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CHAPTER 11

Sam and Callen walked into the Mission and headed towards ops. It was late morning now, almost afternoon. They hadn't been in to check on Deeks yet, but Hetty had given them an update on his condition.

"Something that I still don't understand is how Deeks got caught up in this human trafficking business." Sam said as they ascended the stairs. "From what we can tell, it had nothing to do with his LAPD case, not that we even know what the case was."

"It sounds to me like it was just a coincidence." Callen replied, stopping when they reached the top of the stairs.

"Or bad luck, really bad luck." Sam shot back.

"Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to why things happen." Callen said, facing his partner. "And sometimes I wish Deeks were an agent."

"You do?" Sam asked, sounding very surprised.

"He's a great cop, one of the best at what he does. You can't argue with that." Callen was right and Sam knew it. "At least if he were an agent, we'd be able to keep a better eye on him. When he goes off with the LAPD, we're usually in the dark about him and what his cases are."

"And he does have a habit of getting into trouble when he's off with the LAPD." Sam noted.

They both finally approached ops and entered. Eric and Nell were both typing away at their computers. The big screens in the room where filled with pictures and random data. Eric was the first to notice them. "Hey guys." He said as he adjusted his glasses and shifted in his seat so he could face them better. Nell took notice as well.

"What else have you two been able to find?" Callen asked the techies. His blue eyes tried to hide the stress he was feeling, but his voice gave him away. He just wanted this case to be done and over with. He wanted to visit Deeks and make sure he was ok. He wasn't exactly assured when Hetty updated he and Sam on his condition.

"We found several subsidiary companies that are tied to Bayleaf Organics." Eric explained. "Some owned by Micah Vasily, and others by various Russian business men."

Nell spoke next. "We couldn't find anything that ties these companies to Vasily's operation at Bayleaf though. They could be a part of his drug smuggling operation, but without any proof..."

"We can't go poking around." Sam said, finishing her sentence. Nell nodded in agreement.

"So, it looks like Zhizn lives to fight another day." Callen said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"It does indeed, Mr. Callen." Hetty replied from behind them. She walked around the table in the center of ops so that she could face everyone. "What matters is that we got some big fish. Surely the rest will follow eventually, but that will have to wait until another time. Right now, Mr. Deeks needs his family. You've all worked very hard these last couple of days and now I'm ordering you all to take a much needed break."

Kensi paced the hallway outside of Deeks' room. She was trying desperately to work up the courage to go back in and see him again. Just moments before, the doctor had come to check on him with one of the nurses and it had not gone well at all. Deeks was still in a haze. He had barely noticed his surroundings or those around him. He was oblivious to Kensi's presence, even when she was holding his hand so tightly that his fingers turned white. When the Doctor and nurse started checking his injuries and bandages, it was as if all hell had broken loose.

Deeks' blue eyes shot open in a panic. They were void of his usual carefree nature. They were dark and tumultuous. Pain struck him all at once and he grimaced and screamed out. He fought the doctor and begged for him to take the pain away. The doctor couldn't give Deeks too many drugs, as the heroin was still being flushed from his system, so they had no choice but to restrain him to keep him from hurting himself or hurting anyone else.

Kensi had fought the doctor when they brought in the restraints. After all he had been through, he didn't need to be restrained on top of it. Deeks begged and pleaded as they forced his arms and legs down. He thrashed and fought, but it was no use. All he managed to do was wear himself out. The pain, the fever he still had, it was all too much and he went unconscious.

Kensi had finally left the room. She couldn't bare to see Deeks like that any longer. The doctor and nurse finally finished with him and left him in peace, but she couldn't find the strength to see him again. It wasn't him. The real Deeks was lost somewhere and she didn't know if he would ever be back. She didn't know if she could face that possibility.

The hall was lit only by a few dim lights. Kensi couldn't see the afternoon sun from the hallway and there had only been a small window in Deeks room where it filtered in from outside. She stopped pacing when she saw a group of people headed her way. It didn't take her long to realize that it was Sam, Callen, and the rest of the team. She sighed and wiped away at a few lingering tears before they made it to her.

