Once Granger had left, Nell asked quietly, "Now what?"
"We continue on this case, Nell," Callen answered. He turned to the rest of the team and told them, "We need to find Lyons. It's too suspicious for a man to disappear like that. Nell, I want you to go somewhere outside of NCIS' database and decipher the pictures that Deeks had taken at the base. Take Eric with you. Sam and I will go and see if we can dig up some information on Lyons through some Interpol contacts. Deeks, Kensi- you two find Lyons. Now Deeks, when you find him, please-"
"Ok, I'm sick of this!" Deeks exclaimed. He turned to face Kensi, Sam, and Callen. "I am sorry about what had happened with the raid! It was a stupid mistake- a human error- and I'm sorry! I know I'm behind and I promise you that I'll work day and night to make it where you all don't have to worry about me screwing something up. Right now, we need to move on and focus on this case! Ok?"
Sam crossed his arms and stared at Deeks for a few seconds before saying, "Alright."
"Are we cool?"
"Yeah, we're cool." Sam walked over to the door, "I'm still going to talk with the Director and see how the hell they let you into NCIS," he joked.
"Love you too, Sam," Deeks laughed. He turned to Callen, who smiled back. "We're cool, Deeks. The raid and the case for it was….stressful and we unfortunately had been taking our frustrations out on you. I'm sorry for that."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome and congrats on fully joining the squad." Callen gave Deeks a pat on the shoulder before walking out with Sam. Kensi nodded in contempt before following the guys out of the room. Nell suddenly jumped up and said, "Oh, Deeks! This is for you!"
She handed him an NCIS badge. "Hetty wanted to do something special before giving you this, but now that Lyons' is a suspect and Granger's being…Granger, you need to have it now."
"Thanks, Nell." He admired the badge for a moment before turning to leave with his partner.
Twenty minutes later, Kensi and Deeks were on their way to the location of Lyons' car. Kensi was driving while Deeks was staring at the window.
"So are we ok?" Deeks suddenly asked. Kensi smiled and said, "Yeah- We're good. Callen was right- we were all acting stupid. I just got frustrated…."
"Ok," Deeks glanced at his partner before adding, "- actually, that's great that we're good- I'm tired of being in the dog house-"
"Oh no, you aren't totally out of the woods yet, my friend. When were you going to tell me about you leaving LAPD?"
"When I was sure that you, Sam, and Callen weren't going to shoot me point blank and then go out for drinks afterwards."
"That's still on the table." She paused before turning the SUV onto a side road. Kensi put the vehicle in park and looked up to Deeks. "Did you leave LAPD because of me?"
"No, Kens. The raid was definitely influential, but…." Deeks glanced towards the NCIS badge sitting in his lap. "You know Hetty had asked me to join NCIS last year and I told her that it wasn't the right time. I think the raid made me realize that I need to catch up with you guys- you know, not be the lagging team member anymore."
"You were never that."
"I am, Kens. I loved being a cop…but I love being with you guys more. I'll miss LAPD, but what's done is done. I am happy to be Special Agent though- makes me feel kind of bad ass." Kensi nodded in agreement, content with her partner's answer. Although his humor was slowly returning, Deeks still looked exhausted, physically and emotionally. After this case, I'm going to make him go on some kind of a vacation, she thought. Kensi pulled the car off the street and continued down the main road towards the car's location.
After seven minutes, Deeks heard the GPS beep and he looked towards the upcoming parking lot. "There's Lyons' car."
Kensi pulled the SUV into a parking spot on the other side of the street. "That's weird that he'd park his car with his phone in the middle of an almost empty parking lot like that. That's kinky…really kinky."
"That's the theme of the day." Deeks stepped out of the vehicle and carefully crossed the street with his partner on his heels. He then walked over to the car- A blue Prius. The vehicle was empty with the keys still in the ignition. They had expected the cell phone to be sitting on a seat, but it was nowhere to be found.
"Why the hell would Lyons leave the keys in the ignition? And where's the phone?" Kensi asked.
"And why drive a Prius? Aren't agents supposed to drive bad ass cars like Sam's Challenger?" Deeks muttered, half mindedly. Kensi rolled her eyes and said, "I'll call Nell to make sure nothing changed on our trip down here." She stepped away, leaving the probationary agent alone to inspect the vehicle. He kneeled and ran his hand over the front wheel and back wheel, feeling for any explosive devices. After feeling nothing, Deeks then laid on his stomach and looked under the car. What he saw made his stomach drop.
Deeks jumped up and ran to Kensi's side. "We have to go! Bomb!"
"What?" She didn't have a chance to say anything else before Deeks yanked her back from the car. He pulled her to the other side of the lot and exclaimed, "Lyons' cell phone is under the car as a trigger for a-"
The Prius suddenly exploded into a massive fireball. The blast made Kensi and Deeks duck behind a vehicle as shrapnel was shot across different parts of the parking lot.
Panting, Kensi dropped her head in hands to wrap around her mind around what happened. Deeks was staring at the burning Prius. "We are so screwed," he whispered.
"We're beyond screwed. I think Lyons set that up for us! He and someone at China Lake knows about what you had found, Deeks, and on top of that, there is a good chance someone saw us inspecting Lyons' car which blows up like a minute later-"
Deeks finished for her, "LAPD is going to connect us to the crime, question us, get Granger and Vance involved, we get fired for disobeying orders, and whoever set up that bomb will eventually find a way to kill us. Ahh….I picked a greaaat time to join NCIS…"
"Well. At least we know Lyons is behind this."
"Who else could it be?"
"Ok. " Kensi frowned at the faint sounds of fire trucks. "We need to go- we can't be seen here anymore than we already have."
"Alright, I'm going to tell Callen and Sam." Deeks pulled out his phone and dialed Callen's number while walking behind Kensi. The lead agent answered within one ring. "Callen."
"Hey, a bomb went off-"
"Yeah, we just heard. You guys need to-"
"Get out of there? Yeah, we are currently in the process of running away. Anything from Nell?" Deeks now picked up his pace with Kensi as they ran onto a side street away from the parking lot. The fire trucks were now arriving at the scene, along with a large group of onlookers.
"Yes, but it's not something that could be spoken about over the phone. Remember the case with the challenge between Sam and you over the gem?"
Deeks smiled at the mention of that "case". It was a case created by Hetty to promote team unity, especially between Deeks and Sam. A race filled with challenges had left Sam and Deeks fighting for a small green gem that Hetty had chosen for the prize. Sam wanted to win it to give it to one of his daughters, but Deeks wanted to win it for Kensi. The "case" ended in San Diego where by the straw of luck, Deeks had won.
"Yeah, we'll meet you there." He hung up and told Kensi, "We're heading to San Diego."