NCIS: LOS ANGELES HIATUS FIC CHALLENGE THEME 2: Season Seven Speculation - The challenge is to write a drabble, one-shot, or multi-chapter story about something you think might happen in season seven.

x-x-x

Career Longevity

"Surprising people is the key to career longevity for someone like me" – John C. Reilly

x-x-x

"I never saw that coming."

"He is an attorney."

"He's also spent far more years working undercover. For survival sake, corners are cut, decisions are made on the fly that often can not stand up to legal scrutiny or even the passage of time and memory."

"You keep forgetting the lawyer part. That law license is important."

"I never understood that until now."

"It bought him his freedom. He was never going back to the old neighborhood. He was never going back to the gypsy life he had with a single, underemployed mother. He was never going back to juggling three terrible jobs to keep himself alive in school."

"The idea was to leave him without his current position or tolerable options. As others have in the past, I underestimated him."

"How do you think he stayed in the Undercover Unit so long? He documented everything, recorded his undercover drug use and made himself available for testing as soon as it was safe to confirm what he reported. He accounted for every dime of the County's money used on a job and never touched petty cash."

"There was never a doubt about his integrity, more a question as to whether his records were in proper order. They were more than in proper order. They were meticulous."

"What are your plans now?"

"As long as my involvement in this episode remains a secret, I believe there is no change to the status quo. Detective Rivera…."

"Was suddenly offered a position in Homeland Security in Miami. Closer to family and friends."

"A fortunate coincidence."

"If he learns the confidential informant was you?"

"That will not happen. I am certainly not telling Detective Deeks and I believe that sworn document you signed when this investigation began guarantees your discretion."

"It guarantees me an extra detective on this squad with your agency's financial contribution for the next five years."

"One day that detective may be Deeks."

"And he'll be welcomed back here and likely missed by your team. The question is what happens the day your team learns what you put him through? Especially his partner."

"Lieutenant, he will never learn of my limited involvement and neither will the team. But one day he will be asked to make a decision. I'm confident what that decision will be. I was just hoping to move up the timeline."

"By trying to destroy him professionally."

"By offering him a soft landing," Hetty told Roger Bates as she stood to leave. "But there are other inducements and I'm sure they'll be made available to Detective Deeks in time."

Bates watched the woman leave, wondering if the kid knew what was coming. He also wondered if the petite potentate understood just how stubborn his detective was.

-30-