A/N: Thank you for the continous support, really do appreciate it! Any constructive criticism or ideas for the story is (as always) much appreciated! Hope you'll enjoy!
Waking up had never felt this right. The absolute bliss he felt waking up with the sleeping beauty that was Kensi Blye was indescribable. He contemplated his current situation, ah yes, starting the day lying on his back, with the woman you care the most about in the world snuggled into you, using your chest as a pillow. It does not get much better than this, he thought to himself. If it were not for the fact that it was Monday, he would have been content with spending the entire day right here, just revelling in the comfort he felt.
But of course he could not have that, it was, after all, Monday, and they would have to get into work at some point. Remembering that they would have to drop by Kensi's place for her to get a change of clothes he attempted to separate himself from the tangled mess he was currently in, a welcome mess, but a mess none the less.
She woke up to the feeling of her pillow… moving? Why was her pillow, oh, Deeks! The memories flushed back of falling asleep in his embrace. An embrace she still felt around her, if she could bottle up one emotion to keep with her for all eternity, this exact feeling of absolute euphoria would be it. Feeling him shuffling once more, she hummed in contentment effectively stopping his movement.
She turned her head to face him, and he chuckled softly at her sleepy expression, he brushed her hair behind her ear and pressed his lips to her temple. "Good morning beautiful."
"Morning handsome," she giggled back.
"What just happened?" He asked incredulously, "Did Special Agent Kensi Blye just giggle?"
"I don't giggle!" She tried to defend, feigning a pout and buried her head into the crook of his neck, ultimately knowing he would see right through her.
As expected, he laughed at her poor attempt, "Right," he humoured her, "Just like you don't snore?"
This time he got a proper reaction as she quickly sat up glaring at him. "I do not snore!"
He let out a hearty laugh, glad he was able to get a reaction from her, "You're right," he started, once more deciding to humour her, "It's more of a snort-snore." Remembering to include sound effects with the statement.
She tossed a pillow at him, but he just laughed as she closed the door to the bathroom behind her. When she got back out she attempted to seem irritated and annoyed, but her façade slipped quickly once she saw his breath-taking smile, and she found herself unable to stop smiling back at him.
...
After dropping by Kensi's place for a change of clothes they made their way towards the mission, making sure to stop for donuts on the way, since Deeks had not made breakfast that morning and knew better than to let his partner continue without sugar.
The team had no case, but after the incredibly busy last couple of weeks, paperwork was, for once, a welcome sight. There sure was a lot of paperwork to catch up on, case reports and expense statements were just some of the things that had been neglected, seeing as the cases had been coming non-stop. When the day was finally over there were four somewhat relaxed, quite bored agents and one very pleased operations manager.
...
The next couple of days seemed to follow the template that the Monday had left. Loads of paperwork and no action certainly made a dent in the stacks of paper that had been piling on the four desks in the bullpen, but it did not do much in terms of giving the agents their much needed weekly dose of adrenalin.
Apparently, Friday had heard their silent prayers and decided to remedy the acute lack of action, starting very early. Both Kensi and Deeks were awoken from their slumbers, sleeping together Deeks' bed, strictly platonically, of course… for now. Both agents' phones chimed simultaneously, they untangled their limbs from one another and both answered, groggily.
Heading into the mission they decided to take their own vehicles since it would be very difficult having to explain why they had been together at three in the morning on a weekday. Hetty had given Deeks a completely black Ford Expedition as an agency vehicle during the week, seeing as they finally had some down time to make all the arrangements and sign the necessary paperwork. He was extremely delighted with the choice of vehicle, seeing as he had requested one that would allow him to mount a surfboard rack if needed and that wish had been granted.
Arriving at the Office of Special Projects within minutes of each other, they immediately made their way to OPS, knowing that the rest of their team would be there already.
Walking into the technical room they were, as expected, met by the rest of their team, all donning similar grim expressions. "Ms. Blye, Mr. Deeks, I'm sorry about the god awful hour, but as you may imagine we have a situation." She gestured towards the technical operator, letting Eric know to take the lead in the briefing.
"There's been a bombing at the US Navy recruitment center in South Los Angeles." He relayed the information in one breath. Whilst this was, obviously, incredibly bad news and certainly got the attention of the two youngest agents, they still seemed confused as to why anyone would attack such a location during night time when no one would be in the vicinity of the building. Perhaps that was a good thing, the perpetrator purposely not endangering lives.
The line of thinking was shot to the ground when Nell continued the briefing, "We have received an audio file taking credit for the bombing, and threatening to blow up further buildings with military connections, this time with people inside, if their demands are not met."
Kensi noticed that Deeks stood up even straighter as if that was possible, his jaw increasingly tense during Nell's short briefing, his lips in a tight line. Not noticeable to everyone, but Kensi could easily see the changes in his demeanour. While Sam was usually hyper sensitive whenever a case revolved around SEALs, Deeks seemed to have the same in regards to these places.
"Play the audio tape please, Mr. Beale."
The audio file played, and they heard a distorted, electronically generated voice promising further attacks, guaranteeing loss of life, unless some specific prisoners were released and transported to a non-extradition country. The timeline was set at three in the afternoon, giving them just less than twelve hours to get to whoever was behind all of this.
