The sun had risen hours ago and was shining upon our bare heads while we quietly walked side by side through the streets of Santa Monica and enjoyed the first sunbeams of that lambent warm day. He held my hand softly, like it was a fragile piece of paper he was not supposed to crumple. I could feel his heartbeat as my fingers travelled from his palm until his wrist, where his blue veins pumped to the fast pace of his heart. Our feet moved at the same time, even though he had longer legs than mine and, as we approached a small coffee shop, he slowed down.

The strong scent of freshly brewed coffee surrounded us like a cloud and subconsciously let us inside the little place. I breathed in deeply as the smell filled my lungs. I noticed his finger pointing at a black board where white chalk lines spelled "The second latte is free on Tuesdays".

"Lucky us." I said.

I turned to my right, where I found Deeks attached to me by my hand. Our eyes shared a look and I was reminded of the most well spent nights of my life. His fingers no longer felt different to me, I was already familiarized with his touch through my skin. After a few seconds into admiring his baby blues, Deeks' hand slid across my face and his lips pressed a little kiss to my own.

My eyelids were still shut when he started walking to the counter. I loved him so much that sometimes I felt lost, almost drowning in my own thoughts and memories of him. I was not supposed to admit it, but what I enjoyed the most was the fact that he never ever let go of my hand.

"Chocolate muffin?" He asked me.

"Hm" I groaned, "you do know me."

Deeks smiled and I looked around as I heard him order a couple of lattes. There were very few people there, but it was such a miniscule place that it felt crowded. A man with a lightly bearded face sat across the table, looking at this little girl (who I assumed was his daughter) as she swallowed tiny bites of a ham sandwich. Even though it was way too soon to start thinking about a further future, I couldn't stop myself from imagining what it would be like if Deeks and I weren't alone at the house. The thought of a baby or a small child wasn't so bad, not if Deeks was there to back me up on it.

"Shall we?" He asked, letting my hand go to hold the two cups with our drinks as I took two plates with me.

We sat down facing each other and Deeks handed me my plate with a tall brown muffin. That was my morning doses of sugar that helped me get into a good mood but, with Deeks around, I didn't feel like I even needed it anymore. Not after the usual 20 minutes of cuddling and kissing before we left. For a long time I had seen myself as someone cold, insensitive and sometimes even despicable, but his presence in my daily routine made me realize that being kind to people was so much better, for the fact that it could get you some interesting rewards…

"No offense," I began after taking a bite of my pastry, "but these are way better than the ones you baked last week."

He held his cup with both hands and raised his eyebrows to the sound of my complaint. Deeks smirked and I noticed he wasn't looking into my eyes. He took the cup to his lips and took a big sip of his drink then looked down at his donut.

"Maybe you should bake next time."

"It will be my pleasure." He grinned, "Only if you are the first to try my masterwork."

"Oh, then it looks like we have a problem. Are you sure you want to do this? I don't think you'd want to start a criminal record with a brutal murder."

I smiled and ignored his comment as I tried to figure out where his eyes were stuck. It occurred to me that he could be looking at my boobs, but he wasn't. I then came to realize that he was profoundly staring at my lips, slightly parted and looking more red than usual, not because I was wearing any kind of makeup but maybe because of the fact that they had been kissed a lot more than they were used to.

I could almost see his heart beating through his button down shirt. I could definitely notice his lungs filling with air and then kicking it back out. The idea of staying with him forever flashed before my eyes. I had always wanted to get married and Deeks really seemed to be the one. Of course, I felt afraid and vaguely tempted to escape if he ever thought of becoming my husband, but I didn't think I would have to fight it because it wasn't strong enough to blur my true desires.

After some minutes, we agreed it was time to go to work, so we got up and I looked around again. The little girl was no longer eating and the father was no longer staring at her. An elderly woman had come into the coffee shop and was heading towards the table Deeks and I were leaving. We exited the building holding hands and I looked back to read big letters spelling the name of the shop, La noisette.

"Damn, I think we're late, Kensalina." Deeks said as we approached the bullpen and realized it was empty and that everyone was already up in OPS. "Do you think they'll know what we were up to?"

"You mean what got us late?" I was in front of him when we started climbing the stairs.

"Precisely."

"I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it? I mean at least now I'm careful enough to keep some clean clothes at your place."

Deeks paused and, when he began again, the tone of his voice made me realize that he was going to crack some kind of stupid joke.

"Maybe you should start leaving underwear there as well. Like your black lingerie or something."

I looked back at his goofy grin and didn't even answer because of the fear that any of our co-workers might hear us. We went inside the well prepared room to find the entire team staring at us as we walked inside.

