"Kensi... Kens-" Deeks shouted into the phone, plugging his ear as he turned his back on the screens in the ops centre. Eric and Nell were trying to locate Hank's car via the CCTV feed and he tuned them out as he strained to listen to the call. All he could make out was her coughing, followed by inaudible sounds until the line went silent and his heart slammed into his throat as he turned back to the team, "it was Kensi, I need a trace..."

Callen crossed his arms as he glanced at Deeks, "you sure it was her?" The look he received could have shot a hole through his shoulder and he lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender, "just checking, what did you get?"

"Not much, coughing then there was some shouting..." Deeks shook his head trying not to think about his partner being in pain. The line was still connected proving she was resourceful, she just needed to hold out until they could find her. "I heard her yell at Grady... and then a car took off."

"Yell how?" Sam felt a wave of frustration rush through him as he took a step forward. Nothing was adding up and the more he thought about it the more it felt like they were looking at everything from the wrong angle.

"I think she was trying to warn him, I don't... damnit I don't know-" he tore a hand through his hair, trying to fit the sounds he'd heard to images. It all happened so fast but he was sure it didn't sound like she was trying to get away from Grady or that she was being threatened by him... but something had definitely gone down. "We need that trace."

"Got a location, triangulating-" Eric interrupted, focusing all his attention on the map blown up on the screen. "Call came from a petrol pump on the outskirts of the city. Hacking into the CCTV now. It's an automated recording system on the grid so we should be able to take it back."

Deeks inhaled sharply as he watched various programming boxes appear in the screen. They were popping up and disappearing almost instantly as Eric hacked his way through and he shifted restlessly until a ringing phone broke the awkward silence.

Nell glanced down at her screen knitting her eyebrows together as she recognized the caller ID, "sorry guys, I've got to take this."

Callen moved to let her past, titling his head curiously as she left closing the door behind her. The click was audible in the silent room and he breathed out feeling an impatient tug as they all waited for information. "Eric?"

The technician swallowed nervously as his fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard, "I'm going as fast as I can, patience is a virtue you know?"

"So is asking instead of hitting-" Sam jumped to his partners defense feeling his own agitation rise to the surface. Across from him Deeks was standing rigid with his eyes glued to the screen and he glanced back to Callen, the two of them sharing a knowing look. Whatever the feed brought up it was going to be hard for all of them to watch but it was going to be especially difficult for her partner.

"Ok, I'm in." Eric pulled up the camera footage, manually adjusting it to play back the last thirty minutes. It was grainy and there wasn't much light but it was clear enough to see Kensi and Grady as they pulled up to the pump.

Deeks felt his jaw lock as he watched the pair climb out of the car, his gaze fixating on the way Kensi rubbed her wrists as she walked. Even though the other man didn't appear to be threatening her she'd obviously been held against her will and anger surged beneath his skin. He couldn't piece together how or why Grady had relinquished control but that didn't change the fact she was in danger because of him. He focused on the man for the next few moments, watching him check the area almost compulsively.

"Grady's scared of something-" he pointed the fact out, not showing an ounce of sympathy as he glanced back to his partner. She was holding her rib cage as she coughed away from the phone and even though he knew it was impossible, he still hoped a different ending to play out.

"Black SVU-" Callen nodded to the approaching car, "can we run the plate?"

"It's grainy." Eric paused the footage, taking a screen cap of the picture and loading it into his software recognition program. It would take time for the computer to piece together the image and he set it to run in the background as he went back to the CCTV feed.

It resumed playing and Deeks winced as Kensi dropped the phone, remembering his earlier panic and feeling it knot tightly in his chest again. Whatever happened next it wasn't going to be good and he forced himself to keep watching as she ran for the car door trying to escape the three men who'd jumped out of the SVU. Neither she or Grady made it in time and an acidic taste rose in the back of his throat as one of the men grabbed her. She fought back, fighting until a blow landed square in her ribs sending her straight to her knees. His fists instinctively curled by his side as she was pulled up by the hair and dragged back to the car. Whoever they were, he was going to find them and tear each one of them apart limb by limb for hurting her.

The SVU drove off the screen and the sound of the door opening shifted the team's attention to Nell as she re-entered the room. "Guys, we've got something else... Hank's wife and daughter went awol about a week ago. We put out a PBA to all transport stations yesterday and we just got lucky. His wife caught a flight in from Canada about an hour ago, the police are holding her for us."

Callen nodded, trying to assimilate the facts. Judging by the evidence pooling in, it was looking more and more likely that Hank Grady was an innocent man caught up in something much bigger and he glanced at his partner aware that he was thinking the same thing.

"Can you follow that SVU?" Sam nodded towards the frozen image on the screen, trying to calm the anger that was crawling beneath his skin. Everything they'd learnt was pointing in a vastly different direction from where they'd started and he was willing to put money on the fact Syverson had been manipulating the situation from the start.

"I can but it's going to take some time..." Eric defaulted back to his logs, bringing up a list of known speed cameras, traffic cams and surveillance set-ups in the area. He was going to have to hack into a point at every junction to see where they were going, do-able but it required an absolute attention to detail and if possible another set of hands to make the job go faster. "Nell I'm going to need your help here."

