The journey continues. Thanks to those who left a review, put the story on their favorite list and/or follow it. I really appreciate it. I'm afraid some of you might be just as disappointed as Hetty and Callen, but I hope you will stay with this story nevertheless.

For those who joined up with us now: Welcome!

Chapter 4

As promised Callen relieved her in the morning.

"The driver?" Hetty asked as soon as she joined him outside the room leaving the door ajar so they could still see Deeks but wouldn't disturb him with their conversation. She hadn't acknowledged how much she had been looking forward to having someone to punish for the hurt caused to her detective. Only when Callen answered she realized there wouldn't be any mystery to be unraveled, no one to hunt down, to be caught and made pay for their deeds.

"Jeremy Candell, 27, and, as Wyler said, just some jackass not paying attention."

Hetty took in the angry posture of her team leader. He clearly was as frustrated as she was that there was no one there to really aim their wrath at. She nodded at him to continue.

"Eric and Nell left no angle uncovered, believe me, but the harsh truth is: He is just an idiot. His girlfriend broke up with him via text message and he was angrily texting her back to convince her to stay with him that he would change and so on. They found his phone under the seat where he tried to hide it. He only noticed Deeks when he hit him. When LAPD swarmed all over him like a hive of angry bees he had the brazenness to tell them it wasn't his fault, his light had been green and that idiot had just walked right in front of his car out of nowhere and deserved what he got and he really had done nothing wrong. That didn't go too well as you can imagine. That moron hadn't even realized it could have been the mother and her child he hit and that the girl would surely have been killed if he had done so. We saw the footage, Hetty."

Callen just shook his head and looked at Deeks lying on his bed as if to reassure him that their liaison was still alive.

"Mr. Hanna?"

"He's at home trying to calm down Michele. She didn't react too well to the news and left to her she would go strangle that bastard regardless."

Callen and Hetty chuckled darkly with a grim smile They exchanged a few words about Deeks' status and the finalization of the other case, then Hetty left and Callen settled into the chair. The agent gave his charge a thorough once over, now content in the knowledge that he was doing better.

Immersed in a newspaper he nevertheless noted when Deeks woke a few minutes later. Deciding to give the other man some time to take in the fact that his guardian had changed he waited patiently for Deeks to start the conversation. He didn't have to wait long.

The next time he woke Deeks felt more awake and less fuzzy than last time. Still sore and in pain, but that was to be expected when you got run over by a car, he guessed. He opened his eyes and found the petite woman had left and in her stead there was a blond guy sitting in the chair she had vacated. For a second Deeks was annoyed that they seemed to think he couldn't be left alone. Then he reconsidered. Maybe they didn't want him to feel alone instead of watching over him like he was a threat to himself or others. The detective felt somewhat confused and pleased in equal measures by the thought. The man gave no indication that he had noticed Deeks waking up. He sucked on a tootsie pop in an absent manner while browsing through a newspaper. It took Deeks a moment to realize why he couldn't make any sense of the headlines.

"That's not English. Are you Russian?" Deeks blurted curiously.

Callen grinned, that was not the first question he had thought to be asked. "Yep, it's Cyrillic and nope, I'm not Russian. Just trying to put in some practice and stay up to date. And by the way, not only Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet, Deeks." The guy folded the paper and gave him a piercing look, then he smirked. "Callen."

"What?"

"My name. It's G Callen."

Deeks wondered what the G stood for and why the guy had given only his last name. But as he called him Deeks and not Marty maybe that was just the way they addressed each other. He sure acted like they knew each other. "Do I know you? I have a feeling I should, but..."

"We work together, but I think right now you don't remember that." Callen replied calmly "You saw me briefly in the ER. Concussions sucks, it muddles short term memory so don't fret it, if you can't remember." the agent soothed. He didn't want to agitate the detective. Having no memory must be bad enough without always being reminded of it by others. Callen couldn't shake the bad feeling. He still reeled at why Deeks wouldn't want to remember. Not that the detective had no good reasons for pushing aside the whole Sidorov case and the fact that Kensi was on a mission without her partner as back up… But to forget nearly everything? Maybe he shouldn't have been so harsh to the man, given him more time. But he had thought Deeks needed someone to shake him out of his stupor and he had needed to know that he wasn't endangering the rest of his team and…

"What's with the guilt?"

Callen looked up in surprise. He hadn't realized that his mind had drifted.

"Guilt?" he hedged.

Deeks just raised an eyebrow "You can just tell me it's none of my business, but something tells me, it's got to do with me. So what is it? You drove the car that hit me?"

"No" indignation laced Callen's voice.

"So?" Deeks prompted.

"It's just, I can't, I don't know…" Callen found himself off balance at this abrupt, almost rude, style of questioning. It certainly wasn't the Deeks they knew.

"You always this eloquent?" Deeks' eyes twinkled.

Callen snorted and ruefully shook his head, looking at the floor. There was a flash of the old Deeks. But here he was, a seasoned agent with years spent in the field, and now he felt inadequate and stumped. Socially awkward regarding feelings, not just played for a mission. And he couldn't make himself to see this as a mission. He didn't want to. Raising his head again he looked Deeks in the eyes. The detective felt comfortable enough to tease him although he had no memory to back this trust up with so Callen tried honesty.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" Deeks sounded as puzzled as he looked.

