This is in the 'Unintended Consequences" universe. I've been sitting on this story for two months. I've got a couple of chapters written, but I don't have it finished. I've got the outline of the story together, but not the conclusion. Nothing case related happens in this chapter but it a case does happen.

I'm hoping that publishing the first chapter will get me motivated to finish this the correct way. I also hope everyone likes it. The readers here are so supportive, you deserve good stories to read.

Callen walked into the Mission an hour early. As he set his stuff down on his desk he thought he heard noise coming from the gym. He couldn't imagine who on earth was in this early in the morning. As he walked into the gym he was surprised by the sight he saw. Deeks and Kensi were practicing with the shock knives. They weren't just sparing, they were really going at. Kensi looked like she was really trying to hurt Deeks. What surprised him even more was that Deeks was not just holding his own but getting in some really good strikes. Apparently Kensi had been training him for quite some time and he had been paying attention.

"Four times a weeks for three months, not counting his time down from the shooting."

Callen almost jumped out of his skin. He should be used to Hetty sneaking up on him by now. To cover his shock he decided to ask the next logical question. "Three months? How have none of us noticed?"

"Because they don't normally go at it this long. They get here at 7 AM and they are done by 8:30. They shower and show up in the bullpen a little after 9. However something appears to be bothering Kensi this morning. They obviously lost track of time."

"Wait, they've been going at it like this for ", Callen looked at this watch, "an hour?" Callen was very impressed.

"No, not knife fighting for an hour. They started out working on the bag and then the dummy. This started about 20 minutes ago."

That's when Sam, Nell, and Eric walked into the gym.

"Holy crap." Sam exhaled. "What has Kensi been teaching Deeks?"

Nell and Eric didn't say anything, they just stared at the two agents wide eyed.

"I don't know," Callen answered, "but there is no way I'm going to get in the middle of a domestic disturbance of that magnitude." With that Callen turned around and headed for the exit. Sam followed him through the door. Eric and Nell practically flew through the door to avoid the uncomfortable situation. Hetty stayed for a few moments longer then turned toward the exit herself.

The two combatants didn't notice the audience's arrival or exit. Each one was far too focused on the task at hand. Deeks made a thrust at Kensi. She blocked it wide, stepped into him, and flipped him with a hip check. As he laid on the floor, dazed, she put the knife to his throat.

"One dozen even." She smiled broadly.

"I can't believe I was dumb enough to agree to a donut per point match with you. That is the last time I answer a question while showering."

Kensi stood up helping Deeks from the floor. "It not my fault you weren't paying attention to what I was saying."

"It's totally your fault I wasn't paying attention to what you were saying." Deeks looked at her with astonishment. "How can you even say that?"

Kensi just let out a laugh. "Go get showered killer. We are running late. Everyone is going to be in by the time we get finished."

Deeks walked over pulling Kensi into him, dropping kisses on her neck.

"Separately Deeks. We are showering separately." She said pulling his hands away from her.

"Seriously? You kick my butt all over the gym, win a dozen donuts, and I can't even get a kiss? That's harsh Kens. Harsh."

Kensi picked her towel up off the bench. As she walked toward the women's locker room she threw a little extra sway into her hips. "You're a big boy Deeks. You can take it."

XX

As Deeks and Kensi walked into the bullpen they could feel Callen's and Sam's eyes on them. Both men waited for them to sit at their desk before beginning their interrogation.

Sam turned to Deeks. "What did you do?"

"Huh?" Deeks was genuinely confused.

"We come in this morning to find Kensi beating on you like you took a Twinkie. What did you do to make her mad?"

"I'm not mad." Kensi defended herself.

Callen leveled a glare at Kensi. "So you always beat Deeks like that?" He then turned to Deeks. "Do you need to go into protective custody?"

Kensi and Deeks started laughing. Deeks was the first to speak. "What you saw was mistake on my part. Kens wanted to put a bet on the sparing match. A donut per point ahead, first to fifty wins."

Callen was slack jawed. "You motivated Kensi, in a fight, with donuts?"

"Are you suicidal?" Sam couldn't believe it.

"I admitted it was a mistake."

"No." Sam wasn't buying it. "That hair do is a mistake." He pointed to Deeks's head. "G's diet is a mistake. Going against Kensi with sweets on the line is one of the seven classic blunders, the most famous of which is don't get involved in a land war in Asia."

