A/N: Assume that Hunter is still alive and that the Chameleon story line doesn't exist for this story
One Year later- Los Angeles OPS Center- 4am
Assistant Director Owen Granger stepped into the Ops center on an early November morning to find the building completely empty. He had expected as much as none of the agents were expected to be at the office earlier than 9am. The new LA Special Ops team consisted of four very new, very inexperienced, and very afraid agents that complied with Granger's every wish. The office's new operations manager, Lauren Hunter, ran an efficient office where no one ever questioned his leadership.
As for the original team; Callen, Blye, Hanna, Beale, Jones, and Hetty were scattered in federal prisons throughout California. Every single one of them was in medium to high lockdown with little contact and zero chance of seeing the light of day. Granger had kept on lockdown just in case…just in case Blye's story about Deeks wasn't as perfect as it had sounded.
A year ago to the day, LAPD had received an anonymous phone call stating that a brunette and a blue eyed white male had killed a man in an abandoned warehouse. Granger had soon arrived to find a charred body and Callen and Blye who willingly turned themselves in. The best part for Granger was finding Blye a blubbering mess, crying that the burnt tee shirt that she had in her hands was the only thing that she had left of her dead partner, who had been supposedly killed trying to take down Pendle alone.
With everyone out of the picture, Granger was officially in the clear.
Today, Granger had planned to review over the work that he, Lyons, and the deceased Pendle had done over the past two years. Losing Pendle was unfortunate, but it wasn't a world ending thing. Pendle's death was quickly covered up to where no one knew that the burnt body was a man who sold US secrets for months.
I need to run through the last of the money from Pendle's account, Granger thought as he walked towards Hunter's desk to use her computer. The assistant director was looking through his phone while walking and didn't notice the figure sitting at Hunter's desk with their feet up on the table. It wasn't until Granger heard the cock of the gun that the man finally realized that he wasn't alone.
"I can have agents and LAPD here in less than five minutes," Granger called out, deciding against looking up to face the figure.
"By then, you'd be dead and I'd be out of here."
Granger smirked as he recognized the voice. It was none other than the voice of the supposedly dead Marty Deeks. The agent was branding a revolver in one hand and a folder in the other. Deeks now wore a thick beard and his hair was cut short. With the suit Deeks wore, the agent looked unrecognizable.
"Should have known," Granger chuckled.
"But you didn't. Sit down."
Granger placed his hands in his pocket and raised his eyebrows to challenge Deeks. Without even a blink, Deeks fired a shot at the ground, inches away from where Granger stood. The assistant director jumped to the side and yelled, "What the hell is a matter with you?"
"Sit down," Deeks growled through gritted teeth.
"I see faking your death and living under the radar has turned you into an animal," Granger snarled, "Where'd you get the suit? Did you kill a man for it? 'Cause it must be so hard to not be sitting in the woods, stirring in your own filth without your whore of a girlfriend-"
"SIT DOWN OR I WON'T MISS!" Deeks roared. With a dark glare, Granger walked up to Hunter's desk and sat down across from Deeks. The agent opened the file case and laid out two photos in front of Granger- one was of the charred body that had been with Kensi and Callen and the other of George Lyons, handcuffed to a chair in an empty, dark room.
"How did you…." Granger gasped, "I spoke to him last night."
Deeks replied simply, "7 hours ago. That's a bit of a time gap, Granger. It's such a bit of a time gap that I was able to get in and kidnap him, which was really too easy for an Interpol agent."
Granger glared hard at the agent and saw anger and darkness in the man's eyes that was frightening, even for Deeks. "So are you here to kill me?" Granger asked.
Deeks cocked his head ever so slightly. "I haven't slept, eaten, or taken a breath without having to watch my back for a year. My friends are lockdown, my girlfriend is in prison, and you get to walk around town like you own the place. As much as I'd like to kill you, I can't."
The agent stood up and started walking towards the OPS center side door. What the hell….Granger thought before turning towards the door and yelling, "Then why did you come here? Did you want to just say hello?"
Deeks stopped and looked back at Granger. "No, I came here to tell you that you will either be arrested or killed within the next 24 hours. I'm going to walk out that door and then you'll be your usual arrogant, asshole self and call every law enforcement agency within the state to hunt me down. But you will, by the end of this 24 hour period, either be arrested for treason, falsifying federal accusations and acts of terrorism if you're lucky or I will kill you. And for Lyons….let's just say I gift wrapped him for the government to find."
Deeks turned to walk off but Granger blurted out, "Blye was pregnant when you left. About three weeks, I think. She miscarried when she was six months- the same time when each of your team members were sentenced to jail for life."
Deeks tightened the grip on his gun. Granger had no idea how dangerous poking a homicidally, tired angry agent could be. He wanted to storm off or turn around and shoot the man, but the news of Kensi's miscarriage was making him freeze up.
Kens was pregnant? Did she know before I had left? The agent tightened his jaw before taking what seemed like the hardest step of his life. He started to repeat in his head as he walked out of the OPS center one simple sentence,
Everything is going to plan.