The two ladies strode quickly up the stairs, their 'boys' scurrying quickly behind him. Eric opened his mouth but Deeks shot him a warning look. They did not know what mood these two were in, no need to stir the pot. That and there was still a gun on Kensi's hip.

They had reached the end of the corridor, just outside of Ops, before the girls spun to face them. Deeks winced. It wasn't just Nell who had been taking lessons from Hetty. Were people meant to be able to raise their eyebrows that high?

Deeks and Eric shuffled nervously. They had been doing that a lot the past hour. Deeks could almost feel Callen and Sam's amused looks from here. Lucky bastards. Their ladybirds didn't know about this stunt. Uh oh, Nell's foot was tapping.

"Well boys?" demanded Kensi

Both men shook their heads.

"Really? Nothing?"

"You already heard all that happened when we explained ourselves to Hetty," Deeks pointed out.

"We don't want t know what happened," said Nell.

"We want to know what was going through your heads," Kensi finished.

Oh, they were tag-teaming now. Not good. Eric was getting increasingly wide eyed. Also, not good. Neither of them decided to answer. Technically, they weren't asked a question.

Kensi exchanged a look with Nell. That was not a good look.

"Looks like they're not talking, Jones," announced Kensi.

"Looks like it, Blye," retorted Nell.

Oh, they were going old school, were they?

"Maybe they'll talk if we split 'em up," said Kensi, circling them.

"That just may work," mock-pondered Nell, reaching out to grab Eric

Deeks exchanged a grimace with Eric as their respective ladies split. He kind of felt sorry for Beale, Nell was looking kind of feisty and not in a good way. She didn't let go of him until she had yanked him into Ops. Well, at least there were witnesses in there. She couldn't do anything too damaging in there. Anyway, he was more concerned for himself.

He gulped deeply as he looked into her darkened eyes. Really not good.

"Well?" she asked.

When did she get that close to him? He backed up, his back hitting the wall. He could feel her breath on his face.

"Umm…"

"Want to tell me what was going on in your head earlier?"

"Hmm…," was all he could get out.

Oh, that was a tantalising glimpse of skin. When had her top button become undone? Her head cocked to one side.

"I think I may need some, ah, persuasion," he managed, trying so very hard not look away from her face.

A smirk curved across it.

"Oh yeah?"

He nodded rapidly.

"Uh huh," he looked from her even darker eyes to that lovely piece of tanned skin. "Make that a lot of persuasion."

Her hands trailed up his arms as she stepped closer to him, completely encompassing his range of vision.

"And that all it takes?" she asked slyly. "Me thinks somebody needs to go back to interrogation class."

"Maybe you could be my teacher," he said breathily, placing his hands on her slender hips.

She jumped gracefully backwards, just out of his reached. He pouted and tried to grab her.

"Ah, ah, ah," she scolded teasingly.

"Come on, Kens," he pleaded.

"Not until you explain yourself," she informed him.

"Darn it," Deeks thought, he hadn't managed to distract her.

He must be off his game. Normally the hip thing worked. Getting told off and punished by Hetty Lange tended to do that to a guy.

"I'd much rather discuss what's going through my head right now," he said persuasively.

And, there went the hands on the hips. He sighed heavily. There was definitely going to be no funny business now.

"Do you really want t get back into Hetty's bad book so soon?" Kensi asked him.

Deeks shrugged. "You only live once."

Kensi snorted and rolled her eyes.

"You're not going to explain yourself, are you?" she asked.

He scrunched up his nose. "Probably not. Mainly because there wasn't a lot of thinking going on."

"What a surprise."

"I tried to be the voice of reason," he complained.

Kensi gave him a disbelieving look. "Really?"

"Yes!"

"Uh huh. For how long?"

"At least three sentences."

"Hm, a record."

"Exactly! Wait, "Deeks narrowed his eyes at her smirking face. "Was that sarcasm, Princess?"

"What was your first clue?"

Deeks pouted. "Just for that, I'm not telling you anything."

"Oh really?"

Dammit, she was giving him that look. He could never resist that look, and she knew it.

"Would some of that persuasion of yours work?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe you should try some."

"Hm mm."

Oh, that was that sweet spot the back of his neck. She knew that drove him crazy. He groaned lowly, mustn't forget they were at work. His hands slipped over her hips and dipped further south. She arched herself into him. Their lips were this close to each other.

"Ahem," a throat cleared from behind them.

They sprung apart faster than a bullet from Kensi's rifle.

"Assistant Director Granger!" Kensi explained, straightening her shirt, when had that got rumpled?

"What are you doing here?" Deeks asked.

The man in question's eyebrows rose.

"I, apparently unlike you two, work here," he said dryly.

"Um, we were working, yeah," Deeks said, panicking.

Kensi nodded bedside him, trying far too hard not to look guilty.

Granger pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I feel like I'm going to regret this, but what exactly were you two working on?"

The partners exchanged panicked glances.

"A cover!" Kensi blurted out.

"A cover?" Granger repeated

"Yeah, a cover!" Deeks said, backing her up.

Granger gave them a look. There were an awful lot of looks being thrown about today. This look was definitely not a good one.

"Does anyone want to explain your cover?"

"A couple!"

"Who is together."

"And who, um, have this awful backstory."

"With drugs and separation…"

"Due to prison, you see?"

"And they only reunited."

They gave him identical nervous grin. He didn't look convinced.

"We're still working out the kinks," Kensi explained anxiously.

"Eric and Nell are working on it," Deeks added, better passing Granger onto someone else.

Granger gave them a long look.

"I really don't want to know," he finally announced.

Their shoulder slumped in relief.

"Just get back to work," he instructed.

Still eyeing them suspiciously, Granger backed into Ops. They smiled innocently at him until the door clicked shut on him.

"How come he doesn't have to face them?" Deeks asked, eyeing the face-sensitive doors suspiciously.

Kensi shrugged her shoulders. "It's Granger."

"True. Did we just get away with that?"

"Barely," Kensi said with a snort.

They grinned at each other.

"Let's leave while we're still in one piece?" Deeks suggested.

Kensi grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the stairs.

"Oh yeah."