Kensi rushed to her desk and set her things down. Then before anyone could slow her down, she made her way across the mission floor.
"Hetty, I really need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?" she asked.
"Of course. I always have time for my team. Have a seat," Hetty answered as she gestured towards the chair next to Kensi. "You're here rather early today. What can I do for you Ms. Blye?"
Kensi sat down and began playing with her fingers in her lap. "I'm not really sure the best way to say this, because it just happened and it was unexpected, but I'm… I'm, um…" Kensi stammered nervously.
"Expecting? Yes, dear, I know. Congratulations," Hetty answered matter-of-factly.
"Wait, you know? How do you know? Did someone tell you? I know I should have told you yesterday right away, but then the case came up and you were gone and…"
"Relax Kensi. No one told me anything, well not directly. Sometimes observations are more powerful than words." Hetty paused to pour some tea. "You have been cutting way back on your coffee consumption, you have been more particular about what you eat, and you may want to close your desk drawer completely if you are going to keep prenatal vitamins in there."
Kensi silently cursed herself for being so careless. "So, yeah. I'm pregnant. It was completely unplanned, but I am going to be the best agent and parent I can be. I am still committed to NCIS, Hetty."
Hetty nodded at the young woman in front of her. "I understand. Have you told your team leader the news yet?"
"Not yet. I wanted to tell you first." The truth was that Kensi was even more terrified to tell Callen than she was to tell Hetty.
"I see. What about the baby's father?" Hetty asked.
"Um, he knows. I told him already."
"And how is Mr. Deeks handling the news of impending fatherhood?"
Kensi's jaw dropped. "How- how did you know it was Deeks?"
Hetty smiled and leaned forward closer to Kensi. "My dear, there are many things that I know. How I know them is of no consequence."
"Right. Deeks – he's ok with it I guess. He said he would be there for me and the baby." Kensi replied.
"I have no doubts that he will live up to his word on that. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Kensi nodded slowly. "I know this is going to change my work responsibilities. How long can I stay in the field before I get chained to a desk?"
Hetty chuckled a bit at Kensi's dramatic inquiry. "No one is getting chained to anything, as you say. We will see how the case load goes, but I think it's safe to say you will only be going out on fact-finding missions from now on, and never alone."
"What about when Deeks comes back? Can we still be partners, or did we screw that up?" Kensi asked hesitantly.
"Considering how far along you are, and the time when Mr. Deeks is expected back to OSP as an agent, I don't think it will be an issue. By the time he returns to us, you will be more than halfway through your pregnancy and will certainly be staying in this mission out of the field. Mr. Deeks can take over your partnership with Ms. Lowry, and the three of you can work together here." Hetty responded, as if she had everything planned out already.
"What about Jenny now, in the field I mean? Who will she go out with instead of me? I hate to leave her hanging, or worse, the third wheel with Sam and Callen."
"Oh, I already have someone in mind. You let me worry about that." Hetty got up from her desk to walk around by Kensi, who stood up to leave. "Don't worry about Assistant Director Granger and his offer either. Parenthood is not a disqualification for promotions." She smiled up at the tall, slender agent in front of her.
"Congratulations again, Kensi. I have every faith that you will succeed in this new venture."
There were so many things going on with her family of agents these days. Some things were returning to normal, some things were finding a new normal, and some things could never be normal again. In the middle of it all, the villains and terrorists kept up their tireless job of aggravating law enforcement. Hetty sighed and enjoyed her tea during what was supposedly her lunch break. A loud ringing broke her out of her thoughts. She reached over and picked up the receiver of her desk telephone.
"Yes, this is Henrietta Lange. With whom am I speaking?"
"That is correct. I do have an employee by that name."
"He did what? I see. I will take care of it. Please let me speak with him."
"Hello. Can you explain to me exactly what happened?"
"Are you sure? Yes, that was the right answer."
"Who said that? Ah, yes, I remember her."
"You can rest assured I will follow up on that right away."
"You are a cheeky one, aren't you?"
"Yes, alright, I will let you get back. You are greatly missed. Oh and Mr. Deeks? Try to be on your best behavior from here on out, would you?" Hetty chuckled as she hung up the phone. She noticed a few faces from the bullpen glancing her way.
"Was that Deeks on the phone?" Kensi asked Hetty as she walked into the bullpen area.
"Yes, dear. It seems Mr. Deeks was trying to instruct the instructor about some undercover techniques during one of his courses. The instructor did not take kindly to being told she was wrong in front of her pupils," Hetty explained.
"Deeks isn't even half-way completed with his training and he's getting in trouble already? Sam, you owe me twenty bucks," Callen said to his partner.
"You were laughing, so it can't be that bad. What did he do? Tell the class that going under as a homeless bum is always the right answer?" Kensi joked.
"Mr. Deeks tried to share some of his years of experience in relation to a simulated scenario for the course. He started to argue his point and dropped my name during the conversation. Apparently that mention caused quite a stir, and hence the phone call I received. Mr. Deeks is doing well in his training and will not be penalized for being correct," Hetty explained with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Deeks was right?"
