A/N: I apologize once again for the late update! I do try to stick to a weekly update, but this chapter just wouldn't go the way I wanted to. I found writing the beginning scene really hard, and then hit a brickwall with the ending.
Anyways, thank you all for the reviews, favs and alert adds! Every single one of them gets me going with the writing. Hope you enjoy this, too. Please R&R! Happy Holidays.
"I found out two really interesting things yesterday." Deeks said to change the subject after hanging up on Eric about the guy they were currently going after. He rested his elbow on the car's door so that he could face her. There was a questioning look on her face as she took her eyes off the road for a second, prompting him to carry on. "Firstly, I did some research and there was nothing in the NCIS OSP training about getting out of handcuffs."
"You researched that?" Kensi asked with a smirk. She could feel his eyes burn into the side of her face at her humorous tone. "But no, you won't find that in there."
"Another one of the many mysterious Blye skills?" His words were laced with a mix of teasing and intrigue that told her that this was something that he wasn't going to give up anytime soon.
"You could say that." She replied noncommittally.
"C'mon, you're really not going to tell me how you did it?" Deeks asked her, dropping the light heartedness and replacing it with disbelief instead.
"You really want to know?" The sigh she added made her words seem as earnest as they sounded, and if it weren't for the glint in her eyes that he spotted when she quickly looked over, he might, might, have believed her. "Magic."
"That's not funny." He said indignantly, a small pout forming on his lips and Kensi had to laugh at his childish behaviour.
"What's the second thing?" She questioned in curiosity and to get away from the current topic. It wasn't anything interesting, but she liked knowing something that would bug him until he found out, and if she had it her way, that wouldn't be for a while.
"I never thought of you as one to break the professional/personal barrier. But then again, I can see it." Deeks answered vaguely, resting his head back against his seat and staring out of the windshield in front of him. "How do you manage to get away with it?"
"What?" She asked in confusion. His words would have been more suited in the middle of a conversation, not at the start of a new one.
"Really? You're just going to sit there and deny it?" He scoffed dramatically, knowing that it would wind her up more and Kensi had to take control of all natural instincts to not reach over and punch him one.
"I can't deny it if you won't tell me what you're talking about!" There was a sharp edge to her words that was accompanied by a quick glare in his direction when Deeks took his time in responding.
"You and Callen." He simply stated before pausing when he saw her stiffen slightly, from what he assumed was surprised. Once again, she prompted him to carry on with a quick questioning look, although this time it was accompanied with curiosity and Deeks could tell that she was trying to figure out whether he was for real or guessing. "Yeah, that's right, I know. I mean, it took me about 6 months to figure it out and I'm still offended that you didn't tell me. But you guys did do a good job at keeping it on the down-low."
"Clearly not good enough." Kensi murmured after a moment.
Annoyance flooded her, not from the fact that he knew because she knew that he would have found out one day, but the fact that it had happened then. She was sure that they had kept to the rules, both departmental and their own, to keep it out of the office, so to speak. The only thing that had changed was the events of the previous day, but even then, they hadn't done anything outside of professional behaviour. At least, nothing worse than anything else that she could recall slipping up on in the past 6 months where he had still not picked up on it. Which left her with the one conclusion that she was certain was accurate.
"You didn't figure it out" She said plainly, the irritation now gone and replaced with more curiosity. "Who told you?"
"Wait, what? Why would you-? I-" Deeks stumbled in outrage as he tried to defend himself. Unfortunately for him, she knew him better than she thought she ever could after 6 months and knew that there were only a few things that could leave Marty Deeks fumbling for words. And one of them was when she directly confronted him after figuring him out much more sooner than he ever expected.
His faltering was enough for her to work through their team to come up with the answer via the process of elimination. Sam and Callen wouldn't have told him merely because of the fact that they enjoyed the LAPD Officer's ignorance on the whole subject. Hetty wasn't one for idle gossip, and even if she was, Kensi was sure that she would never let on any of their personal information to anyone else. Although Nate could sometimes let things slip when they weren't under his confidentiality, she knew that he wouldn't have in the fear of the retribution. And she sure as hell hadn't told him, which only left her with one person.
