California State Route 14- 80 miles from China Lake, California
Deeks sat in the passenger seat while Kensi drove down the highway towards China Lake. Sam and Callen led in Sam's Challenger and Deeks, Kensi, and Lyons were following in a silver SUV. The trip so far had been a quiet one as Deeks had spent his time watching the road, Lyons had typed silently away on his PDA, and Kensi had driven in silence.
Deeks had also spent the first part of the trip, stealing glances at Lyons whenever he could. He knew that the team didn't trust the man, but the other team members had kept their suspicions to himself. Through his own conclusion, he believed that Granger had a special agenda for Agent Lyons. Unfortunately, the soon-to-be-ex-detective had no proof and no allies to discuss his ideas with.
"Granger told me that you two are usually a chatty pair," Lyons suddenly asked from the back seat. The pair only grunted in response, Kensi in annoyance and Deeks half mindedly.
"So how long have you two been working together?" Lyons asked next, not looking up from his PDA. Deeks glanced over to Kensi who didn't respond or look in his direction. Defeated, Deeks turned his attention back to his window and said, "Almost two years."
"Wow, I wouldn't have guessed it," Lyons remarked, "I'd thought you two would have stripped each other down by-"
"Don't say another word," Deeks snapped.
Lyons smiled and rubbed his neck, "Do you have a problem with me, Detective?" he asked.
"That was inappropriate….so shut the hell up," Deeks growled. He almost turned in his seat to face Lyons, but stopped at Kensi's murderous glare.
"Kensi, he just insulted-"
"Don't, Deeks. Not now- just….just leave Lyons alone. Alright?"
"Fine." Deeks shot Lyons a warning glare before quieting down for the rest of the trip.
Naval Air Weapons Station- China Lake, California
Kensi pulled the SUV up behind Sam's Challenger and stepped out. Sam and Callen were leaning against the car hood, chatting while waiting for the SUV. In the middle of her irritability, they had lost the Challenger, arriving ten minutes later.
"Did you get lost?" Callen asked casually as Kensi walked over to them. Deeks jumped out of the SUV but stayed by the SUV. He wanted to avoid as much conflict with Callen and Sam….especially Sam.
"No, we just-we're here ok!" Kensi snapped. Lyons walked up behind her and motioned towards the base main office. "Shall we?"
"You heard the man, let's get to it," Callen said. He started off to the base office with Sam and Kensi. Lyons took a quick look at the hesitant detective before following the agents with a smile on his face. Bastard! Deeks thought before running after the team.
Once in the office, the team and Lyons spotted an official standing near the secretary with a scowl on his face. Sam pulled out his badge and called out, "Chief Petty Officer Williams?"
Williams nodded and grunted, "Yes?"
Sam pointed to each team member, "I'm Special Agent Sam Hanna and this is Special Agent G. Callen, Special Agent Kensi Blye, Interpol Agent George Lyons, and LAPD Detective Marty Deeks."
"What the hell does Interpol and LAPD have to do with this?"
"Lyons is observing," Deeks stated from behind the group, "and I'm the Liaison officer." Until tomorrow,he thought.
"Fine," Williams snapped, "I'll take you to where we have the evidence." He pushed passed the agents and started walking towards a small hanger at the other end of the base. The team followed him with Lyons trailing behind them. Deeks spotted that Lyons was once again on his PDA, furiously typing away as he walked.
When they arrived to the hanger, Williams swiped his key card which opened the entrance. They all stepped inside, seeing a green jeep sitting at the front of the hanger. It appeared untouched, which was a relief to the team.
"We left Los Angeles as soon as we got the news. Can you identify the victims?" Sam asked, approaching the vehicle with Callen. Williams said, "Petty Officers Hunter Heath, June Lance, and Blaine Smith."
"When exactly did this happen?" Callen asked, kneeling beside the passenger door. He could see three .22 caliber shell casings on the floor of the driver's seat.
"We're not exactly sure when; two officers found the bodies, told us, and then I called you guys in-"
"Two days later," Deeks said, cutting Williams off, "Why did you wait? And how does three gunshots go off and no one hears it?"
"Detective," Williams snarled, "If you're thinking that we're covering something up, you're wrong!"
"If there's a legit reason behind you waiting, just tell us," Sam said calmly. He shot Deeks a warning glare to back down before returning his attention to Williams. "We had good reasons for the delay, Agent Hanna. All you need to focus on right now is solving the case."
