Many thanks to those who took the time to review, favourite and alert. I hope you continue to enjoy this story. FYI, there will be about a week between each chapter to give me time to write, edit and review before posting. I hope that I have managed to keep them in character. Family commitments have to come before my writing...
Part 2/?
Kensi lay sprawled on her stomach, arms wrapped around a pillow and blanket draped over her body, sleeping fitfully on Deeks' couch. The television flickered quietly on top of the low dark wood cabinet on the other side of the room, the sound turned down low. A walnut coloured coffee table sat between the couch and the television set and was within easy reach of the couch. While it had been immaculate when she arrived, Kensi's gun and cell phone now sat beside an empty mug and plate. She had also dumped the bag of coffee beans, apartment keys and dog leash.
Monty had left the room after there was no more food on offer, preferring the end of Deeks' queen sized bed in the large bedroom. While the bed had been very tempting, she had decided to stay on the couch. She ended up being quite grateful for the decision as the sounds of the dog snoring permeated through the thin walls of the apartment.
Kensi opened her eyes slowly as a quiet sound broke through her dreams (or nightmares if you were a stickler for accuracy). Her sleep had been filled with gunfire, replaying Deeks being shot in full technicolour definition and physical assaults by burly men but she knew it wasn't that which had brought her out of her fitful sleep. She listened carefully, trying to work out what had dragged her out of her sleep. There was not a sound. Wiping one hand over her face, she looked at the time on her watch. It was four o'clock in the morning.
Laying her head back down on the pillow, she tried to get comfortable enough again to fall asleep. As she turned over on the couch, she heard a creak of a floor board and a couple of carefully placed footsteps. Sliding carefully off the couch, she grabbed her gun from the top of the coffee table and now crouched on the floor. Using the couch as cover, she carefully scanned the room. The television was throwing just enough light to enable her to make out shadows and shapes but not much else.
She saw a silhouette near the kitchen area. She could not make out whether the person had a weapon or not. Deeks had taken out Vakar and she'd done the same with his two associates - was there a third? Or was it someone simply deciding Deeks was an easy target for robbery.
"NCIS. Put your hands in the air," Kensi called out standing up in a firm, no questions asked, stance.
"Kensi, it's me."
"Callen." Kensi let out a sigh of relief. She put the safety on her gun and dropped her hands to her side, her body visibly slumping as the tension of the moment left her. She sat down heavily on the couch. "What are you doing here?"
Callen flicked on the light in the room and Kensi squinted in response to the bright light. Callen saw her reaction and immediately dimmed the lights. He casually wandered over to drop his body into one of the comfortable looking armchairs sitting adjacent to the couch.
"I could ask you the same thing. Never expected to find you snoring away on Deeks' couch." Callen gave a smirk as he finished the sentence.
"I don't snore," Kensi told him indignantly.
"I call them as I see them, or hear them, in your case. You were so out of it you didn't even notice me drop the blanket over you."
Kensi threw one of the pillows from the couch at him playfully and gave him a small smile of thanks for the blanket. She leaned back against the remaining pillows and tucked her bare feet under the blanket.
"You never answered me. Why are you here?" she reminded Callen. She didn't bother asking him how he had gained entry to Deeks' apartment as she suspected his method was probably the same as hers.
"I came to check on Deeks' dog. That shaggy mutt he brought to work."
"Monty." Kensi supplied the name of the so-called mutt.
"Yeah. The supposed police dog extraordinaire that's sacked out on Deeks' bed. I'll have to make sure Deeks knows what a great guard dog he has. He took one look at me, rolled over and went straight back to sleep." Callen shook his head, remembering the day Deeks tried showing them how good a bomb detector dog he was and failed miserably.
Kensi grinned and resisted telling him that he was lucky that was all the dog did as he could have taken him out with one unexpected flying leap. She suspected the dog was a lot like his owner, keeping his abilities under wraps most of the time and only pulled them out when it was necessary.
"But I found you on the couch with a dog leash on the coffee table so I suspect that you've not only fed the dog but also walked him."
"Guilty as charged." Kensi gave him a tired smile.
"Do you want a drink?" Callen called back over his shoulder as he headed to the kitchen. "I'm making tea."
"Tea will be fine," Kensi answered softly.
Callen added water to the electric kettle and turned it on. He didn't need to ask how she had her tea - her sweet tooth ran to her tea cup as well with a half spoon of sugar and cream. He doubted that she had eaten much during the day and added another lot of sugar to the tea. He subtly watched Kensi as he went about making the tea. It didn't take him long to realise that she was deeply troubled. It was how to approach her without getting his head bitten off that would be the challenge.
"You'll have to excuse the paper taste," he commented as he passed over the cup to her.
Kensi had her legs pulled up to her chest under the blanket. She accepted the hot cup and balanced it on top of her knees, her hands cupped around the mug drawing comfort in the warmth from the hot brew.
"Hetty would be disappointed in you."
"You can only work with what is available. I was surprised Deeks had tea at all. We all know he mainlines coffee."
"True."
Callen sat down at the other end of the couch, ensuring that he would have a chance of seeing what was going on behind her dark multi-coloured eyes.
"Why didn't you just go home?" Callen asked, cocking his head and narrowing his eyes slightly as he considered his fellow agent.
"Poor Monty would have gotten over exercised if you'd taken him out too," she answered, rubbing at her neck with one hand and giving a small roll to ease the tight muscles.
"Nice try. You didn't know I'd be coming so you're just avoiding the question, Kens."
