Special thanks to Dan aka densiandneric for the proof! Enjoy!

Not good. Not good at all.

It was stupid. She should've told him the moment she found out. But.

Well, she hadn't. And now here they were. Doing what they did every day. Trying to save the world. Nearly getting killed in the process.

Just another day at the office.

Except they weren't even at the damned office. They were off duty. It's not like she wouldn't have told him the moment her skill-set was needed in the field. She wasn't that crazy. Or reckless.

Right?

In her defense, she'd only known for, like, a week. Well, more like a week and half, if she was being honest with herself. Of course, if she was being completely honest with herself, she'd known for closer to a month, but she had confirmed her suspicions with a test a week or two ago.

She wasn't reckless.

Eh, maybe a little.

Dammit.

"Hey, uh, Deeks?"

"Little busy at the moment here, Kens. Bad guys have kind of broken into our house."

"I can see that, idiot," she scoffed, firing off a few shots from behind their couch, missing her target.

"Really? We're about to die and you're calling me an idiot?"

"We're not about to die. Sheesh, melodramatic much?"

"Melodramatic?! Do you not see the Armenian mob dudes with fully automatics standing in our living room?"

"What? Where?"

"Not funny, Kens."

"It was a little funny."

Deeks gritted his teeth, and he probably would've taken a shot to his head if Kensi hadn't pulled him down against her collarbone, sufficiently protecting him.

"Come on, Deeks. Get your head in the game."

"Was that a High School Musical quote?"

"A what quote?"

"Kensi, can we just focus, please?"

How were they bantering at a time like this?

"Yes, by all means, focus. Just one more thing."

"What?!"

"I'm pregnant."

All color left his face, and she felt a sinking sensation in her stomach, like she'd just swallowed a lead weight.

"You're...?"

"Pregnant, yeah."

"And you're telling me this now?" He sounded drained, and more than a little scared, and he was staring at her with those big blue eyes, and she was just as terrified as he was.

"Sorry. I should've told you as soon as I found out."

"Why didn't you?"

"Would you accept my reasoning if I told you that it was because I was scared?"

"Scared of what?"

"Of your reaction!" She jumps as a bullet tears through the couch, zipping within centimeters of her forearm. If it was possible, Deeks grew even paler.

"You need to get out of here. Now." She hadn't seen him that serious since when he told her that she was the only thing that got him through his torture.

"Uh, yeah. We both do. That's kind of what we're trying to accomplish."

"No, Kensi. Listen to me. I'm going to cover you, okay? You take my back up, and you run. Go out the back."

"No."

"Yes. Kensi, if this baby means anything to you, you'll leave. Right now."

"Ha, yeah. Not happening." Her eyes dropped away from his, and she swallowed. "I can't do it without you."

"Yes, you-"

More gunfire sounded, causing Deeks to stop mid-sentence. He checked his magazine, gulping. "All I have are the three left in my backup."

She refrained from groaning.

"I'm only saying this one more time. Go. Please, Kens."

He was insane. Or was she?

Was pregnancy supposed to make a woman second guess her judgement constantly?

She didn't have to reply. Bullets were still being fired, but not at them. LAPD had apparently responded to shots fired in the neighborhood.

About damn time.

Kensi peeked from behind the arm of the couch. She was shaking. She hadn't shook after a shoot out since the first time she killed a guy. Why was she shaking?

Deeks released a breath, placed his weapon on the side table, and cast a sideways glance at Kensi. She thought she caught him looking at her midsection, but it only lasted for a quarter of a second, so she couldn't be sure. It was stupid, but she self-consciously crossed her arms across her stomach.

"So, a baby?" Deeks finally asked after what seemed like an eternity.

She tried to respond, but she couldn't find her voice. She settled for a nod.

The corners of his lips up-turned a little, and he repeated to himself, "A baby."

He took it well. Better than she had when she first found out.

