Chapter 4

"Ugh." Kensi woke up when she almost rolled off the couch. She groaned and sat up rubbing her eyes. For a few seconds she was disoriented. As she sat there, certain memories of the previous evening began to drift back.

Deeks. Dinner. Talking. Laughing. Fun.

Was he still there? "Deeks?" she said quietly. "Are you here?" Of course, he wasn't. Somehow that made her a little sad.

He had cleared off the coffee table and put the comforter over her. That meant he'd seen her out-of-control bedroom. Oh well. Love me, love my mess. No,no, I mean like me, like my mess. Why did that pop into my head? Okay, so Deeks has good qualities. He's not completely full of BS.

But what about that macho performance for the other cops? It set her teeth on edge as she thought about it. Was he really jealous? She'd never seen him act like that.

She yawned widely and padded to her room. Her clothes came off and were tossed in the general direction of the dirty clothes hamper. Some went in, some did not. Then she fell into bed and pulled the comforter up to her chin.

I'll analyze Deeks another time. There's an unlimited supply of material there.

But sleep did not return easily to Kensi. She tossed and turned and punched her pillow several times as thoughts of Deeks crept into her mind. No matter what I do, he's always there. Why is he so clingy? He's like a caveman trying to stake a claim on me. Would that be such a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not.

She had already observed how other women came onto him and if she was completely honest with herself, she did not like it. Nope, not one little bit. Several times they had been out questioning witnesses and she'd almost butted in and said, "He's with me."

Thank goodness I do exercise self-control . . . sometimes.

The Next Morning

"You left me," said Kensi. She hung her jacket on the back of the chair and stood there with both hands on her hips.

"Excuse me?" said Deeks.

"Last night. I woke up and you were gone."

"Technically, it was this morning."

"So?" she challenged.

"Did you, uh, want me to spend the night? Because . . . you were asleep. On your couch. Well, on my shoulder before that. We couldn't exactly have a conversation with you snoring away there."

The look on Kensi's face was priceless. "I do not snore!" she said in a raised voice. A low-level techie walking by glanced their way. When Kensi scowled at him, the guy quickly looked down and scurried away.

Deeks grinned. "It was kind of adorable."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"You needed your rest. And we have all day to talk. It's one of the things I do best."

"You are an excessive talker. Is there ever a time when you aren't flapping your lips?"

Deeks grinned. "Only when I'm sleeping."

Callen came around the corner. "Morning, guys." He sat down beside Kensi.

"Morning," they both answered.

"Hey, did you and Sam go to that steakhouse you were arguing about yesterday in the gym?" asked Kensi.

"As a matter of fact, we did. It wasn't bad. I'd give it an eight out of ten. You and Deeks should try it, see what you think."

"Maybe we will. Where is it?" asked Deeks.

"On Alameda, next to that theatre that only shows horror movies."

"Oooh, right up Kensi's alley," laughed Deeks.

"What did you guys do last night?" asked Callen. Time to see if they slip up on anything.

Kensi braced herself. She had no idea what nonsense Deeks might bring up.

"Well, I can't speak for Kensi – his eyes darted to her – but I went for a run at the beach, then ate a burger, watched some TV and went to sleep."

Kensi spoke up before Deeks added anything else. "My night was pretty much the same, except for a little run-in at the convenience store." She briefly related that incident and pulled up her sleeve to reveal the nasty scrape on her arm. "And I got one on my knee, too." She tried to gauge Callen's reaction. She had a feeling he wasn't asking out of politeness. Did he suspect something about her and Deeks?

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt," said Callen.

"Hey, where's Sam?" asked Kensi. She wanted to steer the talk to something other than her and Deeks.

"Taking the kids to school. Michelle had to go into work early."

"Mr. Callen, would you kindly step over here?" called Hetty from her desk. Callen gave them one last look and pushed to his feet. Kensi and Deeks were left on their own for a few minutes.

"What was that?" asked Kensi in a low voice.

"What was what?"

She gave him a threatening look. "You know what. You didn't want Callen to know we were together last night."

Deeks glanced over at Hetty and Callen. "Callen thinks there's something up with us. He senses our thing. If he feels it compromises the team he might try to separate us."

Kensi looked puzzled. "Our thing. Is there a thing?"

"There could be," said Deeks. "That's for you to decide. I know where I stand on the subject. Actually, I'm sitting at the moment."

"Ever the class clown, aren't you?"

"Deny it all you want, but you know it's there," said Deeks with a nod. "You need to acknowledge it so we can move forward."

Kensi risked a look at Hetty's desk. Callen was getting up. "This discussion is not over," she said in a low voice.