She looked at him directly, her eyes dark and brooding. "I was just going to get some things together for him originally, then I walked Monty and coming back here..." Kensi broke off and subconsciously gnawed on her thumbnail.
"You could have just stayed with him at the hospital," Callen pointed out logically knowing that being with the man himself would be better than his dog and his possessions.
"Hetty," Kensi responded simply. That one word spoke volumes.
"Ah, I understand." Callen knew only too well how there had not been a chance that Kensi would have been able to stay at the hospital.
"He could have been killed today, Callen," she said softly.
"But he wasn't."
"You know Deeks drives me nuts sometimes with all his inane chatter but today, when Hetty told me he had been shot, all that didn't matter. Some of what I've said and done seems so petty and pitiful in retrospect."
"Deeks gives as good as he gets in your partnership. But there's more to this than Deeks being shot."
Kensi slumped down further against the couch, one finger gently circling the rim of the porcelain mug. "Sometimes I wish Nate were here."
"We do have another operational psychologist."
"Yeah, but he's not Nate. Nate didn't push and prod the way the new guy does. I'm not explaining it very well but I didn't mind sharing some of my thoughts with Nate. They tended to just come out whereas all I want to do is clam up with the new guy."
"I know I'm not Nate but I can listen," Callen offered gently.
Kensi looked at him quizzically. She was thinking how strange it was to have Callen offering this. Sam she could understand but Callen?
The confusion must have shown on her face as Callen quickly continued, "Can't say I would offer you anything as profound as Nate but you know I understand what you go through every day as an undercover agent."
"It's just too many times. You, Dom and now Deeks." Kensi shook her head, trying to dispel the heaviness that she was feeling now she was airing the dark thoughts that were running through her mind.
"Kens, it's the nature of our job. There's a high risk involved. You know that."
"In our job there are always dangers and I know the risk of one of us getting injured can happen. But all of the shootings have occurred off duty and with you all being targeted. I know I can handle what occurs in the line of duty; it's what happens when our guard is down that worries me."
Callen hadn't thought of all of the three attacks in that way. The parallels between Dom and Deeks had been drawn instantly by both Kensi and Sam. He certainly hadn't put his own shooting into the same category but obviously Kensi had.
"We won't let our guard down."
"Easy to say but they even got you."
"Kens, when you were investigating who could have been targeting Deeks you had a list of one hundred suspects. Each of us has a list of at least a similar length. What we do brings us to be a possible target on and off the job. It's why we are so careful not to allow anything to become routine, to protect our identities. But if someone is really wanting to get to us, they can and they will."
"Deeks is blaming himself for what happened when he really should be blaming me I didn't check that he was changing his routine. I was the target, not Deeks. Vakar shot Deeks just to get to me."
"And that's not your fault. Kens, we are all guilty of not ensuring that Deeks changed his routine. We all should have realised that as a LAPD undercover they don't have the same methods that we employ at OSP. Any one of us could have done this, even Hetty, but we all assumed that he was doing it."
"Yeah and it makes an ass out of u and me," Kensi added dryly.
Callen raised his eyebrows in response to the quip. "You could have left that one alone."
"Too tempting."
"Deeks is rubbing off on you."
Normally she would have instantly denied this but the reality was that she was changing subtly though her partner's influence. And after almost losing him this morning, she could definitely cope with the statement.
"Maybe just a bit," she conceded with a small smile.
"He's going to be okay," Callen reassured her.
"Yeah, I know." Kensi gave a small laugh. "He had only just regained consciousness and he was already showing fine form."
"Really?" Callen was not surprised. Deeks had already showed that he could keep going when things got rough.
"Yep, he was immediately hitting on the nurses." She failed to mention that he'd also tried to con her first.
"You can't keep a good man down."
Kensi nodded in agreement and added softly, "he proved that today."
"Two bullet wounds and he was still able to come and protect his partner."
"I don't think he'll be rushing around so fast this time." Kensi recalled him grimace as the doctors examined the wounds after his three story run down the stairs after her. He had thought the elevators would be too slow and had been correct; the LAPD officers had used them and were a few essential seconds behind him. "Re-stitching those wounds even with a local anaesthetic wasn't much fun."
"He complains loudly but it takes a lot to keep him from doing his job."
"Yeah, well, after today I'm going to tolerate his verbosity."
"That's a tall order, Kens."
"I probably should have said attempt to," Kensi amended, yawning as she placed the mug on the coffee table.
"I'll remind you of that in the future when he's being extremely irritating." Callen gave her a grin.
Kensi gave another wide yawn and rubbed at her eyes which were now feeling extremely tired.
"Callen, I know that you operate on very little sleep but do you mind if I get some more before morning otherwise Hetty is going to have my head. Her firm instructions were to get some sleep."
"I could argue that you have had plenty by the amount of snoring you were doing earlier but it looks like you might need some more beauty sleep."
Kensi rolled her eyes and hunkered back down under the blanket. Callen stood up and passed her the pillow she'd thrown at him earlier. He then picked up the three mugs on the table and the plate.
"I'll just tidy up these dishes and will head on home."
"Thanks Callen," Kensi mumbled.
Callen gave a tight smile as he went into the kitchen. It wasn't often that Kensi would allow any of their team to see her fears but with this brush with death for Deeks, it had definitely pushed her emotionally. Nate would have been better equipped to deal with her fears and concerns but he hoped that by giving her the chance to talk had helped.
End Part 2/?
