As The Worm Turns

**As the Worm Turns**

**A/N:** This is for SilverSentinal21, who didn't like the ending to the first story. She wanted to know what Hetty said to Eric and how Eric was going to resolve his problem. Here, then, are the answers to those questions.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing that even remotely is connected with NCIS:LA. All I claim to own is an active imagination that has my original characters demanding equal treatment with the stars of the show. Rebuttals on my mental status can be posted in the comment section.

Hetty was walking to her office when Eric arrived at the Mission. She turned to face him and said, "Mr. Beale, a word? It would seem that I received this note in my e-mail today that I would like to discuss with you." Hetty had a scowl on her face and both eyebrows were lowered into her gorgon glare.

Oops. Eric gulped. He knew he couldn't get away with it. He knew by the tone of her voice that he no longer had to worry about his RA ever again. Even though he appeared to be alive he was so dead and buried that an archeological expedition five thousand years in the future would never find him. Because she was Hetty and she could do anything.

Eric followed Hetty to her office and sat down in the chair directly across from the woman. He felt that the normally warn, inviting confines of the room now had a distinct chill. As he looked at her continued stare, he wondered how this lady, so small in stature, could be so overwhelming in her presence.

"Mr. Beale, can you tell me why I received this e-mail?" Hetty demanded.

Eric knew the little ninja never asked questions to which she already did not know the answers. "I needed the money, Hetty, to support myself when I no longer have my health benefits through NCIS." he confessed.

"And why do you think that would happen?" she asked.

"Oh, Hetty, I'm so sorry. I have RA and my fingers are starting to stiffen up and my typing has steadily been slowing down and I've tried, I've really tried everything I know of to have it treated and nothing is working at all." Eric blurted out, as he placed his hands on the top of his head in a purely defensive manner. "I figured that I needed to get money to take care of the meds I need when I no longer have a job. Oh please, please don't fire me. Please!"

"You do know that according to the security protocol agreement that you signed when you started working here, what you did breached that agreement, and I have every right to dismiss you?"

"I thought about that when I wrote the programs." he replied. "That was why I didn't include any instructions on how to break the internet. I didn't want anyone else being able to crash all of our information systems."

Shaking her head, Hetty continued: "But it's not just that, Mr. Beale. Your information about dealing with the internet could give any of our enemies help in cutting the amount of time they need to extract data from our systems" she admonished him.

"But, Hetty, I took care of that problem, too. I embedded a worm in each one of the programs. It installs itself into the user's computer along with the regular program. If they ever try to hack into our system or gain information on us, it will automatically pop up a red flag file on one of the computers here." he explained.

"Admirable, Mr. Beale. That could be a great advantage to us when we are working our cases. Then she looked at him with one eyebrow raised and asked, "But why did you not just bundle up that worm and present it to our friends at NSA or the CIA? It would seem that they might make good use of it, too" she inquired.

"I especially would not share this information with those two agencies." Eric said, putting his hands flat on her desk and a note of anger in his voice. "They are so riddled with holes that calling them a sieve is an insult – to the sieve. If they know it, our enemies will know it at the same time and that will destroy all chances we would have to get this information without them knowing about it." he warned.

"Well then, Mr. Beale, I would suggest that you shut down the site, so Internal Affairs doesn't want to have this same conversation with you." Hetty advised him. "Go through the data that you have already acquired. See if there are any threats to this office or to our national security. But on your own time. That is your punishment now. I may decide that further action is needed, depending upon the results that your worm can find. But rest assured, it will come from me alone. I will permit no one else to deal with you on this matter ."

Eric knew she was dismissing him with those words, so he got up from his chair and went up to ops where he would comply with her command.

The next morning Eric went right to Hetty's office, not even stopping for his customary cup of coffee. Even though he was there early, Hetty was already halfway through a large stack of files. She indicated that he should sit down and asked him, "Would you join me in a cup of tea, Mr. Beale?"

"I would appreciate that, Hetty," but I do have some results to report from the worm."

"Indeed. And were they attempting to hack our system or just trying to get information from our files?" as she offered him a newly poured cup of dark, pungent liquid.

