Chapter 13 – Deeks

I heard Kensi step out onto the deck behind me, but I didn't bother to turn around.

'Is this okay, honey-bun?' I asked, pointing to the arrangement of tables and chairs, the majority of which had been dragged out around the pool and onto the grass from inside.

'It's fine, I guess. If people want it different, they can change it themselves,' she replied distractedly.

'Cool.' Callen and Sam looked up and stared at me. 'What?'

Slowly, Callen pointed, and I realised that he was pointing behind me. I turned around to find Kensi standing behind me, fiddling with a dangly silver earring. And looking absolutely beautiful in a light, flowing red dress that fell to her knees.

'What?' she asked, staring at us. 'Is it too dressy? I told Nell-'

'No, Kens,' Sam interrupted her. 'You look great.'

'Stunning,' Callen tacked on for good measure.

Sam looked at me staring at Kensi and said, not so subtly, 'You know G, I feel like a beer.' Ever so slightly, he twitched his head in our direction.

After a moment, Callen seemed to get it, because he said, 'Oh, yeah, now that you mention it, that sounds great.'

They shuffled into the house quickly.

'I don't know how they're supposed to be good at their job,' Kensi laughed softly. 'Deeks? It's too dressy, isn't it?'

'No, Callen and Sam are right. You do look great, and stunning,' I replied.

'And what do you think?' she asked, almost shyly.

Almost awkwardly, I met her eyes. 'I think you look beautiful.'

Her cheeks gained a reddish tone. 'Really?'

I nodded. 'Yeah.

Abashed, she looked down and fiddled with something in her hands. 'I, um…' She paused for a moment before holding up a delicate silver necklace with a small diamond pendant. 'Do you mind?'

'Oh. Not at all.' I reached out and her warm, soft skin brushed mine as she placed the necklace in my hand. She turned around and lifted her hair out of the way, revealing the tied bow of the dress's halter-neck and a fair expanse of bare skin. I pushed away mental images of untying the bow and allowing the dress to fall around her feet. As good as it looked on her, I was sure it looked even better on my bedroom floor…

I shook my head, glad that Kensi's back was to me, and carefully fastened the necklace around her neck.

'Thanks,' she said softly, replacing her hair.

Suddenly, we heard the soft purr of Hetty's Jaguar.

'Hetty and Eric are here,' she said.

I nodded. 'I better go change, I guess, or I'll look underdressed next to you.'

She smiled. 'Put on something nice, then.'

'Yes, sweetheart. I think I'm getting used to this whole married thing.'

'What do you mean?' she asked, looking a little confused.

'You tell me what to do and I obey. The only problem is, I'm not getting the perks that other husbands do.'

She rolled her eyes, as I knew she would, before walking off.

I grinned to myself and went upstairs to change, quickly throwing on a clean pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt which fit too well to have just been bought in a store. I suspected that Hetty had a special NCIS tailor.

I bounced downstairs to hear Hetty say, 'And how are Mr Deeks and Miss Blye coping, in your opinion?'

'Eh,' Callen's voice said. 'They're pretty much the same, except that Deeks flirts and Kensi can't hurt him so she gets revenge in other ways.'

'Like putting on a pretty dress because she knows he has to look but doesn't dare touch,' Sam added.

'Actually, I chose that dress,' Nell said softly. 'She wanted to wear jeans.'

'Good choice,' Callen said. 'He couldn't take his eyes off of her.'

After waiting a few moments, I sauntered into the living room. 'Hey, Hetty, Eric.'

'Good afternoon, Mr Deeks.' Hetty looked completely unembarrassed at being caught gossiping.

'Hey, Deeks,' Eric said.

'Eric.' I flopped down into the last empty armchair in the living room.

'Where's Kensi?' Sam asked, expecting her to walk into the room behind me.

I shrugged. 'She's my wife, not my Siamese twin.'

'She's not even your wife,' Callen said.

'Well, she is my wife tonight,' I said. 'And for however long this op goes for.'

