Disclaimer: The characters of N.C.I.S. Los Angeles are property of CBS
Hetty was wandering around the compound that she was being held captive at. She realized early on that she was going to be bait to draw out the rest of the team.
{And Conor would be bait to draw out Kensi and Deeks.} Hetty thought. {By now the assault should have begun.}
Hetty continued to stroll around the complex. She found a quiet place off in one of the side rooms. It was so peaceful that Hetty fell asleep and dreamed of times when they were less complicated.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Los Angeles-
"Mom." Kensi called entering the mansion.
"In the kitchen." Julia said.
Kensi made her way to the kitchen and found that her mother wasn't alone. Upon entering the kitchen Kensi saw that Ann was over.
"Hi." Ann said.
"Hi." Kensi said back.
Kensi waited for a time before speaking. It was a half hour later before the two women parted for the night. Kensi hugged and kissed Ann good bye, and then sat in silence; gathering her thoughts.
"Who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?" Julia asked.
"Something's have occurred since I left for the job with the D.E.A., some unforgivable thing." Kensi said.
"Unforgivable or what seems unforgivable?" Julia asks.
"To be honest I'm not entirely sure." Kensi said.
"Care to give me the redacted version?" Julia asks.
"While I was out with Callen and Sam, Deeks shoots a V.I.P. and goes rogue. Somewhere along the line our boss and Conor gets kidnapped." Kensi said.
Kensi was doing her best to keep her emotions at bay, but when Julia came around and embraced Kensi, she started to cry again. Julia held her daughter and cried a few tears for the broken family. After a time, Kensi had stopped crying, and the two women cleaned up the tears.
"So what's the problem?" Julia asks.
"The V.I.P. that Deeks shot didn't even try to fight him. They just sat there, and waited for him to take the shot; Also Deeks shot him in the chest and not the head."
"I'm guessing that there is something else going on, and the death was a ploy?" Julia asks.
"Except I don't have any proof." Kensi said.
"What about Callen and Sam. What do they believe?" Julia asked.
"I don't want to say anything until I have proof. Proof that this is some ploy to throw off suspicion." Kensi said.
"If I'd to guess, this latest stunt that Deeks pulled was a ploy to lure somebody out." Julia said.
"What do you mean?" Kensi asked.
"The V.I.P. died and then Hetty and Conor get kidnapped. Were there any people killed besides these the V.I.P.?" Julia asked.
"As of right I don't know, but knowing Deeks those people aren't dead." Kensi said.
Kensi was lost in thought for a time; that was until her phone rang. It was a text message from Eric saying that she was needed back at ops.
"I have to go. I'm needed back at work." Kensi said.
Kensi got up and kissed her mom on the cheek, and left to return to work. Kensi was lost in thought on her way into work. The way her mother was talking it was starting to look more like Deeks was playing some kind of game. And then Kensi thought about Janus Koza, the psycho that kidnapped her and Deeks, and wondered if he might be involved in this little game that Deeks was playing.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Deeks and Sasha were inflight over the Mediterranean Sea when Sasha asked Deeks.
"How did Granger comply with our request?" Sasha asked.
"Simple I gave him a choice: either he gets Director Vance to sign off, or he dies, for real." Deeks said.
"I betting he wishes he was dead after being shot six times in the chest." Sasha says.
"An old man like that, he has probably taken hits worse than what we did to him." Deeks said.
"Where are we going next?" Sasha asked Tanner.
"According to the coordinates it looks like Rome." Tanner said.
"Rome, there's a science lab in Rome." Deeks said perking up.
"That's where I found you and Kensi originally." Sasha said.
There was silence for the rest of the trip.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Kensi was walking into MTAC in Ops when she saw the video of Granger's execution being playing on one of the computer stations off to the side. Kensi was distracted by the video, she was looking for anything she might have missed from the first viewing, but she was brought out of her thoughts by a throat being clear; it was Callen.
"We see you are here physically, but are you here mentally?" Sam asked.
