A/N: Thanks to my beta kensi54382 for amazing pep talk and making me laugh after the most boring back-to-school-day ever :) So, like I promised: more Callen and Deeks to come...
Enjoy! :))
Callen was sitting with his laptop and a glass of water on the couch, desperately trying to concentrate on the document in front of him, but found himself failing to do that. He knew by now why Hetty had wanted him to spend some time with Deeks. She somehow had managed to show the two men that there always were different points of view of the same situation. Not that they didn't know that before but regarding this exact situation, they never considered the other side of the coin. Callen had never anticipated that the sleep he was missing so much could be pure horror for other people, and Deeks only saw that horror instead of the restful side.
Callen shook his head and tried to focus on the monitor in front of him again. Hetty was full of surprises, even for him. If she had lived some centuries ago, she surely would have been accused of being a witch with her talent to foresee the future. Although, the people would probably have run away from her instead of trying to burn her. He couldn't help but grin at the thought that someone tried to drown or burn Hetty, trying to get her to do something she wasn't intending to do. It was a picture that just wasn't right. And that was not what he was supposed to be thinking about. Again.
Sighing, Callen closed the laptop and leaned back. The sun was shining through the windows which regretfully had to stay closed for their safety - even if the windows did not look like it, they were bulletproof. The garden would be an alternative to opening the windows, but Callen didn't want to leave the living room. He had promised Deeks that he would wake him from a nightmare and he wouldn't notice one if he was sitting in the garden. It had been four hours since he had convinced Deeks to go to sleep and he hadn't heard a thing from the detective since then. Sam and Kensi would return soon but Callen wanted Deeks to get as much rest as possible and he certainly would not wake him a second too early, if not absolutely necessary. Callen was just thinking that Deeks actually managed to sleep quite peacefully when the sounds from within the bedroom were carried to him through the door he had left ajar.
Mentally trying to brace himself for the next couple of minutes, Callen stood and made his way to the doorframe. He saw the same picture Kensi had seen the two previous nights; Deeks lay heavily breathing and tangled in his blanket, the injured knee twisted in a way that couldn't be comfortable. Following Deeks' advice, Callen fished his cell phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial for Deeks' phone which was lying on the small bedside table. The cell phone was ringing not even ten seconds later, but the detective was oblivious to it. It seemed like the pain killers just sucked him even deeper into his dreams than normal.
Callen hung up and tried to figure out the best way to wake his colleague. Deeks had said that he shouldn't be touched or spoken to, but there was no other option left. Callen took some steps nearer to the bed, but kept some distance in order to look non-threatening.
"Deeks. Deeks, wake up!" he said in a firm but not commanding tone, still with no success.
Callen considered using 'Marty' for a second, but abolished that idea in the same thought. Whatever had happened, Callen was sure it had something to do with abuse and Deeks certainly had been called Marty back then. It wouldn't help - it would just make things even worse. In the end, Callen fell back on the last resort he could think of; he called upon Deeks' sense of duty.
"Detective Deeks! Open. Your. Eyes," he hoped that he stressed every word like an instructor would speak to his trainee. "Detective!"
Just when Callen made the move to touch Deeks, his eyes snapped open and stared at the agent, who took a step back.
"Deeks, everything is fine, okay? Just a dream," Callen said calmly and waited until the detective nodded slightly, before he got closer again and handed him the glass of water from the nightstand.
"Sorry," Deeks mumbled after several seconds and rubbed his eyes before accepting the water and giving his okay for contact with that.
"Nothing to be sorry for. Need some air?"
"That'd be great."
Callen helped Deeks to untangle himself from the blanket, gave him his crutches and then followed Deeks into the garden. The two of them sunk onto the chairs which were still standing there from last night.
"We sat here last night as well, Kensi and I. Normally, I would drive to the beach, but this is as good as it can get, considering the situation," Deeks commented without really looking at Callen.
"Tell Kensi what you dream of," Callen said out of the blue. "Eventually, she'll figure it out on her own, one way or another. You know that's true. Just tell her and it's easier for both of you."
Deeks frowned at his team leader. Like the day before with Kensi, this situation felt kind of wrong, weird. Callen spoke this openly with Sam, maybe Hetty, but certainly not with him. Even if Deeks didn't notice it in everyday situations, it did seem like the team grew closer and like he was becoming more and more a part of their family, despite technically still being on the payroll of the LAPD.
Enjoying the moment, he answered lost in his thoughts, "Yeah, maybe I should."
Eric and Nell were confronted with what must have been the most complicated task they were ever asked to do. They didn't have to get through some wicked firewall of another federal agency or coordinate their team with the LAPD without one shooting the other by accident – no, they had to put a micro into a shoe. They had to put a micro in a shoe in a way that no one would notice it but it still transmitted everything anyone was saying in the room. Sure, they were technical analysts, but analysts being the important word here. Both of them liked to tinker with something sometimes, like Eric built his odd flying object, but that didn't mean that they were supposed to tamper with shoes.
