Author's Note – No profit to be had here, just having a bit of fun with a show I love.
Also, as noted before, one or two things here are going to be starting to be based on some Spoiler stills I saw on the season premiere, but I won't tell you which ones. How they even fit are pure speculation on my part – all I saw were some stills from the set.
Once again, thank you for all of the lovely reviews and all of the follows and favorites – they mean the world to me!
Kensi and Deeks make it to the armory and are part-way geared up before Kensi is able to parse through the new information she just got on her…what? Partner? Boyfriend? Pilot? This is getting complicated, but she finds herself more intrigued than anything at this new development – intrigued but also hurt. And this time, the hurt wins out.
As they quietly strap on their vests, she can't stop herself from asking the one question that's bothering her. "Why didn't you tell me?"
He cringes at the question, not because he doesn't want to answer it, but because he knows he hurt her feelings again. "Kens, it was never me not telling you, it's just something I do because I like it. I wasn't hiding it, and I especially wasn't hiding it from you. I just don't talk about it much."
She pauses in her preparation, knowing they do have a few minutes. "I don't understand, Marty. This is pretty seriously cool. Why would you not talk about it?"
He stops too, looking at her with a sigh. "Kens, we don't have time for this conversation right now."
"Yeah, we do, Marty." She crosses her arms and gives him a hard look. "This is kind of a big thing to just omit for the past four years."
He's silent for a moment as he goes back to gearing up, slipping extra clips into his pocket before holstering both of his guns. When he finishes, she's still staring at him intently. "Kensi, I…"
"Tell me, Deeks. This is silly. Just tell me." She can't help it that the hurt creeps back into her voice.
He shrugs. "I don't like to talk about it, Kensi." He turns away, but he keeps talking before she has to prompt him again. "After I shot my dad, they took me away from my mom and put me with foster parents. Not a big surprise, given that she didn't have a job and was going to wind up in a shelter, and even that was only going to happen after she got out of the hospital – she had four broken ribs and a cracked cheekbone that time – and then out of rehab after that, because by then drinking was the only way she could not hurt all the time."
She winces and comes up behind him, putting her hands on his waist and resting her head against his upper back. She's confused as to what this has to do with his ability to fly a chopper, but she's willing to just listen.
He appreciates that she doesn't question, and he takes a deep breath. "I was lucky, if you could call it that. I got placed with a good family, one with no other kids – they purposefully only took one at a time, generally, I found out later, kids thought to be 'high risk.' Given that I had a long history of injuries that, when looked at objectively and collectively, were clearly abuse and then I'd shot my dad, I definitely landed in that high risk category."
She wraps her arms around his waist and presses herself to his back, trying to let him know that he can just go on. He reaches down and covers her arms with his, and he continues, "Long story short, and I can tell you more later, Greg, my foster dad, was a chopper pilot. I had some hairline fractures all over from those last few days with my dad, so I wasn't allowed to do much, and school was about to let out for Christmas. So, instead of leaving me to my own devices or making me go to work with Helen, his wife, he took me with him to work. He was a charter pilot for a private helicopter service. Eventually, he started to teach me. I got a student license at sixteen, and I finished the rest of my licensing at eighteen."
"You were with them that long?" Kensi asks softly, as she's surprised to hear it.
He turns in her arms and looks down at her. "I never lived with just my mom again. She was too messed up, and she was sick by then." She furrows her brow, so he explains, "My poor mom couldn't catch a break. When, after two years, she was finally on her feet, dried out and working at a dress shop, she started noticing that she was bruising a lot and feeling really tired. She was diagnosed with leukemia, and I wasn't a bone marrow donor match. I got my SOB father's blood type, not hers."
He sighs again. "My foster parents were saints. They wanted me to get as much time with her as I could, so they moved her into their spare bedroom. She lived there for over a year, until she died. They also helped us get both of our names legally set to Mom's maiden name. We'd both had our fill of Gordon John Brandel. We wanted nothing of him, especially not his name."
"How old were you when she…"
"Fifteen."
"Same age as me when I lost my dad." She blinks in surprise at that.
He nods. "Yeah. Let's just say that I get it." He releases her and steps back from her. "After she died, my foster parents legally adopted me. Mom asked me to go along with it, but I didn't take their name. They were great, though. Greg not only taught me to fly, he also is the one who really helped me learn to surf. I'd fooled around with it before, but Greg got me my board and would just go sit at the beach while I practiced. The summer after Mom passed, I was pretty much there all day, every day. It helped me to not think about it so much."
