Well, I'm just gonna start by saying how awesome you all are! Seriously, your follows, and favorites, and reviews make my day! So thank you!

So this chapter, we'll see what's been going on with Deeks and Sam.

I don't own NCIS L.A. or any of the character, etc. just borrowing them =)

Enjoy!

P.S. I'll probably update this story once a week, so the days in between each chapter might vary.

Chapter 3

A word hadn't been invented yet for what it felt like to have your mouth viciously drilled into by Russians that had an affinity for torture but no dentistry degree. 'Pain' just didn't cover it. Not even 'white-hot-blinding-pain-that-made-a-grown-man-scr eam-like-a-wounded-animal' covered it; even though that's exactly what it was. Deeks almost wished he was a kid again, just waiting for the next drunken beating to start. That was less excruciating than this by far. He thought he knew pain; especially because of the abuse. And, not surprisingly, he was wrong.

He had probably also been wrong when he kissed Kensi—especially when they were being watched and listened to by their co-workers—but the moment had felt right. He had been tired of skirting around each other, tired of the dance they did to avoid confronting any feelings for each other. It had gotten worse after he had been undercover with Monica. And with Kensi constantly bringing Monica up like the jealous girl she was afraid to admit she was, Deeks finally kissed her like he's been wanting to do for close to three years now.

Deeks' thoughts broke as the drill stopped buzzing and the ugly metal brace was pulled from his mouth. He felt blood pool in his mouth, its metallic taste coating his tongue. He gathered up the blood in his mouth and spat it out; right onto his torturer's shoes, which promptly resulted in a rock-solid punch to his jaw, which hurt a hell of a lot more than normal, due to the crude mouth surgery job. Sidorov walked in yet another circle around his chair. He leaned down next to Deeks' ear.

"Are there anymore undercover agents who know about the bombs?" Sidorov asked quietly, deadly calm.

"No," Deeks replied as firmly as he could with his mouth cut and bleeding.

"Is Quinn an undercover agent?" Sidorov asked, and Deeks noticed the slightest hitch in the Russian's voice as he said 'Quinn'.

"When are you gonna get that no means no?" Deeks growled. "She's not any undercover agent that I know of. I don't know any Quinn,"

As he spoke, Deeks looked up through the dirty glass doors that separated him and Sam. He saw Sam tense up at the mention of Michelle's alias, then relax slightly when Deeks didn't say anything to compromise her. Deeks felt a small rush of anger at the older agent. He hated the fact that Sam barely gave him an ounce of trust, despite how long Deeks' had been with NCIS. Deeks had done countless of reckless, stupid, life-risking things he never would've done for the LAPD. But that's because the cops at the LAPD had never felt like family, not like his team at OSP. So, sure, he'd never been a SEAL, never been tortured like Sam had before, but he wasn't disloyal or a traitor. And the fact that Sam thought Deeks would give Michelle up—give his wife up—all because he was experiencing a little bit of pain, it made Deeks furious. And all the more determined to hold out.

He knew the next few hours or days—or however long it took for the rest of the team to find them—would be long and painful. He knew Sidorov and his torturing goons would get more and more creative until they got the answers they wanted to hear. Hell, he even knew there was a pretty good chance they wouldn't make it out of this alive. But if he could focus on the few really good things in his life…surfing, Monty…Kensi. If he could focus on her, if he could focus on keeping that promise to her, focus on getting back to her, he would make it through this.

So he thought about her as they stuck that awful brace back in his sore mouth and the whirring of the drill started up again. He thought about her as they drilled another tooth, another soft spot in his gums, another nerve that sent pain lancing, head to toe, like fire. He thought about how soft her dark hair had felt beneath his calloused fingertips as he kissed her. He thought about the lines of her jaw, the curve of her neck, the softness of her skin. He thought about those beautiful mismatched eyes, staring up into his as he pulled away from her incredibly soft, warm lips.