"Can you tell us anything about the petty officers?" Kensi asked. Williams pointed towards the vehicle and snapped, "Agents, everything you need is in the damn vehicle. There should be a file on the back seat with everything that you need. Your Assistant Director told me that you'd all be very cooperative in this case-"
"There's barely anything in here," Deeks said, once he had picked up and read the file. "This can't be all you have on these men."
"Yes it is, Detective. Now if you excuse me, I have work to do." Williams walked out of the hanger before anyone else could say a word. A minute of silence passed before Deeks pulled out his cell phone and dialed the Ops Center.
"Hey, Deeks," Nell answered in a bright voice, "What can I do you for?"
"I need you to get me all you can on," he glanced over the names in the file, "Petty Officers Hunter Heath, June Lance, and Blaine Smith. Also check out Chief Petty Officer Williams."
"Alright, give me a few and I will call you back-"
Deeks stepped out of earshot range of the group and lowered his voice, "I also know you guys ran a check on Lyons. Can you send me the informa-"
"You ran a background check on me?" Lyons exclaimed. Deeks froze and thought, Holy Crap! How the hell did he hear me?
"Things aren't adding up," Sam calmly told him, "We just needed to make sure that you were legit."
"I see," Lyons turned to Deeks, "And you need the information right now because…."
"Do you have some kind of supersonic hearing?" Deeks exclaimed, "Because I'm pretty sure that there's no way that you could have heard that-"
"Detective, I know that you don't trust me, but all I have done since we began this case is observe! You on the other hand, have been riding me on everything I do!" Lyons angrily jammed his PDA in his pocket, "What the hell is your problem?"
"My problem is you!" Deeks stepped within inches of the man's face, "What the hell is Interpol doing on a case like this?"
"Assistant Director Granger's request! Agents, you need to get your little detective under control or I will!"
"Deeks, stop!" Kensi yelled. She pulled her partner back and added, "Get yourself together."
"There is something not right about this, Kens-"
"Come here." Kensi pulled Deeks to the other side of the hanger. Deeks winced at the grip on his arm, gasping, "Ouch, Fern. Not so tight, not so tight-"
"What's been going on with you? Is this because of the raid from yesterday?" She let go of his arm and crossed hers, demanding an answer. Deeks answered, "Something is not right with Lyons, Kensi-"
"Don't you think that we don't know that? We knew that something was up with him from the start, but we can control our emotions about it, unlike you!" She turned to walk away, but stopped when Deeks said, "Kens…..I'm sorry about yesterday. I made a mistake-"
"That could have killed me. Take five minutes to get yourself together and then come back." Kensi opened her mouth to add something, but quickly closed it, shaking her head. Without a word coming from the detective, she walked away, leaving him standing alone. He could see her apologize to Lyons before she returned to inspecting the vehicle. Deeks decided to take his partners advice and left the hanger.
Once outside, Deeks felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He answered it, relieved that the caller was Nell.
"That was quick," Deeks said. There was a pause on the other end of the line before Nell asked, "Are you alone?"
"Uh….yes? Nell, what's going?" He then heard Hetty's voice say, "Mr. Deeks, it appears that our-mainly your- hunches were correct. Ms. Jones had put everything that we had on Lyons in a file in the NCIS database-"
Nell cut her off, "And when I tried to re- access it, the file was gone. Eric's trying to recover the file right now. On top of that, those three petty officers have close to zilch information. There's barely anything- I can get you…date of birth, education, and family names, but that's about it. For three simple petty officers, that's way way too little information."
"Ok, call and tell Callen all of this. I kind of blew up at Lyons…again and now I'm on some kind of five minute time out. "
"Well, if I were you," Hetty said, "I would take those five minutes to look around. See if anything is suspicious. The other team members are most likely going to be followed closely by Lyons. You don't have a lot of time left before you aren't a detective anymore- I'd like you to end your career being useful. By the way, your application was accepted and I'm trying to get the director to give you probationary status until you finish your training."
Deeks heard Nell faintly say, "Wait….what's that supposed to mean?"
"Tomorrow night- if everything with the Director goes alright," Deeks could hear Hetty tell Nell, "Our team will have four agents instead of three. Mr. Deeks will become an NCIS agent."
Deeks sighed in relief. He was in- he was officially part of NCIS- of course, if everything went well.
If everything went well.