A/N: Hello Everyone! I'm sorry it's taken so long to get around to updating this story but I have decided that this one is to be the next to be to focus of my attention. Look forward to more updates in the coming days and weeks and hopefully I'll be able to being it to a swift and happy conclusion. Thank you so much for sticking around and supporting me!
Enjoy.
Chapter 13: Catching Up To You
By the end of what Steve and Danny would have called an abnormally long day, and as their usefulness began to wane, so too did their energy. Callen and Sam took over with Joey and Baldwin - drilled them for a good two hours to get whatever information they could on Holick and Henson, while Leonard and Howard made a few phone calls to get information from some of their colleagues at the university on Moira.
Step by baby step, a picture started to take shape before their eyes and motive was well defined but what the next course of action was, remained elusive. The decision had been made to carry on as planned in the morning - to be briefed by Agent Boyd and then to send everyone back to the University to carry out the undercover mission. Hopefully their endeavors at Caltech would bring Moira or even Maksim into their realm, and provide answers or maybe a foot chase – Steve's specialty.
It was by this time that Danny started to drift off - his head buried in his arms, his stomach growling with hunger and his mind spinning from the lack of sleep.
"You don't look to well, Detective," Deeks stated as he bumped Danny's chair and he started.
"Time is catching up with me." Danny grumbled.
Sheldon walked in leading Eric and Raj.
"It's time to go!" Sheldon announced as Howard and Leonard looked up from the files they had been working on. "I'm hungry and it's almost my bed time. It's time to go!" He stated again with more force and motioned for the door.
"I don't think we're going to make it for pizza and video games tonight," Steve said and tried to stifle a yawn that had snuck up on him.
"It's simply too late for video games now," Sheldon stated. "It's almost too late to eat but I'm hungry. So come along Leonard, we have to stop and grab something quick on our way home so that we are well rested for tomorrow's mission."
"That sounds like such a good idea," Danny said as he lowered his head onto his arms again.
"You're not on any mission tomorrow - we are!" Howard stated.
"I have top secret business to attend to for Miss. Lange." Sheldon stated haughtily. "So I need to go!" Sheldon added, and sounding very much like his mother Sheldon snapped his fingers and pointed toward the door, "come on we're burning daylight."
The three other scientists stood and moved to follow Sheldon out.
"I think we've all had a really long day," Sam said as Callen nodded his agreement.
"We're just waiting on Max. Has anyone heard from him?" Chin asked as he too was sitting in a corner finding it hard to keep his eyes open.
"He called in from the coroner's office. Rose was going to drop him off at the hotel because the travel was catching up to him too," Eric answered. "He said he had managed a dinner - thanks to Rose - when they took a break so he said not to worry about him. And Hetty has the girls covered so you don't need to worry about them either."
"All right, that settles it then. We'll wait here for LAPD to come and take out suspects into custody and we'll call it a night too. The rest of you can go. We'll have a pair of rental vehicles dropped off at your hotel in the morning so that you can get around." Callen said and motioned to the Five-Os. "I'm assuming everyone will be able to find their way back here for the DOD briefing in the morning?"
"I'm sure we'll be able to get back to the boathouse," Leonard nodded. "HQ might be a different story."
"That's just the way we like it," Sam said with a laugh. "Don't worry. Those of you who have to go into Ops will be summoned and escorted there. For now, the boat shed is our centre of operations."
"Sounds good! Who's driving me back to the hotel to become acquainted with my bed?" Danny asked - his voice muffled because he didn't even bother to raise his head of his arm.
"Eric, can you handle the Five-O drop off?" Callen asked.
"Ten four," Eric confirmed and motioned to the door.
5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT
Eric stopped only momentarily so that Steve, Chin and Danny could run into a sandwich shop to grab a bite to eat before returning the three exhausted Five-Os to the hotel that they hadn't yet visited. The food had been consumed greedily in the car, before Eric even pulled away from the shop - Danny was kind enough to buy Eric dinner as well. They arrived in record time at the hotel that overlooked the beach and were ushered out of the car and onto the curb.
"Welcome to California!" Eric stated cheerfully and then pulled away again.
"I swear to God, McGarrett, if you snore all night, I will kill you in your sleep." Danny warned as they got off the elevator on their floor and made their way to the rooms that Steve had booked for them - Chin and Max were sharing and Kono had her own room.
"Should we worry about Kono?" Chin asked as he scanned the floor.
"She's with Hetty. She'll be fine - if not completely intoxicated. It will make for an interesting morning." Danny said as he pushed his way into his room - followed by Steve - and crashed into his bed - or rather the bed that was closest to the door because he just couldn't move any further.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," Steve said to Chin and then closed the door behind him. "Really, Danny, it's that bad?" Steve asked as he stopped short to see his partner already curled up in bed, the pillow over his face, and the covers up to his chin. "Did you even take your shoes off?"