"No, it's just getting started. It has to build up, layer upon layer," said Deeks. "I look forward to continuing it at every opportunity." He seemed entirely too pleased with himself.

"Oh yeah? Here's the thing about things: they don't always work out."

"What doesn't work out?" asked Callen as he sat down again.

Deeks spoke up. "Kensi and houseplants. She killed another one. May it rest in peace. She's a serial offender. I can be your public defender, if you like."

She shrugged and held up both thumbs. "No green thumbs here. Guess I should stick with silk flowers." She looked at Deeks. It was uncanny how quickly he could improvise.

Callen was quite sure that was not what they had been discussing.

Suddenly, a loud, peculiar noise burst forth from the landing. Eric stood there in his cargo shorts and sandals holding some unknown instrument at his lips.

"What the hell, Eric?" said Callen.

"What did you think of that?" he asked with a smile.

"I'd rather not think about it," said Kensi.

"That would wake the dead," said Deeks. "My ears are still ringing."

"Mr. Beale, was that absolutely necessary?" asked Hetty as she got up from her desk.

"Well, I don't know if it was necessary, but it was different."

"Indeed it was. Do not let it happen again or you'll be wearing long pants up there in Ops," warned Hetty.

Eric gasped and shrank back in fear. He had sensitive legs and detested real pants. "Copy that. But just so you know, that was the sound that the Oolawangu duck of Namibia makes during the southern spring migration."

"Is that even a real thing?" asked Deeks.

Kensi shook her head. "I don't think that's a real thing."

Without missing a beat Eric said, "That's what the website description said."

"I think the only thing that migrated south was your money," said Callen.

"Possibly." He paused as an idea came to him. "Maybe I'll send it to my nephews. That'll drive my sister nuts."

"Do you have something for us, Mr. Beale?" asked Hetty.

"Yeah, two incidents last night at the Los Angeles Museum of Ancient History." Eric came down to where the others were assembled and used his tablet to bring up images on the big monitor.

"Shortly before closing last night there was a drive-by shooting at the front of the museum. No one was hit and it seems it was only an act of vandalism. Witnesses across the street at the Pearl of Thailand restaurant reported seeing a dark van speeding away after the shooting."

"Could be some gang initiation," said Sam.

"Or somebody trying to distract the museum staff from the high-profile event tomorrow night," said Callen.

"Eric, what was the other incident?" asked Kensi.

"Around 2 a.m., the museum's security company reported the silent alarm being tripped. When LAPD arrived to investigate, they discovered a small fire had broken out in a basement storage area next to the janitorial closet. The fire department was able to extinguish it before any major damage was done. However, it was enough to trigger the sprinkler system, which in turn flooded half the basement."

"You said next to the janitorial closet. What about the cleaning crew?" asked Deeks. "Could they have been sloppy or was somebody smoking inside the building?"

"What time did they finish up?" asked Kensi.

Eric tapped his tablet. "They usually finish the museum around one-twenty, one-thirty. Their next assignment is the office building across the park from the museum."

"Sam and I will check for surveillance video around the restaurant and along that street. Kensi, Deeks, interview the cleaning people. See if they noticed anything unusual last night," said Callen.

"We're on it," said Deeks.

Callen and Sam headed for Sam's Challenger. "You were right," said Callen.

"About what?"

"About a couple things."

"Enlighten me," laughed Sam.

"Okay, Rudy's is a better steakhouse than that place we went last night."

"Rudy's will always be my favorite," said Sam.

"And you're right about Kensi and Deeks. Before you came in, I witnessed a telepathic exchange between them. It was . . . very interesting."

Sam nodded. "I knew it. We can't this whatever with them disrupt the team."

"Although, being able to read your partner isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in the field."

Sam remained unconvinced. "We'll see."

Meanwhile, Kensi and Deeks were having their own little discussion as they drove to the office of the cleaning company.

"Kensi, why do you always drive?" asked Deeks. "I'm perfectly capable of driving sometimes."

Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. "I like driving."

Deeks pointed at her. "No, you like being in control. Not only are you a control freak, you're hell on plants."

They stopped at a red light. Kensi looked over at him. "How do you know about my track record with plants?"

"Last night I saw a dead one in the garbage and two more in hospice on the kitchen window sill. I was tempted to go ahead and put them out of their misery."

She sighed. "Okay, I buy them and then get too busy to take care of them."

The light turned green and a big truck behind them laid on the horn. Kensi looked in the rearview mirror. "Really? It just turned green, you nitwit."

"Forget plants," said Deeks. "You have me now and I'm low-maintenance."

Kensi wasn't sure what to make of that. Something else to consider later.