AN: Here it is, the final chapter. Thanks so much for coming along on the journey! One more thank-you to everyone who has favorited, followed, and/or reviewed this story. I'd love your feedback on where I ultimately take our favorite couple. Now, without further ado…
Fourteen months later…
This was their child. Their baby. Nine months of love, sacrifice, planning, and not a little bit of pain and suffering resulted in the birth of Protect Yourself Academy of Self-Defense. It had been five months since they'd opened the doors to the school and Deeks had no regrets.
He worked at their school full-time, six days a week. He taught scheduled classes throughout the day and gave private small-group or individual lessons some mornings and evenings. When Deeks wasn't teaching, he was developing ideas to increase business. Kensi taught two classes, one with him, every week and insisted on helping with the books and other managerial tasks.
They worked with people of all ages, from children to the elderly, and with families. Given their combined skills sets, there wasn't much they couldn't teach, so they offered it all: situational awareness, basic self-defense, use of untraditional but available weapons, and countless martial arts and other physical combat maneuvers. In addition, they both became certified to teach small firearms use for those clients with an interest.
They had no paid staff yet, but several veterans volunteered in response to the fliers they'd hung at the VA. In exchange for a meal while they were there and the use of the space to maintain or improve their own skills between classes (the area that had been used for live entertainment in the bar was the perfect size for a mini gym, where Deeks and Kensi kept a variety of equipment), the vets took turns wearing pads and playing the role of "bad guy" for students to practice their moves. When necessary, a couple provided supervision in the play room upstairs. Two in particular were earning quite the reputation for the way they voiced characters when reading favorite books aloud to captivated children.
After their discussion a little over a year ago, Deeks and Kensi kept their promises. They also formalized some of them, in the form of wedding vows, less than two months later. The sunset ceremony on the beach in front of their mothers, closest friends, and dog had been as magical as they had imagined. Deeks had continued working with LAPD and NCIS until Kensi started her leave seven months into their marriage, having secured a job as an instructor in a sniper training program.
Kensi had taken her promises to heart and investigated a number of possible post-OSP career options, ultimately choosing sniper instructor because the timing of the offer and the start of the job most closely matched their timeline to be out of the field within a year. She'd made it out in nine months, aligning perfectly with when their school was nearly ready to open.
They timed it so that Kensi's leave from NCIS started the same day Deeks' resignation from OSP and LAPD took effect. Having heard the rumors in the weeks before, Detective Whiting contacted him a few times and tried to convince Deeks to stay with LAPD and join her in IAB, but he wouldn't entertain the offer. As a parting gift on his last day he gave her a certificate for six free classes for her son.
Kensi breezed into the small office at the back of the academy with a sack of food in hand and dropped a quick kiss on his lips before settling herself in her chair.
"Right on time," Deeks said. They ate dinner here twice a week, on the evenings they closed later to appeal to clientele who worked nine-to-five. Today was Kensi's day to bring the meal. "What do we got?"
"Burgers. Baby's Badass Burgers, to be specific."
"Ooh, yum," Deeks raved as he pulled the sandwiches from the bag. He left the order of fries behind but folded down the sides of the paper to access them easily. "And don't say it," he warned his wife.
"What?" Kensi feigned ignorance.
"How cool 'Blye's Bad-Ass Beatdowns' would have been for the name of the academy."
"Would've been," she muttered before taking a huge bite of her burger.
"Yeah, no, right up there with 'Kensi's Kick-Ass Klasses,' which was wrong on so many levels," Deeks said with a grin.
Once she chewed and swallowed, she asked, "How was your day?"
"Good. Great, actually. You remember the little boy I mentioned? André, the one who hasn't been able to separate from his mother?"
"She's been participating in the class too, right next to him? Has to basically do everything first, before he'll even try it?"
"Yep, that's the one. Even though we've been through the same routine for the past three weeks, today he finally took my hand when I offered it and joined the class without his mother."
"Deeks, that is great!"
"He also has quite a set of lungs on him, as it turns out. The best we'd been able to do before now was get him to say in his regular voice, 'No, you're not my family, get away from me.' But today he screamed it at top volume. His mother nearly fell off her chair, right before she started to cry. He practically got a standing ovation from all the other kids and parents."
"Aww, baby, I'm so proud of you," Kensi gushed as she kissed his cheek.
"It may not be saving the world from a global pandemic or nuclear holocaust, but—"
"But it's important work just the same. You're giving little André the tools to save himself should he ever need to. That's a big deal, Deeks. And I'm glad we're doing it."