"Let me worry about that." Gibbs said walking in from the back entrance.
With the team all there Eric began the case up date, but Kensi was more concerned with finding out what Deeks was up to. Kensi heard the orders, but when she left to go run down the new lead Kensi decided to stop be Granger's house. And as it would seem that luck was on her side: Kensi stop was two miles from Granger's place.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Hetty woke to the felling of small hands shaking her. When Hetty opened her eyes she saw that it was Conor.
"Yes Conor, is there anything I can do for you?" Hetty asked.
"Can you follow me please?" Conor asked.
Hetty got up from her chair and followed Conor, the two of them walked back into the mansion. Conor walked back to a study at the opposite end of the mansion. While they were out there Hetty notice that there were fewer and fewer guards.
{Now this is something you don't see every day.} Hetty thought.
Conor led Hetty into a study. Upon entering the study, Hetty saw a laptop on the table. When Hetty rounded the table to look at the screen she saw the N.C.I.S. login screen.
"How long has the screen been up like this?" Hetty asked, staring at the screen.
"Ten minutes maybe." Conor answered.
Hetty looked at the computer and realized that it was her laptop that was with them when they were abducted.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Rome, Italy-
As he was crossing the threshold, Deeks was hit with a flashback. It was of him and Kensi being wheeled in the holding tanks. Deeks signaled to Sasha that he was down and was falling back, Sasha and the rest of the team continued to push forward and secure the rest of the site. Deeks fell back to where Quintus was holding in over watch position. The two men sat in silence for two minutes before anybody spoke.
"Flashbacks?" Quintus asked.
"Yeah. They were interfering with my reaction time so I fell back as not to hinder the team." Deeks said.
Deeks understood the positon of a sniper, so he kept quiet and explored his muddled thoughts. They were of his life as a child in that hellhole with his mother and his monster of a father. Then forward to when he was a cop. And then his time with N.C.I.S., Deeks got lost in his memory involving N.C.I.S.; mainly the memories of his partner/wife.
{Kensi hair smells of lavender. It's such a wonderful smell.} Deeks thought.
Next thing both Deeks and Quintus saw was the incursion team making a rapid extraction of the facility. Just as the last person had clear the gates of the compound there was a deafening boom as the science facility exploded.
"It was probably a fail-safe measure to keep anybody from stealing the data, or the equipment." Deeks said. "But it seems that they failed to make so "fail-safe.""
"I hope the next site doesn't have any more explosive surprises." Sasha said walking up to Quintus and Deeks between breathes.
"Anything useful?" Deeks asked.
"Probably scientific data from when you and Kensi were here, but something else might turn up." Sasha said.
The team packed their gear up and head back to the airplane. Next stop Paris, France; after that London, England; ending the Mediterranean tour in Madrid, Spain.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Los Angeles: Grangers house-
Kensi broke into Granger's house, and headed towards the office. She took stock of the office, mainly to make sure nothing was missing. When she was satisfied, Kensi pulled out a tablet that she had with her, and then brought up the still images of the execution video. Everything in the office was matching the video; even the chair that Granger was shot in. But what struck Kensi as odd was that the chair wasn't replaced. Kensi got a closer look to inspect the chair. Kensi noticed indentations in the seat of the chair.
"Butt prints. This chair wasn't replaced." Kensi said.
Then the oddest thought struck Kensi.
"Why did they film Deeks and Sasha executing Granger?" She asked.
Kensi thought long and hard about the purpose of the video. And her thoughts kept coming back to one thing: decoy.
"It's definitely a fake, but why would you film the execution?" Kensi asked
She was lost in her thoughts some more, and then it hit her.
"To lure somebody out!" Kensi exclaimed.
Kensi deleted the photos off the tablet, put it back in the bag, and the vacated the premises. As she was locking up Kensi had another thought.
"Who would be big enough to lure out by executing Granger, and the abduction of Hetty and Conor. Or was it execute Granger, and in the process abduct Hetty and Conor? It doesn't matter; I need to figure out the "who" in this equation and the rest will make sense." Kensi said.
