A/N: Phew, school is nasty right now and that just two weeks before the holidays... doesn't make sense to me..

This chap is quite short but the nest one is going to be longer, it'll have more action so I thought I couldn't cut it in half - yep, that's my explanation why this one is so short :D

Again thanks to the reviewers and by beta!


Deeks woke up early the next morning from the sun shining brightly in his room. He blinked a couple of times, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and then glanced at Kensi, who was sleeping on the couch next to his bed. Her brown hair was a mess, as well as her former perfect makeup. It seemed like she tried to stay awake at all costs, the wrappers of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs and every other sweet she liked, surrounded her and Deeks could swear that she had chocolate in the corner of her mouth. Grinning to himself, Deeks looked away and sat up. While he waited for the dizziness to pass, one thought crossed his mind: This could be your last day on earth.

Yes, cops woke up with that thought every morning, but the threat was almost never as near as it was now. Normally, you didn't know what kind of situations the day would bring, which operations you had to pull through, so you were a lot less tense. It could happen every second that some madman came storming through into his room, weapon ready to fire and kill him for something he didn't even remember. He had about thirty hours left, before he would be brought into a safe house.

Deeks huffed and shook his head. Normally, it was him who brought witnesses to a safe location and now he needed to count on other peoples' help, because he wasn't able to defend himself. He was lost in his thoughts and didn't notice that Kensi woke up, or that she looked at him closely.

"What are you thinking about?"

Deeks literally jumped before he whisked off her question with a flick of his wrist. Kensi shrugged her shoulders, got up and went to the small bathroom, which was connected to the room.


Eric and Nell sat in front of their computers and were still trying to find out the identity of the driver of the red Pick-Up. The car had been reported stolen several days ago, so that was a dead end for them, and the driver had either been extremely lucky or he had known where traffic cameras were installed, because his face could never be seen.

"I'd say we run the car through Kaleidoscope, Eric. Maybe we'll find it that way," Nell said and talked about the most valuable program they had for finding cars.

The program needed certain parameters about an automobile and then scanned through the tapes of the public cameras – either in a limited area or in the whole city. Eric nodded and typed the known information in the search engine.

"It's worth a try. I'll start in the direct neighbourhood of the wrecking yard and stretch the area if we don't find anything."

Nell ran her fingers through her short brown hair and looked at Eric. Last year at Christmas, she had grabbed the chance and had kissed him beneath the mistletoe, but since then nothing else had happened. They had a beautiful, working partnership - both felt the same way about that – but that was also the reason they didn't go further. The two of them wanted to keep that partnership the way it was – it worked and it needed to be working, since they saw each other every day and couldn't afford a non-functioning relationship in their line of work.

"I'll go get us another coffee," Nell stated and was just on her way to the automatic door, when she heard the typical beeping of one of the computers telling her they had something. "Okay, maybe later…"

She sat down again and saw how a smile crept onto Eric's face.

"Okay, Nell, listen. It seems like the thieves-slash-drug-slash-weapons-dealer left the Pick-Up shortly after the shooting and switched to another car. I searched per Kaleidoscope and…." Eric's eyes were fixated on the screen, where the search for a grey Cadillac was running.

"I'll tell Sam and Callen," Nell said and started a telephone conference with the two, who were on the wrecking yard right now looking for more evidence.

"What have you got, Nell?" she heard Callen ask and gave him the short version of their research.

When she was ready to hang up, Nell heard Eric gasping for air and then a click in her ear, as Eric joined the conference.

"Guys, you need to get to the hospital ASAP! The car the men took just drove into the parking lot!"

Sam and Callen glanced at each other shortly before they ran to their car. Both of them had got up really early, compared to their normal times, to take yet another look at the wrecking yard. One of them had been hurt and that meant they spent every free minute trying to shut the cartel down – even if it meant that they had to go with less sleep.

Sam jumped behind the steering wheel and pushed the gas pedal to its maximum, while his partner called Kensi who was still at the hospital.

"Kensi, listen to me. Remember the guys who saw Deeks on the laptop? They just pulled into the parking lot. Get Deeks away from there! We're on our way, give us five minutes and you'll have back-up." With those words Callen hung up and looked at Sam.

"You think they'll make it?"

Both agents thought the same thing. Deeks had been operated on not even twenty-four hours ago and suffered a severe concussion as a bonus. The question was if Kensi was able to even get him out of his room, or if Deeks was too weak for that.

"They have to."


A/N: One quick question: Shall I answer to your reviews? I know some people don't like it but I consider it rude not to answer, like I don't appreciate your review... Help me out here? :)