Jordan said, "That's how I know her father didn't take her."

Deeks shook his head and stepped away from her as she tried to put her hand on his arm, "No….No…your lying!" he turned and slammed out of the conference room, the San Diego NCIS agents looking at the LA detective as he all but ran outside.

Deeks made it outside when he threw up into a bush just outside the front door.

"Nice," Sam commented as he and Callen arrived to see Deeks vomit into the bush.

Callen stepped back as Deeks looked up, his face a mixture of fear, horror and sorrow. "Deeks…You ok?" he asked.

"I…No…I need to…" Deeks stepped away from the team leader. "I can't do this…not me…"

"Deeks what happened?" Sam asked concerned as Kensi came bursting out of the door.

"Deeks how could you leave her like that, you need to be in there now, they need you."

Deeks shook his head wildly, "NO! This has NOTHING to do with me, Nothing…not mine."

Kensi looked shocked, "Look Deeks, Marty, you didn't expect this I know it's a bit of a shock, but you need to step up, Ellie will need her father." She tried to reason.

Deeks looked at her his face a mask of anger, "No, Jordan is a liar, I am not her or anyone's father…I can't be a father." He shook her hand off him and walked off down the street as Kensi was left to fill the other two in.

After Kensi had finished telling them what was going on Callen picked up the phone and called Eric, "Eric, I need you to run a full background check on Dr. Jordan Hampton and also, Ellie Hampton." He said and hung up.

Sam looked fit to bust.

"Kensi and I will take Dr. Hampton; I'm going to find Deeks." Callen said.

"You find him, you tell him, if this is his daughter he had better step up, I thought he was more of a man than that." Sam growled.

"I don't get it?" Kensi said, "Deeks is great with kids, this is why I asked him to help when we sat for your daughter."

"Yeah, well, this is why I don't trust him to look after kids…" Sam growled as Callen left them.

Callen walked down the road that Deeks had headed down, walking past a row of shops Callen stopped outside a bar, 'surely Deeks wouldn't drink while on duty?' Callen thought, but he opened the door to the bar. Sure enough Deeks was sitting in the back nursing a whisky.

"Deeks, you can't drink, you're on duty." Callen said.

"Gotta drink now ain't I…." Deeks laughed sourly. "How can she do this to me…how many times can one woman kill me?" Deeks stared at the drink.

Callen looked over at the bartender, "How many has he had?"

"None." The bartender said, "Walked in ten minutes ago, ordered that and has just stared at it."

Callen nodded his thanks and sat down next to Deeks.

"You wanna talk about it?" Callen asked.

"I…I can't be her father, she doesn't deserve it…she's just a kid."

"They tend to come like that." Callen quipped.

"You don't get it….I can't be a father…you know what they say, victims become abusers, I WON'T become my father!" Deeks looked down.

Callen looked at Deeks he seemed so lost. "Ok so don't, help us find her, don't be your father, keep her safe and once we know she's safe if you are sure you will be a danger to her walk away." He said.

Deeks looked up and sighed, "I am already like him aren't I?" he asked.

"Only if you stay here." Callen said and turned and walked out, hoping Deeks would follow him.

Outside the bar, Callen called Kensi and Sam and filled them in, "You take Dr. Hampton home, the kidnappers may get in contact there…I'll see what Eric has and meet you there," He said.

"And Deeks?" Sam growled.

"We will see." Callen said he walked back to the car and waited.

Eric was still working in Ops as Callen and Deeks walked in.

"I got as much information as I could," Eric started but Callen shook his head. "Oh…Ok, I have footage of Ellie being kidnapped." He said and put the traffic cam footage up on the plasma.

Deeks gripped the table as he watch the girl, his daughter, as she walked along the road, A dark blue van came down the opposite side of the road and circled back behind her.

Ellie had grabbed her bag tighter and moved away from the road as the car slowed down.

"Good girl." Deeks found himself muttering.

A side door opened and two men in balaclava's grabbed her kicking and screaming and threw her into the van, slammed the door shut and sped off.