"Are they still alive? Greg and Helen?" She assumes not, given the whole no next of kin thing when he was shot.
He gives her a sad smile. "No. They were old enough to be my grandparents when they took me in. I was the last kid they ever fostered and the only one they ever adopted. Helen passed about ten years ago, Greg not long before I met you." He reaches out and brushes a hand through her hair. "Now, we really need to go."
She nods, grabbing her sniper rifle. He holds the door open for her, and a few minutes later they're heading for the pad where the LAPD has its helicopters. She lets him drive, as it's easier than him having to give her directions the entire way.
She watches him as he drives, wondering what else she doesn't know about him. Something occurs to her as she watches him. "Way back on the Donald Wexling case, the one with the Marines kidnapped in the desert, why did you say it had been six years since you saw your dad at Thanksgiving?"
He keeps his eyes on the road, but he blindly reaches for her. She takes his hand, brushing her thumb over the top of it. "I don't know. I guess it was easier, and to be honest, I figured you already thought I was pretty useless. I didn't really want pity on top of that."
She freezes, and she remembers that they weren't exactly nice to him at first. "I'm sorry about how we treated you when you first joined us. We were all still hurting about Dom, but that's no excuse. But for the record, I never thought you were useless."
They arrive at the helicopter pad, and Deeks flashes his LAPD badge, retrieved from his desk drawer before they left. They're waved through, and once he parks the car and turns it off, he looks at Kensi. "Really?" He says it in his sarcastic way that says he doesn't believe her for a second.
She lifts an eyebrow at him. "Really. Now, annoying, goofy and possessed of a ridiculously small bladder? Yes, definitely. But not useless."
He snorts out a laugh and shakes his head. "Touché, Fern."
She smiles, glad to see him pulling out of the fog he'd been in on the way over here. They need to re-focus. She's glad she got him to talk to her, though, if only because it would have been bothering her, and that would have been a dangerous distraction.
They get out of the car, and she goes around to the back to pull out her rifle and other gear as he calls ops. She hears him a moment later as he reports in that they've arrived. He gives her a look and points at his ear, and she gets his meaning and nods as she reaches to turn on her comm. He says, "OK, Nell, we're going to comms," and hangs up his phone.
As they both hear Granger in their ears – not a favorite experience for either of them – another car pulls up and two members of what is clearly a tactical team arrive. Kensi speaks up, "Tactical support is here."
An LAPD officer approaches Deeks, and Deeks shakes his hand with a smile. Kensi can tell Deeks knows the guy, presumably from when he's here getting his time in. They walk towards a large chopper, and she watches with fascination as he starts what appears to be a pre-flight check. "Deeks is checking out the chopper now." She frowns as she sees him looking at something in the cockpit and then taking off his vest.
As Kensi approaches Deeks, she motions to the tac team to follow. They both carry large rifles like hers, and they also have gear designed for a sea rescue if needed and another large weapon case. Kensi hears Nell a moment later. "Deeks, Kens, Agent Del Campo just checked in with us. She's onboard Maalouf's yacht. We are tracking her both via her phone and via a device in her clothes."
"We need you all airborne now," Granger interrupts, "We also have two Coast Guard defenders and two interceptors on call and ready to move in. They're hanging back. You're their air support. There's also a large clipper nearby if you need to land for medical assistance."
"Sounds like a party," Deeks responds, "We'll be airborne shortly, Director. Pre-flight is almost complete. Just need clearance from Air Traffic and to get the team on board." He stows his vest under his seat, and he slips on a life vest instead. Seeing Kensi's look of disapproval, he shrugs and hands similar life vests to her and the two tac guys. The guys take them and go about stowing their gear and getting strapped in.
"Deeks, you need your vest on too." Kensi gives him a hard look.
He hops in the pilot's seat and motions to her to get in on the other side. She grabs her rifle and moves around, getting strapped in to the other front seat as he finishes his pre-flight and talks to Air Traffic Control over the radio, getting their permission to take off. He's relieved when he realizes that Granger and Bates must have cleared that path for them, as he gets no blowback at all over it.
When he's done talking to ATC for the moment, he briefly takes his headset back off. "I can't move well enough in it, my seat belt and the life vest, and if I end up in the water, the life vest is the one I need. I have to be able to move easily, Kensalina, or the whole bird could wind up in the Pacific."
