Many thanks to all awesome readers of my story! My heart jumps an extra beat when I receive story alerts, favourites, follows but most especially reviews! Please feel free to keep doing that…reviews I mean lol xxx.
Disclaimer: - oh by the way NCISLA is not mine.
Silent Secrets
Chapter 6
After taking Sharni to the safe house Hetty had organised and making sure she was settled and the protection detail was in place, Kensi and Deeks drove back to the OSP centre, where Sam and Callen was sitting at their desks waiting for them.
"Get Sharni settled okay?" asked Sam.
"She's still way jumpy but I assured her the protection guys were there to look out for her and that seemed to calm her down", answered Deeks.
Eric's very loud whistle came from the upstairs balcony; a tactic that Hetty had assigned to the tech guru as a signal for the team to join him in the tech room for news. The sign that all four agents leapt out of their chairs and onto their feet every time, gave Eric a little thrill as it was the only tiny bit of control and power he had over the experienced agents…..not that he had such an ego to want or need power….but it still felt good nonetheless.
"What do we have Eric?" a question Callen had asked for many years now, as the unofficial leader of the team he always seemed to be the one who asked it first. Callen had sometimes wondered why Kensi or Sam or even Deeks didn't ask the question. 'One day I'll have to ask them', he thought to himself.
"Lieutenant Glen Nichols, thirty five years old, not married, one sister Sharni. He went to Harrisdale High School topped subjects in science. Went to UCLA and graduated in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, where he met and was room-mates with our dead Lieutenant Rowan McIntosh. McIntosh also did science graduating in Physics. After graduation Nichols enlisted in the defence forces along with McIntosh", Eric explained.
"Okay so what does one science nerd have against another science nerd to get himself killed?" asked Sam.
"I was a science nerd at school, Sam" pouted Eric.
"Me too Sam. Got something against nerds?" Nell said indignantly.
"Geez, I'm sorry guys! I take it back. Any other info you can give us?"
"Sharni said Glen had changed when their dad died. Could that have something to do with it?" Kensi jumped in.
"I'm glad I'm not the only smart girl in the room Kensi. You could be onto something. Doing the background checks for Nichols, I found that his father was in the army too. His name was Sergeant Paul Nichols and he was part of an infantry group searching the jungles for the best areas to attack the Viet Cong army during the Vietnam War in the '70s".
"We've got the report from the coroner back just a few minutes ago. Lieutenant Rowan McIntosh had large amounts of dioxin and ricin in his body", added Eric.
"Dioxin was used in the Vietnam War as Agent Orange. Ricin in a pretty new toxin come to light recently", a concerned Sam explained.
"Glen Nichols' father, Sergeant Paul Nichols died of cancer due to exposure to Agent Orange during his deployment through the Vietnam War", said Nell. "No compensation was given due to the US Government's reluctance at the time to admit that some US troops were exposed to it".
"So a pissed-off and abusive Lieutenant has a major grudge with the US and he likely has his hands on dioxin and ricin and he's on the run somewhere and he probably wants to use this stuff? How the hell do we start looking for him?" said Deeks looking at the rest of the team, who were wondering the same thing.
"Mr Deeks, it is now early evening, if Lt Nichols wanted to launch his attack I think we would have heard on the news and internet by now of injuries to people. No, I think he wants to wait a bit, something may have stopped him from carrying out his plan right away", replied Hetty.
"Hetty, this guy is a nutcase on the loose, we should be looking for him", fidgeted Callen.
"Mr Callen, call it a gut feeling if you like. That gut feeling says he's biding his time. No we'll get a better handle on things tomorrow. I'd like you all to go home get some rest". "Oh and that's not a suggestion, it's an order".
The team reluctantly took Hetty's order and walked downstairs to their desks. Callen noticed that Deeks was unusually quiet and subdued and he wondered if the admission by Sharni that Glen had repeatedly and constantly abused her was bringing up painful memories of his own about his childhood.
"See you tomorrow G", said Sam slapping his shoulder.
"See ya" Callen nodded. Callen thought it might be worth a visit to see the young detective later that night, after all they were a team and if something was amiss with one of the team, he felt it was his duty to help in any way he could.
Callen picked up a six-pack on the way of Deeks' favourite beer and parked his car outside his apartment. He walked up the flight of stairs and found number 16 and rapped on the door.
"Callen? What are you doing here?" a surprised Deeks queried.
"Beer" he said holding up the six-pack. "I know you can't resist your favourite beer…just like Homer Simpson" smirked Callen.
"Doh!" chuckled Deeks, "Come on in" pulling the door open wider to allow Callen inside.
Monty greeted Callen with an eager wag of his tail and after getting a warm pat on his head; he was satisfied and returned to the meaty bone he was previously gnawing at. The two men flopped on the large leather sofa and opened the bottles.
"So why are you really here Callen? You can't be here just because you wanted to have a drink with me surely?" Deeks turned to Callen.
"Okay, yes it's not all about the beer, although I can see why it's your favourite, it's actually pretty good!" admitted Callen. "I have a feeling that hearing Sharni's abuse shook you up a bit. Maybe brought up painful memories?"
Deeks dropped his head, feeling a little exposed and embarrassed. "Yeah, it got me thinking back. I mean I should be over all that shit that happened when I was a kid by now right?"
"Stuff like that Deeks…memories….it never leaves you. I know". Deeks cocked his head looking at Callen with a frown.
"You?" exclaimed Deeks.
"Yes me too. You don't get chucked around thirty seven foster homes without at least one of them being a horrible place to live and with horrible foster parents to boot. I've copped it too and pretty bad sometimes, but unlike you as soon as something like that happened I got shipped off to another foster home with the authorities hoping it was a better home than the one before. You didn't have that luxury of leaving your abusive home….I did".
"Thanks Callen. We're kinda similar in a small way huh? I had just as rotten childhood as you did and we both came out of it pretty darn good I reckon" smiled Deeks.
"I'd say we certainly did. You're a great member of the team Deeks, don't ever forget it okay? Just because Sam grunts and grumbles at you sometimes that's just his way, he does it with me too. I know he was just as shocked as I was when you were telling Sharni about your abuse. We used to treat Kensi as our little sister, someone we had to protect and keep an eye on. Now we don't have to do that as much. She has you as her partner. We can take a step back because we know we can trust you to look after her. That means a lot to Sam and me and it means the team is complete".
"Wow that means so much coming from you Callen. Thanks, I promise I'll always have Kensi's back. Not only hers but yours and Sam's too….although I don't think you need my help you two are Batman and Robin, super-human crime-fighters of NCIS!"
"So who would be Batman and who would be Robin?" asked Callen.
"I'll let you two figure that one out….I'll stay out of that argument!" laughed Deeks.
"Okay, so you good? I can stay a bit more if you want".
"No I'm fine, thanks again G", said Deeks high-fiving him and letting him out the door. Callen's talk had lifted his spirits immediately. Hearing how trusted he was within the NCIS made him feel proud of his achievements with Callen, Sam and Kensi. He belonged with them now and he had every determination to stay there as long as possible.