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Johnston
It was the next morning and Annie crept into OSP headquarters. She left Travis to explore Los Angeles on his own, to gather whatever he needed before they left for Mexico, and to gather his wits. Whenever he thought that she wasn't looking at him, Travis' neutral expression revealed what he was truly feeling, grief. Annie could tell that it was too soon for Travis to be doing this but she wasn't going to argue with her best friend about it. All she can do is to stay by his side and make sure that he doesn't kill himself in his attempts at getting revenge. So, she thought that letting him have an hour or two to himself would be beneficial.
"How's it going Doll Face?" Deeks popped up right behind her and slung an arm over her shoulders.
"Better today than yesterday, have you seen Hetty?" Annie asked but didn't shrug him off like she normally would. From all the after work drinks she has had with Deeks, Annie was used to his mannerisms of play flirting, horrible pet nicknames, and invasion of other people's space. That and Annie was savoring this because she knew that she would be leaving soon and she wasn't sure when she would be back, if ever.
"Why do you need to see our chupacabra of a boss, Doll Face?"
"Well, I will be taking a few days off to help out a friend." She replied easily keeping to the cover story she came up with to tell her nosy friends at NCIS: OSP.
"That Jackson guy who sent you the flowers yesterday?" Deeks continued and Annie blushed a little because she remembered what the card said and how Deeks and company must have thought about it.
"Ah, you could say that. There's Hetty, see you later Deeks!" Annie exclaimed and gave him a side hug before walking briskly to catch up to their elusive boss. Deeks watched her leave in a state of mild shock. He was used to her sidestepping his questions as well as his flirty advances. But today, Annie had allowed him to keep his arm around her instead of shrugging it off immediately, then a side hug, and to top it all off, she gave him a half answer, a legitimate half answer. This set off alarms for the LAPD Liaison.
Deeks like most red-blooded men felt an immediate attraction to Annie. He knew that she wasn't as gorgeous as his partner Kensi but there was something about Annie that made guys notice her. For Deeks, her size in combination with her delicate features made him have the urge to protect her, that if she made one wrong move she would break. He had the manly urge of being needed as a protector that he rarely ever felt in his field ironically enough.
+For one, Deeks worked for OSP and most of the time that was undercover, and then working for NCIS which wasn't as well known to the general public meant that he and his coworkers received little to none recognition for their work. So he naturally lied to his dates about what he actually did for a living which meant he couldn't play the dashing cop card anymore or as much as he used to. That and the women he worked with at NCIS: OSP, aka Kensi, were extremely independent and laughed at the thought of having a guy take care of them in any manner. So for a woman like Annie who looked as breakable as a doll, allowed Deeks to fantasize about the abandoned hero role.
However, after months of getting to know Annie and then getting the occasional drink with her, Deeks knew differently. Deeks intentionally took her to one of the nastier bars he visited in the past to see if she was any good as an agent, fulfill the hero role if the occasion arose, and hopefully gain some points with the beautiful woman. It seemed odd to him that Hetty would praise her abilities and yet Annie didn't look like she could harm a fly.
Upon entering a bar infested with recently paroled criminals Annie calmly waited for Deeks to pick out where they were going to sit. She was dressed up in a charcoal grey skirt that ended around her knees, emerald green tank top, and black cardigan making it look like Annie had just come from the suburbs. There were cat calls and whistles coming from every male in the scuzzy bar and she didn't even bat an eye lash.
Deeks made the call of a round of beers knowing that it was going to be the worst beer Annie ever had. He saw the grimace on her face when she drank it and she oddly cracked a few jokes about how horrible it was. Deeks could respect that and joined in on the jokes, saying that she was just going to have to tough it out because the bartender probably did not know how to make a fruity cocktail that she was probably used to.
This unfortunately lead to the bar tender using the hundredth horrible pick up line on Annie that night and for Deeks to have a handy dandy comeback that insulted the bartender. So much so that the bartender punched Deeks in the face, of course he retaliated and thus started a bar fight that everyone was involved in. Even though most of the hardened criminals in the joint avoided fighting Annie because she was a woman, if they got anywhere near Deeks she would block them off and take them down.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Deeks could see her fighting style and admitted that she was good. Annie wasn't afraid to fight a little dirty to have Deeks' back. She had minor scratches by the end of the fight whereas Deeks was sporting a black eye, some ripped clothes, and a bloody nose. This was after Annie dragged him out of the bar and then hijacked his car to drop him back off at his place. She then stayed after calling a cab to help clean up his injuries before calling it a night. After that Deeks had respect for Annie and felt a bit closer to her as a friend/coworker. Sure he knew that he didn't stand a chance with her romantically, especially with Callen as a rival.