A moment later one of Danny's shoes flew across the room at Steve and Steve wasn't sure exactly where it came from.
"You do realize it's only 4PM in Hawaii," Steve said as he moved to close the curtains.
"Sure, I'm aware of that, but its 7PM here and I haven't slept since yesterday sometime, its no wonder time is catching up to me. I'm completely beat and I worked all day. This was supposed to be an easy case and on the first day I had to deal with Agent Callen and an undercover mission. Not that it wasn't a cool gig, and G seems like a nice enough guy, but man I'm exhausted now." Danny answered.
"I am too," Steve sighed, "but I'm not going to let myself go to bed with the grime of the day clinging to me, and we didn't have time clean up after the flight. We dove right into this case head first. Who knows what we might have picked up, and in our tired and weakened state, I don't want to risk getting sick."
"You sound like Sheldon," Danny stated and covered his head again. "I'll deal with cleanliness in the morning. Now stop bugging me and let me sleep!"
"What do you think Kono is doing with Hetty?" Steve asked after a few moments of silence.
"I don't know!" Danny sighed and rolled over to turn his back away from Steve.
"Should we be worried?"
"Why, I'm pretty sure if Hetty wants secrets into your life she just needs to make a phone call. She doesn't need Kono to give her intel into our organization. I'm sure Hetty can get that probably by reading your mind. I'm pretty sure she can do that. Maybe she's just being nice and taking the girls out because they are always surrounded by guys and for once there are enough of them to...I don't know...do whatever it is girls do when they get together."
"Do you think Kono had a problem with being the only girl?" Steve asked.
"Why are you asking me this? Am I Kono?" Danny grumbled. "Please just let me sleep!"
"You're no fun," Steve grumbled and started rummaging through his luggage.
"I'll show you fun - tomorrow when I'm really grumpy," Danny grumbled almost inaudibly into his pillow.
"What was that?"
"I'm going to shoot you in five seconds."
"No you're not." Steve stated as the turned back toward Danny and from somewhere under the covers Danny had produced his weapon, clicked off the safety and half hazard aimed it in Steve's direction. "Give me that!" Steve snapped and pulled the weapon out of Danny's hands.
Danny put up very little struggle when Steve took his weapon away. He simply mumbled something that could have been a string of curses, or maybe something in Italian, either way, whatever it was Steve didn't understand it at all.
"Fine, go to bed!" Steve huffed and retired toward the on-suite bathroom to clean up.
5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT
Deeks, Callen and Sam sat together around the table in the boat house as they waited for the prisoner transfer. For a while they sat in complete silence just watching the two men that had been left locked in the interrogation rooms. It was clear to all three of them that for these two men, it was a shock to have seen Five-O so close on their heals, but the Five-O connection to their case was becoming less and less prevalent.
"At least they got closure for Chin Ho," Callen said after a long silence. "I can't imagine what he's going through right now – then again, maybe I can."
"Blood Feud?" Deeks asked.
"Yeah," Callen chuckled.
"Chin Ho won't have closure until Rick is apprehended and behind bars, but with this case and theirs there are fewer and fewer connections. Will Rick be extradited back to Hawaii to face charges for Malia's murder or will that be passed over for his larger, federal and international terrorist attempts?" Sam asked.
"We have no proof that Rick is responsible for what is looking to be a revenge plot by Moira and Maksim." Callen stated.
"We have very little proof of anything at this point." Deeks interjected his opinion as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Hopefully tomorrow with bring something good. One day - it's been one day and it already feels stiflingly quiet in here without all the commotion."
"You're just jealous that Kensi went out with the girls and you didn't get invited." Sam laughed.
"I got to play with lasers today, what did you do?" Deeks retorted childishly.
"Hetty named you Theodore," Sam stated mockingly while Callen nodded his agreement with his partner.
"You're just jealous that my undercover seems more and more likely to be the front lines and you are stuck back here with interrogations and whatever it is Callen did today."
"I went undercover with Danny. We apprehended the two suspects that you are currently watching on that monitor. In my opinion, I was far more productive then you and your lasers, Deeks, and Sam managed to land us an interview with the Department of Defense tomorrow."
Sam nodded emphatically as a grin spread across his face and the LAPD officers walked into the boat house to pick up the suspects.
"Well, tomorrow will be a new day and this case seems to revolve around Caltech." Deeks stated as he stood. "I'll be getting my geek on with the guys and you'll be stuck here. Have fun with that." he added and walked out.
"He doesn't realize that we'll be on surveillance duty outside of the university all day – does he?" Sam asked as he turned to Callen.
Callen shook his head and sighed.