After all of the drama of the shootout had died down and her confession in the middle of a fire fight that she was carrying his child like some awful scene from a soap opera had sank in, he kind of freaked out. In the best way possible, of course. It was later the next day after they finished processing the case at the bullpen and returned home that he started to dance. No, literally. It was something between the dougie and a traditional tribal samba. Truly terrifying.

"What are you doing?"

He responded by chanting, "We're having a baby, we're having a baby. Who the daddy? I the daddy."

"Uh, Deeks?"

"Hey, Kens?"

"...Yeah?"

"We're having a baby."

"Yeah, I-"

"We're having a baby!" He raced over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders. She squeaked. "Right now, there is a little tiny human, our little tiny human, inside of you." He pointed at her stomach with one of his long, calloused fingers, poking at a spot above her belly button. "Right there. A baby."

"You're taking this... well."

"Why wouldn't I? This is good. This is great." He kissed her on the mouth. "I love you so much."

"I-"

"No, Kensi. I really, really love you. More than anything. Do you know that?"

Were her eyes getting damp? Seriously? She hardly ever cried. And yet, here she was. Crying because her husband had told her that he loved her.

What was the matter with her?

Deeks looked as taken aback as she felt, taking a seat next to her. He placed a hand on her thigh. If she looked at his eyes, his stupid sincere big blue eyes, she was going to cry harder. She knew it.

Dammit.

"Kens... Kensi... Are you okay? What is it? C'mon, Fern." He paused, moving his hand from her thigh to snake it around her shoulder, pulling her in tightly and rubbing her forearm.

"I just... I just love you, okay?" Her reply is a little defensive as she swiped at her tears, obviously annoyed that she was crying. "And- and this baby is making me crazy."

"Ah." It was obvious that he was trying not to smile. "I see."

"Not a word."

He put his hands up in surrender, unable to hide his gigantic, lopsided, stupid grin. "I'm not saying a thing."

She elbowed him to cover up her own laugh, but there was close to no force behind it. "I swear, don't say it."

"You're hormonal."

"Deeks!"

"You're hormonal!"

She grabbed a pillow from the couch which was starting to resemble Swiss cheese from the previous night's shootout and proceeded to hit his shoulder with it. He laughed and curled up, trying to shield himself from the attack via throw cushion. He countered by tickling her in her sole ticklish spot, causing her to recoil and start giggling. He finally relented, and she humphed, blowing a piece of hair from her face as she tried to situate herself on the couch.

"You are so..."

"Perfect? Charming? Lovable?"

"I was going to say infuriating, but you know."

"But I am perfect, charming, and lovable, right?" When she refused to reply, he shrugged. "Eh, Monty thinks I am. Isn't that right, Monty?" At the sound of his name, the old dog perked up, wagging his tail. "See?"

"Yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "As long as the dog thinks so, right?"

He was more stressed out during the labor than she was.

"Deeks, honey, please. You have to stop pacing. Come on."

"You're right. You're right. I'm just pumped, you know? Any minute now, right?"

She squeezed her eyes shut as another contraction hit, silencing any possible reply efficiently.

"Oh my God, another contraction?" He raced to her side and grabbed her hand. "Just breathe, in, out." She was pretty sure he was talking more to himself than to her.

"They're getting closer together," the nurse said, smiling. "Only a centimeter left before you can start pushing."

Deeks and Kensi looked at each other, exchanging grins. "Ready to meet our little mutant ninja assassin?" he asked her, and she smiled.

"Definitely."

Only an hour later she lay in her hospital bed, cradling the newest addition to their family. This was the softest her facial expression had ever looked to Deeks, and he'd never seen her so in awe of anything before he'd seen her expression as the nurse handed their baby over to her.

Of course, he was just as transfixed. He had scooted his chair about as close to her as the hospital bed would allow for and leaned in on his elbows to be closer to his child and his wife. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the swatch of blue cloth that swallowed his son whole.

"You did so good, Kensi," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"He's perfect."

"He is." She sighed, glancing away from the little boy for just a millisecond. "I'm guessing you want to hold him again."

