Three Conversations, Part 2 of 3, Tess, Kensi/Deeks
TITLE: Three Conversations
AUTHOR: tess_dicorsi
RATING: R
GENRE: UST
CHARACTERS: Everyone
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Just playing with them and promise not to break anything.
SUMMARY: Three conversations, two before “The Debt” and one after.
II. Oh, how I hate to Getz up in the morning.
Deeks was half way to Zuma around 6AM when the call came in. Hetty needed him to report immediately to the Mission. The emphasis was on “report immediately” in the alert. He made quite possibly the world’s most illegal u-turn on the PCH and started back to the office.
“Hetty?” Deeks called to an empty office.
“Good morning Mr. Deeks.” Hetty was standing at the top of the stairs. “Did I pull you away from the beach this Sunday morning?” She gave him a good look, head to toe.
Deeks looked down at his flip-flops, board shorts and O’Neill hoodie. “I was wearing my wetsuit in the car. I have a change of clothes in my locker.”
Hetty shook her head. “No Mr. Deeks, you’re fine. I’m just glad you got here so quickly. If you please.” Hetty pointed to the Operations Center door.
Deeks walked into Ops to find Nell laughing with someone who was on the big screen. “Miss Jones,” Hetty interrupted, “Mr. Deeks has arrived.”
Nell stopped laughing and said her quick goodbyes. “I’ll be in the burn room,” she told Hetty and Deeks before leaving. He was able to finally see who Nell was chatting and laughing with - Nate.
“Deeks, good to see you.” Nate was in what looked to be a rather generic studio apartment. Nate’s face looked slimmer, though the new beard might be the reason. His hair was longer.
“Good to see you too, man.” Deeks smiled. He only worked with Nate closely for a few weeks but he liked him, really liked him.
“I’ll leave you two to talk. Detective, please see me before you leave.”
Deeks watched Hetty leave the room, “I’m guessing Hetty didn’t book this satellite time so you could catch up with Nell and drag me off Zuma at way too early o’clock.”
“Hetty is worried about you.”
“Me?”
“Yes you. She’s concerned about the toll this case might take on you.”
“Nate, I’m not worried about me. I’m fine been seen as a screw up, I’m fine going back to LAPD for a while.”
“What aren’t you fine about?”
“Kensi. I think this is a spectacularly cruel thing to do to her.”
Nate seemed taken aback. “Spectacularly cruel? You’re doing to her what you’ve been doing professionally...”
“What I’ve been doing professionally to gang members, drug dealers, scum bags, you know, bad guys. I can lie to anyone. I don’t want to lie to Kensi.”
“You never lie to her?”
“I try hard not to look her in the eye and lie to her. And I sure as hell don’t go out of my way to hurt her with my lies.”
“You think this will hurt her?”
“You don’t?”
“Kensi’s a strong woman.”
“Didn’t say she wasn’t strong. Strong people can still get hurt. I don’t like using her like this.”
“Do you believe your time away, no matter how short, is going to hurt her?”
“Not my time away, how it is being done.”
“Spectacularly cruelly?”
“Yes Nate. Spectacularly cruelly. This not only plays on every issue she has, she’s going to know we did this to her.”
“What issues do you perceive she has?”
“Nate, you’ve known her longer than I have. Gimme a break.”
“Deeks?”
“Her mom was gone when she was a kid, her father was murdered...”
“She told you that.”
“No, but I’m a detective and while I may not be a former SEAL or G. Callen, international man of mystery, I am pretty good at what I do.”
“She’s not the only person who lost her parents at an early age. You’ve been on your own since you were 19.”
“Yes, but I don’t have a fiance who disappeared, a partner who was kidnapped and murdered. Kensi’s whole life is about the people she’s close to leaving her and nobody seeming to care.”
“You seem to care.”
Deeks just sighed. Running his hand through his hair he asked, “You know what’s she’s going to do, don’t you?”
“What do you think she’ll do?”
“How much do you know about what’s going to happen Tuesday?”