"I'm going to kill him." She muttered, sighing in exasperation. The lack of argument that she got confirmed her deduction as being correct.
"You know," Deeks began a little while later when she turned them off the main road as they got closer to Jenkins' place. "Workplace relationships are hard. Take it from me, I know."
"Are you giving me relationship advice?" Kensi asked. Initially incredulous, the whole conversation was suddenly put into perspective for her and she physically shook her head as if to clear it and get back to reality. "Wait, no. I am not talking to you about this."
"Why not?" He replied in question, slightly offended.
"Because it's personal." She said slowly before adding in a mocking tone, "And I don't think I want to know your advice."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Three words: 10 year rule." Kensi reminded him as she followed the GPS system that led her onto the road where their suspect's place was located.
"So?" Deeks asked even as he did his job and watched the neighbourhood as they drove down the street.
"You know, if you were having this conversation with Nate, he'd tell you that the reason behind your rule is because it offers you an excuse." She told him, deflecting slightly to change the topic once again.
"Is that what he told you about your one-date rule?" He retorted, smirking smugly when Kensi's expression changed to one of pure shock just as she pulled up a few doors down on the opposite side of the road from where they were heading to.
"How do you-?" She began, cutting herself off with a long, deep exhale to calm her emotions whilst switching off the engine and undoing her seat belt. "If you weren't my partner, I'd have shot you by now."
"Aw, thanks." Deeks joked, smirk still in place as he copied her actions and got out of the car too.
"That wasn't a compliment." Kensi remarked dryly as she eyed the apartment across the street. "New partners just take time to break in."
"Like shoes? You're comparing me to shoes?" He asked after a slight hesitation as he reached her side, eyes boring into the side of her face although she ignored it.
"If it fits..." Offering him a nonchalant shrug at his scoff, she began to walk over to Jenkins' place with a smile on her face, determined and happy that she got the last word in.
"Wait, is this why you're the favourite?" Deeks asked suddenly, calling after her as he finally followed. "Kensi? Kensi!"
...
Sam shut the front yard's gate behind him as he left the parole officer's house. It had been an enlightening meeting, lasting longer than he deemed necessary to gain the essential piece of information. His morning and mood could have done without Michael Bishop's working history and everything that he knew about Tommy Jenkins. But in the end, thanks to the interruption of Callen's buzzing cell phone, they had gotten what they had wanted in addition to getting out of there.
"Alright. Take a look around and see if there's anything useful lying around. Bishop gave us an address where he might be, so Sam and I are going to check it out." He heard his partner say into the phone as he neared him. There was short pause where he listened to whoever was on the other side, giving Sam enough time to join him on the sidewalk a few feet away from Bishop's house. "Ok, we'll see you back at Ops."
"That Kensi?" He asked once Callen had hung up.
"Yeah. He wasn't home." Callen replied nonchalantly, knowing that they both had suspected that that would have been the case.
"Guess Deeks was right." Sam said offhandedly.
"Hopefully, we'll have better luck here." Holding up the folded piece of paper that Bishop had given them with the possible address where Jenkins would be, he watched as the ex-SEAL didn't even make a comment on it or even move to reach for it. Brushing it off, he carried on while heading over to where his car was parked. "Eric's sending the GPS location."
"Hmm."
"What?" Callen finally asked, approaching the driver's side of the car.
"You know what." Sam replied, slightly incensed that his words didn't even bring a hint of emotion to the other man's face. Rounding the car to the passenger's side, he turned to face his blank look. "Why did you let her go with Deeks when Jenkins is still out there? We don't even know if he's our guy for sure yet."
"Well, if we get going, we might be able to find out for sure if he is the guy we're looking for." He told him, purposefully choosing careful words to evasively work around the question. However, he should have known that it wouldn't work on his partner.
"That didn't answer the question." Sam stated, unimpressed, even as Callen threw him a sly smile.
"I know." Opening the car door, he got in, not bothering to wait for the response and never seeing the annoyed glare that had been aimed at where he had previously stood.
