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Interrogation Remix
Annie could not believe that this was happening. Travis was not even in L.A. for a day and he was already arrested. He was getting rusty that was for sure. But she knew what she had to do by posing as his lawyer and getting him out of the murder charges officially. However, he did not elaborate on who took him and the address of where Travis was being held seemed odd. When Annie pulled up to an isolated boathouse, she hesitated for some unknown reason. But she sucked it up and made her way into the seemingly abandoned building. Annie, however, did not expect to see who Travis' arresting officers were.
"Kensi? Deeks?" She asked in shock as she entered a relatively large room with a table, couch, monitor, and stairs to an upper level. The two turned around in shock as well.
"Annie? What are you doing here?" Kensi questioned in return. Behind the two agents, Annie could see Travis on the monitor. He was in a room probably waiting for her.
"I'm Travis' lawyer, Diana Jones." She explained and pointed to the television monitor.
"You're his lawyer?" Deeks repeated and Annie rolled her eyes.
"Yes, now can I see my client so we can discuss the charges you are attempting to press against him and how we can prove his innocence?" Annie continued in a professional tone that doubled the shock for Deeks and Kensi. From the way Deeks shifted his weight and his eyes flickered to his left, she knew where to go to get to that room or at least the direction. Annie walked in that direction without saying another word to them. Thankfully it led to a hallway with one door and that was to the interrogation room that Travis was being held in.
"Oh thank god you found this place! So how are you getting me out of here babe?" TJ asked as soon as she entered the room.
"Depends on who they send in here to interrogate you," Annie replied easily and sat down next to him, waiting for whatever was going to happen next.
"What do you mean, 'depends on who they send in here…'? Do you know these people?" Travis asked with open curiosity and suspicion. Annie opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the fact that Callen and his team stormed into the room at that very moment.
"Annie, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Callen rounded on her as soon as he entered the room.
"Like I told you guys not even 30 minutes ago, I am helping a friend." Annie said calmly, ignoring the looks she was getting from everyone.
"So he is the friend you were talking about Annie?" Deeks finally spoke and she nodded her head in affirmative while rolling her eyes at the obvious.
"Look, you need to stand down and let us talk to him. You are not doing him any good by posing as his lawyer." Callen reasoned with her and she locked gazes with him and she thought he was trying to plead with her, or as close as Callen could get while maintain his professionalism.
"If he needs me as a backup then I will always be there for him and how do you know that I am not a lawyer?" She replied with a cheeky grin hoping to loosen the tension that was filling the air. He in turn gave her an exasperated look.
"Because you are Anne Marie Smith, not Diana Jones." Callen countered and she could feel Travis give her a quizzical look at the fact that they knew her birth name and not some alias similar to the nickname Annie.
"Prove it." She crossed her arms at him, a fiery look of determination settled into her brandy colored eyes. This resulted in a showdown between her and Callen.
"What if I told you that Mr. Johnston is our prime suspect in the murders of the Ryans, one Commander Gabriel Johnston, and the stabbing of me? Do you have the urge to protect him then?" Callen fired back. Annie struggled not to open her mouth in shock. Travis raised an eyebrow at this.
"TJ did not do all of those things. I know this man, I have worked closely with him for years, and I know he did not do this." Annie replied vehemently.
"Come on Annie; don't bury your head in the sand! He did it!" Callen persisted. It felt as if it was only the two of them in the room in this argument.
"Like I said previously, prove it." She retorted and re-crossed her arms in defiance because she waved her arms towards TJ's direction when she mentioned him. There was another stare down that she won as he stalked out of the room, probably calling Eric to get something to back his play. His team followed but there was hesitancy evident in their actions.
"Don't, their lab techie who monitors the feeds knows sign language." She said as she stretched in her seat when Travis started to sign.
"Huh, normally that works. I'm guessing Morse code is out of option as well?" Travis replied and she nodded her head in confirmative knowing that at least Sam and Kensi knew the code.
"Foreign language?"
"Nope, not with Callen, Sam, and Kensi, they have the entire European continent covered including Arabic. I guess we could use Hindi but I know how limited you are in that. Besides even if we did do that, their tech analysts, who are recording this, would just run it through the CIA program to translate it, so I am saved from your horrible Hindi accent." She teased and he lightly punched her in the shoulder.