Like the rest of the employees at NCIS: OSP it was clear as day that Callen felt the same attraction to Annie like every other male in a ten mile radius did. But unlike said every other male who flirted with the new fashion consultant outright, Callen played it cool. This, incidentally, made Annie warm up to Callen faster than the rest of the guys, Deeks included, at NCIS. Deeks gave Callen his props for that and then over time Deeks could see that Annie was suited for Callen and vice-a-versa. Both were laid back people with a good sense of humor and the ability to understand Hetty. Both had mysterious pasts, whether intentional or not, that created the people they were today and they respected each other for that. Plus, despite how attractive Annie was, she wasn't really Deeks' type. So Deeks settled on play flirting with her to annoy Callen and well… to play flirt with Annie.
"Hey, was that Annie?" Callen asked from the second floor and was looking in the direction that Annie took.
"Yup," Deeks smiled at the fact that even though Callen was addressing his questions to Deeks, the man was not looking at Deeks but for the petite woman.
"Do you know what's going on with her?" He asked as he continued to search for the beautiful fashion consultant in the crowd of busy workers.
"Sort of, just what she is willing to tell us and we both know how much that is." Deeks responded with a small smile at the truth of that statement and at Callen's obvious actions.
"True, well we have a new lead on the Ryans case and the guy who stabbed me." Callen stated and then headed to the tech center. Deeks gave one last look at Annie's direction before dashing up the stairs to join his teammates. Once he entered the room, Eric and Nell wasted no time to start.
"Thanks to Nell here, we were able to program a new algorithm into the main frame." Eric opened the floor to his female counterpart.
"It basically looks for similarities between case files amongst all databases federal and state wise. When we installed this we ran it with the Ryans murder as well as some of our other open cases. But the first hit so happened to be for the Ryans case." Nell explained and then Eric continued in their usual back and forth manner of relaying information.
"Yesterday morning in Washington D.C. firefighters were called to an old colonial home that was burning to the ground. Inside they found the crispy remains of honorably discharged Special Forces Commander Gabriel Johnston." Eric explained and brought up a picture of the Commander.
The picture showed a serious face and hardened soldier of about 35. But it was obvious to tell that the man was in his youth the traditional all-American boy; fair blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes. There was only one thing that ruined the ability to call the picture just that, there was a nasty scar running from the Commander's eyes to his chin in a diagonal directed towards his hair line. Callen and his team refocused their attention back to the blonde techy when Eric started talking again.
"Upon further examination, the M.E. discovered that Commander Johnston was disturbingly tortured in the exact same way as the Ryans were thanks to the algorithm pointing it out and so he sent the case file to us with full police approval. Commander Johnston was living with his romantic partner Travis Johnston and their adopted daughter, Aisha. According to Travis, a group of burglars broke into their home earlier that night and in the attempts to protect their daughter, Travis fled through a secret passage leaving the Commander to protect their home. The police were obviously skeptical of that theory but then again they didn't have anything else to go on because there were obvious signs of a struggle between Commander Johnston and multiple attackers."
"However, upon further investigation on our part, Eric and I were able to see that Travis Johnston has maintained consistent contact with our coworker Annie. The two worked extensively together during her stint in the NSA." Nell stated and this was what got everyone interested. Callen, Sam, Kensi, and Deeks looked at the pictures of the Johnstons more closely especially that of Travis Johnston. They were all trying to access from one grainy picture provided by the NSA of the possibility of how close this man could be to their Annie.
"While he has quit working for the NSA and is now an IT guy with the Pentagon, he was the one to contact Annie about the tip about the informant that attempted to murder Callen. Through a little finesse I was able to open his work file in regards to cases with Annie. What we uncovered was the proverbial nail in Travis Johnston's coffin." Nell said humorously and opening it up for Eric to finish.
"When Johnston, Annie, and another NSA agent named Damien Stryker were paired together a pattern emerges. They seemed to be quite the interrogation team; the same brutal technique of torture they used was applied to the Ryans and Commander Johnston. This was a signature for Damien Stryker who died on a mission with Johnston and Annie a month before she quit to get married to Elijah Ryans." Eric wrapped it all up and Callen was the first one to realize what the two techies were getting at.
