Kensi sat on her couch, Monty by her side, and flicked through the channels futilely, searching for something to distract her. Deeks had been under for three days now. He hasn't missed a check-in and she'd gotten a chance to talk to him though comms, even if he hadn't been able to reply. Everything seemed to be going exactly to plan for the moment but Kensi couldn't help but feel off. Something just wasn't sitting right with her.
She'd been kicked out of the mission two hours earlier with instructions to go home, rest up, and be ready to aid the operation from the ops centre the next day. She'd scoffed at the thought on the drive home. Ready for tomorrow? Ready for what? Another day sitting at a computer doing research on the gang Deeks was in with. Even if something did go down it wasn't as though she'd be jumping in the car to have his back.
Frustrated, she flicked off the television and aggressively threw the remote at the coffee table. Monty's head popped up at the sound of plastic colliding with wood.
"Sorry boy." Kensi apologised, scratching the mutt's head as he settled back down again.
She gave up on her quest for distraction and stood, starting to pace around her house, trying to expel some of the pent up energy she'd gained from sitting on her ass all day. After lapping her kitchen, living room and bathroom three times Kensi finally came to a stop at the door to her spare room.
She opened it and looked at the carnage. Kicking a couple of boxes to the side, she made enough space to sit on the floor. Monty came and joined her a few moments later.
"If I didn't know better I'd think Deeks trained you to do that." She muttered to Monty who paid her no mind.
Leaning forward slightly she wrapped her hands around her ever-growing stomach.
"Your dad is right Meebs. Don't tell him I said that, it'll go to his head if he knows I said it more than once in a single week." She let out a sigh. "We can't live amongst all this, hell, I can barely live amongst all this. Get me at home more than two days in a row and I go mad at my own clutter." She rubbed the top of her belly. "Your dad may be right about my hoarding tendencies too. Don't tell him I said that either. That goes for you too Monty. Not a word to Callen or Sam either."
Kensi placed her hands behind her, leaning back to gaze at the room. Her old lounge chair, piled with out-of-date magazines, everything from Cosmo to Sniper Magazine, sat in the corner. There were boxes everywhere. Most of it was stuff she brought from her last place and just never bothered to unpack. She hadn't looked at the majority of it in years. Behind a pile of boxes marked 'to donate' she spied a stack of flat boxes leaning against the wall.
She eyed them for a few minutes thinking. Then she stood abruptly.
"Come on Monty, help me out." The dog looked at her lazily as she grabbed the boxes and dragged them to her bedroom.
It was going on 12am when Kensi pulled up at Deeks' apartment. She let Monty out from the back seat and he followed her to the front door, eagerly making his way to his dog bed as soon as the door opened.
With the house unlocked and the dog safely inside Kensi returned to her car. It took her eight trips back and forth to bring in all the boxes, being careful not to overdo it with the lifting. She piled them in the hallway, locking the door behind herself with the last load she brought in.
She wiped her brow with her sleeve and ventured further inside, bypassing the master bedroom and heading towards the two doors that stood on opposite sides of the hall. She'd stayed in the spare room once a few years back but mostly she'd slept on the couch on the movie nights that had turned into mornings. She didn't even know what Deeks kept in the other room.
Monty was by her side again as she turned the knob to the mystery room. She grinned when she opened the door. All of Deeks' surfing equipment occupied the space. Seven different boards hung on the walls in purpose built hooks and there was even a small trophy shelf by the window.
"Not this room, hey Monty? I don't think even Meebs and I could get away with disturbing his surfing room." She joked.
Moving across the hall she opened the other door wide. Aside from the uncomfortable futon on the far wall and the pile of baby stuff he'd revealed to her several weeks ago, the room was pretty clear. She patted Monty on the head, leaving momentarily to grab her laptop before coming back and taking a seat on the hard blue futon and patting the place next to her, encouraging Monty to join her.
"Let's see what we can find." She patted the dog's head as her computer started up.
She started Googling and two hours later she was asleep, the laptop forgotten on the floor, Monty at her side, and several hundred dollars billed to her credit card.
The shrill ring of her cell woke her a mere four hours later.
"Kensi." She muttered into the phone, not even bothering to check the caller I.D..
"Kens, we need you in ops." Nell's voice, clear and awake, broke Kensi from her sleep induced fog and she sat bolt upright.
"Deeks?" Panic rippled through the word. She was already grabbing her keys and go bag when she registered Nell's voice in her ear again.
"He's absolutely fine Kens. Take a breath. Deeks checked in right on time. There's a sale going down this evening and we want everyone briefed ASAP."
Kensi sucked in a lungful of air and felt her pulse slow again.
"I'll be there in 20."
