Just before Christmas, as she had told her daughter, Julia Feldman left for a cruise with her friends. A part of her wanted Kensi to kick up a stink, and say she wanted her mother home for Christmas as she hadn't been home last year. However Julia knew her daughter and knew that would never happen.
She also found out not long before she left, that Kensi was going away on a skiing trip with her work partner and best friend Marty Deeks and his dog Monty. She hoped that, they would finally work out whatever the hell was going on between them. She liked her daughter's best friend; he was someone who bought out the Kensi she had known her daughter to be as a child before it all went awry with her father.
She had enjoyed the cruise greatly; it was nice to get away from all the hustle and bustle that was Los Angeles over the holidays. However now she was just looking forward to seeing her daughter again, and sleeping in her own bed. Not that the suit she had been in wasn't comfortable, it had been. But there was no place like home. She turned her cell phone back on as the cruise ship came back into port. After powering up, she received, a few work emails that could wait, some text messages from friends wishing her a merry Christmas and a happy new year. There were also a couple of text messages from Kensi, a few photos Marty had taken on their ski trip, one of Kensi, looking less than impressed with the amount of snow that had been clearly dumped on her somehow, and one of her and Marty's dog Monty. No sooner had she closed the photo, her phone started ringing, it was Kensi.
"How exactly did you know what time to call?" Julia asked, answering her cell phone, she could hear her daughter laughing.
"You're too predictable, I checked what time you were meant to arrive in port, and I know you, two weeks without your phone it was going to be the first thing you did." Julia had to give her daughter that. Kensi knew her pretty well, and seeing how long they hadn't been in each other's lives it was pretty impressive.
"What do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
"Well I wanted to know if you would like to come over for dinner. Deeks will be here, something about showing everyone he can, all the photos he took. I swear he didn't put the damn camera down for a second. Anyway, I thought seeing as it's your first night back, that you may not have anything at home that you can cook, I also didn't think you'd want to come home and worry about finding dinner." After agreeing, and thanking her daughter for thinking of her. Julia agreed to a time before hanging up. It was almost time for her to disembark, so she would go find her friends and wish them farewell. As much as she loved them, after two weeks she needed a break.
Kensi smiled from her seat on the counter, of her now for once clean kitchen. Since they had gotten back from Mammoth, and found that Deeks' apartment building plumbing had burst, thankfully nowhere near his apartment. He would been staying with her as his place would be without water for the first couple of weeks of the new year, while the land lord had the buildings plumbing fixed.
The first thing Deeks had done was clean up her kitchen and buy some real food. It had amazed Kensi at first that she never knew this side to him, that he liked to cook, and that he was really good at it.
"So, mum said she'd come, I'll text her later, to not to worry about eating first. She'll think we're eating junk food. My question to you is, what are we having?" Deeks looked over at her and smiled.
"Well, for starters, we have crumbed deep fried mushrooms with the hummus dip I bought, that you will try, trust me kens you will like it. I know you and I know your taste buds. Then I'm doing my mum's Sheppard's pie, and lastly because my girl has a sweet tooth cookies and cream cheese cake, that I bought today and have hidden from you" Kensi glared at Deeks who laughed and lent over to kiss the tip of her nose.
"You try the hummus when your mum gets here and I will let you have the biggest slice ok. But first, go put Monty somewhere, bathroom or laundry. I don't think your mother wants, him jumping all over her." Kensi nodded and slid off the counter. She walked out to her lounge room to find the mutt in question sitting on the end of her couch watching TV.
"Come on, Monty you're way to excitable for my mum." She said as she ushered the dog into her, laundry room. Once she closed the door she could hear him, moping on the other side.
"Sorry, Monty you can come out when she's gone." Walking back into the kitchen she stopped in the door way, and bit her lip. Why had it taken them so damn long to realise that sure things would change but, honestly they had been for the better, at work Callen and Sam didn't care, Hetty knew because Hetty knows everything. She said as long as they didn't let it interfere with their work, she saw no problem with it. Honestly Kensi could have sworn she heard, Hetty mutter, took you both bloody long enough.
She stood there admitting the view she currently had, Deeks in relaxed fit jeans that fit him perfectly and hugged all the right places. His sweater sat just on his hips, giving her a perfect view. Biting her lip, Kensi padded over and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"You know I don't think there is anything hotter than a sexy man in jeans that fit perfectly" she said before kissing him behind the ear.
"Kens, we've been over this your timing for come ons has got to improve, unless you want your mother, finding out like Eric and Nell did. And I thought you had this one all planed out." He said turning around and kissing the top of her head. His hands were covered in bread crumbs from the mushrooms he had been covering.
"Hey you're the one who choose what to wear; I'm just simply admiring it. Can I help it if you're hot?" Deeks laughed and shook his head.
