TITLE: "Task Force"
AUTHOR: Tess
RATING: T (adult language, violent situations)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own characters related to the program. I'd change some of them if I did. Hence, fanfiction.

"It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world."

― John Green, Paper Towns

Chapter One

"It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world." ― John Green, Paper Towns

January 19, 2019

Bates's text came in just as he was peeling off his wetsuit. The surf was good today - it had been for a few weeks. He was on a short leave - eight weeks with tweakers is exhausting for a regular undercover job, eight weeks with tweakers who were sons of celebrities or billionaire businessmen - that presented a totally different set of problems. A bunch of entitled spoiled brats who thought becoming the cancer-free Walter White was a good career plan was his last assignment. The tweaker brats forgot the part where Walter White made the stuff and didn't use. They also forgot that things ended badly for Walter. Now he had the families of five of the six "Breaking Bad" wannabes providing him with access and intelligence as he needs it. The sixth was going to jail because he was too stupid to understand just how much tape they had on him. But his lawyer would know and there would be an even more punitive deal to be had.

Kensi was due back later that day. She and Nell were part of women in the DoD meetings the SecNav was holding. Kensi's whitewashed Afghanistan timeline - the real reason she was there and the lies told were not going to be discussed – and her recovery from her spinal cord injuries along with Nell's move from intelligence analyst to field agent were of great interest to the SecNav The SecNav was highlighting the achievements and accomplishments of and opportunities for female agents in a DC symposium.

Kensi sent a picture of Nell jumping on the bed of the junior suite both she and Kensi were upgraded to after they stopped a purse snatching in the hotel lobby – yet another achievement for the two. He sent them a YouTube video of "Electra Woman and Dyna Girl" - now he was going to find the two of them tee shirts. An old snitch who cleaned up his act was working at Comics Ink. If anyone could find it, it would be old snitch Aaron.

Bates's door was opened as Deeks walked down the hall. Since it was Saturday, he figured his board shorts, Nike hoodie and Teva sandals wouldn't get him in too much trouble. Well that and he was on leave. Bates was leaning on the front side of his desk in front of his guest chairs in jeans, a checked shirt and a sports coat. "They're waiting for you in the conference room," he said, pointing down the hall. "We'll talk when you're done."

"They?"

"You're not in trouble. It will be your call."

"They?"

"Yes, they. And they are still waiting." Bates stood straight and made his way to the business side of his desk. "And then I'll be waiting."

Deeks hated surprises. He was good at them - undercover work is constant improvising - but he was just in the ocean and happy. Now he had a surprise. Opening the conference room door, he saw Leon Vance standing at window on the far side of the table with a seated grey-haired man between them.

"Has anything happened to Kensi?" Deeks asked.

The grey-haired man put his hand out as Vance took a fifty out of this wallet. Vance looked at Deeks and said, "Ms. Blye and Ms. Jones are fine and on their way home." Vance showed Deeks a flight tracker on his iPad. "They just crossed into Oklahoma air space."

Deeks stared at the two men. "And you had money on that?"

"The Director thought your boss would brief you as to what was going on here. I thought he'd keep his word and let us talk to you first. I won." The second man showed Deeks the half C-note before putting it in his sports coat pocket - the weekend's must have fashion item for the over-fifty set.

"And you would be?"

"Gibbs," the grey-haired man said standing up and extending his hand across the conference room table. "NCIS."

"You're Callen's friend," Deeks said as he shook Gibbs's hand, finally having a face to go with the name and a few stories. "Marty Deeks."

"Callen and I had a lot of fun in Russia back in the day." Gibbs pointed to a seat across from himself and the Director. While Vance remained standing, Gibbs sat.

"Fun's not a term I'd use with the Russians I've encountered but that's me," Deeks said as he sat. "So if Kensi is fine, Director Vance and Special Agent Gibbs, whatever would you need from a lowly local LEO like me."

"I think we all know you're a whole lot more than a lowly local LEO, Deeks," Vance chuckled, finally taking his seat. "I'm hearing good things about this new division you're running."

"More squad than division right now but it's a good team."

Vance nodded. "You were part of a good team before."

"They're all great agents and amazing people but you hardly need to hear that from me. So, gentlemen, why are we here?"

Gibbs opened a file folder. "There was another good team. You worked on the Flores Task Force in 2009."

