AN: Another non-episode based chapter, but starts with a little 'work' time for Kensi and then moves to some home time. This was originally combined with what's now become chapter 11, but it got super long (and had three flashbacks total), so I split it up as I was writing it and I think it does better separately.

It takes Kensi a full week back to work after the holidays to work up the nerve to tell her partner the truth about her home life. The team is happy to reconnect after their week off. Sam is a little cautious of Kensi and she notices he goes out of his way to not ask about her 'trip' to Seattle. She, in turn, goes out of her way to not ask about his time at home. Their interaction, she also notices, does not go unnoticed by their team leader. Eric, who has nothing to hide, is open about his time off. Nate, who she determines also has nothing to hide, is less forthcoming, but also open. Hetty, as usual, offers nothing but notices everything.

Dom shares stories with her about Christmas with his family. She smiles at how excited his nieces were about Santa and reindeer and presents. He tells her he came home with drawings to put on his fridge.

He's opening up more and more to her, and she knows she made the right decision to include him in her secret. She just has to actually follow through and tell him.

So, after once again finding herself stuck in a car for an indefinite amount of time with her not-so-new partner, Kensi contemplates whether this is the best time to finally pull the trigger. They have just relieved Callen and Sam and settle in for what is expected to be a long few hours on stakeout.

"How'd the date go?" Dom asks after they've reviewed the case details.

"Hmm?"

"I heard you telling Callen and Sam you had a date last night? I think his name was Nick?"

She huffs a laugh at the fortuitous opening she's been given. "Yeah, it didn't. Nick doesn't exist."

Dom shoots her a surprised look. He opens his mouth, but then shuts it, clearly at a loss for what he's supposed to say.

Kensi bites back a laugh at his expression. "Look, I want to tell you something, but I need it to stay between us, okay?"

"Okay." His expression tells her she can trust him.

"Only Hetty knows. When I started here, she asked me to keep... Well, she asked me to keep a really big secret. I've been living a cover every day at work. The fear of commitment and second dates, the one night stands, the stories I tell Callen and Sam?" She shakes her head. "That's not me."

Dom stares at her for a long moment, his gaze considering and perceptive. "What's the real you?"

This was it. She takes a deep, clarifying breath and presses on. "The real me has been married since college."

Dom coughs in surprise. Whatever he was suspicious of, it wasn't this.

Kensi pushes on. "Hetty said it was dangerous to have family connections in this job. And maybe she was testing me, too. Hell, of course she was testing me, too. But she didn't want anyone to know. She had me keep it a secret."

"But you're telling me."

She nods. "We're partners now. I didn't want to keep this a secret from you. And for the sake of full disclosure, Hetty knows I'm telling you."

He nods. "Thank you for telling me. I won't say anything to anyone." He hesitates for a moment. "So, your...husband?"

"Marty," Kensi supplies.

"Marty," Dom tests the name. "You've been married since college?"

She nods. "Seven years."

"Wow. That's a long time. You must have been young."

"Twenty," she offers. While she has felt defensive of the judgment of others when they find out how young she married, she doesn't feel that now. Dom is a young agent, like her. His questions are curios and not judgemental.

"Does he know...what you do?"

She nods. "For the most part." She smiles. "He's a cop, so he gets it. Detective with the LAPD."

Dom smiles back. "Of course."

"He's spent the last several years working undercover ops, so he's been away for weeks or months at a time."

Dom nods. "That's why you...reacted...when the undercover cop was killed."

Kensi nods. "I don't usually get many details about where he is or what he's doing. For all I knew...that could have been him." She takes a breath. "It's not like it is here. He usually goes in alone. No backup. No partner. No Eric up in OPs watching every move. Just a handler who is juggling multiple cases." She puts on a brave front for Dom, but inside, she's grateful of her husband's resolve to be done with long term undercover work. He'd already told his Lieutenant that after the few undercovers he was already lined up for were over, he wanted to talk about a change.

"That must be difficult."

"It's the life we signed up for." She makes sure there's no movement on the building they are surveilling before meeting Dom's eyes. "Either you make a life with someone in the business and you find a way to deal with the dangers of the job, or you make a life with someone outside of the business and you live a cover life because you can't do this job and let a civilian without clearance know what we do." She gives that a moment to sink in. "I'm happy with my choice. You need to be happy with yours."

Dom nods several times as he absorbs the advice. "I'll keep that in mind." He glances at the building and then back at her. "For the record, I'm glad you're happy."

"Thanks."

"I'm also impressed you've managed to trick Callen and Sam for this long." He offers her a smile.

