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Retribution	By : ambrosiarush Category: M through R > NCIS: Los Angeles Views: 13279 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS:LA or any of it's characters. I do NOT make any money from writing this story.

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Dead eyes staring up.

Blood everywhere.

Every muscle tense and aching.

“Nell? Nell?”

Nell jolted awake jerking away from the hand on her arm.

“Nell?” Eric looked at her worriedly.

“Eric,” her voice was coarse. She rubbed her hands over her eyes. She hadn’t had that particular nightmare in a long time. “Sorry. I dozed off.”

“You were having a bad dream?”

“Bosnia,” Nell whispered and Eric gave a nod of understanding.

Eric had been there in a sense. Half-way across the world, unable to offer his partner any assistance as she stood, gun in hand with two men trying to barge through the door. They would have killed her too- of that he had no doubt. It was kill or be killed, and Nell had fired her gun, killed the first man and the other had taken off. There had been nothing he could do- he’d gotten Hetty to call security and by the time he’d returned to his station Nell was still standing but... her entire body had been trembling, the gun untrained shaking in her hands.

He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he’d been put into such a situation. He wasn’t trained with a gun, and even if he did understand the basics... he wasn’t sure he would be able to ever pull the trigger.

“I’m going to get some coffee,” Nell announced standing. “I’ll be back in a few.”

He nodded. She didn’t even really like coffee, knew she was only going to drink some to amp her caffeine levels.

Some days he noticed that, seemingly out of nowhere, the past would finally catch up with one of the agents, hell his own past had caught up with him... it would just come in, knock them off their feet. The thing is, the past never really goes away. It just lingers, hangs on and waits to dig it’s claws in. He watched as the doors behind Nell slid shut.

::

Sam and Callen had said a quick goodbye to Matt, and told him to thank Ava for them. As much as they’d both to love to see that picture of Deeks in drag they needed to take the information back to the team.

Callen looked into the bullpen and frowned. They weren’t there. He looked over to Hetty. “Where are they?”

Hetty pointed to the staircase. “Mr Deeks has been going through his old case files trying to find anything that might help. Miss Blye is with him.”

“Thanks,” Callen said and turned to Sam who gave a slight shrug of his shoulders before following Callen up the stairs. It took them a while, but they found the young duo surrounded by folders and papers.

Deeks sat back against the wall, having gone through all of the information. “There is nothing,” he muttered bitterly. “Nothing.”

“We’ll figure this out,” Kensi’s tone was warm and reassuring.

“We just had an interesting chat with LAPD Detective Matt Burnhart,” Callen said and Deeks jumped just realizing that Callen and Sam were there.

“Oh yeah? How is he?” Deeks asked in a distracted fashion. They hadn’t worked together, but knew each other in passing.

Callen crouched down to pick up one of the papers and frowned at it. “He said that Brent Harrison might have lied in a case file to ensure a conviction.”

“How would Matt know? Unless...” Deeks’s eyes went wide as he turned to Callen.

“Burnhart lined up his file to match... it was a human trafficking case, judges and lawyers in the man’s pocket.” Callen put the paper back down and looked straight into Deeks’s eyes. “Is there any chance he lied in this to you... or tampered with important evidence?”

Deeks swallowed hard. “You think... you think Trent Stadden... really is innocent?”

Callen ran his hand over his head. “I don’t know. I’m saying... it’s possible...”

Deeks’s head went back and made a ‘thunk’ sound as it hit the wall. “If Harrison lied in his report or tampered with evidence... and I went to court, gave testimony...” His head dipped, his forehead meeting his drawn up knees and his hands went over his head. “Did I put an innocent man behind bars?” the question was muffled but they’d all heard it clear as day and an eerie silence draped over the group.

::

Ray didn’t like hospitals. Then again, he was pretty certain that no one liked hospitals. You either went to the hospital because you are sick or injured, or because someone you love is.

Hospitals didn’t get any better the longer you sat in them either. The generic plastic chairs only grew more uncomfortable, not that they were pleasant to begin with. The coffee was horrible no matter what time of day you went to get a cup of the sludge. The staff was brisk and overworked.

Ray’s eyes went around the room again. Nassir was standing by the doorway, respectfully staring at the wall. Ray had tried to convince him he’d be perfectly fine in the hospital alone. Nassir had just given him a look as if to ask ‘do I look that stupid’ and kept pace with him. Obviously Nassir wasn’t going to be letting him out of his sight. Ray’s eyes went to the windows, the sun dictated that it was mid-afternoon. The machines beeped and hummed and Ray wasn’t entirely sure what any of them did, he just kept following the line counting off heartbeats and was grateful for the repetitive sound. It meant Jax was still alive.

