Life, Lies and Video Surveillance
By Cortexikid
Chapter 25: Peccability AKA 'Deeks, M' Part IV
A/N: YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS! :D
Again, big thanks to SuperDensi427 for all the advice and help on this storyline and all the encouragement – the epitome of awesome!
And now...part IV/IV phew! This 'Deeks, M' series truly was one of the hardest things I've ever written and I'm blown away by the response, thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart! Really, I'm so grateful!
There will be a couple of chapters following this that will deal with the aftermath of this storyline – its affect on Deeks and the team etc. so even though this is the end of the 'Deeks, M episode' the events will cause a ripple effect for a number of chapters to come.
Disclaimer: Considering I don't have two coins to rub together, I can gather two things, one, I'm not the owner of NCIS: LA, and two, college fees suck big-time :/
WARNING: CONTAINS DARK THEMES! AND IS INCREDIBLY LONG SO PLEASE TAKE BREAKS IF/WHEN NEEDED :)
WOTD: PECCABILITY; Pec·ca·bil·it·y noun. Short-coming, weakness, flaw, liability to sin
Soft rays on sunlight shone down onto his eyelids, causing a crease to form between his eyebrows, his mind and body determined to stay well in slumber, not quite ready to face the day yet. But unfortunately, like all good things, his pleasant dream came to an end and Marty Deeks was slowly jogged into consciousness, the first thing registering in his groggy mind being that his pillow appeared to be breathing. Next came the jackhammer that was doing construction-work in his head, then the sound of something like a small animal hibernating and last but certainly not least, the feeling of a soft, warm...something beneath him, the source of the inhaling and exhaling movement.
With a frown, his heavy eyelids crept open and were surprised to see his TV in the immediate vicinity. Funny, he didn't remember falling asleep in his living room and holy crap that pillow was not a frickin' pillow!
Deeks gaped as his eyes glued to the body of Kensi Marie Blye who was snort-snoring quietly as she lay sprawled out on his couch, one hand firmly resting on his forearm with the other flung comfortably above her head, seeming perfect content with him using her chest and torso as his own personal mattress.
Not good. Not good. Not good.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.
Apparently he was in two minds about his current position, literally.
With a bite of his lip, he couldn't help but take a quiet moment to drink in the sight of his partner, her face soft as she slept, her chest rising and falling steadily as she breathed her little snort-snore. He fought the urge to sweep a tendril of her chestnut hair off her forehead, a soft smile gracing his face as he heard her mumble something in her sleep, shifting slightly, entangling her feet with his.
He always thought the idea of watching someone sleep was slightly creepy but this was different, Kensi was different. She really was fascinating (awake and asleep), something about the way in which she looked, eyes closed, mind adrift in slumber, he couldn't quite place it. Her face held a...peacefulness, a calm, dare he say almost an innocence. He suppressed a snort at that thought, Kensi Marie Blye, innocent?
With a silent chuckle, he rolled his eyes before letting them wander the contours of her face. This was the third time (the first being the undercover assignment when they were Justin and Melissa and the second being the night when she fell asleep on his shoulder) he'd consciously done it and really, every time he discovered something new about her. Like right now he realized that despite her constant protests and her somewhat spread-eagle nature when sleeping on ops, she did have a more cuddly side, if her soft grip on his forearm and her leg hooked around his was any indication.
Deeks couldn't help the soft smile that sprang to his face every time he gazed down at her. Even now, after everything he went through, he couldn't suppress it, couldn't ignore it, and despite knowing wholeheartedly that a smile was the furthest thing from his mind this morning, he was glad it was there. Glad she had yet again made the little glimmer of hope spring in his chest, the trickle of something akin to contentment settling in his stomach. And she didn't even have to do anything. Not really. Her mere presence this morning, and certainly the night before, spoke volumes. He really had no idea how he would ever thank her...
Just as he was beginning to form a couple of ideas, his partner shifted, her eyebrows furrowing against the soft rays of sunshine that escaped through the slit in the curtains. With a deep breath, she creaked her neck and rose the hand above her head even higher, stretching her body slightly. The detective swallowed deeply and tried to frantically think of a way to reposition his body to make it seem like he'd been asleep, totally not on top of her the entire time, but it was too late.
"You know, I'm in that percentage that think watching people sleep is creepy," she murmured without opening her eyes.
Deeks shook his head in amusement, before (regretfully) sitting up off her a little, but not too much.
"Well, it's not like I had anything else to do, Squidward."
A sliver of one dark eye peeked up at him as she cracked open a lid and stared at him in confusion.
"Squidward?"
"Uh, yeah, 'cause you're an octopus," he grinned sheepishly.
"Squidward is a squid, not an octopus, hence the name."
"Whatever Wikipedia..." her eyebrows rose at the name she hadn't heard in quite a while, as he caught her gaze, holding it steadily as her chest rose and fell a little more quickly than strictly normal.
It was if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room and they were engulfed in a thick silence, heavy with the unspoken words that lingered between them. So much had come to pass over the last few weeks, months, hell years and in this moment, in the quiet of the morning hour, it was plain for them to feel, to see in the orbs of one another. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide; they were just two souls sharing a couch, waking to each other not for the first time, but the first time as Marty Deeks and Kensi Blye. There was no pretence to fall back on, no op to interrupt them; they were free to play out the situation however they pleased.
Kensi bit her lip as her gaze flickered from his eyes to his mouth, her stare locking onto the little smudge of caked blood that had pooled in the corner of his bottom lip the night before. Her body on autopilot, her brain screaming at her unruly hand, she reached up and gently pressed the pad of her thumb over it, her eyebrows creasing as she saw him grimace ever so slightly.
"Looks like Nurse Kensi missed a spot," he grumbled, the light-heartedness clearly forced.
"Doctor Kensi, excuse you," she corrected, softly sweeping her thumb down his jaw.
Deeks swallowed deeply as he took in their position, he still half lying on her, she with her fingers still wrapped around his arm, gluing it to her hip, her right leg hooked around the back of his knee, as her tousled, chestnut hair sprawled over his couch cushions, shinning brightly. She really was a sight for sore eyes, especially this morning of all mornings.
Suddenly, he felt the urge to say something, anything to express his gratitude towards her these last few days.
"Kens I...I just wanna say you know...for last night, I really appreciate..." he trailed off with a sigh, irritated with himself at how this was playing out.
With a shake of her head, his partner threw him a soft smile and shook her head, silently finding his awkwardness endearing.
"Hey, I'm your partner, you would have done the same for me, and have on more than one occasion," she replied quietly but firmly, her grip on his arm tightening just a little.
They smiled at one another for a moment before a gleam sprung to Kensi's eye. With a quirk of her eyebrow she took a deep breath and sang, "whenever I call you friend—"
"You sound like you're strangling a bag of cats," Deeks held up his hand to halt her, chuckling as she stopped abruptly and pinched his shoulder, mock-glaring at him.