She shrugs. "They're not that hard to fool. Seriously, if your lie embarrasses you even a little, they just get distracted making fun of you and don't question it."

"Hence all the bad date stories."

"Exactly," she says and they laugh together.

00

On Friday, Kensi hurries home from work. With no case, Hetty had shooed them away from work an hour earlier than usual to enjoy their weekend. She's grateful for the opportunity to beat her husband home from work.

Monty is happy to see her when she opens the door, and she takes the dog for a quick walk to stretch his legs. Deeks is still not home when she and Monty return from their walk, which isn't unexpected, so she jumps in the shower to start getting ready. She's halfway through washing her hair when she hears the front door open and close. A minute goes by and then the bathroom door pushes open.

"That you in there, Kens?"

She rolls her eyes. "Nope," she deadpans.

He laughs.

She sticks her head out from around the shower curtain. He's standing in the doorway, one foot in the bathroom and one in the hall, his eyes sparkling as they meet hers. "Who else would it be?"

He shrugs. "Robbers."

"Robbers who stopped to take a shower?"

"You can never be too careful in this world..." It's like he can't stand being so far away and takes the four short steps towards her for a kiss.

She raises an eyebrow. "You want to join me?"

"Do we have time?" He asks, though he doesn't wait for her answer to start taking off his clothes.

"Reservation's not until seven."

He quickly finishes stripping and steps into the shower with her. The water immediately soaks his hair, leaving him almost blinded as his long bangs cover his eyes.

She laughs and reaches to brush his wet hair from his eyes as his hands find her hips. "Happy birthday," she tells him.

"Mmm, Thank you," he says, kissing her.

Her hands wrap over his shoulders and around his neck as she stands on her tiptoes.

"Best birthday ever," he whispers when he pulls away from the kiss.

She huffs a laughing breath. "You say that every year."

"I mean it every year," he insists.

00

~February 2001~

It was a fairly lengthy walk back to campus from the party, but it was a nice night and she had excellent company, so Kensi had no complaints. After the stress of her second semester of midterms, it was nice to blow off some steam at a friend's birthday party.

"I can't believe I don't have any more studying to do," she stated as they walked along the quiet streets hand in hand.

"Not until finals, you mean," he teased.

"You couldn't let me have this one?"

"Nope," he said, making a popping sound on the 'p.'

She laughed and nudged his shoulder with hers as they walked together. "It was a nice party. Amanda had a good time," she said, referring to their friend, who had been celebrating her twentieth birthday.

"She did."

Kensi hesitated before nudging him again. "Hey, so, uh..."

He glanced at her. "Yeah?"

"I guess I want to know... When is your birthday?"

He tensed as they walked together.

"Marty?"

"January eight," he admitted quietly.

"January!" She stopped dead, stopping him with her. "That was last month. Over a month ago. Why didn't you say anything?"

He didn't pull his hand out of hers, but he looked down to the ground. "I don't...I didn't know how."

"Marty..." She dropped his hand and stepped forward to hug him.

He tensed when she dropped his hand, but when she hugged him, he hugged her back tightly. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "I don't want you to be sorry." She pulled back just far enough to kiss him. "I'm sorry I didn't ask sooner."

"I don't usually acknowledge my birthday," he confessed. "It's been a long time since I've had anyone who..." He trailed off and didn't finish vocalizing his thought, but she heard enough possible conclusions in her head to make her heart ache for him.

...wanted to be there.

...took the time to celebrate with me.

...cared.

She ran her hands up his chest to rest at his shoulders and squeezed. "Well, you have someone now."

His eyes closed for a long moment before opening again. He nodded. "Okay."

"I'm sorry we didn't do anything special."

"We did, actually," he said, surprising her.

"What?"

He shrugged. "It was a Saturday. You came over in the morning to study. Then we spent the afternoon at the beach. Fish tacos for dinner; my treat. Ice cream for dessert; your treat. Then we went back to my place and you slept over."

She nodded. "I remember the day."

He hesitated for a moment before shrugging. "It was the best birthday I've ever had."

The sheer openness in his tone nearly brought tears to her eyes. "I'm really glad."

00

After their shower, Kensi shoos her husband out of the bathroom so she can dry and style her hair. They don't get dressed up very often, so she wants to look nice. She loosely curls her hair and then pulls it back from her face before applying her makeup.

When she's satisfied with her work, she dons her robe and heads for the bedroom, but the sound of her husband's one sided conversation with Monty pulls her towards the living room.

She finds Deeks sitting on the couch in boxers and a dressy blue button down, wearing exactly one sock, his hair sticking out at several angles. Monty is sitting in front of him, staring intently as if he understands every word spoken.

