Another chapter (yay!). I just want to quickly thank you all for your amazing support to this story, it is truly appreciated. I hope you'll enjoy this next installation in the story.
After their short meeting regarding information sharing with her subordinates, Hetty had told both Sam and Callen to go home to get some shuteye as well. Although she had set the time for their arrival at nine in the morning, the still operational part of the team entered the old building almost two hours earlier than what their operations manager had ordered.
After putting down their bags, the two senior agents quickly ascended the stairs, climbing it two steps at a time, in a brisk effort to quickly get an update from their colleagues, whom they both knew would already be in as well. Seconds after first setting their feet on the stairs, the automatic doors to the Ops Center opened with a swish.
"Morning guys," Sam greeted his two colleagues as they entered, causing them to turn around in their chairs in order to face them.
"Good morning," the technical tag-team echoed together.
"Anything new come up since last night?" Callen asked cautiously optimistic.
Nell shook her head, "No hits on Kaleidoscope."
"Neither Troyger nor Galvan have tried leaving the country," Eric chimed in. "Unless of course they decided to jump the border to Mexico."
"One of them could have some contacts South of the border," the retired SEAL thought aloud.
"Yeah, but I just don't think Troyger run, he was pretty set on figuring out where Deeks worked," Callen added, causing both Eric and Nell to look confused at the team leader. "We visited Deeks late last night, he was able to tell us that there were only three guys in the room with him, and that Troyger wanted to know where he worked." He then quickly explained.
"Wouldn't it be easy to figure out his precinct?" Eric asked almost immediately after receiving the information.
"It would," Nell concurred, before she realized the same thing that Sam and Callen had earlier. "He wanted to know the location of OSP."
Sam furrowed his brows for a moment, thinking back to the conversation he and Callen had had with their boss, "Hetty suggested that it might be NCIS in general he wanted the identity of and not The Office of Special Projects."
Nell caught on to what he, or rather Hetty, was suggesting, "Which would make sense in the way that 'where someone works' could be understood two ways."
"The physical location or the employer," Eric continued her sentence, a thing that would have severely annoyed both of them, when the technical analyst had both started, although he couldn't say that he hated the role reversal.
"So Troyger wasn't trying to find out where OSP is…" Callen concluded. "He was trying to find out what agency Deeks worked for."
"How would Troyger know it was the same agency that took down his brother?" Nell asked.
"And where did they get Deeks' address? He changes his routine daily, they shouldn't have been able to just follow him there," Eric added onto the beginning of a mountain of questions.
The doors to the Ops Center opened, and with impeccable timing, their operations manager entered the room, already starting her sentence. "It would seem that the knowledge of Mr. Deeks' address, as well as the clear indication of access to his reports from LAPD are pointing towards an unfortunate scenario."
"A mole," Callen's conclusion sounded bitterly.
"It makes sense," Sam said concurringly, his lips were in a tight line and angry creases were forming on his forehead, like any case where someone would break loyalty to their country or their brothers in arms.
"But it would have to be in LAPD, since Troyger still doesn't know that it was NICS, who took down his brother," Nell, the ever logical, added the relieving information to everyone.
Callen nodded in her assessment, "Eric, Nell, can you-"
"Look through all employees at Deeks' precinct. Look for any transactions or wire transfers that seem out of place. On it." Eric interrupted the team leader, already having started typing furiously on the keyboard.
"Good, we'll go talk to Bates, see if he can shed some light over this whole mess," he stated, only partially able to mask his anger at the thought of Deeks having been betrayed by one of his brothers in blue. Although before he and Sam left, he quickly looked for approval in their operations manager. Upon receiving a small nod from her, the two senior agents briskly made their way to Sam's Challenger.
...
She was woken up to the familiar sound of the door creaking open, but instead of reaching for her gun at her small, her sleepy mind decided to keep at least a bit of faith in the officers posted down the hallway.
Seeing the easily recognizable grey hair of Doctor Jameson come out from behind the door, she took a breath of relief, not entirely sure why she felt relieved. A second later, she could see the doctor's warm eyes peaking in to see if his patient is awake, upon seeing the injured detective sound asleep, he entered the room silently. She smiled at his initial cautiousness, he had obviously also come to the conclusion, to have Kensi announce his presence before physically entering the room, and just peeking in would have given her that opportunity.
"Good morning Agent Blye," he greeted her, his voice hushed but warm.
"Good morning, doctor."
"How is our patient doing? Any incidents since last night?" He asked, curious about the mental status of his patient.
It was clear that the elder physician was genuinely interested in the well being of his patient, which was a breath of fresh air compared to the usual forced interest, she was used to seeing with other doctors and nurses. Her smile didn't last long, as she remembered his panicky state after forcing himself to answer questions for his teammates.