She furrows her brow, but then she nods in resignation, understanding that he's right. She puts on her headset, and they turn off the comms as ops moves to their frequency so they can talk over the headsets.
Both he and Kensi put on their sunglasses, and Deeks reaches up and flips several switches, suddenly completely focused on what he's doing. The engine roars to life and the rotors start to turn. Kensi can't help but watch in admiration as he gets his final clearance for them to take off and easily maneuvers the controls. They rise as smoothly as you ever rise in a chopper like this, and they head for the coordinates that Eric supplies over the radio.
They're going to be tracking the yacht from a distance at first, but they're hoping they'll get something they can go on from Talia. They rise up to his approved cruising altitude, and he heads for open water. His mind wanders to Callen and Sam; he really hopes that they're OK. He also really hopes that the sub is within twelve miles of the coastline. If it isn't, the jurisdictional issues, already sticky when you're talking about the ocean, get downright nasty.
He feels a tap on his arm, and he looks over at Kensi. She taps on her headset, and he activates his mike, careful with his words because he knows the others are likely listening. "What's up, Kens?"
"You're good at this."
He gives her a quick half-smile. "Thanks."
"You still think they're OK?"
He gives her a quick look, and despite not being able to see her eyes, he knows that they're full of worry. "I'm not willing to believe anything else. They'd do the same for us."
She nods, and he sees her set her mouth in the way she does when she's resolute about something. "They already have for me, haven't they?"
They hear a quick intake of breath over the headsets at her barely-veiled reference to Afghanistan, and they know it was from either Eric or Nell – or maybe both. He just nods, though, because it's simply the truth. "That's how the four of us roll, Kensalina. Always will."
"Damn right, but it's six of us." They hear Eric's voice over the headsets, and the vehemence in his near-growling voice takes them both by surprise.
They both grin, and Kensi agrees, "We stand corrected, Mr. Beale."
They all go quiet again after that, and Deeks takes up a holding pattern a few miles away from the yacht. Maalouf's craft had been on a direct line out to open, international waters, but then it started circling in a small area, giving all of them hope that he's going to be meeting up with the sub.
The Coast Guard boats stay out from the yacht as well, but the interceptors in particular can get to the yacht pretty quickly. They're starting to worry that nothing is going to come of this rather elaborate set-up when Nell contacts them. "We just got word from Talia. She broke off to use the restroom, and she just sent us coordinates on a map she saw. She said it was one of those ones under glass cover with a rendezvous point marked." She gives Deeks and the Coast Guard the coordinates over the radio. "The time marked was just under twenty minutes from now."
Deeks is waiting for Granger to do something to coordinate them with the boats when he hears Granger's voice mutter an expletive in the background before coming in loud and clear over the headsets, "Agent Deeks, please head for the yacht. You can get there first, and Agent Del Campo needs the support. She has pictures of some incriminating documents, stuff that would let us lock up Maalouf, but she's getting antsy and is concerned they're about to make her."
Deeks and Kensi both swear at that, and a moment later Nell rattles off some exact coordinates. Deeks heads straight for them. He mostly tunes out everything but controlling the chopper, but in the background he can register the sound of the two tac guys in the back gearing up, and he sees Kensi adjust her rifle to make it so that she can open up the chopper door and start firing.
Knowing they'll likely beat the interceptors to the yacht, Deeks yells to the two tac guys over the headsets. "Are you two prepared to drop onto the yacht if I can get close enough?" The men both immediately respond in the affirmative.
"Deeks?" Kensi's voice makes him look at her. "What are you planning?"
"We need to get Talia some support. We're going to beat the Coast Guard there, so if I can get us close enough, I want you to lay down cover while we drop these two," he motions to the back with his head, "To the deck and then head out to look for the sub at the rendezvous. But before anything else, I want you ready – we need to take out their radio antenna. You up for that, Princess?"
"You get me close, Shaggy, I'll take it out. It won't stop a sat phone, but it'll stop about anything else." Kensi gives him a wicked grin.
"Good thinking, Agent Deeks," they hear Granger's gruff voice, "And I've got the wonder twins here going on blocking satellite feeds to and from the yacht. Coast Guard is four, max five minutes out. We've got surprise on our side. Half of the boats are heading for the yacht, the other two are heading for the rendezvous. Clipper is standing by."