"Let me finish this, take a beer, go watch one of your trashy reality shows you have on your DVR and I'll be there soon. Ok," Kensi nodded and lent up to kiss him before walking over to the fridge.
"You're way to sexy in that sweater if you ask me Kens so stop distracting me, or we will end up revealing it to your mum like we did with Eric and Nell." Kensi laughed as he winked at her before going back to what he was doing.
Settling down on her sofa Kensi grabbed her remote and found an episode of top model she had yet to watch and sat back, in most homes it would be the other way round. But neither she nor Deeks were interested in food poisoning.
Julia dropped most of her things off in her room, she couldn't be bothered to unpack right now, she'd do it later or tomorrow when she was better rested. Right now she wanted a shower, one where she didn't have to worry if the hot water was going to run out because of the thousands of other people on the ship. She wanted was to take her time, then after getting dressed, head over to her daughters place for dinner, she would probably have to stop for something on the way, her daughter loved take out, although with Kensi's body you'd never know it. She'd gotten the fast metabolism from her father.
45 minutes later Julia walked out of her room, dressed, and finally not smelling like a cruise ship. She picked up her phone and saw a text from her daughter.
Deeks cooking don't eat beforehand.
Love you Kensi xoxoxo
Well that was something new she didn't know her daughters best friend could cook, she was hoping they finally admitted to the feelings that she was sure everyone who knew and met them, saw between the two. It would make life a lot easier for all of them. But who was she kidding her daughter, had walls so high around her heart, it would take a miracle to get through them. Marty had gotten the closest, and Julia guessed that was as close as anyone would get. The only person to get all the way in was Donald and now that he was gone. Kensi had built up walls to keep anyone else out.
Finally ready Julia grabbed her car keys, the gifts she had for Kensi and an apple from the kitchen, she didn't know how well Marty could cook and she at least wanted to eat something on the way home if it wasn't great. She would be polite, and eat some but having the apple in her car would starve off her stomach until she could find someplace else to eat.
The drive from her place to Kensi's wasn't far, they lived a lot closer together than first thought it only took her twenty minutes. Thirty five with traffic, tonight however it only took her the regular, twenty minutes. Pulling into her daughters street she saw two cars in the drive way. Marty had clearly been here a while, maybe she wouldn't need the apple after all.
Kensi looked out the window and saw her mother's car driving down the street. Looking over her shoulder she smiled, Deeks was dancing around her kitchen cleaning up after the mess he had made. The Sheppard's pie would be ready in about 45 minutes, which gave them enough time to sit down and catch up while nibbling, before actually sitting down to eat.
"She's here, almost driving down the street, are you sure you want to show her the video," she asked walking over to him, Deeks grabbed her hand and danced them around the kitchen for a second before stopping.
"Don't get cold feet on me now Kensalina we decided shock value right?" Kensi nodded and rested her head on his shoulder as they swayed to the music playing from her stereo only pulling apart when her mother knocked on the front door. Looking up at Deeks, Kensi smiled as he yet again winked at her before sending her over to answer the door.
Julia smiled as her daughter opened the door, the small apartment that her daughter lived in smelt lovely, and for once didn't look like bomb had gone off as she stepped inside. She saw Marty fixing something in the kitchen before walking out with a tray in his hands.
"Marty"
"Julia, how was your trip?" Julia smiled ever since she had met him; he had always made sure that she was comfortable no matter where they were. Walking in and past her daughter who closed the front door, Julia took a seat on the couch, she noticed that a long forgotten episode of top model was playing, clearly he had kicked her daughter out of the kitchen, and that was probably for the best.
After shedding her coat and handing it to her daughter who hung it near the door. She smiled politely as she was handed a glass of wine. It hadn't past her that neither her daughter nor Marty commented on the fact that some of his things were clearly laying around her daughters apartment.
There was a rather awkward silence that fell over the three of them as both Deeks and Kensi sat down. Normally, well now normally Kensi would have slid into Deeks' side and lent into him, but they were keeping it cool around her mum or at least trying to. It wasn't till just then that she realised how stupid they must have looked to everyone else, denying their feelings for so long. Deeks was the first to make a sound he cleared his throat and lent forward grabbing one of his crumbed mushrooms and dipping it in hummus before popping it in his mouth.
"I don't think you told us how your trip was. So did you do anything exciting?" He asked having to stop himself from resting his arm across the back of the couch. Man this was harder than it looked playing it cool.
