Deeks stepped into the operations room after his three hour trip from China Lake. The quiet drive drove him nearly insane; not knowing if his team was ok or what was on the sheets of paper that he had found and an empty car was not the best mix. Once he had made it back to OPS, Deeks had found the building to have barely any people in it.

He found Nell in the room, focused deeply on her computer. She quickly looked up at Deeks' and exclaimed, "You made it!"

"What? Were you expecting me not to?" Deeks asked, slipping off his jacket and placing it onto the table. Nell stood up and said, "Well, that's not what I meant, Deeks. I mean-"

"I know what you meant, Nell," he responded with a yawn. Deeks slid down to the floor. "I have a feeling a lot of bad things are about to happen as well. " Nell sat down next to him, "Yeah…Congrats by the way on becoming an agent."

"Thanks."

"I'm sorry that the team is still angry with you."

"Me too."

"When was the last time you slept, Deeks?" Nell asked curiously. Deeks laid his head against the table leg. "Maybe three days? I don't know- don't worry about me, Nell. I'll sleep once this case is over…..and if the guys don't kill me."

"They won't, don't worry." A grin suddenly appeared on Deeks' face. It took Nell a moment to realize what was so funny. She chuckled and corrected herself, "I'm sorry- Callen won't kill you. Sam and Kensi are a near definite."

"Well, most-"Suddenly the doors opened, revealing a brunette, Hetty, and Granger. The assistant director strutted in and chuckled at the two sitting on the ground. "Sleepover time's over, you two. Jones, I want you to update the new liaison on her duties."

Deeks cocked his head in confusion. "You terminated my liaison position only three hours ago and you already had it filled?"

"Let's just say I got overexcited," Granger grunted. Hetty motioned over to the brunette. "Ms. Jones, Mr. Deeks. Meet Detective Ava Donnelly. She'll be our new liaison." To both Nell and Deeks, there was something odd about Donnelley's behavior. She seemed very interested- too interested in her environment. Her eyes suspiciously darted around during her introduction.

"Director Granger, I'd be happy to show Detective Donnelley around while Ms. Jones and Mr. Deeks work on logistical information for this case," Hetty volunteered. Granger sent Deeks a scowl and grunted, "Fine. I expect the same special treatment you gave the surfer to Ms. Donnelley."

Hetty smiled. "We'll see." She motioned Donnelley out the door before turning to Nell and Deeks. "Well, get to it!"

Nell let out a, "Huh?" before Deeks moved into action. He handed her his phone and said, " I need you to pull up some pictures of some kinky stuff I found."

"It isn't porn, is it?" Nell asked. She connected his phone to her laptop. Deeks rolled his eyes before muttering, "No…..but that would have really been interesting." He scooted close to Nell before he suddenly heard Sam's angry voice,

"I swear I'll break Deeks' neck if I see him."

Deeks froze and whipped his head behind him. "There's not a back entrance or hidey hole I can run to, is there?" he asked Nell. She shrugged her shoulders as Sam, Callen, and Kensi entered the room. Deeks had a second before Sam took off towards him. Thankfully, Nell put her hands up in front of Deeks and exclaimed, "Don't kill him!"

"I'm not going to kill him, Nell," Sam answered in a calm tone, "I'm just going to break his little neck. He'll still be able to live after that."

"I'll be half dead by then!" Deeks exclaimed, "Look, I'm sorry about the raid! I made a honest mistake and it won't happen again! I'm also sorry I didn't tell you that I left LAPD and joined NCIS-"

"You joined NCIS?" Kensi asked from behind Callen. Deeks looked for some form of support or joy from his partner, but only received a cold, hard stare. "Yeah, I'm…I'm a probationary agent, but we can deal with the later! The important thing is what I found in the building next to the base's main office! Nell!"

Nell clicked on the first photo in the phone, a picture of the bloody bags on the table. Deeks pulled himself onto his feet and said, "These belong to the petty officers- each had the same particular blood spatter – basically what you would get if you shot a man close range. Based on how it looked, I'm guessing these men were executed. "Deeks paused expecting to be yelled at, but only saw each agent change their focus onto the flat screen where the photo was displayed.

Nell clicked onto the next photo, the pictures of the burnt sheets of paper. She said, "It looks like these are codes for a program. It shouldn't be too hard to decipher- Eric and I should be able to do it in a matter of hours. I can see that the title says classified- December 2003. "

"Classified? That's odd-"

"That's not the weirdest part- it's in French. Uhhhh," Nell squinted at her screen, "Yeah, this looks something international. Maybe something military between France and United States?"

"If that's the reason, than we need to get in touch with Interpol," Deeks said. He turned to Kensi, "Where's Lyons?"

"He said he had to speak with Granger about something," Kensi answered, "Nell, can you track him?"

"On it." The intelligence analyst disconnected Deeks' phone and started typing, her fingers flying in a blur. Callen glanced around the room before his curiosity got the best of him. "Where's Eric?" he asked. Nell rolled her eyes. "He's been following the new liaison around like a lost, drooling puppy."

"New Liaison?" Sam asked. He shot Deeks a glare and muttered, "In with the new, out with the old, I guess."

Deeks scowled before Nell pulled up a satellite photo of Lyons' vehicle. Nell squinted and said, "I tracked his cell phone and got this, but I don't think there's anyone in his car."

"We can go and check out-"Deeks was cut off by Granger, who once again, appeared by the door. Nell quickly shut down the screen before Granger could see anything. He said, "No, you can't. This case is being handed off to another team."

"Why? We just started!" Callen exclaimed. Granger rolled his eyes and walked past the irate agent. "This decision was made by me and the Director about five minutes ago. This team will stand down on this case- that includes you and Eric, Nell."

"What about those petty officers?" Kensi asked. Granger simply responded, "That will be taken care of." He caught Deeks' deep glare and asked, "What? Is that too hard of a request for Hetty's favorite?"

"I'm not Hetty's favorite-"

"That's crap, Deeks and you know it," Granger turned to the group, "If any of you access any aspect of this case or refuse to hand over any information, especially anything that can be seen as a threat to national security, your actions will be treated as a major felony against the United States and you will all be arrested. Any of you to use, sell, or hide information to anyone outside this agency or the US government-"

"We know- it's treason. Are you accusing us of something?" Callen snapped.

"No, but I have reasons to be suspicious due to a few unnamed sources. I will ask you all once- are there any additional information that I should know of?"

Nell and the four agents exchanged looks before all lying. "No."