Enemy gunfire breaks the serenity of the moment, but not before Kensi slides the ring on her left ring finger. The bullet holes from the terrorists' automatic rifle carve a straight line into the cement wall above their heads and they know that their time is out. Deeks shuffles his sore and bleeding body to press against Kensi for the last time. She flicks the safety off her gun.
"All in?" His voice isn't above a breath this time and Kensi meets his eyes with her signature fire and certainty. Deeks flashes a radiant smile that clashes with the tears streaming down his face before she says a word. He already knows her answer, but she says it anyway, her lips tenderly skimming against his.
"No matter our odds, I've always been all in."
"Even if our odds end up forcing us to fold?" Deeks whispers, his voice breathless and cracking. It brings a fresh round of tears to Kensi's eyes because she understands what he was trying to say. The hand they'd been dealt is shit, if they are keeping up with this poker metaphor of being 'all in'.
"You know, Deeks, when you fold your cards, it means that you're willingly giving up on the hand that you've been dealt," Kensi replies hurriedly. She could hear the orders and the stomping boots from more men entering the warehouse.
They keep their eyes locked, save for Deeks's glance at the ring on Kensi's finger, and Kensi allows a smirk to grace her face. Deeks matches it when he catches on to what she's saying.
"And why in the world would Badass Blye willingly give up on anything?"
"I'm gonna take your name, you know," Kensi decides, as if they had all the time in the world to decide these little marriage details. Details to a marriage that probably won't end up happening, the way that things are going.
She checks her weapon one more time and adjust the knife that she has at her hip. Deeks cocks his gun and the lone 9mm bullet pops out. He presents it to her in the palm of his hand like a gift and she loads it into her clip. Five bullets, two knives, and one crowbar for a battle to the death, against twenty terrorists' high powered assault rifles. Sounds like a fair fight.
"What if I wanted to take yours?"
Even staring death directly in the face, Deeks still finds a way to make her laugh. Kensi brushes the tears from her eyes and grabs his jaw to kiss him one last time.
"I love you, Marty Deeks."
"I love you too, Kensi Blye." Deeks swallows thickly and adjusts his grip on his knife. The footsteps are close enough now that Kensi nods and gives Deeks the signal to go for the kill.
If they were going down, this wouldn't be a fold. There would be no willingly giving up in this game.
Callen is the one that finds them, and the sight makes him vomit on the spot. Kensi and Deeks are covered head-to-toe in blood, weapons scattered from their hands around their bodies.
And around the bodies of fourteen of their terrorists.
He knows it isn't much of a comfort to know that Kensi and Deeks went down fighting; they still went down, after all. And when the glimmer of the new diamond on Kensi's hand catches the light from the window, Callen loses all faith in any kind of god.
Author's Note: There will be one more chapter, an Alternate Ending that is far happier! Thanks for reading and reviewing.