Hello again. I'm in a writing mood, so here is the next chapter. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: LA.
Kensi had spent her thanksgiving sorting her head out. She did not want to kiss Deeks, nor was she attracted to him in any way. It was just because it was her first time being taken hostage, and the whole nearly dying in an explosion thing. It meant nothing. Her mind had just been addled by the adrenalin and fear, not to mention the serious way Deeks had acted to save her. It. Meant. Nothing.
With that clear in her mind she had had no worries walking back into the office after the holidays, well almost no worries. There had still been that little nagging voice at the back of her mind which had constantly asked her if she was sure. Therefore she did feel a rather large amount of relief when she saw Deeks and was finally knew without a doubt that she really did feel nothing for him. He was just her floppy haired, irritating as hell partner, and if she had any feelings towards him they were more brotherly than anything. It really was a weight of her mind. Which of course, was when the other thing she had noticed at that time, the one she called her crazy five minutes, returned. The fact she had thought she had seen Deeks and Callen standing there holding hands and staring at each other in a way, which to her self-confessed not so logical mind, seemed a tad intense. Like they were having 'a moment'.
Therefore as she sat at her desk and shared stories with her team she couldn't stop herself from watching both her partner and her team leader out of the corner of her eye. It was easier than she thought it would have been. Well not Deeks, I mean she could watch him through her eyelashes as he sat across from her without anyone being the wiser. The one she had thought would be a problem was Callen. He was always so… on guard. But he seemed unusually distracted right then. So as she sat next to him, she made herself focus on him, taking note whenever his head rose slightly to look across the bullpen. Of course she couldn't be sure who he was looking at. For all she knew he and Sam could be having one of their less than vocal conversations. But she still noted the movement and she had to wonder.
But these thoughts were countered by the behaviour she observed when they were talking, or in the gym. Even when Sam got Deeks and Callen to train together. Surely if her team leader had a thing for her partner he would go easy on him right? But no. He was no easier on Deeks than he would be on her. Oh he wasn't fighting as he did with Sam, but then he never did that with anyone other than his partner. When those two 'trained' it was a sight to be seen. Because it was the one time she saw neither of them hold back that wasn't in the field. When Sam and Callen fought, you would always find more people in the gym than usual there purely to watch the display of skill.
Then of course there was the fact that it had never once crossed her mind that Callen might be interested in men. Of course that was probably because she had never really considered the idea of Callen actually having a love life at all. He was such a lone wolf. He had always seemed to have an invisible wall around him, keeping him from everyone else. Even Sam at times. So the idea of him dating anyone had never crossed her mind.
But now it was, and she still couldn't work out if it was possible that he liked men. I mean, she had kissed the guy, been wrapped in his arms, and played his girlfriend more than once. He never seemed adverse to the idea, nor did he seem to… hold back for want of a better description. And then there was his 'ex-wife'. If he liked men, why did Tracy try to wrap him round her finger again using her sex appeal? Because there was no question that she had tried to do that. Not from where Kensi had been sitting at any rate. That woman was a manipulative bitch.
And finally there was the fact that Deeks had a boyfriend. So even if Callen did like him that way, which she was still in two minds about, nothing could ever happen between them. I mean from what Deeks had told her, she could work out that Deeks was in love with his man. There was no way anyone would be able to come between them. So where did that fit in with whatever it was she might or might not have seen, or what she might or might not be seeing now?
It took her almost a week of them being on paperwork and training to finally come up with something that fit what she thought she was seeing. Though again, she still wasn't sure she wasn't imagining it. But, if she was right in the idea that Callen liked Deeks in a sexual way, then his distracted behaviour could be explained by Deeks not returning his subtle signs of attraction. Because if she had seen what she had after the explosion, and Callen did go that way, then it would be reasonable that he would think that he stood a chance with Deeks. But now Deeks wasn't responding, because he had a boyfriend he loved, and Callen was wondering what was going on.
