A/N – Thanks to ohBuddy66, raderle, yellowcallalily and honus47 for the suggestions/prompts that led to this!

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Chapter 45

Hetty, Granger and Kensi waited for Sam and Callen to catch up before entering the boatshed. When the team was together, they entered as a unit to find Michelle, Talia and John Shelton talking quietly. Talia watched Kensi apprehensively. She had heard that Deeks and Kensi were officially a couple now and she wasn't sure what her reception would be. The last time they'd worked together, she'd made it well known that she was attracted to Deeks and would move in on him if Kensi didn't act on their own attraction quickly. She and Kensi had ended up putting on a show of becoming friends and whispering about Deeks right in front of him, both of them wanting to rile him up for different reasons, but the supposed friendship was all pretend.

She would never make a real move on him now but, in different circumstances, she wouldn't be above teasing the two of them a little, just to make them squirm. The scruffy detective wasn't usually her type, but there was something about him that intensely attracted the DEA agent. She had found herself wishing on several occasions that she had meet Deeks before he had joined up with NCIS. She thought that he might have returned her interest if he hadn't already been head over heels in love with his partner. She watched as Sam moved to the woman who had been introduced as CIA agent Michelle Hanna. When he pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly, her eyebrows rose as far as they could without disappearing into her hairline. When she remembered Sam's last name, the pieces clicked into place. This team certainly had some interesting personal lives.

"Kensi. It's good to see you. I wish it were for different reasons." she said to the brunette agent who was staring at her. She held out her hand to let Kensi know she was here to help, nothing more. Kensi walked towards her and Talia held her breath, not sure if she would get another head butt to the face or her hand shaken. When Kensi took her hand and shook it, she let out that breath. They would be able to work together after all.

"Thanks for coming Talia. I know it will mean a lot to Deeks." Kensi said. Talia looked at her carefully, trying to determine how the woman was holding up. Kensi appeared calm but she could feel the anger and pain coming off her in waves.

"Any time. For either of you." Talia replied as she squeezed her hand. Kensi nodded at the woman who had been the bane of her existence when they had had to team up during the case where terrorists had turned a submarine into a bomb. A case that had almost cost Sam and Callen their lives. Her obvious interest in Deeks had sparked a jealousy that Kensi had never felt before and hoped never to feel again.

"I will assume you have all introduced yourselves and you all know us. I'm not sure exactly how word leaked that our Mr. Deeks was abducted, but your help will be greatly appreciated!" said Hetty.

Michelle was the first to speak. "I heard it from Sam and when I went to my boss, he was immediately on board with offering whatever help the CIA can give you. We've already had our agents in L.A. put out feelers to their contacts, looking for any information on who might have taken him or where he is." Hetty nodded her approval.

Talia added "I heard through one of my LAPD contacts that Deeks had gone missing. My boss was impressed with him both times I worked with NCIS. After the fish market bombing, he asked me if Deeks would be interested in coming over to the DEA. I told him I'd already mentioned it but he didn't take me up on the offer." She realized her mistake when every person in the room turned and stared daggers at her. Trying to back track she held up her hands and continued "I didn't know then how important NCIS was to him. He didn't appear to have a partner and we worked well together. I would never have made that offer if I had known." The glares subsided. "Anyway, he approved our full support with anything we can do to help find Deeks." Hetty voiced her thanks and turned to Admiral Shelton.

"You know why I'm here Hetty. Michelle let Laura know what happened and it was all I could do to talk both her and Meaghan out of coming down here with me." John Shelton sighed. "We all know how this could turn out and I didn't want them to see it up close and personal. You have the full support of the Naval Intelligence community. Marty is family and we protect our own. My people are also working every angle they can. I haven't heard anything yet, but we've only been on it a few hours."

The rest of the team added their thanks to Hetty's and they got down to business. They filled the new members of their group in on what had happened and how, the fingerprint found in the crate. Nell's finding the truck that dropped the crate off at the warehouse. When they described the tricked out crate, the others had to admit was it was an interesting way to abduct someone. Kensi added her conviction that this was all related to Timmons, that he was somehow behind it. When asked why, she related the story of their visit to Victorville and the offer Timmons had made Deeks, as well as his reaction when Deeks had refused it and goaded him into spewing threats as he was taken away. Sam and Callen carefully added their reservations about this, treading gently with Kensi, citing Timmons's current lack of money and influence. Once it had all been gone over they realized they still had little to go on.

They had been talking for about an hour when the plasma lit up and Eric and Nell appeared, part of ops in the background. "Guys! We got a hit on the fingerprint! It belongs to a Carl Robinson."

