Title: Jigsaw
By: Jessica
Pairing: Kensi/Deeks
Rating: T
Timeline: Post 3x03, Backstopped.
Summary: Sometimes the pieces just fit.

A/N: Don't ask. It's 5AM.

He finds her hidden away in a secluded corner on the upper level, away from the bustle of the main floor. It's not that he was looking for her…not quite, anyway. It's more that he doesn't need to look for her, but somehow he always finds her. There's some questionable remark about magnets and compasses and true north there, but Deeks knows that's not a comment he'd ever allow to see the light of day – he can perfectly hear the cheeky quips his partner would lob quickly back at him.

A small smile at his lips, for a moment he simply lingers in the doorway, just watching her. His partner. The words bring about a slight streak of possessive pride within him, something he'd never ever let Kensi see because then he might not see the light of the next day. Regardless, he's nothing less than ecstatic that Hunter's little partner-swap game is over because he knows there's no way he could work case after case without Kensi by his side.

Hunter giving him a parking space was nice.

But taking away his partner?

Unforgivable.

With that, he slips quietly into the slightly darkened room, carefully invading the quiet hideaway she's found. "So do I officially get to call you 'partner' again?" he asks, making his presence known (though he's certain Kensi knew he was there the entire time).

She smiles softly. "I don't know," she replies, casually turning to face him as he approaches her. "Planning on taking out many more runners with your face?"

Kensi looks pretty pleased with herself and Deeks rolls his eyes, giving a derisive chuckle. "Sam told you."

"Yup."

"I told him not to."

"That's why he did." She smiles brightly.

"Figures." He crosses his arms, allowing a cheeky smile to form upon his own lips. "That's okay, though, 'cause I know for a fact just how much you missed me. Because Callen told me that."

Kensi snorts. "Right."

Deeks surrenders. "Okay. Fine. He didn't. But that's just because I figured it out for myself." He smirks.

Lifting her shoulders in a shrug, Kensi purses her lips thoughtfully for a moment before relenting…just a bit. "You know what? You're right," she says, her dark eyes sparkling playfully. "I missed you…buying us doughnuts during cases."

Deeks does his best to look terribly wounded. "Really? That all I am to you, a means to your junk food addiction?"

Kensi shrugs, a playful yet clearly false apology clear in her eyes. "You asked if I missed you. I'm just being honest."

"Uh-huh." Exhaling deeply, he glances around the small, almost empty alcove in which she's chosen to lurk. Even for Kensi, it's an odd choice, not one of her usual quiet places. "So what are you doing up here by yourself?" He grins. "Hiding from me?"

She scoffs. "Of course not. If I was hiding from you, you wouldn't find me, obviously."

"Right," he deadpans. "Except I was the hide-and-seek champ back in third grade, yeah? No one can hide from me."

"You know, that actually explains a lot," Kensi replies, as if some great revelation has just been made clear. You never left third grade, did you?"

"Hilarious." He watches amusedly as Kensi gloats for a moment before stepping closer to her, his eyes automatically scanning over her, pausing at her arm. "That was a pretty nasty scrape, wasn't it?" he asks simply, knowing that underneath the bandage that covers it, her skin is likely bruised and still slightly bloodied from the explosion, and even though she technically wasn't his partner this time, he still can't drive back the sting of slight guilt for allowing her to be hurt.

He can't help it; she may not need it, but watching out for her now comes just as naturally as breathing.

Reflexively she lifts her arm, gingerly touching her fingers to the bandage. It hurts; stings like hell, if she's honest, but only slightly does she flinch. She hopes the lighting is too low for Deeks to notice that. Instead, she offers a slight smile and a self-deprecating shake of her head. "I'm fine…" His eyes flicker and she can hear his reply before it ever finds his lips. "Don't," she says with a quiet chuckle.

He shakes his head, grinning. "I wasn't."

"You were."

"Well, I'm just saying, maybe if you wouldn't go to 'I'm fine' for everything…"

"You'd rather I whine every time I get a hangnail or when the sun burns my eyes?"

"Someone sat on my sunglasses, okay?" He narrows his eyes, attempting to glare, but with Kensi grinning back at him (and not at all even pretending to look apologetic) it's all but impossible. He lifts a hand, gesturing wildly at his eyes. "And I have delicate eyes, I can't just go buy a cheap pair from a street vendor," he retorts.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should have thought about that before you left them just laying in the passenger seat," Kensi shoots back, offering a shrug almost as an afterthought. "Just saying."