'Hopefully, not too much longer,' Kensi said, entering the room.

'Ah! I knew that that dress would look wonderful on you,' Hetty said, smiling at her.

'Thanks,' she replied. 'It's a nice one. It's not as short as they usually are.'

'I thought you'd like that,' Hetty replied. 'And how are you doing, being married?' she asked, directing the question to both of us.

'Great,' I said, grinning.

'Really?' Kensi asked.

'Yeah. You were there.'

'Uh huh. You forgot to put your wedding ring on.'

I looked down at my finger. 'Oops.' I dug into my very tight pocket and pulled the gold circlet out and stuck it on my left hand's ring finger. 'That was close.'

'Uh huh. So, is there anything that we're supposed to be doing, or are we just going to hang around here until people start turning up?' she asked.

'I need Eric to check the program,' Nell said.

'Cool.' Eric jumped up and the two techs went upstairs.

'I'll get the barbeque ready,' I said, getting up.

'I'll help,' Sam said.

'Me too,' Callen added.

'We need cutlery and plates and stuff set up,' Kensi said.

'I'll help you,' Hetty offered.

'Thank you,' Kensi replied. We watched as the two female agents left the room, before getting up.

'So, what time are people actually arriving?' Callen asked.

'Six,' I said.

Sam checked his watch. 'It's half past five.'

I looked at my own watch. 'Yikes! Come on, then!' And we started to get to work.

…

Only an hour later, and the house was crawling with people. Hetty and Nell were running around the kitchen (well, Nell was running around, Hetty was a lot calmer), Callen, Sam and I were standing around the barbeque and Kensi was running around from person to person, trying to remember names, laughing with the adults, taking a moment to play catch with the kids, joking and smiling with the teenagers.

'Kensi's gonna run out of energy by nine o'clock at this rate,' Callen commented as I turned steaks.

'At this rate?' Sam asked, taking a mouthful of beer. 'At this rate, I'd say eight.'

'Nonsense,' I replied. 'She's Wonder Woman. She'll be fine.'

Callen snorted and took a swig of his beer. 'Even Kensi has her limits.'

I sighed before handing Sam the tongs. 'Here. You take over.'

'What are you going to do?' Sam asked.

'Calm down my wife.'

She was flitting all over the place like a butterfly in a garden, moving from person to person, greeting this person, getting to know another. As she dashed past me, I grabbed hold of a hand and pulled her into me before twirling her under my arm and holding her close.

'What are you doing, Marty?' she asked suspiciously.

'Calming you down,' I replied calmly. 'You keep going like this, you're going to hit a wall.'

Suddenly, some music started, and we both looked up to find Eric standing with his iPad on the deck next to a large speaker. He grinned down at us, and I grinned back up before twirling Kensi again, and then gently starting to sway.

Slowly, she began to dance with me, and relaxed in my arms.

'So, how's it going?' I asked, moving in time to the music.

'Alright,' she replied. 'People keep lying.'

'Lying?' I asked with a smirk on my face. 'Do I have to remind you that we've probably got the biggest lie of all?'

'Well, I can't help but feel that Ella and Aaron Erikson are having marital problems,' Kensi informed me. 'But they're pretending that it's all fine. Lily has a crush on the teenage boy who's in the house next to us but is denying it because they've been friends since they were tiny and she doesn't want to spoil it. Ironic thing is, the guy, Justin, worships the ground that she walks on.'

I chuckled. 'We're here to protect a man, Kens, not get to know the locals.'

She shrugged. 'Well, what's the point in inviting everyone if we don't get to know them?'

I chuckled in response, and we danced in silence until she lifted her head and squinted at me.

'What?' I asked.

'I thought you couldn't dance.'

'I never said that.'

'But you kept standing on my feet.'

'Oh, that.'

'That.'

I paused before looking at her carefully. 'Can you keep a secret?'

She stared pointedly at me. 'Really?'

