Author's Note: Well, this is a bit of a departure for me. I've never written or posted anything outside of the Harry Potter fandom before this piece, but I've become a real fan of NCIS:LA over the last year and Season Four has inspired me to try my hand at dabbling within this fandom. Crossing my fingers that I haven't made a mess of it. Ah well, if it doesn't go well, I suppose I'll always have Hogwarts, so to speak. If all goes according to plan this should be a three-chapter piece, most of which is already completed...just tweaking some last things in the later sections. Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: If you recognize a line, I borrowed it from the show...and as much as I might wish otherwise, Kensi, Deeks, and the rest aren't mine.

Astrid – The Fifth Man

"Are you in love with your partner?"

Astrid keeps her eyes on the cards she holds tightly in her left hand, as her right drifts over to lightly tap the stack of brightly colored chips resting in front of her on the table. The woman – Kensi – had said she could ask her anything, and Astrid really wants to know if she will answer as honestly as she had promised she would. Trusting people doesn't come naturally to her, but for some reason she instinctively feels drawn to the older woman. She really wants to be able to trust her. She just doesn't expect that she'll be able to. People usually lie, after all. Even sometimes when they don't mean to. There isn't too much use in getting upset about it. That's just how life has always been – in her experience, at least. She believes it always will be.

Still…she feels that she has to know whether Kensi will be just like most people, or whether there's a chance – however small – that she'll be different. So she purposely chose a very specific question, guessing that it was not what the older woman was expecting to hear. She often finds that when people are flustered, they have the most honest reactions. Kensi's immediate response will be the best gauge of how far Astrid can really trust her. Besides, she's rather curious to know exactly how Kensi will answer for the sake of the answer itself – though she has her own calculated suspicions about what the woman will say.

All of this analysis flashes through Astrid's mind in an instant and her gaze flicks up from her own hands to Kensi's face to see how she reacts. The younger girl is mesmerized by the struggle written in Kensi's conflicted features. She looks as though she wants to speak, but can't find the words she wants. And that, Astrid thinks, is what's making her the most upset of all. Feeling something but not being able to name it.

In the end, the fact that Kensi doesn't actually answer the question pleases Astrid immensely. Either a "yes" or a "no" would have been a lie, Astrid reasons, when it's overwhelmingly clear that Kensi doesn't know her own mind on the matter. It hadn't been verbalized, but Astrid knows that there was an answer in Kensi's reaction – or non-reaction –nonetheless, and so she recognizes that Kensi has kept her promise and responded honestly. In that moment, something inside of Astrid relaxes. She knows now that whatever else happens, Kensi is someone she can trust.

G. Callen – Rude Awakenings

Callen watches his partner with a frown as the other man disappears down the beach. Sam's shoulders are slumped in a posture Callen doesn't see from his stalwart friend and teammate too often, and it is instantly a cause for concern. He can also feel the weighted stares of the two younger members of the team, and he glances back at Kensi and Deeks before looking after Sam once again. He registers Kensi's words somewhat absently and responds without looking over at the other two, choosing to keep his eyes on his partner's figure as it continues to shrink into the distance.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Working on the same task force side by side, seven days a week, months on end…" he trails off briefly before finishing his thought. "…they fell in love."

When he finally does look back at the pair beside him, they're standing near the pounding surf with stunned expressions on their faces. He can't really blame them – they've just received a lot of startling information and he's sure they are each processing it in their own way.

Yet even with part of his attention on Sam's problems, and part on the soaking wet Officer Snyder who is growling at his underlings as he struggles to walk up the beach from where Sam had tossed him into the ocean, Callen doesn't miss the way Deeks' eyes cut over to Kensi as they both attempt to take in this newly revealed part of Sam's story. Nor does he overlook the resolute set to Kensi's jaw and her total focus on not looking at her partner.

Callen shakes his head slightly to himself. Whatever is – or isn't – going on between Kensi and Deeks is a problem he'll have to pay attention to another day. Right now, his partner needs him.

