A/N: I just had to do my own, so sue me. :)


When she falls asleep—and with Deeks breathing soft and sleepy in her ear, it doesn't take long—Kensi dreams that they are walking through a warehouse. She feels a gun in her hand, and she braces herself to see an enemy around the next corner, but when she looks down she sees that it's a handheld barcode scanner. Confusion sets in, until she looks up again and realizes they're in a huge housewares store. Deeks is just behind her with a scanner in his hand too. A thought occurs to Kensi, and she slowly brings her left hand up to eye-level; sure enough, there is a sparkly diamond on her left ring finger.

Heart in her throat, she notices a piece of paper in the same hand. It's a picture of Deeks's masculine pink cat pillow. The shelves they are passing now are overflowing with pillows—every colour, every shape, but no pompoms or cat pictures. She turns back to Deeks to make a comment and sees he's holding a kitten in his hands.

"How about this, Kens? It can be our baby," the last word only mouthed as her hearing goes. She feels like she's going to faint, but instead she opens her bleary eyes to the cool light of dawn filling Deeks's living room.

Before she moves, she takes stock: Her neck is sore from sleeping on the couch, but Deeks's forehead is pressing on her shoulder and one of his hands is tightly gripping hers. Her heart immediately heads back up to her throat, for real this time. She can't bear to move, but she knows the sun will be all the way up soon and she has to work today. So she closes her eyes and counts to ten, memorizing the feeling of his body close to hers and hoping the memory won't have to keep for long.

Then she extracts herself, gently gently, turning as she does to see his face. She can't help but raise her hand and brush strands of hair out of his face, even if she doesn't dare touch his skin. For another count of ten she watches him in his peace, so deep and far away, and she breathes deeply.

Then she stands, briskly (but quietly) finding a piece of paper and a pen. She writes,

Deeks,

I left for work at 6:30am. (Thursday.) Hope you sleep well.

Kx

P.S. Tell Monty Kensi says "Woof."

She places the paper in the hand that was holding hers, and looks at her own hand for a second before shaking her head and leaving as quietly as possible, locking the door behind her with the key she has for emergencies only.

The day passes quickly and she doesn't worry—really she doesn't—as it passes noon and two pm. When the sun starts to set, she starts checking her phone more often, but you wouldn't catch her doing it.

At 6pm, almost on the dot, she gets a text:

Slept for 18 hours. Feel like superman.

She can't help it, her face betrays her and grins like she's five years old and it's her birthday. She bites down on her lip and types back, Want dinner?

There's a long pause and she taps her phone on her free hand, anxious, before closing her eyes and picturing his sleeping face again. (That's a normal thing partners—no, she can't even lie to herself by this point.)

STARVING comes in, then a few seconds later, I'll pick up Monty and walk him around the block. Race you.

She grins again, drops her head and shakes it, then heads out the door.

Baby steps, Blye. Baby steps.