I remembered that we were undercover operatives, on an undercover operation, where keeping secrets was basically life or death. 'Oh, right.'

'Yes, Marty, I can keep a secret.' She grinned at me.

I sighed. 'I can dance.'

'How is that a secret? Were you afraid that Hetty might make us dance? Because that's already happened.'

'That's not the secret.' Internally, I sighed. 'I can't dance to songs that are in three four time.'

'Sorry?'

Too late, I remembered that I was the one in this partnership with musical training. Kensi had probably forgotten everything that she'd learnt in Music Appreciation in high school.

'You know how this song has four beats in a bar?' To demonstrate, I counted aloud to the song that we were dancing to. 'One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.'

She nodded. My partner was a quick study.

'In a three four song, there are only three beats in a bar. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three.' Just counting in three four time made me stumble and lean on Kensi to stop myself from falling over.

'You really are hopeless in three four time, aren't you?' she asked, smirking. 'You can't waltz, I suppose.'

'Nope,' I replied.

She giggled. 'You can play the violin, but you can't dance in three four time.'

'Remember, it's a secret,' I said, tapping the side of my nose.

She laughed, but continued dancing. 'I'll just have to help you.'

'I guess you will.'

She peered over my shoulder. 'Callen and Sam are talking about us.'

'Yeah?' I looked at her. 'My little evil lip-reader. What are they saying?'

'Well, Sam's saying that if he didn't know any better, he'd think that we actually were a couple.'

'Really?' I asked. 'And what does Callen say about that?'

'He's unsure,' Kensi said. 'He doesn't think that we're that convincing.'

I laughed. 'What else can we do to be believable?' I asked.

She shrugged. 'You could kiss me.'

I thought about it for a moment, and my heart started pounding the moment I made up my mind. 'Okay.'

And before she could even start to process that, I swooped in and kissed her lips. She was frozen for a moment before she started to kiss me back, and I almost fell over at the feeling. I could definitely get used to this. Of course, I shouldn't and I wouldn't, but I could.

At some point, a thought crept into my head, something about needing oxygen, but it was swept out of my head, most likely by the lack of oxygen.

Finally, Kensi broke away, gasping for air. We stood still for a moment, staring at each other, before I grabbed her and started swaying again. 'What are they saying now?' I hissed.

'Um… uh…' She paused for a moment. 'Callen believes it now.'

I chuckled.

'Kensi!' Nell appeared in the doorway that connected the kitchen to the deck and called down to us.

'Oh, uh, coming!' She let go of me and hesitantly brushed a kiss against my cheek. 'I'll just… um…'

'Go,' I finished.

'Yeah,' she agreed before rushing away.

'Well,' Sam began, 'You definitely managed to calm her down.'

'For a while,' Callen added with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. 'She's my wife.'

'Not really.'

'Hey, people think we're newlyweds. All the newlyweds I've known are all over each other. Honeymoon period, yeah?' I replied.

'That's what the honeymoon is for,' Sam said.

'That was quite a kiss,' Callen commented.

'Yup,' Sam added.

'It was a cover kiss,' I said shortly.

'I've seen and been part of many cover kisses. That was not one of them,' Callen said. 'Hell, I've kissed Kensi for covers before. She never kissed me like that.'

'It's probably because you're like her older brother. Her much older brother.'

'I'm not that old,' Callen objected.

'I know that there's probably a decade between you,' I replied. 'And although she's a serial dater, I don't think her tastes run to older men.'

'Speaking of the devil…ess?' Sam asked.

I turned to watch her walking over to us.

'Honey,' she said softly, putting a hand on my shoulder. 'Are those almost done?'

'Yeah,' I said, watching as Sam transferred them from the barbeque to a platter.

'Here,' he said, passing it to me.

'Alright then,' Kensi said, smiling. 'Spread the word. Grub's up.'

Callen grinned. 'Finally.'

…

And the party begins. But these things never go smoothly.

Please review. They make me happy!

XD PurpleHipposRock