"Hey, how's Deeks?" Sam was the first to ask. Hetty had informed each of them on Deeks' condition, but it had been hours since then and they had no idea what to expect in person.

"He's not good. He's in terrible pain and they can't give him anything for it yet." She answered. "They had to...they had to restrain him. He was fighting the doctor and thrashing around."

"Wait, they what?" Callen asked rhetorically. "Don't they realize what he's just been through?"

Kensi shook her head in dismay, her eyes full of worry and fear. "I tried to fight the doctor, but it was for his own good. They were worried he would hurt himself or pull out his IVs."

"Why the hell aren't they givin' him some pain meds?" Sam wondered.

"They don't want it to interact with the Heroin they're trying to clean from his system." Kensi explained.

Nell came forward asking, "Did they say what kind of Heroin was in his system or how much?"

"No, they didn't specify." Kensi replied. "It's probably in his file though."

"How are you dealing with things?" Nell wanted to make sure that Kensi was ok "Have you eaten anything?"

"No, I...I couldn't bring myself to leave him, not until the doctors came in a little while ago." Kensi stuck her hands in her pants pockets to keep them from fidgeting nervously and anxiously. "I'm ok, I think. I'm just worried about Deeks."

"I think we passed a coffee stand on the way here." Eric said.

"We'll go and get you some coffee and food, Kens." Sam motioned to the others as he spoke and they walked off leaving Nell and Kensi alone.

Nell pulled up a couple of chairs from across the hall and gestured for Kensi to sit. They both sat and Nell could see the tears that Kensi was fighting. "Are you ok, Kensi?"

Kensi pushed some hair behind her ear and answered, "I'm ok. I'm just worried about Deeks. I'm worried he won't be himself, that he's been broken or something." She shook her head. "God, I sound crazy."

Nell placed a hand on Kensi's, offering a reassuring squeeze. "You don't sound crazy at all. You're just worried about your partner." She said. "That's normal. If it were Eric, I'd be worried too. It's ok to be worried, but there's something more isn't there?"

"What do you mean?" Kensi asked, eying her suspiciously.

"It's obvious that you and Deeks don't have a typical partnership." Nell explained. "There's something more to it, like the way you guys argue like an old married couple or the way you guys hang out watching movies until all hours of the evening and fight over what to order for dinner."

"We don't hang out..." Kensi trailed off. That was a lie. They did hang out. In fact, the previous week they had pizza at her place and watched a Top Model marathon. Deeks hated the show, but in all fairness, she had sat through a Die Hard movie marathon a few nights before that. She figured that since she had to sit through that, he could sit through her show. "Ok sometimes we hang out, but it's harmless. It's just two people who had no other plans. Sam and Callen hangout."

"But that's different." Nell tried to argue. "They're both guys and one of them is married."

"How is that different?" Kensi snapped back. She was feeling very defensive and aggressive.

Sensing that Kensi was going into defensive mode, Nell tried to calm her again. "I'm not saying it's a bad thing that it's different. It's just that Deeks has been hurt before and you didn't react like this before."

"Well, he wasn't tortured before." Kensi replied. "He bounced back and now, I don't know if he will." Tears came again and this time, she couldn't control them. "I just want to look into those eyes and see my happy go lucky partner again, to see the real Deeks again, not just some empty shell."

"He's strong Kensi, he'll fight through this. He'll come back to you, to all of us." She said calmly.

"I hope so." She didn't want to admit it to Nell, but she needed Deeks. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to admit it to Deeks. She couldn't imagine her life without him annoying her and telling her his stupid jokes. She couldn't imagine not seeing his cheesy smile, the smile that could light up a whole room. "God, is this love? No, this can't be love. I'm not in love with my partner."

So the team arrested some big fish, but Vasily's organization wasn't shut down, not all of it anyways. The rest of the story will focus mainly on Deeks recovery. I'm not certain how many more chapters there will be, but I'm currently working on chapter 14...so there is still a ways to go. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!