Eric took a small sip of the hot tea, savoring it as it rolled across his tongue. "The first one was just someone trying to access general information from our site. The person looked at several job classifications, and then downloaded the job application form."

"Well, I don't think we have to worry about that one, do you?" she said.

"No, not very much." he answered. Eric looked like he would continue, but he hesitated, looking deeply into his cup and then drawing a big gulp of tea, went on with his report. The second one worries me a lot. I couldn't trace the source with the tools I had at home. What I could tell was that someone was trying several ways to infiltrate our system. Perhaps if Nell and I could work on it together this morning, we might be able to track it down."

"Very well, Mr. Beale, when Miss Jones arrives the two of you can combine your efforts to try and find the source."

"On it," he assured Hetty as he rose and headed up to ops, feeling that Hetty was no longer angry with him, but was giving him a chance to redeem himself. When he saw Nell already at her station, he went over to her and asked her assistance in the project. He didn't tell the political analyst how he acquired the information, because she was smart enough to figure out the whole problem, including his part in it, if he told her too much. They started to solve the problem together.

About 11:00 Hetty and Eric were up in ops to receive a incoming phone call from the Director Vance. Everyone else was ushered out of the room and Eric put on his noise-cancelling earphones. After exchanging pleasantries, Director Vance questioned her, "Henrietta, do you still retain membership in the Screen Actor's Guild."

"Yes, Sir, I continue to send in my dues and am a card carrying member in the category of motion picture and stage costuming. I still have many friends in the business and can rely on them whenever we need special costumes for our missions. That is why I insist on them being returned in the same condition that they were received. And I want you to know, Leon, that I never charge you for using them, saving the Office hundreds of thousands of dollars each year."

"Well, Henrietta, our country appears to have a bit of a problem, and you might be the best person equipped to deal with it?'

"Because of my SAG membership?" she asked, wondering where this was going.

"You know that the President of the United States just happens to be the fifth cousin (thrice removed) from the current president of SAG?"

"I was not informed of that fact," Hetty replied.

Vance snickered. Either Hetty was lying or that was a fact that was too mundane for her to register. "Anyway, there is a rumor going around that some cartel in Mexico is secretly trying to set up Guadalajara as the TV and film capitol of the world. Our boss wants it looked into so he can have some answers for his relatives."

"We will take care of it, Leon." Hetty assured him.

"And Henrietta, this is top priority," the director said as the video conference feed was cut.

Hetty turned to Eric and said, "Call the team; we have a case."

Once everyone came back to ops, Hetty laid out the basics of the operation. Callen took it from there, telling Nell and Eric to build up backgrounds for Kensi and Deeks so they could mingle with the people on the production lots and find out what they could from anyone who would be able to help them. He and Sam would go and make the rounds of the executive offices to find out the official story that was being presented to the public and the true, unofficial story that would never see the light of day.

Three days into the investigation, Callen felt there was enough information to hold a progress report meeting. Hetty walked into the room just as Eric started the briefing. "We have indications that the Tequila Gusano Cartel is behind this. Their name means "tequila worm" and that is the way that they are causing this havoc. They have set up their own catering company, Rigido Abastecimiento (Stiff Catering), and are providing cut rate prices for food and liquor when there are actors and actresses that are expected to attend." Nell was tapping on her tablet, controlling the slide show on the plasma as Eric delivered the commentary.

The two techs changed tasks for the more technical part of the briefing, Nell speaking and Eric working the tablet. "They provide their own brand of tequila that they import from Mexico. They substitute plastic worms in the bottle so that nothing appears wrong if ATF wants to inspect the tequila at the border. But the eyes of the plastic worms dissolve slowly and release a chemical that mixes with the tequila to form a drinkable version of botox. This mixture tends to "freeze" the muscles of their faces so they can't show any facial expressions, almost like "False Face", one of the villains on the old Batman TV show." She smiled when she said this because she just saw that episode on TV last week. She continued in a more serious tone, "It also has side effects, causing people who continually use it to become so nearsighted that they can't recognize anything beyond three feet in front of them. None of these myopic actors and actresses are being hired any more because they cannot show facial expressions nor can they see where they are going. The LA county coroner suspects that at least two people have died because of overdose."