"Six weeks in late September to early November."

"What can you tell me about it?" Gibbs asked.

Deeks pointed to the file folder. "What does the file say?"

"You were a last minute addition to the case. AUSA Fitzgerald pulled out a pair of undercover operatives she was worried were made. She sent you in. You infiltrated a gallery in the Meatpacking District in New York. You were able to plant cameras and mikes, discovered bills of lading and other key pieces of evidence supporting her belief that the gallery's art sales were secondary to their drug trafficking business. The drug business was funding a terror network. When your time undercover was done, AUSA Fitzgerald saw you were a lawyer and had you working on making sure the case was airtight."

"Genevieve likes having fresh eyes look at her cases. The case went on for nearly two years; the indictments had a number of moving parts and most were going to piss off the State Department, big time. As long as all her ducks are in a row - her favorite quote - she enjoys pissing off other government agencies. When she wins, they're afraid of her. And since she usually wins, they're all afraid of her."

"With reason," Gibbs agreed.

"I wound up staying an extra three weeks putting in long days. Worked out perfectly. She announced the indictments on the Tuesday before the World Series and she took those of us working the legal end of the case to that crazy box she has at Yankee Stadium for game two of the Series. Saw Jay-Z and Alicia Keys sing "New York State of Mind" then John Legend performed the National Anthem and Genevieve swore like a sailor at Pedro Martinez as long as he was in the game. The swearing part was nearly as entertaining as the game." Deeks enjoyed that particular memory.

"She's requesting you join a task force she's been running for the last few years. She believes she has solid cases in New York, Miami and Napa. She is doing the final stages of this in Los Angeles. She's interested in you and Agent Hanna in particular, Agents Blye, Jones and Callen will have roles in the case as well," Gibbs told him.

"Is there any reason Genevieve isn't here right now? She tends to be a little hands on," Deeks decided to go with an understatement.

"That's one way to put it," Gibbs said, appreciating his understatement. "AUSA Fitzgerald had every intention of speaking with you here today alone. She was delayed getting out here. She asked me to fill in for her."

"You're based in Washington. 3,000 miles to fill in? And where is she flying in from, Mars?"

"AUSA Fitzgerald's location is classified. As for me. I have a small role with the task force that I can do anywhere. I had a weekend's worth of work that I could do on a DoD flight here and back as easily as I could do it at home. Besides, I have family in Baja. Spending the day in Los Angeles for the task force, visiting family Sunday and Monday."

"And you, Director? Are you part of the task force too?" Deeks never really thought of Vance as anything but a guy running the show.

"My daughter is looking at colleges. We were coming out here this weekend anyway."

"I can highly recommend Loyola and Pepperdine from personal experience."

"I'd prefer Kayla's college experience be a little closer to home. Georgetown, GWU, UVa in a pinch. But that's not why I'm here right now. When Director Fitzgerald put in the request to work with Special Projects, she told me she was working to bring you on board. Since I wasn't satisfied with my conversations with you, Agents Blye, Callen, Hanna and Jones last summer and could get nothing from Henrietta or Shay, I thought I'd see if time has given you some prospective as to why you left NCIS."

"I didn't leave. I was fired," Deeks answered bluntly.

"Not really, you were Hetty's hire," Vance said.

"And I was EAD Mosley's firing. Twice. Her first act running OSP was to send me back to LAPD and my final act with NCIS was to return to LAPD per her orders."

"Lieutenant," Vance did not seem happy with Deeks's semantics.

Deeks wasn't interested in placating Vance. "She had me removed from the office and driven home by Agents Harris and Castro. I really could not imagine a more humiliating end to my NCIS liaison career." Deeks left out the fight with Kensi. He's sure that's immortalized on some security camera DVD for posterity.

"Shay was out of line," Vance said.

"Generous assessment." Deeks turned to Gibbs. "Have you ever had two agents forcibly remove a staffer from the office after the staffer pointed out illegal behavior?"

Gibbs thought for a second and for effect. "No. Can't say I have."

"She was way out of line. We can all agree on that," Vance offered.

"Can we?" Deeks asked. "Where does she go from 'out of line' to 'way out of line'? When she beat and water boarded a prisoner she removed from NCIS's custody to her own custody? When she ordered Kensi and I to report the prisoner's injuries as minor scrapes due that happened while he was being re-apprehended? A fictional re-apprehension since the plan was to cover her personal time with the prisoner as an escape. Or was it when we were kept in the dark as to her personal interest in the prisoner?"

