Title: Fears Resolved
Chapter 1: Tomorrow Partner
Rating: T for language
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS LA or the characters
Summary: This is an add-on scene to 5x22.
Tomorrow Partner
"This is weird," Deeks comments as he glances over to where Granger is ordering a round of beers at the bar. "Why do you think he wants to hang out with us?"
"I don't know. Just because I spent four months with him doesn't mean I know his every thought and feeling," Kensi replies sounding a bit annoyed. She sounds annoyed because she is annoyed. With Granger there she feels like she has to be careful about what she does and says. She wants to just hang out with Deeks and be able to talk freely, and maybe even find out a little more about why he is backpedaling with their thing.
"I think he knows we have a… you know…"
Oh god, Kensi thinks, he really has taken a step back if he can't even call it, their thing. "Yeah, I think he knows too. I also think Hetty knows, and Callen, and Sam, and Eric, and Nell, and I really don't give a damn. It's none of their damn business." She is so tired of everyone and everything getting in the way of their thing.
"Are you mad at me or Het…?" He has to abort mid-question as Granger arrives back at the table.
They talk work, baseball, and upcoming plans around LA. Their beers disappear quickly once they begin struggling to come up with discussion topics. Granger offers to buy the second round and heads back to the bar.
"Text Nell and Eric and tell them to get their asses over here," Kensi instructs before making her way to the restroom. She needs reinforcements. It's way too awkward with just Granger, Deeks, and herself.
Kensi returns from the restroom and doesn't think anything of placing one hand on Deeks's knee and one on the table as she scoots onto the stool at the high table they occupy at the bar.
"Ah hem," Deeks clears his throat, glancing down to where her hand lingers wondering if she knows what she is doing to him today.
Kensi does know what she is doing and she is enjoying it. Amused by how flustered he got about the kiss on the cheek earlier, she slowly walks her fingers up his thigh. "Maybe I am just showing my appreciation to the man who saved my life today." She knows what she wants now. She also knows that Deeks is freaked out about their thing now. While she will be patient just as he was with her, she is not above using her assets and charms to get him back on board with their thing. She also doesn't mind making him as frustrated as he's making her.
"Okay," he chuckles as he grabs her devilish, slim fingers and slides off his stool to help Granger at the bar with their second round of beers. He gently releases her hand back into her own lap as he moves past her murmuring in her ear, "I'm curious to see what happens after the second beer."
She flashes him a smile and raises her eyebrows as she quips, "Lucky for you we have a chaperone."
As Deeks helps Granger with the beers he silently agrees that it is a good thing they are not alone tonight. His heart and body want Kensi desperately, but his head is still having a hard time with how to make this work.
Nell and Eric leave them high and dry, so Kensi and Deeks make excuses about being tired and call it a night after two drinks.
"You good to drive?" Deeks teases walking Kensi to her car.
"Haha, sure tease the girl whose only drink in the last 5 months was the glass of wine after the last case."
"Should we talk about Afghanistan?" Deeks asks since she has brought it up in a roundabout way. He has a feeling that even though she is doing well, Kensi still has to work through some of the things that happened in Afghanistan.
"I don't know, should we?" she counters, knowing that something happened while she was there, or while they were both there that has made him fearful of going forward with their thing.
His silence tells her he isn't ready. And the truth is that as much as she wants to, she isn't sure she is ready to hash it all out either. "It's okay," she tells him sincerely. "I really am tired."
He opens her car door for her. "Tomorrow partner," he says in a shorthand way that he'll see her tomorrow as he leans against the open door while she slides in. Not only is he saying that he'll see her tomorrow, but that maybe tomorrow, or sometime soon, they'll start delving into the conversations that will lead them to begin resolving the fears that are standing in the way of their thing.
"Tomorrow," she replies, content with the hope she hears in his voice and the hope she feels in her heart.
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