A/N: So the other day I sat down and wrote all the rest of the chapters for this story. Including this one there are 4 of them to come. It's good news. The bad news is, I'll be posting them at intervals in accordance with all the rest of the story updates I'm making. So yes, we are almost at the end of our kooky little adventure, but it may take a while to get to them all.

Chapter 20: Listen and Learn

Kensi, Deeks, Kono and Chin were the first to return to the boat house. They walked in with their suspect - Chin taking up the rear and still stewing - to be greeted by Hetty who sat primly on a sofa in the middle of the common room. Before her on the coffee table was her good tea set, and a curling wisp of steam floated up from the spout.

"Mr. Deeks, if you would be so kind as to place you fugitive in one of the unoccupied holding cells - our medical team is en-route to assess his wounds. He's not going to bleed out on my while we wait - is he?"

"His wounds aren't that bad." Kensi said still holding them man up.

"I was shot!" Rick protested.

"Will good reason, I'm sure." Hetty stated.

"I packed the wound in the car. Most of the bleeding has stopped." Kono added from a place beside her cousin."

"Well done everyone. Once you've safely deposited the suspect and locked the door to his cell, I would like you to head out to back-up agent Callen and Mr. Hanna." Hetty ordered as she poured herself a cup of tea.

Deeks did as he was told and when he returned the four officers turned to leave again.

"Lieutenant Kelly, I'd like to have a word with you - if you please," Hetty called kindly when their backs were turned.

Deeks spun on his heals and made eye contact with Hetty. The look on her face told him exactly what the talk would be about and that it was none of his business - . . Deeks then looked to Kensi, who smacked him upside the head and then dragged him with her - leaving the two cousins behind with Hetty.

"I'll be fine with Kensi and Deeks," Kono said pleasantly and sympathetically to her cousin who looked at her with concern. "Are you going to be okay?"

Chin looked from his cousin, to Hetty, and back again knowing deep down what conversation was about to occur. It was a conversation Chin had been dreading and yet it was a conversation that had yet to happen within his social circle. It was time to have it and Hetty was about to give it to him in true Henrietta Lange fashion - with a cup of tea and a worldly knowledge that most did not posses.

"I'm sure I can handle it," Chin said but he wasn't very convincing.

"Hetty will be the person to talk to." Kono said sympathetically as she placed a gentle hand on her cousin's shoulder. "She'll be able to say all of the things that none of us have been able to say because things are just too fresh for any of us."

"I know," Chin answered and smiled weakly. "You go on and back-up NCIS. Keep them in their places." He added and turned to sit down next to Hetty on the sofa.

Kono hesitated momentarily as she watched Chin with concern but then decided she'd be better off following order when Hetty caught her eye as well.

5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT

"Well Leonard, what do you make of all this?" Nell asked as the operations centre was over run by Caltech scientist.

"This is extremely advanced technology." Leonard answered with a sigh. "If Holick is truly as smart as he seems to be, and he's gathered around him the smartest people only to fool them and terminate them when they have outlived their usefulness to him, what makes you think that we have any shot at outsmarting him?"

"We don't have to outsmart him, Leonard, we just have to stop him and catch him." Sheldon stated as he paced the length of the room along the floor to ceiling monitor that made him look almost larger than life.

"How are we going to stop him if we don't understand the technology he's using?" Howard asked.

"I'm not surprised that you don't understand, Howard, you're just an engineer." Sheldon retorted with a wave of his hand as he continued to pace.

"That was awfully rude of you." Nell stated as she stepped before the towering physicist and stopped him.

"But it's true," Sheldon stated. "He's just an engineer."

"And engineers are the people that designed and build all of the power plants we are studying. So if anyone is going to understand what is going on, I would hazard to guess it would be our engineer." Nell stated forcefully and silenced Sheldon as he became more and more afraid of the tiny woman before him - there was a touch of Hetty in her.

"It is true that I understand the inner workings of the power plants and the nuclear capacity of all of them, but I won't be able to figure this out on my own. Any one of them would wipe out the area and the fall out would be enormous, but it's nearly impossible for anything to catastrophically malfunction to trigger the chain of impossible events that would turn a power plant into a bomb." Howard explained.

"Would it be possible to obtain materials from within the plants themselves that could be made into a weapon?" Eric asked as he came to stand at the table where Nell, Leonard and Howard had gathered.

"I would think so but not without risking serious radiation on oneself, and leaving a trail of radiation that would trigger all of the warning systems the government has in place. You'd also need many men on the inside to be your accomplices. One man would not work - many might - but still at great risk to themselves." Howard explained.

"Could the technology involved in project Chameleon mask the radiation long enough for a person to plant the equipment needed within the central reactor of the power plant?" Raj asked as he stepped forward. "Detonate it remotely, caught nuclear meltdown by destroying the inner workings and wipe out Los Angeles and most of the western seaboard while you're at it?"

"A bomb to create a bomb?" Sheldon asked.

"Yes, maybe the additional heat signature we've been monitoring at Holick's house is actually the bomb to trigger the bomb and the technology of project Chameleon is what is going to help to hide things in plain sight, and trigger it remotely." Raj answered.

