I planned on this being a chapter about the fallout from the assault and Deeks coming face to face with the Judge, instead, this wrote itself. I think the plot minions are bottoming out from the last two chapters! Next chapter, I promise (fingers crossed behind back)….

Still own nothing but the OC's and a slightly battered keyboard.

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Chapter 17

The Saturday after Meaghan's assault, Kensi pulled up in front of the Shelton home. She and Deeks got out and starting pulling the equipment they had brought with them out of the back of the SRX. Deeks tried desperately not to spill anything onto the ground from the disaster that masqueraded as the cargo area of the SUV. "Kensi, you've taken hoarding to a new level! Do they have a 'Hoarders, the Car Edition'?"

Kensi retorted "It's not hoarding! I need everything that's in there!"

"Name one thing that's back here, without looking!"

"Stuff!"

"Can you be more specific?"

"Yup!" popping the p. "My stuff."

Deeks just rolled his eyes, finally disentangling the bag from whatever 'stuff' had grabbed it. Moving up the stairs together, the front door opened just before they got there. "Ms. Blye, Mr. Deeks. A pleasure to see you as always." said Neal the butler, as he stood aside to let them in. "Mrs. Shelton and the girls are out back waiting for you." Deeks grinned at him and the two men looked around to see if any of the family or other employees were within hearing distance. Finding no one, Neal looked back at Deeks and said in a less formal English accent "Deeks, man! I wanted to say thanks again for the surfing lesson last week! I loved it and I'm thinking of getting my own board instead of renting. What do you think?"

Deeks had thawed out the, supposedly, uptight butler soon after they started the classes. Away from the Shelton's home and his job, Neal was a blast. A wicked, thoroughly raunchy sense of humor and up for just about anything. The two had become fast friends even though Neal was a good decade older than him. They didn't advertise their friendship to the Shelton family as a precaution. Neal's personal time was his own and he guarded it jealously. Deeks said "I know a place where we can get you a great deal on a good used board. You'll need a wetsuit as well. Let me know when your next day off is and we'll try to work something out!"

"Great! I'll give you a call later." Neal replied as the couple maneuvered the bags full of equipment through the foyer and down the hall to the door leading outside. Deeks opened the door and held it for Kensi to go through. She stopped short just outside. Their group had gone from two girls to seven and now appeared to be…one…two…three...she did a quick count and realized that there were now eleven girls waiting with Meaghan and Laura Shelton, making a total of twelve plus the older woman. She wondered if Meaghan's close escape had triggered the increase. They were going to have to split them up into beginners and more advanced. She turned and looked at Deeks who just shrugged.

"I'll take the newbies. You're better trained to teach the more advanced girls." he said, not concerned that the numbers kept growing. Each girl who learned something from them was one less statistic. The events from earlier in the week had proven that. They continued on, finally catching the attention of the group when they placed the bags next to the mats that had been laid out on the grass between the built-in pool and small building that housed a shower and was used for guests to change in.

"Kensi! Marty!" yelled Meaghan as she raced to them. She gave Kensi a big hug and then turned to Deeks. He hugged her and then pushed her back a little to look at her face. Her left eye was still puffy and slightly black and blue and there was a bruise on her cheek. The last time he'd seen her, the bruising hadn't started to form. He placed his thumb over the bruise on her cheek and ran it gently back and forth, his smile fading, his eyes darkening. "It doesn't hurt now, Marty. We both know it could have been so much worse." He nodded as her face faded from his view, replaced by an older woman with blond hair and blue eyes that matched his, bruises that matched Meaghan's, similar words spoken. "Marty?" Meaghan's face once again swam into view, looking at him with concern.

"I'm fine sweetie. I'll be right back." he turned and walked numbly around the pool's changing room, leaving a bewildered Meaghan behind him. Kensi had her back turned, unpacking the bags and didn't see the interaction between the two. Laura Shelton, however, saw something familiar in the way the detective moved as he left Meaghan standing there. She followed to find him leaning up against the back wall of the building, his arms crossed across his waist, hugging himself and lost in memories.

"Marty?" she said softly, not wanting to startle him, although she did anyway, he was so far away right then. "I'm assuming it was your father?"

He looked at her in shock. "I'm sorry, I don't understand the question." he responded after a few seconds, carefully smoothing his expression into one of polite inquiry.

"It wasn't your mother; you're too gentle with the girls, too protective. I figure it was your father. Meaghan's black eye and bruising triggered bad memories for you." she responded.

"How?" he asked.

"I recognize the signs." she replied, sighing.

"What do you mean?"

"My father was a very strict disciplinarian. At least that's what polite society called it. In reality, he was a mean arrogant bastard who made everyone's life a living hell."

"He hurt you?"