“Everything. I worked with Nell and Hetty to find the appropriate reason for you to break cover.”
“Well thank you for not making me a complete screw-up.”
“It had to be a believable reason for you to break cover and not such an over-reaction that Chief Warner pushing for your return to the case isn’t out of the question.”
Deeks just shrugged. He had his reaction planned for the shooting, it was Kensi’s reaction that he worried him. “And Kensi is going to push for me too. And when she realizes that everyone was in on this, that’s this was all set up to get a reaction from her...”
“And to catch Clarence Fisk, Detective,” Nate interrupted. “Your concern for Kensi is admirable and exactly what I would expect from her partner. You’re tasked with retrieving the RDX, capturing Fisk and finding out who he is working with inside the LAPD. If you have a better plan...”
Deeks closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He said “I’ve been trying to come up with something.”
“And?”
“Getting Sam to beat the crap out of me and being sent back to Bates for a time out isn’t as fleshed out as I’d like it to be. It is what got me here in the first place, maybe it gets me out.”
Nate chuckled. “Sounds like a painful exit.”
Deeks turned serious. “She’s going to shut down, Nate. She’s going to realize we saw a weakness and that weakness was used against her. She will never allow anyone to see her weak again.”
“You seem so sure of that.”
“I don’t understand why you don’t.”
Nate sighed, “Kensi will understand. Maybe not right away but once the RDX is off the street, once Clarence Fisk and his contact in the department are under arrest...”
“I get to come back and a year and a half’s worth of getting her to trust me is completely gone. I’ve lied to her...”
“For a good cause.”
“Someone needs to tell her the truth once I’m back with LAPD.”
“Hetty is sure Bates will talk to her.”
“I am too.”
“I could suggest to Hetty that she gauge Kensi’s reaction while you’re gone and if the case takes longer than planned, perhaps Kensi could be read in.”
“Perhaps Kensi could be read in?” Deeks chuckled but his mood did not improve. “You’ve got this spy lingo down.”
Nate smiled. “I’m trying.”
“How are things going in wherever the hell you are?”
“Not bad. I’m learning new things every day, doing good work every day. I miss L.A.”
“When Hetty got back to work, we all went out for drinks. Bonding ritual. Rose showed up. She misses you terribly.”
“Good to know,” Nate said, blushing a little. “Back to business, can you do this Detective?”
“Never a question that I could do it Nate. Just don’t like how it is being done.”
“Messy business.”
“Messing with Kensi is the problem.”
“She will understand.”
“She will. And then she’ll build bigger and better walls so that no one ever thinks she’s weak again.”
“You underestimate her, Deeks.”
“Never. That’s the one thing everyone else here is doing. They underestimate how hard she’s worked to be a part of this team.”
“I am still concerned about you.”
“Don’t be Nate. As long as NCIS will take me back when this is over - they are taking me back, right?”
“Oh yeah. Hetty went out of her way to use the word “temporarily” in all of our correspondence.”
“Well, as long as I can come back, it’s a job.”
“Don’t do anything you shouldn’t, Marty.”
“Marty?”
“Don’t tell her.”
“Despite what I’ll be doing Tuesday morning in the park, I don’t break cover.” Deeks smiled a little. “Marty, you went there?”
“Only because I was concerned.”
“Save your concerns for Kensi. She’s the one being used here.”
Nate smiled. “It was good seeing you Detective.”
“Much better. Marty, really?” Deeks chuckled. “You take care of yourself, wherever the hell you are.”
“You do the same.” Nate leaned forward to his computer and the screen suddenly was black.
Deeks put his hands through his hair, yawned and stretched. The plan this morning was to surf for a few hours and not think about lying to Kensi, to Bates, to everyone at the LAPD but Warner. Instead, he probably got a pre-case assessment from thousands of miles away from a shrink he thought of as a friend. Now he had the rest of the day to worry about Kensi’s mental state after Tuesday morning while NCIS seemed worried about his before now. Awesome.
