A/N- Heyyyy! I am so sorry for not updating this fic in so long. I have had so much on recently; I had 16 exams, a 2 week holiday abroad and then a major operation on my spine which I'm currently recovering from and I've not long been back at college so I've been catching up on that and doing tons of essays etc! Oh the joys of life! But here is my latest chapter, I hope it is satisfactory! I hope I still have people out there who will actually read this too! I will try to update a lot more over the Christmas period as i'll have time to work on this fic again! So sorry again :-/

Twenty-One

Eric's whistle reverberated around the quiet bullpen, causing Kensi's head to whip up. Upon spotting Eric's excited expression, Kensi shot out of her seat and bounded up the stairs, two at a time.

"Has there been any new developments on the case?!" she asked the second the doors slid open.

Eric span round on his chair, a self-satisfied look on his face as he stretched his long legs out, crossing his feet at the ankle. He paused, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the team. Kensi looked at him expectantly.

"Eric?" Callen called, stepping into Ops.

"I can confirm- we do in fact have a solid lead." He replied, eyes shining with glee. "We found footage on a local ATM camera of a fight. A fight between two former military members… PFC Jack Coombes and Sergeant Lucas Malloy."

"When was this?" Deeks asked.

"Two days before Jack's murder." Eric revealed. "And not just that… we found a partial print on the torn plastic bag, y'know, the one we found on Jack that had traces of cocaine on it. Any guesses for who the print matched?"

"Sergeant Malloy?" Sam offered.

"Ding, ding, ding! And the prize goes to…!" Eric exclaimed pointing to an amused Sam.

"We need to locate this Malloy character. Kens, Deeks, we'll all head to Skid Row and try to find Malloy or at least someone who may know where he is."

Kensi and Deeks nodded in confirmation.

Thanking Eric, they all departed, with Kensi giving a grateful squeeze to the young tech's shoulder, causing a red tinge to color his cheeks.

Back in the bullpen, the team geared up, grabbing their weapons. Kensi also snagged an extra spare clip for her gun. When G raised a questioning eyebrow to her, she shrugged and sighed, "I'm not taking a risk after last time we went to Skid Row, with that masked gunman who shot at us last time and God knows who else with a grudge against the government!"

Callen just nodded a blank expression on his face. "Fair enough. You guys ready?"

"Mmhmm," they chorused.

"Excuse me? Have you seen a sergeant Lucas Malloy?" Sam's deep voice queried a huddled up man clutching a bowl of soup. Sam waved a picture of Malloy in front of the man.

The team had gone to the soup kitchen located in the center of Skid Row. As it was midday, the room was filled with homeless, all lined up waiting for their bowls of soup and bottles of water.

Callen, Deeks and Kensi were questioning others to no avail it seemed.

"Everybody's saying they don't know who Lucas Malloy is but that's bull. They looked shifty. I even recognized a couple of people from yesterday and even they denied any knowledge of his existence. Even that one guy who we saw when we were talking to Roy… what was his name…" Deeks told them dejectedly, when they regrouped, but paused to ponder over the man's name. "Stark! Like Tony Stark" He announced suddenly.

Callen looked puzzled, "Who's Tony Stark?" he enquired.

"Tony Stark? As in Iron Man?! Wow, we need to get you out more and away from your midnight toaster dismantling and language learning!" Deeks declared, looking mock disgusted.

Callen looked to his partner for support, hoping he would back him up with an equally lacking knowledge on Marvel characters. But even Sam frowned at him.

"Come on G! Iron Man is my daughter's favorite Marvel character and she's got a bit of a crush on Robert Downey Jr! For once I agree with Deeks!" Sam exclaimed.

"When this case is wrapped up we are so totally having a Marvel marathon, starting with Iron Mans one to three! My God, Callen, disgraceful!" announced Deeks.

"Guys, not the time or the place," Kensi said exasperatedly. "I think you mean Les Stark, Staff Sergeant Les Stark."

As if hearing his name across the room, Les' head shot up and he caught Kensi's eye before turning and hightailing it out of there.

"Whoa! He sure is hauling ass!" Deeks yelled, giving chase with Kensi.

"We'll head to the Challenger" Callen shouted, running to Sam's car.

"We could try and cut him off, G!" Sam suggested, gripping the passenger side grab handles.

"On it!" He replied.

They sped down the road, bypassing Kensi and Deeks, then they saw Stark heading down an alley. Callen overshot the alleyways entrance, and put it in reverse, skidding to a halt at the mouth of the alley. The flung themselves out of the car, withrawing their weapons as they did so.

They started off behind Stark, who was surprisingly fit and healthy, and had a massive head start. At the end of the passage was an 8ft tall chain-link fence, surrounded on each side by dumpsters that were overflowing with trash.

Stark hopped onto one and jumped over the fence landing on a conveniently placed trash can, which he then pushed over in an attempt to hinder Callen and Sam's advance. He'd had a head start and obviously knew the alley well enough to know there was an easy escape route over the fence. Stark was around 100 meters away now, occasionally turning to check the agent's whereabouts.

His paranoia was his downfall.

Whilst Sam and Callen climbed the fence, Kensi and Deeks had split to come down an adjoining alleyway, from different angles, and had snuck up on Stark while he had his head turned.

Deeks was about to go around the corner and tackle their quarry but Kensi beat him to it. Throwing her body at the man's legs, she took him down. However, she'd left his arms free and, with the ability to move them, he swung one around and stuck Kensi in the face with his elbow.