"That's the problem. I don't know, I just think I should say it."

"Okay." Deeks drawled with a surprised rise of his eyebrows "Glad we got that out into the open at least, given our shared past and all that."

Callen snorted again. He couldn't help the smile forming on his face which Deeks returned.

Before they could continue their admittedly strange conversation a nurse entered the room. It wasn't the one from the night before, but a middle aged Hispanic looking man. He smiled, his eyes lightening up when he noticed Callen. Deeks tilted his head and tried to hide a smile while he watched the nurse bustling around to take his stats. Callen left the room after making sure that Deeks was okay with it so the nurse could take care of some issues Callen didn't need or want to know the details of. He used the break to grab some ham and eggs for breakfast from the cafeteria. When he got back the detective looked a bit disgruntled and exhausted, but there were also some merry sparks dancing in his eyes.

"What is it?" to say Deeks' mirth made him nervous was an understatement.

"You wouldn't like to get to know Juan Don better, would you? He'd like to get to know you. And no, I didn't make it up, his name really is Juan Don." Deeks chuckled though it made him flinch and press his ribs.

Callen couldn't help it as he face palmed and answered drily "No, thank you." With some concern he added "You need pain meds?"

"I'm good, they just need some time to kick in." Deeks sighed and tried to make himself comfortable again, keeping his eyes down on the blanket.

Callen recognized the restlessness from Deeks last encounters with a hospital. His dislike for medical facilities seemed to be ingrained to his very core, regardless of what he remembered. Not for the first time Callen wondered about Deeks' past. He knew a bit and could guess at some more, but they had never really talked about it. Like recognized like and the agent was quite sure that he and Deeks shared some experiences about their upbringing through childhood, but as both felt uncomfortable talking about it they had never brought it up.

Someone knocked at the door and interrupted them again. Deeks looked up and saw a police officer with a cardboard tray bearing three coffees entering the room.

"Hi there." The officer said in a chipper mood "The doctor said it's OK to visit as long as I keep it short. And coffee is allowed too, so, help yourself." He offered the tray to both men ignoring the somewhat awkward silence his entry entailed. After distributing the coffees, waiving off the thanks and taking a first sip he smiled. "I'm Officer Leroy Hannah. If you don't mind I would like to ask you some questions, Detective Deeks."

Deeks looked uncomfortable, but nevertheless said "Sure don't mind, but given the state of my memory I'm not sure how I can help."

Callen had to admit that he was a bit disappointed. He had hoped Deeks would notice the familiar last name of the officer, but maybe that was too much to ask. His attention went back to the officer who smiled unconcerned and continued.

"So you still can't remember what happened yesterday, Detective Deeks?"

"I can't remember what happened last year, let alone yesterday. And to be honest, I feel uncomfortable with you calling me detective 'cause I don't know that I am one. I don't know anything it seems."

Both Callen and Hannah noted that Deeks did not seem to be overly disconcerted with the fact of his memory loss. Remarkably calm he said "But regarding yesterday I was told it was an accident involving a car running over a red light and I got hit, but no details. I don't even know if ..." Callen and the officer exchanged a look which had Deeks suddenly on edge.

"Was I told the truth? Did I hurt someone? I never thought of asking if I..."

Callen could see Deeks' heart rate spiking on the silent monitor and rushed from his chair to his side, taking Deeks hand in an impulse he couldn't explain later.

"Deeks, Deeks! Calm down, its fine. You didn't hurt anybody. On the contrary, you saved a mother and her child. They are both okay thanks to you." emphasizing the last part with a squeeze of his hand, Callen gladly noticed that Deeks seemed to calm down.

"There was a little Asian girl in the ER together with her mother. I remember them." Deeks sounded surprised by the fact that he could remember something "I scared them. Were they, are they...?"

"You're right." officer Hannah cut in before Deeks could up his agitation any further "You saved those two and though you did scare them a bit in the ER they're fine. Some scratches and bruises from falling, but it could have been so much worse. Mrs. Woo explained to her daughter that you were hurt and confused by the accident and didn't mean them any harm. She's so grateful that you saved them and would like to thank you, later, when you're up to have some visitors."

"I, I don't remember. What did I do to scare them? "

The young man took a breath to launch into an answer, but Callen interrupted before a word came out.

"Officer Hannah, a word?"

Deeks couldn't see Callen's face, but he could see Officer Hannah's reaction. Wide-eyed the young man followed the older agent out of the room.

Callen was alone when he came back into the room. At Deeks' questioning look he explained "Officer Hannah will come back later. Right now I don't think it's a good idea for him to question you. I'm not even sure he was really supposed to."

"He brought us coffee." Deeks blurted stupidly, wondering what had made him say that.

Callen chuckled and came closer to gaze into Deeks eyes. His suspicion confirmed he grinned. "I'm afraid you're a bit high from your pain meds, Deeks."

Deeks just hummed. "Mmm tir'd" he mumbled and yawned.

"Then sleep."

"You'll stay?"

Deeks voice sounded calm, but Callen could see the raise of his heartbeat on the monitor.

"Sure, I'll stay."

Satisfied the younger man closed his eyes and relaxed back into his pillow.