“Detective?” Nell broke him out of his stewing.
Deeks stood and looked at Nell. “You never did tell us how you knew Nate before you started working here.”
“Really, I thought that came up months ago,” Nell dodged with ease. “Hetty is waiting for you if you’re done.”
“Oh yeah, I’m done.” Deeks walked to the door.
As the door opened, Nell said, “If it makes you feel any better, Detective, I don’t like this operation much. I’ve tried to come up with a better plan but with the mole at LAPD, I just don’t see how else this works.”
“Thanks for trying Nell.” Deeks had a thought. “Are you going to be here long?”
“No, Hetty needed someone to secure the call to Nate and I’m on duty this weekend. Why?”
“You hungry? Maybe you, Hetty and me could grab a bite. Shame to miss breakfast on this fine Sunday morning.”
Nell smiled, “Sure. That would be nice.”
“I’ll call up to you when Hetty’s done with me.” And with any luck, Deeks thought, Hetty would have plans. That way he could work on Nell during breakfast to make sure someone else is watching Kensi and may even keep him in the loop.
Deeks thought he heard Nell whisper “Good luck” as he started downstairs. He got to the bottom of the stairs when Hetty commented from her desk, “I have to give you credit Detective, you only come in dressed this way on an emergency weekend call. Mr. Beale enjoys that look all week long.”
“I really did have my wetsuit on in the car. I changed when I noticed I needed gas about a mile from here.”
“Thank you for that, Mr. Deeks.” She pointed to the guest chair in her office and Deeks quickly sat. “Two words for you: spectacularly and cruel.”
“Nate works fast.”
“Nate is worried.”
“If it is about me doing what I’m supposed to, he’s wrong. I’ll execute, no pun intended for NCIS Agent Danielson from D.C., this operation as ordered.”
“Of that I have no doubt.” Hetty took a sip of her tea. “Nate has two issues. First, he believes you are more concerned about Miss Blye than you are yourself or this case.”
“I’m not the one being emotionally manipulated by people I trust.”
“Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna and I will keep an eye on Miss Blye.”
“Thank you.” Deeks knew this wasn’t a war he was going to win. His conversation with Nate reinforced that belief.
“Nate also wonders why you aren’t concerned about your reputation. You seem to enjoy your work here.”
“I do.”
“You’re good at it.”
“Good enough for you to offer me a job. That means a lot to me.”
“An offer that if you accepted we wouldn’t be here today.” Hetty’s smile took the sting out of that comment.
“My past bad decisions come to bite me in the ass once again.” Deeks chuckled.
“You don’t seem bothered by what this could do to your standing in the LAPD.”
Deeks shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a case.”
“It is also your career.”
“I am coming back to NCIS, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then between you and me Hetty, there are more than a few of my LAPD co-workers who will look at shooting an Aryan thug beating an African-American female jogger as the first sensible thing I’ve done in years.”
“And going back to work for Lt. Bates?”
“I meet with Bates every Tuesday, well now every either Tuesday or Wednesday after Sam insisted I change my routine up. There are worse bosses out there, I’m sure, and the guys on the squad will feel better about themselves since I failed here.”
“That I don’t understand.”
“Hetty, I went from the Academy to the Legal Bureau and from Legal to undercover work. Outside of official police functions like funerals or parades, I never wore my uniform once. Never rode in a patrol car. Never worked a neighborhood. That’s not how most of the undercover squad got there.”
“Will you reconsider my offer of a position here?”
“I think about it a lot Hetty. Just not sure yet.”
“We take care of our own, Detective.” Deeks noted Hetty’s rare use of his title. “You, with the LAPD or not, are one of us.”
“Thank you Hetty. Take care of Kensi.” Deeks figured he was being dismissed. “Nell and I are going to grab a bite to eat, you up for some breakfast? It is the most important meal of the day.”
“No, but thank you for the kind offer. I’m meeting an old friend for brunch after I finish some paperwork here.”
Deeks smiled and said his goodbyes. Calling up to Nell, he figured omelets and bacon were an excellent way to buy her favor.
