"Howdy!"
Chapter Five: Lets Go A Few Rounds 
01x11: The Game

*Trigger warning*

There's this thing called "Plausible deniability." Yes, we are using those big words. But to get to the point we have to use big words. Anyways, Plausible deniability refers to the denial of the blame informal and formal. In some cases, your boss may give vague orders. Like for example

Henry II "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?"

Henry was asking in a nonformal way who was gonna kill this man so He didn't have to get his hands dirty. Every single politician, corrupt cop, or just really rich fucking asshole has done this once or twice in a few times and for some fucking reason they just keep getting away with it.

Isana was gonna deal with her first case of being undercover since she left Washington and Plausible deniability up front and personal and while she had probably dealt with so much of that big word before, she wasn't too fond of that shit at all.

Let's just say the night starts as a fun and sweet ride or in Isana's case a beautiful sparkling outfit, way too much makeup, not nearly enough hair spray, and a high-stakes poker game in which Isana was playing these men-like a fiddle, while also spending way too much money that wasn't hers. 

She slides her entire stack of chips across the table after a few of the men raise. "All in, y'all," she smirks her fake Southern accent coming off way too strong. Of course, all the men just fold tossing their cards to the side

"You are having quite the run."

"Lucky night, I guess." she pulls all the chips in her direction with both hands looking at her watch. It was going time. "I'm gonna sit this next one out and find the ladies'." she smirks before standing off and running to the 'ladies' room',  or at least what she considered since she was a lady. She pulls the scanner off her thigh. "Come on, CHAD. Come on." the scanner beeps the words Tranfer completely showing on the screen, a smile toys on her lips. "Yes." she slips it back on her thigh just as the sound of a gun cocking is heard she looks up seeing a gun aimed at her head.

16 hours earlier.

Isana was hanging out with herself, which she didn't mind she liked being alone. She liked it a lot more than being in a relationship. Especially when the relationship was just endless flirting and extreme sexual tension.

But sadly she had to go to work because in this economy if you don't work you don't get paid. And she needed all the money she could get. Hawaii while beautiful was also just expensive, and she hated it. She wasn't used to this type of life yet and while she was still adjusting the team wasn't at all, she had different relationships with everyone, Kai was flirty and funny and super adorable. He was handsome and the sweetest man ever. They both had feelings for each other and neither of them knew it.

Lucy was also really flirty, but like in a funny way and they were basically like best friends at this point which was nice, she reminded her of Ellie, including the part where she was very much batting for the same team.

Ernie was a tech nerd who was smitten by the hot-headed and stubborn assassin. She was lethal yet kind, it was like having a lioness as a crush, one minute they are sweet and cuddle and want all your attention and the next they are mauling any dangerous predator in sight. She was hot, funny, and cuddly and he couldn't get enough. She was genuine too which made his heart melt. But they were friends and friends would be friends til she decided not to be anymore.

Lastly was Jessie, you see at first they hated each other like hated each other, but then he got to know her and she saved his ass too many times so now they are siblings, she is his little sister and he is her big brother. He felt the urge to protect her at all costs, even though she was capable but still, she was his responsibility, even if it was only for him.

Their next case was handed to them by Dalia Ernies on again again fling.  Trey Santos.

The drug dealer. Well, He's more of a kingpin. Dalia and her team spent six months working with HPD on a joint task force busting him. The trial's starting next week. Except there isn't gonna be a trial. Key evidence is gone. The hard drives are missing. Well, technically, they're still there  But wiped clean. Which sucks causer that was everything. Everything linked him to the operation. Schedules, routes, and encrypted financials. Ernie comments how he knew NCIS should have taken those hard drives instead of the 46 kilos of untraceable cocaine we found hidden on Navy property. D.A. is gonna drop charges. Santos was released yesterday.

Dalia goes on to say she thinks she knows who's responsible and how she needs NCIS's help.

Detective Roy Burr. 15 years working narcotics for HPD. History of questionable behavior.