A picture of the man appeared in the lower right corner of the plasma. "His jacket says he's known to work for Steve Parks. He's pretty much just an enforcer. Mean temper and generally works alone. When he does work with a partner, it's usually this man, Sean McGonagle."

Another picture appeared next to the one of Robinson. "His jacket is more interesting to us, says that he's suspected in multiple abductions, tortures and murders, but they've never been able to get anything to stick."

The NCIS team tensed when Eric mentioned torture, not knowing what this might mean for Deeks, not sure if he could withstand another torture session. Eric continued on, oblivious to the impact his words had had. "From what we can determine, Parks is suspected of still running his operation from prison but prison officials haven't been able to figure out how."

Callen spoke up "So is Parks working with Timmons?" He shared a look with Sam. "We know he's the one suspected of ordering the hit on Deeks's prosecutor friend and that Deeks had another one of his gut feelings that it wasn't good that both Parks and Timmons are incarcerated at Victorville together. But why would Parks be helping Timmons? The guy isn't a judge any more, he can't help Parks get out of jail or get a reduced sentence. It doesn't make sense. Guys like Parks don't do favors like abducting a cop, just out of friendship, and he doesn't owe Timmons anything, he paid good money for what he already got. If not Timmons, then what's this all about? Deeks said he had no connection with Parks original trial or the subsequent one that landed him in jail."

Frustrated with all the questions that had no answers, he turned to the plasma screen. "Eric, you and Nell see if you can find any interaction between the two, both before and after Timmons was sent to jail to await trial."

"On it." Eric said. Already tapping on his computer.

Talia asked "Who's Parks?" Kensi filled her in on the failed attempt to put Parks away because he'd bribed Timmons into fixing the trial. How Parks was then suspected of putting out a hit on the prosecutor and FBI agents who were part of the case. Deeks's connection to the prosecutor that had led to them investigating the judge and finding the evidence needed to get him impeached and arrested. Talia had heard about the disgraced judge but had had no idea that this team, especially Deeks, had been the ones involved.

"Jones, reach out to the FBI. If Parks is involved, they'll want in on this. After all, he's suspected of killing two of their own." said Granger.

"Already did Assistant Director." Nell said apprehensively. "They're already putting plans in motion on their side. They're going to be sending a representative over to the boatshed shortly. The name they gave me was Agent Cheryl Leary."

Granger wasn't sure if he was angry with the intelligence analyst for contacting the FBI without his consent or pleased with her initiative. Deciding there was nothing he could do about it now; he went with pleased and let her know it. Nell looked relieved.

"Any luck with the truck?" asked Callen.

"I'm still working on it, the footage is really poor quality and the darkness isn't helping. I'm trying a couple different enhancement programs now. Also, kaleidoscope hasn't gotten any hits yet on the van. We've still got facial rec working on locating Robinson and McGonagle." replied Eric.

"Thanks Eric. We know you guys are doing everything you can." The analysts nodded and disappeared off the screen.

Sam looked at Kensi and said "We've got LAPD, NCIS, the DEA, the CIA, Naval Intelligence and now the FBI on this Kens; if we can't find him we're not very good at our jobs." She smiled at him and nodded, hiding her worry behind a calm façade. The mere mention of torture had brought back bad memories, both from what happened to Deeks at the hand of Sidorov and her own experiences in Afghanistan. She just wanted Deeks back where he belonged, by her side.

The group was mulling over the new developments when a knock sounded at the boatshed door. Granger was closest and went to open it. Standing on the other side was a strange woman holding up her FBI badge. "Agent Cheryl Leary, FBI. I was told to ask for a Henrietta Lange?" Granger motioned her in and shut the door behind the woman then led the way into the room where the rest were waiting. He made the introductions and Hetty thanked her for her help.

"My pleasure ma'am. I volunteered when I heard that Parks was most likely involved. One of the agents we suspect he had killed was my first partner when I joined the FBI. He was a good man and didn't deserve what was done to him. I don't want to see the same thing happen to anyone else." she replied.

Hetty looked at her appraisingly, liking what she saw. "It's Hetty, please. Let's bring you up to speed." She proceeded to tell her all the events leading up to the recent discovery of two possible suspects. When she gave the FBI agent their names, she immediately pulled out her phone.

"I know those two. I've had Confidential Informants keeping tabs on most of Parks's men for years. We've never been able to get anything that would lead us to pin the murders of our men on him but I've never given up. Let me reach out to my people to see if they've had eyes on either of these guys in the last few days." She stepped away from the rest of the group and made several calls.

The rest of the group shared a hopeful look. Could this finally be the break they were looking for?