"Touché." Deeks said, then pointed a finger at Kensi. "Don't do it."

Kensi just smiled at him. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

XX

Nell looked around OPS to be sure no one was to close by, before saving her work and turning to Ashley. "So how's it going with G?"

"It's only been a couple of dates Nell. We are still feeling each other out." Ashely didn't look away from her screen.

"Feeling them out is the best part of the relationship." Nell cast a glance over to Eric who was busy doing something else.

Ashley felt the blush spread across her face. "NELL! It's not like that."

"Then you need to try harder. You are going to have to be the driving force in the relationship. Callen has had a hard life. Trusting people and moving forward in relationships aren't his strong points. That's where you are going to have to be the strong one."

"I know Nell, but I don't want to pressure him either. I want him to be in the relationship because he wants to, not because I've brow beat him into it."

Nell looked at Ashley. "I don't mean brow beat him, Ash. I mean you take the first steps to move toward him. That will encourage him to move toward you."

"Wow Nell. You've been spending too much time in the field. You make it sound like an operation."

Nell just laughed. "I'm going to take that as a compliment. Also, the fact that you recognized that means you are spending quite a bit of time around agents, or a specific agent, yourself."

Ashley sat there quietly for a moment, thinking. "What should I do Nell? I don't want to spook him." Ashley stopped for a second. "Wow. That sounds funny. He's one of the bravest men I've ever met and he never loses his cool, but I'm afraid of his reaction to me telling him how I feel."

"I don't think you are going to spook him. Just go with your instincts. You got him to go out with you. That puts you ahead of every woman that's tried in the last five years."

"Yeah, cause going with my instincts always works out so well." Ashley rolled her eyes.

"What? Are you talking about how everything turned out with the NSA? Actually it did work out well. You got a new job, a lot of friends, and a hunk of burning love." Nell just beamed at her last comment.

"Really Nell, Elvis?" Ashley couldn't help but giggle.

"Deeks drove this weekend when the four of us went up the coast. He put it on the Elvis radio station for the entire trip. He wanted to show Kensi how he felt when she listened to techno all the time. Eric and I were innocent bystanders in their vicious radio war."

Ashley just laughed. "I'm sorry."

"You have no idea."

XX

Sam, noticing Kensi's absence in the bullpen, decided to take the time to comment on what he had seen earlier in the morning.

"I have to say I'm impressed with your fighting skills, Deeks." Sam said sitting at his desk. "Kensi's training has really improved your technique. I mean you had the MMA stuff down, but the knife work was, well, scary."

"It better be. She may love me, but she doesn't cut me any slack. If I hadn't gotten better I would have ended up in the hospital. She claimed she was taking it easy on me, but when I laid down at night, my body didn't believe it."

Callen and Sam both chuckled.

"After a few days, she pulled out those shock knives. That's when I got really motivated. Did you know that she can hit the same spot repeatedly? She doesn't even realize it, just a product of her training. She hit me so many times in the left side that I got a burn mark. That's when I had to up my game. I didn't start winning, but I didn't go home with burn marks anymore."

"That's why I sparred with Michelle exactly once." Sam said and then went back to his laptop.

"Oh, no." Deeks turned in his chair. "You don't get to start a statement like that and then just stop. Why just the one time?"

Callen answered the question. "Michelle cheats. She faked injury from his second punch. When he walked over to check on her, she swept his legs, put him in an arm bar, shoved his face into the mat, and then choked him out."

Deeks howled. "She choked you out? Man! That is hardcore. I thought Kensi was abusive, but that is just mean."

Sam just shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? The woman does not like to lose."

Callen looked at Deeks. "You should have seen what she did to the parent that belittled their girl at a baseball game."

"What?" Deeks looked back and forth between the two men.

"Hey! She was provoked. I told you, you can't talk about another person's child like that and not expect consequences." Even if G had a point, he couldn't let statements about his wife go unchallenged.

"Sam, it was little league baseball. Heckling is part of the game." Callen just shook his head.

"That's our little girl that was being heckled. She just did what she had to do to get her point across." Sam went back to typing on his keyboard.

Deeks shot a questioning glance at Callen since he obviously wasn't going to get the story from Sam.

"She choked out another parent in front of both teams. The police were called. The only reason she didn't get arrested is because he threw the first punch, but she started the argument."

