Title: Basket Full Of Kisses

Rating: FRK
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or situations that are familiar to you.
Spoilers: Events from 'Neighbourhood Watch' are touched on.
Summary: Oneshot. Fourteen Kisses Deeks gave Kensi... and one she gave him. Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

This was meant to be posted on Valentine's Day, but things have been pretty hectic so it had to be put on hold.

Title comes from a Mad Men reference.

I did something vaguely similar (not really) with another fandom for the Twelve Days of Christmas and it was so popular, I thought I'd try it again, this time for Valentine's Day.

One. Un. Uno.

Everything starts with it.

One early February morning.

One traffic jam she narrowly avoids.

One squirrel scurrying around the perimetre of the OSP.

And one Hershey's Kiss on her desk when she comes in.

Placing her bag on her desk, Kensi stood and regarded the sugary confection with delighted bemusement. It's chocolate, ie. junk food, so she wasn't gonna complain about it's existence, but she pursed her lips to ponder the more pressing matter: what was it doing there, more importantly, who gave it to her and why? Tilting her head, she viewed the chocolate teardrop and scrutinized it with the eye of an investigator. The Kiss, wrapped in silver aluminum foil with a plume of paper protruding from the tip, was sitting centre of her desk in the only relatively clean area her desk had to offer, proudly surrounded by the knick-knacks and general disorder she calls possessions.

She couldn't have missed it if she tried.

Nor could she have miss the small halved piece of paper sitting below it, brilliantly white with a thin silver border. Moving the Kiss, she flipped open the little note and read the words printed in some crisp font.

"Do not try to bend the spoon — that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon."

Surprised and intrigued, Kensi looked around the bull pen. She was early by about 20 minutes, having nothing better to do, so Callen, Sam and Deeks had yet to arrive; Hetty was already being bombarded at her desk with questions, forms, and concerns from her staff, sipping away at her morning tea and giving everyone a moment of her time with the patience and serenity of a monk; and Eric and Nell, were up in Ops, familiarizing themselves in any case that came in before they familiarized everyone else in the matter. Her deductions of suspects helped her little.

Turning back to the Kiss and it's note, Kensi read through the line again. It's a quote from The Matrix, that much is clear, when a young boy tells a trench-coat rockin' Keanu Reeves' Neo the truth of what he believed to be his own reality.

But what does a spoon have to do with anything? She doesn't have one on her desk, and surely you don't eat Kisses with a spoon, either. Looking up, Kensi quirked an eyebrow at the kitchenette past Sam's desk.

Maybe...

Rising, she advanced on the nook. As she knew there would be, there were a few spoons in the sink, a couple in a drying rack and even one lying in an empty yogurt container. Twitching her lips contemplatively, Kensi opened the utensil drawer and, surprised, found a red Hershey's Kiss sitting in the utensil tray on top of the tablespoons, a small piece of paper lying over the handle.

Quirking a smile, she picked up the paper, and after briefly making sure she was alone, opened it.

"I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this."

Kensi chuckled at the quote, spoken by Jack Nicholson in the film adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and looked between the two Kisses and their respective notes, weighing them in each hand.

She didn't need to be an investigator to know that someone appeared to be sending her on a scavenger hunt, searching via movie quotes to find a treasured chocolate Kiss.

Fascinated, Kensi turned back to the clue at hand. In 1975, Jack Nicholson played the iconic character of Randle "Mac" McMurphy, a criminal who spends most of the film in a mental institution making life difficult for it's nurses and shrinks.

NCIS does not have nurses... but they do have shrinks.

Rattling the quote and movie plot around in her head, she decided to follow her gut and stop by the office of NCIS' resident shrink, on an inclination and the mere thought that she had no other idea what it could possibly mean.

Up the stairs, around the corner, around another corner and down the hall, Kensi stopped at a door. The door had been closed and locked since Nate disappeared to Sudan, the Middle East, Europe and the Republic of None of Your Damn Business.

Feeling around for her lock-pick, Kensi did a quick perusal of her surroundings... and found Kiss number three sitting on the top left-hand side of the door frame, it's respective note behind it. Tucking the Kiss away in her hand, she read the note.

