A/N - haven't said this in awhile so, still don't own anything except the OC's...sighs heavily and wipes away a tear.

Thanks as always to honus47 for reviewing!

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Chapter 44

Teams of frustrated and disappointed NCIS personnel converged at the front of the warehouse, each reporting to Granger the same thing, that they'd found nothing more that would help find their missing detective and friend. The NCIS forensics team was still working on the crate, so there was still hope that something would turn up there. Sam and Callen stood by Granger's side, tension radiating off them. It had been over four hours since Deeks had gone missing and they were no closer to finding out who took him or where he was. The longer it took, the lesser the chances became of finding him unscathed. While Kensi was adamant Timmons was behind this, they weren't all that sure. The man had little to no money, most of what he had was being spent on lawyers, and he had no power left at all.

Kensi's team was the last to arrive, also reporting they'd found nothing. Kensi made a beeline for her teammates who moved apart without words, leaving a space between them that she wedged herself into, taking comfort from their presence. Sam put his arm around her shoulders and she turned into him, hiding her face in his chest. He rubbed her back and said "We'll find him Kens. I promise you we will."

"Don't make promises you can't keep Sam." She mumbled into his chest. She needed to stay strong and not show any weakness now, even though she just wanted to crumble to the floor and cry. She needed to be strong and on top of her game for him. She took a deep breath and stepped back, giving him a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes. He smiled back and nodded at her. She looked over at Granger and frowned. The man seemed miles away. Sam and Callen followed the direction of her eyes and noted the same thing.

"What's on your mind Granger?" asked Callen.

"Are we 100% sure that Deeks was the target? That any of the rest of you wouldn't have worked just as well? If it was Deeks, then they had to have known exactly where he would be. It's not like they could watch and then maneuver that crate onto his path. It had to have been set up long before today."

Deeks's three teammates exchanged a guilty glance. Granger picked up on it immediately. "Would one of you care to share what you're thinking?"

It was Kensi who answered. "Deeks felt something was off. He said that the other two hoaxes felt like someone was testing us. He said we'd all told him that following the same routine was bad tradecraft and that we should mix it up when we breached. He even suggested not going in at all. We all ignored him, even me, and I've seen firsthand how his gut feelings usually turn out to be correct." She paused, angry with herself, and looked at Sam and Callen. "If we'd listened to him, he'd be here with us now."

Callen frowned, knowing she was right. "There's nothing we can change now about what we did then, Kensi. When we get him back, and we will get him back, I promise you, we'll all listen to his instincts more carefully." He looked her in the eyes, his sincerity showing in his. She nodded, she couldn't blame him, she hadn't sided with Deeks either. They were all at fault in this.

Granger cleared his throat. "If you're all done assuming the blame for what happened, can we get back to the matter at hand? If they, whoever they are, were testing you, watching how you worked as a team, then they had to have had eyes on you. I know this team; there's no way you missed someone watching you in person. There's only one other way."

"Cameras?" ventured Sam. At Grangers nod, he continued "Eric searched all the warehouses for camera feeds before we went in. That's SOP. He didn't find one at any of them, including this one."

"He didn't find any that he could access; it doesn't mean there weren't any there." Granger responded.

"Closed circuit?" Callen asked. When Granger nodded again, everyone looked up at the ceiling, covered in grillwork. Granger turned his flashlight on and aimed it up, its light too weak to illuminate very much. He looked around and made his way to a stack of crates.

"Boost me up gentlemen."

Callen and Sam went to his side and helped Granger climb to the top of the stack. Closer to the ceiling, the flashlight was better able to show if anything was there that shouldn't be. In the area he could see from his vantage point, he found nothing. He started to move from stack to stack, the rest of the teams following his path on the floor. Eventually something caught his eye. Moving to a stack directly under, he found what he had been looking for, a camera pointing at the east quadrant of the warehouse. Calling out his find to those on the floor, the teams split up once again and went to the other quadrants, one member of each climbing up onto crates closest to the same general area of their section as the one Granger stood on. Each team found a similar camera, for a total of four that provided coverage for the whole floor.

"Okay, now we know how they were watching us but, whoever it was, had to have been fairly close." Sam said over comms. He pointed his phone at the camera in his quadrant and snapped a picture of it, sending it to ops immediately. "Eric, I just sent you a picture of one of the cameras. Can you find out its range and whether we can track who bought it?"

"On it!" came the instant reply.