"Oh and you're so much better?" she asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Uh yeah...I've a drawl apparently," he smirked for a moment before his face grew the most sincere she had ever seen it.
"Seriously though Kens...thank you," he murmured, earnestness in his eyes.
"You're welcome," she replied, patting his knee, ignoring the warmth that spread through her hand at the contact.
He nodded quietly and opened his mouth to try and continue but before he could, a sharp knock echoed throughout the apartment. A surge of something (he refused to acknowledge trepidation) rose in his chest as he fought to ponder who could possibly be calling at this hour. Any scenario he came up with was anything but good.
Exchanging a weighted glance, the partners scrambled to untangle themselves, heat rising in their cheeks as they realized just how close they had slept throughout the night, and stood up, Kensi making a beeline for her weapon (you can never be too careful) and Deeks tiptoeing to the door, shoulders tense as he leaned forward to peek through the peephole.
His tense shoulders instantly relaxed like a deflating balloon at the sight of a familiar face. Clearing his throat, his cast a half-glance behind him, catching Kensi lowering her gun in his peripheral vision before he unlocked the door, holding it open and tilting his head at a very flustered looking Andi Benson.
"Hi," she raised her hand in a stationary wave, before shuffling her feet back and forth, dark orbs lowered.
Deeks' eyebrows edged up his hairline as she stood there, looking incredibly uncomfortable in the corridor, shoulders hunched, arms folded.
"How did you find my apartment?" he asked, acutely aware of Kensi's presence as she stared at the two old friends from her spot in the middle of the room.
"A woman never reveals her secrets," Andi replied, trying and failing to sound coy as Deeks' face began to subtly morph into a harder expression.
"You called my mom didn't you?"
"I knew there was a reason you became a detective."
Deeks' sighed and shook his head, "please tell me you didn't tell her anything about any of this," he murmured, jaw clenched, as he stood back and ushered her in.
Andi shook her head and stepped past him, catching Kensi's eye and faltering, clearly shocked by her presence.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had company," she apologized lowly, a rose hint to her cheeks.
The agent leapt forward, waving a hand of dismissal at her words.
"No, no it's fine, I was just leaving," she rambled, before staring down at her attire. Rumpled, slept in clothes, complete with matted hair.
"I uh...I'm just gonna go change first," she continued, slowly walking backwards, picking up her go-bag and high-tailing it into the bathroom, the sense of impending awkwardness rising in her veins.
Deeks frowned as he watched his partner practically flee from the room. What the hell was that about?
"I'm sorry if I...interrupted anything, I know it's early..." Andi mumbled with a clearing of her throat.
The detective's attention was grabbed at that particular sentence, not just the words, but how they were said.
"We...uh you weren't interrupting anything," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as he motioned for her to sit down on the couch.
"You want anything, water, juice, beer?"
"It's seven-thirty in the morning," Andi commented with a glance to her watch.
Deeks merely shrugged as he took the armchair opposite her and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he waited for her to continue.
"My—my mom told me you stopped by yesterday..."
The liaison shifted uncomfortably as the the events from the last twenty four hours began to morph into montage mode in his mind's eye. Like some sick, twisted film, he relived being slapped by a distraught and grief-ridden woman, furious with him for darkening her daughter's doorstep. It was an image that would stay with him for a long time.
"I—I just wanna say," Andi leaned forward a little, trying to catch her friend's eye, "I'm so sorry Marty...her reaction was so uncalled for. She—she didn't mean to...she's just been stressed you know? This whole thing has—"
"You don't need to explain, I get it, it's fine," he interrupted.
"No, no it isn't. I—I went to the precinct yesterday...I spoke to your lieutenant," she murmured, staring at her clasped hands, "he told me that you weren't on the case anymore."
A silence followed her words. Deeks merely nodded, not entirely sure what he was expected to say to that.
"I understand why you excused yourself from it; I don't blame you Marty—"
"I didn't excuse myself, I was suspended," he interrupted, a surge of irritation mounting in his chest at the thought of her either thinking it was somehow her fault or being told that he 'excused' himself, like he would ever do such a thing, in the middle of this case of all cases.
Her mouth dropped open in a silent 'o', sinking back into the couch, scrambling to form a response.
"So you...you can't help catch her killer anymore?"
The dejected hilt of her tone pierced his heart like the injection of a thousand needles, burying deep into his chest, right down into his soul. He hated, no, despised himself for being kicked off the case in the first place, for letting Banks get under his skin, letting his temper get the better of him...it wasn't who he was, not really and he'd be damned if he'd let his temporary lapse in judgement be the cause of the pain of his old friend.
"Not in an official capacity, no, but that doesn't mean I don't have a plan B," he tried to offer her a comforting grin but couldn't quite manage it.
Before Andi could comment however, Kensi attentively walked back into the room, donned in fresh clothes, her hair slightly damp from what was probably a quick running of her fingers under the faucet and through the dark tresses as Deeks knew for damn sure that she'd misplaced her hairbrush, again. The woman really was a menace when it came to any semblance of organisation.
"Well, I gotta get to work," she said quietly, ignoring the ever-rising bile from the pit in her stomach at the thought that her partner wouldn't be coming with her, "so, I'll see you later?"
She hated the hint of nervousness in her voice as she looked to Deeks for confirmation. At the tiny nod of his head, she threw them both a small smile before making her way to the door.
"Oh wait, Agent Blye!" Andi exclaimed suddenly, retrieving a square, pink box from her bag.
Kensi's eyebrows rose in surprise as she turned on the spot and stared at the box that Andi was now holding out to her.
"I—I stopped by the bakery on the way over...you want a donut?" she asked politely, looking a little unsure of herself for a moment before shaking her head, setting her shoulders and staring her straight in the eye.
Kensi looked to her partner for a moment, who merely shrugged at her, before she reached out and took a particularly heavy-glazed pastry and smiled in thanks.
"Please don't feel the need to high-tail it outta here on my account...I was kinda hoping to get some juicy gossip on this guy," she jerked her head towards Deeks before smirking, "you show me yours and I'll show you mine."
"Words every guy lives to hear," Deeks murmured under his breath, his eyes darting between the two women as Kensi and Andi simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"I uh...I've a few minutes to spare," the agent smiled, stepping back into the living room and sitting down on the couch, one side of Deeks as Andi took at seat at his other side.
The blond kept his eyes on his knees as the brunettes both turned to him.
Nothing good could come from this.
"Are you sure? And you've double checked? Triple checked? Okay, well, let me know the results as soon as you get them," Rose Schwartz murmured before hanging up and pocketing her cell phone.
It had been a hell of a day and she'd only been at work for forty-five minutes. With a grim twist of her mouth, she turned to the skeletal remains that lay on her morgue table. It always saddened her, every human life that ended up on her table, under the harsh florescent lights, the stillness of the night their only comfort. But these cases were always the worst, anything involving a young person snuffed out in the prime of their life.
