Chapter 51

He's still with us but I can't give you a positive prognosis. It's going to be a wait and see."

His words were met with silence as each person processed what this meant. Kensi was the first to speak. "As long as he draws breath, I know he's going to fight to stay with us. I have to believe that."

Sam huffed out "He's stubborn. We've all seen that up close and personal." He looked at the man standing in front of him. "Thank you for coming to tell us personally. It means a lot that you kept your promise to let us know what was going on with our friend. I'm Agent Sam Hanna." He held out his hand.

"Craig Trent. I'm the senior ER nurse." The other man said, shaking Sam's hand. "You'll find I mean what I say and I say what I mean. And what I'm saying right now is that your friend is where he needs to be. His surgical team is top notch and he couldn't be in better hands." He looked around the room, trying to make eye contact with each person, wanting to convey his total confidence in his people without making promises he couldn't keep.

"As I said before, I'll let you know anything I hear as soon as I hear it." He looked around the room again, his eyes lighting on one person who had caught his attention the first time. She was tall and slender, dark haired and dark eyed, not a classic beauty but striking. He wondered idly if she was related to the scary one with the mismatched eyes. Her vest said DEA so he knew she was another federal agent and his first, inappropriate to the situation, thought was she was hot, smoking hot. He'd always found strong woman attractive. The soft clingy ones left him cold. He realized she had just caught him staring and was returning his look with one of interest. Ok, so not the time or the place for this. Clearing his throat, he decided to try to inject a little levity. "You know, y'all might be a little more comfortable out of the Kevlar." He wasn't sure they were even aware they were still wearing them.

When each of the agents looked down at themselves in surprise, he knew he'd been right. None of them even remembered they had on their vests. He wondered what it would be like to live a life where wearing body armor was so commonplace as to be forgettable. He watched as they all started to remove them, the agent who'd introduced himself as Sam, gathering them together. He looked at his watch and realized he needed to get back to work. Every ER in L.A. was a busy place. "Agent Hanna? I need to go but I'll keep you up to date as much as I can. Once the surgery is complete, the doctor will be in to speak with you."

Sam nodded his thanks and Craig left the room, Talia watching him go with interest. She knew Deeks was unavailable to her and that she needed to move on. The nurse was, in her estimation, hot, and he'd certainly seemed interested. She tried to work up something more than just the little interest she'd felt so far and was worried when it didn't come. Damn Deeks anyway.

Sam turned to the growing pile of vests and said "I'll take these out to the Challenger and lock them up. G, want to help me carry them?" Callen nodded and the two split the pile and headed towards the door. Sam turned back and looked at Kensi "We'll be right back." She nodded at him and had to smile at his protective big brother persona that had come out in full force. She turned back to her "family" and realized she hadn't called her mother. Julia adored Deeks and had hinted more than once about engagements and weddings.

"I need to call my mom! I can't believe I didn't think of that." Kensi and Julia's relationship had improved tremendously, some of it due to Deeks pushing her to spend time with her mother, even going as far as to go with them to smooth out the awkwardness that still reared its ugly head. She had to smile when she remembered him going with them on a shopping trip last month and having to stand outside the dressing room door, holding Julia's purse, being asked to pass judgment on outfit after outfit that Julia had tried on and those that she had forced on Kensi. He had claimed to enjoy the whole outing but she had seen the look of utter panic on his face when Julia had come out in a particularly ugly pant suit. She was still not sure if her mom had picked it deliberately to tease him. The woman had serious good taste in clothes and that pant suit had been hideous.

She started to reach for her phone when Hetty forestalled her. "It's already taken care of Kensi. I called her myself. She wasn't at home and told me to tell you she would be here as soon as she could. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to tell you sooner."

"Thank you Hetty." Kensi looked around the room, looking for something, anything, to occupy her mind, something other than the thoughts of what her future might look like. The door opened and a welcome diversion came through in the form of Cassie, Paula, Cindy, Chris and L.C. Obviously the Peterson's had not been able to get a sitter and she was glad. The baby would be something positive to focus on. She moved forward to share what little they knew about Deeks's condition and to give and accept hugs, drawing and giving strength.

FBI Agent Leary saw her opportunity to finally pass on some evidence she had been requested to give to Hetty. Reaching into the messenger bag she had brought with her, she pulled out an evidence bag containing the laptop they'd recovered from the scene. "Ms. Lange?"

Hetty turned to her, raising an eyebrow. Cheryl nodded and continued "Sorry, Hetty. Your forensics team asked me to pass this on to you. They dusted it for fingerprints and other physical evidence. They said you'd know what to do with it now. I can tell you that there was a camera attached to it at the scene and that it was displaying the plant floor in real time." She handed the bag to Hetty.

"I do indeed, Miss. Leary. Mr. Beale?" Eric hurried to her side. "Please work your magic on this and find us whatever you can that we can use as evidence against this bastard!"

Eric grabbed the laptop and nodded, eager to contribute whatever he could to making sure the man or men who put Deeks in the hospital paid for it. He turned and went back to where Nell was sitting, waiting for him, her keen eyes having taken in the whole exchange. The two techs put their heads together and started to work.

