They arrived at work separately the next morning. They hadn't seen each other since he dropped her off the night before.
Where are you? Kensi finally texts him.
Somewhere
WHERE? She's getting worried now.
Over the rainbow, jk! Stop worrying, b there soon 3
She can't help but laugh a little at this. He would say that. And of course he could read her mind from wherever he was. She smiles a little more at the heart he'd put at the end of the message. Guys usually didn't do that, but it didn't surprise her coming from Deeks.
"What are you laughing at?" Callen asks from his desk across from hers.
"Nothing, just a text message."
"From who?" Callen pushes.
"Does it matter?"
"Is it a guy?" Sam joins the interrogation about the mysterious text.
"Yes."
"Who?" Sam asks
"Not telling."
They look at each other. "Deeks." they say at the same time.
"Okay, so how much did you pay Eric to hack into my phone?" she doesn't want to give anything away because she has a feeling it was just a lucky guess, but lying would make it seem more suspicious, she couldn't lie to Callen or Sam.
"We didn't" Callen assures her.
"We know you have a 'thing'"
"There is no thing!" she says trying to sound bored from being asked/told this so many times.
"Whatever you say." Callen gives her a weird look and she's going to have to see if Deeks accidentally slipped.
"I was just asking him where he was."
"And what did he say?"
"He said, and I quote 'somewhere over the rainbow, jk, stop worrying, I'll be there soon.' Typical Deeks." Callen studies her face for a second.
"She's telling the truth." he finally concludes.
"Since when am I being interrogated at nine in the morning?"
They all just look at each other and drop it. They remember her being interrogated by Granger at a very early hour in the morning. It wasn't a good day for any of them.
"Finally." Kensi says as Deeks walks in and sets a box on his desk. She stands up, "What's that?" she tries to peek in but he puts the box lid back on and looks at her. Their faces are less than a foot apart, she narrows her eyes like she's mad. It almost fools him, so he knows Callen and Sam probably are buying it.
"You'll see. Patience, grasshopper." he receives a kick in the shin.
"Ow! That's gonna leave a mark." he says as he stops hopping on one foot. He sees her apologetic glance as she turns around. "I have to go talk to Hetty."
"I'm coming, I still have this." She pulls out the dress from last week along with the shoes.
They walk towards Hetty's office. "Ah, I was wondering when I was going to see that again."
"Sorry, I forgot about it yesterday."
"That's fine. Just sign the papers, you know the drill. And I assume you have you're papers in order, Mr. Deeks?"
"Yeah, I finalized it all this morning." He hands her an envelope and she puts it in her drawer and pulls out a box from behind her desk.
"Here you are, Mr. Deeks, all of your things are in there." Kensi hands her back the papers and then looks at him.
"Thanks, Hetty." they get back to their desks and he sets the new box next to the old ones.
"Your desk is starting to look like a storage area." Callen comments.
Kensi is standing right next to him when he opens the box Hetty gave him. She's slightly confused at first because there's just a bunch of folders. He removes those and then she sees what's in the bottom of the box; his new NCIS issued sig and holster, and his NCIS badge.
She really is surprised. Her eyes get really big and she hugs him.
"I feel like I'm missing something." Callen says. Sam nods.
Kensi lets go and reaches in for the ID and badge. She's holding them with both hands between them. She looks back up at his eyes and he takes them from her and examines them himself before tossing them over to Callen. Kensi hugs him again and then turns to look at Sam and Callen's expressions. They still had an arm around the other, his arm around her shoulder and hers around his upper torso where it had been when she'd hugged him.
Callen nods his approval but doesn't say anything.
"Glad to have you as an official one of us." Sam says. Deeks understands. He was already one of them, but was kind of the odd one out at the same time because he wasn't actually NCIS.
They both drop their arms and are just sitting down when Eric's whistle jolts them back up. They file up to ops to get their new assignment.
"This is one of the simplest sounding assignments yet. So, ex navy officers have been smuggling weapons from returning shipments. We know there's a lot, but the FBI just left us with that. They're at an abandoned warehouse just outside LA. I sent the addresses to your phones, but before you go rushing in take a look at the list of items they likely have in their possession." He has to call the last part out to them because they'd already walked out.
"This gun feels different." Deeks says holstering his new sig, along with various other weapons, just in case.
"Well it's a different gun." Kensi replies nonchalantly. He just gives her a 'duh, I know that' look.
"Hey, I recognize that look. Kens is rubbing off on you now." Callen says with a smirk. Kensi and Deeks both just laugh a little as they put on their vests. It didn't matter that they were visible now. They weren't undercover.
"Ugh." Kensi half grunts, half growls.
"What?" Deeks asks with concern.
"It won't hook on without this detaching." she says showing him her thigh holster and the clip and buckle she was referring to.
"Here." He reaches and holds the clip that's on the inside of her thigh as she fastens the buckle tight.
"Thanks." he lets go, Callen and Sam were watching this with interest, but look away quickly.
Wat wz tht? Callen texts Sam.
Idk, she didn't push him away, but neither of them even flinched at the gesture. They seemed very comfortable with that whole touching thing. Sam texts back. He was not known for short text messages.
Hmm... interesting... is the only reply Callen can come up with. Once they're all suited up they head out to separate cars, Sam's and Kensi's, because nobody wanted to try to crawl into a back seat wearing all their equipment.
Kensi and Deeks argue about radio stations until they hear Callen, Sam, and Eric disconnect them from the earwigs. They remove them just in case and put them in their cases. Hetty hadn't been too happy with Kensi having them in her pocket the last time.
