Work Text:
Executive assistant director Shay Mosley stared at the computer screen, sighed, and turned to look at the agents down in the bull pen.
Disagreeable, mistrusting lot, all of them she mused, not that she denied having earned the distrust in some regard looking back at how she introduced herself and some of her aims for the Los Angeles headquarter.
Now she had to admit that they worked with astonishing success irrespective of their methods. She still wasn't in favor of those methods. The team had shown their mettle, though, even LAPD detective Martin Deeks. Mosley had considered him the utter misfit of the mottled crew, turned out he was quite a pleasant surprise. Well, pleasant at least in view of his success rate and contribution to the team, otherwise she considered him mostly annoying. Still not annoying enough it seemed, as her announcement towards agent Callen of replacing him with a proper agent had yet to come to fruition. She finally had made the effort to read his personnel records. She should have done that before. Water under the bridge. Now she waited and watched while working the cases. Mosley had come to know the team better during the last months and had to admit that some of her misconceptions died a slow but certain death.
It also hadn't escaped her notice that Hidoko felt drawn to the team while hovering along the periphery. Not so much periphery anymore, even. She was slowly but surely sucked up by the craziness that was the LA-team. Only time would tell how much that 'corrupted' the assistant towards her boss. A knock turned Mosley's focus to the door and the woman entering after her sign to come in.
"I have the information you asked for." Hidoko gave her two folders. Mosley took them and nodded her thanks. She checked her computer again and came to a decision.
"Could you send Detective Deeks up, please?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Hidoko looked inquiring, but Mosley didn't elaborate. After it got clear she wouldn't receive an explanation her assistant left the office and headed towards the bull pen downstairs.
Mosley watched Hidoko deliver her summon. Detective Deeks looked up, exchanged some words with his colleagues, but didn't hesitate to head for the stairs. For some reason he looked apprehensive though. Interesting. Mosley already learned that this certain look meant the man had done something he wasn't supposed to and made a mental note to investigate further. But first things first.
"Take a seat." she offered after he entered her office, the preceding knock already ingrained.
Mosley watched as the man folded himself into the chair. She took note how he made it easy with his laid-back non-threatening demeanor to let people forget how tall and muscular he was. There was a brain behind that joking façade and he mostly used his seemingly ill-timed comments to diffuse any tension in the team before it could build up to a critical level. Added to the fact that he clearly had no qualms about strong women taking the lead in his live he made an interesting study she had to admit. Again, an observation for later. For now, she looked down at some notes she made while he was on his way to her office.
"Detective Deeks, I was informed you liaise with detective Williams from Hawaii concerning cases that might involve their jurisdiction and vice versa?"
The expression of relief came and went on his face before Mosley was sure she had really seen it. So, he really had done something he hadn't been supposed to do and she had an inkling it had to do with his so-called sensitivity training some days ago. She would dig a bit further after he left her office. Now he looked more confused.
"Is there a problem? I checked with Hetty and assistant director Granger, sorry, former assistant director and they…"
"No, no problem." experience with his ramblings made her stop him before he could gain traction, well, at least try to stop him...
"Do you need information, something checked? I can give him a call and see…"
"Will you just shut up for a moment, detective Deeks, and let me continue?" considering the news she had to deliver Mosley felt bad about her short bout of impatience.
He mimed zipping his mouth and watched her with bright eyed expectation.
"I am very sorry to deliver bad news, but recent news reports state detective Williams was fatally shot while in quarantine at King's Medical Center. If you want I can try to get more information and…"
His face was suddenly carefully blank when he looked at her. "No, thank you, that won't be necessary. I will check in with some other contacts. If you'll excuse me?"
"Yes, sure. Again, I am very sorry."
Detective Deeks just nodded, stood up and turned kind of stiffly to the door.
Something was wrong. This was not the reaction Mosley had expected. Slight dismay maybe due to the bad news, sure, but this was something else. There was nothing for her to put her finger on, but also there was no other way she could interpret his sudden change in behavior. She watched him leave her office, hesitate and then head to OPS. Mosley saw agent Blye taking just one look at detective Deeks before she stood up and followed him quickly, quite to the bemusement of agents Callen and Hanna.
That could have gone better. Well, his fiancée would take care of detective Deeks, whatever the matter with him was Mosley thought, her mind already back on her work and the hunch regarding his absence some days ago. She had suspected back then that the story about his training was a lie, but had been willing to let it slip. For some reason she wasn't anymore.
Eric watched with some surprise and apprehension, feelings Nell shared be the looks of it, when Deeks burst into OPS. He didn't say anything, just headed over to them coming to a stop behind Nell's chair. Deeks had his cell phone in hand biting his thumb nervously while hitting redial. When the call didn't connect he turned to Nell and looked at her pleadingly while mouthing something she, unlike Eric, seemed to get immediately.
"Oh boy." Nell said already at work, typing furiously.
Out of the corner of his eye Eric saw Kensi entering OPS. She made a beeline for Deeks and embraced him from behind, her chin resting on his shoulder. Neither spoke.
"Something I can I help with?" Eric started, but stopped when he saw that Nell's search already showed results. The four of them stared at her screen.
Veteran detective shot and killed inside King's Medical Center read the sub title a picture of said detective shown briefly. Over the gasps of his colleagues Eric couldn't hear much more than a name –Williams – and that he apparently had been in quarantine.