Jax still looked awful though. He’d always been pale to begin with, same fair skin as his twin sister, the light dusting of freckles seemed more prominent now.

The door opened and Nassir had his hand on the butt of his gun. A nurse, who’d been let through by the other two NCIS agents standing guard outside of the room came in and he relaxed. “Just here to check the monitors,” she told them.

“How is he doing?” Ray asked her as she worked.

She looked over at him. “I’m sorry, I’m only able to give information on the patient to his next-of-kin.”

“His sister, Delaney,” Ray filled in. “Look... I’ve known him since we were kids... please.”

She opened her mouth but closed it as she looked at her patient. “Mr Bennett?”

Jax’s eyebrows drew down as he looked at her, his green eyes then turned to Ray.

“I’ll get the doctor,” the nurse said quickly leaving the room.

“Hey, Jax,” Ray felt a weight lift off his back. “You okay man?” Ray had lost plenty of people in his life, the last thing he needed was another grave to visit.

“Laney?”

“She’s okay,” Ray insisted. “She’s got herself a bodyguard thanks to Marty.”

The right corner of Jax’s lips twitched upward slightly. He then frowned. “Ray... she’s in danger.”

“No, no, she’s fine,” Ray insisted.

Jax looked tired, and on top of that, exasperated. “He’s trying to hurt Marty,” Jax took a breath and winced in pain. “He’s trying to hurt him through us. He said... he said... he wanted to meet her...” Jax’s eyes fluttered shut, and there was nothing but the beeps and hums of monitors.

Ray turned to Nassir who’s jaw was tight, his entire body coiled as if prepared for a physical confrontation.

“I got to call Marty,” Ray said.

“No cells inside of hospitals,” Nassir said nodding his head to the door. “Lets go outside.”

::

The files had been taken downstairs to the bullpen, everyone taking a part of Brent Harrison’s report.

“What if Stradden is just guilty, a cracked nut,” Deeks said. He’d rather not think that he put an innocent man behind bars.

“Doesn’t change anything, guilty or not,” Sam said. “He’s targeting you, but understanding why might just help us.”

“And we could bring down a dirty cop,” Kensi said as she flipped through a report and froze. “Says here that he was the one to go to the DNA centre and pick up the results.”

“Yeah,” Deeks said absentmindedly. “I was doing two other cases at the time, I sent him to pick up the results,” he finished off quickly and then groaned. “You think he tampered with the evidence or something?”

“Burnhart said he was all about moving up, closing cases helps,” Callen said rolling his chair to peer over Kensi’s shoulder at the paper in her hand.

“Why change the evidence though?” Sam asked. “If there was DNA, they’d have an id.”

“This went back a few years, and unless the person was convicted before...” Callen sat back in his chair, leaning away from Kensi. “Or unless they had a suspect willing to be swabbed. I’ll get Nell to call up the DNA centre the LAPD used,” Callen stood. “Maybe they can give us something.”

Deeks sighed and his phone went off. He pulled it from the pocket of his jeans and checked the ID before answering. “Hey Ray.”

“Marty. Jax woke up.”

“Really?”

Kensi watched as the light went on in her partner’s eyes and he smiled ear to ear, infectious as always, it had her smiling too.

“Yeah, listen,” Ray’s voice was tense and it took the joy right out of Deeks. “Jax was only lucid for a minute, he said that Delaney was in danger, that this guy is doing all this to hurt you... said the guy said something like... he wanted to meet Delaney... that was it before he passed back out. Doctors won’t tell me shit, they’ll only talk to his next-of-kin.”

“I’ll call Nate,” Deeks decided. “Make sure she’d okay, I’ll have her brought to the boathouse, keep her safe.”

“Marty, one more thing... I got Nassir to flash his badge at the doctor, to get some information on Jax’s condition.” The words had Deeks’s gut in knots, especially the tense tone of Ray’s voice, it was bad, he just knew it. “His liver isn’t getting better, it’s showing signs of failure.”

Deeks rested his elbow on the desk, holding his head in his hand, the other keeping the phone pressed firmly to his ear. “Donor?”

“List is too long,” Ray said. “He won’t survive the wait.”

“Live donor?”

“Delaney, yeah,” Ray responded. “She’d be a match, she’d do it too...”

“I’ve got to get her in here.”

“Do it.”

“Let me talk to Nassir.”

There was a moment of nothing.

“Yes,” Nassir’s voice broke the silence.

“Bring Ray to the boatshed. No detours.”

“Got it,” Nassir agreed. “I am sorry about your friend, Agent Deeks.”

