A/N: Short thanks to everyone - including my beta!
Yup, that's all :D
The three agents slowly got to the door Kensi had already opened. The style of the apartment was typical for the neighbourhood; you got directly into the living room, furnished with a couch, a TV and some cupboards. To the right there was an opening to the kitchen that only held a breakfast bar with some bar stools, because it was so tiny. There were two doors connecting a small bathroom with only a shower and a bedroom to the living room. The house was designed to protect witnesses and not to live in, made perfectly clear by the white walls without any decoration. In fact, there were only two colourful spots in the apartment; the beige couch and the light blue china hidden somewhere in the cupboards of the kitchen.
Even if none of the agents had suspected that someone was waiting in the safe house for them, Kensi quickly cleared all of the rooms, before she waved at the men, signalling that it was safe to come in. She closed the door behind them, locked it, and put the little golden chain in place, of which she doubted it would withstand a thief who was determined to get into the apartment. Kensi turned around again to see Sam and Callen laying Deeks on the couch, who sank thankfully into the soft seat pad. Sam glanced at his partner before he reached for some cushions and piled them up at the right side of the sofa. Callen grabbed Deeks' torso with a nod, as Sam lifted his legs so the two of them were able to lay Deeks with elevated feet on the couch. In the meantime, Kensi had placed the crutches in front of a wall and was now standing in front of her partner, who had his teeth clenched tightly together.
"Deeks? Can you tell me where exactly it hurts?" she asked with a soft voice and wished she could take at least some of the pain from him.
"Everywhere," Deeks tried to grin, but it was more a grimace than a smile.
His knee felt like someone hit it with a sledgehammer. It was impossible to localize the pain any more specifically – from the mid of his thigh he could not even tell where his knee ended and his calf started, it was just white-hot pain. Kensi smiled at him reassuringly and turned to Sam and Callen.
"We had to leave the hospital so fast I hadn't even had time to get pain meds or bandages," she explained and as soon as the words had left her mouth, Sam was already on his way into the bathroom to look through the first-aid-kit, while Callen grabbed the car keys to drive back to the hospital to get Deeks' "real" meds.
"Ask for Nurse Jane, she's informed," Kensi yelled after him, locking the door an instant after that, and then returned to Deeks' side, kneeling next to him.
Without really noticing it, she pushed the blond hair from his forehead and took his searching fingers in hers.
"Sam's looking for pain meds, it'll be better soon," she whispered to Deeks and knew that she was lying.
Given the chance that there was pain medication, it would be as tablets and they needed at least a quarter hour to show effect. Kensi hoped, although it was irrational, that Callen was able to get the meds in syringes, until she remembered something; as they had worked together with the Five-O team, Deeks had passed out while being vaccinated against small pox. Later he had said that he tripped, but with all his best will, who passed out while tripping? No, for whatever reason, Deeks was so heavily afraid of needles or syringes that he had blacked out. Kensi just wanted to press the theme again, Sam walked back into the living room, swinging a small package victoriously in his hands.
"Ibuprofen, 400 milligram," he cheered more or less while throwing the pills towards Kensi, he himself heading to the kitchen to get a glass of water for Deeks.
Kensi wrote a mental note to herself as she pressed two pills from the blister into her hand. Deeks hadn't taken any pain meds today, now she was giving him 800 milligrams of Ibuprofen and Callen was bringing her most likely morphine or another heavy-duty painkiller. The least she wanted was to overdose her partner. She heard in the background several cupboards being opened and closed, then a glass of water filling beneath the faucet. Sam came back into the living room, concern written over his face, and gave Kensi the glass of water. She waited until Deeks was at least in a position that could be described as half-sitting, before she pressed the water and the two pills into his hands. Deeks popped the meds without any comment, took two sips of the water and sunk on the couch again.
"I have to see if something happened to your knee, okay?" Kensi asked and shot him a concerned look.
His cheeks were slightly red, but she had seen him getting pale too many times today, to be relieved. That, and the fact that he was very quiet, judging by the cold sweat on his forehead, the muteness caused by pain. Sam guessed that Kensi was about to get Deeks out of his pants and that Deeks surely did not want to have any extra audience.
He glanced at his watch and decided, as it was only nine o'clock in the morning, to get some breakfast. "I'll buy us some breakfast," he said and then left the living room.
As soon as Sam was out of the door, Deeks body relaxed visibly. He was now alone with Kensi and could stop pretending that his knee didn't hurt like hell. He knew that his colleagues would never mock him, or something like that, but still, there was this certain intimacy, this thing, he shared with Kensi and did not have with the others.
Deeks cleared his throat and then looked at his partner, who was still kneeling next to him. "Hey, Kens? Thanks."
He saw that she frowned and tilted her head to the right side. "For what?"
"Well, for everything. For being at the hospital when I woke up. For staying by my side. For not pushing me last night to tell you more. For being here now," Deeks answered and dared to look up, finally reaching the last sentence.
"Always, that's what partners do. You're there for me, I'm there for you. It's that simple," Kensi stated and smiled at Deeks.
But it was not that simple. They weren't just colleagues or friends, there also was their thing. And exactly that thing made it complicated. Completely normal touching of shoulders or hands or whatever made them think about every following word. Left them searching for possible ambiguity. It's not that Kensi didn't like that, but she asked herself, if Deeks thought the way she did, if he felt the way she did. She was a brave, bold and especially strong woman, who wasn't easily thrown off track, otherwise she wouldn't be a federal agent, but Deeks' closeness changed her.
Positively.
Her walls she put up so carefully started to crumble and Deeks was able to see her true self only a handful of people knew.