"He uhm…he had visitors late last night," she answers, unable to keep a frown from appearing as she thought back to the shaking form of her boyfriend.
"And how did that go?" Doctor Jameson asked, even though he could already tell from the female agent's expression that the visit had been less than stellar.
Kensi took a deep breath before diving into the long-winded recount of the episode, "He had a nightmare a few minutes before they arrived, but he became lucid much quicker than when you were here last time."
"Go on," he kindly prompted her, sensing there was a lot more to the story.
"Well, at first it was the usual 'glad you're okay' kind of thing, but Deeks sensed that they were also there to ask a few questions, he even prompted them to do so. He really wanted to help," she swallowed deeply, forcing the emotions that had threatened to make an appearance back down. "He answered the first a bit shakily, but otherwise okay…the second, uhm…after the second question, he got a flashback, which really shook him up. He managed to answer, but his voice was broken, he was shaking, and I just held him as he cried for the next ten'ish minutes."
The elder doctor nodded along during the recollection of the event, and even though it sounded like quite a bad experience on the surface, he was actually positively surprised by his patient's determination to help his colleagues despite his obvious fear. It showed determination and willpower, which one needed to push past terrible events the likes of what he had experienced.
"I'm sorry you and he had a rough night," he said kindly, before continuing explaining, while he noted down Deeks' vitals. "But I do think him being wanting to help is a good sign, it displays a determinedness to push past his current mental struggles."
She took a moment to think about his words, at first, she had been extremely concerned over his reaction, and especially his flashback, but as the experienced doctor put his willingness and wanting to help into perspective, she felt a knot she didn't know had been there loosen.
"That's good then…I think," she finally answered.
"It is," he smiled at her. "His fever has also gone down I see, but I want to give him another day for his body to rest before starting to get a therapist involved, but I do think it would be better to start sooner rather than later."
She considered, what he had said for a short moment. She knew that she alone would not be enough to help her boyfriend through his struggles, she had already experienced that twice. The first time was with her and Jack, where his incapability to deal with his PTSD had eventually led to their engagement promptly being terminated, and since she suspected that her everything would be diagnosed with the same damned four letters, she would accept any and all help in order to get him back on his feet.
The second time was when Deeks had suffered at the hands of Sidorov, where she had been unable to reach her partner until Nate had stepped in. Granted, it had partially been because, she had wanted to give the man some space, which she had felt was the right move at the time. Hard earned experience, and a change in relationship status, had her convinced that was not the way to go, and as such, she would determinedly work with any team of therapists to help him.
She had been too gone in her own thoughts to give an answer to the doctor, which prompted him to ask, "Would you be okay with that?"
She knew that she technically had no say in his treatment, but appreciated him asking for her acceptance nonetheless. "Yeah," she nodded eagerly, before she enthusiastically added, "Absolutely." But still remembering to keep her voice down in order not to wake up her sleeping boyfriend.
"Alright, sounds good," he smiled kindly at her. "I need to get going, but I will check up a few times during the day, hopefully Mr. Deeks will be awake at that time."
She just nodded at the experienced physician, as he turned on heel and exited the room as quietly as he had entered.
...
"Let me get this straight. First I have that little ninja woman calling me to tell me that one of my best detectives has been tortured…and now you're here telling me that you suspect that someone in LAPD had something to do with causing that?" Bates made no moves towards hiding his anger.
"They knew his address and they knew that he works with the agency that took down one of the suspect's brother," Callen calmly repeated the information.
"And they couldn't have gotten that information from someone inside NCIS?" The lieutenant asked incredulously.
"Deeks said they tortured him to find out which agency he worked for," Sam explained much calmer than his partner. "If it had been a mole inside NCIS, they would've already had that information."
The ill-tempered lieutenant seemed to consider the information for a moment. Both agents could see the moment he accepted, what they had just told him, his jaw tightened and it was as if the air in the room dropped a few degrees. If he had been in a foul mood prior to accepting their accusation, he was now seething at the thought that one of their own had, at the very least, inadvertently caused the suffering of a fellow officer of the law.
"I'll conduct my own investigation from here, I'm assuming that you're going to do the same thing?" He growled, his anger palpable but no longer aimed towards the two agents standing opposite his large oak desk.
Although the question seemed rhetorical, Callen felt the need to answer it anyways, "We already are."
"Good," Bates responded, surprising the two agents, seeing as the weathered lieutenant seemed displeased every time their agency big-footed into any investigation, pushing aside LAPD. "I will share whatever I find on my end, I expect you to do the same. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do," his tone left no room for the agents to respond or argue.
...