And he remembered exactly what she smelled like, too. Just like sunshine and gunpowder. Two of his favorite things.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-

The brief relief Sam felt when the currents of electricity stopped racing through his body went away as Sidorov and his torturing goon moved in on Deeks. A seed of fear started growing in the pit of his stomach. Not just fear for his team-mate's life, but fear that the torture would be too much for Deeks to handle. Sam knew what torture felt like. He knew what the unimaginable pain that torture brought felt like. He knew the feeling of utter and complete aloneness that accompanied torture, whether you were with someone or not. He knew what it felt like to accept that death was probably going to be the only option for surviving.

But Deeks didn't know.

And that's part of what scared Sam the most. He knew that Callen and Kensi would come for them. But what shape they would find them in was impossible to tell. Even if Deeks didn't give any information up, the toll it would take on him…Sam couldn't even bear to finish the thought.

The second Sam heard 'Quinn' from behind the glass doors that separated him from Deeks, he broke from his thoughts. He watched Deeks carefully. Thankfully, his wife's cover stayed intact, as Deeks told Sidorov some lie about investigating drugs and not knowing any Quinn. Though there was a small part of him that felt bad—maybe even guilty—for not trusting Deeks fully, he couldn't help it. Sure, they'd been working together for a while now, and Deeks had done plenty of crazy things to ensure the safety of the team and his partner—like jumping in to save Sam from drowning not that long ago—but Sam still didn't trust him like he trusted G. He wasn't even quite sure why he didn't fully trust Deeks. Despite not liking Deeks' hairstyle choices, Sam knew it was deeper than that. He figured that it had something to do with the fact that Deeks wasn't a soldier.

Sure, Kensi had never been in the military and neither had Callen. But Kensi's father had been a Marine and so had her ex-fiancé. Sam knew she had lost them both—though in different ways—and she just understood. And Callen…well Callen was a long story. He'd lost his sister, his mom. He'd been shot and miraculously survived. Callen was just Callen. But Deeks… Sam knew that Deeks had a childhood he'd rather not talk about. And he was a damn good cop, especially undercover—not that Sam would admit any of this face to face. But that's all Sam had seen of Deeks so far. He hadn't seen anything that screamed warrior to him. Sam wished he didn't feel this way. Deeks was a good cop, despite his hairstyle choices and inappropriate jokes. But until Sam saw something that made him change his mind…

Unfortunately, he realized that moment might be upon him sooner than he thought when he heard a drill start up. Then he heard Deeks scream. And Sam knew that for as long as he lived—which probably wouldn't be long at this rate—he would never be able to get that scream out of his head. It was pure agony, the sound of an animal in pain. Sam could see, through the dirty glass, Sidorov's guy drilling into Deeks' mouth. And Deeks continued to scream. Sam just wished it would stop. He wanted them to come back into his 'room' and torture him again. Deeks hadn't been torture before, and it was already bad. Sam didn't know how long Deeks would last. Didn't know how long until Deeks told them something they didn't want to hear.

So Sam was surprised, when they stopped drilling, when they repeated their questions, that Deeks kept his same answers. He told them, as he stared at Sam, that he didn't know any Quinn. Even when they drilled again, took the brace out again, the answers never changed. And they kept drilling. Deeks kept screaming. The answers stayed the same. They hit Deeks when he joked. They drilled his mouth when he didn't give them the answers they wanted. They did this until Sam watched as Deeks finally slipped into unconsciousness.

The Russians didn't even bother him. Instead, they shut off the lights, and Sam heard their footsteps echo away into the distance.

But Sam knew it was only the beginning.

So there's chapter three! I know it wasn't super long, but they'll get longer the next few chapters. Next chapter, the search will begin, a little more tortured Deeks and Sam, and Kensi will have a few heart-to-hearts. With who? That's for you to guess =)

So, we didn't really get an answer as to why Sam doesn't trust Deeks, so this was sort of my interpretation. I would love to hear your guys' take on it!

Tell me what you guys think so far. Anything I should change, details I got wrong, things that didn't seem in-character, all is helpful to make this story better.

Thanks for reading!

-DaughterOfPoseidon333