20"What the hell?"
Callen's exclamation appeared to be reflected in each of his team mates faces, who all seemed to be beyond words right now. Deeks would usually point out the hilarity of the quietest member of the team being the one to do all the exclaiming but felt that that wouldn't exactly be wise at this moment. Though he didn't know how to reply either except for shooting him a grin. How many of them had used balloons to escape?
"A balloon," Kensi stated slowly in disbelief.
"Several balloons," Deeks corrected and gave her a mock scolding look. "One balloon wouldn't have given me nearly enough of an explosion."
"It probably would have," Eric piped up, frowning. "Those things make a big bang."
Nell nodded sympathetically at him as everyone else gave him questioning looks.
"I didn't mean to burst one," he said quickly.
As one, they all decided that they probably didn't want to know.
"I think he beats your second-best distraction technique, G. After the goldfish, of course" Sam said, slapping his partner on the back. The man just rolled his eyes at Sam.
"That wasn't unusual."
"Sure, G. Because anyone would have thought of that."
"They would."
Shaking his head, Sam gave the rest of the team a pointed look. Deeks perked up at this little exchange, maybe they'd get at least one story out of Callen.
"Oh, what did you do?"
"Nothing," Callen answered briskly.
Or maybe not.
"Apples," Sam said, apparently not feeling the need to cover up this story. Made him wonder what the goldfish thing was.
"Apples?" Kensi replied questioningly.
"Apples," Sam confirmed with a solemn nod.
"Did you up end a cart of them or something?" Eric asked, leaning back onto Sam's desk only to be glared back to an upright position.
"Not exactly original," Nell said critically.
"He juiced them and sprayed our suspect with the juice," Sam told them.
"It worked," Callen protested.
"Sounds very... sticky," Kensi said, scrunching up her nose.
"Took days to get rid of the wasps in the boat shed."
"Ouch."
"He started smelling fermented quite quickly," Sam reminisced, shaking his head.
"I managed that with a carton of apple juice once," said Kensi, pulling a disgusted face. "It tasted like nasty cider."
"You tasted it?" Nell asked incredulously.
"I was curious!"
"I, for one, am unsurprised if this happened in your apartment," Deeks told his partner, pulling a disgusted face of his own. "Who knows how long ago that it was juice."
Kensi threw a wad of paper at him that he easily dodged.
"But again, with the interruptions," complained Deeks, drumming his fingers on his desk and wanting to avoid injury "I thought you wanted me to pick up the pace?"
"We do," Kensi told him.
"We're just savouring the balloons," Nell added.
Sam leaned back in his chair, "What are you waiting for?"
"An invitation," Deeks replied cheekily. The older man gave him a warning look which made him quickly add, "But yes, continuing. Um, where was I?"
"Panting from being chased," supplied Nell.
"You said you had to persuade Bates about how you got away."
"Oh yeah..."
Bates held two pieces of string between his fingers and raised his eyebrows.
"What the hell is this, Deeks?"
"Those are pieces of string, sir," Deeks replied.
"I can see that, Detective. Why am I holding them?"
"They're how I got away," he replied simply. "I didn't know whether or not it needed to be logged or something. Does it count as evidence?"
Deeks had thought that regular police work generated a need for a lot of pointless paperwork. Normal duty had nothing on undercover operations. He'd never had to fill out so many forms and wrote up so many reports. He was seriously considering filing an injury complaint, his wrist ached just thinking about the reports he was going to have to write.
Bates looked like he was going to regret what he was about to ask but asked anyway, "How did string help you get away?"
"It's not just string," Deeks said in an affronted tone. "They were balloons."
"Balloons," came the disbelieving response.
Deeks grabbed the ends of the dangling strings and lifted them up to show his superior. "See? Bits of balloon."
"Burst balloons helped you get away," Bates stated slowly, still in a disbelieving tone.
"Well, I did burst them in their faces..."
"You burst them in-?"
"They make a really loud bang," Deeks informed him quite seriously, rubbing his ears and wincing in remembrance.
Bates gave him a long look and then his lips twitched. Deeks frowned at him in puzzlement. Did he just see that? Another twitch, this time both corners of the man's mouth. Was he going to-? A burst of laughter escaped his boss making Deeks jump. The man laughed long and hard, enough for tears to come to his eyes. Deeks couldn't help but laugh with him. He supposed it was a pretty funny excuse.
"Well, that explains the reports of gunshots in that area," Bates told him as he eventually regained control of himself. "I thought you'd blown your cover or something."
"I'm not that green," Deeks said, feeling insulted.
"No, you just picked a fight with the local druggies."
"I'm was just standing there."
Bates rolled his eyes at him.
"They weren't expecting the balloons though," Deeks said with a grin.
"I don't want to even know what was going through your head when you grabbed them," Bates informed him. "Where did you even get them anyway?"
"Stole 'em off a clown," Deeks replied nonchalantly with a shrug as if was the most natural thing in the world to do.
"You stole them off a-?" Bates flung the string and dead balloons across the table, burying his face in his hands. "Just go, Deeks."
"Are you sure? I can give you a demonstration and-"
A finger pointed towards the door. "Go."
"Going."
"And, Deeks?" Bates looked up from his desk.
Deeks turned around to face him again. "Yes, sir?"
"Get out of that get up. You're stinking up the joint."
AN: Hey guys, thank you so much to all who have read and reviewed so far. I've finally finished writing all the chapters for this (this chapter is just beyond half way) which means that soon I'll have another slot for a new fanfiction. Please vote on the poll on my profile for what fandom you'd like to see me writing for next. Thank you!