"Understood." Deeks looks at Kensi again and glances at the agents in the back. "We're two minutes out. You'll have to hold the fort for two to three minutes with Agent Blye giving extra cover."
One of the men in the back responds, "No problem, Agent Deeks. This is what we do. And for the record, we're happy to do it – we both know Agent Hanna – we SEALs, former or otherwise, stick together."
Knowing the men are SEALs like Sam makes Deeks relax a tiny bit. It also makes him a little more confident that they can pull off what's being asked of them and grateful to Granger for coloring outside the lines a bit on this one. Scanning the horizon, he suddenly sees their target. It's huge, probably 90 feet long. Deeks immediately sees the radio antenna, and he points it out to Kensi.
One of the guys in the back passes her, to both hers and Deeks' surprise, a small rocket launcher. She turns and cocks her head at the SEAL who handed it to her. "We try to always be prepared, ma'am."
Kensi and Deeks both snort, and Deeks mutters, "Well played, SEAL."
They get closer to the yacht, and Deeks sees people coming out on deck as Kensi slams her door open. She's secured by her harness as she leans out, and lining up her shot, she says, "Too late, scumbags." Half a heartbeat later, the rocket is off, and a second after that, the antenna explodes in a fireball.
"Hell yeah, Fern!" Deeks whoops at the victory and swings the chopper towards the back of the yacht. "Nell, Director, someone tell Talia the cavalry is here."
The people on the deck of the yacht are caught completely off guard, and they see people running towards the area where the rocket hit. Deeks can't help but think that they're real idiots.
Kensi is thinking the same as she hands the rocket launcher back and readies her rifle. A moment later, the door on Deeks' side is slammed open, and she begins to watch to lay down cover fire if needed. The deck looks clear for now, and, due to the thankfully relatively calm day, Deeks is able to get them very close to the rear deck of the yacht.
"Go, go, go!" Kensi yells, and the first SEAL grunts out an acknowledgement and drops the fifteen feet to the deck, rolling as he hits and then giving them a thumbs up.
Kensi spots a man running towards the back of the yacht, gun out, and as the second SEAL drops towards the deck, she takes out the would-be attacker with a quick shot to the shoulder. A second man is behind him, and she clips his leg and yells out a warning to the guys on the deck. They're ready by now, and they easily incapacitate the man and yell, "Get out of here. Coast Guard will back us up, Agents. Go get your friends."
"Thanks, guys!" Kensi yells it over the radio, and Deeks turns the chopper towards the rendezvous point, praying silently that the sub is surfacing, none the wiser that their contacts have been, for lack of a better term, delayed. They slide their doors closed to cut down on the wind and noise.
Deeks pushes the chopper as hard as he can, as they're rapidly nearing the time of the rendezvous. Kensi has her sunglasses off and is using a set of binoculars to try to spot either the sub or the Coast Guard boats.
They're both so focused that Talia's voice over the radio catches them off guard. "Marty, Kensi, Granger is patching me through. Yacht is secure. Maalouf is bitching and wailing like a teenage princess, but one of the mercs he hired for security is singing like a canary. They were going to bring their guys aboard from the sub, set its autopilot and aim it at the Naval base at Coronado. They confirmed stowaways, said they kept them in the forward compartment with the bomb. They're planning to lock them in and leave them on it."
Kensi nearly drops the binoculars. "Wait, they're definitely alive?"
"At last check in, according to the merc, yes. Two people alive, front compartment, armed and not afraid to fire warning shots." Talia sounds very relieved to be providing likely good news.
"Oh, thank God," Kensi breathes out.
Deeks smiles at her and nods. "Thanks, Talia, for everything."
"Happy to do it – you guys all owe me a drink or three, though. And maybe I'll call that undercover to join us. He really was cute," she pauses and gets serious again, "Good luck, you two. I hope they're all right."
"Thanks, Talia." Kensi responds this time, and Talia signs off.
Kensi goes back to scanning the horizon, and a moment later, she calls out, "Deeks! Coast Guard interceptor, three o'clock!"
Deeks nods, and he calls to the boat, confirming who they are. Nell's voice comes over the radio, "Deeks, Kens, we want you to try something – Kens, in a second, adjust the radio frequency to exactly what I tell you. If Callen and Sam still have their comms, we want to try to raise them. We're hoping that if they feel it when the sub starts to surface, they'll start to try to call for help. We couldn't get them on comms before, but we think your proximity will help."