"Yeah, it was pretty cool. Might have had to hold back a tear or two myself," Deeks said as he messed with his hair. "I just wish you could be here all the time too, share some of these moments with me."
"We'll get there. Might not be for another year or so, but you're doing fantastic growing the business and bringing in new clients." Kensi reached into the sack for some of the fries they were sharing. "But I actually did want to talk to you about my job."
Deeks went on alert at the sound of Kensi's voice. It was the one she used when she wasn't sure how he was going to react to whatever she was about to say.
"Shoot," he said, as he did every time he prompted her to share stories from sniper school. The fact that it didn't result in her usual eye roll worried him.
"I know when I accepted the position, we were both aware that it might not be as…exciting as I would have liked," she started.
Deeks put down his burger. "But we agreed that given the timing it was the best option, and even if you didn't love it, you should be able to stick with it for a couple of years until the school takes off and there's enough business for you to work here full time too," he reminded her, hoping she wasn't about to say what he feared.
"I'm sorry, Deeks, but I just can't do it. It's so boring. The same thing, week in and week out. And it's not very challenging work because the students are already good at what they do; I feel like I could sleepwalk through the day and no one would notice. You know how much I love shooting, so I really thought I would be okay with it, but I'm not. I'm sorry," she said again.
"So what are you saying, that you want to quit sniper school? After barely five months?"
"Yes," she said slowly, obviously reluctant to say what came next. "There's an opening at—"
Deeks recalled that during a recent dinner with Nell and Eric, they learned that the latest recruit had just washed out of OSP. "Kens," he cut her off, slightly desperate. "You promised me a year. That you would try something else for a year before thinking about going back to NCIS."
"Baby, that's not what I was thinking! I have every intention of keeping my word. And to be honest, I'm nowhere near ready to give up life as a civilian."
"Wait, what? You're not? Then why are you acting so weird?"
"Because of what I want to do next."
"Which is?"
"A couple of this week's trainees are from LAPD. They told me they're looking to hire a new instructor at the police academy."
Deeks' brows furrowed. "I don't get it, why are you freaking out over that—you'd be a shoe in. It would be perfect for you. A lot more variety there, there's no way you'd get bored. And plenty of the trainees will offer you more than enough of a challenge."
"You'd be okay with me working at LAPD's police academy? Next to a lot of the same people who trained you?"
"What do I care? They'd be lucky to have you, Kensi."
"It's just—some of the stories you've told me about your time there, I didn't think you'd be thrilled with the idea."
He laughed. "Baby, they'll hold our relationship against you, not me. As a matter of fact, you might want to introduce yourself as Blye and not Blye-Deeks at the interview," he half-joked. "But seriously, if you don't mind several months of head-shaking and people wondering why the hell you married a wild-card big-mouth joker like me, you'll be fine."
In fact, she was better than fine. Just a few weeks into her time as an LAPD police academy instructor, Kensi knew she'd found what she'd been afraid she never would: a career she loved outside of NCIS that protected people, was meaningful and important, kept her interest, challenged her, was exciting, and most important, was no more likely to get her killed than the average secretarial gig.
Kensi was a hard worker with an excellent skill set. She'd learned while she was a sniper instructor that she enjoyed teaching adults, and that she was good at it. Today had been her six-month review at the LAPD academy. She had expected it to go well, and it did. There were a couple of things she hadn't expected, though. After a few stops, she was on her way home from work to talk to Deeks about them.
When she opened the front door, she could smell dinner cooking. The time they'd spent in the kitchen during their recuperation hadn't been in vain. Combined with their more predictable hours, one or both of them managed to cook a couple of times a week. Friday nights were reserved for Deeks' Famous Fajitas.
He only taught classes at Protect Yourself on Friday mornings now, having found that most people preferred to keep Fridays after work free and were less likely to sign up for a recurring class at that time. He didn't mind, as business more than made up for it during the rest of the week.
Closing the door behind her and stopping to give Monty some love when he approached, Kensi sniffed the air and said, "Steak fajitas tonight?"
"Got it in one," her husband replied from the kitchen. "I had a brilliant idea today, so be prepared to be amazed next Friday."
"Oh?"
"As I was shopping for the steak, I had a sudden yen for bulgogi," he said the word in a sing-song voice and wiggled in Kensi's bulgogi dance as he did so. "On the way home I wondered why I couldn't use good old fire meat as the protein in fajitas. Decided there's no reason not to."