Eric again took charge of the briefing as Nell turned off the images on the plasma. His voice was no longer that of the confident tech, becoming way more speculative. "Ah, guys, there might be an added complication to this case. Four days ago we found someone trying to hack into our computer system. The best that we were able to trace it was to somewhere in the vicinity of Guadalajara. This Cartel is the only group with the resources and motive to try and do that. We are still checking if they have tried hacking the LAPD and LA county law enforcement computers.'

"Mr. Beale, would you care to inform the team how we came by this information? Hetty asked, nodding to let him know that the team need full knowledge of the situation for the mission they would have to undertake and that she would remain there to support him. A look of fear came over Eric's face as he realized that Hetty was not making a simple request of him; it was a demand.

Eric hung his head as he began to inform all the others of his RA problems and his fear of losing his job. He listed all the medications he tried, the diets and treatments he tried, the different doctors he visited, all to no avail. After five minutes he finally got to his internet activities and the programs he embedded in them to search out suspicious activity, and why he felt it was formulated by the Tiquila Worm Cartel.

Callen was only half listening to Eric's explanation. A month ago he found out that Nell was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and they were having an event in a little over a week in connection with the Renaissance fair. He was anxious to see her dressed up as a lady of the court so he had also joined the Society, hoping to spy on her unnoticed. He suddenly realized that Hetty might send them to Mexico, and he might miss out on his carefully laid plans for this event.

As soon as Eric stopped talking, Callen looked at Hetty and almost shouted at her, "You can't seriously be thinking of sending us to Mexico, Hetty. That is not in our jurisdiction. Leave it to the Federales. We don't have a case down there."

Hetty looked at Callen and raised a finger, asking him to wait, as she answered her phone. "Yes, Director. I understand, Director. Yes, Director. Immediately, Director. It will be done." was all she said before she ended the call and folded up her cell phone.

"Mr. Callen, it is our case now. That was Director Vance on the phone. Sharon Lee and her husband, Captain Mark Lee, a Marine Hornet pilot on the carrier Nimitz, are in the hospital, both with botox poisoning. They don't expect the wife to live and her husband's chances are not good either. Director Vance has worked things out with the authorities in Guadalajara. You will be working together with them. Go home, pack your bags, you leave from LAX in an hour." Hetty's words were the last thing that he wanted to hear.

His opinion of this case continued to grow worse as he heard how sympathetic Nell was being with Eric and his problems. "My Dad had RA" she said as she and Eric were again sitting at their stations next to each other. "He was forced to quit his job as an ice fishing guide when the frigid weather no longer allowed him to bait his customer's hooks. Those little worms were hard to handle in the cold. When he no longer even wanted to reach down into the bone-chilling water to retrieve the fish and then take them off the hook, he knew it was time to hang up that job and find something where he wouldn't freeze his fingers off." Callen overheard her and knew that if they went down to Mexico, he would have to ensure that the op was completed as quickly as possible.

While their plane was in the air Nell contacted UCLA and was directed to the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine. She spoke with a Doctor Malcom Taw who was board certified in Oriental Medicine and Chinese Herbology. "Dr. Taw, I have a friend with RA who needs to find some relief for the pain and stiffening in his fingers. My father had RA and I remember that different types of tea sometimes helped him. Would you, by any chance, know of any type of tea that could help him, or could you direct me to someone who could advise me?"

"The best I can do for you is to send you to a Mr. Chung Te, a Cantonese herbalist and import/export dealer in Chinatown. His tiny shop is off the beaten path and is not always open. I suggest you call him to make an appointment and explain to him what you just told me." the doctor instructed.

"Thank you, Dr. Taw. I will do that." Nell said gratefully.

After looking up the number on her computer, Nell made a second call. She asked for Mr. Te, but the female that answered the phone told her that he spoke little English. She explained her situation to the lady, whom she supposed to be his wife, and made an appointment to meet with them later that day.

Nell went to talk with Hetty. Sticking her head in the door, she asked, "Would it be possible for me to take a couple of hours off this afternoon? There are a few errands that I need to run."