Kensi made her way out to the SRX, got in, and then drove back to the mission.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Back in Ops Eric and Nell were looking, and sifting through more data. Eric was looking at some data points and then his eyes started to blur; Eric blinked his eyes and continued to mine the information. And yet again, his eyes started to lose focus. Nell reached up, grabbed something and gave it to Eric.
"You should use a liberal dose of eye drops if you going to be staring at a computer screen all day." Nell said.
"I've never had this problem before." Eric said applying the eye drops.
Just as Eric finished lubricating his eyes Callen, Sam and Kensi had walked back into MTAC with an update. Nell had hid the search as the agents took their spots. Kensi notice the move, and made a mental note of it.
"What do you have?" Eric asked.
"Well our guy was supposed to be meeting somebody within the next three days." Callen said. "The guy said I could tag along and meet their source."
"That's good." Gibbs said entering from the back again. "Maybe we could see if there are any other players involved."
"And you Kens." Nell said
"Dead end. Whatever they had going on it was done like a week ago, judging by the layer of dust on the shelves in the place." Kensi said.
{I'm going to focus on the case, and forget about Deeks and Sasha for the time being. I might be able to throw off any suspicion that I know that the whole thing was a setup.} Kensi thought.
After the agents were dismissed Eric saw that he received a message. When Eric opened the message it was encrypted, which kind of puzzle him for a moment. Even stranger was the encryption looked oddly familiar.
"Hey Eric, ever thought about contacts, or even Lasik?" Nell asked.
"No I haven't." Eric said.
Nell heard in Eric's voice that he was off in the distance, metaphorically speaking.
"Eric." Nell said.
"Yeah, what?" Eric asked giving his wife his full attention.
"Maybe you should think about getting rid of the glasses. Not only that you would look better without them." Nell said with a smile as she adjusted Eric's' glasses.
Eric thought about his wife's comment and took it to heart.
"So what is distracting you?" Nell asked.
"The message I just got is really weird. It came from the N.C.I.S. server, and the encryption that was used looks strangely familiar-"
Eric cut himself off as he started to type in some random lines of code, and uploaded the data to the network.
When the code decipher the encryption and the data points were uploaded, Eric and Nell saw that it had update the over watch markers, and added more points of interest for the incursion team to look into.
"That encryption is familiar because I wrote!" Eric exclaimed.
"Did you say that this message came from the N.C.I.S. server?" Nell asked.
"Got something?" Gibbs asked as he was entering the room through main doors.
Eric and Nell shared a look, and then Eric update Gibbs.
"We just found more leads for our team overseas to follow up and it looks like Janus might have decided not to move Hetty and Conor; for the time being."
"Where are they located at?" Gibbs asked.
Eric back tracked the message to its source.
"The computer is currently located at St. Cyril's." Eric said
"Where is that?" Nell asked.
Eric started a search and within two minutes he had the location up on the screen.
"It's an abandon monastery on the plains of Central Greece." Eric said.
Eric pulled the site up on the big screen. The tech agents and Gibbs just stared at the screen for a few minutes without saying anything.
"I think we can guess how this is going to play out." Eric said.
"I'll go brief the director. You two keep mining the data." Gibbs said and then left the room.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
Los Angeles: three days later-
Callen was geared up and ready to meet with the supplier. The deal wouldn't go day for a few weeks, but the supplier wanted to meet their replacement before they went through with it. So Callen was meeting his man at Club Balm; and the irony of the situation was not lost on him.
"The rich and infamous can do business without being harassed by the cops." Sam said.
Callen was quiet for a moment. His thoughts drifted off to Deeks, and his brazen act of defiance. G was angry and envious. Angry because Deeks breach of protocol; envious because all the times he wanted to kill Granger and didn't.
"Have you ever known him to do something rash without a reason?" Sam asked.
Sam was outside the club sitting in the Charger.
"Evidence is pretty damning." G said.
"I'll pass judgment when they bring Deeks in for questioning." Sam said.