"Daddy used to tell me I'd fight my way into this world, and I'd fight my way out."

Scrunching up her forehead, Kensi searched the deep recesses of her mind, and like a clap of thunder, Hilary Swank's roughian drawl in Million Dollar Baby rang in her ears. Maggie, played by Swank, trained day-in and day-out under the tutelage of Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, with hopes and dreams to become a famous boxer.

Deciding that the fighting mentioned in the quote was the main idea, Kensi retraced her steps down the stairs, momentarily stopping at her desk to pick up an empty coffee cup to place her Kisses in and, relieved that the guys aren't there yet, continued on her way to the gym.

There were two other agents using the mat but she bypassed them with a quick 'Hey, how are you?' and inspected the boxing gear in the equipment room as subtlety as she could, lest anyone start to question her motives; nothing between the towels, nothing hiding behind the wrist tape, and nothing (thankfully) in a pile of jock cups. Just when she thought she'd gotten the clue wrong, she noticed the red, uber comfortable gloves she always used sitting on a lower shelf, a small piece of paper sticking out of the right hand.

Inside the glove was her fourth Kiss.

And her forth riddle.

"Here's a pretty thing: Mithril. As light as a feather, and as hard as dragon-scales."

That one was obvious, even if she, Deeks, Eric and Nell hadn't done a Lord of the Rings marathon a month ago.

During the first film, Sir Ian Holme's Biblo, gives the undershirt of Dwarfish gemstones to Elijah Wood's pint sized Frodo before his quest to destroy the One Ring. The shirt quickly comes in handy when Frodo is stabbed by a troll but isn't harmed - the Mithril working as a bulletproof vest.

With that idea, she raced out of the gym, her Kisses and notes gathered in her coffee cup, and headed to the armory.

With luck no one was cleaning their guns and that the room is devoid of life, she set about her search. Skipping over the gun racks, the drawers of ammo, and the shelves of cloths and wire brushes, she zeroed in on the lower drawers full of belts, holsters, and more importantly, vests. The first drawer came up empty and Kensi shoved it closed, anticipating what she'd find in the other one.

Optimistic, she opened the drawer, and sitting on the very first vest in the pile was Kiss number five; it's note sitting beside it. With excitement building with each note and Kiss, she read it's clue.

"Dear Heavenly Spirit, thank you for providing us with the direct-port nitrous injection, four-core intercoolers, an' ball-bearing turbos, and titanium valve springs."

Kensi laughed aloud at the prayer spoken by a Johnny Strong's Leon in 2001's Fast And The Furious – the first in a series of films about street racing and organized crime.

This riddle was a little tougher. There are many aspects of the film that coincide with the life of a federal agent: the case, the criminals, the girls, the undercover cop that sort of reminded her of Deeks in an unkept, charming sort of way. Having weighed her possible options, she decided to go with her first instinct - if it's a film about cars, might as well start with her own.

Leaving the armory, Kensi quickly turned the corner, and found Hetty approaching down the hall. Grasping her coffee cup tightly to her chest, Kensi swallowed and willed her adrenaline to even out, disappointment creeping in that her search would have to be put on hold.

"Good morning, Ms. Blye."

Even with the fringes of dissatisfaction, she couldn't help a happy smile, "Good morning."

"In a fine mood, I see. Celebrating the joys of the day?"

Her day had most certainly been joyful and wasn't even 9am. "It's a... good day."

Hetty took a cursory view of Kensi's treasured coffee cup and the Fed mildly panicked. If she were asked, what would she say? Does she divulge the hunt she's been on? Does she keep it a secret? Thinking promptly, she grabbed a lifeline, "Is there a case?"

"Oh, no," Hetty clasped her hands behind her, "Just taking a leisurely walk."

Relieved, the younger woman nodded, "Gotta get those in while you can."

Hetty nodded in agreement and gave a coy smile,"Indeed. Carry on, Ms. Blye."

She did, and she was outside in no time. It's then that she checked her watch, noticing that while there were a number of minutes left til the work day began, that Callen, Sam, nor Deeks have arrived yet; Callen and Sam always quite prompt, and Deeks normally late. Plenty of time.