"Get a little distracted?" She taunts.

He looks up at her and winces, a little embarrassed to have been caught. "Well, I wanted some water. And then Monty wanted to know what our plans were for tonight..."

She raises an eyebrow. "So, suddenly in the middle of getting dressed, you had to take a break to get a glass of water?"

He shrugs. "Pretty much."

"You put on one sock. And then before you could put on the other sock, you became too thirsty to continue before getting something to drink?" She's not all that successful at biting back a laugh.

He narrows his eyes at her and then turns back to Monty. The dog is still staring at him. "Monty, she's being mean to me on my birthday."

Monty whines and then when Deeks pats him, he wags his tail. "Monty thinks you should be nice to me."

She rolls her eyes. "Well, I think you should go put your other sock on. We do need to leave in ten minutes."

"First of all, I'm wearing more clothes than you," he says, smirking at her. "And second, I like that you're more focused on getting me into a pair of socks than into a pair of pants."

She smirks right back at him. "I'm never focused on getting you into pants."

He beams at her. "Nice." He turns back to the dog. "Okay, Monty, I gotta go get dressed. You hold down the fort here, okay?"

Kensi leaves him in the living room, knowing he'll be right behind her as she returns to the bedroom. Sure enough, there's a pair of pants and a single sock sitting on the bed.

She drops her robe and quickly pulls on a bra and underwear. She's hunting through the closet for a dress when Deeks enters the room.

"Ah, I missed the best part," he complains.

She rolls her eyes, but can't help but laugh. "You saw the best part half an hour ago," she reminds.

He pouts for a moment anyway. "But it's my birthday..."

"Tough."

He chuckles, feelings far from being hurt. But instead of getting dressed, he comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

One of her hands finds his on instinct and she leans back against him. "Marty..."

"Have I told you how much I love you today?"

"I'm supposed to be telling you that today. It is your birthday."

"Fine. Get on with it, then."

She laughs out loud and subtly elbows him with her free arm. "You're an idiot."

"But you love me, anyway," he teases.

She turns in his embrace and cups his face in her hands. "I do love you, Marty. More than anything." She uses her hands to pull him down for a hard kiss. And then she holds him a few inches away from her. "But I really need you to get ready, because we need to leave really soon. Because I am taking you out for a nice dinner." She can feel the muscles in his cheeks tensing under her hands as he fights not to smile. She narrows her eyes. "And you need to do something with your hair."

"My hair?"

She nods and momentarily removes a hand from his cheek to run through the more-messy-than-normal hair. "Maybe consider using a comb?"

He scoffs. "I'll have you know that style by pillow is-"

"-a good look. Yes, I know." She returns her second hand to his cheek and kisses him. "Trust me, I know. But style by air dry is not your best look." She raises an eyebrow.

He makes a face, but is clearly fighting to hold back a smile.

"At least look in a mirror and make your own decision."

He attempts a glare, but his eyes are sparkling with humour and the corners of his lips are curling upwards.

"Now, get dressed." She pecks him quickly on the lips and then uses her hands to gently shove him towards the bed and his waiting clothes.

"I love it when you're bossy," he mumbles, though he follows her request.

Kensi turns back to the closet to find her dress. It only takes a moment, and when she turns back Deeks is standing by the foot of the bed, wearing both socks and his pants, holding his jacket.

She stares for a moment. "How did you get dressed that fast?"

He shrugs. "I'm a guy."

She huffs a laugh and then points to the door. "Just...go wait with Monty."

He smiles at her and presses a kiss to her cheek before heading out the door. "Don't take too long," he teases as he goes, "We do have to leave soon."

She can't even bite back a smile, let alone come up with a retort.

She quickly pulls the navy dress on and heads to her dresser drawer to add jewellery. She puts on her wedding band first, and adds her engagement ring. Then she picks earrings and a necklace.

When she's ready, she joins her boys in the living room. Monty is curled up on the couch. Deeks is patting his pockets across the room like he's making sure he has his wallet and keys. He turns when she enters the room.

"Wow," he says softly. "You look amazing."

"Thank you." She runs her hands up his chest. "You don't look too bad yourself, birthday boy." She says nothing about the fact that he has clearly taken a moment to tame his hair.

"You ready to go?"

"Just about." She turns her back to him. "Can you...?" She doesn't need to explain further.

"Of course." He pulls her hair out of the way and expertly zips up the back of her dress. When he's done, he dips his head to press a kiss to the back of her neck before releasing her hair. "All done."

"Thanks." She turns and smiles at him. "Okay, let's go celebrate 31."

"It'll be the best year yet."