While he spoke, Kensi crossed the living room and quickly put a bag in the freezer. A few more steps had her directly behind Deeks, and she turned his face toward hers to kiss him hello. "You've been snacking on the peppers."
She returned to the fridge and pulled out and opened a couple of beers, handing one off to Deeks. "Ah, you much prefer the taste of a cold cerveza on my tongue, don't you?"
Kensi smiled. It had been a very thorough kiss hello, and he wasn't wrong. Taking a pull on her beer, she realized something. "Did I see a bottle of champagne in the fridge?"
"You most certainly did. I anticipated you would have an outstanding six-month review and we'd have something to celebrate." He paused in his ministrations over the stove. "Does the fact that you just snuck a half gallon of rocky road into the freezer mean I was wrong?"
Kensi was only mildly surprised that he knew what she tried to casually tuck into the freezer moments ago, down to the size and the flavor. As Deeks had suggested the day they'd hashed out their plans for the future, they'd made it a point to maintain most of the skills that had been so necessary in their previous line of work. Deeks powers of observation remained as sharp as they ever were.
Instead she made an incredulous face and said, "About my review? No, you were right." She kissed him again, lingering even more this time because the combination of Deeks and Mexican beer was quite appealing. "I appreciate your confidence in me."
"That's my girl," he whispered, stealing one more quick peck. Turning his attention back to the fajitas he asked, "Then what's with the ice cream? I know for a fact you're not due for your lady phase this weekend."
"While we eat," she said, getting plates and glasses from the cabinets and setting the table.
A few minutes later as they dug into dinner, Deeks said, "So spill. What's up?"
Kensi continued to pile meat, veggies, and cheese onto a tortilla and said, "The review went really well. They're more than satisfied with my performance, and the ratings I got from the new officers are very good." The LAPD training program was a rigorous and demanding twenty-eight weeks in length. Kensi had begun shortly after the current class started and cycled through many of the courses with them, teaching alongside established instructors, in order for the commanding officers to assess what areas she would specialize in for subsequent classes.
Most new faculty came in with one or two key skills they could teach, and started in their rotations immediately. For people like Kensi, many of whom came from federal backgrounds, this assessment period was required. Part of her review today was to assign her to more permanent courses. "They assigned me to firearms training, special tactics, and Spanish."
Deeks put his hand to his chest in ersatz shock. "What? No driving courses! I'm stunned!"
"Shut up," she laughed.
"Spanish was a gift," Deeks said, serious again. "Since firearms and special tactics are such big-deal, heavy classes. Gives you a bit of a break."
Kensi nodded. "I was happy to get tactics. I thought they might make me prove myself in self-defense for a while before giving me that. I figured firearms was a no-brainer, considering how many I've been trained to use, not to mention my certifications to teach small firearms and sniper rifles. And yeah, Spanish should be a nice change of pace."
"That's only three. I thought instructors teach four courses each?"
"Well, the reason I was late, aside from making an ice cream run, was because after my review they asked me to stay for a meeting with some other people."
Deeks raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "Who? And why?"
"Lieutenant Bates and Chief of Detectives Slatterly."
Deeks choked on the food he'd just put in his mouth.
After he swallowed and chased it down with a long sip of beer, Kensi explained, "They want to add a course in undercover work for hand-picked new officers and established cops, and they asked me to write a curriculum, describe what kind of skills and abilities they should be looking for in the recruits, and ideal staffing requirements and qualifications."
"Holy shit, Kens that's incredible!" He leaned over and planted an enthusiastic kiss on her lips.
She beamed at him. "That'll take up the rest of my time for now. If and when they go forward with it, or likely some version of it, that'll be my fourth class."
"Baby, I'm so proud of you. That really is amazing."
"Thank you Deeks," she said, laying a hand on his thigh.
"Don't thank me, you did this all on your own. Hell, you did this despite my reputation there."
"Stop. There's nothing wrong with your reputation at the police academy. They may remember you were a smart-ass, but they also remember you as intelligent, quick on your feet, and unafraid to try anything. None of the instructors you had were at all surprised when I told them you held your own on a team of specially-trained federal agents for a decade. And I wasn't thanking you for the compliment. I was thanking you for helping me realize that there is life beyond NCIS. I think the last time I was this excited about work was when I made OSP."
"Really? Not even when you talked about having a tiger as a partner and going through a door, spitting lead, shouting, 'NCIS, bitches!'"