If he hadn't seen her in the field, Deeks would have thought that both men were messing with him. But after seeing Michelle in action and the serious looks on both men's faces, he not only decided he believed them, but to also drop the conversation.

XX

Kensi walked into OPS. "Hey guys."

"What's up Kensi?" Ashley greeted.

"Hey Kensi." Nell said.

"What brings you to our humble abode?" Eric asked.

Kensi pointed her finger at Nell. "She does." Kensi turned to face her fully. "You need to hit the firing range today if you are going to stay current. Hetty asked me yesterday to make sure you went by the end of the week."

"Crap! I completely forgot. I've been buried under the analyst of the data from the last case." Nell stood from her station. "I certainly can use the break."

Ashley let out a soft laugh. "Shooting things as a break. I should look into becoming an agent."

"You don't have to be an agent to shoot Ash. Just let me know and I can take you down." Kensi turned to Nell. "Come on. Fifty rounds to warm up and then fifty to qualify." Kensi waved her arm to follow as she walked out of the room. Both women descended the stairs and made their way through the armory and into the shooting range.

Nell walked over to the bench and picked up her Glock. Everyone else carried Sigs, but the smaller Glock fit her hands better. They all ran the same ammo, so it didn't matter anyway.

"Care to make a wager?" Kensi asked as Nell walked up to the shooting line.

"No way. I saw you kicking Deeks's butt this morning. I don't know what he did, but you aren't going to take it out on me."

"Geez, did everyone enter the gym today? I can't believe I didn't notice."

"Well you were pretty intent on beating the crap out of Shaggy. What did he do?"

Kensi let out a laugh. "He didn't do anything. We were sparring for points. First to 50 won. I beat him by an even dozen. So know he owes me a dozen donuts."

Nell set down the unloaded pistol on the firing line and began laughing uncontrollably. "He fought you for donuts? Is he insane? What did you do, distract him with your feminine wiles?"

Kensi felt her face begin to go red so she screwed on her agent face hoping Nell wouldn't notice.

Nell stopped laughing. "What did you do Kensi? You just threw on your agent face." Nell stared at her for a moment. "You didn't?"

"What?!"

"You did!" Nell said pointing her finger. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Taking of advantage of him like that."

"Why? He's a big boy. He can take it." Kensi smiled slyly as she turned, picked up her Sig and started sending bullets downrange.

"You know, you could let him win occasionally." Nell reloaded her pistol.

Kensi set her Sig down on the little range table. "Let him win? Never!" Kensi started laughing.

XX

Lunch rolled around so Callen walked upstairs to OPS. When he walked in he saw everyone working really hard at whatever techy thing they were working on at the time. He walked up behind Ashley. He deliberately wasn't quiet so as not to scare her.

"Got time for lunch?" He bent down to be next to her head.

Ashley turned around in her chair. "That depends, double 0 G, where are you taking me?"

Callen sighed at the nickname. He liked that she had given him one and felt comfortable enough to call him by it, but he knew when it got out, Sam and Deeks were going to have a field day.

Ashley immediately put her hand over her mouth. "Sorry, Callen. It slipped out."

He just laughed. "Don't worry about it. I was thinking Chinese."

"Chinese? I definitely have time for lunch." Ashley turned around to lock her computer but stopped. "Wait, I thought today was lunch with the team?"

"Sam has a meeting with Hetty. Frick and Frack are taking Monty for his shots. So it is just us." Callen turns to look at Nell and Eric. "Unless you two want to join us."

"Sorry Callen. I have to get this finished and sent back to DIA before I leave for lunch." Eric responded.

Nell looked at the couple. "Oh no. I'm not going as the third wheel. You two have fun."

Callen turned back to Ashley. "An intimate lunch date it is then." Callen spun the chair to help Ashley out. They made their way down the stairs and out of the Mission.

"A meeting with Hetty? Is that good or bad." Ashley closed the car door.

"Could be anything. If it's important Sam will let us know. From time to time we get put in solo assignments. Nobody likes it, but it happens. A couple of years ago, Sam was working in Africa for a month before we knew what was going on. We thought he was doing training with SEAL buddies." Callen explained.

"Wow! Guess I'm going to have to get use to not always taking things at face value."

Callen took his hand from the ignition without starting the car. He turned to face Ashley. "Ash, I can't promise that I will always be able to tell you what is going on, but I won't lie to you."

Ashley let a smile come across her face. "I know G. I know."