"Oh sorry, I enjoyed it greatly, so much food, so much to see and do. Not that you wouldn't expect that from a cruise ship. But I don't think there was a day that I didn't actually have something planed, loosely or otherwise. How about the two of you, did you enjoy Mammoth?" Julia had noticed the tension in the air from the moment she had sat down, clearly something had happened, and she wasn't sure what it was, she had a feeling that it was what she had been waiting for, her daughter to tell her that she had finally gotten over the stubborn streak that she had gotten from her father and had made a move, any move toward the man sitting next to her who was fidgeting something bad.
"It was fun, I remembered more than I expected to. Deeks fell a few more times than he expected to I think, but it was well worth the trip, wasn't it?" Kensi asked looking over at Deeks, who nodded.
"Yeah, I caught a few videos, we can look at them now if you like, or wait till after dinner, but that is going to be half an hour way. It's just in the oven now." Julia nodded she wouldn't mind seeing what they got up to; she had left her camera back at her house or she would offer to do the same thing, anything to get rid of the awkward tension. She watched as Marty got up and fiddled with something at her daughters tv. Before walking back to his place and sitting down. She turned back toward the tv to see a black screen come up. If she hadn't, have turned to look at the TV just then, she would have noticed that her daughter had moved closer to her best friend, nothing obvious but enough that their legs were touching.
From the black screen, a hillside full of snow appeared, and then came the unmistakeable voice of one Marty Deeks five seconds later a white ball flew past the camera.
"Oh is that the game you want to play? Well princess two can play at that game. The camera was placed down on what looked like a railing, before Deeks came out from behind it. Picking up some snow and throwing it, Kensi's shriek could be heard just before she came into view, snow covered her Parker.
"Oh you're in for it now Shaggy" the snow ball fight continued between the two of them for a couple of minutes before Deeks started chasing her. As she came closer to the camera, Deeks caught her around the middle and spun her around.
What came next had Julia's jaw sitting promptly on the floor. On screen her daughter turned around and kissed her capture, till his hands were loosely sitting on her hips. Before she pushed him over and started running away again.
"That's just playing dirty Fern you're in for it now. As Deeks got up and knocked the camera over the screen went back to black.
Kensi looked over at her mother, and then to Deeks who was also wondering what she was going to say. Sometime within the video Kensi had moved to sit next to him with his hand over her shoulder and their hands linked together. Together they waited a couple of minutes before Kensi leant over and tapped her mother on the shoulder.
"Mum?" She asked, Julia turned to look at her daughter who now looked more relaxed than she had, when she arrived. The same went for the young man behind her.
"When did -
"Before we left for Mammoth after you left. We went ice skating with Sam and his family" said Kensi, sitting back Julia nodded. In all the ways she had thought that they would finally admit to their feelings this was not what she had, had in mind, to be honest she thought it would have been over a few drinks.
"Technically, if you want the full story it was before Kens went...away, when she came back we were kind of stuck and not sure where to go. We both suck at communicating. But we met some people this year, who put things into perspective for us. It was Kensi who started the conversation, I made the first-
"Excuse me; I took your hand, just like it is now. Just because you cut me off by kissing me does not mean you made the first move." Said Kensi before she elbowed Deeks in the ribs, all he did was laugh and kiss her head.
"If you remember I kissed you first, when you said say something you actually mean. But I will give you that. From this all in conversation yes you were bold and took the first step, I just went one step further." Julia laughed, well now she knew why there had been nervous tension in the room when she had first walked in, they hadn't wanted to give anything away. But now that the cat was out of the bag, they seemed to be acting like their normal selves, constantly bickering. It didn't seem all that different really, to when she had invited Marty to do something with herself and Kensi, the only difference now was that her daughter tended to gravitate towards him rather than away.
They sat there, nibbling on the crumbed mushrooms that, Deeks had made, talking freely and openly about their respective trips, Julia had given Kensi the gifts she had bought her. One funnily enough was a photo frame, that would Julia had gotten but. Wasn't sure Kensi would use. Now however it would probably contain a picture of the two of them. The timer on the oven went off and alerted them to the delicious smelling dinner away them, they moved from the sofa to the kitchen table, Deeks dished up his mothers Sheppard's Pie, hoping that both Kensi and Julia would like it, before taking the three plates over to the table. They sat in comfortable silence eating until Julia thought of something.
"How will this go with your work?" She asked, Deeks, smirked, it was something that had played on their minds a lot, and was probably why they hadn't done anything sooner, it had been an excuse to not face their thing, as they had called it more out of fear that they would get hurt or, hurt the other.
"Hetty our boss has already said that if we can keep it out of work she doesn't have a problem with it. I'm sure Granger will have something to say when he comes back though." Kensi groaned she hadn't thought about that. Resting her head on Deeks shoulder she knew sooner rather than later they would have to deal with Granger and it wasn't something she was looking forward to. Once she looked over at her mother she explained that Granger was a little bit of a hard ass and not someone the team got along with very well. He was also assistant director. Julia could understand that, she had bosses and people at work that she couldn't stand; no matter how nice she was to them it just never seemed to be good enough.