"Hold on, isn't that the guy who helped with the search for…"
Eric grunted when an elbow hit his side. Nell had really mean and pointy elbows.
"Wait, there is more." Nell exclaimed.
They watched the scene that had changed to a broadcasting studio. The news anchor stared solemnly at the camera.
"This outrageous report is an example of very bad journalism. Though having indeed been shot, detective Williams is nevertheless expected to make full recovery and…"
"Can you believe it?" Kensi fumed, drowning out whatever else the news anchor said. "Couldn't they have started with that or even better, not shown it at all?"
Eric observed the white knuckled grip Deeks had on her hand and for once decided to keep his mouth shut despite his curiosity. The "Later" Nell hissed at him further strengthened his silence for now.
"Looks like the news of his demise were totally exaggerated." Kensi tried which earned her a startled laugh from Deeks.
"Did you know that this quote is often misquoted? Twain never said 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.", but 'The report of my death was an exaggeration.'"
Eric wasn't sure what had made him say that. For a moment he feared retaliation by another elbow blow, but Deeks just grinned at him with suspiciously shiny eyes.
"I didn't know that I needed to know that. What are you, stand-in-Wikipedia"?
Eric shrugged awkwardly, hit with the feeling that he had missed the point. Wouldn’t be the first time he mused.
"Well, I'm just glad to hear that detective Williams is still alive and will be hopefully better soon. I wonder if they will fire the journalist and whatever idiot who authorized this report."
"They better should." Kensi groused.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"OK, back to work." Nell patted Deeks' shoulder, smiled at his thanks, mumbling a "You're welcome" in return, before taking up her previous search again.
Eric watched until the pair had left OPS then turned to Nell expectantly.
"It's not later yet." Nell said before he could even utter a word. "Go back to work."
Inwardly grumbling Erik complied.
"That was – unpleasant."
Deeks snorted at Kensi's dry statement. He still felt jittery, but it was subsiding now that he knew Danny wasn't dead. He wondered why Grace hadn't told him anything about the shooting at the hospital, but maybe she didn't know about the false reports and hadn't wanted to let him know about the events until she could tell him about the final outcome of the mess. She would probably give him a call in the morning, commenting on Jerry's skill on making breakfast for her and her brother while being at it. She took great pleasure in tormenting the poor guy, but all with a fond undertone that proclaimed her affection for the man.
"With Chin gone to San Fran you really need another adult in the team to keep an eye on Williams for you."
"Don't let Abby hear you called her city San Fran." Deeks grinned. "But you're right, I'm really at a loss when things like this happen. I'll have to check out the team, see who might fit. It's not like there's a shortage of possibilities." He hesitated "Go on, I'll just want to have a short word with Mosley."
"Be careful."
Deeks gave Kensi's hand a tender squeeze, then headed towards Mosley's office. He waited until she acknowledged him with a wave and a brisk come in.
It seemed to Mosley that detective Deeks was in a better state of mind than he had been when leaving her office some minutes ago. She raised her eyebrows when the silence stretched a bit longer than warranted in her opinion.
"Assistant director Mosley, I wanted to thank you for letting me know about detective Williams personally. I appreciate the effort, but..."
The 'but' didn't sit well with Mosley, so she interrupted "Well, as I've said, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. We may talk about the options for a replacement later, but for now I have something else I would like to discuss with you. It seems I'm still missing the certificate of participation for your sensitivity training. And I would appreciate if you could tell me why you felt the need to use the incinerator that same day?"
This time the feeling going over the detective's face wasn't gone as fast as before and Mosley was surprised to see it wasn't apprehension but anger. It was quickly masked by indifference and the man smiled kind of sharply at her "Sure, ma'am, I will have the certificate send to you. Concerning the use of the incinerator, I burned some documents after their retention period elapsed."
Mosley couldn't see anything wrong with that and there was no proof he burned something else.
"OK. I hope to receive the certificate soon. Until that time, I will make a respective note in your personal file for later assessment. You may go now."
She watched him leave and head down the stairs where he met with agent Blye. They had a short conversation before settling down at their desks again.
Satisfied with the outcome Mosley turned to her computer only to be interrupted by another knock. This time her assistant stood by the door.
"Hidoko, what is it?"
"I've been in OPS and couldn't help to hear something. I thought you would like to know that the news report about the fatally shot detective Williams was false. It is going to have some severe legal consequences, especially considering that we are talking about the SIC of the Hawaiian governor's task force."
The women looked at each other silently for some time.
Mosley was grateful Hidoko knew her so well, groaned inwardly and evaluated her options. Not only had she forwarded a false report without checking all details, but she had also disregarded a man in a position close to the governor of Hawaii because he was a detective, not an agent. Talking about his replacement as if she had any jurisdiction in this regard. No wonder detective Deeks had been angry. After some consideration she took an envelope from her desk, putting the paper in her hand in it so Hidoko couldn't see what it was.
"Would you bring this to detective Deeks and let him know that I would appreciate if he could incinerate it and that I'm satisfied with his personal summary regarding the results of his sensitivity training, no need for anything else? Thank you."
Hidoko clearly was curious about what was going on, but did as she was told without asking any questions.
Mosley watched the short exchange between Hidoko and detective Deeks.
The man checked the content of the envelope, looked up and nodded. Mosley nodded back and wondered if this would throw a wrench in the progress she had made towards some good relations with the team. As with everything else, only time would tell.