Several Internal Affairs investigations. Logs show Burr was in the evidence locker days before we learned the hard drives were wiped. Which is not exactly a smoking gun. Up until a few years ago, Santos was a small-time dealer who side-hustled as a confidential informant.

That's how he built his empire. Every time he helped take down other dealers, he quietly took over their territory. Here's the kicker. Burr was the cop who turned Santos into a C. I. Ding ding ding, there's your smoke. If Burr turned a blind eye to Santos's power grab back then He could easily be on the take now. Destroy evidence against him.

This begs the question of why Dalia goes to her bosses.  She doesn't know who she can trust. Kai goes to see what Ernie can find on Roy burr without alerting HPD servers. He finds something of course. Midnight Madness? Flight Honolulu-to-Vegas, Hawai'i's ninth island.

Roy Burr goes at least once a month. Stays at the nicest suites downtown. Likes to live large.

Oh, and he's got the debts to prove it. Which you may be thinking? A lot of people have debts and aren't on the take. No big cash deposits or offshore accounts. If he's bringing money into Las Vegas, he's leaving it at the tables. Destroying evidence seems like a big risk to play slots and get a comped buffet. Ever heard of the saying. "never underestimate the mind of a gambler."  Something's there. They just  haven't found it.

The other thing could be that  Dalia's wrong. Ernie shuts down that idea, quicker than Kai can even finish it. He could tell he was nervous about Dalia being around and that he liked her. Kai makes a comment about how he and Jessie are gonna tail Burr Old-school and they do they just didn't expect to find so much and so little. A secret casino, with poker tables and slot machines, Roy was begging the owner to put him in a game but the owner explained to Roy that he had a tab a big one at that and until he paid it, he wouldn't let him into any of the games, which causes Roy to storm out and Kai and Jessie follow him.

Before they can get to Roy he gets gunned down in the middle of the street by a driveby. Jane comes by and Kai explains the details. How Roy  received a text and rushed out in a hurry. They caught up in time to see him take two bullets in the chest. Taillights of a black, unmarked SUV.

HPD's checking traffic cams. It was a setup. He got a message to pick up an "overdue package"  right before he was shot. You may be asking. Who sent it? No way of knowing.

It was sent with an encryption app called Vesla. NCIS needs to find out who sent that message.

For now, it was back to square one.  Who was Burr arguing within the casino? A guy by the name  of Ike Diamond. Runs the joint. Former Las Vegas personal injury attorney, now Full-time bookie. Dalia explains how  Half the guys in her department lay bets with him.

Of course, here comes Isana and Jessie into play. They approach Ike who is causally eating a turkey sandwich, while Officers are taking his stuff out of the building. Ike was woefully giving off commands to people way above his pay grade.

"Ike Diamond." Jesse flashes his credentials. "NCIS."

"Congratulations There's Bubble Wrap and packing tape under the craps table. Wrap the legs before you move them."

Jesse rolls his eyes while Isana has a smirk. "We're not here about the illegal casino."

"Objection. Speculative."

"We're here about Roy Burr," Isana speaks up.

Ike chuckles a bit. "He sends you to brace me?"

" Uh, to what, now?"

" He thinks Burr sent us here to beat him up," Jesse explains as Isana nods.

"Well, he does owe me a lot of money."

Isana shakes her head. "Burr didn't send us. He's dead."

"Get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, shot to death a block away," Jesse explains

"No one mentioned that when they came to arrest you and shut you down?"

" This isn't a shutdown. It's a pause in community relations. I'll be up and running in a month."  Ike turns to the HPD officer behind him. "And I'll be released in a couple of hours."

Jesse takes a seat. "And Roy Burr?"

"What, you think I did it?"

" He does owe you a lot of money." Isana mocks what Ike said earlier in the conversation.

"Not that I'm incriminating myself, but in my line of work, you can't collect from a dead man."

"You were seen arguing with him right before he was gunned down." Jesse continues.

"That's hearsay."

Jesse presses his lips in a thin line. "I'm the one who saw you."

"Look, Roy Burr was a degenerate gambler God rest his soul. He's into me 20 large, and he had the chutzpah to try to get back into my weekly poker game on credit."

