Sam slammed the breaks on the Challenger when he and Callen arrived at Deeks' apartment. They parked right behind Kensi's silver SUV. Kensi was out front, running towards her SUV with Monty in her arms and a backpack on one shoulder.
"Kensi!" Callen exclaimed when he jumped out of the car, "Where's Deeks?"
"He's in the SUV," Kensi answered. She opened the back seat door and placed Monty on the backseat. "He was stabbed in the thigh by an assailant. Now there's a dead body in his apartment and because of the gunshots, LAPD will be here any moment."
Callen nodded, quickly glancing between the SUV and Deeks' apartment. Sam was by the walkway where he could see a trail of blood towards the street, the blood assumingly belonging to Deeks.
"LAPD is going to be all over Deeks after this," Sam muttered, "G , we need to make a move."
The team leader took a moment to mull over the options. While thinking, Callen could see Deeks looking more and more uncomfortable in the passenger seat.
"We go to a safe house," Callen decided. He picked up Sam and Kensi's confused looks. "Not the boat shed. We're going to an emergency- call it a backup- safe house . Kensi, I'll text you the coordinates. Let's go."
Kensi nodded and returned to her vehicle, Callen and Sam doing the same to the Challenger. Inside the SUV, Kensi looked over to her injured partner. Deeks was pale and breathing more heavily, but still had a focused look on his face. He winced and asked, "What's the game plan?"
Kensi could hear police sirens off in the distance. She immediately started the vehicle and drove onto the main road towards the highway.
"Callen's got a safe house that we're going to go to," she answered. Deeks slowly nodded, a slight smile appearing on his face. "Callen's got his own super-secret safe house?"
"Yep. We should be safe there for the time being."
"Hmm…" Deeks turned his attention towards the backpack sitting next to a sleeping Monty. "You got my bag."
"Yeah, what's in it?" Even in the heat of the moment, Kensi was still curious about the bag.
Deeks shifted onto his side where he could apply pressure to his wound easier. He told Kensi, "It's a backup emergency-apocalyptic go-bag that has my passport, a few trinkets, cash, a weapon, a knife and food for me and Monty."
"I'm impressed."
"Thanks….and I'm sorry for getting you guys into this mess."
Kensi smiled before turning onto the highway. "I'm your partner, Deeks. I'll always be there no matter what."
Twenty minutes later, both vehicles pulled up to a small house on a beach. It stood on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Standing on the driveway was Hetty and a small blonde woman wearing scrubs. Callen stepped out of the Challenger first and walked over to the silver SUV. Kensi was standing by the driver's seat, grabbing her wallet, keys, and Deeks' bag.
"Sam will get Deeks," Callen said. He placed a comforting hand on Kensi's back. " He'll be ok."
"Yeah…..wait- how did Hetty know to meet us here…..and bring a doctor?" Kensi asked. Callen smiled and said, "It's Hetty. All I told her was that Deeks was attacked and she knew what to do after that."
In the passenger seat of the SUV, Deeks was getting sleepy. The probationary agent leaned forward, wanting to rest his head on the dashboard. He was stopped from doing so when Sam opened the door and grabbed his shoulder.
"Hey, don't go dying on me. I still have to kick your butt for driving my car last week," Sam stated. He took Deeks' arm and helped the man out of the car. Deeks could only respond, "But Hetty said I could….."
"Of course she did." As much as Sam found Deeks to be annoying, he also cared for the younger agent like he was family. As Sam helped Deeks up the driveway, Sam was beginning to regret not showing a little appreciation for Deeks. The ex-Navy Seal made a mental note to change that once the case was over.
"Doctor, you won't have to use needles, right?" Deeks deliriously asked. Sam snorted and followed the doctor inside with Deeks. Behind them, Callen and Kensi walked over to Hetty.
"How did you beat us? And find a doctor?" Callen asked.
Hetty momentarily smiled, stating, "I hope that you aren't doubting my ability, Mr. Callen. Whenever one of my people are hurt, I bring in my resources as fast as efficient as I can. We can talk about that later, though. After Mr. Deeks is attended to, we need to discuss this team's next carefully planned steps in catching this spy, Granger, and Lyons."
An hour later, the team sat scattered around a living room. A bandaged up Deeks was lying next to Kensi on a couch while Sam was pacing down the middle of the living room. Hetty was sitting on an opposing couch and Callen was standing at the window, watching the red horizon.
"In my injured, dazed space out, I overhead you say 'carefully planned steps'," Deeks stated, "What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean, Mr. Deeks, is that you all our going to have to make a choice- a big one. That man that attacked you was hired by Lyons," Hetty responded.
Kensi nervously chuckled. "I had sent that photo that I took of him to you only 90 minutes ago….."
"I'm good at what I do, my dear," Hetty answered, " Roger Kahli is the man's name- he's also the husband of Alexandria, the woman Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna interviewed yesterday. I have actual physical evidence now that Agent Lyons has been paid to support a spy in NCIS and to keep anyone from poking around. We can assume that some of the money was for Lyons to hire a hit on both those petty officers and Deeks."
Sam sighed in annoyance. "So that leaves Granger and the spy. What's the big choice that we have to make?"
Hetty paused before dumping the contents from a manila envelope onto the living room table. Inside were four sets of fake passports, four stacks of currencies from different countries, and multiple sets of plane tickets. Deeks and Kensi were slightly confused , but Callen and Sam knew exactly what it meant.
"You want us to find this spy ourselves," Callen said.
"With the dead body, I know that Granger and LAPD's police chief will go after Mr. Deeks for murder, regardless of any tangible evidence that they may find. With that, the entire team's credibility and standing will be destroyed. If they succeed, the evidence that Deeks found and our testimonies will be ruled as unusable. However, if we continue what we are doing and go after this spy, Granger will put you all on every watch list around the world for committing treason, again regardless of any tangible evidence."
"So you're saying we're screwed either way?" Deeks exclaimed.
"Not in such words, but yes- those are our only two options and none of them our pretty," Hetty stated, " Everyone would be looking for all of you and if you get caught, death or a life sentence will be the consequences."
All this for some stupid codes? Deeks pulled himself to his feet at the thought of never being able to go home. Kensi called out to him, which he didn't hear in his daze. He limped over to a bedroom and closed the door behind him.
"You've got to kidding me," Deeks whispered as he limped over to the bed. He laid on his back and groaned. All I did was snoop around and now we all have targets on our backs.
Deeks was pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of light knocking at the door. It was Kensi, who called, "Deeks? You ok?"
"I'm alright, Kens," he lied. I will not let some dumbass spy hurt anyone on this team. Sam's got a family, Callen has….Sam, and Kensi…..I just can't let anything happen to Kensi. Deeks sighed once he came to a decision; he was going to protect his family and team…
No matter what the cost.