###
AUTHOR: tess_dicorsi
RATING: R
GENRE: UST
CHARACTERS: Everyone
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Just playing with them and promise not to break anything.
SUMMARY: Three conversations, two before “The Debt” and one after.
II. Oh, how I hate to Getz up in the morning.
Deeks was half way to Zuma around 6AM when the call came in. Hetty needed him to report immediately to the Mission. The emphasis was on “report immediately” in the alert. He made quite possibly the world’s most illegal u-turn on the PCH and started back to the office.
“Hetty?” Deeks called to an empty office.
“Good morning Mr. Deeks.” Hetty was standing at the top of the stairs. “Did I pull you away from the beach this Sunday morning?” She gave him a good look, head to toe.
Deeks looked down at his flip-flops, board shorts and O’Neill hoodie. “I was wearing my wetsuit in the car. I have a change of clothes in my locker.”
Hetty shook her head. “No Mr. Deeks, you’re fine. I’m just glad you got here so quickly. If you please.” Hetty pointed to the Operations Center door.
Deeks walked into Ops to find Nell laughing with someone who was on the big screen. “Miss Jones,” Hetty interrupted, “Mr. Deeks has arrived.”
Nell stopped laughing and said her quick goodbyes. “I’ll be in the burn room,” she told Hetty and Deeks before leaving. He was able to finally see who Nell was chatting and laughing with - Nate.
“Deeks, good to see you.” Nate was in what looked to be a rather generic studio apartment. Nate’s face looked slimmer, though the new beard might be the reason. His hair was longer.
“Good to see you too, man.” Deeks smiled. He only worked with Nate closely for a few weeks but he liked him, really liked him.
“I’ll leave you two to talk. Detective, please see me before you leave.”
Deeks watched Hetty leave the room, “I’m guessing Hetty didn’t book this satellite time so you could catch up with Nell and drag me off Zuma at way too early o’clock.”
“Hetty is worried about you.”
“Me?”
“Yes you. She’s concerned about the toll this case might take on you.”
“Nate, I’m not worried about me. I’m fine been seen as a screw up, I’m fine going back to LAPD for a while.”
“What aren’t you fine about?”
“Kensi. I think this is a spectacularly cruel thing to do to her.”
Nate seemed taken aback. “Spectacularly cruel? You’re doing to her what you’ve been doing professionally...”
“What I’ve been doing professionally to gang members, drug dealers, scum bags, you know, bad guys. I can lie to anyone. I don’t want to lie to Kensi.”
“You never lie to her?”
“I try hard not to look her in the eye and lie to her. And I sure as hell don’t go out of my way to hurt her with my lies.”
“You think this will hurt her?”
“You don’t?”
“Kensi’s a strong woman.”
“Didn’t say she wasn’t strong. Strong people can still get hurt. I don’t like using her like this.”
“Do you believe your time away, no matter how short, is going to hurt her?”
“Not my time away, how it is being done.”
“Spectacularly cruelly?”
“Yes Nate. Spectacularly cruelly. This not only plays on every issue she has, she’s going to know we did this to her.”
“What issues do you perceive she has?”
“Nate, you’ve known her longer than I have. Gimme a break.”
“Deeks?”
“Her mom was gone when she was a kid, her father was murdered...”
“She told you that.”
“No, but I’m a detective and while I may not be a former SEAL or G. Callen, international man of mystery, I am pretty good at what I do.”
“She’s not the only person who lost her parents at an early age. You’ve been on your own since you were 19.”
“Yes, but I don’t have a fiance who disappeared, a partner who was kidnapped and murdered. Kensi’s whole life is about the people she’s close to leaving her and nobody seeming to care.”
“You seem to care.”
Deeks just sighed. Running his hand through his hair he asked, “You know what’s she’s going to do, don’t you?”
“What do you think she’ll do?”
“How much do you know about what’s going to happen Tuesday?”
“Everything. I worked with Nell and Hetty to find the appropriate reason for you to break cover.”