"EAD Mosley did not handle the situation as she should have."

"And since she's still an Executive Assistant Director and she's still running the Office of Special Projects, your take on how she handled the situation has been duly noted." Deeks was not interested in relitigating last spring.

"She was suspended for six months," Gibbs noted.

"Which conveniently was the time she was just getting her son resettled in Los Angeles," Deeks told him. "Here at LAPD, we call that parental leave."

Deeks watched Vance take a deep breath. This was not going the way Vance planned. Good. "She has her son back because of you," Vance said. "Callen, Blye and Hanna all said it was your plan that lead to her son being rescued."

"Hetty offered me an opportunity to finish what I stared when I was fired. I was actually sitting at my cleaned-out desk working with Kensi on possible scenarios to get into the compound where the child was being held when EAD Mosley arrived with two agents to forcibly remove me from the office. Fortunately, Callen, Sam and Kensi were on board with my return when we left for Mexico. After everyone recovered from their injuries, LAPD was interested in my return to work on a corruption case. Hetty always said my work at LAPD took priority. Not that it matters with me being fired and all."

"And that slight was worth walking away from a unit you spent nearly a decade with?"

"I wasn't slighted, I was fired. I was dismissed after objecting to a suspect being beaten and was then was forced to leave by two agents assigned by the woman who beat the suspect. And I did. After my LAPD case cleaned up some corruption here, Roger Bates was promoted to Captain. I made Lieutenant. For years, LAPD's Intelligence Bureau was weak compared to what they have in other large cities like New York. After former Chief Bratton returned to New York, a few of the deputy chiefs here wanted to upgrade what we were doing. I was offered my own team, the ability to recruit from other divisions, hire from other departments and agencies with a decent sized budget. I was grateful for my time at NCIS but I had been returned to LAPD."

"Which is pretty much word for word what's in your letter of resignation," Vance told him.

"Not a letter of resignation. I was fired, remember?" Deeks was not letting Vance paper over what happened. Vance was going to get the truth. Deeks had his issues with OSP and NCIS but he still cared deeply for the people in that office. "The letter I sent was for my liaison file, telling the next person who has that position what a great team we all made. And since it's the truth, I don't understand what you're looking for, Director."

"Before the Director," Gibbs said as he gave Vance a look, "revisits your exit interview again and you continue to provide answers that annoy him, AUSA Fitzgerald wants to be sure if she's adding you to the task force she's running, you can work with OSP."

"Since I worked with them last week, I see no problems here."

"You worked with them last week?" Obviously, this was news to Vance.

"Nothing too tough, Director. I'm just local law enforcement again so not much is expected."

"Lieutenant," Vance was not having it.

"NCIS had a case where a college student, and she seemed more 16 than 19, was supposed to meet one of OSP's targets at the bleachers of Drake."

"The track near UCLA," Gibbs said.

"Not a school I'd recommend, Director Vance though Agent Gibbs seems to know about it. It was late in the day. Callen was working trash pick-up," Deeks said with a smile. Seems since he was gone, Callen was back on sanitation assignments. "Kensi was playing trainer to lazy grad student Nell. Sam was running up and down the bleachers."

"And you."

"I do homeless better than anyone. As it got darker, Callen's time picking up trash was getting limited. I hunkered down for the SoCal nap on the bleacher bench right by the entrance the target had to use to see the co-ed. The plan was for me to hit the target with the Overwatch spray while I did some panhandling when he passed by."

"So the local stranger who wouldn't leave his name after he stopped the target from abducting Miss Rivers was you."

"I'm running a new and improved unit at LAPD with a non-salary budget that is probably a low end of what Hetty spends every year on cars alone. Now if I call and need help with something, and I'll only call if I really need help with something important, I have an OSP favor in my back pocket. Everybody wins."

"Especially the girl nearly dragged away by OSP's suspect," Gibbs said. "So you'll give AUSA Fitzgerald's invitation some thought."

"Of course," Deeks told him. It would also likely mean a nice DoJ grant to his LAPD team for his time spent on the task force. Genevieve was good about taking care of her charges. That would help with the upgrades he wants in the comms system. Since taking over this assignment, he'd done as much budgeting as when he was trying to figure out how to pay for law school and live indoors.