5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT
Chin stopped momentarily outside of the room that was adjacent to his own and placed his ear against the door. Since the whole incident with Malia and Kono, Chin had an overly protective nature, but when he didn't hear anything from Kono's room he moved onto his own. He knew he wouldn't find rest until he knew that his cousin was safe, even though he knew she was with Henrietta Lange.
He walked into his room, as quietly as he could manage, and found that Max was already in bed, sound asleep. On the arm chair in the corner Chin found scrubs, a lab coat and other medical supplies that he knew Max had not arrived with, but he would need now that his vacation had turned into work. The rest of his things were unpacked, and organized – overly organized – in the closet and on the dresser and there was a note on the hotel stationary addressed to Chin and in Max's neat scroll.
Chin
I have left you half of the dresser and the closet for your things. I hope that is sufficient for you to be comfortable and content for the remainder of your stay here in California. I hope it is not an inconvenience to you that I have not waited up for you, but as it has been a very busy day, I am very tired. If you are not too tired when you return, I have left the files that I have been working on with Miss. Rose in the top draw of the desk – in the event that you do not have anything else for your entertainment this evening.
We will corroborate my findings in the morning.
Yours in solidarity:
Max Bergman
Chin shook his head in amusement at the note, but his own exhaustion had caught up with him and as quickly as he could, he settled himself into the new environment and fell into bed – listening only to see if he could hear his cousin return from her adventures.
5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT
One last time, to share their adventure of the day over the dinner meal, Raj, Howard, Leonard and Sheldon sat in the common space of Sheldon and Leonard's shared apartment. The conversation was minimal as they ate - and Sheldon remained oddly and uncharacteristically silent. Leonard kept an open ear to the door for signs of Penny's return. Howard waited for a call from Bernadette and Raj stared blankly at his computer while he shoveled salad into his face and absently took bites of his pizza.
Sheldon sighed audibly as he put down his water bottle and picked up his plate again.
"What's the matter Sheldon?" Leonard asked as he came back to his seat after having check the hallway again.
"I'm conflicted, Leonard," Sheldon stated and put down his plate as all eyes turned toward him.
"You should be," Leonard stated with a grumble and the tone of Leonard's voice caught Sheldon off guard.
"Are you being sarcastic?" Sheldon asked.
"No, I'm slightly angry."
"Angry, why?"
"Because you got us pulled into this and now my lab at the university is overrun with undercover agents and I'm supposed to play along with that. Penny was right. We're not cut out for this kind of work and the more the case comes together before us, the more it seems like Caltech is going to be the target of something major. I would have liked to remain completely and blissfully oblivious to this - planning out costumes of Comic Con rather then worrying about a nuclear meltdown for the sake of revenge."
"Oh my I forgot about Comic Con!" Sheldon gasped.
"That's not what had you conflicted?" Leonard asked in shocked astonishment.
"No, I'm conflicted because I don't think the information that Hetty is looking for is in the files that I was studying today and because of that I am worried that NCIS may take us off the case." Sheldon stated. "I rather like this espionage stuff. It's fascinating."
"They aren't going to kick you off the team, Sheldon. They are too invested in Leonard's lab as a location for their undercover operation. We're invested in this now." Raj stated as he continued to stare at his lap top.
"What has you so preoccupied, Raj?" Leonard asked and looked over Raj's shoulder.
"Eric and Nell gave me access to some traffic cam footage. I'm trying to follow a van that was at the scene of the murders. There were other vehicles that were also suspicious, but each of us in ops was assigned something different and so I am in charge of this vehicle." Raj explained. "It could be a possible lead, or a dead end, either way, it needs to be monitored. If I can find the van in the footage from the pier then maybe I have the right vehicle."
"You were given homework?" Sheldon gasped.
Raj nodded, "I am an important member of the intelligence team," he quoted Hetty and smiled with pride.
"Rats," Sheldon stated with a sigh and turned back to his food.
"It looks like we're all in this way over our heads," Leonard said with a shake of his head. "Again, you got us involved again Sheldon."
"We can handle it," Howard piped in. "We have Five-O to lead us, and I think we've quickly gained the respect of NCIS. We're perfectly safe."
"What are we going to do about Comic Con?" Sheldon asked and again he was conflicted.
"We have bigger fish to fry. Comic Con is going to have to wait." Howard stated as his cell rang. "Got to go, duty calls!" he stated slyly and every moved implied what he was being summoned home to do to his wife.
"Yes, you are right. We had all better get to bed. There will be much to do tomorrow and we all need our rest." Sheldon stated obliviously as he stood from his place. "Leonard, clean this up. Raj, please see yourself out. I'm going to bed." And with that he turned and left the room.
"Oh Sheldon," Leonard said with a sigh and a shake of his head as he saw his friends out and tried desperately to reconcile himself to the discomfort that the next few days would bring.