It all made perfect sense to her, if her assumptions and conclusions were right. She still wouldn't bet money on them being so. But if she was right, then it was only fair to let Callen know Deeks was taken. Though there was no way she was going to draw him aside and tell him out of the blue that Deeks had a boyfriend. He might think she didn't approve or something, and it could blow up into a complete shitfest, as Deeks would say. Or there was the other option that she was completely wrong and he would wonder what the hell she was thinking. Yeah that would not be good. So what she needed to do was let Callen know Deeks had a boyfriend, without it seeming like she was letting him know. Now how the hell was she going to do that? It briefly crossed her mind to talk to Sam, but she didn't want to break her partner's confidence in that way. Not that she thought the senior agent would care about Deeks sexual orientation. It was more… the idea of deliberately telling someone else, it felt wrong. Oh man, this was so damn hard.
Of course throughout all these thoughts it never once crossed her mind to speak to Deeks about it. Tell him her suspicions so he could talk to Callen, or correct her assumptions. In fact Deeks was the one person that didn't really enter her mind at all that week she spent watching and analysing the behaviour of her team leader. Nor did it cross her mind to consider the fact that Callen was the one to bring Deeks in because he had known him before and as such could be a candidate for Deeks' boyfriend. She had forgotten all about the case they had worked where she had first met Deeks. Where she had stood and watched and listened to conversation that made no sense to her between the two men. She had gotten so used to have the detective as her partner, and not wanting to remember Dom, her mind had just accepted that he had always been there. That his place was on the team, and they had all welcomed from the first as one they had just met, just as she had.
Nell had been working, now she had the time, on finding the man agent Callen had asked her to find. One Gordon John Brandel. Though she had to make sure she kept her searches from Eric, which wasn't that easy. She liked the guy, they had become friends, and as such, spent most of the day together up in ops. But finally she was close to finding out the information the team leader wanted. She just hoped she wasn't too late, though surely if that had been the case he would have asked her for a progress report. Either he had forgotten all about the lead, or there was no rush on the information. And she did not think for a minute that special agent G Callen forgot anything.
She had sat there staring at her screen when she finally got what was needed, hoping the words would change. But they didn't. It seemed this was a lead that wouldn't be panning out then. Oh well, it was not her job to decide what was useful and what was not. It was her job to find it. And she had done that. So printing out all she had, she had placed it in a non-descript brown folder. Now all she had to do was take it to the agent in charge, and give it to him without anyone seeing. Oh yes, that was going to be easy. Taking a deep breath she stood with a confidence she wasn't sure she felt. Though it might have been a bit too much confidence as her actions sent her chair spinning across the room.
"Nell, you okay?" Eric asked looking up from his screen as her chair went on its travels.
"Yes. I er, just need to take this information to the team." She replied trying to calm her heart while holding the file tight, not wanting Eric to take it from her and read the information. Callen had said it was need to know, and that was why he had asked her to find it. He trusted her to keep it a secret, so she would.
"We're not working a case. What's it about?" Eric asked turning to her fulling now, taking note of how she was almost crushing the file in her hands. Something wasn't right here, and it was setting alarm bells ringing in his head. Who in the team had asked Nell to do something? And what exactly was it?
"Something I was asked for." Nell snapped before turning on her knee and marching out the door making Eric's eyebrows raise.
"Okay." He muttered to himself and fought internally with himself for a few seconds before turning back to his screen and hacking through to hers to find out what she had been working on. Purely to protect her you understand. Because he knew the team, they occasionally asked him to look for personal things when they weren't busy, and that wasn't allowed. He had been caught out a few times when he first started with that one, and Hetty had made sure it had the rules beaten into his head, though thankfully not literally. So he knew they weren't above asking the newbies to do things which were against the rules by making it seem fine. Especially Callen, he was the worst. And Eric had seen how Nell looked at the team leader, she would do anything he asked without question. That was never good.
It didn't take him long, but when he got the intel up on his screen he couldn't stop the frown from forming. Who the hell was Gordon John Brandel?