A/N: Hey everyone, here's another chapter. It's basically filler…but you know that something is going to happen when Hetty takes people out to get drunk, right?

Enjoy.

Chapter 12: Gathering Much Needed Intell

Danny leaned against the door to the boat house as Deeks pulled up and the four men that had been involved in the University stake out moved away from the vehicle and toward the entrance to the secret government location.

"Is something up?" Deeks asked as Danny greeted them. "Or are you just having a movie moment where you lurk ominously outside in the shadows? It would work but, its broad daylight out here and you're not really doing a very good job of lurking."

"I just need a minute with Chin," Danny answered.

"Ah, still don't trust us, I get it," Deeks teased.

"This isn't about trust. This is about me having his back one hundred and ten percent."

Chin caught the meaning.

"It's about Malia, isn't it?" Howard asked but his voice was hushed as he turned a sympathetic glance at Chin. "Sorry about your loss, Chin, we found out from Sheldon, who has this crazy obsession with Five-O and has been kinda stalking you guys through mass media since we came back from Hawaii. Really, we're all very sorry."

"Thank you," Chin said and forced a sad, but understanding smile.

"Who is Malia?" Deeks asked feeling more out of the loop then before.

"Malia was my wife, and she was murdered by someone from Frank Delano's crew." Chin answered.

"I'm sorry," Deeks said as his face changed.

"So am I," Chin said with a nod, "so what's going on Danny?"

"Callen and I apprehended Baldwin and Joey, they are in there now. I just thought I would greet you and give you the heads up. If you want to leave, we could head back to the hotel and let these guys finish up."

"No, I'm fine, I'll be fine. Let's get this over with," Chin said, "but thank you for the heads up. It would have been a bit too much just to walk in on them."

"That's what I figured, plus I needed the air," Danny said with a sly, mocking, smile, "there are too many egos and service men attitudes flying around in there."

"The joys of being a detective on an elite task force." Deeks laughed.

"I feel for you, Deeks, really I do. We're lucky that three of our four members are cops, and Steve's the only one that flies off the handle and goes all military, super, spy on us. Usually Chin and I can keep him down to earth, but you got the shitty end of that stick here with NCIS. A Former SEAL, and a CIA super soldier, and Special Agent Kensi Blye, and then there is you."

"I know," Deeks nodded, "they just don't get civilian law enforcement. I guess that's why I have to moonlight as an undercover for LAPD once in a while - just to keep me sane."

"Sanity is a far cry in our profession, as it is, then you throw in international issues and terrorism, and we're all totally screwed." Chin stated.

"Law Enforcement has changed," Deeks stated.

"Indeed it has!"

Howard and Leonard just stared on in confusion.

"Sorry to push you out of the loop, guys, we don't mean to," Danny said as he looked at the two confused scientists.

"It's all right, we're used to it," Leonard nodded. "It's like high school and all the cliques."

"You got your jocks – or special agents, and your geeks – being us, and then you have you guys – the popular crew who will side with the geeks over the jocks because we'll do your homework for you." Howard explained.

"You're right," Deeks nodded. "Although, I think I speak for all of us when I say, we'd be nothing without our geek squad – and deep down we're all a little geeky."

"We can only do so much," Danny nodded.

"It's nice to feel needed," Howard stated with a smile.

"So are we ready to crash the party?" Deeks asked.

"Heck yeah," Danny nodded.

"I'm just along for the ride," Chin sighed.

"We've got your back."

5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT

"So what did we miss?" Deeks asked as he, and Howard, and Leonard, walked into the boat house, followed by Danny and Chin.

"We captured two of Frank Delano's accomplices." Callen stated still staring at the screen that showed the interrogation in progress.

Chin's eyes flashed angrily at Danny at the sighed of the two different men, one talking to Steve and Sam and the other just sitting nervously alone in a barren room – Chin was not as fine as he said he'd be.

"Steve is already past the part about Malia," Danny said as he looked at Chin and didn't know what else to say.

"Who shot and killed my wife?"

"Joey said it was Rick."

"And who tried to drown my cousin?"

"Baldwin, we already knew that but he confessed to it," Danny stated and then added, "But only because he was following orders."

"Can we try to drown him?" Chin asked as he turned to Callen for a little more cooperation.

"I'm afraid not," Callen said with a sigh, "though I do feel for you Chin, and I'd want to do the same thing. We did get some information from Joey about Moira from Caltech, which means they are prepared to cooperate with us, that is, unless they are lying, but I can tell when people are lying and Joey wasn't."

"CIA training," Danny whispered to Chin, "he can tell when people are lying." He mocked slightly.

"I heard that," Callen said, but smirked all the same.

"Moira from Caltech? Moira Littleton from Doctor Himesberger's staff at the university, is that the Moira you're talking about?" Leonard asked.

"That's the only Moira I know at the university," Howard stated.

"You know her?" Callen asked as he finally pulled his eyes away from the monitor.

The two scientists nodded.

"Go geek squad!" Deeks cheered with a wink toward the two scientists.

"What does she do?" Danny asked.

"She's the assistant to doctor Himesberger. He's our nuclear physicist and he's retiring this year."

"He's a bit off his rocker, but we chalk that up to exposure." Howard added jokingly.

"Do you think he is the mastermind in this – to get back at the university for forcing him into retirement?" Danny asked as he turned toward Callen.

"He's not being forced out," Leonard interrupted to clarify. "Bruce has been on the count down for three years. He's ready to go. He wants to start the new chapter in his life – his words."

"Like I said, he's off his rocker. He's leaving physics to be a tailor – like a real life, hem your pants, mend your socks, fit your shirt, tailor," Howard explained.

"Retirement – making other people look good since the beginning of time." Deeks laughed.