"Morning," she dragged out the word in a cheery, almost singsongy manner.
"Hey," he replied, his voice husky from just waking up.
"How are you feeling?" She asked tentatively, their talk late last night after Sam and Callen had left had seemed to have made Deeks open up more, he had still seemed timid, almost fragile, but he had at least spoken more freely than previously.
"You mean besides my entire body feeling like it's on fire?" The words could seem harsh, but his tone indicated that he tried to lighten the mood in a faux-answer to her question.
She grabbed a hold of his hand, causing him to break eye contact in order to look at their intertwined fingers. After a moment, he gently squeezed in thanks and found her eyes again. He felt like he could much better grasp everything that had happened to him, when he was tethered to her. After all, she was who had finally grounded him the last time he felt trapped in his mind, he wouldn't want to commit the same mistake twice.
"I'm doing somewhat okay…I think," he started. "There's a whole lot going on in my head that I'm having a hard time figuring out…one moment I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs and the next like curling up beneath a duvet and just cry."
Kensi stared at him through his admission, she had hoped that she could get him to open up even just a tiny bit, but the fact that he had opened up completely, and told her what was going on through his cluttered mind was prodigious.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," she told him tentatively, as she fought to keep the forming tears at bay. "It means a lot that you trust me with that."
He smiled at her. It was a small, delicate smile that she hadn't seen often from him, but she drew comfort from it nonetheless, "I trust you with everything."
Before she could stop herself, she leaned in slowly and tenderly pressed her lips to his split one, she didn't have any words that were sufficient to articulate the appreciation she felt towards him. So in true fashion to their relationship, she decided to show her appreciation instead, momentarily forgetting his angst for touching. Luckily, it seemed that he, too, had forgotten his apprehension, as he changed the tone of the kiss from diffident to appreciation and affection, as they both poured their feelings into the intimate lip lock.
Even though it hadn't been heated, they were both panting, when they finally parted. It was as if the genuine show of affection had instantly removed some of the dark fog that had surrounded them in the room, and they both felt lightened by the physical reminder that their relationship was still intact.
She looked at him lovingly for a moment, although his one visible eye was still darker than usual, it seemed to have an increased strength in it once more. She cocked her head and parted her kiss-swollen lips, as she broke the silence, "You're going to get through this, Marty." She stopped briefly before correcting herself, "We are going to get through this."
He considered her words, the fact that she corrected herself from him to both of them showed him that she, too, was struggling with everything that had happened to him. It was a reminder that even though he was currently hurting, both physically and mentally, he still had to be there for her as well.
Logically he knew that he wouldn't be able to provide the same amount of support in his weakened mental state, as he would prefer, but if there was one thing he had taken away from his prior experience with mental anguish, it was that Kensi would receive the most support by him merely doing everything he could to improve…and letting her help with the process. No matter what painful or uncomfortable things he had to endure, whether that was therapy or physical therapy, he vowed to soldier through it, if not for him then for them…for her.
"We're going to get through it," he echoed her words, finding strength in them.
He knew he had made the right choice, when he saw her timid smile increase to her usual dazzlingly beautiful smile that brightened her entire face. He soon found out that the smile was contagious, as they were both smiling brightly for the first time since before the event.
...
"Huh, that's weird," she stated confusedly.
"What is?" He asked, rolling his chair over so he could see what was happening on her monitor.
"We've just received a document package, but I can't track the sender."
"Does it seem to be malicious?" The technical operator asked cautiously.
"I've just checked, there doesn't seem to be any Trojans or other software embedded in the files," she carefully explained, as she showed him the result of her test on the monitor.
"Well…maybe we should try and open it?" He suggested, failing to sound the least bit convincing.
"Wait just one second," she told him, as she left her chair and moved behind their computers, pulling out a cable, he easily recognized as being the one connecting the PC to the main server. "Now we're no longer connected, we should be good to check what's in those files."
Moving her mouse, she double-clicked on the mysterious folder. They both looked wonderingly, when they saw the contents of said folder, or rather, folders. They saw a plethora of different files and photographs, perfectly organized by year and location, every single file having one thing in common, that they regarded Jonah Troyger.
"This is from the CIA," Nell stated aloud, even though she knew her partner was equally capable of seeing the hidden watermark on the file they had just opened.
"Yeah…and it looks like they've been following him for quite some time. There are previous known locations, associates and-"
"Aliases," Nell finished his sentence.
He turned to his own monitor once again, "If you read them out loud, I'll start the search for them."
...
"You want to talk about it?" She asked him cautiously after he had calmed down a bit.