"You sent her because you knew that he wouldn't be there, right?" Teamed with the raised eyebrow that Sam sent his way when he climbed into the passenger's side, the question took on a more rhetorical, and even a statement, tone to it.
"Why would I do that for? It's a waste of useful resources." Callen retorted in faux-earnestly, looking over at the other agent with a suppressed smile as he clipped in his seatbelt before starting up the car.
"Oh, I don't know." Sam mocked sarcastically. "Maybe because it's Kensi, and keeping her happy and busy means keeping her out of the way."
"Question answered." He shrugged somewhat distractedly whilst following the orders from the GPS system in the car towards the new destination of where Jenkins supposedly spent most of his time.
"That wasn't an answer, G. That was a passive agreement. It wasn't even an agreement!" Sam scoffed, disbelief lining his words even though none of it affected the person it was meant for at all. If there was one thing that he would admit that his partner was better at than him, it was at being stubborn in the most subtle ways. Shaking his head to himself, he dropped the straightforward method and went for one that always seemed to work for them; joking. "You do it to keep yourself off the couch?"
"Jenkins might not be there, but there might be information at his place that might help us." Callen replied instead, going back to the first question before smirking and focusing on the last one. "And you know I don't mind couches."
"Doesn't mean I'm not right." Sam remarked after a short pause, turning his head to look out of the window as they worked their way through the city's smaller roads.
"Yeah, it does." The response came with an incredulous scoff that only intensified the smugness in the words that followed. "And I'm always right."
"You're always right?" He asked sceptically, looking over at the man in the driver's seat.
"Yeah. That's why I'm team leader, and you shouldn't question my leadership." Callen told him, rounding the conversation back to the original question that had been posed at him.
"You don't have leadership. You just say things, and if we agree, we do it." Sam retorted sardonically. "And I can name you at least a dozen times where you've been wrong."
"Go on then."
"Well, right now for starters." He said matter-of-factly, to which Callen gave him an enquiring look as to what he meant. "She's going to see right through this; might already have. You'll probably be at Ops tonight, if I had to guess."
"She won't." Callen simply assured him, turning the corner when the talking GSP told him to.
"Because you're never wrong?" Sam mocked.
"Because I'm never wrong." He repeated, dropping the teasing for a more sincere tone.
"Right." The elongated word was followed by a brief silence before Sam added, dryly, "And pigs fly."
"If you say so."
The satirical reply ended their conversation as the two men instead fell into a quietness as they focused on the job at hand. Sam merely sat, watching the places go by as Callen drove them to the address that Bishop had given them, somewhat reluctantly, as a 'den' of sorts where Jenkins apparently liked to spend his time. When they had asked what he did there, they had received a reply in the form of a shrug, making them wonder what kind of parole officer Michael Bishop really was.
It took only another 10 minutes to reach the open apartment building. Pulling up in a side road, they exited and made their way over where they hoped to find their suspect. Keeping an eye out warily, they approached the front gates that led off the main road and into the small complex.
Sam pushed on it gently, surprised when it moved and opened with no additional apparatus. Exchanging a look of amusement with his partner, they passed through it and easily found their way towards where the apartment they were searching for would be.
"So, how're we going to play this?" Callen asked as he spied the numbers on the doors decrease in two's, indicating that they were heading in the right direction.
"How about as federal agents going after a killer trying to get our own?" Sam replied gruffly, eyes still raking the apartments they passed for the correct one.
"Yeah... I don't think he'll respond positively to that." He commented wryly before smirking when the other man threw him a quick unimpressed look. Throwing up his hands in surrender, he chuckled lightly. "Alright, we'll try it your way."
"Why aren't you taking this more seriously?" Sam questioned him over his shoulder, half intrigued and half irritated, while climbing up the stairs to get to the first floor where the rest of the numbers continued.
"Taking what more seriously? I'm serious." Callen answered. Although the smirk had disappeared, there was still a hint of light heartedness in his word which contradicted his words.
"This guy might have tried to kill Kensi yesterday." The statement was to the point, and Callen let out a sigh, knowing what his partner was getting at.