"I want you four to go to the recruitment center. See if you can find anything that may be of assistance. SecNav wants us to work alongside Homeland and FBI, but we will have the lead seeing as it was a Navy building targeted. Please do play nice, and get to the bottom of this."
With the last words uttered, Hetty walked out of OPS, presumably down to her office to engage in a numerous amount of phone calls to orchestrate the investigation with the other agencies. As she had previously claimed, she does not move the chess pieces, she moves the board, and now was her time to prove that statement, moving entire agency investigations to establish a wide coverage of possibilities, ensuring the best possible chance at solving this before time runs out and another building is targeted, this time with potentially fatal consequences.
The agents made it to the scene of the explosion in two cars as per usual, Sam's Charger and Kensi's SRX. The LAPD were already on the scene and had, as protocol demands, established a one-block perimeter in all directions surrounding the building. The four agents were all waved through after showing their credentials.
The scene playing out in front of them could only be described as organised chaos. There was a staggering amount of initials present already, and more would be joining swiftly, LAPD, LAFD, NCIS, FBI, HLS, and ATF. Events like this was the ultimate test of inter-agency co-operation, but whilst that would usually be a problem, in these instances where terror and loss of civilian life was threatened, everyone seemed to 'play nice' and would cooperate to the best of their abilities, knowing what could be at stake.
Seeing as they were both trained in using explosives, Sam and Deeks went towards the building itself, waiting for the all clear from the bomb squad on scene. Callen and Kensi went to coordinate the efforts with agents from other agencies that had either already arrived or would very shortly.
Finally having the 'all clear' from the bomb squad, Sam and Deeks went to work trying to identify anything significant. They worked surprisingly well together, continuously bouncing ideas and theories off one another, and Sam found himself being thoroughly impressed with the depth of the knowledge their newest team member had.
The working theory they ended up with was a rather simple one, the perpetrator or perpetrators had smashed the window using a rock they had found on the scene, they would have then climbed through said window and placed their explosive device before leaving the scene and using either a timer or a remote detonator to set it off. Based on the approximated velocity of the blast, the explosives in question seemed to be a high-grade military standard, but they would have to wait on the ATF's analysis to be completely certain.
The team met up to reconvene as they called into OPS. Nell had been looking at all surveillance footage available. She was able to confirm that three guys smashed the front window with a rock just past two o'clock in the morning, setting off the alarm. One of them carried what looked to be a sports bag and went inside with it, a few minutes later he re-emerged without said bag, and five minutes later the building exploded. Eric had tried analysing the audio file, but had nothing tangible yet.
Whilst the camera footage confirmed Sam and Deeks' theory it also proved that this was no solo bomber, there was at least three perpetrators involved, which suggested an organised group, and organised groups performing attacks on American soil usually meant one of two things, an extreme anarchist group or, what everyone was dreading, a terrorist group.
Upon reaching that conclusion Deeks spoke up, "I'll make a call, hopefully see if anyone knows anything that could help us," and walked away before anyone could ask him anything, leaving his team looking quizzically at his back.
"He's going to call who?" Sam asked no one in particular.
Kensi shrugged, honestly having no idea who might be on the other end of the phone call about to take place.
It was the team lead who chimed in, "Well, according to Hetty, he was SOG for a while, I'm sure he still has some contacts in the agency."
The group seemed satisfied with that answer for the time being, and Callen and Sam went to brief the other representatives from the miscellaneous agencies on what they had uncovered, one of the many lovely 'advantages' of being a senior field agent. Leaving Kensi alone to wait for Deeks to finish his phone call to only god knows whom.
Sensing that the call was ending, Kensi walked towards her partner, catching the end of the conversation. "…Yes I'm in LA... Yeah the usual way. Alright thanks."
"Who was tha-" she managed to stop herself asking, when he raised his eyebrows at her, she sighed heavily, "I know, I know. I shouldn't ask…"
He chuckled at her rare ability to use self-restraint, even though her curiosity was sometimes getting the best of her when they were together, she was getting better at not asking him about his time spent in the SOG.
"Okay, so…" Stretching out the last word, she continued, "Can I at least ask if you got any information we can use?"
"I think so," he said somewhat somberly, "But I'm not entirely sure, I'll have to meet someone to grab the information, he didn't want to tell me everything over the phone."
Kensi immediately picked up the underlying dark tone but decided that right now was neither the place nor time to ask. They walked together towards the two senior agents, who were still busy talking to, based on the suits, the FBI.
Sensing that their two teammates were approaching, Callen and Sam quickly finished off the conversation they were having and turned to face them. Deeks answered their question before they even had a chance to ask it. "We might have something, but I need to pick up a file that may or may not confirm it."
"And let me guess," Callen started, "If it doesn't have anything to do with this, we won't hear about it."
Deeks sighed and ran his hand through his hair, a gesture that Kensi knew to be one of nervousness or when he was uncomfortable, "Yeah something like that," he mumbled.
