"What do you like most about your partner?" Nell asked, reading from the gossip-mag quiz on her lap.
Kensi sat in thought for a moment. There were many things about Deeks that she liked, so picking one was going to be difficult. She could spout the usual list; he was funny, a good listener, someone she could trust. All those things were true but they only scratched the surface. Everyone should be trustworthy, she thought, especially those in law enforcement, so really that one didn't count. She could give one of his physical attributes, like his blue eyes or shaggy blond hair or the way he was strong without being beefy, but even those weren't enough.
She glanced down and saw the bruise around her wrist. The injury would have been worse if Deeks had not been there, but as was his nature he had appeared around the corner just in time. Prying the suspect she'd been fighting off her back and tackling him to the ground, he had looked up and saw her cradling her wrist. Concern filling his gaze, he hadn't even bothered to ask if she was okay and instead retaliated on the suspect by smacking his face into the ground. She supposed she should have chastised him for that, but the truth was that she appreciated his protection, so she merely looked away, pretending she had seen nothing.
Looking across the room at his desk, which was empty for the moment since he'd gone upstairs to talk to Eric, she saw the photo collage he kept on display to the right of his laptop. The spaces around the edges were filled with pictures of the team - Sam and his wife, Michelle, sharing a sweet kiss in front of the Mission took the space in the upper left, while Callen and Hetty toasting one another at the Christmas party had been placed in the upper right; in the lower left space was Deeks himself with Kensi after one of their many Ops, and Nell and Eric filled the last corner, wearing Goofy shirts with Mickey Mouse ears on their heads and making silly faces at the camera - but it was the photo in the middle that she stared at the longest. It was of Deeks and his mutt Monty at the dog park, taken in a candid moment after Monty had finally run himself out. Deeks' arms were looped around the dog's neck and Monty's tongue was frozen against Deeks' face in mid-lick; that wide beaming smile was back on the detective's face, his eyes squinted shut as he was coated in slobber. Anyone who looked at the picture could see the bond shared by man and beast, and Kensi realized then that she had her answer.
"His heart," she replied, her eyes lifting to the balcony where the subject of their conversation now stood with his arms leaning on the railing, Eric mirroring his stance perfectly. Smiling, she caught his gaze, and though he continued to talk his lips slowly turned up in the corners. "He's not afraid of it, of giving it to anyone he feels worthy. Especially animals."
"Or kids," Nell put in, recalling Deeks' treatment of the few children they'd come into contact with recently, and Kensi nodded.
As Nell marked down the answer in her magazine, Kensi realized something else. She was one of those Deeks had given his heart to - he had told her as much before she'd gone to Afghanistan - and though she felt less than worthy still he let her hold it, for as long as she could. Her eyes filling with tears, Kensi looked up at the ceiling and blinked them away.
It was hard work, holding that huge heart in her hands and trying not to break it, but she decided that it was worth it.