Admittedly, she hadn't worked many cold cases; she was used to relatively fresh corpses so skeletal remains were few and far between, but her determination to help find justice for these people were just as strong as any other. The coroner felt a particular pull towards this young girl, a girl that had clearly meant a lot to Detective Deeks.
While she'd only had a handful of exchanges with the liaison over the last three years, Rose always found him to be a great cop, charming and funny too. To see his face when his eyes landed on Fay's family photo pulled from her wallet was painful, his usually dancing eyes dull, his usually cheerful face now void of any of the gentle teasing that he donned around Agent Blye.
Even though she didn't know him particularly well, it jarred her to see such a response from him. She'd been in the presence of grieving loved-ones more times than she could count, but this time it was different. She knew the loved-one personally, knew how much of a good man he was and could see as plain as day how much this tragedy affected him.
And that only added to her determination in finding something, anything that could help get the young girl's killer, a killer whose weapon of choice was a blunt object with a rounded surface. Leaning forward, the coroner measured the diameter of the injury and made more notes to her ever expanding pages.
So far she could determine from the level of decomposition that Fay had indeed died at least twenty years before, twenty-two to be precise, so in or around the time of her disappearance. Next, the doctor determined that the cause of death had been blunt force trauma to the base of the skull with something that was smooth, had no jagged edges. Her personal affects had been left buried with her, an empty wallet with a photo of her and what must have been her little sister and a hand-bag that contained nothing but a worn paperback copy of A Picture of Dorian Gray.
Dr. Schwartz had techs examining what was left of Fay's clothes but wasn't sure if they would recover anything that could help with solving her murder. A body that had been underground for that period of time, a lot of whatever evidence was probably degraded, either by time or insect activity, but she did not give up. There was always a chance, she'd seen it before, when all hope was lost, there was a breakthrough. She had to believe that this case would be no exception.
That thought had barely left her brain when something caught her eye as she gazed down at the skull. With a frown, she leaned even closer, grabbing the overhead light and pulling it down to within a few inches of the body and grabbed the nearby forceps. It was minuscule, hardly there really, easily missed upon first inspection, but not the second. Not for the first time, Rose appreciated her sharp vision as she reached down with the forceps and plucked the foreign object from where it was imbedded deep in the skull.
With great caution, she deposited it in a Petri dish and placed it onto the table behind her, before readying the microscope. As she was preparing a slide, one of the techs, a vivacious young woman with a bounce in her step, burst into the room, a look of raw triumph on her face.
"Doctor Schwartz!" she exclaimed loudly before biting her lip at her raised tone, "on the clothing examination," she continued a little quieter but still as excited, "we got something!"
Rose could barely contain her excitement.
"Me too Liz," she peered down at the small sliver of something that was certainly not bone, "me too."
A continuous round of loud thumping reverberated off the walls, each beat deafening as they grew more feverish, each louder and quicker than the last. It had been over two hours now of this constant stream of punches and had the bag not been used to it, to the onslaught of many an agent's frustration at the world, at themselves, the disenchantment at life's unfair events, it would have wilted against the pressure. It seemed that Agent G Callen was especially determined to let off steam today, to rid himself of the pent up anger, despair and guilt that had ensnared his soul over the last few days, the guilt especially being the most prominent.
His wrist gave a sharp twinge as his fist connected particularly hard with the bag, his knuckles scuffing a little. He halted for a moment, the final punch echoing around the room as he began to re-wrap his hand for another round. Beads of sweat formed on his brow, a droplet dripping down the bridge of his nose as his heart hammered in his chest, its pulse thumping in his eardrums.
"You're here early," came a voice from behind him, a voice belonging to one Henrietta Lange who had stood and watched him intently for a moment before speaking.
"You too," he murmured, not turning around.
"Not as early as you, which is certainly a rarity...how long have you been torturing that bag Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked as he walked toward him, hands clasped in front of her.
"A while," Callen replied vaguely, still not looking at her as he finished taping his hands, taking a swung at the bag with his right hook.
"You know, you can take out your aggression on inanimate objects as much as you wish...it won't change anything," she commented wisely, with a pensive finger to her lips.
"It makes me feel better," he gritted out, jaw clenched as he swung with his left hand.
"And why would you be in need of comfort, Mr. Callen?" she asked gently, stepping even closer, apparently unperturbed at her agent's aggressive activity.
Callen paused, his fist suspended in mid-air as he contemplated his response.
"Because I pushed him too far, it was my fault he snapped and—"
"Mr. Deeks would have lost his composure regardless of your input, Mr. Callen. This case and all the memories and emotions that come with it, is enough to push anyone to their limit. Had it not been you he let his aggression out on, it could very well have been someone less prepared—"
"So you're saying I did him a favour?" he snapped, whirling around to finally look her dead in the eye.
"What I'm saying Mr. Callen," she continued as calm as ever, "is that Mr. Deeks was and is dealing with a number of factors that added to his inevitable slip, no one person or action is solely to blame. But your guilt is understandable...you care about Mr. Deeks, he is a part of your team and he's going through a particularly hard time, just like you have in the past...but to feel personally responsible is...to put it bluntly, ridiculous and quite supercilious," she finished, fixing him with a level stare, her tone ever so matter of fact.
Callen fought the urge to roll his eyes as she said this. It was such a typical Hetty response that really, after all these years, he should not have been surprised, but he was. He had (to some extent) dreaded an onslaught of abuse from his colleagues about what had went down with Deeks, he knew, they all knew really that he was out of order but that hadn't happened, at least, not yet. He suspected Kensi would be having words when she got in today. If she was coming in today.
"Is he really suspended? I mean, I know Bates called and said—"
"Yes, he's really suspended, indefinitely," she interrupted, a grim set to her mouth.
"And there's nothing we can do to help him?" he asked, frustration lacing his tone.
A slow, sly smirk spread across Hetty's face as she tilted his head at him. With a quirk of her eyebrow, she opened her mouth, a hint of mischief in her voice:
"Well, I wouldn't say there's nothing Mr. Callen..."
Laughter filled the apartment of Marty Deeks as he, Kensi and Andi tucked into the donuts that she brought over, washing them down with some much needed coffee.
"Oh please, you've done worse Kens, shaking your booty at a live audience with your underwear tucked into your tutu ringing any bells?" Deeks snorted as Andi finished her particularly amusing story of when he had tried to impress a girl in middle school with his rendition of My Girl, with arm-pit farts.
"That's different Deeks, I was six!" she rolled her eyes, "you were like 13, isn't that a little immature, even for you?" she teased as he stuck out his tongue at her.
"Whatever Fern—"
"Fern?" Andi interrupted with a confused look to Deeks.