Deeks didn’t bother to tell the man he hadn’t actually signed his papers to become an agent. “Thanks,” he hung up and took a breath. He could feel the eyes of both Kensi and Sam on him. “Jax woke up briefly.”

“That’s good,” Kensi said brightly.

“His liver is showing signs of failure... it’s not healing.”

“That’s bad,” Sam said shaking his head. “Options.”

“Delaney as a donor, and Jax said that she was in danger before he passed out.”

“The cut up picture,” Kensi whispered.

Deeks’s hands felt clammy as he went through his contacts and selected Nate’s number.

::

Nate got out of the car as Delaney exited the building with a bright smile on her face. “I got it,” she said wrapping her arms around his neck and he hugged her back lightly. “Lets go see Jackson, I’ve got to call Shannon, see what else Jax was suppose to be doing for the Texas office... make a few inquiries into the Los Angeles one... he wouldn’t want things getting held up,” she said as they walked around the hood of the car and he opened the door for her. She smiled, amused by his chivalry. “Thank you good sir,” she said regally as she stepped into the vehicle and he shut the door behind her.

Once inside and on the road, Delaney fiddle with the radio until she found a pop station that she bobbed her head slightly to the music.

“So,” she said breaking the silence. “What did you do while I was inside.”

He tapped the glove box and she opened it. Inside was a novel, and a book of crossword puzzles. She took out the puzzle book and frowned. “I hate these. The clues are so vague. They make me feel stupid.”

He chuckled. “I’ve been doing them for years, stress relief I guess.”

“I prefer a massage,” Delaney said offhandedly. “Preferably with scented oils.” He looked over at her as they stopped at a red light and she turned to stare back at him. “What?”

He just smiled and shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Hmm,” Delaney responded. “You were thinking about it huh? Massages, scented oils,” she smirked. “Expanses of bare skin-”

“Delaney, I’m driving.”

“I’ve noticed,” she said as the light turned green. “I’m simply making conversation.” She watched him as he shifted a little uncomfortably. She couldn’t help it. “You should just let me give you a rub down, you’ll see what I mean.” She tossed the crossword back into the glove box. “That is brain stress,” she pointed to the offending book. “ I could make your brain stop functioning.”

Nate looked at her, opened his mouth, shut it and returned his eyes to the road. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that, so he just kept quiet.

She bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing.

His phone rang and she reached out to turn off the radio.

“You shouldn’t talk and drive,” Delaney commented as he looked at the ID.

He passed the phone to Delaney. “It’s Martin.”

She smiled brightly as she answered the phone. “Sex hotline, Olga speaking.”

For a moment there was silence and then a curse. “Delaney, put Nate on.”

“He’s driving,” Delaney argued. “That’s not safe, Martin. I got the job, we’re going to the hospital to see Jax.”

“No, Delaney...damn it put me on speaker.”

She did just that. “See, compromise,” she said. “Hands free and you still get to talk to Nate, although I’m a little offended you don’t want to ta-“

“Delaney, shut it!”

Delaney stared at the phone as if it had personally offended her. She pouted and held the phone keeping quiet.

“What is it Martin?” Nate asked as they went through an intersection.

“Jax woke up briefly,” Deeks said in a rush. “Delaney could be in danger.”

“Boatshed?”

“Yeah, boatshed.”

Nate sped up a bit, but not dangerously so. He held the wheel a little tighter. “We’ll be there soon, twenty minutes tops.”

“Okay,” Deeks said. “Laney, I’m sorry.”

“You owe me ice cream. The cotton candy kind.”

“Yeah,” he said and she could practically hear the smile in his voice. “Sure thing.”

“See you so-“ the sentence was cut off by the jarring force of a vehicle running a red light.

Delaney wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, what she was sure of was the blood running down the side of her face from a cut on her temple, received when she’d hit her head against the window. She blinked slowly, her mind slowly working.

“Nate?” She looked over, but he was slumped over the wheel. “Nate?”

She blinked and felt like her mind was quicksand, her moves were sluggish, and her thoughts didn’t seem to take form.

Her door opened and she nearly fell out, but someone caught her. “You’re okay,” the man said. “911 has been called. I’m a first responder.”

“I’m okay,” she said. She was pretty sure that she was anyways. She didn’t feel a thing. But maybe that was a bad thing. “Nate. You have to get Nate.”

“I’m going to get him out, but I have to move you first. Okay? The car hit his side of the vehicle, I’ll need to pull him out from this side.” It made sense, she supposed. Surely the first responder knew better than she. She took a step but stumbled in her heels and he held her close. “You’re okay, Delaney, just come with me.”

In her state, it didn’t even occur to her... she’d never given him her name.

::
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