She hung up and shucked her shirt from the day before, pulling on a clean one from the pile of shared laundry in the basket, not bothering to change her jeans. She drove to the mission half in a daze, thinking back to earlier in the week when he left.
Deeks emerged from wardrobe in ripped jeans and a dark jacket.
"You're gonna cook in that in this heat." Kensi piped up.
"Sells the cover though, don't ya think?" He winked and twirled dramatically so she could check him out.
"It better." Her tone was teasing but there was real concern in her eyes.
Deeks walked around so he was next to her and extended his hand. She took it and he tugged.
"Come on."
"Where are we going?" She stood and started to follow before he answered.
"To say goodbye." Deeks paused. "Wow, that sounded morbid." He chuckled.
"A little." Kensi laughed.
He dragged her into the burn room and shut the door.
"You know what I'm going to say don't you?" She deadpanned as he turned to face her.
"You don't like that I'm going in alone."
"I don't like that you're going in without your partner as immediate back up." She corrected.
"I promise to keep my promise. I won't die." His hands stretched forward to grasp her shoulders.
"Don't get injured either, alright. I don't want to spend more time in a hospital than strictly necessary."
"I'll do my best. Sam and Callen will have my back."
"I know." She looked at her feet and then up at him. "How long until you leave?"
Deeks checked his watch. "Five minutes." When he caught her eyes again he found tears there.
"Are you crying Fern?" There was a hint of a teasing tone in his voice.
"No." She said defensively. "It's the stupid hormones. Shut up." She shrugged his hands off his shoulders in annoyance at his smirk.
He pulled her into him insistently, hugging her tightly as her arms wound around his back. He buried his face in her neck and brushed his lips against the skin he found there before pulling back.
He crouched in front of her and lifted her shirt, his hands resting tenderly on either side of her bump.
"Take care of your Mom for me, alright Meebs? I'll be back soon." He swore, leaning forward to place a long kiss just below her belly button.
Above him Kensi laughed a watery chuckle.
Not bothering to pull her shirt down again Deeks stood to be eye level with her, hands still resting on her belly.
"I'll be back soon." He promised her. "You won't even miss me. You'll be glad to be rid of me." He joked.
"You better be home soon." Ignoring his attempts at light heartedness she lifted her hands to frame his face, fingers gliding tenderly along his jaw. Lifting on her toes slightly to match his height she leanedd in, kissing him soundly.
He pulled back, resting his forehead on hers.
"Kens, I-"
"Don't." She interrupted. "Not now. Not because you feel like you have to, just in case it's your last chance. It's not." She shook her head adamantly at him.
"But…" He tried to object.
"I know. I know but if you say it because you feel like you have to it means that you think there's a possibility that you won't come home and that's not going to happen. Tell me when you get back, it can be the first words out of your mouth when you come home."
Deeks sighed.
"Okay." He agreed.
"Okay."
"And when I get back, we sort out our apartments."
"Yes. I'll go pick Monty up after work too." Kensi told him.
He kissed her again.
"I gotta go." He paused for a beat. "I really want to say it Kensi." He practically begged.
She pursed her lips and scrunched her nose but it was all for show. "Fine." Her wide grin gave away her exacerbated tone.
His hands moved from her stomach to her face, holding her gaze with his own.
"I love you."
"I love you too." She echoed softly before he engulfed her mouth in another deep kiss. They were just beginning to get carried away when their phones beeped with a new message, most likely informing them that their five minutes were up.
He pulled her shirt back down and they walked out of the burn room hand in hand.
Kensi pulled into the mission, gathering her things from her front seat and stepping out of the car. She had just about made it to the doors when a strong arm wrapped around her while another hand blocked her instinctive punch to her assailants face, calloused fingers wrapping tightly around her fist.
"Morning Princess." He grinned into her ear, taking advantage of his position and placing an open mouth kiss against her cheek.
She relaxed into him briefly before pushing away so she could turn to face him.
"What are you doing here?"
"Briefing for the raid." He stated obviously.
"But Nell didn't mention…"
"I asked her not to." He grinned, taking her hand. "We should head in though."
She smiled despite herself and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. As she retreated his hand reached to her face, running a thumb under her right eye and over the dark bags he saw there.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just didn't get much sleep last night. Late night, early wake up call this morning." She brushed off his concern and started to walk towards the doors, pulling him along with her.
"Not sleeping without me?" He fell back on teasing instead of pushing her.
"Something like that." She indulged. She wasn't sure why, but she was embarrassed by her actions the night before and she really didn't want to get into the details of it right now.
Deeks left it alone. He was aware that they didn't have time for him to pry at her answers at the moment.
The pair entered ops hand in hand and Nell began the briefing.