"I gave it to Kensi early in our partnership. It's a nickname."
"A terrible nickname," she commented as Kensi clapped her hands in triumph.
"Thank you!" she exclaimed, throwing a grin in Andi's direction before staring pointedly at her partner.
"And on that note, I'm gonna go change...I trust you ladies can entertain yourselves?" he winked, chuckling as Kensi threw a cushion at him and Andi scoffed.
"Oh yeah," the brunette turned to the agent as Deeks' bedroom door snapped shut, "he's just as I remember him."
Kensi smiled softly as a hint of silence descended on the pair. This was the third time she found herself alone in the company of the other woman and she found that every time got a little less uncomfortable. Her curiosity therefore, began to get the better of her. She wanted to know more about her partner, more about what he was like as a young adult. She had a unique window, however brief and dammit she was going to use it. She needed funny blackmail material after all.
"What were you guys like in High School?" she asked, hoping to get more embarrassing antics of a teenage Marty Deeks.
"Well, like I said, me, Marty and Ray really were like The Three Musketeers. But I guess if you were to ask the guys, they'd say they were more like the Justice League – just one of the reasons I find it so funny that Marty's a cop now, literally a fighter for justice," she paused to chuckle before biting her lip and shaking her head, "Ray always tried to be Batman but Marty said R was for Robin and Ray said M was for Martian Manhunter...it was definitely one of the stupider arguments they had over the years..."
Kensi smirked as the image of the two teenage boys, one tall, gangly and blond, the other short, stocky and brunet arguing over which superhero best suited them. It was endearing and made a burst of warmth flow through her chest as she conjured the fabricated memory.
"You guys really liked mixing your comic tastes huh?" she asked, biting into another donut, remembering the time Deeks showed her his extensive collection of many comics from both publications.
"Well, the DC VS. Marvel debate was always a sore point..." she laughed, "but yeah, it was our connection I guess, even though most of the time I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Comics weren't really my thing; I just read them because the guys liked them."
Kensi nodded, feeling that this wouldn't be the best time to let the other woman know that she was quite the avid reader of all her father's comics. To each their own.
"Hey," Andi said suddenly, leading forward on the couch and closer to Kensi, "mind if I ask you something?"
A sense of dread rose in the agent's chest in anticipation for what this woman could possibly ask her.
"Is Marty okay? I went down to the station yesterday to try and speak to him but he was gone. He just told me that he was suspended," she frowned, clearly worried about her old friend.
Kensi stilled, neither expecting her question nor having the slightest idea how to answer it. She decided honesty was the best policy, or at least as much honesty as an undercover agent who was incredibly private was anyway.
"He uh...he's fine, for the most part," she began attentively, "it's just...a few things have cropped up over the last few days and—"
"When you say things...you mean his dad, right?" she interjected, the look of worry growing on her face.
Kensi's voice died in her throat, truly at a loss for words. While she did not want to betray her partner and friend's trust by disclosing any events he didn't wish to be common knowledge, she realized that this was a close friend of his, an old friend, someone who was around when said events began. So she decided to work in half-truths.
"He is part of it; this case has dredged up a lot of memories for Deeks. Especially with his father being named as a possible suspect for...what happened to your sister. But he's fine, dealing with things, you know Deeks, he'll bounce back," she nodded, sounding a lot more sure of that than she felt.
Andi took a quiet moment to take in Kensi's words before murmuring softly, "I hope so...he really has gone through too much already. What my mom said or what I can imagine she said was awful and I can't apologize enough for it," she trailed off, a crease forming between her eyebrows.
Kensi nodded, feeling that nothing could really be said to reassure her. So, she opted for a tactical change of subject.
"So, you got any more embarrassing stories? Deeks got way too much dirt on me from my mom, I need a little more on him to level the playing field," she smirked; glad to see a small smile creep out on Andi's face.
"Okay, did he ever tell you about the time he was caught naked under the—"
"And you are so not telling that story," came Deeks' voice as he practically hurdled back into the room, one shoe in his hand, hopping up and down on one leg as he pulled on a sock.
"Buzz kill," Andi murmured, arching an eyebrow at Kensi.
"Come on Deeks, you owe me for the tutu story, tell me, when, where and why were you naked?" Kensi threw him a grin worthy of the Cheshire cat.
"Don't forget how he became naked in the first place," Andi chimed in with a chuckle, "go on Marty, tell her."
"Yeah Marty, tell me," the agent urged, emphasis on his given name.
"What is this, the oestrogen inquisition?" Deeks gaped between the two of them before his ringing cell-phone caught his attention.
"Always a smartass," Andi laughed before faltering as he glanced down at phone and frowned.
Kensi's eyes raked over her partner as he stepped away slightly, his voice lowered as he answered the call. The sudden stiffness in his spine did not go unnoticed by either woman, they both watching intently as he continued to murmur and nod frantically, the tiny voice on the other end of the phone barely audible in the dead silence of the apartment.
"Uh huh, okay, thanks," he finished before hanging up and slowly lowering the phone from his face.
"Deeks?" Kensi asked, her tone thinly veiled with concern.
"Huh?" his head snapped to her, his eyes alight with something akin to shock, his mouth slightly agape.
"Who was that?" Andi asked quietly, clearly fearing the worst as her eyes glued to his pale knuckles that were wrapped around the cell-phone, clutching it tightly.
"It was Doctor Schwartz, the coroner..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, unsure of how to continue.
Kensi caught Andi's eye before she practically bolted out of her seat.
"What did she say? Has she found anything that could lead to Fay's killer?!"
Deeks dragged a palm down his face as he struggled to come up with a response.
"Andi...technically I'm not working this anymore, I really shouldn't—"
"So you're giving up?" she gaped, clearly agitated by his reluctance to tell her anything. "Look, Marty, I know this has been hard on you and I can't apologize enough for my mom and everything but this is my sister, this is Fay, the amazing girl who babysat us and let us stay up late and eat chocolate ice-cream for dinner and..." her voice broke, her eyes swimming with unshed tears, "she was talented, beautiful and the kindest person in the world and I've spent the better part of my life trying to make her proud. Someone cut her life short, destroyed her hopes and dreams and deprived the world of knowing how amazing she truly was...and whoever that bastard is, deserves to rot in prison for the rest of their life."
Kensi bit her lip as she watched the two friends stare at each other silently. After a weighted moment, Deeks nodded minutely, clearly having an inner-battle with himself and coming to a conclusion.
"You're right...I owe it to Fay to find her killer and suspended or not, that's what I'm gonna do," he replied, a fierce determination in his tone as he deliberately avoided eye-contact with his partner.
"The coroner found something," he began, pacing back and forth, his mind reeling, "a sliver of wood imbedded in Fay's skull and a strand of hair in the fibres of the sleeve of her coat," he finished, turning to Andi and taking a deep breath, waiting timidly on her reaction.