They had worked with each other long enough to know that they both had different ways in handling things. Sam, even though he was a great operative, still played his emotions on the outside when he wasn't being someone else. He, however, had never really learnt to do such a thing, especially not while in the professional segment of his life. If he was really honest, he was still getting there in the personal side, too. Sam knew that, yet it had never stopped him from trying to get him to open up, no matter how many times he failed.
"I haven't forgotten, Sam." He told him, features schooling themselves into the hard mask that hid what the words portrayed; anger. It was gone before anyone could even see or comment on it; taking on a calmer lilt once again. "Besides, you're taking it serious enough for the both of us. If I added to it, I'd doubt he'd make it back to the boathouse."
"Hey, that's only because you're emotionally voided and I worry for you." Sam argued good-naturedly, though the truth in the words was clear to them both.
"It's called being level-headed." Callen informed him as he slowed down when the man in front of him stopped at the door just ahead of them. "It's what makes me a great leader."
"Hmm." He murmured in a sarcastic agreement before pointing towards the door of the apartment that they had been looking for. "You wanna do the honours, leader?"
Callen ignored the patronising tone and knocked on the door nonetheless. Receiving no response, he tried again whilst taking another quick look around the area in case there was anything to indicate the reason behind the lack of reply. Finding nothing, he nodded over at Sam, who was eyeing the area and seeing if there was anyone nearby who could either help them, or maybe even try to hinder them.
"Mr. Jenkins?" Callen called out as he knocked on the door once more, giving him one last chance before they resorted to other measures. "NCIS."
"No-one in?" Sam asked rhetorically as he stepped up next to him and tried the door before pulling out a small case from his jacket pocket. "Ready?"
"After you." He insisted, retrieving his gun before taking half a step back as the ex-SEAL picked the lock with ease and then took his own gun out.
The place was lit only by the natural light that shone in through the windows. Sam could practically see the dust particles swarming in the air as he took one side of the apartment and Callen went another. Silently making his way through the small, deserted rooms, he did his best to take in everything that seemed out of place. However, considering that the only thing that he had came across so far was a lonely pillow on the bed and the essential basic toiletries in the adjoining bathroom, it wasn't easy to deem anything as 'out of place'.
Pushing back the curtains in the bathtub-slash-shower, Sam paused when he heard a rustling that was independent to what he was doing. Retreating back towards the bedroom, he listened out for the sound again, knowing that there was a possibility that it might have been Callen.
The first thing that he saw when he reached the threshold of the two rooms was that the door to the tine wardrobe opposite him was now open. Second was the movement that he just managed to catch out of the corner of his eyes as a figure made its way towards the other doorway in the room.
"Hey, freeze! Federal agents!" He announced even as the figure disappeared out of the room before he could finish the sentence.
Chasing after him, Sam found it easy to follow him, despite the head start, in the small apartment. Of course, the fact that the other person knew the place better than him did give them an advantage, especially as they ran into another room that Sam hadn't been into yet. Before he could round the corner into what he guessed was the kitchenette area, however, there was a dull thump sound that he could only associate with the familiar sound of someone hitting something.
It was for that reason that he wasn't entirely surprised when he came to a sliding stop in the next room to see who he could now identify as Tommy Jenkins half on the ground with his back braced against the kitchen cabinets, looking slightly dazed with a trickle of blood leaking out of his nose. Training his gun on him though he didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon, he turned to look at his partner, who was tucking away his own gun once again and lightly shaking his hand.
"That's what you call level-headed?" Sam asked incredulously, taking out a pair of handcuffs and approaching Jenkins before roughly pulling him to his feet.
"He came right at me! Would you rather I shot him?" Callen defended himself. "Or let him run?"
"Feeling better?" He asked teasingly, ignoring his words. There was a small yelp of pain as Sam tightened the cuffs a bit too tightly around his wrists, but neither one of them paid much attention to that nor his exclamations of innocence and brutality.
"Yeah, actually." He said indifferently, making Sam laugh while pushing their suspect forwards. "Let's get him back to the boathouse."
...