"Where the heck are we supposed to hide the microphone?" Nell sighed, holding the shoes of Lopez in her hands.
The colourful sneakers were well-worn – so well-worn that they didn't deserve to be called sneakers anymore. Taking other shoes was no option as the leader of the cartel knew his members and new shoes bought within the days of absence that were hardly to explain would raise unwanted attention.
"Don't complain, but be glad that it is just the micro and not a camera that has to cover all angles of wherever they're going to be," Eric stated and thought back to what Nell had asked during her first month at OSP: Do they always expect the impossible?
Nell grinned and met her colleague's gaze, "Yeah, guess you're right. Okay, first the tracking device, that's easier to hide."
She took the little device with tweezers and pushed it between the sole and the insole of the left shoe.
"That's going to be uncomfortable. I would put it in the sole but I don't think that it would survive a cut with a scalpel," Nell said and smiled inwardly.
The guy who shot Deeks ought to walk in uncomfortable shoes for the rest of his life, if it was up to Nell. Eric critically inspected the soles and came to the same result as Nell. "No, they would most certainly not survive that. So, where do we put the microphone?"
It really wasn't easy to find a place for it. Even if it was the smallest they had it was still the size of a button camera to catch all of what was said. The two finally decided to put the microphone behind some holes in the shoe that had already been there. As long as Lopez was wearing black socks, it wouldn't draw attention to it – except if someone suddenly decided to take a closer look at holes in a sneaker.
"Okay, that's it."
Nell took off the magnifying glasses and tried to rearrange her hair at least a bit. Before she knew it, Eric had tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and then all but flinched back from the touch.
"Um… coffee?" he stammered, his cheeks the color of the ripest strawberries you could possibly imagine.
"Yeah, sure," Nell answered as relaxed as she could manage, ignoring Hetty's no-food-or-drinks-up-in-ops-rule.
Granted, they had kissed at Christmas but that had been different. Nell had been an elf and so in holiday mood that she just took the initiative. Only to get Eric into his costume, of course – at least that was what she tried to tell herself. Nell sighed more or less annoyed and shook her head. She had an incredibly high IQ and could see through everything, even this dance Kensi and Deeks were having for now over two and a half years, but didn't see themselves. Then why couldn't she understand what was going on between Eric and her? And what wasn't ?
Kensi and Sam were just on the way back to the safe house when Eric and Nell informed the two that they had somehow managed to get the microphone into Lopez' shoes so that the operation could start anytime now.
"Okay, thanks, Eric," Sam slipped his cell phone back into his pocket and glanced at Kensi who was sitting on the passenger seat of the Challenger. "The shoes are ready."
"Get me to Deeks and then you and Callen follow Lopez," Kensi said and didn't welcome the sense of relief that wanted to wash over her.
They had a chance to get to the cartel. Yes, there was a lot that could go south but at least they had a foot in the door.
"You sure that you don't wanna come along?" Sam asked and looked at her unbelievingly. He would have bet that Kensi wanted to personally kick the asses of the people who had hurt her partner.
"I will not leave Deeks all by himself," Kensi snapped and then added sheepishly, "Every time he does something on his own, something happens to him. Remember last Christmas? He follows some insane spinach lead and ends up in a garbage container."
She could remember all too clearly when the suspect had let go of the container and Deeks had slipped out, hands bound together and gagged.
"Yeah, that's an argument," Sam agreed and then left it at that. There was no point of trying to show Kensi how protective she was at the moment concerning Deeks.
"Callen said we should give him a call when we're headed their way," Sam said and left it to Kensi to understand the not really subtle hint.
"Okay," Kensi was already hitting her speed dial and pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder while checking her gun.
Sam looked at her again and then at the SIG in her lap. Kensi and her gun were like a little girl and her doll. Whenever she was nervous or felt anything that she didn't like, she had her gun in her hand even if it was just to check whether the safety was still on.
"Hey, Callen. Yeah, we're on our way to you guys. Sam will take you to the boatshed and then the op can start. See you in a bit," Kensi hung up with a frown forming on her face.
"Everything all right?"
"I don't know… There's something Callen didn't tell me."
"Is there now?"
"There was something in his voice, something that doesn't belong there."
Sam smiled and tilted his head slightly. "Kensi, Callen is an undercover agent who walked into the middle of criminals without them noticing that they were being played. And you hear something in his voice that doesn't belong there?"
Sam knew his partner and he also knew that it was possible to tell from his voice if there was some problem or if he kept something from you, but he didn't want Kensi to worry even more than she already did.
A/N: So, will Deeks talk to Kensi? And is there something going on between Eric or Nell? Will the op go south? How did you like the moment between Callen and Deeks? Too much? Well, I certainly like to know - leave a review :)