"But why would Travis Johnston want to kill the Ryans, give a false lead that would lead to stabbing me, and then kill his own boyfriend all the while doing it under a signature style that would eventually be realized by the authorities?" And with that question he noticed the two techies' face fall slightly. But then Eric brightened up at a thought that just crossed his mind.
"You could ask him that seeing how he arrived here in Los Angeles late last night, although we couldn't get a clear image of who the person was that picked Johnston up. This person was smart by parking in a blind spot so we lost them for a short while. I put Johnston on Kaleidoscope and it has pegged him at a local café right now minus whoever Johnston's partner is." Eric typed in something on his wireless keyboard and up popped a video feed of Travis Johnston drinking something and starring off into space. He checked his watch every few minutes or so and that told Callen that he was waiting for his mysterious partner probably. This meant that they needed to move fast if they wanted to get some answers and new leads to close this case for Annie.
"Ok, Kensi, Deeks, you two are going to pick up Mr. Johnston and bring him to the boathouse before he leaves. Be on the lookout for his partner but focus on catching Johnston first. Eric, Nell, keep them updated if Johnston moves. Sam and I are going to intercept Annie and talk to her about Johnston to get a clearer picture on the matter." Callen ordered and the team broke up to accomplish their goals. Callen just prayed that Annie was still here at OSP headquarters while Eric and Nell took their sweet time getting to the point. He let out a sigh of relief when he and Sam left the ops center and immediately spotted Annie walking out from her own work station.
"YO! ANNIE!" Sam shouted to get her attention and effectively stopped her. She waited for them patiently and gave the two of them this radiant smile that in combination with a beautiful sapphire blue sleeveless top and beige shorts had Callen slowly forgetting what he wanted to talk to her about as he soaked in her beauty.
"Just the men I was hoping to catch before I leave." She said once they were within earshot and that was what snapped him back to the present situation.
"And why is that?" Sam asked.
"Well, I wanted to tell you guys that I am taking some needed vacation time effective immediately and I wanted to say good-bye to you all beforehand." Annie explained and shocked the two men standing in front of her.
"You are taking some time off? Why?" Callen asked astounded at the petite woman he fantasized about daily.
"Because I feel as if I need the time off, you wouldn't realize it but being a fashion consultant for Hetty is quite stressful. Especially when there are certain field agents who don't take as good of care of their clothes as I would like." Annie affectionately teased them and the two men fell into it as they smiled back.
"Do you mind answering a few questions for us before you leave then?" Sam asked.
"Shoot." She responded and Callen opened his mouth to ask their questions but was stopped by her phone going off. Annie gave them a sheepish grin as she dug through her purse and brought out her satellite phone. At seeing who was calling her she gave them an apologetic glance before answering.
"Hey TJ, what's wrong?" Callen and Sam waited patiently for her while trying to not eavesdrop on her phone call. But something irked Callen about the initials TJ. They could stand for Travis Johnston which was plausible but they could also be the initials for whoever Jackson was. He exchanged glances with Sam and noticed that his partner was thinking along the same lines as him but neither was sure how to breach this topic once her phone call was done.
"WHAT?" Annie exclaimed with a clear startled expression on her face and she was silent once more as the person on the other side talked some more.
"Ok, give me the address and I will meet you there." She said and then walked over to some random agent's desk grabbing a post-it note. She quickly jotted down the address before she hung up.
"Sorry but the questions have to wait, I have a friend in trouble." Annie gave them a small and regretful smile. Before Callen or Sam could get a word out Annie bolted and was gone in a flash eerily similar to their boss.
"She has been spending way too much time with Hetty if Annie can do that." Sam echoed Callen's thoughts.
Callen also thought about how he was going to miss Annie, realizing that they never found out how long she was going to be gone for. Hopefully he will find a valuable lead to chase or have already caught the man who was responsible for the Ryans' murder, stabbing Callen, and killing Commander Johnston before Annie got back from her vacation. But Callen didn't comment like usual to Sam because he got a text from Kensi stating that she and Deeks successfully captured Travis Johnston and were now stationed at the boathouse waiting for them and Johnston's lawyer. Callen relayed this information to Sam and the two partners took off not realizing that they would be seeing Annie much earlier than previously thought.