Giving her car a quick once-over, Kensi easily spotted a red Kiss balancing precariously on her windshield wipers, a note tucked between the wiper and the glass. Adding Kiss number six to the cup, she read.

"I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?'"

Even before she finished the line, she knew it was Dirty Harry: a Clint Eastwood classic about a sharp-shooting, smooth talking Police Inspector who hunts down San Fransisco's Scorpio Killer.

The riddle given was pretty straight forward. Harry says it in a famous monologue (along with "'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?") while challenging an unarmed man within reach of a shotgun whether he wants to risk the chance of Harry's own gun being empty or still loaded. Either way, the quote involves a gun, and conceding that she probably wouldn't be lead back to the armory, a room she had just been in, Kensi took the other option.

Swiftly, she made her way inside, and in less than twenty seconds she was at the range.

Considering it's a job requirement to not make something routine or to vary one's schedule and lifestyle as to not becoming predictable thus an easy target, she made a poor job of it and always used the same gun bay. It's there where a set of safety earphones laid, and sitting in the right muff was a Kiss, and it's note in the left.

Kiss seven joined it's siblings in her coffee cup and she read the single line of it's partner note.

"Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D."

Agent Phil Coulson's words brought a wide smile to her face as she lingered on the particular scene in Marvel's first Iron Man film, where the agent in question debriefed, then departed, a Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, informing them that his agency, the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistic Division, had finally settled on a name that was quite less than the mouthful it was.

When she was younger, Kensi had dreamed of being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., with it's big guns, fancy tech, covert black ops and secret compound (not to mention the odd superhero, space alien, or green rage monster milling about). Reading about the mysterious and enigmatic base, she marvelled (no pun intended) at what it would be like to be part of such a high tech espionage and secret military law-enforcement agency.

Turns out, dreams do sort of come true. Who needs S.H.I.E.L.D. when you have the Office of Special Projects?

Nibbling on the corner of the note, Kensi mulled over it's meaning. While the entire building served as the OSP, it's epicentre consisted of computers and tablets and screens and consoles... and a certain set of techs.

She took the stairs two at a time.

Entering through the automatic doors, Kensi froze. The room's two occupants, Eric and Nell, were at the far right analyzing something on a computer screen. Combined with the chatter on their headsets and whatever it was they were looking at, they didn't seem to notice her, or if they did, they didn't turn around when the doors slide open.

Hoping that they were too busy for her, Kensi gave a visual sweep of the room, squinting as far as she could among the cables and wires and deep recesses of the corners, all while keeping a close eye on the two techs.

Finally on the desk to her left she found her quarry and crept over as silently as possible.

Sitting directly on the 8 Key of a keyboard was Kiss eight, it's note sticking vertically out of the keypad.

Holding her breathe, she tiptoed out the door and hoped nobody saw her. Scurrying around the corner, she paused momentarily to make sure no one followed, and once sure she was alone, read the eighth quote.

"They're burning down Atlanta!"

Kensi could instantly hear Vivian Leigh's high-pitched southern drawl as sophisticated, hot-to-trot plantation daughter, Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's Gone With The Wind.

Recalling the moment in question, Scarlett had yelled the panicked line at charming Confederate

soldier Rhett Butler, as General William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta, Georgia, on his march to the sea during the American Civil War in the early 1860's.

While the movie itself wasn't as classic in her mind as it was most of critics who dubbed it a masterpiece and piece of legendary Americana, the Carol Burnett skit it inspired on The Carol Burnett Show definitely left an impression on her, with the cumbersome dresses, high updos, and outlandish southern twangs.

Giving a warm laugh, Kensi brought her attention back to the clue at hand. The quote itself was kind of vague. Unlike the other riddles, it really didn't give any indication of a person, a place, or a thing to be found in the OSP. Both the Union and Confederate Armies became defunct as the Civil War ended, Atlanta was miles away to the East, and in order to burn anything, she'd have to go to the incinerator.

Pursing her lips, Kensi shifted her eyes to the right, then left, then back. Pensive, she bit her lip.

