Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS LA, its characters or anything to do with it. Nor to I own rights, words nor royalties to the songs referenced below. No copy right or other enfringment is entended.

AN: Random WinAmp playlist write as the song plays drabbles.

He couldn't help it, he did it without realizing. You could only go to school for so many years practicing how to get into somebody's head without it becoming second nature. It made him good at his job, great at keeping people from lieing to him but horrible on relationships.

She knew her hands were blood stained; she had grown up an over aggressive, unsecure, tomboy with an alpha complex. She hated it when guys would search for that 'soft center'. She didn't have it, when they went looking for that they found her trigger which resulted in her pushing (at gentelest) away.

They hated each other on first encounter. He read her like a book and was surprised by nothing she said or did. She couldn't believe how truly brave and honest he was, he could look her in the eye see the all of her daemons and he still didn't run.

When they finally admitted defeat to one and other it was at the realization that she wanted somebody who could get in her head, someone who got her without her having to do all the explaining; and he, he needed somebody who would need him and not care that he was in her head as much as she was in his heart.

"And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everythings made to be broken; I just want you to know who I am." Goo Goo Dolls ~ Iris

Kensi had survived. Her cover had been blown, Sam and G had been ambushed, but they had all made it out ok. No the loss hadn't been the team, the loss had been how many people they'd had to kill to get out of there alive. She had shot at least four people, dead or not she didn't stand around to find out. She snapped the necks of two more. She knew the counciling sections would many, long and would maybe eventually work.

Her mind kept reeling back, the look of fright an horror on one young thugs face after she had snapped the neck of the man holding a knife to her. The sound the dead man made, the sound the little gang banger made, the look of sheer terror. He was face to face with a monster, and it wore a bra. Kensi tugged at her bandages a small sardonic chuckle leaving her with the last thought.

As if the laugh, if one could call it that, had cued his entrance Nate came in. She launched into a vishious round of how she knew he had to do a post situation interview but she wasn't in the mood at the moment. He let her rant, he let her launch into how aware that she was a mess, and that she shouldn't be alive, that she knew she'd been raised to be tough, to a fighter, a killer, a monster. How she knew that in time she would push past this like all of the others. That he could save his psycho babble for a day when the meds had worn off a little more. Right now she just --- his arms were around her, she wasn't sure when he had sat down on the bed, let a lone why it felt so right. She hushed imedately, frozen in his arms. Strong warm arms, arms that didn't seem to cage her, strangle her or feel fake in their comfort. She shivered unvolenterly when he whispered into the top of her head.

"I'm glad you're alive." She returned his embrace as he shifted on the hospital bed with her to lean back and let her pull in against him. She held onto him for dear life as the tears flooded forward and the sickening waves of guilt and anger passed.

"Once I hold on ….. I'll never live down my deceit" Stone Sour ~ Bother

The way she would glide around the office, moving past all the males she worked with, with upmost confidence drove him nuts. It turned heads, including his, but he wasn't above admitting that he was just as male as the next guy. He was loath to admit that she intimidated him at times. He was even more loath to admit that it was the complete contradiction in her outward exuberance and her inner total disreguard for her own safety and life that drew him in. He wanted to change that, he wanted to give her a reason to be cautious, to want to live to see retirement. He wanted to push past her anger and aggression with out reducing her to a pile of tears. Nate was smart enough to realize that he couldn't have one with out the other, that is if he could even have her at all.

"Cause it's a bittersweet symphony this life…" The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony

He knew like many men before him that he would be rejected, and scorned. So he didn't ask, well not with words at least. Nate Getz knew that a woman like Kensi was use to being hit on and from her demenior she would not take well to it lame half cocked, purely carnal intentions. So he made his approach seduel using his strengths to his advantage. He didn't flinch when she got pissed at him for 'getting in her head', he teased her and got just as well as he gave, he offered her reassurances out side of being the office shrink and did what he could do to be naturally around her. Being friends came natural, but getting anywhere past that wasn't so easy. He could never find the right time or the right words to get her alone with him. He knew the others were starting to see it, that he smile was just for her, his laugh different when she was near. He knew that in time she would notice too.

"I wont let you, let me down so easily" I will Possess Your Heart ~ Death Cab for Cutie

Kensi couldn't believe what she was listening too. Ok she could believe it, it was on her mp3 player after all, but it was more who she was thinking of while singing it. The thought was so adorable it made her laugh out loud. She couldn't deny that Nate had been acting like a love struck boy lately, so maybe that is why she could vividly picture him singing Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" in the dramatic style that only Nate could pull off. The thought of him strutting down the stairs into the bullpen singing and pointing to her brought the silliest of grins to her face. The grin was promptly wiped off of her face when Hetty walked by and said "There will be no dramatic teen love scene reenactments in my head quarters Ms. Blye."

"I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy" Truly Madly Deeply ~ Savage Garden