"Okay, how about this then, I like this song." Kensi says hitting the seek button on the radio again.
"Yes."
The song ends almost immediately though, and a new one comes on.
"Oh, I like this song too." Kensi says and he turns up the volume. Just before the song gets to the chorus.
…..Baby you don't know me cause you're dead wrong.
Kensi starts singing the chorus.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,
Stand a little taller,
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter,
Footsteps even lighter,
Doesn't mean I'm o'er you 'cause your gone."
They've stopped at yet another light, and she feels Deeks staring at her. "What?"
"I didn't know you could sing." his eyes are really wide.
She shrugs "everyone can sing."
"Yeah, but you're like, really good!"
She tries not to blush. "I don't know." is the only reply she can get out.
"Kens," he puts a hand on her arm, "You need to accept compliments. Especially if they're true." He smiles as she shakes her head, looking down at her lap.
"I never sing in front of anyone."
"Why'd you sing in front of me then?"
"Because you won't tell." and he recognizes the voice as her one that says you're-going-to-do-this-or-be-in-pain.
"I guess not." he says, not that he really needs to say anything back, he never went against her will. "So why don't you like to sing in front of anyone?"
She looks up as the light turns green. "I don't know, I just... I don't like to be the center of attention."
"Wow, I think that's the first time I've ever heard a girl say that!" She has to laugh at this, it's true. Most girls try to be the center of attention, especially around guys.
"I never liked it, even as a kid. I always feel so nervous when everyone's watching me."
"I see, were you the one who got freaked out about class speeches?"
"yes, and I assume you were the one jumping out of your seat to go first just so you could run your mouth."
"Actually, no."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I didn't like feeling the teacher's eyes judging me. I wasn't from the nice part of town, so it was almost like it was against the rules to be good at school."
"You were afraid to get a good grade?"
"No, no. More like the teachers were afraid to give them to me. I always felt like I had to work harder to get an A then the kids from the expensive private communities. They always would double check to make sure I wasn't cheating and everything."
"Wow, that must have felt horrible."
"yeah, kinda like the bug under the microscope feeling."
Don't Hold Your Breath by Nicole Scherzinger comes on and they both quietly sing along until they get to the warehouse. Sam and Callen had apparently found a shortcut and were waiting. They put the earwigs back in and turned them on.
"Did you see the possible weapons inside?"
"Yeah, several grenades and launchers, mines, and multiple types of machine guns. That's leaving out all the other types of guns too." Kensi says as she picks up her rifle and slings it around her neck. Deeks is doing the same and soon they're all heading in.
Callen and Sam were on the other side. There were only two doors to the place and that made one thing clear, either they were going to get the guys easily, (not likely), there was going to be a fire fight, ending with, hopefully, only the bad guys dead, (very likely), or three, some sort of explosion, (also likely)
They were all on high alert as they enter the building. The second the doors open they hear the unmistakable sound of pistols.
"at least they're not the heavy duty guns." Deeks says as they crawl behind some wooden crates that make a maze inside the warehouse. One of the guys comes around the corner and Kensi takes him down.
"Got one." She informs anyone listening through the wig.
They take a left and hear two more gun shots, "Got two more here." Sam reports.
They're getting near the middle when Kensi turns around to ask him which way to go and at that second a guy comes around the corner. He doesn't even have to think of what to do. He pushes her to the ground and takes the shot just before the other guy pulls the trigger.
Kensi's eyes are wide when she gets back up off the ground. "Thanks." she breathes, still in a little shock as to how close that was.
Sam and Callen are chasing one of the guys on foot and Kensi and Deeks join in. He runs out the front door and it's soon evident why.
The second they're out the door, a mine explodes, throwing all of them to the ground. The debris starts falling and Deeks pulls Kensi into his stomach so they're laying with their chests touching and protecting their heads from the falling pieces.
Callen sees this and nudges Sam who gives him a questioning look. Callen nods over to Kensi and Deeks and smiles as he shakes his head, he sees the three foot long metal bar hit them and hopes it doesn't hurt too bad, thankfully it hit lengthwise instead of the sharp end going into them.
"Ow!" They say simultaneously as the metal bar lands on their legs, by now everything's back on the ground and they sit up to examine the damage.
"You okay?" he asks immediately.
"Yeah, you?" She says starting to sit up, which is made difficult by all the equipment they're wearing. She finally manages to get in a sitting position with her hands behind her and her legs stretched out, touching Deeks' who's in the same position. Their arms cross as they support their upper bodies.
He's the first up and helps her to her feet as she immediately detaches the thigh holster. Then she notices the guy still laying on the ground.
"Hey, you okay there?" she asks making sure she was close enough to tackle him again if he moved.
"Yes, please don't shoot!" he says, still lying flat on the ground with his hands visible. She quickly cuffs him and passes him off to Sam and Callen who are taking him back to the boat shed. She and Deeks have to wait for the S.W.A.T team along with LAPD's bomb squad to come and deactivate the remaining mines. She and Deeks move her car to a safe distance and wait. They are able to listen to the interrogation through their ear pieces.
"I know what it looks like, but I didn't set that off. They were holding me there until you came in. I ran into Gunnery Sargent Wolf a few weeks ago and I found out about this. They were trying to get me to join so I wouldn't tell. I wouldn't, so they held me there. See?" He holds up his arms that still have the raw markings of being tied or handcuffed for a long period of time.
Sam and Callen nod, he's telling the truth but now they have to start again, well that is until Hetty comes with news from Director Vance.