"Now that you've agreed to consider Ms. Fitzgerald's task force, I have some questions."

"I don't know what more I can tell you, Director. I had an opportunity and I took it. I'm grateful for everything NCIS offered me but once I was fired it was time to move on."

"Queen for a day."

"Excuse me?"

"Queen for a day. You were an attorney. And as an attorney, surely you're familiar with a queen for a day proffer."

"I still am an attorney. And I did a number of them as a public defender. Here's the problem, Director. I've done nothing wrong and you don't have anything you can offer me."

"Department of Homeland Security grant request 1642.2019." Vance pushed a file folder across the conference room table towards Deeks.

Deeks frowned, looking at the file. "That's my request for money to improve our comm systems here. I got spoiled at NCIS."

"NCIS can give you our comm system for some insight to why you walked away from OSP. Tell me the truth, Lieutenant, and you can use that Homeland grant for other things."

Deeks thought for a moment. "I get the money for the latest comms, not some recycled gear NCIS is phasing out. Straight cash homey."

"Agreed," Vance said. "You answer my questions about why you left and you will have the money for the comms."

"And everything I say stays here. No retribution for anyone connected to NCIS or LAPD. This is just trading information. This comes back to hurt any of them and I'll make it clear to any agency I work with going forward that NCIS does not does not keep their promises."

Now it was Vance's turn to think. "One lie and we're done."

"Queen for a day," Deeks leaned back in his chair and relaxed, "ask away. And since we're not lying, I did not walk away from NCIS. I was fired."

"How long were you considering leaving NCIS before you went back to LAPD?" Vance started.

"I didn't leave NCIS. I was fired," Deeks planned on hitting that one every chance he got.

"Noted," Vance sighed. "Prior to your dismissal, did you plan on leaving your liaison position with NCIS?"

"I thought about leaving NCIS and LAPD for that matter right after I was tortured. I wasn't in a good place after that. I offered to return to LAPD full-time when Agent Blye was sent to Afghanistan - though I didn't know where she was just then, only that she was sent away. The two of us were having issues at the time and I felt responsible for her being reassigned."

"Not sure why you would," Vance noted.

"Nobody told me otherwise. It's been over a five years honestly, nobody still has told me that Kensi being reassigned wasn't my fault."

"Do you need to hear that?" Gibbs asked.

"I told Hetty I would return to LAPD so Kensi could return. Hetty told me she had all the information she needed before I was sent out in the field and never said another thing about why Kensi was gone. So yeah, maybe I needed to hear that. Chicken soup...it couldn't hurt," Deeks tried to joke and failed miserably. "But the first time I wanted out was after the torture. I told Sam Hanna that in the hospital. He thought it was a mistake but at the time, I was a mess."

"Understandable," Vance said.

Deeks chuckled. "Depends on who is doing the understanding."

"I'm sorry?" Vance was confused.

"I had some issues after the torture. After I was done with the dentist and was physically stronger, I was still in kind of a bad place in my head."

"Again, understandable," Vance said.

"For some. I got a shape up or ship out surprise visit from Hetty. And by surprise, I mean she broke into my apartment and hid behind the curtains because I wasn't taking anyone's calls. Scared the hell out of me at a time when I really didn't need to be made anymore jumpy."

"She got you back to work," Vance offered as a defense.

"Talks with Nate and Kensi got me back along with Hetty's threat of someone else working with Kensi. After two days back, Callen planned on sending me home because I wasn't ready to be in the field."

"I wasn't made aware of that," Vance told him.

"Of course not. Someone would have to be wrong if I was put out in the field too soon. And if you want to talk about being in the field too soon, Travis from IT was sent to the hospital with my car, a gun from the armory, my go bag with a change of clothes and directions to where the team was the day I was tortured. I'm loaded up on painkillers and spectacular memories of Sidorov and his stooge with a handheld drill named Andros drilling out my back teeth. Wasn't I the perfect choice to be handed the keys to my truck and a backup weapon with implicit orders to go after them?"

"Agent Hanna killed Sidorov," Vance said.

"He did. And I ended Andros, the stooge with the drill," Deeks told him blandly. "He had a gun on Kensi and Sam. Michelle was being held by Sidorov. It was a good shoot, lucky for all of us."

