Author's Note:
Hey guys, sorry this is coming to you rather late. I hate an all-day soccer tournament an hour away, and walked away with some bruised ribs. (Consequence of being a goal keeper, I guess). So let me know what you think, what could be improved, and what you want for future chapters. Feedback is an author's best friend!
Disclaimer: Don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of its characters. Ones that do not appear on CBS are mine, however, references made to characters that have not been portrayed yet are my interpretation.
Kensi's heart never beat so fast before as when she saw her partner.
She had been in precarious situations before several times over. It came with the job of protecting the world every now and then. Held a gunpoint, traveling illegally into Romania in order to find Hetty, and finding out her the truth behind her father's death as a rogue agent- to name only a few. Kensi prepared herself all her life for this kind of job, from hot wiring a car to being able to interrogate the toughest suspects to taking down a terrorist when the fate of the world was on a ticking clock. (Okay, maybe that only happened once or twice.)
But nothing had prepared her for seeing Deeks in the state he was.
Bandages were wrapped thickly around his face, so about only half of his head was still showing. Deeks's head was lolloping lifeless to one side, as if he were a marionette waiting to come alive.
"How is he?" Kensi asked Doctor Kowalski, crossing her arms in the pure frustration that there was nothing she could do to help him but pray.
"The specialist was able to repair what was needed. His teeth were, for the most part, spared, for the drill dug mostly into his gum and to the bone," she explained.
Kensi shuddered inwardly, trying to get the image of Deeks being tortured out of her head. She never really thought of him as a serious guy, especially when they were on assignment together. Of course, when it counted, he was on the top of his game. But for this to happen to him…nobody deserved it. Much less Deeks.
"And you said that if he makes it through the night, the chances of his survival skyrocket, right?" Kensi tried to clarify, facing the nurse with one shoulder resting against the wall.
Other nurses were still moving the bed in place, trying to raise it so he sat up properly. They connected the IV, and performed all the bells and whistles. Kensi so badly wanted to sit next to him, but didn't want to get in the nurses' way.
Doctor Kowalski bit her too-heavily coated, lipstick-ridden lips, and then answered, shoving her hands deeply into her lab-coat's pockets, "I said that they go up, not that for sure he would make it out of this. I was shocked when the paramedics brought him to us alive. Sorry," she tried to apologize.
Kensi hated her hesitance, but nodded.
As soon as the nurses cleared out, she dragged a big chair over to his bedside. Sitting on the edge of the seat, Kensi rested her elbows on her knees and stared at her partner's closed eyelids. She wished dearly that he would open his eyes, revealing the baby blues. His orbs always looked like the ocean at sunrise, the first breaths of light overcoming the world, basking the sea in gentle warmth.
Kensi brushed his shaggy hair away from his eyes, just so when he did wake up, she could stare into those gorgeous eyes of his. She grabbed his hand, intertwining her fingers with his.
"Come on Deeks. Fight this. You've been through too much just to give up now."
A tear freely swam down Kensi's grime-streaked cheek. In surprise, she felt it slither down the line of her jaw. It quivered for a moment before it fell and she caught the tear on her finger tip. For a moment, she let it linger there before it disappeared.
The last man to make her cry was when Jack left her that Christmas morning. Now Deeks had done it, but in an entirely different situation. Kensi never thought on that first assignment, where they had taken down a wanted terrorist in the Darva home, that she would end up caring for his new partner so much.
"I need you to hold on Deeks," she encouraged him, even though she knew that Deeks couldn't hear her. She checked her watch, now nearing ten o'clock. The sudden realization of the day's burdening left behind them was beginning to catch up with her. Kensi had a fiducial reliance on Deeks to make it through the night.
Kensi adjusted her watch so it would wake her up every hour to check on Deeks. She planted a kiss on top of his forehead, brought her legs up beneath her, and easily drifted off to sleep, fingers still laced with Deeks's.
Sorry this was shorter, but I'm exhausted from soccer. Again, leave a review with comments, things to improve, and wants for future chapters.