Isana nods. Waving her hand our front of him. "But you're not trying to incriminate yourself."

"It's a friendly home game. It probably includes some of your bosses."

"We're not interested in the gambling, Ike. Roy Burr was a cop, probably dirty and working with Trey Santos."Jesse explains and Ike just nods. 

Isana kisses her teeth. "Talk to us, Ike, or you'll be arrested for more than running a casino."

"My involvement in the gambling arts has nothing to do with Trey Santos. He's a patron."

"- Patron?" Jesse asks.

"- At the poker game."

"Oh, you host drug kingpins at your friendly game?" Jesse sasses.

" I host anyone with cash. Crooks, politicians..."

"And cops. Like Roy Burr." Isana replies as Ike nods.

//

Isana and Lucy were looking at all the evidence on the screens out in front of them, while Kai and Jesse were talking.

"Roy Burr and Trey Santos play in a weekly poker game together?"  Tennant asks as she enters their tech room.

"Could've been where Santos paid him off, gave him instructions." Kai begins.

"Yeah, like having Burr destroy evidence for him, getting him out from under a 20-year prison sentence."

"Could've been" doesn't solve the case. We need evidence tying Santos to Burr's murder." Tennant says.

"We got the text luring Burr out to the street right before he was shot. If we can connect it to Santos.." she turns to Ernie with a hopeful smile causing everyone else to look at him. He sighs,

"Good news, bad news. The text came from an encrypted app, so the only way to confirm who sent it is through the source."

"In other words, Santos's phone,"  Tennant explains as Ernie nods.

"So we arrest him, subpoena his phone who knows what else is on it?"

"No, if we move in to arrest him, it's too easy for him to bleach it, clean out any of the messages," Jane says as everyone sighs.

"Didn't you say there was good news?"

" We can access his phone without him knowing it," Ernie explains.

"How do we do that?"

" With CHAD." He holds up a square device the size of a mug, and hands it to Jane who stares at it before handing it to Kai."Cyber Hand Data Recovery Device."

"That doesn't spell.."

" - I like the name CHAD. It can crack and clone Santos's phone through Bluetooth." Ernie continues interrupting Kai.

"What's the catch?" Lucy hands the device Back to Ernie.

" It needs to be within a few feet of Santos's phone for at least 30 minutes to work."

"Close and prolonged access to a deadly drug dealer. Sounds easy."  Kai jokes.

Jessie snaps his fingers. "Ike's poker game. It's tonight. Santos will be there. We send someone in."

"- I'll do it." Isana volunteers.

" Seriously?"

She nods. " 'Cause I'm real good at playing poker."

"- How good?"

" - It depends. we talking hold 'em limit, no limit, stud, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo" she lists off.

"She can name the games"

Jessie rolls his eyes. " This is a high-stakes poker game where you have to play well enough and last long enough to get Ernie's CHAD next to Santos without him catching on."

"IsanaBluejane007. Look it up." she turns to Ernie who is already typing. "Retired the account before joining NCIS, but it was a pretty feared avatar in certain circles."

Ernie pulls up the poker game onto the screen. "Quite the side hustle."

"Mm-hmm. Didn't get out much in college." everyone looks at her score sheet while Jessie shakes his head, he had this overprotectiveness thing going on, Isana thought it was adorable that he felt the need to be worried about her, but she could handle herself.

Tenant nods. "Isana's going into the game tonight. Grab Ike, bring him here. Ernie, show Isana how CHAD works. This is our shot. Let's take it."

Before long Ike is brought into the meeting room and the team gathers around.

"I'm telling you now I can't wear a wire. Sensitive nipples." He says simply as the group nods collectively.

"Be sure to keep that in mind. Thank you for coming, Mr.Diamond. Ernie here will tell you exactly what you need to do for this undercover operation to work."

"And you'll do it exactly like we tell you, to avoid felony racketeering charges," Jessie adds as Isana just shakes her head at him.

"You'll place Trey Santos in seat eight, next to the dealer. Special Agent Pacheleki will be in seat six."

Ike shakes his head. "No way I'm getting Maury Chauvin to change his seat."

