A/N - I'm currently in San Francisco for work and haven't made the adjustment to the three hour time difference from home yet. While this has not been conducive to a restful night's sleep, it has led to a flurry of updates to this story as I've been getting up in the wee hours of the morning with nothing else to do. Hopefully, I don't devolve into a sleep deprived nut job and start posting weirdness. Luckily, I have honus47 to stop that from happening!

On a positive note, I'm in the same state as Deeks...shivers uncontrollably...lol!

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Chapter 52

Officer Stan Wolinsky changed out of uniform as quickly as he could. He slammed his locker closed and headed out, almost running down a man who was on his way in. He opened his mouth to apologize when he recognized him, Deeks having pointed him out one time when he'd come by to pick Stan up for a trip to the shooting range. Deeks had been coaching him, helping him to improve his aim and gun craft.

"Lt. Bates?"

"Yes? Officer Wolinsky, isn't it?"

Stan puffed up a little, pleased that the Lieutenant knew his name. He was unaware that Bates made it a point to learn all the rookie's names and evaluate them, trying to see if he could find that unexplainable spark that made a great cop and detective. Wolinsky was on his radar, especially after he'd found out that Deeks had taken him under his wing. Deeks had a good instinct about these things.

"Yes sir! I'm sorry I almost ran you down, sir. I'm just eager to get to the hospital to see if he's going to make it."

"If who's going to make it?"

Stan frowned. "Deeks." He said hesitantly.

Bates felt his blood pressure rise. "What do you mean see if Deeks is going to make it? What the hell are you talking about?" If that little Ninja Svengali had gotten his best undercover cop hurt, he would ignore all his instincts to give her a wide berth and make her life miserable.

Stan backed away a little, not sure why the Lieutenant didn't know what was going on. He knew LAPD had been involved; the man should have been informed as Deeks's LAPD commanding officer. Something was going on here.

"Deeks was abducted yesterday. They found and rescued him today. Lt, I know that LAPD was involved in the operation, specifically SWAT."

"Exactly how do you know these things?" Bates was still not sure if the rookie was trying to put one over on him. Maybe Deeks had put him up to it, to test how well he could sell a cover.

"An Agent Sam Hanna from NCIS called me a few minutes ago. I met him at the scene of a supposed sighting of Deeks on Culver yesterday, after he went missing. We got several calls about a man in an NCIS vest who matched Marty's description, wandering around, heavily armed. When we got to the scene, there was no sign of him. Three NCIS agents showed up and, when I told them we'd found nothing, they figured out that the sightings had been a ruse to draw them away from where Deeks had been taken. They somehow figured out where he was being held and got him out. I don't have any of the details of how that happened. All I know is that SWAT was in on it, that he's in bad shape and in surgery right now. That's where I'm headed."

Bates nodded. "What hospital?"

"Pacific Beach."

"Wait here one minute." Bates strode angrily to his locker and pulled out his jacket. He was damn well going to find out what was going on. Slamming the door, he returned to the waiting officer. "Let's go. I'm driving."

Stan trotted behind the angry man, trying to keep up. His lifelong dream had been to be a cop and he'd achieved it. He wanted to make detective and had been proud when Deeks had befriended him and agreed to help him hone his skills, even after he botched their first meeting. He still couldn't believe that Deeks didn't hold it against him, that he seemed to find it a funny story. Stan had always had an idealized view of the blue brotherhood and Deeks had only enforced that. What was happening right now confused him. This was not the way things were supposed to go. He silently got into the car with the Lieutenant, feeling the waves of raw anger coming off the man. He knew he wasn't the target of the man's anger but he couldn't help feeling somehow guilty.

"Stop feeling guilty Wolinsky. You did nothing wrong. Something stinks in this whole situation. I intend to find out what it is and you're going to help me."

"How did you know…"

"I was one of the best interrogators the Army had during Desert Storm. I can read a person's body language and yours is screaming guilt. That's what makes Deeks such a great undercover. I could never get an accurate read on him if he didn't want me to. That's a skill you don't see too often and it can't be taught. It's inherent."

Stan looked at the man sitting next to him and made a bold statement. "You care about him?""

"Of course I care about him! He's a major pain in my ass but he's one of mine. I keep expecting to find his resignation on my desk. Expecting to find that that little ninja has finally poached him from me." He looked over at Stan. "I know it's going to happen eventually. I know he's found a home there, one he didn't find at LAPD no matter how hard I tried to find him the right niche. Even when he does, however, he'll still be one of mine and I'll always look out for him whenever I can."

"You admire him!"

"Yes, and if you ever tell him I said that, I'll make sure you're on traffic duty for the rest of your career! Am I understood?"

Stan had the nerve to grin at the glowering man. He was finding his courage and hoped that it didn't back fire. "What do you think is going on, Lt? Doesn't it seem odd that no one informed you he was even missing or that he was hurt? I hadn't heard a thing until Agent Hanna called me. If SWAT was deployed to help rescue a cop, that should've spread like wildfire. I don't like it; I don't like it at all."