"You probably shouldn't have been there," Gibbs said.

"Skip probably and I'd agree."

Vance looked at his notes. "The DoD investigation. You weren't questioned."

"I'm not NCIS. The whole local LEO thing," Deeks shrugged his shoulders. "I'm really not worth the effort."

"Their mistake," Vance said sharply. "What's your opinion on what happened to Hetty?"

"The threats to her life were outrageous. Draeger tried to abduct to her 2010 and a couple of days later nearly got Kensi killed. He killed poor Dennis from accounting whose sole mistake that day was getting some FroYo from Sparky's as an afternoon treat."

"What about the subject of the DoD's investigation?"

"Kensi's assignment?"

"Yes."

"There are a lot of questions Hetty has chosen not to answer. Since I don't know what her answers are, I really don't know what..."

"Do you think Agent Blye should have been sent to Afghanistan?"

"With the information she was given for the assignment and with the information Hetty held back, no."

"You think Hetty should have told her about Jack Simon."

Deeks took a deep breath. He had to answer this properly or he'd sound like the asshole boyfriend. "Yes. She should have been told. So should have Assistant Director Granger, Agents Callen and Hanna and me. Probably Nell too since she was Kensi's main contact during her time over there. That part of the world is difficult to navigate when you know everything that's going on."

"How do you think you could have helped her?"

"I don't know. I was being kept from her. As were Agents Callen and Hanna. And from what Kensi told me, all but one other female staffer, including the Special Agent in Charge, were all transferred out. The female left was a civilian translator and the daughter of diplomat who got her moved from the NCIS truck to barracks in Camp Chapman after the NCIS field truck's heat failed. Kensi was the only female there most the time, surrounded by men she didn't like or didn't trust or both. Hetty's own little sociology experiment."

"Do you believe that?" Vance asked.

"I believe Kensi was thousands of miles from home, alone a lot of the time or surrounded by suspicious people. I can't imagine what Kensi felt when she saw her ex-fiancé, a man she last saw in 2005 just before he abandoned her at Christmas, through her rifle sight scope. Especially since she was sent to kill him as a traitor. Jack was a hero Marine, just like her murdered father, and now she was sent to kill him because he was a traitor. Who exactly was she going to talk to about this?"

"Have you asked?"

"Director Vance, I'll answer any questions you want about my time with NCIS but my conversations with Agent Blye about her feelings, as limited as they've been over the last ten years, are none of your damn business."

"You're engaged to Agent Blye. You're living together."

"I am and I'd like to keep it that way so it is still none of your business."

"You're angry."

"I really try not to do angry but what happened to Kensi, being sent away, being sent to kill the man she thought she'd marry at one time, the man who abandoned her to become what she was told a traitor – a man who killed Marines. Yeah, I have an issue or two with that."

"Do you blame Hetty for what happened to Agent Blye?"

"I blame the men who beat and tortured her."

"That's a great non-answer," Agent Gibbs said. "Try it this way: who do you blame for Agent Blye being in Afghanistan."

Deeks looked down and took a deep breath. "Lieutenant?" he heard Director Vance push.

And so he'd push back. Looking Leon Vance straight in the eye, Deeks said, "Honesty, sir, I blame you."

"Excuse me."

"Oh, this should be good," Gibbs muttered and he leaned back in his seat. There was more than a hint of a smile.

Vance was stunned. "You blame..."

"I blame you for the fact that Hetty was given such free reign. I blame you for sending out Owen Granger, who when he arrived was such a genuinely dislikeable man. It took years to figure out that under all that was one of the most decent men I ever met but Granger was very bad at first impressions. Second and third ones weren't his long suit either. At the time Kensi was sent away, it was very easy for the staff to pick whatever side wasn't Granger's. That was usually Hetty's."

"So my sending Granger out is the reason you blame me."

Deeks couldn't decide if Vance was going to walk out or hit him. "No. You set up a world where Hetty has no fear of retribution."

"They are classified but those congressional hearings were rough."

"I'm thinking when she was with the Taliban, Kensi wasn't held in the Four Seasons and dining at the Palm with her political or military buddies. And rescuing her was brutal for Callen and Sam. Granger too. For as big a prick as Owen Granger could be from time to time, he was on that hill near the Pakistan border, about to die trying to rescue Kensi with Callen and Sam."

"You saved them."

