Last time she had seen them they were mourning over her dead body. Now here she was staring them in the face, a gun pressed to her temple by yet another bad guy. If it weren't for the unfortunate circumstances, namely the gun by her head and the fact she was meant to be dead, she would have laughed at the looks on their faces, eyes wide, mouths unhinged, opening and closing but no words coming out. She was brought back to reality by the voice of the latest bad guy she was facing, the difference this time, she had an audience.

3 years earlier …

It was just another day, agents rushing back and forth through the rabbit warren of corridors that made up the Los Angeles Office of Special Projects. One team was sat quietly in their chairs making their way through the mound of paperwork that was stacked all over their desks. For once there was near silence between the four agents as they worked away, no arguing, just the click of keys on their laptops and the scratch of pens on paper as the pile to do decreased and the pile completed grew. The near silence, although ignored for the most part, was a rare occurrence and there was some speculation to the cause. Their fellow agents had taken to avoiding the area due to the frosty atmosphere that had developed in the small space. This was just another indicator to one small lady that something was seriously wrong with her top team.

She had first noticed the problems after just another op a few weeks ago when the lone female member of the team, Kensi Blye, began to pull away from the other three males. This op hadn't just been a routine op though, it had been the supposed firing from NCIS and suspension from LAPD of said female's partner, Martin Deeks. The rest of the team had been informed that this was just a cover to try and find a mole in the LAPD, all except Kensi. It wasn't that they didn't trust her acting skills or that she would be able to keep it secret, she was one of the best they had ever seen, it was just that they wanted to make it look as realistic as possible.

Mistake number one had been assuming Kensi would be ok with being lied to. They should have known better. They knew the abridged version of Kensi's past, or they thought they did, but they knew enough to know that she had abandonment issues, especially with her last partner being killed in the line of duty as she worked to save him and that this would affect her but they hadn't realised to what extent.

Kensi, being a good agent, masked her true feelings throughout the op, especially when she found out the truth but when they had ensured Deeks' safety she quickly made her way back to her car and drove back to ops without a second thought for her partner as he watched her drive away. Her cold shoulder continued when they all made it back to ops, but not just to Deeks, the whole team felt the force of her silent anger as she was coldly professional towards them all and spent as little time around them as she could.

Mistake number two had been assuming that Kensi would get over it and get back to bickering with her partner and going out for drinks with the team. They had obviously underestimated her yet again as she continued to ignore their attempts at apologies and leave them staring at her back when she left during and at the end of the day. The cold shoulder had lasted two weeks and there was nothing the rest of the team could do but wait and hope that one day she listened to them and finally forgave them.

Deeks was broken by her silence, blaming himself for taking the job. He had to ride with Callen and Sam most times as Kensi sped off without even looking back at him and even when they were forced to ride together there was an unbearable silence hanging in the car as Kensi drove even more erratically than usual. On several occasions he was sure she was trying to get them killed or kill him at the very least as she wove in and out of cars, narrowly missing on oncoming lorry as she swerved into the wrong lane to overtake yet another car.

Callen and Sam were upset that Kensi was ignoring them. They had known what they were doing was wrong when they lied to her yet they did it anyway. They knew they deserved everything she could throw at them and would have happily taken punches and slaps if only to get the Kensi they knew and loved back but this silent fury, the general cold atmosphere she seemed to radiate was killing them.

Hetty could see the problems now splitting her team. She knew that Kensi would still do her job, act professional and continue to work as hard as she usually did but she could also see her becoming more reckless with her own life. She also knew that if she didn't do something about it soon then her entire team could break and she couldn't let her top team stop working. There had been a point when she thought that Kensi may be warming towards them, a week after the incident when she started spending more time in the bullpen and had a small smile on her face but she maintained her cold professionalism.

Eric and Nell didn't know what to do. They could see the divide in the team and were grateful that not as much of Kensi's anger was directed at them but they were still desperate for things to go back to how they were. They saw Callen, Sam, Deeks and Hetty tearing themselves apart over Kensi and they had had to wince one to many times as Kensi had yet another close escape as she risked her life more and more.

Little did they know that one day soon it would all end.

Just a little story that wouldn't leave me alone. Thanks to A Lyrical Dreamer for beta reading this for me. If you like please review.