prompt - baking. A tag to 8x11, Tidings We Bring
"Christmas cookies and happy hearts, this is how the holiday starts."
Kensi feels like she's having a staring contest with the small pile of ingredients she laid out on top of the counter. She wonders just how hard she'd have to concentrate in order for her to will the cookies to make themselves. Then, her phone pings with an incoming text, and she blinks.
Picking up her phone, she sees Deeks's name and skims over his message.
Looks like our case is going to be wrapped up in time for the office party. Not sure if you're up for coming, but let me know…I can swing by and get you.
Looking back at the counter and then to her phone again, a slightly nervous smile grows on Kensi's face. For some reason, she feels better about baking cookies – or trying to – for a party, rather than admitting that she's just that bored at home.
An hour later, there is a sink full of dirty mixing bowls, measuring cups, and cookie sheets, a layer of flour, sugar, and cinnamon coating the countertop, and an egg splattered all over the floor. More importantly, there is also a tin full of Snickerdoodles – nearly perfect and quite tasty, if Kensi does say so herself – ready to go to the Mission.
Feeling pretty proud of herself, Kensi takes out her phone to text Deeks about coming to pick her up. With her finger hovering over the send button, she suddenly deletes what she wrote and decides to surprise him – along with everyone else – instead, especially because Snickerdoodles are one of his favorite cookies.
She stands in the kitchen, taking in the mess – trying to decide where to start cleaning up – when she has a better idea. Deeks will never believe that she made the cookies herself, not that she can really blame him, but a disastrous kitchen welcoming him home later tonight will be just the proof she needs. Plus, he gets mildly frustrated that she can never seem to put things away in just the right place, Kensi reasons with herself, so this plan makes sense in more ways than one.
Kensi snaps a quick picture of the packaged cookies to send to Roberta – a thank you of sorts for the recipe and the many, many unsolicited texts of encouragement and offers to video chat. Roberta's reply is almost immediate, as though she's been waiting by the phone to hear how the cookies turned out – something Kensi wouldn't put past her. After a quick exchange that end with Kensi agreeing to bake with Roberta the next time she comes to visit, Kensi grabs her keys and the cookies and heads out the door.
The first thing Kensi feels when she enters the bullpen area, with the party in full swing and everyone bustling around, is out of place. She knows things at work have been going on without her, but walking into a place that has been like a second home to her for the more than seven years and feeling like an outsider, is unexpected. In the past couple of weeks, she's only ever been here early in the morning or at night after everyone has gone home. Seeing it like this, it makes her heart ache with how badly she wants to come back to work.
After an awkward and surprising daydream makes Kensi face her own insecurities about her situation, she finds reassurance of her place in the old building with each warm welcome from her teammates. And when Deeks makes his way towards her, she can't hug him tight enough. He's been her rock through all of this and if she had known that walking into the Mission alone would shake her up so much, she probably would have taken him up on his offer to come home and get her for the party.
When the excitement of her arrival dies down and she has a minute to herself, Kensi wanders over to her desk. Trailing a finger along the top, she steps behind it and sits in her chair. It's been more than three months, which isn't quite as long as she was in Afghanistan, but somehow, it feels longer. She sits quietly, looking at her clutter that seems neater than she typically keeps it – she suspects Deeks has something to do with that, and glances around at her teammates' desks and soaks it all in. She feels at home here.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Deeks leaning against the opening to the area and she turns and offers a slight smile. His gaze is soft and understanding – Kensi doesn't doubt that he knows what's going through her mind. He walks over to stand behind her and begins to rub her shoulders.
"You okay?" The low timbre of his voice in her ear as he leans down to be heard over the chatter of the party sends a shiver down her spine.
"I miss this," Kensi admits. "A lot. Even more than I thought I did."
"It misses you too," Deeks kisses the top of her head. "We all miss you."
She's quiet for a few moments, and when she speaks again, Kensi is surprised at the certainty in her voice. "All this time, I've been thinking that I didn't want to be at work at all if I couldn't be in the field – like it would be accepting less than what I want – but being here…" she trails off and takes a deep breath. "I think helping in Ops would be better for me than being home all the time."
The idea is something that has wormed its way into her thoughts over the past couple of weeks, but she doesn't love being stuck in Ops for too long and she thought that being at work but not doing her work would be too frustrating.
Turns out, being home by herself day in and day out is a different kind of frustrating.
And isolating.
And fucking boring.
Deeks lowers himself into Callen's chair and wheels himself closer to her, taking hold of one of her hands and giving it a squeeze. "I think that would be really, really good for you."
"Yeah?"
"Absolutely," Deeks replies sincerely. Then, a mischievous smirk pulls at the corners of his mouth and he begins to laugh.
Kensi furrows her brow, "…What?"
With a chuckle, Deeks pecks her on the cheek. "You know it's time to come back to work when you, Kensi Blye, decide to bake cookies from scratch."
She rolls her eyes, but he's not completely wrong.
"So," Kensi smirks at him, "you believe me now? That I made the cookies?"
"I'll believe it when I see it, Martha."
"You can see it as soon as we get home." She winks and stands up, reaching for his hand to pull him to his feet.
Deeks looks at her skeptically. "You're going to bake more cookies tonight?"
"No," Kensi laughs lightly as Deeks looks a bit triumphant for a split second. "But I'll help you clean up the mess I made in the kitchen baking these cookies."
He falters, making Kensi chuckle. She stands up on her toes to kiss the scruff on his chin and then turns to walk away. When she gets to the edge of the bullpen, she turns to look at Deeks as slowly shakes his head and smiles at her.
"Touche."