She just might be on to something, there.

Going down the stairs and crossing the hall to Hetty's little burn room, Kensi peeked through the window, and pleased no one was there, entered.

The light smell of smoke filled the air pleasantly, but aside from a paper shredder, a table, and the incinerator, the room was as empty at is usually was when Hetty wasn't in there burning some stack of confidential papers (or perhaps evidence of some long ago late night rendezvous with the Chancellor or Brussels).

Looking around, Kensi hunted out her prey. Placed in centre of the oven rack was Kiss #9, along with it's note. Opening the door, she put the Kiss in her cup and read the next line.

"Do you mean to tell my that my children have been roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes?"

Even if the mention of Salzburg wasn't a giveaway, she still could have placed the English accent – although an Austrian character - as the iconic Christopher Plummer in The Sound Of Music. The scene in question had Christopher Plummer's irate Captain Georg von Trapp scolding his governess Fraulein Maria, played by the equally iconic Julie Andrews, about the antics of his children and the clothing they were in, formerly the drapery of her bedroom.

She smiled fondly at the WWII set film, remembering the dancing, the music, the unbearably moving true love story between a closed off and strict Navy Captain and a trouble-making though free-spirited governess who thought herself a good nun.

Unfortunately, the good vibes given from the movie failed to clarify the clue. Very little – or perhaps too much - came to mind. World War II. Austria. Nazis. Drapes. Seven children. Musicals. Dances. Songs. Nuns. Captains.

Suddenly, a light came on. Captains! Being NCIS, they've come across plenty of Servicemen in their work, and have had the task of donning a pair of silver bars or four gold stripes once or twice.

Feeling like she was on to something, Kensi made her way to Wardrobe. As luck would have it, the coast is clear, and as if to confirm her suspicion, on a table littered with ties and caps and shoelaces and other clothing accessories, sat right-side up as per regulations, a black Naval cover.

Picking up the cover, she was thrilled to find that underneath it was her 10th Kiss and note.

"Twinkle twinkle little bat, how I wonder where you're at. Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky."

Kensi gave a soft chuckle as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. It'd been a while since she watched Disney's animated classic Alice in Wonderland, but she could still picture a little dopey mouse speaking the quiet words.

The mouse had been used to orchestra an impromptu and seemingly quite common rendition of 'A Very Merry Unbirthday' by the Mad Hatter and the March Hare to dear, sweet Alice. Once the song was concluded, the mouse fell from the sky in a poof of firework smoke and gently sailed it's way into a teapot with the poem on it's lips.

A smile formed on Kensi's face as she thought about their own little Mad Hatter (or was she the March Hare?). Like the duo's tabletop of teapots and cups and saucers and a few desserts, Hetty's little nook was filled with the same Fine China, and rare, handcrafted dinnerware from some European or Middle Eastern apothecary or Himalayan Sherpa.

She never was a tea drinker, but if Hetty handed you a cup, by God you drank it.

Deciding that through process was worth a try, Kensi exited the Wardrobe Dept. and within a few paces, was rummaging around Hetty's sanctum of tea leaves. Her first guess was the tea tray that sat on a shelf behind the Ops Manager's desk, but came up short when she saw steam rising from the teapot meaning Hetty was somewhere nearby. If she were caught, she had no idea how she'd explain herself, but if she were quick enough, none would be the wiser.

Quickly, she peeked in the teacup in the centre of the tray and, low and behold, proudly sat Kiss 11, it's note poking out from between the cup and saucer. Popping the Kiss in her cup, she snuck a glance around her to insure she was alone and read the next clue.

"Remember, you are the dreamer, you build this world."

Kensi forehead wrinkled. It'd be a tougher one for someone who wasn't familiar with the plot of the movie, but Christopher Nolan's Inception came to mind. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and a slew of other A list talent make up the ensemble about a ragtag crew of gifted architects, thieves, cons and scientists building and altering dreams to extract information.

It was a weird movie. Awesome, but a little weird. It took her a second watch to fully understand it, but the concept was brilliant and incredibly done.

