Author's Note: I'm really surprised that nobody else has jumped on this scene in Neighborhood Watch where Deeks brings up the idea of having kids with Kensi. Am I the only one who thought there was some sincerity behind his teasing?

"What did you mean by that?"

Deeks looked at his partner in surprise. "What did I mean by what? I haven't said a word."

"What you said back at the house," Kensi continued.

He furrowed an eyebrow at her lack of real explanation. "Can you be a little more specific? I recall saying a lot of things at several houses…"

"At the cover house in the suburbs. When you said you could 'help with that' if I ever decide I want kids."

Oh…that. His moment of weakness days ago in which he'd essentially offered to father her future children as she sat on the couch holding a bag of frozen peas to her bruised shoulder.

"Were you being serious?" she now wanted to know. "Or were you just being…you?"

Damn that kid and his slingshot. If he hadn't shattered the window and spooked two gun-carrying partners, Deeks and Kensi would have finished this particular topic long ago and it hopefully wouldn't be coming back now to bite him in the ass.

"I was…being serious," he answered tentatively, as if he was unsure that that was the right answer to give. No, it was the right answer to give — he just didn't know if it was the one she wanted to hear.

"Oh," Kensi responded with a lilt in her tone, apparently having expected a different reply and at a loss for words with the one she got.

Deeks, too, was quite uncomfortable at the moment. Yes, he'd twice before referred to Kensi's potential offspring as 'mutant assassins'…and no, neither one of those times had he imagined any guy but himself contributing the other half of their DNA.

'They would be fighting for the side of justice, naturally,' he'd said to her on the first occasion. Of course they would, having a cop and a federal agent as parents.

On the second occurrence, he'd managed to say, 'I am the husband, which means I have parts of my body that are able to—' And then that damned broken window interrupted the rest of his sentence.

But he'd used her name at the time — her real one, not her cover's name. 'Kensi Blye going all soft on me?'

And calling himself the 'husband'…that had just been playfulness on his part because of their cover as a married couple. But the implication behind what he'd said (and what he never got the chance to say)…that was genuine.

"Why do you ask?" Deeks now countered with a question. If they were going to talk about it, they might as well really talk about it.

But Kensi backpedaled. "Just…curious."

He looked at her, unconvinced. "That's all? You're just curious?"

"No," she admitted quietly, looking down for a second before glancing back up at him. "It was a nice offer."

"It was a nice offer," Deeks agreed lightly. It was an offer he didn't give to just anybody.

She looked back at him a long moment before speaking again. "Maybe I'll take you up on it someday."

A smile pricked at the corners of his lips as he regarded her softly. "Well…don't wait too long to cash it in."