"No. I ran a successful trade, nothing more. Everyone was saved when Kensi walked back to the helicopter."

Vance looked at Deeks. "I don't understand."

"Somehow Callen and Sam survive that firefight on the hill but Kensi dies. You know the two of them. A big part of Sam dies right there in Afghanistan. When I was with that team, everyone had a role. Me, I was comic relief. Sam, however, was the protector. His code, his credo, his reason for being is keeping everyone - his family, his team, his country - safe. Kensi's all of those in one package. She is killed. He almost saves her but she comes home in a box and that will damn near mortally wound the part of Sam that makes him Sam. He carries on only to lose his wife a few years later. That's the end of Sam. He's got wounds that never close and he'll die trying to save the next person he needs to rescue because he didn't do the same for Kensi first and Michele later. Maybe he doesn't survive the attack on the SUV in Mexico because his last act was saving a child. An honorable final deed."

"Callen?" Gibbs asked.

"Callen had a sister who died when she was a little girl," Deeks noticed a small slip on Gibbs's cocky-cool agent game face. "Do you honestly think he'd survive another death like that? The people who Callen has allowed to be close to him - they're family and Kensi for years was that little sister he never had. So she's killed and he'd be gone. It would just confirm every one of life's lessons to him - don't love people. They don't last. And he lone wolf-s himself into the next thirty years. And you can add how well that would go for Sam with Kensi, Callen and then Michelle gone."

Vance nodded almost in agreement. "And you?"

"Oh, I'm not the eat your gun type. Nah. I'd do something stupid - run into traffic after a suspect but forget to look because I was distracted. Try a jump in a rooftop chase that I wouldn't have a chance in hell of making. Push a mark just a little too far," Deeks shrugged his shoulder. "And that's the best case scenario for me. For a while, it looked like I was going to be the only one flying back because I'm bringing Kensi, Callen, Sam and Granger home in coffins," Deeks sighed and shook his head. "She saved us. Every last one."

"Where is Ms. Blye on this?"

"You can ask her. I like my life and that includes not speaking for the most important person in it. She walked back. Tortured, beaten, betrayed by someone she trusted."

"She doesn't blame Hetty."

"No she doesn't." Deeks just looked at Vance. "And neither do I."

"But you're involved with Agent Blye," Gibbs noted. "Why wouldn't you want to keep working with her?"

"I was fired, remember," Deeks told Vance. "We keep going over this but you keep forgetting. I was fired."

"Lieutenant," Vance was growing weary. Good.

"Well, my last case with NCIS as a fired liaison officer got a lot of positive attention for LAPD. Internal Affairs was notified immediately when Mosley had me frog marched from the Mission. After returning a stolen child and taking down a gunrunning ring operating under the auspicious of a Mexican official, IA wanted me to work a case for them. After that ended well, LAPD wasn't so sure they wanted their 'hero cop' as the LA Times called me working for an outside agency that fired me. I got the promotion to Lieutenant and the money that came with it."

"Hetty offered you a similar pay increase if you joined NCIS full-time," Vance said. "And your time with NCIS would have been part of your time spent as a federal agent in both seniority and pension."

"Yeah, she also promised me I wouldn't be moved from LA or be an Agent Afloat," Deeks added.

"She wasn't authorized to make those promises," Vance told him.

"Thank you for confirming that. I figured that was true but my guess is she knew there would be no consequences if I took her up on those promises. Why would she think there'd be any?" Deeks asked.

Vance was not pleased. "You were never anything less than direct, Lieutenant. It may be why you're such a loss to this agency. AUSA Fitzgerald will need your answer today. She expects to brief NCIS at the boat shed at 2PM." Vance fished an envelope out of his jacket pocket. "This is the offer from her unit. Bring it with you this afternoon. She'll likely have questions if you don't have your own."

"She always has questions."

"Yes she does, Lieutenant."

Gibbs started packing his files. "If you're not interested, tell me now. I can call Genevieve, I think she's flying in right now but I can leave a message. If you're not doing this, she and I will need to find your replacement soon."

"I want to talk to my boss, AUSA Fitzgerald and Kensi before I decide but as it stands now, I want in. I just need to make sure everyone else is fine with the arrangement."

"Of course." Gibbs stood and offered Deeks his hand. "Good meeting you, Lieutenant."

