A/N: Obviously, the previous chapter, and the direction I decided to take my story, has resulted in sharply divided opinions. I accept that there are some people who aren't going to like what I've chosen to do and I welcome constructive criticism but I do not accept the personal attack that came from a very nasty guest. I will say that I believe under the wrong circumstances, some of the characteristics that define Deeks – loyalty, a need to be accepted by others – could result in him doing something that was illegal.

To the very nice Guest who left a review in French: Je suis heureux que vous avez apprécié l'histoire et espère que vous continuez à lire (apologies for any translation errors).

This is the last chapter of this story. Deeks won't be in jail at the end of this one.

Marty sat in the dark, alone. Except for a few all too brief periods, he'd been alone since he was eleven years old. And almost all those times had been disasters. All except one.

Maybe he deserved it, being alone. Intellectually he knew that he'd done the right thing by shooting that man all those years ago. That it was not really different from the dozens of shootouts he'd been in over the years since. But it still weighed on him more than the others. He couldn't have stopped what happened that night, it had been over too fast, and he knew that confessing wouldn't have brought the dead back. But some part of his brain still whispered 'coward', 'failure', 'oathbreaker' to him in the dark.

He had a feeling it always would.

Kensi, Sam, Callen and Granger sat in Kensi's SRX, listening to the tap on Hodges' cellphone. They listended to him make calls to his wife, to his accountant, to his subordinates, to his boss. They listened to him make his lunch order.

"At least we'll be able to get him on using work time for personal business,"Granger said.

"Well that should be helpful," snapped Kensi.

Before Granger could respond, Callen's phone chirped again. Hodges was making another call, to a cellphone. Eric would already be on chasing it.

"Who's this?"

"The cops, dipshit."

"I seem to recall you promised us protection?"

"In my division, arrests outside it are neither my problem nor my fault. That being said, I've talked to a friend of mine and we should be able to get your charges reduced. But this is not about that. I need you to do a job for me"

"How much?" Apparently money meant far more than honour.

"Twenty grand."

"In or out?"

"In."

"Who?"

"Goes by Gentry. Tall, surfers build, blonde hair."

"Got in a fight with some Russians yesterday, put eight of them in the hospital and four in the morgue."

"By himself?"

"There were a couple of other guys. But for him it goes up to fifty."

"Or I could get the Russians to do it for free. Thirty."

"He's in the hole. Forty five."

"I'm taking care of that. Thirty five."

"Forty."

"Done."

"When and where?"

"3.15 this afternoon he'll be pulled out of the hole and taken to visitation, corridor C. Do the guard and the deal's off."

"I miss a chance to deal to a guard and it hurts me in here."

"Harm a hair on the guard's head and your charges will be dropped and you'll be out here with me."

"Understood."

Hodges cut the connection.

Callen turned to Granger. "Enough?"

"More than enough, Agent Callen."

The four agents stepped out of the car.

"Hodges," shouted Kensi. The man turned. "Federal agents. We need to talk."

Hodges put the pieces together pretty quickly. Then he went for his service weapon. Granger shot him in the knee before the pistol even cleared the holster.

"You're under arrest."

Kensi turned to Granger. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They called Bates, who called Rivera, who sent two Detectives to the hospital to take Hodges confession.

Deeks walked out the gate. Kensi and Bates were waiting. Kensi pulled him into a hug. When she let him go, Deeks and Bates shook hands.

"You're not going to be charged. We got Hodges, the department has enough trouble in the present to worry about the past."

"I figured that. Did you look into Thornhill?"

"You're not going to let that go are you?"

"You didn't meet him. He wants revenge and he's willing to kill anyone to get it."

"As it happens, I did look into him and found nothing."

"Then you need-."

"I mean I found nothing, as in his house has been cleared out, he quit his job as a bookkeeper at a construction firm and he left no phone number or forwarding address. He has no criminal record and he wasn't booked anywhere so there are no fingerprints or photographs to track him with."

"What about IA?"

"You think they're ever going to tell me anything. We'll keep searching."

"I don't think I can stay in the LAPD."

"Well that's the other thing." Bates took a deep breath. "There's going to be a trial board in a fortnight with your name on the hitlist."

"What?"

"Rivera proved you lied on a tax form, and I'm sure they can cobble to get a few more minor infractions to prove conduct unbecoming."

"They're going to fire me for that?"

"The alternative is you get life in jail for murder in the commission of a robbery."

"I thought, how did this happen?"

"I called in all the favours I could, but your old Lieutenant is now the Deputy Assistant Chief for Narcotics and he wants to eliminate the slightest hint of scandal when he's up for promotion in the next go around. With you discredited, there's no one to link him to Hodges. The Deputy Chief doesn't like it, but if Rivera or Driscoll cause a stink, and they could, a lot of people will lose their pensions. More than enough to burn for the Deputy to burn a good cop over."

"A good cop," Deeks said softly. "Maybe I deserve it."

"You think you're the first cop who put his foot over the line, looked in the mirror and didn't like what he saw. Don't forget that the people who actually know you think you've atoned."

"Is it going to be bad for you?"

"It's not like you misbehaved under my watch and these days I keep my nose clean. But if the bosses want to do me, then they'll find a way to make sure that I'm done."

"Tell them I'll resign."

"Deeks," said Bates and Kensi simultaneously.

"It's okay. They're going to do me, and there's no need for you to get caught in the crossfire."

"If you do this, they'll never let you join NCIS."