She nodded and sat herself down beside him, taking over half the screen to run her searches.

"All right, you guys let us know as soon as you have a location-" Callen shifted his attention to Deeks, "Sam and I will go bring in his wife, see if you can get onto LAPD and explain the situation. Tell them to take the CEO of Syverson in for questioning pertaining to the death of Trent Stallard. You hear news you don't go anywhere without us, got it?"

Deeks stiffened at the order, not sure it was one he could follow. If Syverson were responsible for Trent's death then they wouldn't waste any time taking out the two people who could blow whatever operation they were trying to cover.

"Deeks-" Callen grasped the detective's arm giving him a pointed look, "we good?"

He wanted to argue, tell them there was no way in hell he was waiting around if Kensi was in danger but they were wasting time. Grady's wife might have information they needed and he reluctantly nodded his head, hoping the affirmation was enough. "Yeah, we're good."

Callen hesitated for a brief second before letting go of his arm. He knew if it was Sam in danger he would -and had- defied direct orders... but he also knew how to handle his emotions in a crisis. Deeks was LAPD, he wasn't a trained agent and it was clear a strong bond was forming between Kensi and the detective. He didn't want to know how deep it ran, all he needed to know was they could work as a unit even in worst case scenarios. "She'll be fine, we'll regroup once we have a location."

Deeks nodded and watched the two other members of his team leave before turning back to the analysts seated in front of him, "how far behind are we?"

Eric glanced at the last time stamp trying to work an estimate in his head. If they could track the car onto a man road they might be able to guess it trajectory and hack a live feed but for the moment they were still having to rewind back the feeds. "Best guess I'd say about thirty minutes."

"So they could have already stopped by now-" he ran a hand through his hair, letting out a frustrated sound. He was used to seeing his partner in dangerous situations but this was different, this time he didn't have eyes on her and his mind was doing a remarkable job of imagining everything that could be happening. "Call me if you find anything."

He didn't wait for a response just stepped out of the room, taking the stairs two at a time until he reached his desk. He wasn't looking forward to speaking with the LAPD boys, particularly as he was calling in a favour but it needed to be done. The line picked up and as predicted the conversation was terse but his liaison agreed to hold as many of the Syverson board member as they could, on the compromise they had access to the case file. He agreed knowing Nell could doctor out any bits that weren't relevant and let out a long sigh as he placed the receiver back in it's cradle.

"Mr Deeks..."

The voice behind him was strangely comforting and he swiveled his chair as Hetty approached him.

"Any further word on the SVU?" She asked, concern and sympathy playing just slightly through her expression. She liked Kensi Blye, thought her an excellent agent but more than that she considered her a friend. If any harm came to her the consequences would be devastating for everyone on the team but she feared they would be unaccepted by her partner.

Deeks didn't bother asking how she knew about the SVU. She had eyes and ears everywhere and he suspected the question was just a rouse to see how he was coping. He was fine. It was Kensi they needed to focus on.

"Nothing yet," he shook his head, pushing up from the chair, "but LAPD are going to help us out questing the board members of Syverson."

"I see..." She clasped her hands behind her as he started to move, taking a step back to give him access to the stairs, "Mr Deeks... we will find her."

He was still for a moment not sure whether to accept the possibility or let his frustrations air. In the end he gave a sharp nod before heading back to the ops centre. When he walked in he immediately noticed the time stamp on the footage and his heart thudded almost painfully in his chest as he approached Eric and Nell, "that was only a few minutes ago."

"We got lucky." Nell confirmed, her eyes scanning through pages of coded logs for the next camera to jump to. "They took the main route back into the city and we managed to preempt a couple of turns. It looks like they're headed towards one of the industrial states off west avenue but that place is huge, we'll be lucky if we don't loose them once they turn in."

"I'm going after them." He stole his cell phone off the desk, debating whether or not to call Callen and Sam or to wait for a more concrete location. The way Callen drove they'd be half way to the airport by now and not only was the industrial state in the completely opposite direction but Grady's wife could have answers that they needed.

"You sure that's such a good idea?" Eric glanced over his shoulder with a nervous expression, "Callen was pretty adamant about-"

"Nothing stupid." He confirmed, shoving the phone in his pocket and pulling out his keys, "once they've spoken to Grady's wife they can high-tail backup over. I'm not going to engage but we need to get eyes on her."

His mind was set and he didn't stick around for an argument, taking the back stairs in case Hetty was still lurking in the bullpen. Callen could -and probably would- kick his ass, but so long as he and Kensi both got out of the ordeal alive he didn't care. As her partner he was responsible for having her back and there was no way in hell he was leaving her out there alone.

AN: Thank you again for all the review, constructive and otherwise they are all very much appreciated! :D I have to admit, I've been a bit all over the place in trying to post chapters. I've been on holidays and I've been doing it when and where I can! So I do apologize for any typos, or disrupted flow... I'm going to try and wrap this up in the next few parts (I'd like to start on some videos :P) but I'm open to any requests for more stories. Thank you again, much love! xXxXx