"Of course, my dear, Hetty assured her. Work it out with Mr. Beale so that one of you are here in case the team calls in and needs your help. I have to run down to the San Diego office on a different matter, so I will be gone too."

Nell had a few problems before she found the little shop, nestled in a back alley off the main street. She entered, and her nose was immediately assailed with thousands of different scents, most of them quite pleasant, but all of them competing for her attention. She fought the urge to sneeze as she looked around for Mr. Te. Seeing movement over in the corner, she made her way there and waited until the man turned around. "Mr. Te?" she asked.

"No, Mr. Te," was the answer she received. "He owner," the man continued. "I just stock boy, errand boy, delivery boy, sale boy. They say I 'Boy', but name is Sou Chen. Chung Te must go, help wife mother. How I help you?"

Nell explained that she had called earlier to set up an appointment to discuss different teas and Eric's RA problem. She asked when Mr. Te would return, trying to decide if she would wait for him or just call him later and set up another appointment.

"No need wait," the Oriental man said. He tell me you come. Said one only tea he know work, Dong Ding tea from China. He not got now, but can get. He only person in country order, and he get only for one people here in city. You order, soon here, maybe is two, three days if fly in."

"I really would want to order this," Nell assured him. "And yes, make it a rush delivery. Could you also check to see who else he orders it for? Perhaps I could go and buy some of their last order while I wait for mine to come in."

Mr. Chen went behind the counter and pulled out a box of three by five cards, stacked the opposite way that she was used to seeing them grouped. He pulled out one and checked the characters running down both sides of the card. "Customer, Henrietta Lange. She order two times each three months."

A smile slowly grew on Nell's face as she told the man she would order three times what Hetty normally ordered. She gave him all the information he needed to process her order, a little surprised at how much the price was. But then she remembered that it was an exotic blend and was being flown in, so she wrote a check to cover the amount. It would be worth it if it helped Eric even a little bit. She thanked him, shaking his hand and giving him a short bow of respect before she exited the shop and hurried back to the Mission.

Hetty was still gone when Nell arrived. Boldly she went into the woman's office and looked at her collection of exotic teas. There it was, in its own container all properly marked, Organic Dong Ding tea. Nell took some and made a cup, bringing the hot liquid to Eric up in ops.

Eric was quite startled when she tapped him on the shoulder. Then he saw the cup of tea in her hand. "Are you crazy, Nell? You know Hetty's rules about having food or drinks up here. She will kill us if she finds out, and I am already in enough hot water with her as it is."

"Shh, Eric." Nell replied. "Hetty is in San Diego for the day, so she won't find out unless you spill it all over. And besides, this isn't tea. This is medicine. Trust me and just try it."

Eric took the cup of tea, noticing how the warmth was radiating into his fingers, relaxing them and drawing the pain and stiffness from them. He took a small, tasting sip and was amazed at the flavor. Could it help him? He hoped so. Finishing the tea, he handed the cup back to Nell. She took it back downstairs and washed it in the small break kitchen and then returned to join Eric.

Hetty checked in an hour later and told the two techs that she would return the next morning. Nell turned to Eric, "Go on home and go to bed. You have been monitoring everything all day. I'll take over. You need to rest."

Eric took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and told her, "Maybe I'll just crash on the couch. Callen sleeps there often enough. I'll get a little rest and take over for you later. Come and wake me if you get tired."

Six hours later, Eric walked back into ops. "Why did you let me sleep so long, Nell?"

"You looked so peaceful, lying there. Did you sleep well?" she answered.

"Best sleep I have had in a long time." he said as he stretched his arms and fingers to the ceiling. "I can't even feel too much pain in my fingers now. What was in that Ding Dong tea you gave me?" He sat down at his computer and his fingers began to fly over the keyboard again.

Nell laughed as she corrected him, "Dong Ding, not Ding Dong." Since Hetty still had not returned, Nell went back down into her office to steal more, fully intending to replace what she had taken when her order came in. Again she served a cup to Eric because it appeared to work wonders for him. She was cleaning the cup as Hetty came in and went directly to her office, slamming the door, and shouting "Bugger!" Nell knew better than to talk with her when she was in one of these moods so she went back to work with Eric.