Her once-upon-a-time Jack Dawson, DiCaprio, now playing architect Dominic Cobb, assembles a team of extractors to implant ideas into a person's subconscious while they sleep, all while dealing with the torment of his own dreams and nightmares of his late wife, who accidentally killed herself in real life when she thought they were dreaming and now sabotages the missions with her own memory projections.

Trippy.

Thinking back to the clue in her hand, Kensi pondered it's meaning. A dreamer who builds. In order to build, you must dream. In order to dream, you must first sleep.

Had she been Callen, anywhere could be a viable option because while he doesn't sleep, she'd caught him catnapping a few times when all those nights of sleeplessness catch up with him: a five minuter in his chair, a quick snooze on the couch, a brief two minutes at his desks. She'd hardly ever seen him go upstairs to-

Upstairs!

Dashing away, Kensi double-timed it up the stairs, down the hall, a left, a right, a left, a left, another right, around the corner, down the hall, and stopped at a dark green painted door. Quietly she opened it and closed it behind her. Inside the Bunk Room were eight sets of twin bunk beds used as a sleeping barracks for agents working overtime, or those who need a quick recharge between cases without having to go home.

She'd found herself here a number of times, always taking the lower bunk right in the back corner, where it is quiet, dark, and solitary. Two agents were using a couple of the beds she passed, but thankfully, no one was using hers.

Stopping at the bunk, she smiled. Perched happily the pillow was her 12th Kiss and note. Depositing the Kiss, she squinted into the low light to read her next riddle.

"Hey Slider... you stink."

Kensi scrunched up her nose. She knew the quote well enough. Back in the 80's, Tom Cruise's Maverick had quipped the remark to his fellow pilot, Slider, coupled with a sniff of derision. It was usual behaviour for the cocky boys of Top Gun, elite fighter pilots vying for the position of the Top Gun, the US Navy's most skilled fighter pilot.

Setting the scene for herself, Kensi recalled Maverick, Slider and the other pilots sitting in a classroom learning about aerial maneuvers. Maverick had been trying to make a date with the instructor, Kelly McGillis' Charlie Blackwood, when she shot Mav's advances down like a Russian Mig. Slider, depicting the dead bogey with a model airplane nosediving at Charlie's disinterest had asked if he crashed and burned, to which Maverick had retorted back the line in question.

Pursing her lips, Kensi canted her head to the side. Nothing of the scenario spoke of any situation she'd been in, nor of any place she could easily think of. She'd already been to Wardrobe where she might have found a flight suit or a uniform, there were no airplanes readily available at the OSP for use, there wasn't even any bar where she could breakout an impromptu 'Lost That Loving Feeling' (not that she would).

At a loss, she flipped the card over in her hands at least a dozen times, running through scenarios and plausible, doubtful, and sometimes outlandish options: nobody was hitting on her, she wasn't in class, there were no model airplanes in the entire facility and she most certainly didn't 'stink'.

She tilted her head again, interest piqued. If one stinks they use showers.

With no other options coming to her, she snuck out of the room , rounded a few corners and entered the woman's locker room.

Standing at the door, Kensi swept a critical eye over the room. A mirror with five sinks was on one side, steam rose from one of the five stalls lining the other side, a row of lockers was against the far wall, and a long bench sat in the middle. The bay of sinks were spotless, the bench, except for one occupants clothing, was bare, the lockers were all closed, and aside from the one stall all other showers were unoccupied.

Moving around the room, Kensi eyed the soap dispensers, the paper towel holders, the air dryer, even the tampon dispenser. Nothing on the floor under the bench, nothing hidden in the light fixtures, and nothing stuck behind the hot water taps. To the other side of the room she went and gave a quick search of the empty stalls.

Finally in the far stall she found her quarry. She should have known. As with her favourite gun bay or her habitual bed, she should have guessed her prey would be in the stall she most frequented. (How whoever it was knew this wasn't something she considered thinking about.)

Kiss #13 was found hanging by it's little strip of paper off the shower head, note taped to the bottom of the Kiss. Placing the Kiss in her cup, she read her clue.

"There's no place like home."