"Agent Blye, Agent Deeks," Hetty called, "you are late."

"We're not that late, just 10 minutes. Okay maybe 20. We were, hm, we were busy with something and it couldn't possibly be postponed so we had to get it done for my sake. Also Kensi's sake, she was really really looking forward to this…thing." I shot him a look, trying to tell him that he had said more than enough for our colleagues to understand that we had been having sex not only at night but also in the morning, when we were supposed to be at work. "I am going to stop talking now."

I saw Callen's eyes screaming disapproval but I knew he was pleased that I had finally found someone that I could go on more than two dates with. Hetty's posture evidenced mastery and we could all tell that she wanted to proceed with the briefing. I thought it must have been an important case, since our operations manager was with us.

"This is Adam Hastings." Eric began, sending a photo to the big screen, "He is a marine who was leaving the Navy after almost 7 years of service. But last night his body was found dumped in the back of an abandoned warehouse. His femoral artery was slit, leaving him to bleed out."

A picture of the dead man lying on the floor popped in the screen before Nell continued Eric's speech.

"There were no surveillance cameras in the premises and we are still waiting on the autopsy results and toxicological analyses."

We all looked at Hetty, expecting her to tell us why her presence during that briefing was mandatory, why that case was so important but she didn't say a word about it. However, she did tell us what to do. Deeks and I would go to the place where the body was found to search for any kind of mark left behind and Callen and Sam would go to the marine's house.

The LAPD was surrounding the scene with police cars and many officers made sure that no one, except for medical examiners and agents, touched anything near the spot that needed to be searched. I got out of the driver's seat and frowned.

"What's all this?"

Deeks' eyes travelled around the streets and he looked just as confused as I was. He didn't answer but I knew he didn't have to. We both had no idea what all of that fuzz was about, so we just stick to our jobs to find any leads to discover who had done that.

He showed his brand new NCIS badge to the officer, as if to show it off. I was proud of him and I knew how much it meant to him to finally fit in. We headed to a small pool of dry blood, where we found absolutely nothing. It was all empty. No tire tracks, hair or fabric. Aside from the obvious evidence, there was no sign that anyone had ever been there. After some agonizing minutes of endless search, I decided to go talk to someone.

"Hey," I called some officer standing by the scene, "what did you find here?"

I could feel Deeks approaching behind me as he watched our little conversation.

"Nothing, we didn't even touch it."

"And no one besides the LAPD was near the body?"

He shook his head decidedly and said nothing more.

Deeks and I looked at each other and we both thought that was incredibly weird, but there was nothing we could do, so we headed back to the car and I drove us back to OPS.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" He asked, as soon as I started the car.

"I don't know, I've been kind of tired. Maybe just some hours of sleep would be nice."

I glanced at him and noticed that he was slightly disappointed, but all of this excitement was exhausting. That was not the memory I had of relationships. He knew how much I enjoyed the reasons why I didn't get any sleep but that job required a rested body.

"You could come over for dinner. Not anything special, just dinner and… sleep." He kept trying to book me for that night and I was fully aware of the fact that I would not be able to resist the temptation of spending some hours at his place. And I thought his bed wasn't that bad.

"Sure. I'll come over."

"Great" Deeks said, with a soft grin on his face.

"Hastings lived alone and his house was almost as empty as G's." Sam announced as soon as we were all gathered in the bullpen.

"We didn't find anything in the crime scene either, it was wiped clean." I said.

Hetty was looking at all of us and waited for silence to tell Nell to tell us what she and Eric had found. She held her tablet in her small hands and her fingers flew across its screen.

"Eric and I did some research and we found out that, during the past few months, bodies have been found nearby warehouses. All of them had the femoral artery slit and they all had roofies in their system. So far there were five victims: Edna Longway, Arthur Moore, Jonathan Dallas, Samantha Collins and Kevin Delgado. There were no leads for the LAPD to proceed with the cases, so they closed them.

"These five people weren't linked in any way when they were alive. Even so, we think they must have had something in common that marine Adam Hastings also did."

We stared at each other, wondering whether that really was what we understood. It was exciting when we had mysterious cases like this but all of the intrigue and masterwork the killers put to this made it very hard for us to solve it. I met Deeks' baby blues lying on Hetty and waiting for a response. For a few moments, I took my head off the case and started thinking what it was that made me fall for him… I came to realize that the list was much longer than I thought it could ever be. But my thoughts were interrupted by a seriously severe Hetty.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we are dealing with a serial killer."