"Remember that time I talked about racketeering charges?"

Ike perks up. " Six it is!"

"All you do is seat her within two feet of Santos and his phone."

"Look,it may be my game, but it's Santos's world when he comes. He brings the muscle. He controls everything. What's my exposure here vis-à -vis the vicious drug lord?"  Ike asks.

" We will be surveilling from across the street. Special Agent Pacheleki will have a hidden camera with a live feed."

"So what do I tell my players? I found her outside the debate club at Honolulu High. I mean, work with me here." Ike says

"I am a rich girl from Texas on vacation with my family - looking for a little fun with Daddy's money."

"- Listen, I'm not trying to be sexist-"

"But you're gonna be." Tennat interrupts

"Is this the best person for the job? I mean, at least this guy could read like a finance bro looking to scratch an itch." Ike points to Jessie.

Ernie puts up his fist to fist-bump Ike as Jessie shakes his head. "No."

"Do you even know the basics? Like a flush beats a straight."

Isana simply sighs. "Sure. But I wouldn't take a gutshot straight draw over a runner-runner flush draw unless the pot odds - were at least four to one."

Kai smirks at Isana, who's cheesing like a child at Christmas. "Annie Duke. She's like Annie Duke, the professional-"

"I know who Annie Duke is. It's gonna take more than that to survive my game. My players come for action. Buy-in is $10K, minimum. And I'm not staking Uncle Sam." Ike sasses.

"We got that."

.

The work day was done and Isana was very excited about going undercover and she wanted to tell everyone about it.  She was FaceTiming with Kasie telling her all about everything in Hawaii just as Nick walked in the background he was laughing with some pretty brunette women who she assumed replaced her on the team. Kasie saw the sadness on Isana's face,  it was bad enough he wouldn't admit his feelings for her but now he was smiling and laughing with some beautiful woman. It was like he didn't care like he didn't miss her or anything and it made her heart hurt, she just said goodbye and hung up. Deciding to get her head into the undercover OP rather than walling into her already broken heart.

So there she was getting dressed in the bathroom across the street from Ike's poker game.

There was a knock on the door and she rolled her eyes already figuring it was Jessie.

"Everything good in there?"

"Fine. I'm just getting dressed," she replies blandly.

"Okay. Great."  Jessie walks away from the door. "She's nervous."

"You're nervous," Lucy smirks as Jessie rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, well, it's a big deal. First undercover assignment on the island. She's going in alone.

She's never done it before. No weapon. Backup's 20 stories and a block away." Jessie lists off.

"You know I can hear you."

Kai, Jessie, and Lucy look at each other. "You're gonna do great!" Kai replies.

She ignores the talking as there are more knocks on the door, she gives herself one more glance over the mirror. If she wasn't so down, she'd be gitty right now. Being undercover was fun, she got to play someone else for a while, which was always fun. She looked hot, like smoking hot, her hair was flat ironed, and flipped back to one side, her dress was red and shimmery, she had lipgloss on over her plum lipsticks, and her boobs were pushed up to the sky, with diamonds adorned all over her. She was dripping in money.

She walked out of the room she was changing into and all eyes were on her, Their jaws were practically on the floor, Well Kai's and Jessie's were Lucy was smirking and nodding and Dalia was just stunned.

"Wow." Jessie starts.

"You look-"

"Like Texas Cinderella!" Dalia beams as everyone furrows their brows,

"You got CHAD?"

" - Uh, yeah. Locked and loaded." Isana  taps her thigh under her dress.

"- Okay. Uh, here's your purse thing."

" It's a clutch." Ernie and Lucy correct him at the same time.

"You just face it this way, so the camera can get a good look at the table."

"Got it."

"Phone in there, too. Hit any button." Ernie explains.

" We kick through the door."

" Santos is arriving with three men," Dalia speaks up from the window.

Isana sighs, tucking the clutch under one arm. Jessie approaches her towering over the woman."Listen, you want to call this off, just say the word and we're out of here."