"Me? Oh, no, not physically anyway. I wasn't worth his time. I was just a girl, the only thing he expected of me was to find a man from a good family with lots of money and marry him. No, it was my brother, Perry. He was three years older than me and he was my best friend. When I got to the age where I played with dolls, Perry wanted to play with them with me, he didn't want the trucks and cars our father bought for him. That's when the discipline started. He was only around six years old. Our father wanted a boy to follow in his footsteps but Perry couldn't fill them. If he didn't bring home straight A's, he was disciplined. If there was a prize to be won and Perry didn't win it? Disciplined. He was supposed to excel at genteel sports like Polo or Lacrosse. He hated horses and had absolutely no athletic prowess. My father tried to discipline it into him. It never worked. He loved music but my father didn't approve of that for his son. I took piano lessons and hated it. I stuck with it because I could teach Perry everything I learned."

Laura took a breath and continued. "When he reached puberty, our father suspected he was gay. Perry didn't seem interested in girls but, if he was interested in boys, he hid it well. That didn't stop our father from trying to discipline it out of him. I think he was just a gentle soul born into the wrong family." Laura paused, lost in her own memories of a violent childhood.

"Are you two still close?" Deeks asked.

"When he was fifteen and I was twelve, he stole a bottle of sleeping pills from my mother and a bottle of vodka from the liquor cabinet. He finished both of them one night after going to bed. He just went to sleep and never woke up." she said softly, her throat closing with the tears she wanted to shed.

"My God, Laura, I'm so sorry!"

Laura laughed a little. "Do you realize that's the first time you've voluntarily called me by my first name?" He smiled at her, feeling his mood lighten and the dark memories recede a little. It didn't seem right but having someone who understood his feelings made him feel better, someone who had lived it and not come out the other side a monster.

Laura tilted her head at him. "Marty, you are the only person outside my family that knows that story. Meaghan doesn't even know. She knows she had an uncle, but she doesn't know how he died. I know I can trust you to keep this conversation between us."

He nodded, pleased to know that she had confided in him. Wanting to do the same for her, to explain how he was feeling, he said "My dad was a mean violent drunk. When he was drinking, which was pretty much every waking hour of every day, he would blow up at my mom or me for any little thing, beat us senseless. I saw bruises like Meaghan's on her face more days than not. When I was ten, a friend who knew what was going on, gave me a gun. On Thanksgiving, when I was eleven, I had to use it. He had been drinking all day and was worse than we'd ever seen him. I got scared enough to pull the gun out of hiding and put it in my pocket. It was after dinner when he pulled out the shotgun. He started to move it back and forth between mom and me, saying eenie, meenie, miney, moe. I knew one or both of us were going to die that day. I pulled out the gun and shot him."

Laura gasped and asked "Did you kill him?"

"No, I just wounded him in the shoulder, but it was enough to make him drop the gun. My mom and I ran and he was arrested at the hospital for assault and battery. He spent five years in prison."

"Do you ever see him?"

Deeks laughed sadly. "For years I wondered when he would turn up. Wondering if he would be out for revenge or if he'd changed and might want to make amends, become a real father. A couple of years ago, I was in the hospital and Hetty had him tracked down as my possible next of kin. Imagine my surprise when I found out that he died in 1998. All those years wondering and worrying about him popping up only to find out he was dead the whole time."

"Your mom?"

"I haven't seen her in years. I have no idea where she is. The only reason my dad went to jail was my testimony and that of several neighbors who had had enough. All that abuse and, when it came down to it, she sided with him. As an adult, I've seen it over and over, both as a Public Defender and as a cop. Women who are beaten bloody and insist they walked into a door, fell down the stairs. Even when the guy's caught in the act, they attack the cop trying to help her. It's not every time, but it happens often enough to make you lose faith."

"I don't believe you've lost faith Marty. There's too much love in you. No one without faith could play music the way you do. Love Kensi the way you do." Laura hesitated. "Marty, I've wanted to apologize to you for a while now. When we first met, I'm afraid I was not very nice to you. I judged you on very little evidence and found you to be lacking. You've proved me wrong over and over and I just wanted to let you know."

He smiled at her and said "I never took it personally. I know the first impression I give most people. Part of it's an unconscious defense mechanism, or so I've been told by the semi-resident NCIS shrink, and part of it is to keep people off balance. If the bad guys underestimate me, I have a better chance of taking them down and not getting killed. All those years in undercover and it's just become second nature. Still, if it makes you feel better, I accept your apology. And, I would like to offer up my own for thinking your house was ostentatious and that you had a stick up your ass."

Laura looked at him open mouthed and then burst out laughing. Deeks joined her after a second, relieved that she had taken it so well. Kensi came bursting around the edge of the building. "There you are Deeks! Don't think you're going to stand back here yakking and leave all the work to me!" she paused, taking in the two laughing hysterically. "What are you two laughing about?"

Deeks and Laura shared a look and just laughed harder, both feeling a weight lifted off their shoulders, if only for the moment.