"I'm sorry that I wasn't in love with the place like you were, I never understood that to be truthful." Travis replied and had his hands up, palms facing her to catch a punch if she retaliated.
"It's a hit or miss thing. You do know that they are all probably watching us?" Annie ran a hand through her shoulder length, raven black hair, ignoring the action. She then proceeded to pick off imaginary lint from her sapphire blue V-neck tank top that hugged her curves but covered enough to leave to the imagination: simple but elegant and professional with a gold band around her waist with a diamond pattern on it. She wore basic beige shorts with it and black suede pumps that made her feel comfortable and gorgeous at the same time; all in all, one of her favorite outfits when she was planning on going somewhere last minute.
"Yeah but who says I don't want them to listen in on our conversation. Maybe we can convince them that I am innocent and that they can help-" But she cut him off with one look and shook her head.
"No, end of discussion." Her answer was short and direct, not letting any of the people in the other room walk into something that was her responsibility.
"Fine, I came to you so I will take your lead. So… have you slept with any of them yet?" Travis randomly asked and that made both of them break into big grins. Annie felt herself laughing despite trying to maintain a serious expression.
"No I have not. Glad to see that your spontaneity hasn't left you."
"Why not? Those were some good looking men. If I was in your position, I would have jumped all of them by now. You are losing your touch girl." Travis reprimanded her and her smile grew a fraction bigger if it could.
"You know I have never been that type of girl." She countered and shook her head at his antics.
"So you are saying that you didn't leave a trail of broken hearts when you went globetrotting these past three years?" He teased.
"I never said that."
"Now that is what I am talking about!" Travis commended her and motioned for a high five that she just shook her head at, as well as rolled her eyes. She still indulged him and made a resounding clap when their hands met.
"So how did you meet those guys?"
"They were the ones to investigate the Ryans' murder. Hetty gave me the heads up and I was shortly questioned by one of them. Hetty then gave me a job at OSP as a fashion consultant. Apparently they go through clothes faster than she can manage to shop for seeing how things have been heating up for OSP." She explained.
"Which one questioned you, Annie?" Travis curiously asked and by the glint in his coal eyes, she was going to regret what was going to follow when she answered.
"The scruffy one… why?"
"Which scruffy one: Mr. Broody or the blonde Tramp?" This made her smile more at the thought of how accurate his nicknames were for the two men he was referring to.
"Mr. Broody" She chuckled and the mischief grew in her best friend's eyes.
"Now tell me the truth… Was there handcuffs involved when he was questioning you?" And with that she couldn't hold back the laughter and shock at what Travis asked. It was a good while before she could get her act together.
"No, there is nothing going on between Callen and me."
"Annie, I saw the way you two were looking at each other and the way he was trying to get you out of trouble. Although he definitely has more to learn if he thought he could dissuade you from helping a friend from what Tramp asked." Travis became serious and he was watching for her reactions. Annie willed herself not to blush or show anything that would add fuel to his argument.
"I repeat, there is nothing, TJ. In fact when we first met he caught me in the lie of an alias I gave him and didn't trust a word I said during the interrogation even though my answers were reasonable."
"Ouch, what gave you away?"
"Shortly after I met him, his lab techie found out about Eli's and my failed marriage." Travis nodded his head as she explained but then a grin spread over his face.
"And yet he fell into the Annie charm and now cares about you." She stiffened slightly at his implied tone at the part that Callen cared for her.
"Stop TJ. I know where you are going with this and nothing of that sort is going on." She persisted and rolled her eyes at the look of evident disbelief on his face. But, fortunately, he let the topic drop.
"What about the rest of his team, they seem to like you as well." He reflected on the fact that the other three members seemed to reluctant to leave them alone to follow their leader.
"They are good people, amazing at their jobs. Although, I can understand why Hetty would want to kill them with the amount of trouble they get themselves into if the condition of the clothes they go undercover in is of any indicator." She said shrugging off the reasoning behind Travis's questioning.