Isana puts on her best smile. "Oh, honey, I got this. Y'all don't have to worry about a thing." she fakes a good Texan accent as she begins walking away.

"- Hey, Iz?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Forgot the money." Kai holds it up as she walks back over grabbing it.

"Oh, oh, that's right., um Cash." she takes the money and places it in the clutch, " I usually pay with credit card."

"How many times have you played poker in person?"

" Uh, including tonight?" Isana asks as everyone nods. " One." and with that she walks off, as everyone sighs.

"I think she will do great," Lucy speaks up as everyone stares at her she shrugs.

//

After riding the elevator and the long walk over she was officially in character, there were no more thoughts about Nick or her life in Washington. There was nothing to think about really Nick seemed better off without her and maybe she needed to move on sooner rather than later. She steps out of the elevator knocking on the door to the room. A few men lead her inside.

"Evenin'. Y'all got room for little ol' me?"

" Phone in the box." a man has a box held out in front of her,

"Oh, I was told I could keep mine. You know, in case I need to order food-"

" Phone in the box." she sighs and tosses the phone in the box.  "I'm gonna need to pat you down."

Isana begins to protest as Ike rounds the corner.  "Uh, fellas, fellas, haven't you heard? It's 2022. No pat-downs. Come on. Come with me over here." He leads Isana down a hall. "What's your name gonna be?"

"Isana."

Ike shakes his head. "- Mm. You look more like a Marla." they enter a bigger room with a round table and a lot of men. "Gentlemen this is Marla. She's in town from Dallas. I met her at the Royal Hawaiian happy hour."Isana chuckles. "The only thing she likes more than mai tais is betting daddy's money."

"Whoo!"

"That's Malcolm. Stanley. The handsome guy over there is Maury. Trey. And this is Bad Beat, Rick. He's the best dealer on the island - who's currently available." he leads Isana over to the poker table and shows her where she's sitting.

"Oh, my G White and blue chips. Just like my Cowboys. Y'all better watch out." The dealer gives Isana a Look. "What, do I have something in my teeth?"

"You have to give your money. For the chips."

She taps the side of her. Pulling out her clutch and tossing the money over to him.

"What did I tell you guys? Tonight's special is fresh fish. No offense, honey."

"I'm just excited to see a little action. I mean, how many sea turtles can one girl swim with, you know?" Isana says placing her clutch down on the table.

" What's a turtle call his cell phone? A shell phone."

"Oh, my Ha-ha-ha!" Isana fakes a laugh.

" See? She even likes your stale jokes, Keen."

"I got a million of 'em." Keen smiles.

"Less talking. More poker."

"My thoughts exactly, Mr. Trey." Isana nods and points at all the men around the table. "Mm-hmm."

The game continues and Isana is waiting to activate CHAD.

"Hey. Your move."  She calls in a bet and Troy purses his lips. "The bet was 6K."

"Oh, my. Well, um, okay. My daddy has a saying: "Never leave a racehorse in the pasture".

"That reminds me of the story about the jockey and his young Irish finance"

Ike smirks. " Malcolm. Keep it PG."

"All in," Troy says as Isana looks at her cards she places them face down on the table.

"Mm. Fold."

"Your racehorse broke a leg?" Ike asked.

" Just got here. I'm not ready to turn in my spurs just yet."

"You'll get me next time. I'm sure." Troy gathers all of his earnings into the center of the table.

"Chip and a chair", that's my motto," she smirks.

Meanwhile, Jessie was a nervous mess while watching Isana,

"You know for someone who doesn't like Izzy, you are the most anxious one for her, why is that?" Lucy asks as Kai smirks at her question Jessie just straightens his vest over his chest,

She had only been with them for a few short months, and now Jessie liked her, Now he was worried about her wellbeing, in all honesty, he never hated her. He felt this sense of anxiousness, like something was wrong with her like she was running away from something and all of it was gonna blow up in her face. He wasn't wrong, but he also felt like she needed someone to watch over her, to protect her from all the bad and scary things she was pushing herself toward. Isana liked the thrill of the trouble sometimes a little bit too much. And since being in Hawaii and not back home she didn't have Mcgee or Palmer or Gibbs or Jack telling her she was doing too much. Reminding her that she was still a human being and that if she kept at there would be danger ahead. She was short and fiery sure. But she was also scared deep down and Jessie could see it, all that anxiety and stress, bubbled off of her, and lingered around her body like perfume. And it scared him. He felt the urge to protect her, to love her. Because no one else was, he made it his job.