Kensi shook her head. Well, that one was obvious. She was pretty sure everyone on the planet knew about Dorothy's little trip down the yellow brick road in The Wizard Of Oz.

Dorothy, a native of rural Kansas, gets swept up in a tornado and magically finds herself dancing, singing, and making friends in the land of Oz. Along with a lion looking for courage, a scarecrow wishing for a brain, a tin man longing for a heart, and faithful dog Toto, Dorothy travels for miles, defeating the Wicked Witch of the West on the way to meeting the Great and Powerful Oz, to find her way back home.

Sometimes when the day is tough, Kensi occasionally wished she could just click her heels and vanish into a world of obscurity... then again, as an undercover, she could always change her shoes, switch ID's and make an instant transformation without hitching a ride on the nearest funnel cloud.

Thinking of the card in hand, Kensi rattled the quote around. Nothing came to mind for good reason: the scenarios, the people, the songs, the setting, the plot are nothing remotely similar to anything in her life. She had plenty of courage (albeit a little reckless at times), her brain worked fine (although clearly at the moment it wasn't), she already had a heart (even if it was a little too guarded), and her little dog was more of her partner's dog than hers. She had meet a number of women who could be considered Wicked Witches, but until a case came around, they were all defeated, her Lollipop Guild of small but happy people consisted of Hetty and Nell, and she was not looking for a way home. She had one...

Instantly, the energy was zapped out of her. Dorothy spoke the quote and tapped her heels because her task was done and the quest her group had be on in Oz had been completed. The lion had found his courage facing the terrors along the journey, the scarecrow had used his ingenuity and common sense to mount the obstacles in their way, and the Tin Man had found himself caring about the people he now called friends.

They had achieved what they set out to do. It was now time to go home.

Deflated, Kensi heard the occupant in the other stall turn the water off. Exiting the showers swiftly, she retraced her steps around the mansion and cradled her coffee cup of 13 Hershey's Kisses and their little notes.

It was only now that she had them and nothing else to occupy her thoughts that the reason why these turn of events, and who set up her hunt, began to infiltrate her mind.

At last check, Callen, Sam where not here. And even if they were, the two would never send her out on a search for chocolate. They make fun of her sweet-tooth, but both did little to encourage it; Sam for reasons of health, Callen for reasons of indifference to her temptations. As long as she doesn't ditch important Ops for a Convenience Store run, he's got nothing to complain about.

Hetty, too, was out of the question. Not only did she already run into their Ops Manager between Kiss five and six and made no indication that she knew about the hunt, but she was also not the type. Yes, she'd dote on her people for birthdays or anniversaries or Christmas, or to just purely celebrate a successful Op, she would never send them running the wild blue yonder to look for chocolate stashed around the building. She didn't even do that for Easter.

Eric and Nell, maybe, for the usual brand of fun mischief they get into, but they'd never done it before, why now? And knowing them, they'd probably use some sort of binary algorithm or encryption code impossible to decipher instead of pop culture references.

It was horrible, it was childish, it was definitely not something she'd ever be willing to admit, but the idea that Deeks might have set up this little scheme was, admittedly, the first person that came to mind.

He knew about her weakness for anything unhealthy, often making fun of it and encouraging it. There were many times where she'd been hungry or moody and he'd take the first right at a drive thru, or make a quite run to a vending machine to appease her. Due to him always having some sort of food on hand, she was pretty sure he had a facsimile of a 'Kensi Drawer' in his desk full of snacks in case of emergencies. There was no proof, but it crossed her mind a few times.

A girly part of her that didn't come out often, very much liked the idea of Deeks going through this effort and doing something so thoughtful and special and...

The mature, realistic agent she was squashed that thought almost instantly. For one, Deeks car wasn't there when she went out to the parking lot at Kiss #6, and even if he had of taken transit or a taxi and walked the rest, his stuff would have been on his desk. It wasn't.

And truth be told, Deeks had no motive. Yes, they apparently had a quote/unquote "thing", but other than to give her a sugar high, would he have randomly littered chocolate Kisses all over the place just for her to find for no reason at all?

The small voice hoping 'Yes' was clubbed to death with a resounding 'No'.

It wasn't possible, why bothering hoping that it was?