Deeks went white and ran out of ops.

Callen with a small smile followed.

Callen stood just inside the restrooms as he waited for Deeks to finish vomiting. "You better now?" He asked.

"Yeah, I dunno what came over me…I was…"

"Scared?"

Deeks shrugged, he was a detective working for an elite undercover team, he didn't get scared and he told Callen so.

Callen shrugged and turned, "The Vic' has never been your kid before." He remarked.

Deeks pushed past him and stormed out of the room.

"You may need to sit this one out." Callen remarked.

"I can still do my job!" Deeks snapped back.

"Ok, you sure, 'cause we need to go to Dr. Hampton's house and see if there are any clues there, Eric is checking through the dossiers of anyone working the Steroid case at NCIS, we need to see if any of the agents know Dr. Hampton well enough to know her daughter's routine." Callen said.

"Dunno, any of them impressionable kids." Deeks mumbled.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing." Deeks said and walked outside to the car.

Jordan opened the door to her home and waited as Kensi and Sam checked the building.

"She isn't here." Jordan said snappily.

Kensi shot her a look, "No but maybe, the kidnappers left something here. You never said, have you heard from them yet?"

"Nothing after the initial call to say she had been taken, but I haven't checked the answer machine yet." Jordan said, she looked over and there were no messages. The slump in her shoulders was evident.

"Does she own a Smartphone or laptop?" Kensi asked.

"She has a cell phone, nothing too fancy, she's not old enough, but she has a laptop, in her room." Jordan said, "I'll just go and…"

"We'll get it." Kensi said

Jordan told them which room and they walked in and stopped dead. There was a huge picture on the wall of Ellie as a baby, she looked surprisingly like Deeks the shaggy blonde hair and the deep blue eyes in the midst of a huge smile, There was a box next to her laptop with a pile of letters in it. Kensi went to pick the box up.

"Don't touch those!" Jordan snapped seeing Kensi go for the box.

"If she's been writing to someone, she may have clues of who took her." Kensi said as Sam installed a flash drive on her computer for Eric to take stuff off.

"Not those…please. Ellie has been writing those for years…They are for Marty."

Kensi looked at the box, 'Letters for my Daddy!" was written in marker pen and decorated with flowers on the top.

"OK." Kensi agreed and put them down.

She looked around the room, there were still some boxes she hadn't unpacked, and her surfboard was leaning in the corner of her room, her wetsuit flung over the top of it.

The phone rang and Jordan ran from the room to answer it.

Ellie felt groggy, and her head hurt. She cracked open and eye and shivered as she realized she had no idea where she was.

"Mom?" she called out her voice was croaky, she went to rub her eyes but she realized that her hands were bound.

"Mom's not here." A voice from the darkness called.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"It's not important, just the message we need to get to your mother is…she needs to let her latest body go, not to autopsy it and you're gonna tell her." The man said walking in front of her face and holding a phone near her face.

"Bite me!" Ellie said.

The man hit her around the face and dialed a number as Ellie sniffed.

She heard the sound of the phone ringing and her mother's voice.

"Ellie Mae?" Jordan said as she picked up the phone.

"Mommy?" Ellie sniffed,

"Honey are you alright?" Jordan asked.

"She's fine for now, but she won't be unless you do as we say." A man's voice cut across Ellie's frightened sniffing.

"What do you want?" Jordan asked shaking as she held the phone.

"Petty Officer Starling, he's in your morgue, we want his body, untouched."

"I can't…." Jordan started and then stopped as she heard a slap and Ellie cry out.

"You want your daughter untouched then we get him untouched, you understand?" The man snarled. "And Dr. Hampton, I know you have the L.A. Agents with you, tell them to back off."

The phone went dead.

"How do I know where to deliver the body to? I can't just dump it? Agent Blye, I want my daughter back." Jordan sobbed.

"We'll get her back." Deeks said from the doorway. "You need to come with us."

"Where?" Jordan asked.

"OSP." Callen told her,