“Well thank you for not making me a complete screw-up.”
“It had to be a believable reason for you to break cover and not such an over-reaction that Chief Warner pushing for your return to the case isn’t out of the question.”
Deeks just shrugged. He had his reaction planned for the shooting, it was Kensi’s reaction that he worried him. “And Kensi is going to push for me too. And when she realizes that everyone was in on this, that’s this was all set up to get a reaction from her...”
“And to catch Clarence Fisk, Detective,” Nate interrupted. “Your concern for Kensi is admirable and exactly what I would expect from her partner. You’re tasked with retrieving the RDX, capturing Fisk and finding out who he is working with inside the LAPD. If you have a better plan...”
Deeks closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He said “I’ve been trying to come up with something.”
“And?”
“Getting Sam to beat the crap out of me and being sent back to Bates for a time out isn’t as fleshed out as I’d like it to be. It is what got me here in the first place, maybe it gets me out.”
Nate chuckled. “Sounds like a painful exit.”
Deeks turned serious. “She’s going to shut down, Nate. She’s going to realize we saw a weakness and that weakness was used against her. She will never allow anyone to see her weak again.”
“You seem so sure of that.”
“I don’t understand why you don’t.”
Nate sighed, “Kensi will understand. Maybe not right away but once the RDX is off the street, once Clarence Fisk and his contact in the department are under arrest...”
“I get to come back and a year and a half’s worth of getting her to trust me is completely gone. I’ve lied to her...”
“For a good cause.”
“Someone needs to tell her the truth once I’m back with LAPD.”
“Hetty is sure Bates will talk to her.”
“I am too.”
“I could suggest to Hetty that she gauge Kensi’s reaction while you’re gone and if the case takes longer than planned, perhaps Kensi could be read in.”
“Perhaps Kensi could be read in?” Deeks chuckled but his mood did not improve. “You’ve got this spy lingo down.”
Nate smiled. “I’m trying.”
“How are things going in wherever the hell you are?”
“Not bad. I’m learning new things every day, doing good work every day. I miss L.A.”
“When Hetty got back to work, we all went out for drinks. Bonding ritual. Rose showed up. She misses you terribly.”
“Good to know,” Nate said, blushing a little. “Back to business, can you do this Detective?”
“Never a question that I could do it Nate. Just don’t like how it is being done.”
“Messy business.”
“Messing with Kensi is the problem.”
“She will understand.”
“She will. And then she’ll build bigger and better walls so that no one ever thinks she’s weak again.”
“You underestimate her, Deeks.”
“Never. That’s the one thing everyone else here is doing. They underestimate how hard she’s worked to be a part of this team.”
“I am still concerned about you.”
“Don’t be Nate. As long as NCIS will take me back when this is over - they are taking me back, right?”
“Oh yeah. Hetty went out of her way to use the word “temporarily” in all of our correspondence.”
“Well, as long as I can come back, it’s a job.”
“Don’t do anything you shouldn’t, Marty.”
“Marty?”
“Don’t tell her.”
“Despite what I’ll be doing Tuesday morning in the park, I don’t break cover.” Deeks smiled a little. “Marty, you went there?”
“Only because I was concerned.”
“Save your concerns for Kensi. She’s the one being used here.”
Nate smiled. “It was good seeing you Detective.”
“Much better. Marty, really?” Deeks chuckled. “You take care of yourself, wherever the hell you are.”
“You do the same.” Nate leaned forward to his computer and the screen suddenly was black.
Deeks put his hands through his hair, yawned and stretched. The plan this morning was to surf for a few hours and not think about lying to Kensi, to Bates, to everyone at the LAPD but Warner. Instead, he probably got a pre-case assessment from thousands of miles away from a shrink he thought of as a friend. Now he had the rest of the day to worry about Kensi’s mental state after Tuesday morning while NCIS seemed worried about his before now. Awesome.
“Detective?” Nell broke him out of his stewing.