Kensi rolled her eyes but smiled, "Okay, if that had actually happened, that's the level of excitement we're talking about here, yes."
"So overwatch in an RV kind of giddiness, then," he teased.
"Definitely close. That was pretty awesome."
He picked up Kensi's hand and kissed the knuckle just above her wedding rings. She wore both to work some days, depending on what she would be doing. "Well thank you for taking the leap of faith with me. I know it wasn't easy for you."
"It wasn't as hard as it would have been without you to come home to every day. Not to mention support and encourage me. I love you Deeks, and taking those leaps with you have been some of the best decisions of my life." She held his eyes for a few more beats and gave his hand a slight squeeze. "Speaking of decisions, I know we said that long term I would plan to work full time at our academy with you, but—"
"But nothing, baby. You are where you belong. You love it there, and you're safe. That's all I ever wanted. When it's time, we'll hire someone to work at the school with me. Besides, we're not going to get health insurance anywhere near as good as you do with LAPD."
"Are you sure? I know I'm not the only one who really enjoys us working together."
"Of course. I love you too, Kens, so much. And if you keep sweet-talking me like that, we're going to have to let Monty finish dinner and move this conversation into the bedroom."
"Not yet," Kensi said as she pulled away and focused on her food again. She loaded another tortilla and continued, "In addition to stopping for ice cream, I also swung by the mission on my way home."
"What for?"
"To hand in my letter of resignation. My leave ends in a few weeks and I needed to let them know my intent."
He smiled, joy mixed with relief that her time with NCIS was finally and officially over. "Why didn't you tell me you were going? I would have gone with you, said hi to everyone."
"I wanted it to be a surprise. I mean it shouldn't have been news to you that I wasn't going to go back to NCIS, but I wanted it to be a done deal when I told you today."
Silence settled over them as they concentrated on their food for a little while, each thinking about Kensi's news and what it would mean for their future plans. Deeks pushed his plate away and said, "I'd love to help you with that undercover curriculum if you want."
"That would be great. I was actually, uh…hoping you could be a little more involved though."
"More? Like what?"
"Like come on board and help me teach it. I think it would be perfect to have a male and female instructor, and you're the best undercover operator I know. It would be part time for you, and not even every week."
"I already have a full-time job," he smiled. "Or did you forget the academy I work at?"
"Uh, no, you slacker. Have you forgotten I've been holding down a full-time job and putting in hours at our school for nearly two years now? There's no reason you can't do the reverse. Plus it'll be a little more time we can work together."
Deeks' face contorted as he considered the veracity of her words. "Yeah, no. You got me there. So I guess I'm in, if LAPD will take me back."
"I don't think that will be a problem, especially if I start dropping hints on Bates now. It's going to be a while before this is anywhere near ready to run, anyway. They're looking at three months, but I think it'll be closer to six."
"Ah, you've learned well the bureaucracy that is the LAPD, grasshopper."
"Besides," Kensi added nonchalantly, "if you're one of the instructors, I don't have to worry the course will be ruined when I go on maternity leave."
His mouth was empty this time but Deeks choked anyway, "Wh-what? Kensi, are you…what are you saying? Are you pregnant?" As far as he knew, Kensi was still using birth control. He doubted she would have stopped without telling him. But accidents did happen, even on the Pill.
"No. But remember when I said I assumed I would wake up one day and realize I was ready to have a baby?"
"Yeah, of course. Today was that day?"
"No. Turns out it didn't happen that way."
Tickled with the turn in their conversation, Deeks asked, "Then how did it happen?"
"We had just finished teaching the kids' Saturday morning class. I was talking to one of the parents when Apple Ericson went all in on a kick and fell over. She startled herself and started to cry. Before her mother could get there, you were kneeling next to her, calming her down and making her laugh, and…doing exactly what I always imagined you would do for our kids. And then, bam!
"Bam?"
"Bam! It was like my ovaries did a summersault and started producing I-need-to-have-a-baby-NOW hormones."
He thought back to that day. "Wait a minute! Was that the day you…we…in the office, after closing?" Kensi had been extremely passionate that afternoon and barely waited until they locked the front door before she tried to get his clothes off.
She actually blushed. "What can I say? It was quite the turn on."
Deeks shook his head in amazement, recalling some of the more noteworthy moments of that experience when he realized something. "That was weeks ago, why are you only telling me now?"
