THE THIRD CHOIR REHEARSAL

Summary: Life appears to have gotten back to normal for the main team at the NCIS:LA office. But it is only an appearance. The "Deep Trouble" that vexed the team is not over, even though the members have all been reunited again. Can Nate Getz come in and get them all back in harmony, so once again they can destroy evil and help those who need it?

A/N 1: After I wrote my final installment for the series of stories that comprised the 8 #-Appreciation Weeks on the NCIS:LA Magazine's website, I received many requests to continue those stories. I have not yet seen "Deep Trouble II", and I can only guess at how close I came to the actual solution that Season 6 Episode 1 will present to us. So this story is probably going to be far from canon too. I wrote this based on the two teaser photos for the episode "The Third Choir" and the one of Callen where it looks like he is trying to match Deeks' hair styling. Some of the dialogue from previous episodes are used here. Parts of this story are condensed from other stories that I have already posted.

A/N 2: I know that there are some people that have been patiently waiting for the next chapter of Quinn, and I apologize for it. First there were the two months that were taken up by the Appreciation Stories for NCIS:LA Magazine, and then the plot bunnies kept pounding my brain until I started this story. Since this episode will actually be broadcast around the middle of October, I wanted to finish this one first. Corporal Russell Goodman and his wife Charlotte are trying to get pregnant, but are having difficulty doing so. One of the doctors blamed it on all the Agent Orange to which they were both exposed. Be assured, Michelle will be born so she can grow up and become Sam Hanna's wife.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Donald P. Bellisario, and Shane Brennan, for teaching me to play with the fantastic characters and sets that they have created. Since I don't own them, they made me promise that I return them by their curfew. Although they might be slightly (?) battered and bruised, I did send them home. All the other original characters that you do not recognize, are slaving away for me, trying to come up with an original idea for the next story that I might write.

THIRD CHOIR REHEARSAL

Chapter 1: Everything's the same, only different

Nell exited ops and just stood on the balcony, looking down on the main floor of the Office of Special Projects mission building. Everything appeared to have returned to normal. Talia had returned back to the DEA, and was no longer stirring up problems for Deeks and Kensi. The two junior agents were sitting at their desks filling out the paperwork from the last small mission they had just completed. The two senior agents were still on desk duty, which was extended for at least two more days. Although, Sam and Callen has passed their physical exams, the two of them were waiting for Dr. Nate Getz to arrive and conduct their psychological evaluations. Hetty was sitting in her office, sipping on a newly brewed cup of tea, glad to be back in the friendly confines of OSP and no longer in Washington, being grilled by the Special Investigative Committee, or at the Russian Embassy, gambling with members of the Russian delegation over who was the best grand chess master. Assistant Director Granger was holed up in one of the unused offices, painfully aware that he was no longer making any of the decisions for the number one team.

But that normality was only on the surface. Underneath that seemingly calm, outward facade, it was so "not normal" that Nell had placed a call to Director Vance and specifically asked him if Nate could be found and sent here, to find out what the problem was.

It was true that Granger was no longer making the decisions for the team, but neither was Hetty. When Callen brought the little ninja back from the investigative committee debacle in Washington, Director Vance reappointed Hetty as operations manager of OSP. He also told the older woman how impressed he was with what Nell had done on the narcosub case, and how he proposed to further the young analyst's career education at NCIS by people from FLETC fly out there and givhaving e her individualized instruction. Hetty concurred with Vance's opinion on Nell's leadership training, even working out her schedule with that of Kirstin Chambers, the computer tech from team two at OSP, who filled in for Nell and Eric, whenever she was needed.

One of the first things that Hetty had done when she returned to OSP was to call Nell into her office and thank her for following the orders she gave the young woman before she went to Washington. Then, shaking her head, she looked at Nell and said, "Off the record, my dear, I don't know how you managed to keep all those balls up in the air that you were juggling, without any of them falling to the ground." She put her cup of tea down and started to count off on her fingers, "Director Vance, Assistant Director Granger, Ms. Del Compo, Mr. Deeks, Ms. Blye, Mr. Beale, both Arkady and Svetlana Kolcheck, all of them you got to work together to rescue Mr. Hanna and Mr. Callen. And in the meantime, all you did was stop a terroristic threat that would have destroyed one of our aircraft carriers and killed hundreds of Navy personnel."

A deep blush rose up Nell's cheeks. "I really didn't do all that much. You remember how the team was so surprised when I grabbed the magazine out of Marc Inman's gun and I told them that 'I just trusted my training'? Well, that's about the same thing that happened here."

"And what training would that be, Ms Jones?"

"I learned a little at FLETC when I was there before my stint with the CIA, but I have learned a whole lot more working with you, and watching how you deal with situations. You don't know how often I thought 'What would Hetty do to make this work'."

"Maybe I shouldn't have come back, then." Hetty said sipping her tea and using the cup to hide her smile.

"I don't want you to think that I am after your job," Nell quickly responded. "I am sooo not ready for any responsibilities like that."