"No reason." is all he could reply grunting a few times. Lucy just smiled at Kai, Jessie was always grouchy but Isana brought out the big brother bear side of him. The snuggly, side but if you poked a stick at him he would rip your head off.

There was an issue with getting the date from Santos's phone and it wasn't because of Isana, it was because Santos didn't have his Bluetooth on, which would make it hard for CHAD to gather any data or get any entry to Santos's phone. The team was trying to figure out how to let Isana know.

Back with Isana, the plan was to have a waitress pass out drinks under Isana's drink was a message written on her napkin. Troy was eyeing Isana as she glanced down at the napkin. For a brief second. He explains how it's Isana's turn and she raises to 3,000 dollars, of course, Troy ups the stakes by raising the bid to 10,000.

"Ooh. Okay. So, uh, before I call, I'm gonna need to speak to my business manager, make sure I have enough cash to buy back in if I lose. My phone's in the box over there, so." She explains.

" No one leaves the table once a hand is started."

Isana tilts her head to the side. "Can I use your phone?" she and Troy were having a stare-down. " Unless you're afraid I'm gonna call your raise." the others start chuckling and he sighs pulling out his phone and handing it to her. "Thank you." she takes the phone from him.

"Put it on speaker."

She nods with a smile. "Of course."

The line rings for a second before Ernie answers. "Hello?"

" Hey, Cal. It's, uh, Marla. Sorry for calling so late. How's Fort Worth treatin' ya?"

"Marla, sweetheart! Fort Worth is as dry as the heart of a haystack, but, uh, you know, otherwise I can't complain."

"Oh, that's so great. Listen, I need, um, I need 20K wired to my "mad money" account." she rubs the back of her neck.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Course, little lady. Cash'll move faster than a chicken caught in a coyote parade. You check your account in 30 minutes."

She laughs. "Thanks, Cal. Oh, say hi to Janey."

"I will. Bye-bye."

She hands Troy back his phone. "Well, guess I'm all in." She shows her hand and it's a 2 of clubs which dealer smacks down a 2 of clubs as well meaning Isana won the bet. "Whoo! Hell yeah!" she gathers her winning chips from the center of the table over to her side.

"Might not need that 20K after all." Keen comments as she becomes bashful.

"You got lucky."

"- Well, is there any other way to win?" Isana says smirking.

"Raise," Troy says,

"Reraise."

"All in, y'all." Isana moves her chips to the center.

"Take it."

"Lucky night, I guess. All right, gonna sit this next one out and find the ladies." Isana rushes to the lady's room where she pulls CHAD from the clip on her thigh, it trills a few more times before it beeps saying Transfer complete.

She places the device back in the spot before there's a gun being placed to the back of the head.

"Want to tell me what this means?" Santos was holding up the napkin with Isana's message from the team on it, "Talk."

"- If you if you want your money-"

He cocks the gun, "You don't care about the money. You care about my phone. You're a cop, trying to take me down."

"I don't know what you mean."

Keen walks into the room. "Didn't realize it was occupied."  Isana takes that as her cue, she hits Santos in the jugular tossing him into the mirror hanging from the door next to them he falls to the ground and she rushes over to Malcom.

"What the hell is happening?" he asks.

" - I'm an NCIS agent. We're gonna walk out and straight to the exit. Understand?" she takes his hand and leads him out of the bathroom smiling at everyone else at the table.

"Where are we going?"

They see Santos's man at the door and she makes an Oops like face. "Away." they take off running up the stairs towards the balcony. she pulls Keen into a janitor's closet. 

"Are you gonna tell me what's going on?" Keen practically yells.