He had drifted off about an hour and a half after he had woken up the first time, and until five minutes ago, he had been sleeping peacefully. Then Kensi noticed the clear signs of a nightmare forming, he had started a slight whimpering in his sleep and a thin sheen of sweat had formed on his forehead. It took about five minutes, from when he had first started the uncomfortable dream until he had jolted out of his sleep due to the night terror.
"Not really," he admitted somewhat bashfully.
"Okay. That's okay," she assured him, but not wanting to take a step back from their previous conversation, she decided to push a little anyways. "But it would help to talk about it. I just know that talking to you was one of the only things that helped me push past what happened in Afghanistan," she admitted. "And I was hoping that maybe you'd let me help you through this as well, by letting me in, and by sharing what you're thinking, what you're struggling with."
His expression had softened upon hearing her opening up to him. After Kensi had returned to work, neither of them had spoken much about the abysmal time, they had spent in the sandy country across the world. He felt a tinge of disappointment at himself that he had been unable to keep his part of their 'deal', to get through this present ordeal together.
She studied him closely and could see him fighting an inner battle between attempting to stay clammed up and opening up to her. She saw the minute he had reached a decision, since a layer of unshed tears formed in both his eyes. He tried to blink it away but failed, as the saltwater slowly dribbled down his bruised cheeks, as he prepared himself to tell her what his dream had been about.
He finally started his explanation, in the same broken voice he had first used when he had been rescued, insecure and terrified. "I uhm…I d-dream about b-being locked in that c-crate…that fucking crate," he shook his head, the venom in his words at the mention of the torture device was clear as day, even despite his sniffling. "I d-dream that I'm t-trapped in that d-dark box and w-when it open it…it's n-not you, or C-Callen, or Sam…it's S-Scarface, or w-whatever his n-name is. And w-when he p-pulls me out y-you're right t-there on the floor, there's b-blood, oh g-god there's so much blood," he finally breaks into sobbing, unable to find further words as the vivid imagery of his nightmare returned at full force.
She pulled him into another hug, just as they had, when Sam and Callen had pushed him a bit too far late last night. She drew comforting circles on his back, as she continuously murmured reassurances in his ear. His crying was almost like being stabbed in the heart, she felt every ounce of pain he felt, as he continued his tearful, cathartic release.
After a few minutes, which felt like an almost eternity, she felt his grip on her shirt lessen, as he had finally regained his composure.
"I'm sorry," he sniffled a final time.
"Hey," she grabbed his attention, making him look her in the eyes. "How many times do I have to remind you that you have nothing to be sorry for, Marty? Nothing."
She saw his lips bend upwards slightly in a bashful smile, "You might have to remind me a few more times."
"I'll continue to do that then…if you can promise me to always voice what's bothering you," she added the last part softly.
"I'm not really good at that," he admitted.
She smiled at him. "And I'm not really good at this comforting someone thing, but since I don't really think it's appropriate to tell you 'to suck it up', I guess I'll have to improve on that as well" she joked. "So you can see that we're both a bit out of our comfort zone."
Her humorous example of her shortcomings and no-nonsense straight forwardness had the desired effect, and she saw him smile at the thought. "I guess we need to help each other then."
"That sounds like a deal," she grinned at him. "Have I told you that I love you today?"
He pretended to think about it, "Maybe once or twice."
"I'll tell you again then. I love you, Marty."
"And I love you, Kens," he leaned forward and she met him halfway, in a tender, yet emotional kiss.
...
"Ops stat, guys," the technical operator called down, as Sam and Callen was reentering the bullpen after their trip to Deeks' precinct.
"What's up Eric?" The team leader asked, as they entered the Ops Center.
"While you were out, we received a document package from the CIA," he started. "In the package was a list of all of Troyger's known aliases, we ran them all and…" he gestured to Nell.
"We found that he has used one of his old aliases, Trent Mumford, at a hostel near Palmdale, late last night." She nodded towards Eric.
"And get this, he's booked the next two days as well, not sure what he is waiting for, but there is a smaller airport in Palmdale." He explained.
"How long does it normally take to get some fake papers created?" Sam asked wonderingly.
"He is going to need a really good one, so it would be at least a few days," his partner answered.
"That would line up with the timeframe of his bookings." Eric answered, proud at making the observation.
"Okay, Eric you send a tactical squad to meet with us out there. Nell I want to see if there are any cameras in that area, I want a visual confirmation that Troyger is in that hostel." He ordered, fulfilling his role as team leader perfectly. "Eric can you-"
"Send you the address…got it," the tech operator smiled at the situation.
"Wait," Nell called just as the two senior agents were exiting the Ops Center. "Don't you think it's weird that this information just gets dumped on us like this?" She asked worryingly.
Callen had a small chuckle, before he shrugged and voiced the only possible explanation, "Hetty."