Hetty knew that she shouldn't have brought all of her frustrations with her to the office. Her first string team was down in Mexico where communication was minimal at best and backup was nonexistent. Captain Mark Lee and his wife had both been placed on life support. Director Vance kept calling her personal phone, wanting almost hourly updates that he could convey to the President. The situation in San Diego was going sour, and she didn't know if she had the resources or personnel that could adequately deal with it. And now, she had the feeling that something was not right here in her office. She let her eyes pan slowly across the room. There is was. One of her jars of tea was misplaced. She went over to it and, inspecting the contents, found that some was missing. She couldn't believe that anyone would steal from her. Who could have done it? She set up her own "Hetty" security camera on it to find who the thief was.

That afternoon they caught a break in the Mexican case. Callen finally checked in with some good news. "Eric, someone saw Ramón Escobar, the leader of the Tequila Gusano Cartel, going into a supposed abandoned distillery near the north edge of town. Is there anything that you can do to help us with the eye in the sky?" He then read off a series of cords for the tech.

"On it, Callen, Accessing infrared sattlelite now. Almost there. I've got it. I have sixteen, no seventeen human heat signatures there. There appears to be a big operation there."

"OK. Thanks Eric, if you and Nell can keep monitoring it, we would be grateful. You can post any updates to our phones. The way it looks right now is that the local LEOs want to hit them early tomorrow afternoon, right around siesta time, so there will be less civilian casualties. I know you can't offer us the support you usually do, but any help you could pass on would be highly appreciated by them and us."

"Will do, Callen. Anything else you need?"

"No Eric, just the updates. Thanks again."

Nothing much changed throughout the rest of the day. The two techs each went home to get some rest and a change of clothes, but one of them always stayed glued to the screen, cnstantly monitoring the situation.

When Hetty arrived in the morning, she checked her surveilence camera. She saw Nell come in and go over to her selections of tea, take some more of the Dong Ding tea and leave. _**Why?**_ she thought _**What would possess Miss Jones to do something like that? She was the last one I would have thought to steal from me. There must be some explanation. I'll wait until we wrap things up in Mexico and then get to the bottom of it.**_

The time for assault on the building was close. Eric still had infrared surveillance going, but once the fire fight began, unlike his video games that made the good guys blue and the bad guys red, he couldn't tell the difference. There was no video available, and even the audio was spotty. All they could do in ops was listen and hope things went well.

The assault went quickly. All of the chemists and distillers surrendered. A few of the Cartel members tried to shoot it out with Federal agents of the two countries. They were either wounded or dead. Finally only Ramón Escobar was left.

Sam found him hiding behind a box of chemicals near a vat of curing tequila. "Ramón Escobar! Federal Agents! Come out with your hands up. You are surrounded and there is no way out."

The Cartel kingpin got up and started to run. One of the Mexican officers shot him in the leg and he hit the box of chemicals face first with his hands up, shoving it into the vat of curing tequila, as his body followed it. He sputtered as he tried to catch his breath, swallowing a lot of the liquid as he splashed around, spreading the chemicals even further.

A Mexican officer wanted to jump in to try and help him, but Sam shouted, "Don't do it. That liquid is highly toxic." The proof of his words were immediately seen as Ramón became motionless, floating on the surface face down.

When Deeks and Kensi came in and looked at him, the detective quipped, "That's the stiffest stiff that I have ever seen."

Kensi gave him a good shot to the ribs, but then grabbed him as he almost fell into the vat himself, and yelled out, "Marty!"

"All good, Fern." he assured her.

She gave him a gentle punch in the arm, as her heart began to slow down to normal.

All that was left for the team to do is a little paperwork and then hop on the plane for the ride home. Meanwhile, back at the Mission, Eric shut down the audio feed and relinquished his control of the military infrared satellite.

Hetty looked at him and said, "Another job well done, Mr. Beale." Nell turned her head and looked with a question in her eyes at the short woman standing there. "And you, Miss Jones, a word, if you please, while we savor one of my more exotic blends of tea in my office."

Nell completely understood what she meant as she got up and followed Hetty, ready to go into the lair of the dragon and fight another battle.


End file.