Callen saw his man that was working with the dead lance corporal; he signaled for Callen to follow. Callen complied happily. Callen followed the guy to the V.I.P. section, and smiled to himself.
"Looks like I get to kick back in style tonight, Sam." G said razzing Sam.
"You're meeting is taking place in the V.I.P. room? I so hate you right now." Sam said flatly.
"10,000 comedians are out of a job and you two are trying to be funny." Gibbs said through the wire.
"Right, here's my stop." Callen said and turn off the mic, as a precaution.
As he was approaching the booth where the meeting would be taking place, Callen was stopped. He looked at the man's goon and gave him a "really" look.
"A business protocol." The man said.
Callen held his arms out a shoulder height and stood with his legs at should width apart. While he was getting frisked, Callen noticed an attractive brunette woman sitting in the booth. Callen nodded to the brunette, and she nodded back.
{Hello beautiful.} Callen thought.
The brunette was about five feet six inches tall, crystal blue eyes, bronze skin tone from being out in the sun a lot, and curves to go with the body because that dress was hugging her body.
{Definitely a ten.} Callen thought as he was taking a seat in the booth across from the woman.
N.C.I.S. L.A.
The meeting went on for three hours; mostly small talk between Callen and the supplier. The brunette spoke on occasion, but her gaze was stuck solidly on Callen. The group sitting in the booth couldn't tell, but Callen could feel her eyes on him.
{What's her deal?} Callen thought.
After the meeting wrapped up, Callen made his way to the door as he briefed the team. Before Callen hit the door he felt his arm being jerk back into the club. When he looked at the person trying to get his attention G saw that it was the brunette from the meeting.
{This is going to be interesting.} Callen thought.
"Care for a drink?" The brunette asked.
"Yes!" Sam hissed into the ear piece.
"That's sounds like a wonderful idea, lead the way!" Callen said.
As they were walking towards the bar Callen whispered.
"See you in the morning Sam, and I will have that report for you later in the day boss."
Before either Sam or Gibbs could reply Callen was pulling his ear wig, and turned it off. Not that he didn't mind Sam's voice in his ear for comic relief, it would have been greatly appreciated; it has been sometime that he has talked to woman one on one in an intimate setting.
{Not since Joelle.} Callen thought with a sad smile on his face.
The business associates approached the bar and ordered their drinks. Just as Callen was reaching for his wallet, the woman and said that it was on her. She pointed at the sign and saw that it was half priced drinks after midnight. Callen nodded his head, and the woman lead the way to a booth off in the corner. Callen felt off about spending time and accepting free drinks from an associate who he was going to arrest later, but more so he felt off because something about her made him fell different. At peace; which is something he hasn't felt in a long time.
{Maybe a little when I was with Joelle, but this is something completely different} Callen thought.
As the approached the booth Callen held out his hand for her to take seat in the booth.
"Oh a gentleman, how sweet." She said.
"I may be in the business of helping drug, and arms dealers, and lord knows who else; but that doesn't mean I don't know how to treat a lady. I might be a little out of practice though; just a fair warning." Callen said. "I'm Quentin Prior."
"Celeste Jones, but most people just call me Celeste." She said.
"Well nice to meet you Celeste, the pleasure is all mine." Callen said.
Celeste and Callen talked, and drank well into the night, and then Callen thought he should get going. Celeste checked her watch and came to the same conclusion. Before Callen could speak Celeste kissed Callen the lips. Callen was blind-sided by the kiss, but returned it in kind. When they broke away for air, Celeste winked at Callen and waved good night. Callen was dumb founded: to say that he was expecting to be kissed by Celeste after they just met would be a poor assumption.
Never the less, something about her brazen personality left him wanting more. As Callen was walking towards the door he felt something in his pocket. Callen opened and saw that it was Celeste number. Callen pondered it a moment, and then walked out; and against his better judgment.
"I will be calling." Callen said.
T.B.C.
A/N: I didn't do the proper research that I pride myself of; albeit, a minor correction.