Prompt: What if for the FLETC chronicles, the guys who was always given Deeks a hard time, ends up being assigned to the LA team and Sam gives him a hard time now in Deeks defense?
A/N: I tried to write this in a way where the team didn't come off as jerks themselves.
"Hey, Rountree is out today," Fatima announced as they all filed into OPS. She paused to hand them each a file, which Deeks took with a raised eyebrow. "He has a minor family emergency."
"Great," Sam said, sighing. "I assume that means Agent De Leon will be filling in for him?"
"Not this time. Kilbride approved a new agent to come in. He's actually supposed to be here any minute."
"Why didn't I hear about this?" Callen asked, seeming as irritated as he ever got.
"I think it was kind of a last minute thing," Fatima explained, shrugging. "Plus, you know. It's the Admiral. He doesn't exactly like to share his thought processes most of the time."
Grinning at Fatima's sardonic expression, Deeks flipped the file open. His smile shifted as he looked down at the familiar face of Alan Porter.
"Deeks, you ok?" Kensi asked, immediately picking up on the change in his mood.
"Uh, yeah, I think remember him from FLETC," Deeks answered, making it sound like he and Alan were mere acquaintances and the guy hadn't spent a good part of the course trying to undermine him.
Kensi peered over his shoulder, glancing at the name and photo again.
"Wait, is that the guy–" she started to say, because of course she put two-and-two together. He'd mentioned Alan enough in private that she wouldn't easily forget his name.
He gave a quick shake of his head, cutting off whatever Kensi was about to say. The team didn't have his pre-conceived prejudices and general dislike for Alan to influence them. Besides, maybe he'd matured in the last year. He'd certainly been less obnoxious by the end of FLETC.
"Is he any good?" Sam asked, having overheard their conversation.
"Uh, really not sure," Deeks told him honestly. "We weren't close, and I didn't share many classes with him."
"Well, at least his record seems pretty good for a rookie agent," Callen observed.
"Yeah, a lot of things look good on paper," Kensi muttered under her breath.
It turned out that Alan had not improved with time. Ok, maybe that wasn't strictly true; he was less openly annoying and antagonistic, but there was still an undercurrent of superiority. Deeks tried to keep his expression neutral while Alan introduced himself to everyone.
"Agent Porter, this is Agent Blye, Agent Hanna, and Investigator Deeks," Callen said briefly.
"Oh I'm aware," Alan said, slipping his hands into the pockets of his suit. "I specifically requested your team once I completed my initial placement. I wanted the best."
"Well, right now it's just temporary," Callen continued. "I'm sure Admiral Kilbride mentioned that one of our permanent agents is on leave for a few days. But if you work out alright, we might ask you back."
"I'm sure I will."
Deeks resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the smugness in Alan's voice. He just couldn't help himself, it seemed.
"Right." Sam's cheek creased with a half smirk and he folded his arms over his chest, giving Alan a once over. "So, you'll be helping out Agent Fatima, our primary analyst, for the time being."
"Actually, I thought I could partner with Agent Blye," Alan suggested. He caught Kensi's eye and winked. "I already have a significant amount of experience in the field so it would be a waste to stick me in an office."
"I already have a partner, Porter," Kensi said firmly. "You would be a tag along. At best."
"Kensi," Deeks muttered under his breath, rubbing a finger over his lip.
"Yeah, but you haven't worked with me." Alan's eyes flicked to Deeks, jaw tightening. And there it was again, that old misplaced, and totally unfounded, jealousy.
"Porter, you're new so I'll give you a break, but that's not how we do things here," Sam said. "And however good you might be, you're a year out of the Academy."
"But I'm an agent and Deeks is only an investigator," Alan snapped, losing some of his finesse. "I should have rank over him."
"And there it is," Deeks said quietly, shaking his head.
"You don't have rank over anyone right now, Alan," Callen told him firmly, his voice tight. It was almost painfully uncomfortable to watch Alan dig himself into such a deep hole.
"What the hell is it with this guy?" Alan demanded. "Everyone at FLETC treated him like a freaking god and for what? Because he once was a lawyer and can ace a bunch of exams. Obviously he's not nearly as good as you think or else he'd be an agent like the rest of us. He's just an old detective who's running out of time."
"If you think that," Sam began quietly. "Then you don't know anything about Deeks. He has earned his place on this team a million times over. Doesn't matter what title he has; I trust him with my life. That's something I definitely can't say about you."
Alan flushed an angry, embarrassed red that traveled straight up to the roots of his carefully styled hair. His jaw moved jerkily, like he was physically holding himself back from blurting out anything else. His self-preservation finally seemed to have kicked in. Deeks saw his eyes flick towards Kensi before he caught himself, his cheeks flaming even hotter.
"You'll give Deeks the respect her deserves or else you'll find out real quick that you don't belong on this team." Sam fixed Alan with a look that would have intimidated far stronger men. When Alan gave a short, reluctant jerk of his head, Sam smiled pleasantly, though it didn't reach his eyes.
"Alright, well it looks like that's settled," Callen decided cheerfully. "We'll show you to OPS and see what Fatima needs." As Alan followed Callen upstairs, shoulders held ramrod straight, Deeks caught Sam's eye.
"You really didn't have to do that," he said, even if he had appreciated watching Sam cut Alan's ego down by several feet.
"Oh, it was completely warranted," Kensi disagreed. "You're right, he is an ass." Sam smirked at that, even as he regarded Deeks more seriously.
"I meant what I said, Deeks. You deserve respect."
"Well, I appreciate it."
"Anytime," Sam said simply.
A/N: Again, I hope this wasn't too heavy-handed. Also, I should specify that I wasn't criticizing Rountree, just that he'd been most absent pretty frequently last season when I wrote this.