Title – Solidarity

Author: Ceindreadh
Genre: post ep, gen
Characters: Sam, Deeks, Callen, Kensi
Rating: T
Summary: Post ep fic to Human Traffic, Sam's POV

Warnings: none
Disclaimer. I don't own the NCIS LA characters, I'm only borrowing them, no copyright infringement is intended.

"So tell me Deeks, how was she in bed?"

For the life of me, I don't know what the hell Detective Scarli was thinking when he decided to taunt Deeks like that. Did he think that Deeks would just walk away? Maybe Scarli figured that by provoking Deeks into an assault, that suspicion would be thrown on Deeks's testimony against him, thus lessening the chances of his conviction on corruption charges. But he had to have known that even without Deeks's testimony on the stand, that his own words, as witnessed by Callen, Kensi and myself would be enough to convict him.

It's possible that Scarli thought that the satisfaction of seeing Deeks lose it would be worth whatever reaction it provoked.

Or maybe, just maybe, Scarli was hoping that Deeks would cross the line so completely that he wouldn't have to worry about standing trial and facing the prospect of being a cop in a prison cell. Maybe he had figured that taking Deeks down with him would be worth it.

We wouldn't have let it come to that of course.

Even if Deeks had been so far gone that he'd crossed that line, I knew that we would have done whatever we could to protect him.

Not that any of us really believed that Deeks would have pulled the trigger. Callen and I, we've worked similar situations before and between us could have disarmed him without anybody getting hurt. But I knew then, we *all* knew, that Deeks needed to stand down rather than be taken down. We knew that he needed to realize for himself just how close to the line he was standing, and to take the step back from the edge, rather than be pulled back by his friends.

"Deeks, he's not worth it"

"Deeks, put it down"

Deeks didn't let us down, and right there I understood again why Hetty had handpicked him for our team. I watched as he visibly pulled himself back from the line, made the gun safe, and gave it to me. But I knew that that wasn't the end of it. I knew that Deeks needed to vent himself of all the fear and anger and frustration that he'd suffered on this case over the past twenty-four hours, hell, over the past four months.

All his hard work, all his sacrifices, all the danger he put himself in to work this case. Four months of his life he'd put into it, and what had he to show for it? His handler was dead, the targets of his investigation were dead, the man responsible for their deaths was dead. Some other dirtbag would probably step into the power vacuum left by the deaths of Lazik and Ortega, and the human trafficking would continue. All that Deeks had to show for the last four months was a dirty cop who would probably find some sleazy lawyer to plea bargain his way into a reduced sentence.

So when Deeks let me take the gun from him, I nodded at him, hoping that he would understand that we would have his back.

And he did.

It gave me no small measure of satisfaction to watch as Deeks lashed out at Scarli, punching him once, twice, three times before Callen stepped in. He too understood that Deeks had needed that outburst, but knew as well that we could only let him go so far before reining him in.

I'm not sure that Kensi really understood, not from the way she was looking at Deeks as if really seeing him for the first time. But I knew that she would back us up, would back Deeks up if Scarli tried to lay charges against him.

"You saw that, you all saw that"

"I didn't see a thing. You see anything Sam?"

"Not a thing"

Don't get me wrong. If Deeks had hauled off and hit a suspect in custody for no reason, I would have been the first person there to lay him out and file charges. But that day and with that suspect, nobody in hell could say it hadn't been justified.

I watched as Deeks walked away, avoiding Kensi as she tried to stop him, and I knew that it wasn't over.

"Somebody should go after him," said Kensi, watching as Deeks walked away. I knew that she was ready to volunteer, but I also knew that she wasn't the person Deeks needed right now. Not that any of us were really, but for now, we were all that he had.

"I'll see to Deeks," I said to Callen as I handed him Scarli's gun. "You deal with him." I nodded towards Scarli.

"Oh so I get to do your share of the paperwork?"

"Think of it as rent," I said as I walked away.

I caught up with Deeks before he'd gone more than a few blocks. He was hunched over in an alleyway, retching, and barely glanced up when he heard me coming. I watched as he slumped against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the ground.

"Going to put the cuffs on *me* now, Sam?" he asked, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth.

"Keep that kinky crap on your own time, Deeks," I said. "I'm just here to see you get home okay."

"Home?" Deeks smiled wearily, "Right now I don't even know where that is."

I knew what he meant. 'Marty Deeks's' apartment had been closed up for the past four months, his life put on hold while he was undercover. And 'Dale John Sully' didn't exist anymore. Sometimes the hardest part of any undercover operation wasn't remembering who you were pretending to be while undercover, it was remembering who you really were when the op was over.

"Come on," I said, holding out my hand to him. "You can stay at my place tonight, figure it out in the morning." It did occur to me as I was making the offer that Deeks could turn out to be just as bad a house guest as Callen was, but at least Deeks would have a home to go to afterwards.

Deeks looked at my hand for a few seconds before allowing me to pull him to his feet. He swayed slightly as he stood, and would have fallen if I hadn't caught him. "But first we'll swing by the ER and get you checked over properly."

"I've already been checked over," said Deeks. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, because Lazik's men were handling you with kid gloves before we showed up," I said as I steered him back towards the street. "Anyway, seeing a Vet doesn't count, even if Kensi does call you a dog sometimes."

He laughed, but it wasn't the same laugh he'd had four months ago. He wasn't the same person he'd been four months ago, neither of us were. But in the short space of time we'd worked together before, I'd seen a strength and determination in him that I knew would get him through this. And whatever happened, he wouldn't be facing it alone.

The End