"No. You're just…you're vindictive, Agent Blye," Deeks teases, a low, rumbling chuckle in his voice. "You're vindictive, and – and Sam? Yeah, he wouldn't sit on my sunglasses."

At that, Kensi can't help but laugh aloud. "Right. Obviously you haven't spent quite enough time with your new partner yet."

Deeks shakes his head. "You're probably gonna run off and tell him this…or text him right in front of me," he says, watching the smirk dance along Kensi's lips. "But I…I think I've spent enough time alone in a car with him to last the rest of my life." He pauses, crosses his arms as he offers a teasing wink. "Give me your driving over his any day."

Kensi snickers with him, feeling considerably lighter than she has during the course of this entire case and, not for the first time, she finds herself lingering not just on this effect Deeks seems to have on her, but that it's something no one else seems to do to her. Being partnered with Callen, even for a single case, had felt almost like being partnered with a complete stranger. Even making allowances for his current state of frustration, the whole arrangement had just felt…off. It's the only way she can explain it, really.

As her thoughts drift, the smirk at her lips becomes more of a wistful smile, a shift that Deeks quickly picks up on. "Kens?"

She shakes her head, ponders not answering for a moment. And then even as the words slip from her lips, Kensi's not entirely sure why she's elaborating. "This…this is what I missed," she says quietly, answering the question – no, playfully arrogant statement, really – he'd posited before. "It was…weird working with Callen. There was just…there was none of this." Her words failing her, she gestures slightly between the two of them, nibbling thoughtfully at her lip. "And I don't really…get it, I guess."

Deeks could interject that he's got a certain charm that Callen is clearly missing, but sensing the shift in the air around them, he doesn't. Instead he steps in toward her, closing the slight gap between them. "Makes sense," he replies quietly, shrugging slightly. "You suddenly get stuck with someone you're not used to being partnered with, and it can upset everything." He shrugs again. "Been there."

Before he finishes, Kensi's shaking her head. "It's not so much that…at least, I don't think." She sighs, her dark eyes trained somewhere past Deeks on the far wall. "I mean, two years ago, I was…I had no problem working with Callen. We were good. We meshed when we needed to. And Sam, too. I was, uh, kind of the odd one out there for a little while, so I was always working with them. It's not like it's anything new to me. And it was fun, too. I enjoyed it."

He senses the undercurrent; knows exactly what she's beginning to chip away at because it's where he found himself today as well. "But today…"

She swallows, and for a moment he's not sure whether or not she'll take his prompt. After a moment, though, she does. "Today…it just didn't seem like Callen." Kensi hesitates, shakes her head after a moment. "No, that's not it. It did seem like Callen. It just didn't seem like the same Callen I'd been partnered with before. He seemed like a completely different person, and we…we just didn't click, you know?"

She looks to him then, her dark eyes locking with his crystal blue ones, and it takes every bit of resolve she has not to shiver beneath the intensity of his gaze. "It was too…quiet. And I," Again she hesitates, knowing Deeks could very well use this confession against her in the future, but in the end she gives it anyway. "I didn't like it."

He says nothing, and Kensi averts her gaze only briefly, clearing her throat as she decides whether or not to continue. Suddenly, she's feeling almost as if those deep blue eyes of his are seeing right through her, privy to every little secret she wants to keep hidden as well as all the things she wants to say but has trouble finding the words. She's almost certain she's never been quite this open with him before, which strikes her as mildly ironic given that she'd tried to persuade Callen to open up to her just hours before.

Remembering, she chuckles slightly, shaking her head in disbelief. "I was so unnerved by it that I, uh, I actually tried to get him to talk to me," she admits, wondering just how she'd missed before just how much of a silly idea that was. "You know, open up."

At that, Deeks can't help but snicker. "You?"

Kensi rolls her eyes, more at herself than at Deeks' reaction, but all the same she playfully shoves at his shoulder. "It seemed like a good idea at the time; I don't know," she relents, surprisingly grateful for his teasing comment. Right place at the right time; if anything describes Deeks, that's it, she thinks. Knows when she needs him to listen; knows when he needs to break the tension, and for that she's incredibly thankful…even if it does mean he can read her a little better than she's usually comfortable with. "I was desperate. And then of course he turned it around on me."