"Well I hope it all works out for you" the couple in front of her nodded, and the night continued. As they made their way from dinner to desert, as promised, Deeks gave Kensi the biggest piece of cheesecake. Julia had to laugh, he certainly knew the way to her daughter's heart, although being her partner, and best friend for five years probably helped him out a lot more than he would ever probably realise. As they moved from the kitchen table back to the couch, each with a cup of coffee in hand, Julia decided to ask the one question that had been bugging her since she walked in the door after they had sat down. Coffees on the table in front of them where normally two pairs of feet would reside; with Kensi curled up beside Deeks, with Julia sitting beside them she took deep breath.
"Are you two living together already?" She asked Deeks looked at Kensi who laughed.
"Not exactly; you see we got back from Mammoth to find out that the newly renovated apartment on the ground floor of my complex, screwed up the plumbing not only for them but the whole building. So I'm out of a house for at least a month while they get it fixed" Julia nodded it all made sense now. Of course Kensi would put him up, even more so now that they were dating. Looking at the time, Julia knew she should get going, soon the events of the day would catch up with her, and she wanted to be able to sleep in her own bed tonight, not to mention the fact that she didn't want to put her daughter and Marty out of a bed if she fell asleep here.
"As much as I would love to stay, I know if I stay longer I might want to fall asleep. So I'm going to head out now. But I want you both to know just how thrilled I am that you finally admitted to each other how you felt. I know Kensi doesn't know this, however when she was about four or five, her father and I were watching her play with a couple of kids on the base we were living on. There was one kid that always used to make her laugh and bring her out of her comfort zone, he as about a year older than her so he always looked out for her as well at school pretty much anywhere. Anyway my point is, is that Donald said, on this one particular day that he wanted his little girl to end up with someone like that kid. From the moment I met you Marty you have reminded me of him; and I'm sure if he were here today Don would agree with me. You bring the best out in my daughter and you make her see things she would quite often miss. So thank you for sticking around." Deeks nodded as Kensi leant and hugged her mum, a single tear rolling down her cheek at the story she had never heard before. Julia kissed the top of her daughters head, before both of them got up. Kensi walked her mother to the front door and stood there watching as she made her way over to her car.
Deeks came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
They waved as Julia turned around.
"I think it goes without saying that if you hurt my daughter Marty, I will find someone to hurt you." Deeks nodded
"I think Sam and Callen have you covered there. But I understand and I wouldn't dream of it. Your daughter is my world, Julia I'd rather die than hurt her." Nodding Julia got in her car and within seconds had driven off.
Walking back inside, Deeks turned up the music that that been playing throughout the night ever so softly.
"Care to finish our dance princess?" He asked Kensi nodded and wrapped her arms around him as they swayed to the music. It wasn't till they heard a bark that they remembered, Monty.
"To be continued" Deeks muttered as he walked over to the laundry and let the shaggy old dog out. Monty was none too impressed about being kept there all night and as soon as the door opened bolted out, almost knocking Deeks over.
"You're welcome, geez if you didn't attack people with kisses so much you wouldn't be put in there" said Deeks as he walked back over to Kensi.
"Now where were we?" He asked wrapping his arms around her, he took what Julia had said to heart about Kensi's dad liking him; he really hopped he would have. Because he knew just how important Donald Blye was to his daughter, she loved him so much and so fiercely that she had almost been killed for it. Not that anyone would have ever had the chance, Deeks wouldn't let anything happen to his Kensalina. He was the selfish type, he didn't want her joining her father till she was old a grey, then and only then would he accept that. Anything before that and there would be hell to pay.
"What's on your mind?" Kensi asked playing with the hair on the back of his head and bringing Deeks back to the real world.
"Just what your mother said. I really do hope I would have lived up to your dads standards" Kensi smiled and bought his head down to kiss him.
"You make me happy, you keep me safe, and you treat me well he would have loved you...just maybe not your hair, shaggy"
"Hey styled by pillow thank you very much" Kensi threw back her head and laughed.
"Yeah ok whatever helps you sleep at night. Now turn that music off, we've a couple of Top Model episodes to watch." Deeks laughed and did as he was told before snuggling up on the couch with Kensi wrapped up in his arms.
"So are you happy with how your mum found out?" He asked before she hit play.
"Yeah, give her a couple of days and she'll be bugging us about when we're officially moving in together and all the things mums tend to do." Deeks laughed somehow he doubted that but he could be wrong he had been before, and he probably would be again not that he would ever admit that. For now he was just happy that his girl, his Kensalina was happy that was the main thing.