"Hetty is their boss? I miss that little ninja, she has the best stories!" Travis exclaimed and Annie couldn't help but chuckle in agreement. But then something flickered in his eyes. A look of incredibility took over Travis' face.
"Whoa, Annie you really like those guys in there don't you? You could have called in your request for vacation, Hetty especially would understand. You wanted to say good-bye to those people out there! Holy shit Annie, you are settling down again! You are getting over-" She shut him up with another look of hers. She did not need him to tell the team anything about what has led her to globetrot for three years.
"They don't know?" Technically, Callen and his team unbeknownst have the reason, if partially, but she shook her head as a negative and Travis gave her a concerned and apologetic look. "I'm sorry girl. Sometimes I just get so excited that it sort of slips my mind to watch what I say."
"It's a wonder how you made an excellent NSA agent eh?" She teased not wanting to feel anymore stares at her. Annie could feel them coming from the other room where the other agents were most likely watching all of this go down. There are somethings the OSP team did not need to know and this was one of them.
"Well I had wonderful backup." Travis squeezed her shoulder to let her know he was there for her always, just like she was for him.
"Do you have your proof yet Callen, or are you going to release me and my client?" Annie said loudly and looked towards the camera. A few brief moments later and Callen and Sam entered the room with a file.
"That doesn't look condescending." Travis stated, especially in combination with the glares he was receiving from the two agents.
"This file here is what we have compiled so far against you, Travis Johnston, in the murders of the Ryans and Commander Johnston, as well as the attempt of murder of me." Callen began and Travis whistled.
"You boys really do want to nail this on me."
"That is because you are the only suspect we have." Sam responded and that was when Travis and Annie exchanged a look. She could tell that Travis wanted to tell them the name of another suspect, the man they were going to go after, but he knew that he had to follow her lead. When Annie looked forward once more she saw Sam and Callen watching them in interest.
"Proceed; please tell us what evidence you have." Annie stated and this time Sam and Callen exchanged a look.
"We know that you and Travis worked together in the NSA and when you two were paired with a deceased Damien Stryker, dead and mutilated bodies appeared in the same tortured way as the Ryans and Commander Johnston was." Callen explained and produced pictures, a combination of the past interrogations they did in the NSA and that of the remains of the Ryans and Commander Johnston. Annie nearly choked when she saw the images. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Travis clench his fists underneath the table so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
"So you are insinuating that my client knows how to do these things." Annie barely got out and struggled to lift her eyes off of the pictures, memories flooding her senses. She couldn't believe that the bastard would do this to the Ryans and Gabriel, he was definitely sending a message to her and Travis. Annie was also glad that Hetty refrained from showing her the pictures of the Eli and Thomas when she was interrogating Annie at the time.
"Yes." Callen confirmed and if Annie and Travis were actually paying attention and not looking at the pictures they would have notice the agents' faces softening upon seeing their reactions. The men especially were feeling bad about upsetting their fashion consultant who they have come to care about.
"Well, if Eric and Nell were able to get these pictures from our work case file in the NSA database then you would also know that it was Agent Damien Stryker who performed the interrogation techniques, not us. Travis was the techie of our little unit and I was the one who found them and requested for Stryker's expertise. We had no other involvement in the torture." Annie explained and quickly flipped over the pictures, not able to stand the guilt any longer.
"You sure? You, nor you Travis, talked with Stryker about learning the techniques? You know, swap advice on the skills, tech with torture?" Sam asked and both shook their heads.
"Well, he could have learned it some other way. It's not as if you can't learn that on the internet. Also, is it true that Johnston here was the one who gave us the tip off about the informant?" Callen added and he was inwardly cursing himself for being so cold yet again when it came to interrogating Annie. She looked like she was about to break at any moment and all he wanted to do was hold her and tell her that he didn't believe it was her.
"Ah, yes, Annie told me to keep an eye out on the local chatter boards for the federal agencies. When I saw it I emailed her the information." Travis answered and he squeezed her hand to get her attention back to the present and out of the horrible memories of the past cases they did with Stryker.
"Where were you when you told Annie that tip?" Callen questioned.
"I was in D.C. working at the Pentagon. I was swamped and worked overtime for practically a month. That's in fact how I came across the tip; it was in the 911 catalogues that were stored in the servers." Travis readily replied.