"Well, that's good isn't it?" she asked, looking between the two partners.
Kensi, who had up until this point, remained silent on the subject, found that while a conversation needed to be had been her and her partner, this was neither the time, nor the place. She really had to be getting to OSP.
"Uh I gotta get to work but...I'll talk to you later Deeks?" she remarked, her question posed more like a statement as she stood up and walked to the door, her eyes narrowing as she saw a flash of something pass over his face.
"Uh yeah, sure," he murmured as she opened the door and stood out in the corridor. With a clenched jaw, she waited for when Andi was rummaging in her purse to motion to him rashly, a stern look on her face.
"What?" Deeks asked quietly as he stepped closer to her.
"You're not..." Kensi lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, "you're not gonna do anything stupid are you Deeks? I know what you said but you are still suspended, you keep digging into anything related to this case and it's your ass on the line."
"I know Kens, I know but Andi's right, this is Fay—"
Kensi held up her hand to halt him, her eyebrows furrowing.
"I know, it's something you have to do, believe me I get that..." she trailed off, memories of Clairmont passing between them, "just please, please me careful? Last thing I need is to bail your ass outta jail," she smirked, hoping to inject some of their regular back and forth into the tense situation.
"You seem incredibly concerned about my ass all of a sudden Blye," he replied, never disappointing in the banter department.
"Well, someone's gotta be...even if it does have a scar shaped like a mini Pac-man," she snorted before walking backwards towards the elevators, her eyes shining with mirth as she saw his look of pure outrage.
"What? You didn't tell me that! You said it was just a small scratch! Kensi? Kensi!"
Honking horns and blasts of car radios sounded down the streets of Los Angeles, the hustle and bustle of people buzzing from restaurants, stores and government buildings, the sun's rays basking in the glow of each passerby as they went about their morning errands, some parents with children, others students enjoying a breakfast bagel and others an undercover agent nervously tapping on her dashboard.
Despite the vivacious noise of life all around her, everything seemed too quiet, felt too still as she sat in traffic. Really, it should have been like any other work day with a few differences thrown in but really, after everything that had happened in the last few days (had it only been days?) Kensi felt like life was off kilter, skewed, hell, totally upside down.
For starters, her usually cheery, happy-go-lucky partner had a complete meltdown, got suspended from his job and was having a personal crisis that she was pretty much helpless in preventing, despite her best efforts. Yes, she knew that being there for him the night before had helped some but wasn't naive enough to believe that that was all he needed. Now, with him basically telling her that he was going off book and investigating a case he had been kicked off of, she was just waiting for the inevitable other shoe to drop. Due to this, a pit of ever-growing discomfort was rising from the tips of her toes to the strands of hair on her head.
At that thought, she reflected on the phone call Deeks received from Rose earlier. A sliver of wood and a strand of hair was a fantastic find, especially after being buried underground for so long. A break in the case could very well be coming...she just wished it had had come sooner, before Deeks got suspended. Now things were undoubtedly complicated—
A loud honk snapped the agent out of her musings and she realized that the light was green. Hurriedly, she pressed on the gas and got to OSP in record time, even with managing to stay at the speed limit. As if in a trance, she made her way inside, more hustle and bustle greeting her as her co-workers went about their business. Flashes of what went down yesterday, from Callen's fight with Deeks, to Nell's digging around in his sealed files came flooding back at the sight of the bullpen, occupied by one half of the team. With a shake of her head, she pushed them down and made her way over to her desk.
"Morning," she grumbled lowly, throwing down her bag, not looking at either of them as cut off their conversation.
"Morning," Sam replied evenly throwing a look in his partner's direction, "how's Deeks?"
Kensi tensed, abstaining from sitting at her desk, instead choosing to remain standing, her back firmly to Callen.
"He's fine," she responded shortly, arms folded across her chest, "Hetty in?" she asked unnecessarily, jaw clenching, already stepping away and walking towards her office.
Sam and Callen watched her retreating back, the latter squashing down the sense of discomfort forming in the pit of his stomach. He knew she was going to have words with him, whether it be sooner or later he couldn't tell, but they were coming, that was for damn sure.
"You ready?" he asked, shoving those thoughts from his mind, standing up and putting on his jacket.
"Yeah...you sure this guy can help us help Deeks?" Sam questioned as they made their way out to the car.
"It's worth a shot," Callen shrugged, Hetty's words still ringing in his ears.
Meanwhile, Kensi found herself staring at the empty office of one Henrietta Lange, neither hide nor hair seen of the petite woman. She'd been doing that a lot lately, seemingly absent more often than not ever since Deeks caught this case. The agent in her knew that her boss was up to something, pulling some invisible strings for some unknown agenda and she couldn't help but feel the familiar sensation of frustration and rising anger bubble in her veins. Just once, she wished that Hetty could be upfront with her employees, especially considering the circumstances but really, she knew that all the wishing in the world would be for nought. Instead, Kensi focused on finding her, starting with the one place she dreaded more than the bull-pen right now, Ops.
Bounding up the stairs, she aimed to do this as quickly as possible, like ripping off a band-aid, but all her quiet rationale went out the window when she stepped into Ops and was met with the image of yet another case-file suspended on the large screens that caused a surge of the aforementioned frustration and anger to flare up in her chest.
"What the hell is this?" she demanded loudly, unable to hide the emotion in her tone as Nell and Eric jumped in their seats, startled at her sudden entrance.
"Kensi it's—"
"You're digging into Woodruffe now? Didn't you do enough of that already? Wasn't it enough to pry into Deeks' past all incognito," Kensi cut across a scandalized Nell, their eyes interlocking, "but now you're—"
"Sam and Callen asked us to look into the case, they're going to interview Woodruffe to get his take on suspects...we aren't digging into him personally," Eric clarified evenly, hiding his surprise at the agent's outburst. It wasn't every day that he witnessed the usually calm and collected Kensi Blye explode, especially at one of her own.
Kensi faltered, frowning at his response.
"You guys are working the case?" she murmured, her voice quieter than before.
"But Hetty said—"
"That we can't help in any professional capacity...meaning no paperwork and no reporting to the boss as she's bound to in turn report to her superiors, which is why Sam and Callen have taken a long lunch and Hetty has stepped out for the day," Nell replied, breaking eye-contact with the agent and turning back to her computer.
At the analyst's words, Kensi's eyes lowered to the floor, feeling both ashamed of her behaviour and yet not finding it in herself to forgive the blatant invasion of privacy Hetty authorized by ordering Nell to unseal Deeks' personal files. She was torn, while she was grateful and proud that her teammates were risking their careers by helping in an unsanctioned case that they were deliberately shut out of to help their friend, she was angry at Callen and Nell specifically for their actions, even if she didn't want to be. She guessed it was the urge to protect her partner that caused such alien emotions to well up in her and that fierce protectiveness wasn't dissipating any time soon.