"What will happen to Moira when Doctor Himesberger is gone?" Callen asked seriously.

"She's already looking for a new job. The new physics that has been hired to take Bruce's place is bringing his own hired help. He seems like a cool guy, but he has been doing research of his own for a very long time and sees this move to the university as merely a change in office space. He's not prepared to train new staff when he has a perfectly good one already."

"So Moira is out of a job?" Danny asked.

"Oh yes," Howard answered. "She was certain that with her skill set, and the recommendations of the doctor she's been working under, that she would have a job waiting for her. She's a doctor herself, but she's not exactly what Doctor Crawley is looking for – apparently - if he had been looking at all. I think he just said that because he didn't actually want to hire anyone else and well, who can blame him."

"That sounds like motive enough for me," Callen stated.

"Oh should I mention that she applied for the job, like the actual physics job, like I said she has her PhD in nuclear physics, but she was passed over because Doctor Crawley has more experience and multiple contracts with the department of defense." Howard added.

"There we go," Danny stated and slammed his hands down on the metal table.

"I don't understand, where do Frank Delano and Maksim Holick come into this?" Deeks asked with a shake of his head. "It feels just a little too pieced together if you ask me – like we're grasping at straws."

"Holick, Moira and Rick are cousins," Danny said, "and Frank Delano and his men were looking for an easy, well paying, way to evade Five-O and prosecution. They are muscle for hire and Frank was looking to rebuild his empire away from our grasp – why not get into nuclear weaponry right at its source?"

"And revenge," Callen stated, "was on the minds of Moira and therefore her cousins Maksim and Rick."

"And so, it all equals motive for murder and possibly more – I got it." Deeks nodded.

5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT

Meanwhile…

Hetty watched carefully, a glass of scotch in her hand, as the six women before her started to loosen up. Penny was the life of the party, easily fitting in with the group and guiding the conversation with her friends and the NCIS women. Kensi seemed to enjoy being accepted into the group, talked science with the scientists, and shopping with the other, while Nell and Bernadette commiserated over their short statue. Kono regaled the group with stories of surfing, being the young rookie on an elite task force and Hawaii in general, and Hetty sat back, listening for links and answering the odd, vague, or girly question with a nod or an anecdote.

"So tell me Bernadette, how did you come to be involved in microbiology?" Hetty asked as Bernadette had remained the shyest and quietest of the group of very verbal women.

All eyes turned on Bernadette and she blushed.

"I'm tiny, so why not study tiny things?" Bernadette answered, "and to think that most of the smallest things in the would can be the deadliest, not that I want to use them for evil, Miss Lange, I just, well, they can be very useful in some situations, and I guess, oh god, I don't know!" Bernadette crumbled nervously to the question at hand.

"It's okay Bernadette, we know you're not going to use them for evil," Penny said sympathetically as she poured out more wine to calm her friend's nerves. "So, Miss Lange, why are you using our men for this case? They aren't exactly cut out for it." Penny added, still trying to get a straight answered out of the super spy.

"Some aspects of their personalities are not quite cut out for our business, but others are very useful to me. They have a certain skill set. They are being quite helpful. I feel it was providential that they fell into my lap. I don't mean for it to cause any inconvenience to you and I know that they have Five-O to look out for them. I dare say they have even convinced some of my agents that they are very valuable to our case."

Kensi and Nell nodded their agreement with their boss.

"You do know that Sheldon can be oblivious to what he can and cannot legally do?" Amy asked suspiciously. "He can be challenging."

"Oh yes, we know, we've been monitoring Sheldon since he was twelve and tried to build a nuclear reactor in his parents shed," Hetty stated with a fondness that was rarely seen.

"He did what?" Kensi gasped.

"He tried to build a death ray, as well, when he was five, but that didn't work either," Penny said nonchalantly.

"He's our special little guy," Kono added with a nod.

"So, Kono, tell us about your new boyfriend," Penny stated excitedly as she tried once again to change the mood and the topic of conversation to better suit her abilities.

Kono blushed.

"Or maybe you should tell us what happened to Jenna," Bernadette added.

"It's been a pretty strange year," Kono sighed as she continued, "we've gained and lost so many people."

"I think we may need something a little stronger then wine," Hetty stated, already knowing all there was to know about Five-O and their misfortunes, as she waved over the bar tender. "Tequila," She stated and fell silent to let Kono continue.

"First Governor Dennings assigned a new woman, Lori Weston, to our team to 'babysit', after Steve was thrown in jail for his involvement with the murder of Governor Jameson. She was from Homeland security. I was arrested too, and had this big trial and IA investigation against me, and I was being blackmailed and I was off Five-O, and I was put in as an undercover with another branch of the HPD." Kono explained with a wave of her hands. "Then, Jenna told Steve that her fiancé was a live and she left us to go looking for him, but she lied to us and then she lured Steve to North Korea, and she got herself shot, and Steve tortured. And we went to Korea to bring back Steve. And Frank Delano was part of my undercover operation. At one point Lori tried to shoot me. Then Steve and Danny found out what was going on with me and, they went after IA, and I got shot, and then I met Adam, my new boyfriend, but no one trusts him and it's just a big mess. At one point, because of my undercover, we put Frank in Jail, but he was still pulling all kinds of shit and that all brew up on us, and now we're here." Kono finished with a shake of her head and there was clearly anger and hurt in parts of the story that she tried to hide but Hetty saw through it all.

"Can we hurry up with that tequila?" Hetty called to the bartender.

"Hetty are you sure that is wise?" Kensi asked carefully trying not to sound insolent. "Last time you had tequila, the night ended in a big old bar fight."

"It's not for me, Miss Blye, it's for Kono," Hetty stated.

"Yes, and I'm going to needed it." Kono stated and as the first shots were poured out, she dove back into her tale.