Kensi leans towards the radio. "OK, Nell, I'm ready when you are."
Deeks watches and listens as Nell rattles off a frequency setting, and he keeps the chopper headed straight for the interceptor. A moment later, Kensi starts to call. "Callen, Sam, this is Kensi, please respond!"
She repeats it over and over as they rapidly approach the rendezvous time. Three minutes later, Deeks lets out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when a scratchy voice responds, "Holy crap, Kens? Where are you?"
"Callen!" Kensi gets tears of relief in her eyes. "We're in a chopper close by. Coast Guard is here too – we got intel on the sub's rendezvous, and we're just waiting for it to surface."
Deeks breaks in, "Callen, are you and Sam both OK?"
"Affirmative, Deeks. We're both thirsty as hell, and Sam is damned cranky, but we're mostly OK." They can both hear fatigue heavy in Callen's voice.
"Yes, mostly OK, but I'm ready for you to get our asses off of this damned underwater dungeon." Sam sounds tired too, but they can also hear just a hint of dark humor in his tone.
"What's your ammo situation, guys?" Kensi asks.
"We both have a full clip left, but that's it. Luckily, they didn't want to shoot at us much. Something about us being in the same room with a crapload of homemade bomb, I imagine." Callen's sarcasm isn't lost on them, and Kensi and Deeks both chuckle.
"All right, guys, sit tight. We need to switch frequencies again to update ops and the Coast Guard. Be ready." Deeks nods to Kensi to get ready to switch their frequency back.
"Affirmative, Deeks. And in case we forget to say it later, thanks to both of you for coming for us." All of the sarcasm is gone from Callen's voice this time.
Kensi swallows hard. "Anytime, Callen, Sam. Anytime."
They switch the frequency to the original one, and they report into the Coast Guard with ops listening. They hear cheers from Eric and Nell in the background as they confirm to the Coast Guard interceptor captain that there are two friendlies on the sub.
Deeks tells the Coast Guard the frequency they're switching to, and once Kensi switches them back again, they warn Callen and Sam that things are about to get hot. Seconds later, the sub surfaces. Deeks slides his door back open and gets one of his guns just in case he needs it.
The interceptor closes in, and Kensi slams open her door and aims her rifle towards the sub's hatch. A man pokes his head out cautiously – his caution is not a surprise, given that they likely haven't been able to make contact with Maalouf. Once the guy begins to rise from the hatch, idiotic considering the presence of the chopper, Kensi wonders briefly if they plan to give up.
The man hesitates, but then he raises his gun towards them. He gets a shot off, and it ricochets off of the front of the left skid and towards Deeks' side. The angle must be just right, because the wildly pinged shot grazes him. "Son of a bitch!" Deeks can't stop himself from yelling when the bullet slices a gash up his left arm. He keeps the chopper under control, but he can feel the blood running down his arm.
Kensi takes aim and drops the guy on the sub. She yells for Callen and Sam as she reloads, but they don't hear much in return. Another man pops up in the hatch, and, after confirming that he isn't Callen or Sam, Kensi immediately fires at him, and he drops back down into the sub. Deeks mutters, "Christ, it's like a twisted game of whack-a-mole."
Kensi rolls her eyes and looks over at Deeks for a moment, noticing the alarming amount of blood on his arm. "Deeks, you're hit?"
He shakes his head. "Just a nasty graze. Eyes on the sub, Fern!" He takes his left hand off the controls for a second to try to wipe the blood off on his jeans.
She nods and turns back in time to see a few divers climbing onto the sub. They're armed, and Kensi realizes that they're from the Coast Guard boat. She's about to relax when they hear gunfire over their headsets, and they realize that it's coming from the sub. The divers jump back into the water, and huge air bubbles come up from under the sub.
Kensi and Deeks exchange a look, and they both guess what must have happened. The sub's hull must have been punctured by a shot, and it's starting to take on water. As they watch in horror, the sub slowly starts to list, and water begins to pour into the hatch. Kensi is frozen in shock, but Deeks just starts yelling, "Callen! Sam! Get the hell out of that thing, it's going down! Callen! Sam! Do you copy? Get out now! Damn it, you two, respond!" Deeks sounds more desperate with every word, but they don't hear anything but silence as they watch the damaged sub slip slowly back beneath the surface.