"A long lunch at 9am..." Kensi couldn't contain the pleased smirk, shaking her head and folding her arms, adapting a more patient stance, "you find anything that could help?" she asked, deciding to push down her personal feelings and focus on the task at hand, helping to solve the case.
Not only was this about getting justice for a young woman and her family but it was for Deeks too. He needed this, needed for his friend to find closure, needed for his other friend's soul to be at peace. And if that meant that a few individuals at OSP willingly put their livelihoods on the line to make that happen, then so be it. He would do the same for any of them. Had done in the past and would in the future if the need ever arose.
"Yeah," Nell responded, a little less affronted than before, a small an attentive smile forming on her face, "we found something..."
"You guys really know how to pick locations," Jimmy Woodruffe commented as he sat at a bar in a particularly vivacious restaurant overlooking the beach.
"What can I say? We like mimosas," Sam shrugged, he and Callen pulling up a stool and joining the ex-cop.
"I'm more of a hard-liquor guy myself...but I suppose you already know that," he conceded, not ignorant to the fact that he was more than likely under investigation too, gulping down the last of his fruit-juice with a smack of his lips, not for the first time cursing the early hour of the day.
"My name is Sam Hanna, this is my partner G. Callen," the agent introduced himself with an offering of his hand.
Jimmy shook it firmly, Callen's too, before asking, "you're friends of Marty?"
The partners shared a look and simultaneously nodded their heads.
"And why isn't he here?" he asked suspiciously. Even though they'd spoken on the phone, he didn't feel entirely comfortable speaking to these men without first speaking to Marty, colleagues or not.
"He's running down other leads," Callen replied, deciding that it was Deeks' place to tell Woodruffe of his suspension if he wished. "We're here to ask you a couple of questions about the Benson case...is there anything you can tell us about your original suspects?" he finished, resting his arms on the bar.
"Well," Woodruffe paused pensively, "there were three. Tommy Maxwell, Will Jenkins and the local drunk Gordon Brandel..."
Sam and Callen's eyebrows simultaneously furrowed.
"Brandel? He was a suspect back then?"
Jimmy fixed Callen with a knowing stare.
"Yeah, but he was dismissed, early in the investigation. Yes, he was in a brawl with Fay's father the night before her disappearance but this was Brandel, he fought with everyone. Besides, the timeline didn't fit, he didn't have the time from when he was released to get to where Fay was, kidnap and murder her and make it back to his known haunt to be seen by the many witnesses I interviewed back then. So...no, Will Jenkins was my prime suspect, still is," he said firmly, staring into the now empty glass.
"And what made you suspect Jenkins?" Sam asked.
"A few reasons, mainly it was a gut feeling you know? He...he was just too...shifty, too calm, had an answer for every one of questions, never had to think, reflect, everything was instantaneous, never did he break composure. Oh he forced out a tear or two but that's exactly what it was, forced. What I saw in Tommy though, that was genuine grief, so yeah, I ruled him out too," he finished, a palm rubbing the light stubble on his chin.
"And what are your thoughts on Tommy's recent confession?"
That caused the ex-cop to turn sharply, his light eyes shining with determination.
"I think someone put him up to it, someone that always had power over him," he surmised, "but that's all circumstantial...most of it is and that's the problem, no hard evidence, whoever it was, covered their tracks well, almost as if—" he broke off, the words he long dwelled on sticking in his throat.
"Almost as if...?" Callen urged him with a quick glance at his partner.
"Almost as if," Woodruffe met Callen's eyes, "he got help from someone who knew what he was doing. Someone who could be calm and collected in a situation, who wouldn't lose their head about having to bury a body in a place where no one would find it for decades..." he trailed off, his unspoken words between the lines ringing loud and clear in the agents' ears.
"Of course, with that person happening to be the chief of police and my boss, I couldn't go around pointing fingers. And with the reports from the rookies calling me unreliable and losing my marbles and drowning my failures in the bottle...my reputation at that point was shot to hell. Then, you know what it's like, other cases come along and before you know it that case that means so much to you goes cold and you're distracted by others and..." he rose his hand to the bar-tender for another juice, "but it was one that was constantly in the back of my mind and I guess I couldn't let it go but I couldn't pursue it so, I left the force in '92, tried to put it behind me...can't say I've been too successful," he finished, taking a sip of his new drink.
There was a beat of silence as the agents digested this information.
"Who were the rookies that reported you?" Sam asked, interested in this new information.
Woodruffe heaved a sigh, clearly reflecting on a particularly difficult period in his life, "well, there were a few, but the main guy was Officer Nathan Harris..."
The two partners exchanged weighted glances, Callen saying what they were both thinking:
"Looks like running a fellow cop's reputation into the ground can help you climb the ranks..."
"Yep," Woodruffe conceded, "Marty's lucky, having guys like you by his side, guys who stand by him and risk their careers by sticking their noses into cases that have nothing to do with them."
Sam and Callen's eyebrows shot up.
"Oh give me some credit; I was a cop you know. I can tell you guys aren't from the LAPD a mile off, which means, you gotta be NCIS, therefore having no jurisdiction and risking a hell of a lot to be here talkin' to me..." he mused, folding his arms and eyeing the two partners.
"Like I said," he continued, his voice sounding a little more dejected now, "guys like you and a partner like Ms. Blye can go a long way in this business...it's something I definitely could have done with back when I was on the force..."
The partners exchanged another glance, both silently vowing the same thing.
This guy, Harris, was definitely gonna have to answer to what he did to this man...
"Oh you so have a selective memory," Andi Benson snorted as her old friend conveniently forgot another one of her more embarrassing trips down memory lane.
Marty Deeks rubbed his sore shoulder, trying not to pout.
"I do not! I think I'd remember if I ever climbed up to your bedroom window in nothing but Superman boxers," he rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his coffee as his friend continued to splutter at his blatant faux-forgetfulness.
"If you say so," she dismissed with a small grin.
A silence descended on the pair as the lasts of their coffee was drank, the brunette taking the time to glance at her watch and realizing that she really ought to be getting to work. Standing up, she deposited her cup on the kitchen table and turned to catch her friend in a rare, pensive moment, drinking in his tired, red-rimmed eyes and heavier beard than she ever remembered him having.
"Marty..." she murmured softly, stepping towards him, "I'm really sorry about your suspension, I know this case must be hard for you too—"
Deeks cut her off with a dismissive wave and a tight smile.
Andi faltered, not sure how to continue as he failed to reply. Ever aware of the ticking passage of her already small window of time, she decided to just cut to the chase.
