A/N – contains dialogue from a clip I found on the E! website in bold. While they are feeding my addiction, I really wish CBS wouldn't put so many clips out there; it takes away from the suspense of the episode!

~,~,~,~

Chapter 6

Deeks turned off his earwig when he saw Northam heading his way with the guard. He couldn't afford to be distracted by the voices in his ear. Truthfully, he was glad for the intervention. He wasn't sure what his team would've said to him and he didn't want to hear any more questions about why he murdered someone or what else LAPD might have on him. The only voices he wanted to hear right now, were the ones that had stood behind him from the beginning. Nell, Eric, Hetty, hell, even Granger would be okay. Hearing Kensi questioning him again would be the final straw and he needed to focus.

The guard opened the door and Northam held up the cuffs. "Come on. Detective Whiting wants to talk to you again." Deeks put his hands together in front of him and held them out. Northam cuffed him and then looked at him carefully. He frowned at the bruises that were forming on Deeks's face and neck. The ones on his neck in the shape of a hand print. While he thought Deeks was guilty and deserved to go to jail, he was not okay with a suspect being assaulted by a cop while in custody, even one suspected of being a cop killer. "You need anything for those bruises?"

Deeks looked at him suspiciously. "No, why would you even bother to ask?"

"Never mind, let's go." He pushed Deeks ahead of him, this time gentler than the last. He wasn't going to add to the situation.

He led Deeks to the interrogation room where Detective Whiting was already sitting at the table. A cup of coffee sat in front of the seat Deeks was led to. He held his hands up for the cuffs to be removed. When Northam moved to undo them, Whiting barked out "Leave them." He nodded and left the room.

Deeks picked up the coffee and took a swig, making sure to make exaggerated slurping noises. "Gah!"

"Really? That all you got left Deeks? You're about as defiant as my 8 year old.

Deeks looked at Whiting and decided he was going to show her defiant. See if he could frustrate her enough to get information that Eric could use. He reached up to push the hair out his eyes, turning on the earwig while doing so.

"Thank God! Glad to have you back Deeks!" He had already put his hands back on the table but he knew Eric was watching the feed. He tapped his finger once.

"Shaggy! Don't do that again!" He smiled a bit at the sound of Nell's voice. Tap. He kept his attention on the woman in front of him as he attempted to find her buttons.

"Wow! You have kids? Pssh. Did not see that coming mommy dearest. Hey, ah, quick question? Are we sure this coffee was made this week? He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that the sound he'd made when he'd first swallowed had more to do with the pain in his throat than the fact that the coffee really was awful. It was coffee, that's all he needed. He'd had worse.

"We found new DNA evidence that places you in the hotel room where Boyle was killed."

His heart skipped a beat. He knew why it was there but how to prove it? "Well, that would make sense as I stayed there for a week while my house was being tented."

"On it, we'll pull the records from the hotel to show when you were there." Tap.

Whiting was becoming frustrated with him. "We can play this however you want but you're not going anywhere until you tell me why you killed Boyle!"

His answer was immediate and truthful. "I didn't."

"Then who did?"

He poked at her some more. "Not my case. I'm so confused by this. Isn't it your department's job to find the killer?"

Her response was also immediate but a lot less truthful. "We did. And he's sitting right across from me!"

"Wow! Buzz! Wrong answer! Would you like to try Other Terrible Theories for a thousand?" He nonchalantly took another sip of his coffee and heard a soft chuckle in his ear. Eric appreciated his humor while it would appear Whiting did not.

Her voice betrayed her frustration. "If you didn't kill Boyle, who did? Give me a name!"

He looked at her blankly. He had a strong suspicion about who'd killed Boyle. Had for years. He had no intention of giving up the name now. He just stared back at Whiting silently, his eyebrows raised while he continued to sip at the bad coffee. Whiting finally gave up, time to move things along. She stood up and opened the door to tell Officer Northam he could take the suspect back to his cell.

Deeks finally said something. "You're not a very good detective if you think I did this."

Whiting turned back to him, her eyes cold. "We'll see, detective, we'll see."

She motioned Northam in and, when he started to guide Deeks from the room, she followed them. She waited outside the cell while Northam removed the cuffs and shut the door.

"You look natural behind bars Detective Deeks." She said loudly. Deeks stared at her, stunned. She had just outted him as a cop to everyone else on this cell block. He heard a gasp through his earwig. Thank God NCIS was recording all of this.

Northam was similarly stunned. "Detective Whiting! Do you have any idea what you've just done?" he hissed at her.

Whiting turned to him and said "What? Oh, sorry! My bad. I didn't think before I spoke." She turned back to Deeks and smirked. He could tell by the look on her face that she had done so deliberately and he had to wonder why. Could she be the one who was trying to frame him?

He decided to try something and said "Clarence Fisk." Her smirk faltered and she blinked a couple times. That was good enough for him although not for a court of law. They needed proof that Fisk was behind this and that Whiting was most likely on his payroll.