Sam ran his flashlight over the camera, looking for its wires. Finding one, he started to follow it along the ceiling until it went out a window high up in the wall. It looked like the wires from all four cameras converged there and went out a hole cut in the glass. Over comms he told everyone what he had found. Callen's team was closest to the back door of the warehouse and they went out to see where the wires went once they left the building. Using his flashlight, Callen was able to find where the wires originated and followed them to another empty warehouse across the access road, the wires disappearing into a similar hole cut in the window of that building. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to breach. Callen tried the door and found it open, the team moving in on his command, clearing each section on the first floor. He nodded towards the stairs to the second level. They moved up quietly, finding offices off the main corridor. Each office was cleared. This warehouse was empty as well, once again disappointing everyone even though they had known that there was little to no chance that anyone had stuck around, just waiting to be captured.

Callen moved further into the office where the wires led, finding nothing but the unattached ends. "I found where they were watching from, based on the disturbance in the dust and the wires. There's nothing here now. Send over the forensics team, maybe they can find something." He heard Granger's acknowledgement in his ear. "Eric, anything on the cameras yet?"

"Sorry Callen. They're very common and popular, sold at multiple stores around L.A. and on the web. There's nothing useful that could lead us to Deeks unless one of them left a fingerprint. I'm also going through traffic cam footage of that warehouse as well, to see if we can catch them there."

"Keep us updated, Eric."

"Always."

"Callen!" Kensi's voice sounded excited over the comms. "Forensics found something in the crate!"

He and the rest of his team hurried downstairs and back over to the other warehouse, heading towards the crate with everyone else. Finding Kensi already there talking to a member of the forensics team, he moved up beside her to listen to what she was being told. "Peter, tell everyone what you found." she requested.

Peter Chin, NCIS forensics expert, was not used to being the focus of so many eyes. He took a deep breath and said "At first, we found nothing. The entire inside had been wiped clean and it was fairly obvious whoever was in this crate with Marty, was wearing gloves." Kensi and Callen exchanged glances, both registering the man's use of Deeks's first name. "We were just about to give up when I had a thought. They had to put this together and then bring it here. Once it was here, then they would wipe it down. There would be no way to clean the underside of the hinges that were screwed to the wood. We took the door off and dusted for prints on each one. On the top one we hit pay dirt. A usable partial print!" He pointed at the hinges lined up on the floor, each covered in fingerprinting residue. There was an obvious print on one of them.

"Did you send it to ops yet?" asked Kensi.

"No, I was just getting ready to when you all showed up. I'll send it now." Peter took several pictures of the fingerprint and sent them to Eric.

Callen tapped his earwig and said "Eric, fingerprint coming your way from Peter Chin. Run it through AFIS and any other database you can find. I want to know who this belongs to! It might be our best chance yet to find out who has Deeks."

"On it! I was just about to contact you anyway! Nell found a camera that gives us a partial view of the truck that delivered the crate to the warehouse three days ago. It was night and the footage is dark and very grainy, I'm trying to clean it up now. It looks like there's a logo on the side of the truck. I'm hoping to have something more concrete very soon!"

"Good work Mr. Beale, Miss. Jones. Keep on it." Hetty said; pleased that they finally had several clues that could lead to rescuing her favorite cop. "I think we've done everything we can here. Let's leave the forensics team to their work and head back to the Mission. I know better than to order everyone home, but it's late. Anyone who needs to go home, please do so, no one will think any less of you. I want to thank all of you for your assistance, without it we would not have been able to cover so much ground in so little time. " she said, acknowledging the hard work of everyone who had volunteered to help.

The teams broke up and headed out to the cars, on their way out congratulating Peter Chin on his clever idea that had led to their best clue yet. Eventually, only Sam, Callen, Kensi, Hetty and Granger remained, none of them really wanting to walk away from the last place Deeks had been seen. They were finally about to head back when Nell's voice sounded over their comms. "Guys? When you head back, can you go to the boatshed? We have company."

"Company, Miss. Jones? What do you mean we have company?" responded Hetty, exchanging a puzzled look with the members of her elite team.

"By company, I mean representatives of the CIA, DEA and Navy."

"Ah, I see word has escaped NCIS and LAPD. I assume you mean Mrs. Hanna, Miss. Del Campo and Admiral Shelton?"

"That would be them!"

"We're on our way."

Granger and Hetty left first, Kensi following in the SRX. Sam went to get into the Challenger when he realized his partner was not moving to the passenger side. Looking back he found Callen staring at the warehouse and heard him say softly "Damn it Deeks! Where are you?"