"So...about the sliver of wood and the strand of hair the medical examiner found..." she trailed off as she saw his shoulders stiffen, "did she say anything about DNA or—"
"She's running tests as we speak..." he cleared his throat, standing up and meeting her gaze, knowing that his next words would be particularly hard to say and for her to hear, "Andi, Rose called me out of courtesy, she doesn't know I've been kicked off the case...even if she does call back with the results I—I'm not sure how much I can do to help. I've no badge, no authority to interview any known suspects or any that could come up in the investigation...I don't know if I can help you get the answers, the closure you need," he finished, his voice dejected, his eyes now focused on a spot on the wall to the left of her head.
Andi bit her lip, a well of tears springing to her eyes that she rapidly blinked away.
"I understand Marty, I do...but, if she does call back with the results could you call me? Let me know? Any information at this point is, well, you know," she waved her hands as if they expressed the rest of her sentence, "and maybe...if you could ask about Fay's personal affects too? I know I'd really like the bracelet I made her back..."
"That bracelet like the one you made me and Ray?" he asked, a teasing chortle on his lips.
She rolled her eyes, "yeah, Ray barely waited until my back was turned to 'lose it,' guess it wasn't 'manly' enough for him," she laughed, "but you," she poked him in the shoulder; "you and Fay never took yours off! I remember when she was getting ready for a date, I walked into her room when she was just out of the shower and there was the little purple bracelet, wringing wet on her wrist. She promised she'd never take it off but even I thought that wearing it in the shower was ridiculous, but that was Fay, she was so considerate like that..."Andi trailed off, giving a soft chuckle before swallowing deeply, pushing down the rising emotion before again glancing to watch.
"Oh crap, I'm late, I gotta get to work...I—I'll see you soon?" she asked hurriedly, already bolting to his door.
"Uh, yeah sure, I'll call you soon," he murmured, following her to the door and holding it open.
She stepped out and turned on the spot, offering him one last smile before nodding and walking towards the elevators.
"Don't be a stranger Marty...I've just got you back," she called over her shoulder, causing a soft chuckle to erupt from the detective.
With a shake of his head, he closed the door with a snap, silence broken only by Monty's light snoring now his only company. With a sigh, he glanced around his utterly still apartment and found it to be suffocating, the eerie calm feeling much like that before a storm. With fierce determination flooding his veins, he inwardly vowed that suspension or not he would get to the bottom of who murdered Fay, despite what he may have lead Andi to believe. He didn't want to give her false hope, to lead her on or make promises he couldn't keep, so he decided that this was the best way to go, for everyone involved.
Snatching his phone up from the arm of the couch, he clicked down through the numbers until he found the name he was looking for, but before he could press the button, his cell vibrated in his hand, the name in question flashing up on the screen.
"Speak of the devil," he murmured, answering the call and holding it up to his ear, "Jimmy, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
The loud chattering of dozens of teenagers lined the halls of Reseda High School as Andi Benson made her way towards her office, checking her watch for the fifth time in the last ten minutes, relieved to find that she was just on time.
Shuffling her books in her arms, she tried to shove her left hand in her pocket to retrieve her office keys when she heard raised voices omitting over the dozens of students from across the hall. With a frown, she tip-toed closer, curiosity getting the better of her and tilting her head towards the door. The noise in the corridor had died down now that the bell had rung and the voices coming from Principal Jenkins office were intensified.
"This isn't the time Will—"
"But Dad I can't take it anymore, please—"
"That's enough! Just...listen to me son, this will all blow over..."
Andi leaned closer to the door as the voice lowered to an inaudible level. An overwhelming sense of foreboding settled in her chest as the man's words washed over her. A heavy, tyrannical, sickening feeling pushed itself into her thoughts, her gut achingly calling out to her. Something was happening here, something not quite right; she could feel it in her bones.
"All you have to do it keep calm and not breathe another word to the—"
Suddenly, the books in her arms tumbled to the floor, the loud smack echoing in the near empty hallway, effectively drowning out whatever the unidentified voice was going to say. With a grimace, she scrambled to gather them, shaking her head in irritation as she realized that some of her papers were scattered all over the corridor.
As she kneeled down and picked up as much as could as quickly as she could, she heard the unmistakable thump of heavy footsteps and before she could straighten up and make a hasty get away, she was staring down at pristinely polished, black loafers. Slowly, she raised her dark eyes and was met with a face she hadn't seen in years.
"Well if it isn't little Andi Oakley," Alf Jenkins smiled brightly, using a pet-name she hadn't heard since she was a young child with a penchant for playing pretend as the kickass sharpshooter.
"Mr Jenkins," she plastered a wide grin onto her face as she straightened up, seeing Alf's son Will emerge from behind him.
"Andi," he murmured stiffly, "did you want something?"
"I—" her words stuck in her throat as she frantically thought of something, anything to say.
"Uh no, no Will, thanks...I just—dropped my stuff, having one of those mornings," she rolled her eyes in a faux-bemused expression, "I'll just be going..." she trailed off, snatching up the last piece of paper before nodding to Alf with a wry grin and high-tailing it a little down the corridor, opening her office, stepping in and leaning her back against the door, her heart racing a mile a minute.
What the hell was that about?
Whatever it was, she did not have a good feeling about it. Not at all...
"You know, you and your friends should know that there are other places in Los Angeles besides bars," Jimmy Woodruffe commented, knocking back what felt like his millionth non-alcoholic drink of the day – and it was not even noon yet.
"Yeah, sorry about that but uh...can't really bring you to the boat-shed right now," Deeks murmured with an awkward shrug. His companion had filled him in on the little trip that he'd taken with Sam and Callen and honestly, he wasn't sure how he should respond to that information, choosing to ignore it for now.
Still, it was a nice comfort knowing that despite everything, all his screw-ups, bad decisions and horrid behaviour, his team still had his back...even if they weren't terribly up front about it.
The ex-cop stared intently at the young detective, his eyes reminding him of Hetty's hawk-like gaze.
"What happened?" he asked firmly but lowly, pushing a fruity, pink drink with a multi-coloured umbrella towards him.
Deeks smirked down at the drink, shaking his head and taking a sip. What the hell.
"I was...kinda suspended," he replied just as lowly, not sure why he was spilling his guts so easily to a guy he could hardly remember, "guess that's what happens when you lose your shit in front of the boss..." he trailed off with a humorless chuckle.
Woodruffe nodded, reflecting on his own experiences for a moment. If he was correct in thinking, the young man probably went about the job the way he did back then, which prompted him to ask:
"So, what've you dug up so far?"
Deeks at least had the decency to fake a frown before giving up on trying to fool the old man.
"Well, it's hard to actually do any investigating without a badge but...Jenkins is still my main man in all this," he paused for a moment to take another sip of the surprisingly tasty drink, "I'm still waiting on the results of some evidence found on the body."
"You're still getting updates when you're off the case?" Woodruffe's eyebrows shot up his forehead.
"The M.E's a friend," he shrugged, taking out his cell-phone and placing it on the bar along with his keys.