"Hold on, Nell and I will confirm this." Eric said over the com and the sound of furious typing in Callen's and Sam's ears.
"We have confirmation that he was indeed working at the Pentagon during that time. He could not have been in L.A. to stab Callen and there at the same time." Nell replied.
"How do we know that you did not hire a hit man to stab me like you did with the Ryans?" Sam asked.
"You can check my financials. See unlike Annie, here, I have no active aliases." Once more Sam and Callen waited for Nell and Eric to confirm this.
"Johnston's clear." Eric responded and the two NCIS agents knew that their case was beginning to fall apart, or at least the certainty they felt about Johnston's guilt was fading.
"Explain to us what happened the night that Commander Johnston died." Callen stated and leaned back into his chair a bit resigned waiting to hear Johnston's story.
"Gabriel and I had just put Aisha to sleep, or at least got her settled into her bed. You know how nine year olds can be; they think they can stay up late when they shouldn't. Especially seeing how Aisha takes after her godmother." Annie smirked at this and Travis continued. "Gabriel and I were settling down for the night ourselves when we heard one of the older and squeakier doors open. We of course went to investigate and came face to face with a group of masked men. They attacked and we could tell that they had training. Gabriel, he-he-" Travis then choked up and Annie felt the circulation in her hand being cut off because of how hard Travis was gripping it. All she could do was bear the pain and not cry out while trying to comfort him by placing her other hand on top of his. Travis took a few shaky breaths before he was able to finish.
"Gabriel told me to take Aisha and get her out of there. He said that he would fend them off, I was never much of a fighter. Don't get me wrong, I can hold mine own against a local thug and probably a guy who knows some martial arts, but not against these guys. These guys were Special Forces, trained to fight anyone and in any condition. So Gabriel wanted me to high tail it out of there, get him help, and get Aisha to his parents who lived a few miles away from there. And I did just that."
"You left a man behind? A man you cared for, a man who you claimed to love." Sam said vehemently and one could tell that his Navy SEAL training come out.
"I had a daughter I needed to protect agent. We had to think of her first, each other second, and ourselves last. As I ran I grabbed a satellite phone and called 911. By the time anyone got there it was too late, the house was on fire and Gabriel was already dead." Travis defended himself and was holding back the tears. Both Annie and Callen knew that Travis hit a chord with Sam who also was a father of a daughter, two in fact. They could see this even more by the look of sympathy and understanding pass between the two fathers.
"Do you believe us now?" Annie asked.
"Yes. But, then why all the secrecy?" Callen countered and Annie was confused.
"Secrecy?"
"Travis called for you as his lawyer, you making sure he doesn't say certain things… How did you even get connected?" Callen reasoned and Annie knew she had to explain about what happened the previous day.
"Well, in the other jobs we did together at the NSA, Travis and I constructed a variety of signals that would tell us the other's situation without being completely obvious." Annie began.
"In the case that we were in trouble we would send three objects, two would be red and one would be white. Preferably it would be arranged red, white, red or S.O.S." Travis picked up, the NCIS agents got the distinct impression that they had either explained this before or that they were really close that they could finish each other's sentences, probably a bit of both.
"So when I got the flowers yesterday, it was from TJ. To further emphasize his point he used one of his burned aliases, Jackson. The note, although theatrical, was his attempt to explain to me what happened although, obviously it was misinterpreted when Hetty read it aloud to all of us." Annie finished with a light blush and a small smile at the memory.
"You're Jackson?" Callen asked and at Travis' nod he held back his sigh of relief. The love note was not a love note and that the not-love-note was from a gay guy. No competition for Annie's affection and love.
"Any more questions?" Annie asked, relieved herself that she was able to convince her friends that her best friend was innocent.
"Ah, no, that's it." Sam said and with that Annie popped right up from her seat like it was on fire.
"Then thank you but TJ and I will be going." She replied and the agents could only let her go as she and Travis shuffled out of the boathouse and disappeared onto the streets of LA. Callen watched and wondered what the two were doing and what Annie was quieting Travis about. Whatever it was, if she wanted, Callen would help. He just wasn't sure how he was going to convince her to want his help.