"Because I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a temporary thing. I didn't want to say something only to have the feeling go away."
"But it didn't."
"Nope," she confirmed with a pop. "So I went to the gynecologist last week to get the all-clear and—wait, I have something for you." Kensi got up and scurried down the hall. He heard a door open and close, and in seconds she was back. She placed a shoebox on the table in front of him. "I was going to wrap this and give it to you as a little present to tell you, but then…"
"You thought you'd slip it into the undercover class discussion."
She shrugged, "It seemed like as good a way as any. I actually did have that thought about maternity leave on the way back tonight. Given the possible timing if we start trying now."
He shook the package, "What's in the box?"
"Do not even start with that, Deeks. Open it," she commanded.
He did, and found a bottle of prenatal vitamins, two packs of birth control pills, and a box of home pregnancy tests. "I feel compelled to sing that song from Sesame Street, 'One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn't belong,'" he sang as he held up Kensi's packets of birth control.
She laughed and took them from him. Opening both she said, "This one has a week of birth control left and then a week of placebo. This one is next month's prescription. I'm going to finish taking these," Kensi waved the half-empty plastic case. "You can decide what to do with these," she held up the other.
"Like what?"
Kensi shrugged. "Just because I'm ready doesn't mean you are. You didn't want to have kids right away after we left NCIS. We've had almost two years of Kensi and Deeks time, but is that enough for you?"
Deeks took the full packet of pills from Kensi and closed it. He met her eyes and spoke softly, "We've spent the past couple of years doing everything we can to make our dreams come true. We got married. You left a career you loved and found a safer one that you love just as much. I've been building our business. We work together part time at our school and play together when we're not at work. And we may very well work together even more at the police academy in a few months. You, my beautiful, wonderful, kick-ass wife have just told me you want to have our baby, and you're asking me if I'm ready? Kensi I have dreamed of this day." He blinked purposefully to keep the tears from falling. "I hate to repeat myself, but I said these words another time one of my dreams came true, and they work here too. Yes. Absolutely. What the hell. Yes."
Just like that day, Kensi threw herself laughing into Deeks' arms. This time she was the one who muttered words of disbelief, "Did we really just agree we're going to try to get pregnant?"
"No take-backsies," Deeks warned warmly.
"Never," she assured him.
When they parted, Kensi started to put the items back in the box. She put her current birth control prescription aside and picked up the full one. "I guess we can throw this out, then."
Deeks grabbed it from her hand, "Are you kidding me, I heard these things are great for the skin. Maybe I should try them. I've been feeling a little dry. What do you think?"
Kensi laughed out loud. "I hate to repeat myself too, but you are an idiot."
She began clearing the table, and Deeks helped with the cooking detritus, saying, "The faster we get this done, the faster we get to baby-making."
"My doctor said I should finish this cycle of pills first. But that means that technically after next week, the baby-making will commence."
"So why did you buy the super-sized ice cream?" One of Kensi's favorite go-to snacks when she was in a bad mood or when she had her period was rocky road.
"I wanted to have it available in case I started having cravings," she said.
"Kensalina, you just told me no baby-making will result from tonight's activities."
"Are you going to argue with the future mother of your child about something as mysterious as a woman's body?"
"Yeah, no. No. Definitely no."
"Good. Besides, I think now that we've made this decision, we need to practice this weekend, a lot, for when we actually are trying to make a baby. Rocky road will help me maintain my energy level."
The kitchen taken care of in record time, Kensi kicked off her shoes toward the living room. Deeks followed suit while Kensi started to undo his belt, pulling him down the hall to their bedroom.
"Energy's good. Practice is great. We want to be able to put all our best effort into little Princess Sunshine," Deeks said, yanking his shirt over his head.
"You mean little Athena? Or Apollo if it's a boy."
Deeks stopped, serious and certain. "How about a little Faith?"
Kensi blinked at the sudden change. It took half a heartbeat for her brain to catch up to what he'd just said and what he meant. She ran her hand down the side of his face and to his neck, eyes never leaving his. "Yeah, a little Faith is all we need."
About a year later, photo announcements arrived at Protect Yourself, LAPD, the Office of Special Projects, and the homes of family and friends:
Kensi and Marty Deeks Proudly Welcome
Faith Ann Deeks
(Ninja Assassin In-Training and Future Proprietor of
Protect Yourself Academy of Self-Defense)
Born December 20, 2020 ~ 10:01 AM
7lbs, 12 oz ~ 21 inches