But if it wasn't Deeks, than who was it and why?

It was a question she couldn't answer. She could think and scrutinize and analyze everyone in the entire department and she still would not have a definite answer. She could ask around, but unless someone admitted to the pleasant surprise, she'd be left in the dark. But still, someone had gone through the effort to make her morning amazing. It was the most fun a morning had been in a long time and she had got 13 tasty treats out of it. And plus, there is nothing wrong with having a secret admirer.

With that thought, she followed her own yellow brick road, which is more of a ochre tiled hallway, back to the bullpen with a smile.

To her surprise, Deeks was leaning lazily against her desk, his usual crooked smile on his lips.

"Mornin', Sunshine."

"Good morning," she replied, taking note of the eye he was giving her coffee cup as she placed it on her desk.

"What's in the cup?" The small part that was long ago upset when he forgot what she had been wearing the day they met was disappointed. There goes that theory. Might as well tell him. Maybe he'll be jealous.

"Kisses."

"'Scuse me?" Deeks' brow creased. "Like Mad Men 'basket full of kisses'?"

Kensi gave him a haughty look, "No. Like chocolate Kisses."

She was a bit pleased when his frown deepened, "Who?"

"I don't know but it's sweet."

As if given some sort of permission, the bothered expression on Deeks face quickly turned into a smirk, "How many?" He asked, like the amount could somehow be calculated into the affections of the mysterious donor as if to say too few meant a passing fancy and too many meant stalker with obsessive issues that she better be weary of.

"I don't know why it's any business of yours," Kensi narrowed her eyes at the strange question, "But 13. Seven silver, six red."

"Uh huh." Deeks nodded, thoughtfully, running a hand over his jaw. "You'd figure it'd be 14."

Kensi's head canted to the left, "Why 14?"

"Today is February 14th."

Kensi's mouth fell open, stunned. She had completely forgotten. With no one to buy for or dine with, today was just going to be an average, everyday Thursday. If she was lucky, her evening was going to consist of something she found in the freezer, whatever was on TV, and maybe a book.

Looking down at the cup of Kisses, Kensi thought of something to say when she noticed Deeks' hand in front of her.

In his palm sat Kiss #14.

Deeks' smile was confident and his eyes warm with affection, "Happy Valentine's Day."

It she had been stunned seconds before, she was now floored. Gobsmacked. Astounded. Dumbfounded.

But he wasn't here... his car wasn't in the parking lot... his bag wasn't... he wouldn't...

Kensi felt herself flush as she took the Kiss, her thumb brushing over the palm of his hand. No doubt she was as red as the Kiss' aluminum foil; she was sure of it. If she was, he made no comment and gave her a lazy smile as he turned towards his desk.

It was completely spur of the moment – in a sincere 'thank you' and not anything else, she'd tell herself later - when she rushed around her desk, turned him around and kissed him, right in the middle of the bullpen.

As with the one other time they kissed as Justin and Melissa, Deeks didn't move, and as with the first time, he hardly had any time to react, either. It was just as short, just as foreign, and just as then, not enough.

But this time it was Kensi and Deeks. And that somehow made it different.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Deeks."

Author's Note: Wow. This was 87 times longer than I thought it'd be. ~ 1 zillion points to Gryffindor if you knew all the quotes without me mentioning what movie they came from. I tried to use quotes from more mainstream movies. ~ A few notes: 1) Sound of Music: For those who are a bit confused about the silver bars or gold stripes of a Captain, there are two captain ranks: the silver bars indicate a Junior Officer for the Army/Air Force while gold stripes are for a Senior Officer in the Navy. A captain in the Navy is a much higher rank than a captain in the other branches. 2) The bunk room, while not canon, is something I'd think the OSP would have, given police stations and fire halls have sleeping areas and that the agents seem to be on call 24-7. The showers are also not canon, but the same remains, they'd have them. 3) Some of these movies I've never seen, so some plot details might be off. Especially in Gone With The Wind. I really had no idea what it was about. 4) It ends a little abruptly but the plot bunny ran away before I could end it decently. 5) Hope you enjoyed it :)