"My people are always right, Mr. Hanna."
Eric sprinted down the stairs in record time, almost colliding with Callen, who was starting the ascent up to ops.
"Sorry Callen, I didn't see you there," Eric said quickly as he tried to move aside.
"Actually I was coming to see you. Did we get anything back from those blood samples found at Port Hueneme yet?"
Eric started fidgeting nervously with the file folder in his hands. "Uh yeah, but I need to talk to Hetty first. I can get them to you later."
"Is that the results?" Callen asked, pointing to the file folder. "I can take them now and look them over myself."
Eric's grip tightened on the folder. "Um, no. No, I can't give them to you yet. I would, normally, but I really have to run them past Hetty first this time."
"Eric, what's going on? Are you trying to hide something about the case from me? We have an active investigation going on and I need those results. You've never had to run results past Hetty before." Callen was getting impatient.
"Special circumstances this time. Sorry Callen. Just doing my job." Eric stepped past Callen and continued to Hetty's desk, leaving Callen a bit bewildered and confused.
"It's a busy day around here. What can I do for you, Mr. Beale?" Hetty inquired of the young man in front of her desk.
"Well, um, we got the results back from the lab on the blood samples taken from Port Hueneme." Eric paused, unsure if he should continue yet or not. "There is something you need to see."
"What did you find out?"
"There were 3 different contributors. One is our victim, Lt. Yencha, and then two other unknown male samples. This whole time we've been assuming that there is only one killer, but there may be two, or someone else was in the room and injured during the murder," Eric reported, getting excited.
"I see. Do we have any leads on who those two other samples are from? Did you get any matches on them?" Hetty asked.
" Yes and no. One of the samples is a complete unknown yet. We are still searching for a match in all the available databases. The second one… we ran it through all the databases, like normal, and um, one name came up as a partial match – to one of our own." Eric responded nervously, looking around the mission.
"Our own? About whom are you speaking, Mr. Beale?"
"The sample came back as a familial match – most likely a parent-child match – to Callen," Eric said in a hushed tone.
Hetty set her tea cup down and leaned forward in her chair. "You're telling me, Mr. Beale, that there were two men in the room besides Lt. Yencha when he was murdered, and that one of them could be Mr. Callen's father?"
"Yes to the first part, Hetty, and possibly to the second part, at least according to the DNA results from the blood."
"Is that all?" Hetty asked.
"Should I tell Callen? He wants the results as soon as possible, but I told him I needed to run them past you first. What should I tell him if he asks again?"
Hetty held her hand out. "Leave the report here with me. I will speak with Mr. Callen about this. Thank you Mr. Beale."
Eric eagerly handed over the file folder. "Here you go, Hetty." He turned on his heels and practically ran back up to the safety of his ops center.
Hetty picked up the file folder and looked over the paper within. "Oh, Bugger!"
While Hetty and Eric were speaking in her office, Callen and his team went over what they had found out about their case. All of the victims were working on weapons systems for the Navy, but none of them were working on the same systems. Some were for aerial defense, some were missile systems and some were large guns. Some were used by sailors on board a ship and some were for the Marines. A few of the systems had just been released for live use, but most of them were still in the development, test and evaluation phases.
"There are only a few bases that do weapons testing and evaluation. The only other ones on the west coast that haven't been targeted yet are NAS Fallon and WSMR," Nell reported to the team.
"What's a WSMR?" Jenny asked.
"It stands for White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico. A joint services base for long-range weapons testing, among other things," Kensi explained. "The Navy has had a detachment there since World War II."
"And Fallon? I thought that was just an air base," Jenny questioned.
"NAS Fallon is also home to the Navy Fighter Weapons School," Kensi told her partner.
"They weren't kidding when they said you know everything there is to know about weapons, were they?" Jenny said light-heartedly to her partner. Kensi nodded proudly.
"We need to have both bases tighten up their security and be alerted to possible threats. I'll have Hetty call the base commanders," Callen said. "Let's look at the list of suspects again and the bases we've identified, and see if we can come up with a shorter list of who might have access to each base and interest in a variety of weapons. Nell, anything from the security tapes yet?"
Nell shook her head. "Nothing very useful. There were no cameras inside the lieutenant's office, but there was one in the hall. It showed several people walking past the area where his office is, but no one that stood out as suspicious or out of place. We are still working with facial recognition to identify all the people in the hallway, but so far no good leads. Sorry."
"You and Eric keep on it, let us know if anyone seems even slightly out of place or unusual. I'll go see if I can get those results from Eric yet on the blood found at our scene."
Callen started to walk out of the bullpen, but stopped at the sound of his boss's voice.
"Mr. Callen, I need to see you right away. It's about this case…"
The next chapter might a little delayed, so I figured I would get this one out now. Thank you for reading and reviewing and sharing your thoughts with me. And a big SHOUT OUT to NCIS: Los Angeles and their 100th episode airing tonight! WOO HOO!