"Which went nowhere."

Kensi bites at her lip. "About as far as my attempt."

"And the silence continued."

"Yeah." She nods. "I guess that's it – you can't be partners without communicating, you know? It just…I don't know." Shaking her head, Kensi gives a heavy sigh. "It wasn't…"

Deeks completes the puzzle she's unable to finish. "It wasn't right."

Her brow furrows slightly as the words settle upon her. She can't deny it – of course she's reluctant to admit to herself that that's exactly what it is, even though somewhere deep within, she knows beyond a shadow of doubt. But to Kensi, knowing something, and conceding to that something are two vastly different things, and it's no secret just which one of them is slightly more acceptable than the other.

Eventually, she nods weakly, drawing a smile from him in return. His eyes never straying from hers, he shifts closer to her, doing away with most of the empty space left between them. "Sometimes…something works okay for awhile. And then, you find something that actually does feel right. And what worked before will never work again."

This time, she can't stop it – she trembles. He's reading her mind, finding the words she's unable to string together. "Kinda philosophical there, Deeks. You – you speak from experience?"

He gives a low, throaty chuckle, flicking his tongue over his lips. "Two years ago," he begins quietly, using the same beginning she'd used, "I couldn't work with anyone." Deeks pauses, reconsiders. "Well. Actually, it was them. Rest of the LAPD, I mean - they just swore they couldn't work with me. That's why I worked most of my undercovers on my own. Come to think of it, I was on my own long before that." His lips quirk in a slight grin. "I guess I'm complicated. Thing is, though," he continues, serious once more, "you and me…this is the longest partnership I've ever been in, and..."

He trails off, glancing quickly to the ground. "Sometimes the pieces just fit, and no matter how hard you try, you can't take them apart."

Kensi shakes her head. "I don't follow…"

Deeks shrugs. "Well, let's just say it's a good thing Sam didn't get himself into any sticky situations because I would have been nothing to him. Today, yesterday, any day, really."

The intensity in his eyes steals her breath and Kensi's not entirely sure how she's still standing at this point. "What –"

He interrupts, his voice nothing more than a whisper despite the echo with which it reverberates in Kensi's ears. "Last time I was stuck with him, I couldn't think of anything but you. And today…I still couldn't think of anything but you."

"Deeks…"

Electricity crackles to life between them, filling the minute space between them and one look into those ocean eyes of his tells her with absolute certainty that he's feeling it too. They're both feeling it; they're both aware that there's no way to stop it, because the only way to stop it is to back away, and they simply can't. She can't move; he won't move, though Kensi kind of wishes he would because every time she draws in a breath, his masculine scent steals a little more of her grasp on sanity.

She knows what's going to happen long before his gaze flits to her lips. She knows what's going to happen long before her stomach erupts with thousands of butterflies; knows what's going to happen long before they actually – finally – touch, long before the words that carry more meaning than perhaps anything she's ever said before leave her lips on a careful whisper, barely audible over the pounding of her own heart. "I – I don't know that I would have trusted Callen to have my back today…"

"But me?" he breathes, leaning in.

All Kensi can manage is a nod. Beyond that, she can perceive nothing but his closeness, his scent, the muscles of his chest beneath her palms – when had her hands found his chest? She can't say, and she can't move, and not even the alarms ringing loudly in her head can motivate her to do anything but close her eyes as he leans in, breathing her name.

He's millimeters away when she manages a weak, "Stop…"

"Why?"

The warmth of his breath electrifies her skin; despite herself, it weakens her resolve, crushes all her reasons to push him away, her reasons to fight, all of her damn good reasons to do anything other than lean into him and allow his lips to find hers because with her heart pounding and her thoughts racing, somehow that becomes the only thing that seems to make sense to her. When she finds her voice, it sounds nothing like her; it's shaky, breathy, and above all else, lacking completely in conviction because damn it, she has none any longer. "Partners…"

"Nuh-uh," he breathes, and though her eyes have fluttered closed, Kensi can tell just from his voice that his trademark smirk is in place. "You didn't say yes when I asked if I could call you that again…"

Something about loopholes or implications or maybe something else entirely is dancing just on the tip of her tongue, but it never has the chance to meet the air because before she can even draw in a breath, his fingers are tangled in her hair and his mouth is on hers and though she could feel it coming, could sense that this was going to end like this, she can't stop the tiny whimper of surprise that's muffled against his lips. And then she's kissing him back – it's the only thing she can do.