"That's huge Deeks! We'll focus more on Whiting now!" Eric said in, his ear. He reached up and tapped the earwig once, his eyes never leaving hers.

They stared at each other, neither saying a word. He wondered what was going on in her head. He had to think she was stunned that he'd somehow connected her, this, to Fisk. He wondered if she knew Monica Lee had been in to see him. They weren't as smart as they thought. Her visit was a huge clue to what was going on and was pretty much a stupid move on their part. He paused and thought over that last bit. Fisk wasn't stupid. Could it be that Monica had acted on her own?

He broke the silence and said "You know, when Monica Lee showed up here yesterday, pretending to be my lawyer, I had to wonder. How did she know I was arrested for Boyle's murder? Someone had to have told her. She was here too quickly for it to be because she saw it on the news and I know that, even if it had been, they wouldn't release my name. It would compromise too many open cases. Also, as far as I know, neither she nor Fisk had any connection to this case. Why would she tip their hand like that?"

Whiting's face turned pale and then red. Deeks felt satisfaction; she hadn't known the ex-lawyer had been here. She turned on her heel and left, Northam following in her wake, not sure what had just happened. There was silence on the block until the door closed behind them and then the threats started. He paid no attention, instead listening to what was being told to him over the comms.

Eric told him about Stephanie and his heart went out to her. He would never blame her for choosing her kids over him. If he had kids, he would do the same. His hopes started to rise when he heard she was changing her story back to the truth and was willing to testify against Monica. Monica! He may have just signed her death warrant.

Hetty had told him not to speak to them unless it was important. This seemed to fit the bill. He said softly "Eric? Can you hear me?" Tap. He huffed out a laugh. "NCIS will need to pick Monica up. If Whiting really is on Fisk's payroll, she'll tell him what Monica did and, if it was something she did behind Fisk's back, he could have her killed. We need her to testify against him and possibly Whiting."

"On it!" Eric motioned to Nell who picked up the phone to request an agent go pick up Monica. They already had her address as she was one of the people they were delving into, and she sent it to Agent Felton's phone when he agreed to be the one to go. Before he hung up, he asked about Deeks. She told him he was doing as well as could be expected and that they had eyes and ears on him right now. Felton asked her to pass along his well wishes and to let him know that he thought Deeks was innocent. Nell hung up, not sure when Deeks and Felton had gotten so chummy. She shook her head, Deeks got under everyone's skin. Sometimes it was good, sometimes bad. She missed him. She wished he would walk through the door and call her some cheesy nickname.

She thought back through all the ones he had made up for her. Nellasauros, Skinny Minny and her favorite, Velma. When he called her that, she really felt like part of the team. In her head, they were the gang from Scooby Doo. He was obviously Shaggy, Callen was Fred, Kensi was Daphne, and they even had Monty to play the part of Scooby Doo. She never quite found a niche from the show for Eric and Sam.

She shook herself out of her daydream. They'd get him out of this, she knew he wasn't guilty and their team was the best at what they did. If they couldn't do it, no one could. She turned back to listen to Eric fill Deeks in on the rest of what had been going on since his arrest.

Deeks was surprised when he heard that Rivera had been shot at and relieved to hear that Hetty and Granger were okay. He laughed when Eric told him that Rivera was going into protective custody at the boat shed and that Hetty wanted her involved in the case. He'd pay good money to see that first meeting between her and Kensi.

Eric made a point of telling him that Rivera had come to believe he was innocent and that it was Whiting who had pulled her off the case. His hopes rose more when told that Rivera had confirmed that the bullet that they had supposedly found his fingerprint on was a plant. That it hadn't been in the evidence box when she was working on the case. Still, how had they gotten a bullet with his fingerprint on it? He realized that he'd had to give up his gun and badge when they put him in the holding cell. Someone had to have taken it from his own gun then. He and Boyle had used different guns when they had been partners. Boyle's was a Smith & Wesson, while his was a Beretta 92FS. The caliber would have been different. He now carried a Smith & Wesson, the one Hetty had gifted him with after he lost his to Sidorov. If one of his was taken from his current gun, then hat would explain why the bullet didn't show up in the evidence log and case file until after he was arrested. At this point, they now had the physical bullet in their hands. He passed that theory on to Eric who agreed it made sense and that he would look into it.

He smiled when Nell got on the comms and told him that Jim Felton wanted her to pass on that he knew Deeks was innocent and that he wished him well. Deeks only wished his own team was behind him the same way. He and Felton had discovered a common interest in musicals and had become friends. The others, Kensi in particular, always made fun of him when he tried to talk about them and he'd finally stopped trying to get one of them to go with him. He had tickets to see Le Mis next month with Felton and his wife Sherry. He sincerely hoped he would be out of here by then and able to use them.

Eric finally wound down, having passed everything new on to Deeks. Deeks's quiet "Thank you Eric" was meant for more than just for the updates, both men knew he was thanking him for being on his side, for looking out for him.

"You're welcome." was Eric's equally quiet reply.