Bates looked at the young man, somewhat impressed with his assessment that something was wrong. An assessment he fully agreed with. He knew he could trust Deeks instincts about this rookie. He pulled into the parking lot of Pacific Beach Medical and parked. Turning off the car he said "I don't like it either kid, and I fully intend to get to the bottom of it. No one messes with me or one of mine, and gets away with it."

He got out of the car and didn't bother to wait to see if Wolinsky followed him, knowing full well the young man would. Stan ran to catch up with him and then slowed his pace to match. "Agent Hanna told me to ask for a Nurse Trent who would show us to where everyone else is waiting."

Bates nodded and together they went through the emergency room doors. Tracking down the first person in scrubs, a harried looking blonde with pink streaks in her hair, Bates pulled out his badge and said "I'm looking for a Nurse Trent."

The woman turned and yelled "Hey Craig, someone here to see you." With that she hurried away to deal with the next patient on her never ending list.

Craig Trent approached the two men, already knowing that they were here for the detective. The size of the group in the waiting room was increasing by the minute. "I'm Craig Trent. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're here looking for the group waiting on Detective Deeks?"

Bates held up his badge again. "Yes. Lt. Bates, LAPD. Officer Wolinsky."

"Come this way." Craig turned to lead the two newcomers to the waiting room where the others were. He had a feeling this was going to be an explosive meeting. He sighed heavily; he hoped he didn't have to intervene. He perked up when he realized he'd get to see the hot DEA agent again and picked up his pace, the others keeping up with him easily. He opened the door and waved them through. True to his expectations, the temperature in the room seemed to drop about 10 degrees.

"Bates! What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asked angrily, advancing on the man. Bates stood his ground. Stan and Craig watched the unfolding scene with interest.

"I'm here because I was just informed that one of my detectives was kidnapped and hurt. When were you going to tell me about this? How the hell did you get him into this situation?" Bates was just as angry.

Callen stepped between the two men, holding them apart with arms outspread. "Enough! Both of you! This is neither the time nor the place to start slinging blame. You both know that something's going on. Something we need to figure out, together." He turned his head towards Bates when he saw his partner calm down enough that he could take his eyes off him. "Exactly what do you know Lt.?"

"That you got one of my men kidnapped and hurt. What the hell happened? Were you not paying attention to the cop? Too busy playing the big bad federal agents?"

Sam pushed against Callen's hand on his chest, trying to get to the irate man on the other side of his partner, all his rage about what happened to Deeks now focused on Bates. "Enough! That's not what happened! We're pretty sure that the people who took Deeks targeted him specifically and that it has nothing to do with an NCIS case. That being said, LAPD SWAT was a fully involved participant in the raid. How did you not know what was going on? Something's wrong at LAPD and you have to know it Bates!"

Bates took a deep breath and backed off, knowing that Callen had just voiced his own concerns. "Yes, something's wrong and I don't think it's just with LAPD. I think it's time we compared notes. This smacks of someone in both NCIS and LAPD being involved." Callen raised his eyebrows, he hadn't considered that. He looked at Sam questioningly. Sam reluctantly nodded that he was going to play nice, at least for now.

Moving out from between the two men, Callen introduced him to the people in the room he didn't already know, including Granger who had yet to meet Deeks's LAPD boss. He was surprised when Bates approached Kensi and put his hands on her shoulders. He looked down at her and said gently "He's going to make it Agent Blye. He's not going give up now that he has pretty much everything he's ever wanted." Kensi looked at him with her mouth open. She knew Deeks wasn't around LAPD that much anymore and wasn't sure when his LAPD boss had figured out how things were between them.

"How did you know?"

"You just told me." Bates smirked at her. "The last couple times I've seen Deeks, I could tell he was happy. Not the happy in his work kind of thing but happy in his personal space. I wasn't sure it was you, although I suspected it during the Clarence Fisk case. How long?"

"Almost a year now."

"Jeez, you two are slow movers!" The unexpected comment relieved the tension in the room and elicited a laugh from the NCIS agents. Talia smiled sadly but didn't join in the laughter and Cheryl had no idea what was going on, although she knew there was a romantic relationship between the female NCIS agent and her partner. She'd seen enough tonight to come to that conclusion.

The federal agents once again moved away from the civilians to discuss the case, this time the cops joining them. Granger brought Bates up to speed, including the fact that SWAT had not been told they were rescuing a fellow cop, that they'd only been told it was an interagency op to rescue an unknown kidnap victim. Bates knew who Hiller was and was confident the guy was on the up and up. The rest of the SWAT team were strangers to him. They were trying on different scenarios when Granger's phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and said "I have to take this. Excuse me for a moment." Walking out the door, they heard him answer the phone. "Granger."

The rest was lost when the door closed behind him but not for long. Through the closed door they could hear his voice rise, the words clear. "What do you mean you lost him?" Pause. "Find him! Now!" The door opened and a very angry Granger appeared.

"Owen? What's happened?" asked Hetty, all eyes on him.

"That was Agent Franklin. LAPD Officer Pastor is dead. Sean McGonagle is in the wind."