Out in the parking lot, Sam and Callen finished packing the vests into the Challenger's trunk and Sam slammed the trunk closed, a little harder than necessary. Okay, a lot harder than necessary. Callen looked at his partner, knowing full well what was going on behind that calm demeanor. "Want to talk about it big guy?"

"No." Sam looked at him and immediately continued. "What kind of person does that to another human being, G? All these years in this game and I still haven't been able to figure out what makes these guys tick. You saw Deeks. There's no way that that guy did all that without getting some kind of kick out of it." He paused and Callen knew he was about to find out exactly what was really bothering his best friend and partner. "We didn't listen to him, G! Kensi was right. It's our fault he's here. If we had listened to what his instinct was telling him, he wouldn't have had to go through all that. He knew! He knew something was wrong and we all blew him off. What kind of teammates does that make us? And then, then we just left him there! I have to wonder, if it had been one of us, what would his instincts have told him? Would he have insisted on someone staying behind? Would we have listened to him?"

"I said it then and I'll say it now. We can't go back and change things, Sam. We can only learn from our mistakes and make sure we don't make them again. I know I'll be paying more attention to those instincts. Well, about situations like that, not about the hot fruit of the moment or walking desks!" He tilted his head at Sam, getting the smirk he'd been aiming for. He continued in a more serious tone. "You know he won't blame us. Hell, he'll probably find some way to blame himself. We have to focus on the positive. We got him back; he's alive and has a fighting chance. We've got the son of a bitch who did this and we're gonna get the bastard who ordered it. You know damn well that no one in that plant was the mastermind. Concentrate your energy on finding out who that is and on Deeks getting better."

Sam sighed, knowing Callen was right. Truthfully, it was the fact that they'd left the warehouse when he was still there that bothered him the most. It went against every military engrained instinct in his body. You never left a man behind. True, they hadn't known he was there and didn't figure it out until they got to Culver and talked to Officer Wolinsky.

"Wolinsky!" Callen frowned at him in confusion, not sure how he'd gotten from blaming himself for leaving Deeks in the warehouse to naming an LAPD officer they'd only met once. "Wolinsky asked us to let him know when we found Deeks. We need to call him."

"LAPD knows we found him, Sam. They were there, they helped locate him. Wolinsky surely knows by now."

"Like Hiller knew it was Deeks we were rescuing?"

"Good point."

Sam pulled out his phone and called the LAPD number Deeks had given all of them to use if they ever needed information when he wasn't around.

"LAPD, Sgt. Carroll."

"This is Special Agent Sam Hanna with NCIS. I'm trying to reach an Officer Stan Wolinsky. It's important. Can you patch me through to him or get him a message to call me immediately?"

"Please hold. Let me locate Officer Wolinsky."

Sam waited impatiently, listening to bad background music. An excruciating five minutes later he heard the telltale click of his call being transferred. "Agent Hanna? This is Stan Wolinsky. Did you find him? Is he okay?"

Sam sighed; this was another thing he would never understand. LAPD politics and pettiness. "Yes, Officer Wolinsky. We found him. He's in surgery at Pacific Beach Medical right now." Sam paused and took a steadying breath. "They aren't sure he's going to make it. He's bleeding internally, lost a lot of blood and has a punctured lung, amongst other things. They're doing everything they can. Are you telling me that you had no idea? That there are no rumors flying around? I thought the "boys in blue" rallied round their own?"

"We do! But if we don't know what's going down, how can we?"

"LAPD was involved Wolinsky! SWAT was on scene with us."

"That's news to me but then I'm not very high up the food chain! Look, I'm just about to go off duty. I'll be there as soon as I can. How will I find you?"

"Ask for Nurse Trent. He'll bring you to us."

"Thanks." The officer said and hung up.

"I was right G. Wolinsky had no idea we'd found him, that SWAT was involved in the rescue and he knew nothing about his condition. When Deeks is back on his feet, we need to get him out of there. We need to do a full court press to get him to resign and apply as an NCIS agent. I'm sure Hetty and Granger can get it pushed through immediately."

Callen looked guilty for a moment before schooling his features to reflect agreement. He should've known Sam would pick up on it.

"Something you want to tell me, partner?"

Callen sighed. He could just bluff and say no but he knew his partner better than anyone. The man was a bulldog and wouldn't let this go. Not if he was sure Callen knew something he didn't.

"Well. Hetty may, or may not, have made that offer to Deeks a couple years ago. Right before she took off to Romania."

"She what? What happened? Why is he still a cop?"

"When Hetty confided in me that she'd made the offer, she told me he turned her down. He told her he was honored but that being a cop was more than what he did, it was who he was."

Sam shook his head. "Things have changed. It's time he realized that. He's an agent in all but name. He stopped being an LAPD cop a long time ago."

Callen had to agree. "As team lead, I hereby declare that "Operation Agent Deeks" will commence as soon as he's coherent. We'll read the rest of the team in when we get back inside."

Sam had to laugh. Callen could be gruff and appear unemotional to those who didn't know him but, as cliché as it sounded, still waters run deep. There was a reason for that saying and, as old and tired as it was, it still held true. Deeks didn't stand a chance.