"And yet, from what I heard, you jumped right in and worked out a plan on the fly, without worrying about the responsibilities. That, my dear, is the mark of a very good analyst, a successful agent, a proficient handler, and long lived operations manager, and you are on your way to being all of those, and more."

"You're starting to scare me, Hetty."

"Don't worry, child, it will happen, all in due time. Right now I want to know how you are coming along with your FLETC training."

"Well, we actually haven't done anything so far. You heard that Director Vance had to open it up for anyone here on the West Coast, as long as they qualified. I don't think he expected anyone else in the classes besides me. But there is one other candidate, Joel Fong, a third generation Japanese-American. He's an analyst from the Seattle office, and is taking the classes with me. He is little over a year older than me, and he will stay with Deeks while he is down here in Los Angeles."

"He can keep up with your advanced training?"

"It appears so. He took some classes at Glenco, but he says he can't afford the travel to and from the East Coast to follow through with any regular sustained training."

"Well, Director Vance will find out if he is good enough to continue or not. If he shows promise, the Director will provide him any extra help he needs, you are the proof of that. Or, Leon might just be using this young man to challenge your limits."

"I don't think so, Hetty, Joel appears to be even further along in his training than I am. So if the Director is using one of us to challenge the other, it would be me who is behind trying to catch up with him."

"Well, maybe I will have to give you more practical experience. I know the plans that Leon had for you in my absence, and I know how little time you had to put them into practice. Then Mr. Callen decided to go off the reservation again and came to bring me home. I know all you did to influence Representatives Welch and Graves, and that file of mine that you found that let you into the CIA database. There you found confirmation that 'Operation White Ghost' was nothing more than a contract hit on one of their agents, Jack Simon, whom they felt knew too much. That threat to Director Morton of an Edward Snowden type leak was sheer genius. I know you gave the credit to Mr. Callen, but I also know that you had a big hand in it."

"I really didn't do very much..."

"Hush, child, you should know that I have my sources and know what really went on. So, for the next couple of weeks, I will hand over control of the team to you, just as Director Vance planned for you. You will prepare the plan for what they do, and I will look it over. If I find that you neglected some facet of the operation, or what you propose will not work, I will confer with you and together we can change the planning to something that will."

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Hetty had told Nell that she would have control of the team, with her consultation. The problem was that Hetty was giving the young woman no consultation. She just said that everything was fine and approved it, without even looking at it very much. Something else was going on that was distracting the operations manager, something that was causing her a lot more worry than she had before being called to Washington and having to go up in front of the investigating committee to fight to keep her job and team intact. Hetty's distractions were working their way down to each and every member of the team. That was the main reason why Nell requested that Nate Getz be the one sent to do the psychological examinations on Callen and Sam. Nate knew each member of the team better than anyone else, and could probably find out the reason why everyone was off so much that Nell could feel it too.

Director Vance agreed to send the psychologist to help get the team back up to speed. Nell left him a text message that she would come and pick him up when he flew into LA. Nate answered her a little bit later and said that he would arrive at LAX tomorrow afternoon, and he would rent a car at the airport for the first day. He wanted her to pick a spot to meet with him, so he could find out what he would be facing from Hetty and the rest of the members of the team. She asked him to meet her at the parking lot of Dockweiler State Beach, and she would provide a picnic supper for the two of them.

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Nell asked Hetty for the afternoon off for the reason that they had been ordered to stand down until they met with Nate Getz. As long as he was already coming in to do the psych evaluations for Callen and Sam, and seeing that the rest of them would have their own psych evals coming up the following month, Director Vance ordered everyone on the primary team to have theirs done all at one time, and that included Hetty and Granger. Hetty granted her the time off, and she drove out to Dockweiler State Beach to await Nate's arrival. Thirty minutes after she parked her Mini Cooper in the parking lot, Nate arrived in his rented Escalade, and parked next to her.

Nell got out of her car, and went over and gave Nate a big hug as he exited his vehicle. "I'm so glad that you were able to make it. Are you hungry? I packed us a lunch, and I have a blanket if you want to go and sit on the sand."

"No. I'd rather take you out for a regular meal a little later, if that's okay with you. Right now I would like to know what your take is on what is happening at the mission."

"You know you never let me pay for a meal when we are together. Why do you do that?"

"To always make sure that you have a guilt complex and answer my questions, why else would I do it, Nell? It's a cheap and easy way for me to pay off my informants," he said with a huge grin on his face.

"So, I am just a source of information for you? And here I thought I was your friend," she said, lightly pushing him in the chest with both her hands, but with an equally big smile on her face.

"I am kinda curious, why did you choose this place for us to meet?"

"When Kensi was gone in Afghanistan, I had to partner up with Deeks. He introduced me to how calming just sitting and watching the ocean can be. Sometimes you can just imagine the water, washing over you, and taking away all your problems, and dragging them out to sea, while leaving you new and clean." Then she looked directly at Nate and said, "I chose this beach because I knew that neither Deeks or Eric would ever come over here and surf. The other beaches have a lot better waves compared to the ones here."