It's not gentle, but then again that's hardly surprising – there's rarely anything between them that isn't bursting to the brim with intensity and this is no exception. She's truly done an admirable job ignoring the spark between them, pretending it doesn't exist, masking jealousy with amusement and annoyance at times, but suddenly, it's no longer just a spark. It's no longer something she can just turn a blind eye to and act as if it's not there because now…now it's a full-blown fire, an explosion of pent-up desire and lust and maybe even other feelings that Kensi Blye is not supposed to feel, so in defiance of that she focuses on the lust and the desire and the want, and oh dear God she knows she's in trouble when the shiver races down her spine, carrying with it the realization that fills every fiber of her being – she wants him.

And then she's clutching at him, her fists balled in the material of his shirt as her lips give and take just as freely as his, mouths locked in a passionate battle for dominance that neither is quite willing to surrender, but that's the very nature of them and why they work so well together, why they fit so well together, why this kiss bypassed soft and hesitant altogether and plunged immediately into hunger and fervor and desperation. And even though it feels so very sudden, they both know that this is what's been building for a year now. Neither of them have been ignorant of the attraction; both of them knew it was only a matter of time.

The nature of sparks, after all.

He parts from her for but a second for oxygen but she doesn't let him go far; refuses to let him go even though her own lungs are beginning to burn and the dizziness can't be blamed solely on passion. Her lips find his just as fervently as before, if not much more so and when she tugs lightly at his lower lip with her teeth, the growl he gives in response turns her knees to jelly. And when her back hits the wall, she can't stop the little moan of delight that slips from her lips because damn, this feels so good and she thinks that, given the opportunity, she could just kiss him forever.

It's his palms splaying over her taut stomach, beneath the fabric of her own top, that finally draws her back to reality. But damn does she fight it, because his mouth meeting hers over and over again in messy, frantic kisses, his hands on her, his body against hers…there is nothing about this that she wants to stop but even in her dizzied state of something like intoxication, Kensi's forced to realize that while she wants to stop nothing, she needs to stop everything.

This can't happen.

It can't.

She finally finds the will to tear her lips away from his, but one low, rumbly murmur of her name – "Kens…" – is just about enough to break her again. Slowly she releases her trembling hands from their grasp in his shirt before closing her fingers gently around his wrists. She tugs gently, guiding his touch away from her skin and trying desperately not to react to the void left behind. And suddenly it's agonizing, the silence. Silence between them, cacophony surrounding them - she's deafened by the littlest noises; the pounding of her heart, the rush of blood in her ears, the labored cadence of her breaths, the ticking of a distant clock. She's not sure how long it is before that particular spell is broken; all she knows is that she can't be the first to speak. She doesn't trust herself to speak.

She wishes Deeks didn't trust himself to speak either, because when he does, his words pierce her like a knife.

"This didn't happen, did it?"

And she can't meet his eyes. This man, her partner, the one she's just confessed basically to needing as her partner...she can't face him. Can't face him because the taste of him still lingers on her lips and damn it, he's her partner. Her partner.

The words she speaks after another eternity of silence stun even her; she has no idea which part of her still misfiring brain would have ever okayed them to leave her lips.

"Maybe it did."

With that, she forces what she hopes is a coy smile and playfully pats his shoulder, as if that simple touch could ever possibly be just platonic again; as if it doesn't send a spark down her arm and throughout her entire body. Outwardly she manages to steady herself (inside, she's still little more than a quivering mess) and with one last risky look into those gorgeous blue eyes of his, she forces herself to walk away, not stopping until she's at the doorway and able to pretend that everything is fine. It's her best skill, after all. "Tomorrow, partner?" she calls back to him, adding extra emphasis on the title.

It takes a moment for his confused mind to process. "Partner?"

She smiles, her own brain working quickly, seeking out the most efficient way to make this all okay. And she finds it, by utilizing the same loophole he'd found before he'd kissed her - at the time, they hadn't officially declared themselves partners again. "I can officially call you that again now, right?"

It clicks for him about minute after she disappears through the doorway, and Deeks finds himself grinning despite his lingering confusion. That, after all, is the nature of them.

Their partnership is a complicated puzzle, all right.

Doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes.

But in the end, somehow, the pieces always fit.