Kensi Blye strutted into the office with a confidence that belied her anxiety. She was not at her best. None of the team was. They had just lost Dom and now someone was out there screwing with their heads holding information over Callen. If NCIS couldn't find out who he was, the fact that a dangerous stranger had this information did not sit well with any of the team. While the young agent normally thrived on stress and adrenaline, in fact made a living out of it, Kensi found this all to be too overwhelming. But watching the now youngest member of the team walk into work no one would know, or she hoped no one would know. The team's curious stares at her as she walked in proved her hopes to be inconsequential.

"Miss Blye, how nice of you to join us this morning, and only an hour late," Hetty commented glancing at her watch for effect. She was not late though. Impossible. Maybe the older woman was. She had checked her watch this morning when leaving. She should have been early this morning. Taking another glance she realized that at some point the watch had stopped during the night. That would teach her to follow overeager men home from a bar.

"Hetty, leave her alone, she obviously needed the extra time to primp" Sam said while smirking that annoying Sam smug grin her way. Ok, that was unfair, she normally loved bantering with Sam but today was not necessarily normal. The chuckles that came from Eric, Callen, and Nate led her to realize that something wasn't quite right.

She glanced down at her blue jeans. Normal. No rips or stains. Same with the white tank and unbuttoned blue shirt. Why were they laughing? Kenz loved teasing with her teammates but she was not herself this morning. Glancing up at the resident psychologist she saw a hint of worry in Nate's eyes under the amusement. Taking pity on her, he walked over and smoothly grabbed her overshirt off. She had it on inside out. The tags were still on.

"Damnit" she whispered before stopping herself. She couldn't help it. After leaving what's his name in bed… well his name was unimportant. She had debated whether stopping at home but once she figured out where she was, she realized that she'd never make it to work on time. While Hetty gave all her agents a good deal of leeway, punctuality was next to godliness in the older woman's eyes and a breach of this virtue was not taken lightly. So Kensi scanned the room for her clothes and made the walk of shame past this man's roommates. Judging by their whistles and Ed Hardy t-shirts it looked like she had stuck to her MO, assholes. After the little black dress incident she had kept a pair of clothes in her car, which she changed into in front of the Dunkin Dounuts giving the barely 19 year old cashier quite a show as he watched from the window. But obviously the alcohol, large amounts of alcohol she consumed during the night, still was affecting her considering her team was both grinning at her and looking at her with a bit of worry.

"Punctuality is a virtue Miss Blye, one you may want brush up on. We have a meeting with the director in 10 minutes, I hope you can make it upstairs on time" Hetty said poignantly before walking upstairs, reinforcing the agent's earlier thoughts.

"Ooh, it's ok, we always knew she liked me the best," Callen said winking at her.

"Sure, G. You keep telling yourself that," Sam shot back taking the attention and the heat off her. It was a flimsy distraction, an artificial distraction but one she appreciated nonetheless. It was almost childish how they all pretended and covered for each other. Normally she would probably be pissed, but today she needed the distraction. Today Kensi Meredith Blye wanted to revel in being screwed up.

And In their own ways they were all screwed up. Nate hadn't had a date in ages. Eric suffered from a Peter Pan complex and continued to shudder at the words "adult" or "grow-up." Callen disappeared when things got to emotional or cracked a joke and a smile that never quite reached those piercing blue eyes. Hetty had adopted five misfits to act as surrogate children for the ones she never allowed herself to have. Even Sam, the most well adjusted of the group had been spending far too much time with his punching bag and not enough time with his actual friends.

Yes. They were an interesting team. She would have continued on that track but the whistle from Eric reminded her that her time was up. She did not want to continue the day on Hetty's bad side. It was not a place any one of them relished. Walking up the stairs she felt a yank from behind as Callen held up the tags to her brand new shirt and stuffed them into his pocket. He smiled sympathetically at her before whispering, "Your shirt's still on inside out" and continuing on.

Placing her head on the wall she realized that this was going to be an awful day. She did not know just how awful her day could get.