"Only if you keep your voice down. Trey Santos is a drug dealer." Isana unbuckles the clasp on her heel taking it off, before doing the same to the other. "He had a cop destroy evidence against him, then killed the cop."

"He told me he was in real estate."

"You have your phone on you?" she asks as Keen kisses his teeth,

" It's in the box with yours."

"Okay." She places her heel down on the nearby box in the closet. "Then we got to move."

They start moving down the hall entering and exiting rooms. "So-so what, you're wired, right? Your backup can hear you."

"Comms were in my clutch. We're on our own." Isana explains leading them through another door. It leads out of the hotel room and through a hall where there's a sign for a stairwell they start walking down only to see another one of Santos's men so Isana leads them up the stairs towards the hotel roof/firepit. They close the door behind them. The wind whips wildly.

"What now?"Keen asks

" - I protect you." Isana breaks the glass for the fire extinguisher and holds it looking for a safe space for Keen to hide. "Come on, get over here." she leads him to some stairs and makes him stand behind her on the top of the stairs. While holding the fire extinguisher out.

The thing about being undercover is that things can go to shit, very quickly, and well right now at this moment Isana was trying to keep a bad guy safe from another bad guy, but she doesn't know the bad guy she's protecting is a bad guy. It all seems very chaotic and it is, Santos has Judge Keen in his pocket. And now Isana was squaring up with Santos and a judge, with no gun and a fire extinguisher. Only Santos gets shot by the judge and she feels a tiny bit of relief because she thinks the judge is on her side.

So here she was a gun being aimed at her, Santos dead a few feet away, Judge Keen interrogating her Pounding happening on the door behind her. Keen made the mistake. He lets Isana get too close, she pulls the gun from his hands and they start wrestling around he throws them over a chair before she pushes him to the ground and runs towards the stairs, he pulls her back choking her as her back leans over the balcony she kicks him in the chest and he comes back forward and she dodges him and tosses him over the balcony he falls to the cement and he grimaces looking away, just as the door flies open.

"Are you all right?" Jessie rushes over to her pulling her into a hug while Kai is checking over the balcony for Keen who is dead.

" Oh, fine." Isana sighs and lets go of Jessie. Jessie grips her tighter. "Jessie, I'm okay."

"Well, I'm not."

Lucy sighs and lets out a small laugh while Isana pats Jessie's back.

"All right."

"Isana's safe. Santos and Keen are dead." Kai informs Jane.

"Jessie you're suffocating me." She taps Jessie on the back as he squeezes her tighter.

//

Isana had a long night as she sat at her desk filing the last of her case. When her laptop rings. It was Mcgee she smiled pressing the answer button only Mcgee wasn't the face that appeared. The two stare at each other for what feels like hours, but it is only a few short minutes,

"Nick, what-How- Is there something wrong where is Tim?"

"I-He's fine Mcgee's doing alright. Still a nerd." Nick laughs. Isana stays silent. And Nick's laugh turns serious. He clears his throat. Beginning to speak again.

"You know what Nick? Now is just not the best night, I went undercover for the first time since I've been here, and I almost died," she sniffles as a few tears begin to fall. "And the entire time I wanted to rush back and tell you about it, but then I realized some things, there are people who are bad for you and you can do everything under the sun for them and they will still treat you like crap in the end. I learned something about myself in the last few hours. And about who I can trust. There are a lot of chances bets, really that, um that I'm willing to take. You're no longer one of them."  She hangs up the call and closes the laptop proceeding to cry.  Just as Jane is about to leave her office.

She quickly tries to pull herself together, "You see any of that?"

Jane sits down a bottle of tequila on Kai's desk while holding two glasses in her hand. " All I see is an agent whose first undercover mission was a success." she begins pouring the tequila into the glasses.

Isana nods. "I don't think I want to talk."

"Who said anything about talking?" Jane replies handing her a glass she clinks hers against Isana's who nods before taking a sip. 

Life has a way of showing you things, and sometimes you can miss the signs, sometimes they are hard to read and other times, they are easy to make out but harder to let go. And boy was Life finally showing up for Isana and she was scared, to say the least.

Word count: 5900