"Same here," Deeks shook Gibbs's hand, then Vance's as he stood to leave. He had to talk to Bates...and Kensi. But mostly he had to figure out if he could do this. He had a couple of hours to figure out if he was going back.

"Oh, Deeks," Gibbs called to him just as he walked to the door. "You were not the reason Agent Blye was sent to Afghanistan. You were not the reason the person with the pertinent information kept it from her. You were not the reason what happened to her occurred. And you were right to complain about EAD Mosley's treatment of her suspect as both an officer of the court and as a member of the LAPD."

Deeks turned and looked at Gibbs, the Vance. "Thank you, Agent Gibbs. You're the first person connected with NCIS who ever told me that. And Director Vance, that's probably your answer to why I didn't return to NCIS after I was fired. I'll expect the grant money when my time with this task force is over. Enjoy your West Coast is the best coast weekend."

Deeks made his way down to Bates office. His boss had his feet up on the desk as he read a file. "You could have told me NCIS was in there," Deeks said as he plopped into one of Bates's guest chairs.

"What, and lose money?" Bates said with a smile.

A knock on the door had Gibbs walking in with an envelope for Bates. "Always good to see you, Roger."

"Same here, Jethro. If you're hanging around, we should grab a bite for dinner, catch up."

"Next time out," Gibbs said as he started to leave. "Got plans for tonight."

"Jethro?" A stunned Deeks asked after Gibbs left.

Bates opened the envelope and showed Deeks a twenty and a five. "Small world. Gunny Leroy Jethro Gibbs USMC worked security when I was in the Gulf. Best damn sniper the Marines had. He bet his boss the first words out of your mouth would be about Kensi. Boss didn't think I'd keep quiet about who was in the conference room."

"So do I get a cut?"

Bates tossed him the five-dollar bill.

"Ten percent?"

"Kid, the horses at Santa Anita don't get a dime."

Deeks pocketed the money. "So I'm a horse now?"

"Genevieve Fitzgerald thinks you're a thoroughbred."

"You could have told me that too."

"Don't want you to feel any pressure to participate in her investigation," Bates told him. "Her stuff is dangerous. Very dangerous. And she wasn't wrong when she brought you to New York. Her undercover operatives were made. She dummied up that car wreck the day after you arrived and got them out alive. She had that gallery manager on tape arranging a hit."

"I remember."

"But you're in."

"I am."

"Even though you're working with your ex-agency."

"They're my friends..."

"Some more friendly than others," Bates said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Really?" Deeks smiled. "I have no hard feelings and we'll all be working for Genevieve anyway."

"And you'll get your comms."

"Already got 'em. NCIS wanted something from me and I made a deal."

"Anything I should know about."

"Nothing to do with LAPD. About why I wouldn't return to NCIS."

"And give all this up?" Bates joked. "Call me tonight with how long you're going to be gone. You technically still have another week off. And I'm going to have to find a babysitter for Bernhart and Del Campo."

"They're in with the burglary crew. She's jacked a couple of planted cars while Bernhart is doing his white van, fake cleaning service/caterer/pool boy work in houses we've set up to be robbed."

"And Tommy Rey's crew is impressed. They're in. They just need to stop stealing things we've arranged and do a job with Tommy. Bower is due back Monday. He can supervise the case while I'm out."

"You need a partner, kid. You hired away two, took Bernhart for some reason and have that kid from the Legal Bureau who wants to be you when he grows up but you're still working alone."

"I always worked alone."

"Not when you were at NCIS you didn't."

"That was then, this is now." And she still wants to be at NCIS, he added silently, so I'll be partner-free until then.

"End of the fiscal year, you're going to either need a partner or they'll eliminate the position. Start auditioning when you're done with AUSA Fitzgerald."

"Yes sir."

"I'm going to brunch."

"No insult intended sir but you don't seem like a brunch guy."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Bates said as he stood. Deeks joined him as they walked to the elevator. "Things we do for love. Call me tonight."

"Yes sir." Deeks planned an early call. Kensi had been gone too long.

Annoying author notes: As with prior summers (except last year), I hope to post every Sunday. Hope being the key word - I'm at the mercy of my ride home from the beach and the wifi at assorted establishments on the way home.

Harley is not going to be mentioned here. I liked Harley a lot and I'm hoping she's alive so I can't bring myself to write her any other way.