"Deeks infiltrated the group quicker than expected. Their trust in him had them revealing their sales plan last night over drinks. The sale will be going down near and old warehouse in the industrial distract at six tonight."
At Nell's signal, Eric brought a schematic of the building up on the big screen.
"As far as I know, we're meeting the buyers here." Deeks took over, pointing to an alley between two large, industrial buildings.
"Sam will be stationed here," Nell pointed to a corner of the building. "Callen will be out the front here. SWAT will also be on stand by but we're hoping we won't need that much fire power. LAPD will be backing us up too." Nell finished.
"I could take overwatch." Kensi interjected. "I'd be away from the danger and there are plenty of good spots on these roofs that provide cover and would give me a good angle." She tried to reason.
Deeks squeezed her hand but it was Hetty who shot her down.
"I'm afraid I can't authorise you to do that Miss Blye. You'll be assisting via comms with Mr. Beale. Miss Jones will be assisting Mr. Hanna and Mr. Callen in the field."
"Hetty -"
"Mr. Deeks, please run us through the plan." Hetty interrupted, moving the conversation forward before Kensi could voice her objections further.
Kensi paced back and forth up in ops, impatiently willing time to pass quicker. It was just before five; Sam, Callen, and Nell were in position waiting for their targets to arrive. Deeks was back under, earwig in his ear but no camera.
"Do you want to sit?" Eric offered Kensi.
"I'm fine." She replied.
"Your pacing is kind of nauseating Kens." He pushed.
"Sorry." She smiled at him guiltily. "I, ah, I might just head to the bathroom.
Eric nodded and turned back to the computer.
"Mr. Beale, where's Miss Blye?" Hetty queried as she entered ops.
"Ah, bathroom I think." He replied, turning to glance around the room only to find Kensi hadn't returned.
"How long has she been in the bathroom?" Hetty pushed.
Eric glanced at the time on the monitor.
"About thirty minutes." He said, slightly defeatedly.
"Damn it." Hetty mumbled under her breath. "Call her."
The sound of Kensi's phone ringing out soon filled the operations centre. She answered on the fifth ring.
"Agent Blye, where, pray tell, are you?"
"I just stepped out for some air Hetty." Kensi answered, her voice had a stubborn ring to it that Hetty recognised well and wind was blowing through the receiver.
The operations manager sighed.
"Do you have a clear sight?"
"Crystal."
"We will be discussing this in length when the mission is completed Agent Blye." Hetty said sternly.
"Understood." Kensi's stiff reply was accompanied by the tell tale clicks of her assembling her rifle.
"Eric, bring Kensi in on Comms."
Eric typed away and gave heading a go ahead nod.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Blye will be in overwatch for this mission. She's been brought in on Comms."
"I'm on the North East building with a clear line of sight into the alley." Kensi confirmed to the rest of the team.
Deeks could be heard coughing violently through his mic, unable to actually say anything to her. Sam made up for it though.
"Kensi, what are you doing?"
"Having my partner's back." She replied simply.
"We will discuss this at a later date. For now, focus on the task at hand. Mr. Deeks' GPS indicates the sellers should be arriving any minute now." Hetty instructed.
No sooner had she said it when Kensi spied a black SUV pulling into the alleyway from the South West entrance. She lay against the hard concrete, careful of her stomach, and gazed down the scope and watched as her boyfriend exiting the car with three other men.
"I've got three sellers, not including Deeks." She reported.
"Copy that." Callen's voice came through the line.
The team sat waiting for another ten minutes until a blue sedan pulled in.
"We've got the buyers coming in now." Sam said, spying the car that had just driven past his hiding spot.
"We wait for the deal to go down and when they start to head their separate ways we block them off and take them separately. Deeks, I don't want you to break cover unless you have to, we still have the drug ring to take down." Callen instructed.
Resounding 'copies' came through the system just as the buyers stepped out of the car.
"Crap." Deeks' voice echoed in their ears as Kensi spied one of the buyers raising a gun on her boyfriend.
A/N: Hey all, sorry about the lack of weekend update. As I said earlier, I've got a lot of other projects in the works. Chapter 12 should be up sometime this week though, probably Friday or Saturday at this stage.
As always, reviews are what motivate me. As I was trying to finish off this chapter here another one came through and it really does put a smile on my face and makes me get my butt into gear and write.
My heroes from last chapter were: homegrownoregano, db1205, Sweetlilloz, alex-russo-123, Jammie13, LaJoyMechell, mama's-broken-heart, Rach, McDimples, Marta Kensi Deeks, Blue Tigress, Littlemissjellybabies, Adriana Dricks, Hoosier65 and two guests!
Also, this story recently broke through 200 followers and I wanted to say a big thanks to you guys too!