Although annoyed over being left somewhat in the darkness, even if only momentarily, the team lead did understand the need for secrecy. Having been within the agency himself, he knew how they operated and understood the necessary confidentiality they sometimes required.
Having exhausted all the investigative alleys at the crime scene, the team headed back to the old Spanish mission. As they arrived only three of them went towards the entrance, Deeks excused himself stating that he would be meeting an 'acquaintance', and would aim to return within the next half hour.
The team, now missing Deeks, went up to OPS to see if Eric and Nell had managed to extract any further information from either the surveillance video or audio file. Unfortunately, because of the darkness on the video, the suspects had managed to hide their faces and the car they had driven there had been reported stolen the previous day. They had put a B.O.L.O. on the vehicle and as such would be notified the minute it was located.
Nell had been able to get something from the audio file. She had been able to figure out that the file was created using a free software program, and seeing as much freeware collected information from the users, the file had not only registered an all-night internet café as the place it was created but also had a timestamp for when it was created.
Callen immediately asked Eric to see if he could hack into their video surveillance footage, but it was not possible seeing as it was a closed system. As such, he and Sam rushed down the stairs to head towards the café to get access to the footage in an attempt to identify the man creating the file, knowing Eric would automatically send the address to their phones. Kensi stayed behind to wait for her partner to return, which would be any minute now.
She made her way down to tiny kitchen area just behind the bullpen, knowing Deeks would return soon, she put on a pot of coffee, so her partner would be able to satisfy some of his caffeine addiction when he returned. Kensi chuckled to herself at the thought, that man was mainlining caffeine like it was nothing.
"What's so funny?" An amused voice sounded behind her.
"Nothing!" She proclaimed just slightly too fast to be believable.
"Right," he dragged out the word, "I uhm, I got you coffee, but I see you've already taken care of that." She could not help but smile at him, of course her… partner would be so thoughtful as to bring her coffee.
"Almond milk and sugar?" She asked, as he passed her one of the two beverages.
"Of course! Can't have you go down on sugar or caffeine now, can we?" He teased light heartedly. "Anyways I got the file," he waved a brown manila folder in front of her, "Let's go give it to Eric to see what's on it."
They both made their way upstairs, making sure to inhale their caffeinated drinks as fast as humanly possible since they knew they could not bring it into OPS. Somehow, Kensi managed to empty the hot drink before entering, where Deeks threw out the last part into the bin next to the automatic doors.
Inside the technical room they found Eric, Nell, and Hetty waiting. Not surprised that the tiny operations manager had known that he had returned with information already. Deeks went over and handed the manila folder to Eric, who opened it, pulled out the encased flash drive, and plugged it into their system to pull up the files on the screen in front of them.
The information on the big monitor showcased pictures and information about a local, LA terrorist cell with ties to a subgroup of Al Qaeda. When asked where he got the information from, Deeks answered that it was from any other agency than the agency, seeing as they are only supposed to operate overseas and not in The United States of America.
Unhappy that another agency had not informed them that there was a potential local terrorist cell operating in their city, but still pleased that they now had a potential avenue of investigation to follow to prevent a likely bombing on another target, Hetty sent out Kensi and Deeks to the boatshed. After all, NCIS had been adamant on the fact that they were the lead agency in this case so the least they could do was to keep every other agency in the loop. She would have Eric send the address of one of the ones mentioned in the file Deeks had procured to Callen and Sam, and send the rest of them to the other agencies for them for surveillance.
...
As they arrived at the boatshed, the two partners were having one of their weird conversations, well Deeks was having a one-sided conversation and Kensi was doing her best to ignore him and his, in her mind, ridiculous antics.
"All I'm saying is that I know why planets are in retrograde, like, I understand the explanation, but I'm just saying that it doesn't mean that bad things don't happen because of it as well."
She just continued walking away from the car, denying him any satisfaction of a reaction. If he had been able to see her eyes, he would have witnessed a perfect eye roll from his female partner. Luckily for Kensi, he stopped talking about retrograde whatever as they entered the boatshed and he became quiet, obviously still remembering the serious predicament in which they found themselves.
Half an hour later, and a handful of different agencies briefed, the two walked back out towards Kensi's SRX. During the briefing, it had been decided that they would simultaneously hit all the addresses known from the file in unison, leaving none of the places time to forewarn the others. Hopefully they would be able to find some evidence that proved that they were behind the attack and threats, if not they would lose valuable time, but at least have taken down a suspected terrorist cell stationed in Los Angeles.
Now even more determined and focused since they had a concrete plan that would likely prevent further attacks, they drove towards the mission. Kensi had called their team leader during the briefing and Hetty had been on the monitor in the boatshed, so everyone was up to speed as to what was going to happen.
Kensi and Deeks were to head back to OSP and get the gear for both themselves as well as their two colleagues, and then they would meet up where Callen and Sam were currently stationed, surveilling the suspected terrorist filled building.
As they arrived at the old Spanish mission, Kensi and Deeks quickly grabbed the bulletproof vests as well as the weapons they would be using for the operation. Not even five minutes later they were headed out towards the location Eric had sent to their phones, ready to, hopefully, end any further bombings on LA grounds.