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Deeks walked into his house and leaned back against the closed door with a sigh. He ran his hand through his hair as he surveyed the front room. He thought last time he had left the house in a hurry- hastily deciding to leave his dirty dishes on the table. But the table was clean now.
"No. No. No!" and then "MOM?" He yelled but got no response. He ran halfway up the stairs and yelled again but still got no response. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Kensi's brown and orange woven placemats and a ceramic cornucopia decorated the table. At least he had labeled Kensi's holiday decoration boxes so there was still a possibility that his Mom hadn't dug through ALL of Kensi's stuff. He could hope. And never ever, under pain of death, tell Kensi.
He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. He was going to sleep well tonight. He couldn't wait to feel his mattress cradle his body as he slept for ten, no twelve hours.
"Stinky," he thought as he caught a whiff of his armpits, but went into the kitchen to find some dinner before heading upstairs to the shower.
"What?" he said aloud as he opened the refrigerator door. One by one he pulled out covered dishes. Opening them up he found cookies, brownies, what looked like his mom's lasagna, Kensi's mom's chicken enchilada casserole, what might have one point been a potato salad, and a few other things that needed to go into the trash. He ate a chocolate chip cookie while digging through the produce drawer for a few fruits and veggies to throw in the blender. Scrounging for food at the hospital made him crave healthy food.
While sipping his smoothie from the blender pitcher, he looked at the food spread out on the counter. With his foot he opened the drawer with all their disposable plastic containers. Too late, he noticed the smoothie had splattered on the front of his shirt and onto the floor. Where was Monty when you needed him? He thought, missing his faithful friend.
After cleaning out the blender pitcher, he pulled the disposable containers out and then opened the drawer with their copious stash of assorted sporks and napkins that came with their takeout orders. "We're going to need them one day," Kensi always insisted. "Don't throw them away."
"You mean one day when you decide you don't want to empty the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and the stack of dishes in the sink is ready to topple over?" Deeks smiled as he remembered his retort and the subsequent food fight it had caused. Fortunately Monty had been there to help clean up. He really needed to get over to visit Monty.
Checking his watch, he thought eight hours of sleep was really all he needed anyway. He heated and then boxed up the food, adding a cookie or brownie to each, and loaded up a dozen Whole Food and Ralph's paper bags with the bounty. Some bottles of water would be perfect too, he thought, retrieving them from the pantry and adding them to the bags.
"Artie's going to spread some Thanksgiving cheer a little early," he said to himself with a hearty Artie laugh as he added sporks and napkins to each bag.
He brought the food out to his truck and grabbed his Artie overcoat and hat from where he had stashed it in the garage. After one whiff, he threw the coat and hat in the back of the truck.
About a block away from the house, Deeks startled a couple out walking their dog by yelling "Fraggle Rock!" out his open window. He had just realized he still had Kensi's engagement ring in his pocket. "Sorry!" he yelled as he decided he didn't need to turn around. The ring would be safe in his pocket.
Deeks had handed out several bags of food to random homeless people he ran into down by the beach with little fanfare. If he were honest with himself, he enjoyed the rants of homeless Artie.
Then he came upon a young woman with two children. She drew her children close to her as he approached. With his Artie homeless man charm, he knelt down and started opening up the food containers and tentatively handing them to the mom for her approval. As the mom took a few bites and then handed the food to the children, he noticed a book sitting on the ground next to the young boy.
Deeks picked it up and started reading, "Are You My Mother?" The kids squealed with delight at the sound effects he added to the story and demanded that he read it a second time. The second time, to their amazement, he read it to them in Spanish.
As he was reading he saw two shadowy figures cross in front of the alley and then double back. He continued reading as he scanned the alley. He gestured to the mother, who was also alerted to the movement. She grabbed the preteen girl by the arm and pushed her behind her. The girl knelt down and disappeared under her mother's long jacket. Deeks scooted over, positioning himself in front of the young boy. He took the knife from Artie's inside jacket and handed it to the mother.
"Give us the girl!" A man suddenly demanded. He raised a metal pipe over them threateningly. A second man stood behind with a baseball bat.
Deeks stood up, staggering slightly, arms raised. "Whoa, whoa. Wasss going on here?" He had just realized he had left his gun in his truck.
As the men approached and ripped the girl from her mother's arms, Deeks spied their accomplices at the end of the alley. Without his gun, he only had one way of defending the girl.
"Let me buy her back from you," Artie suggested, hands in the air and weaving a little bit.
"You ain't got no money," the ringleader said, laughing. He pushed the girl towards the waiting men at the end of the alley.
"I got DIAMONDS!" Artie yelled, "DIAMONDS! NOT JUST ONE DIAMONDS- I GOT TWO DIAMONDS!" Deeks pulled the ring out of his jeans pocket and hoped this wasn't the last time he got to hold it.
The men approached Deeks again. He wanted to give the girl the sign to run but one of the men was holding her by the arm. He had to hope they would take the ring.
"This here is the best friends' engagement ring," Artie said, stumbling towards the men who held the girl. "See- it has two diamonds, not just one. I'll give it to you if you let the girl go."
One of the men pulled out his cell phone and shone its light on the diamond. The two men seemed impressed and one reached for the ring.
"Occifer," Deeks slurred, looking and lurching towards the opposite end of the alley as he clumsily dropped the ring. The men bolted without looking to see that there was in fact no police officer in sight. But there was one on his speed dial so Deeks pulled out his cell phone as he followed the men. As he rounded the corner he found the girl on the ground. "Tell your mother to stay here. I'll have someone here soon to help you find a safe place to stay tonight."
Deeks breathed a sigh of relief as the men were taken into custody. Time for a shower and to finally get some sleep.
Hetty tucked him in on the mission's more comfortable couch with a soft blanket that she had brought in to prevent her agents from using her historic tapestries as blankets.
"What does Kensi need?" Hetty asked before she left him to his sleep.
"A reformer would be nice."
"Good idea! I'll call Nate. He's our reformer."
"Oh, no, I meant a Pilates reformer. For exercising. It would help Kensi build up her strength."
"I'll see what I can do. But I'll also be calling Nate. If nothing else I need to find out exactly what he's been up to the past six months or so. He's been rather cagey," Hetty looked pensive as she patted Deeks on the head and left the building for the night.
Deeks lay on the couch with his hands behind his head and a smile on his face. He missed the volunteer work he used to do with the homeless and it felt good to get out there and help them again. In a way it seemed very simplistic compared to what he faced at NCIS most days. He set the alarm on his phone to wake him up in plenty of time to appear to be the first person to work. He was going to enjoy the five hours of sleep he would get. His last thought was of Kensi, wondering how she spent her night without him. Hopefully it didn't involve her new friend Sullivan.