"You always did have great friends..." Woodruffe smiled, "I remember you and that Ray kid, you guys were joined at the hip. And the younger Benson girl too..."
Deeks nodded, grinning a little as he thought about Ray living his new life with his now wife and young child.
"You must have spent most of your career patrolling our neighbourhood," the detective mumbled, not looking him the eye, instead staring at Eddie the bar-tender as he wiped down some glasses.
"You do remember me then?" the ex-cop asked, a sense of relief rising in his chest as he reflected on the group of memories from his time spent with Marty and his mother back in the mid-late 80s up to the early 90s, finding them as sharp as ever, as if they happened only yesterday.
"Course I do, you bought me my first giant pretzel, Ray tried to steal it from me," the blond laughed, the image of two seven year olds squabbling over a pretzel bigger than both their heads, springing to mind.
Woodruffe joined in with his laughter.
"I remember when you were about nine, you marched up to me, fire in your eyes, stubborn chin tilted, informing me that when you grew up, you were gonna be a cop, just like me, the best one Los Angeles would ever see...looks like you were right kid," he elbowed him lightly, draining the last of his drink.
"I don't know about that...I did get suspended, remember? And not for the first time...probably not the last either."
"I'm sure you had your reasons for whatever went down," his companion waved off him comment.
A small silence descended on the pair as the elder man raised a hand at the bar-tender for another drink and the younger nursed his.
"I...I tried my best to look out for you Marty, you know that right?" Woodruffe asked suddenly, startling the detective so much that he whipped around fast and got a creak in his neck.
"What—what are you—" the loud buzz of a vibrating cell-phone cut off whatever he was going to say. With frantic fingers, Deeks snatched up his phone from where it was sliding down the bar and offered an apologetic smile to Woodruffe.
"Hold that thought," he held up a finger before answering, "Rose, thanks for calling me back...uh huh, uh huh, really?"
Deeks bit his lip, his brow furrowing.
"Wow, no, no, that's incredibly helpful, yeah if I can get a sample I'll send it straight to you...okay, thanks Rose...oh hey, before I forget, was there a purple friend-ship bracelet found on the body?"
He drummed his jittering fingers on the bar as the doctor went to check the list of personal affects. After a moment, her voice came back over the phone:
"No, detective, all that was on her person was an empty wallet with a family photo inside and an old book...why do you ask?"
A heavy feeling of dread settled into Deeks' stomach as she said this.
"No reason, thanks Rose," he mumbled before hanging up.
The silver-haired man waited patiently as his companion cleared his throat and digested the information he just received.
"That was the medical examiner...she tested the wood found imbedded in Fay's skull, it's ash. Most likely from a—"
"Baseball bat?" Jimmy interjected, his eyes lighting up.
"How did you know?"
Olive green eyes met a sky blue.
"Because Will Jenkins was a batter...good one too, could have gone pro."
The last syllable had barely left the ex-cop's mouth before Deeks had jumped off the stool and raced outside, phone in hand, yelling over his shoulder, "I gotta make a call!"
Shaking his head, Woodruffe took a moment to watch the blond's now pacing form as he spoke rapidly on the phone, before digging his hand into his pocket and retrieving his own cell. Pressing the button until the last dialled name came up, he held it to his ear, surprised when it was answered after the second ring.
"Hello?" a soft, female voice answered.
"Thought you'd like to know...the bit of wood turned out to be ash, most likely from a bat."
Silence was all that could be heard on the other end of the line for a long, long moment.
"Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate this Mr. Woodruffe," came the quiet reply.
"No problem, just promise me you won't do anything stupid, Ms. Benson."
"I don't make promises I can't keep..."
A soft click followed her words and the man realized the call had been ended.
Rubbing his tired eyes, the ex-sergeant sighed, suddenly feeling very nervous.
What had he done?
An aching foot pressed on the brake lightly, a car pulling up outside Reseda High School. Today, like many of the days before it, had felt like an eternity to Agent Kensi Blye and after receiving such a worried call from her partner, her adrenaline was doing overtime and when her body was at rest, it was pulsing, desperate to move constantly, until the day was at an end.
Apparently there had been a break in the case. Rose had called and informed Deeks that the sliver of wood found in Fay's skull had been ash, most likely from a baseball bat, judging from the injuries sustained. A rounded, blunt object, a bat best fitting the bill.
The agent had listened intently as Deeks threw all this random information at her, her heart hammering a mile a minute at his animated tone.
"So yeah, I really think Jenkins is our guy Kens...so, could you do me a favour?"
"Yeah, anything," she replied instantly.
"Could you...keep an eye on Andi? I mean, she is in the same building as the guy right now and I—I don't like the idea of her in the same area code as this guy if he even gets a whiff that the authorities are closing in. Rose has probably delivered the news to Harris and Kinney by now so they will more than likely come to the same conclusion as I did..." he trailed off, clearing his throat, "I mean, I know it's a long shot but...with the conclusive evidence of a bat and Jenkins being a known baseball player has to grant us a little probable cause to at least test his DNA against the strand of hair found so, it's better than nothing, right?"
Kensi's barely had time to draw a breath before he continued:
"Yeah so, I'm gonna work with Woodruffe and dig up anything I can on Jenkins...guess I'll have to put my Nancy Drew cap on," she could hear the slight smirk in his voice, despite his agitated state.
"Nancy didn't wear a cap," she murmured in reply, grabbing her bag and gun and racing out to her car to make her way to Andi's workplace.
"Whatever Wikipedia, you know what I mean; research isn't so easy without the full force of the LAPD resources or a Nell or Eric," he responded, sounding a little dejected.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head partner," she teased, trying to lighten the mood as she started the car and pulled off, "help is closer than you think."
And with that the partners hung up and Kensi now found herself outside the school, tapping frenetically on her dashboard, scanning the dozens of cars lined in the parking lot. There was no sign of Andi's car...
With a furrowed brow, the agent stepped out and gingerly made her way through the many vehicles, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw the space marked 'Principal W. Jenkins' empty.
Before she knew it, she was jumping back in her car, her phone at her ear, already calling Ops.
"Kensi, you talk to Dee—"
"Eric I need you to find Andi Benson's car for me, now! And get a lock on Will Jenkins' too," she said hurriedly, grabbing a pen and paper from her bag.
"Okay, one sec," he replied, the tap, tap, tapping of his keyboard audible over the line.
"Huh, that's weird," he mumbled after what felt like an eternity.
"What? What's weird?" the agent asked, the possibilities already making her sick to her stomach.
"Benson and Jenkins' cars...they're both in the same place. Will Jenkins' house..."
A/N: Your eyes are probably tired huh? I know mine are :/ so I decided to split this MASSIVE chapter into two, listening to the very good advice of faithful reviewer Rhodanos. Good news though, there's no more waiting...click on ahead when you're ready for the conclusion of Part IV :D
Reviews are lovely :)
~Cortexikid x