In one of the empty offices, an anxious, mentally scattered Sam stands in front of Deeks, who's leaning against one of the desks and not the least bit curious in the SEAL's newest apology.

This is either the third or the third time I've had to apologize since we landed here. What can I say, runs through Sam's mind as the clock ticks monotonously in the background. It's been five minutes since they've both walked into the office and by Sam's count, two minutes since he's seen Deeks blink. I wonder how long Deeks will give me before dismissing my apology. "Ok, Deeks. I-"

"I already told you, Sam. I don't care," Deeks states coldly. He shakes his head lightly at the SEAL. "Over and over again, you tell me that you're sorry and that it won't happen again. I'm tired of it- I don't care anymore. I'll help you rescue Michelle and then I'm done."

"Done how?" Pigs will fly before Sam will let him walk off the team. "You aren't leaving the team after this."

Deeks scoffs. "Leaving…I hadn't even thought about that. Maybe I should-"

"Like I said before, you aren't leaving the team. I won't let you," Sam replies quickly. He's surprised at the harshness of his words and tries to soften the blow. "I'm not going to let you quit because of me. You're too good of an agent and a person to be pushed away because of me. I'm so sorry and when this is all over, I'll fix things-"

"Ok, I am really done," Deeks mutters. He pushes himself off of the desk and heads to the door. His hand touches the doorknob right as he hears, "Damn it! What would have done if you were me right now, Deeks?"

The detective huffs out a sharp breath of air. "You want me to give you a cheat sheet to apologizing?"

"No. I want you to tell me what I need to say right now to get you to let go of your fears."

Deeks scratches his head and then whips around to face Sam. He exclaims, "My gears? What the hell does that have to do with you lying to me?"

Sam begins pacing between the desk and the bookshelf on the adjacent well to keep himself in focus. "Because it has to do with your expectations of me. We're different, Deeks. We're different in how we see the world, how we were trained and especially how we were raised. I know that you grew up being abused and that no one's really respected you until now. And in that, I think, comes the fact that you truly trust very little people in the world."

Deeks' shoulders drop ever so slightly as the anger in him unwillingly starts to dissipate. " I've been seen as the screw up, the class clown and even the little rat everyone wants to get rid of," he mutters. "Worthlessness…..has been drilled with me and because of that, I do my jokes and I don't fully trust even my closest friends because I know that-"

"They'll violate it like I did and others in your past. Deeks, the reason I'm telling you all this right now because in order to save my wife because I need to not worry about us and I need you to be an NCIS agent right now to fight Nahili. I make mistakes, Marty- that's what people who care do."

A silence quickly passes between the two men when Deeks speaks up first, "Did you come up with that epic speech off the top of your head?"

"Yeah," Sam laughs nervously, "Did it work?"

Deeks opens the door of the office and steps out into the hallway. "Kind of and for a bonus, it gave me an idea for getting Nahili. I think we need to let Nahili hear what he wants to hear."

10 miles west of Al Ain, UAE

"Sir, you need to see this."

Nahili takes a deep, impatient breath and places the silver fork in his hand back onto the plate in front of him. He had been enjoying a supposed to be delightful dinner in a tent surrounded by stale, dry desert air when one of his men, Farooq, had burst through the room with a sat phone in hand. It's the fifth or so interruption he's had today and this one better pan out.

"I was just about to have dinner with our guest," Nahili says with a nod towards Michelle sitting handcuffed at the other end of the table. She looks at him blankly and blinks away the mixture of sweat and blood that's running down her forehead. Nahili slowly takes out the handkerchief tucked in his collar and scoots the chair back. He walks past the edge of the table, stops for a moment to run a hand over Michelle's hair and then follows the man out the door. In the hallway, he turns to Farooq and demands, "This better be life or death and that means your life, Farooq."

Farooq holds out the satellite phone towards Nahili and says in a low voice, "Jasmin was arrested when he was trying to capture Agent Hanna, but a couple of minutes ago, he called my sat phone and said that the cop running around with Hannah wants to talk to you directly."

"So Detective Deeks is on the phone?" Nahili whispers. He rips the phone out of the man's hand and answers, "Detective Deeks."

"So this is the famous man that everyone is losing their mind over," Nahili hears on the other end. The detective's voice is cold; from the pictures he's received on Deeks, the voice and the smiley, blonde haired man doesn't match. "I was just telling Jasmin about how fun it would be to hand him over to you and he squealed like a child."

"So why are you calling me then? You won't be able to track this phone."

"I'm not calling to track your phone. I'm calling to make a proposition," Deeks sighs deeply, "I've been screwed over by NCIS and Hanna too many times and with getting my teeth drilled, I'm done. I know you want Hanna and I'll give you him for $2 million."

Nahili's eyes widen before a humorous smirk spreads across his face. "You want to hand over your partner-"

"He's not my partner. Listen, man- I'm just a cop. You think I know anything of any significance from NCIS? I'm their useless little puppy that they string along for kicks. You give me my money and I'll get Hanna right in the middle of an open market and then you take him out. Boom- no more loose ends."