Chapter 23

Deeks woke up in his hospital bed for the second time. This time his head felt clearer and, when he turned his head, there was no nausea. Kensi was sitting in the chair next his bed, leafing through a magazine. He reached out and touched the arm closest to him. She looked up, smiled and said "There you are!"

"I fell asleep again, huh?"

"Yeah, you did. I think your body is trying to tell you something! Think maybe you should listen for a change?"

He tried to sit up a little more, wincing at the pain in his ribs and head. She quickly got up and helped arrange the pillows behind his head so that he wasn't lying flat anymore, placing a kiss on his head.

"How long this time? What time is it?"

"Just a couple hours and it's 4:00."

He sighed in frustration. "Doc isn't going to release me until tomorrow and even then I'm not going to be able to go right back to OSP. I feel like I'm never going to find out what Nell and Eric discovered! It's driving me nuts!"

She smiled at him. "They both said they'd come back and fill you in as soon as you woke up. I'll text Nell now." He grinned at her, pleased that the two would be willing to give up part of their Saturday to come back to the hospital again. Kensi texted Nell and her phone pinged back almost immediately. She looked up and smiled at him "They're on their way."

"They're on their way, huh? Soooo, that means they were together when Nell got your text?"

Kensi grinned back at him, knowing exactly what he was getting at. She hadn't been able to pin Nell down on the actual status of her and Eric's relationship but she saw all the same signs in those two that had been there with her and Deeks. Evenings and weekends spent together, finishing each other's sentences, glances that they thought no one else saw, details they knew about each other than no one else did. She knew that, if anything really was going on beyond friendship, Nell would tell her when she was ready. Kensi and Deeks were both dying to know but remembered how they had felt it necessary to keep their own relationship a secret when it was new and uncertain. They would give Nell and Eric the same breathing room.

Kensi went to sit back down in her chair but Deeks captured her hand, tugging her closer to the bed. "Join me?"

"I'll hurt you. Besides, I'm pretty sure the hospital would frown on that."

"It won't hurt me any more than having you so far away is already doing. And since when do you care what hospital officials think?"

She smiled and gave in, carefully levering herself into position at his side, trying not to jostle his ribs any more than she had to. Once she was settled into place, her head on his shoulder, he put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. She raised her face to look at him and he captured her lips, telling her without words how happy he was she was beside him. Time passed and neither one noticed the door to the room open. Nell and Eric paused in the doorway and Eric cleared his throat. The two sprang apart, or at least Kensi sprung, Deeks being too sore to do much springing.

"Hey guys!" said Nell tightly "Look who we found out in the hallway." She moved into the room with Eric, allowing Hetty and Granger to move in behind them. Kensi tried to shimmy off the bed but Deeks held on to her tightly. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong and everyone already knew about the two of them. Hetty just smiled at them and Granger looked like he was trying hard to find something, anything, to focus on other than the two in the bed. This time Kensi moved off the bed in a more natural, less guilty way, and this time he let her go.

"So! What do you two wunderkinds have for me? Please tell me it's enough to put that bastard behind bars for a very long time!" Deeks said, his eyes moving back and forth between Eric and Nell.

It was Hetty who answered. "Oh yes, indeed, Mr. Deeks. Yes indeed. With what these two have uncovered, we have every intention of going to SecNav, once all the research is done, tying it up with a nice neat little bow. It should be enough for her to go the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Judicial Impeachment."

"Impeachment? Isn't that just the same as just getting fired? Does that mean he won't face any charges?"

This time Granger answered. "If we have anything to say about it, he'll be facing charges Deeks. The Judicial Committee does have the ability to prosecute if the evidence is there. And we intend to give them enough evidence to hang Judge Timmons." Granger was angry. He hadn't been entirely convinced that Deeks's suspicions would be proven out. Then they had found out that his suspicions were just the tip of the iceberg. Cases from just about every alphabet agency in the United States had been compromised by the actions of Judge Timmons and he planned on making it his life's work to make sure the man paid.

Hetty gestured to Nell and Eric. "Since you two found the evidence, we'll let you do the honor of filling in Mr. Deeks."

Nell snapped open her tablet. "We dug through the judge's financial records as far back as they existed. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It was then that Eric decided to go at it from a different angle by looking into Steven Parks. He started looking into his financials beginning just after he was acquitted and moving backwards. He found a $500,000.00 withdrawal just before the trial started, deposited to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands."

Eric took over the narrative. "I was able to hack into the bank where the deposit was made and found the account it was made to is registered to a Marilyn Bullock. As of today, the balance is a little over 25 million dollars, US. With a little more digging, we discovered that Ms. Bullock was the housekeeper for the Timmons when Mitchell Timmons was growing up."

"So, a housekeeper with an account in the Caymans? With a balance in the millions? I'm going to go out on a limb and say we don't think the account is hers." Deeks said.

"Hardly. Ms. Bullock died in 2001; a year before Mitchell Timmons was confirmed as a federal judge. The account wasn't opened in her name until 2003." replied Eric.

"2003? That's long before the Parks case. Are you saying Timmons has been taking bribes for over a decade?" Deeks found his voice rising.

"Yes, that's exactly what we're saying. The deposits have been ongoing for years, varying in amount from a hundred thousand to three quarters of a million dollars. Nell and I are still matching the timing of the deposits up to cases Timmons was presiding on. So far, every deposit has matched up to a case where the defendant was unexpectedly acquitted, due directly to the actions of the judge."