"That ship sailed a while ago, Kens."

"This isn't fair."

"It's fair, it may not be for what I've done, but I broke the oath, I've tried to live by it since, but that doesn't mean I didn't break it in the first place." He nodded. "I'll be okay. I can always be Mr Blye, raise the ninja assassins."

"What?" Bates said.

"Long story."

"Okay. Listen Deeks, I'm-."

"There was nothing you could do. Thank you for everything."

Bates nodded. "I'll see you round." The two men shook hand and then Bates headed for his car.

"You should get back to work too." Deeks said to Kensi. She pulled him into a hug.

"This is crazy."

"We'll figure it out." He paused. "It's going to be okay, even if we have to run off to Mexico."

Kensi smiled. "Yeah. I'll drive you home first."

"Yeah."

Hetty and Granger were arguing in her office. Sam and Callen stood near their desks. Eric and Nell came down from Ops.

"What's going on?" Eric asked.

"Mom and Dad are fighting," said Callen.

"Who's winning?" The other three turned to look at Eric. "What?"

Kensi came in, her head down.

"Didn't think we'd see you again today. Where's Deeks?"

"His suspension hasn't been lifted. There's going to be a trial board in two weeks."

"I thought the deal was we get Hodges, Deeks comes home."

"So did I, so did Bates. The bosses at LAPD had different ideas." She turned to Hetty's office "What's going on over there?"

"Not sure. Nothing good though."

"You've wanted me out since the moment you came here," said Hetty

"When I came here I was concerned you'd lost perspective. Turns out I was right, just not in the way I thought."

"I did what I did to protect an innocent man."

"Jack Simon was no innocent lamb, he knew he was endangering a dozen people by living in a Taliban controlled village. Two of my men died Henrietta. Between them they left behind six children, one of them a four month old girl who will never know her father."

"I could not have foreseen-."

"Bullshit, if you're so smart, and we both know you are, how could you not foresee the consequences of sending an agent halfway round the world to find out their former fiancée was a killer working for the enemy? How could you not foresee that that agent would do what we trained her to do and investigate?"

Hetty sagged momentarily then lifted her head, her face an impassive mask. "Well, what exactly are you going to do Owen?"

"I may not be able to get rid of you. Hell, even Vance can't get rid of you. But you have a lot fewer friends than you used to. So I would watch my back if I were you. Other than that, you have what you wanted."

"You really believe that all this is what I wanted."

The remains of the team walked over when the voices were raised. "What's going on?" Callen demanded.

"Mr Callen-."

Granger interrupted. "Hetty first met Jack Simon when he was in Mosul. They kept in touch while he wandered the earth. Their last contact was two days before Agent Blye was sent to Afghanistan."

"How do you know all this?"

"The friend at the CIA gave me the emails that Jack and Hetty exchanged. Turns out even Hetty can't hide from the NSA."

Kensi had gone almost white. She stared at Hetty. "You lied to me, for six years, about this, of all things." Hetty said nothing. Kensi turned on her heel.

Sam grabbed her arm. "Kensi-."

"No Sam, I'm going to go, before I say something I won't regret." She shook him off and walked out.

Max Gentry was sitting in the Old Haunt on Preston, drinking whiskey and contemplating whether he would rather fight the heavy at the other end of the bar or screw the very pretty blonde bartender. Probably the latter.

The moment Kensi had driven off for another day at OSP, working for her, Deeks had headed out. There was no way he was staying cooped up in his apartment all day. He'd been there, done that, it didn't solve anything. Besides, he was waiting for a phone call.

The bartender walked towards him. Max was definitely thinking the latter, Deeks tried to keep him in check, the last thing he wanted was to destroy the only good thing he had left in his life. This time, he wouldn't strike first.

"Phone for you." Finally, three weeks of waiting had paid off.

"Thanks."

The sound of a familiar voice came out of the phone. "Mr Gentry. Are you still looking for a job?"

"Absolutely."

Like I said, nuking the status quo. The more I write this, the more I understand the show runners' position. This kind of change would not be sustainable long term.

I admit the Hetty thing sort of came out of nowhere, but it suited my purposes to include it. This was for two reasons: 1) it gave Kensi and Hetty a reason for conflict which didn't revolve around Deeks, because he's not the centre of either of their lives; and 2) it fits with my belief in Reality Ensues - the CIA is not going to forget the Hetty got in their way re Jack Simon and will do what they can to destroy her, despite her being a considerable power in her own right, and what better way to do this than by exposing a major secret of hers, which they should be able to obtain knowledge of, to those who would be hurt by it the most - her team.

If there is anyone who would want to read a continuation of this story, the next part of this tale is called 'Running with the Devil'. It will feature Martin Deeks, as Max Gentry, in the Thornhill organisation and the team as they work a number of cases.

Guest - I agree, Deeks is important to Kensi, but she has own stuff going on as well, and even as a guy, sometimes its good for female characters to have conflicts that involve them personally rather than in relation to a male character (I considered having them fall out over Hetty not using her ninja powers to get Deeks off the hook, but decided against it). Also, I'm glad that you saw what I did there. I'm saddened you didn't get the one with the man in the suit kneecapping a fool, a gag I plan to continue because it amuses me. As for your other point, well, that would be telling.

Other Guest: To quote Josiah Bartlett: "you're wrong, so sit there in your wronging wrongness and be wrong and get used to it". Still, I let your review through because it wasn't a personal attack - on me anyway - and I respect your right to state your opinions, even if they are wrong.