Sam Hanna – Skin Deep

Sam can't keep his lips from twitching into a smirk as he watches the interaction playing out in front of him. He leans casually against one of the computer consoles in Ops, observing as Kensi is – at first – disgusted by Hetty's comment about Deeks' "sex wax." Though he keeps his outward expression as calm as possible, inwardly Sam is shaking his head bemusedly at the younger agent's confusion. Even he knows what sex wax is, and he's no surfer – and Kensi's lived in Los Angeles how long? He thinks to himself. She really should know better.

He has to fight a lot harder to hold back his laughter, however, when Kensi attempts to cover her mistake with the wax by telling her partner to "hang loose" and accompanying the sentiment with what she apparently thinks is a typical surfer's hand gesture. The only problem – which Deeks quickly corrects – is that she extends her index finger as well, when she should really use only her thumb and pinky. The symbol she's making is one Sam recognizes from helping his daughter with a homework unit on ASL not that long ago and it is so unmistakable that he finds it hard to believe that this is just another thing whose meaning Kensi is unaware of.

But, indeed, she is – or at the very least seems to be – as she trails out of Ops after Deeks a moment later without any acknowledgment of the fact that she'd just flashed her partner the ASL sign for "I love you" in front of their entire team. He scans the room quickly, finding Callen engrossed in conversation with Eric and Nell as they finish discussing some of the technical aspects of the current case. But as Sam's gaze sweeps towards the center of the perpetually-darkened space, his eyes lock with Hetty's and the mischievous twinkle he sees in his boss' expression tells him that he was not alone in witnessing Kensi's inadvertent, though likely subconsciously motivated, impromptu confession.

At that moment, he can hold back his chuckles no longer.

Assistant Director Owen Granger – The Gold Standard

He'd thought that this had been a brilliant idea when he'd first walked into the Mission that morning. Blye was an up and coming talent, and he'd thought he was seizing on the perfect opportunity to find out more about what really makes her tick and what her ambitions are now that solving the mystery of her father's death is behind her. Taking advantage of a day when her partner was occupied elsewhere in order to evaluate her further seemed like the best tactical course of action. Besides, performance reviews would be coming up soon and there was no harm in getting an early start on his assessments. Even if it would be Henrietta who would officially be conducting the evaluations when the time came, he liked to get a first-hand take on agents who he was considering fast tracking.

While he couldn't deny that her partner wasn't anywhere near as incompetent as he'd originally thought on their first meeting, Granger still wasn't sure whether or not the detective liaison was up to doing NCIS work on a regular basis. Though, he muses, Henrietta and I will soon find out more about that as well. In the meantime, I'd better focus on Blye.

He'd been convinced that she'd excel in every way without being saddled by the detective and his absolutely incessant talking. He'd been sure her concentration would be sharper, her reactions quicker, her handling of the case more sure without consistently having to spend part of her own energy on controlling and deflecting her partner. Though they'd certainly made great strides since the early days of their partnership, Granger had been sure – so sure – that their energies still weren't meshing in a truly beneficial way and that she would work better with someone else.

But now, as he observes her struggle her way through what should be a fairly casual conversation with him, he's not so sure. Granted, the environment might be throwing her off – he glances around surreptitiously, seeing the mannequin wearing nothing but pants and a bowtie with his peripheral vision and noting a display of obscenely colored feather boas as well – but somehow, he doesn't think so. She's been off her game since he first spoke with her that morning, if the comments about his "grizzled veteran" status and her rather clumsy attempts to backtrack were anything to go by.

He watches her talking with the counter clerk, informing the man that they will decidedly not be needing that hideous costume on the mannequin, and she seems more sure of herself. But still…there's something he can't quite put his finger on that's different about her. He doesn't want to think that it has anything to do with her missing partner. The notion that the unkempt, surf-addicted detective and the junior agent actually enhance each other's work rather than detract from it isn't something he wants to contemplate. Mainly because it runs completely counter to his original thesis. And yet…he's finding that it might just be the truth.

Well, Detective Deeks, Granger thinks to himself with a slight grimace, the success of your current assignment just became a good deal more important. It seems that you need to cement your place on this team once and for all – for your sake, and your partner's.

TBC...