Deeks was stunned. He'd known the man was dirty, just not this dirty. How many criminals ended back up on the streets due to his greed?

Eric cleared his throat "Deeks, there's more."

He frowned at his friend, how could there be more to this?

"We found withdrawals made from the account starting a little over three years ago, before that only money came in, none went back out. We were able to back track them and found all were payments made to parents of students who went to school with Paul Timmons."

"So, I was right? Paul Timmons had been in trouble before attacking Meaghan and the judge bought him out of it? How many?"

"Enough. Sam and Callen are working their way through the list. So far, they've been able to get testimony from two other girls that Paul attacked and attempted to rape them. One girl that was on the list…" Eric hesitated and Deeks glared at him. "Deeks, she committed suicide. Her mom and dad split up after that. Her mom was the only one we could find and she admitted that they had taken money from the judge to drop the charges. Her daughter started having issues at school, acting out. Eventually, she hung herself."

Deeks closed his eyes and gripped handfuls of the covers. He could feel the rage building in him. Katie, Michael, their unborn child, Meaghan, these unnamed girls…how many others had suffered due to this one man.

He opened his eyes and looked directly at Granger. "I want to be there when they arrest him. I want to see his face when he realizes I'm responsible for all this coming to light. I want to be the one to snap the cuffs on that arrogant bastard!"

Granger hesitated and then nodded. Deeks was right, if he hadn't been suspicious, if he hadn't kept pushing, hadn't gotten NCIS involved, how much longer would this have gone on? He deserved to have every one of his demands met. They all rehashed the information a while longer and then left to let Deeks get some much needed rest. Kensi stayed with him until visiting hours were officially over, trying to get him to calm down and finally succeeding. She kissed him goodbye and promised to be back the next day to pick him up and take him home. She was staying at his place; taking care of Monty so would make sure everything would be ready for his return home.

Once she left and he was totally alone, he thought back over the revelations of the day. He sighed; he'd never understand how someone who was supposed to uphold the law would turn his back on it for money. He had a hard time getting to sleep that night.

~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,

Two months later he strode in the law offices of Miller, Miller and Crosby once again. This time, ostensibly, to offer a settlement on behalf of Meaghan and her parents, offering to drop the charges against Paul for an undisclosed monetary payment. In reality, he had an arrest warrant in his breast pocket and back up waiting outside in the form of his NCIS team. He was scheduled to meet with Ken Crosby and Judge Timmons in just a few minutes. He had chafed at the amount of time it had taken to reach this point but, they had had to be sure that everything was tight and above board. Eric hacking into a Cayman Islands bank may not have fallen into the latter category. Getting the information through proper channels had been excruciating. It had helped that they knew exactly what they were looking for, seeing as they actually already had it. Once everything had been presented to SecNav, she had wasted no time notifying the committee. They, in turn, had agreed to prosecute, going so far as to allow the judge to be taken into NCIS custody. To say that this was going to be embarrassing to the whole federal court circuit was an understatement. Some, Deeks included, suspected that it would have been dealt with quietly, perhaps even just a slap on the wrist, if so many outsiders hadn't already been involved.

Deeks smiled, he was planning on enjoying the next half hour greatly. Ken Crosby suspected something was going on. He and Deeks had spoken on the phone several times since their first meeting, Ken's dislike of Judge Timmons becoming more and more apparent to Deeks. He had made sure that everyone involved knew that Ken was not complicit in the judge's dealings. Pausing outside the door the secretary had shown him to, he pulled on his shirt sleeves to make sure he was neat and presentable. Schooling his features, he entered the room to find the two men seated at the table, waiting on him.

"Timmons. Ken."

Timmons lip curled and he looked at Deeks like something he had dragged in on his shoes. "I see that slut of a client of yours has finally come to her senses. I hope she isn't expecting too big a payoff from this!"

"Oh, I doubt you could give her much of a payoff, Mr. Timmons. All your bank accounts, both here and in the Caymans have been frozen." He pulled the warrant out of his pocket and placed it on the table. "Mitchell Timmons, you are under arrest for accepting bribes and unfairly influencing the outcome of federal cases for your own benefit. Please stand up and place your hands behind your back." He was really hoping Timmons wouldn't comply. His hopes were met.

"Do you know who you're talking to? I'll have your license to practice law revoked! I'll have LAPD fire your ass so fast you won't know what hit you! You won't work anywhere in law enforcement ever again when I get done with you! You'll be lucky to get a job cleaning toilets! I'll ruin you!"

"Mr. Timmons, you are a soon to be former federal court judge, about to be indicted on corruption charges and impeached from your position. I really don't think you could get me a parking ticket at an expired meter right now! Stand up and place your hands behind you! Do NOT make me ask you again!"

Timmons lunged at Deeks who sidestepped neatly. He knocked the judge to the floor and knelt on his back, pulling his hands behind him and slapping on the cuffs. He left the man on the floor, screaming threats and thrashing around as he held out his hand to Ken Crosby. "Nice to see you again, Ken."

"You too, Deeks, you too." Ken Crosby said, grasping the proffered hand and shaking it hard. The two looked at each other and then down at the former judge, lying on the floor staring daggers at them. He looked back at Deeks and said "Want to do lunch sometime?"

~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~~,~,~,~

A/N – Finally! I was starting to think he'd never get what was coming to him! If you like this chapter, leave a review and any suggestions for further chapters. If you didn't like it leave a review and let me know why. I don't know much about the federal court system so relied heavily on Google but all mistakes are mine!