"I thought you'd never offer."

She handed over the baby, more than a little reluctant. Deeks grinned as he gathered the blankets, being careful to support the baby's head.

When he looked back over at Kensi, it was immediately obvious why she'd decided to finally hand over their baby. Her eyelids were drooping, and there were circles underneath her eyes. "Kensi Marie Blye, you're not falling asleep on me, are you?" he teased, adjusting his son in his arms.

"No." Her reply was immediate and opposing. When Deeks raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing her, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever. Who just went through seventeen hours of labor? Oh, that's right. I did."

"Go to sleep, Kensi. I love you."

"I love you, too."

"One more thing. Any ideas for the name?"

Her eyes were closed when she replied, "What does he look like to you?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, then. I Don't Know it is."

"Ha ha. Come on, Kens. What name did you like the most? You only read like, seven baby name books."

"Four. And I don't know."

"There's got to be at least one."

"Gavin. I liked Gavin. And I liked Ben. And I liked Daniel. Which one?"

He looked down, studying the child as if a name tag would magically appear saying, Hi, I'm... "Ben. He looks like a Ben. Benjamin Daniel Deeks."

"Ben," she said. She smiled. "Good."

"Great. Now get some sleep."

"Okay."

Three day old Ben was screaming so loud that the neighbors probably thought somebody was being tortured.

"Come on, little man. You gotta stop crying."

Deeks was starting to get a little desperate, trying every jig he could think of that might miraculously calm the baby down. "Do you think something's wrong with him, Kens? Is he supposed to be this loud?"

"How should I know?" Kensi replied, her voice muffled by the pillow that she was trying to use to block the baby's cries out. She was currently covered up with a blanket, trying and failing to catch a nap on the couch while her husband struggled with a fussy infant.

"He's not hungry, his diaper's not wet... Did he burp when we burped him? You don't think he's sick?"

"I think he's just a baby who discovered that he has lungs and that he can use them."

"You're right. You're right. He's fine."

"He is fine, Deeks. You have to calm down, babe. You've been so stressed lately."

Deeks sighed, rubbing the baby's back. He was finally starting to quiet down, gurgling on some spit bubbles and reaching for nothing with one of his chubby hands. "I know. I'm sorry." Kensi scooted over, making room for Deeks and reaching out her arms. He accepted her nonverbal invitation and sat down, still holding the baby, letting Kensi rest her head against his shoulder. "I just keep thinking about that night... When those guys came here and you told me you were pregnant. I'd never wanted to protect you more in my life. I just wanted to get you out of there, you know?" He looked down at Ben who was currently grabbing at Kensi's pointer finger. Kensi was running her thumb over his fist as he latched on to her knuckle, gaze locked on the baby's face. "And I keep thinking that... I keep thinking about what'll happen if I can't protect you. If I can't protect him. What if I'm not enough, and he gets hurt because I couldn't prevent it. Before him I only had to worry about you. Now I have to protect both of you. Because if I don't... If something ever happens to you guys..."

Kensi cuddled closer to him, shaking her head. "Having a baby is a big responsibility. You know that. And you know that I feel the same way you do, about him and you. But all we can do is try our best. We're going to give this a shot, okay? And we're going to love him and do everything in our power to make sure that he's safe. It's all we can do."

"I know."

"Deeks, you're a good dad. You have to know that."

"Is that enough?"

"Do you love him?"

"Of course."

"Then it's enough."

He returned her smile, leaning over to kiss her. "When did you become so amazing?"

Kensi shrugged, her eyes sparkling. "Comes naturally. It's a gift."

"And so modest. Wow, I picked a keeper."

She laughed, and he smiled. Her laughter was probably his favorite sound.

"You hungry? How about I cook some dinner and you try to get in your nap. I think Ben's worn himself out with all of the screaming."

"That sounds so good right now, you have no idea."

He hummed, kissing her again before standing up. "Sleep tight, pumpkin head."

"Will do, shaggy boy."