"I'm going to go with him to the hospital."
He turns to run before she has the chance to say anything more. He's pretty sure at the moment that he doesn't want to hear what she's going to say. He remembers too clearly the look in her eyes when she told him he was her frozen lake, and he's certain that she's about to end it for good, before it has even had the chance to begin. He'd rather put that off as long as possible.
But she asks him to wait, and he's never been very successful at saying no to her, even when his heart is telling him to flee before she has the chance to break it. So, he takes a shaky breath and braces himself for what he is sure is coming.
But what he's expecting doesn't come. He'd been waiting to find himself in a nightmare, and instead finds himself in a daydream.
Kensi doesn't talk about her feelings. Kensi doesn't make the first move to fix their issues. Kensi doesn't like to acknowledge that they have issues. But there she is, telling him how they're going to make this work and promising to talk about them.
All day long he's been focusing on her words about the frozen lake, about the impossibility of actually ever having what's out in the middle of the ice, about the probability of it destroying you. He thinks, maybe, that what he should have been remembering is what she said the frozen lake is. But, when she starts conversations about them with statements like it's not going to work, he thinks he's justified in thinking he should be assuming the worst.
But then she starts this conversation with we're going to figure this out, and his mind goes back to Thapa telling him there is a way to cross a frozen lake, and to Kensi telling him what the frozen lake represents.
Your frozen lake is the name for the thing that you want most in the world. And you want it so bad that you'll do anything to get it.
If their relationship is her frozen lake, then suddenly he feels hopeful. That means that he's the thing that she wants most in the world. And Kensi Blye doesn't give up on what she wants. She goes after it. She defies all odds, all human limitations, all the rules of the universe and she doesn't quit. If that's not hope for them, then he doesn't know what is.
He thinks maybe a year ago finding her Dad's killer had been her frozen lake, and he remembers her single-minded dedication to that goal, almost to the point of it destroying her. And now, she's standing here promising him she's going to try for them, and the tension starts to melt out of his muscles.
He can't help but prod her a little bit, force her to begin following through on her promise before she has the chance to overthink it. As she stares at him, trying to actually force the words out of her mouth that will define them, the only label that seems appropriate is their much-used thing. They're partners, best friends, co-workers, members of a little surrogate family; he's going to love being able to call her his girlfriend now, but what they are is so much bigger than that. It's an all-consuming thing.
At her I hate you, the last of the tension disappears and his smile can't help by break free. They're still them. She'll still taunt him and he'll still tease her; nothing has changed, but everything has. She'll tell him she hates him and he'll know she really means the opposite, because she spent last night in his arms and forcing him to actually say the words that brought them here.
When she looks him in the eye again and repeats it firmly, our thing, it sends a shiver down his spine and the look that he sends her can only be classified as adoring. She's still Kensi and he's still Deeks, but they're going to get a chance to be more, to be a boy and a girl falling in love, and it's the most perfect thing that he has ever imagined.
He's probably heard some variation of her see you tonight? dozens of times in the years they've been partners, but today it gives him shivers up his spine, because today see you tonight sounds more like a date than partner bonding time. See you tonight holds the possibility of her keeping her promise and them talking about it and figuring out how to make it work. See you tonight holds the possibility of her in his arms and them on the road to a future together.
A few hours later, as he stands staring, unbelieving, at an enigmatic Hetty Lange, he finds himself wishing he had actually said the words to agree to promise that he'd be patient with her, instead of just assuming she knew that that was included in the anything that he'd said he'd do.
Now that he allows himself to acknowledge it, he realizes that he's been being patient, waiting for her for probably two years now with no promise of any reward at the end. Now she's looking at him, asking him to promise to be patient, telling him with her eyes that the reward for being patient now is her. Knowing them, he is sure that there will be days when it will be a difficult promise to keep—they're really good at pushing each other's buttons, after all— but right now, staring into her darks eyes filled with hope, it's the easiest promise he's ever made.