"If anyone got wise to Holick, and his manipulation of the technology, that would be enough to murder them." Nell stated as fear flashed in her eyes. "Steve and Danny found one of the original team members alive. She might be out best bet to understand that we have here."

"This is all fine and good, but why go to such lengths - just because your being let go by Caltech? I don't see the motive in all of this. Why would Holick steal the technology he was working on for the government of the most powerful country in the world? Why would he risk his job, national security and the well being of himself and other?" Leonard asked. "It just seems so far fetched and science fictions that it can't possibly be real."

"You'd be surprised, Leonard." Nell said sympathetically. "The things that we have seen, some of which are so top secret even we never saw it. There is corruption out there that would terrify you."

"So you think it's all bigger than that?" Leonard asked.

"Yes, I do," Nell answered.

"So what now?" Raj asked. "World domination - like super villains are real, and alive, and among us?"

"Destroy the biggest American city on the west coast with a top secret technology that you could sell to all of our enemies after they see what it is capable of doing. That seems like motive enough to me." Sheldon stated. "Total and complete domination, and access to all of the worlds weapons with no one being aware of it."

"Whoa calm down there Doctor Evil." Howard stated.

"Sheldon might be right. We've seen this kind of marketing of weapons before." Nell stated.

"We need to get this technology back or destroy it!" Eric stated and made a mad dash for his computer and the connections to Callen and Hetty.

5-0-NCIS:LA-TBBT

Hetty poured out a second cup of tea and handed it to Chin.

"This has been a very challenging case for you to be apart of Lieutenant." Hetty said in a tone that spoke volumes to her compassion and her experience.

"It has," Chin admitted and sipped at the tea.

"You didn't take time to mourn you're wife's death?" she asked.

"Not while her killer was still out there."

"And do you think that by capturing Rick Hansen and knowing that Frank Delano is dead, that you have or will be able to find the closure that you are looking for?"

"I don't think there will ever be closure because Malia was an innocent. She didn't deserve to get caught up in any of this."

"Spouses of law enforcement, or of people in positions of higher investigation capacities, know what they are getting into when they connect themselves with such men - or women." Hetty said by way of explanation. "There are many reasons why people in our line of work - and I say that because you are not just a regular police officer anymore - live solitary lives. You are elite and therefore fall into a different and more dangerous category than most - but you have to make the same choices as everyone else in the world. You have to know that Malia knew what she was getting into when she married you - and that all your enemies knew it as well. I'm sure she worried about you, and her own safety, but her love for you outweighed that worry."

Chin nodded but remained silent and sipped his tea.

"Unfortunately, we cannot protect all of our loved ones, but it also doesn't mean that we must shut ourselves off to the idea of having love in our lives. Detective Williams know the challenges and dangers of his job. He's seen people come after his daughter and yes he will do everything in his ability to protect her, but she's not pushed away - just as Sam has a family and children - they hold their loved ones even closer and love them more fully because you never know when you might be taken away from them. Commander McGarrett has lost his family, his father and at one time his mother to the life and the enemies that he has, but that has not stopped him from building relationships just as Agent Callen has done - though he would tell you differently. Even Officer Kalakaua - who has been targeted and has faced reputation ruining events and life threatening situations still see the importance of her family and having you in her life. You must see that though we are force to make sacrifices in our lives, it does not mean that we are meant to be always alone. Malia chose you for you - knowing that you might not make it home to her and she loved you even more fully because of it. You must see that, in the same way, Malia chose to be brave even in the face of danger to be with you."

"You certainly know a lot about us," Chin said conversationally to hide the emotion that had started to hit him.

Hetty smiled, "We know more than most would wish to admit." she said and cradled her tea cup and saucer in her hands. "If I hadn't known what you went through and the extent of the investigation into your wife's death, do you think I would have allowed you to be a part of this team? Sometimes what we need in this line of work is emotion - or the lack there of - but you need to know just how to handle it. We - none of us - are emotionless robots, and we all know all will support you in this difficult time."

"Thank you Henrietta, I do appreciate everything you've done for me and my Ohana." Chin said after he'd taken in a shaky breath to calm his emotions.

"I have one question for you Chin Ho. Why didn't you kill Rick Hanson when you had the chance?" Hetty asked and there was more knowledge and understanding rather than questions in the way she asked it - because Hetty wanted, more than anything, for Chin to vocalize his reasons and make them real to him.

"I don't think him being dead would make me feel any better about the situation. It would have been a life on my hands - red in my ledger - that was unnecessary. Malia would have never stood for that. I have killed before, because I have had too, but I could not take a life in revenge - it would destroy me and sway the balance of the emotions that I have toward something far darker. It wouldn't have made me any better than Rick. Besides, he's a suspect in your case. He may be able to give us information into Holick's plans. He may be able to save lives." Chin answered.

Hetty smiled as she sipped her tea and the sound of people arriving in the boat house ended their conversation, but in her eyes Hetty spoke volumes and if Chin had learned anything in his years of law enforcement it was to listen with all your senses and to see where others could not.

A/N: Just a little side now. I hate that the Show had Chin kill Frank Delano and that was just it. It was just so cold blooded and over that I felt like it was an injustice to Chin and the kind of character that he had been developed to be. In this story I wanted a different way around that to fix all my hurt over Malia and Chin, and they way they were thrown under a bus and then just forgotten.