Deeks stood and looked at Nell. “You never did tell us how you knew Nate before you started working here.”
“Really, I thought that came up months ago,” Nell dodged with ease. “Hetty is waiting for you if you’re done.”
“Oh yeah, I’m done.” Deeks walked to the door.
As the door opened, Nell said, “If it makes you feel any better, Detective, I don’t like this operation much. I’ve tried to come up with a better plan but with the mole at LAPD, I just don’t see how else this works.”
“Thanks for trying Nell.” Deeks had a thought. “Are you going to be here long?”
“No, Hetty needed someone to secure the call to Nate and I’m on duty this weekend. Why?”
“You hungry? Maybe you, Hetty and me could grab a bite. Shame to miss breakfast on this fine Sunday morning.”
Nell smiled, “Sure. That would be nice.”
“I’ll call up to you when Hetty’s done with me.” And with any luck, Deeks thought, Hetty would have plans. That way he could work on Nell during breakfast to make sure someone else is watching Kensi and may even keep him in the loop.
Deeks thought he heard Nell whisper “Good luck” as he started downstairs. He got to the bottom of the stairs when Hetty commented from her desk, “I have to give you credit Detective, you only come in dressed this way on an emergency weekend call. Mr. Beale enjoys that look all week long.”
“I really did have my wetsuit on in the car. I changed when I noticed I needed gas about a mile from here.”
“Thank you for that, Mr. Deeks.” She pointed to the guest chair in her office and Deeks quickly sat. “Two words for you: spectacularly and cruel.”
“Nate works fast.”
“Nate is worried.”
“If it is about me doing what I’m supposed to, he’s wrong. I’ll execute, no pun intended for NCIS Agent Danielson from D.C., this operation as ordered.”
“Of that I have no doubt.” Hetty took a sip of her tea. “Nate has two issues. First, he believes you are more concerned about Miss Blye than you are yourself or this case.”
“I’m not the one being emotionally manipulated by people I trust.”
“Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna and I will keep an eye on Miss Blye.”
“Thank you.” Deeks knew this wasn’t a war he was going to win. His conversation with Nate reinforced that belief.
“Nate also wonders why you aren’t concerned about your reputation. You seem to enjoy your work here.”
“I do.”
“You’re good at it.”
“Good enough for you to offer me a job. That means a lot to me.”
“An offer that if you accepted we wouldn’t be here today.” Hetty’s smile took the sting out of that comment.
“My past bad decisions come to bite me in the ass once again.” Deeks chuckled.
“You don’t seem bothered by what this could do to your standing in the LAPD.”
Deeks shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a case.”
“It is also your career.”
“I am coming back to NCIS, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then between you and me Hetty, there are more than a few of my LAPD co-workers who will look at shooting an Aryan thug beating an African-American female jogger as the first sensible thing I’ve done in years.”
“And going back to work for Lt. Bates?”
“I meet with Bates every Tuesday, well now every either Tuesday or Wednesday after Sam insisted I change my routine up. There are worse bosses out there, I’m sure, and the guys on the squad will feel better about themselves since I failed here.”
“That I don’t understand.”
“Hetty, I went from the Academy to the Legal Bureau and from Legal to undercover work. Outside of official police functions like funerals or parades, I never wore my uniform once. Never rode in a patrol car. Never worked a neighborhood. That’s not how most of the undercover squad got there.”
“Will you reconsider my offer of a position here?”
“I think about it a lot Hetty. Just not sure yet.”
“We take care of our own, Detective.” Deeks noted Hetty’s rare use of his title. “You, with the LAPD or not, are one of us.”
“Thank you Hetty. Take care of Kensi.” Deeks figured he was being dismissed. “Nell and I are going to grab a bite to eat, you up for some breakfast? It is the most important meal of the day.”
“No, but thank you for the kind offer. I’m meeting an old friend for brunch after I finish some paperwork here.”
Deeks smiled and said his goodbyes. Calling up to Nell, he figured omelets and bacon were an excellent way to buy her favor.
###