He was in trouble. He knew it the second she walked up with the greeting, "What's shakin', partner?" His head snapped up in surprise before he was being pulled into a hug. He could feel eyes burning a hole in the back of his head and he knew. He was going to pay.

"Hey." Deeks grunted softly as his old partner squeezed his body to hers.

"You guys make this mess?" She asked.

"Yeah." He laughed nervously. "We did. DEA Agent Talia Decampo, you remember Agent Callen, Agent Hanna."

Callen and Sam exchanged greetings with her before she turned back to Deeks, who then proceeded to introduce, "And Special Agent Kensi Blye."

Kensi reached out and shook Talia's hand firmly, offering a much less friendlier greeting. Her fingers latched around the DEA's hand and squeezed.

Deeks had caught this and shifted nervously; the last time he and Agent Decampa worked together went…well, he'd leave that up to imagination.

"So, you actually do exist." Talia joked with Kensi. "I thought you were just an imaginary friend."

Kensi, however, shook her head slightly with a laugh/scoff. "Imaginary friend?" She looked at Deeks as the girl in front of her kept talking.

"You were on an assignment the last time we hooked up."

"Partnered up." Deeks interrupted quickly. "Partnered. We were partnered up. They teamed us up 'cause of the uh, there was an explosion at a fish market." He glanced at Callen and Sam for help, but they only smirked at each other before grinning back at him.

"Right." Talia nodded, confused. "Yeah."

Callen caught her attention with a question about their case as the air shifted tensely when she looked back at Kensi and gave her a once over.

"Something wrong?" Kensi tried her best not to snap at her.

"Nothing, sorry." She replied with a shake of her head. "You're just not what I pictured."

Deeks rose an eyebrow and looked back and forth between them.

"Oh yeah?" Kensi asked, hands on her hips and a sarcastic smile on her face. "What exactly did you picture?"

"I don't really know." Talia sighed. "Guess the name threw me. When I heard Kensi, guess I just expected Barbie's Malibu cousin."

Kensi's smile dropped as she pursed her lips lightly.

"Thought I'd be seeing a blonde, California girl."

Deeks let out a loud laugh that Callen and Sam knew too well; yep, he was definitely in for it.

"Not even close." Kensi clarified.

"I can see that now." Talia had an equally un-friendly smile on her face as she nodded and sized up Kensi once more. She gave her attention back to Callen and Sam.

Deeks turned to look at his partner, but by the time he did she had turned and pinched his arm before walking away from him. He checked to make sure Talia wasn't watching as he took a step in Kensi's direction and jogged after her.

"Hey." He said, falling in step with her. "Everything okay?"

"Fine." Kensi said, pulling the car keys from her pocket.

"Are you sure? Because you uh, looked a little tense back there."

"Deeks." She snapped, looking at him. "I'm fine."

Getting into the passenger side of the car he let silence fall over them until he couldn't take it anymore. As they approached the parking lot of NCIS, he turned to her and said, "Kens…nothing happened."

"I didn't ask." Kensi put the car in park and got out of the driver's side.

"I know." He nodded, trying to keep up with her. "I just thought I should let you know-."

"I really don't care." She shook her head.

"Really?" Deeks huffed. " 'Cause the way you were gripping the steering wheel says otherwise."

Her eyes fell to her hands and took in her white knuckles. She tried to uncurl her fingers, but they stung every time she did.

"Kens."

"Don't." She warned, grabbing onto the door handle and pulling it open harshly.

"You were away on assignment." He felt the need to explain himself. "It's not like I hooked up with her the second you jumped on that plane. Hey." Deeks took hold of her arm and pushed her into an empty hallway. "I'm sorry, Kensi."

"You don't have to apologize, Deeks." Kensi shook free of his grip. "We weren't anything. You're free to do what you want with your spare time."

"Don't give me that."

"Give you what?"

Deeks was hardly ever a serious person, cracking a joke every few minutes, but it was when he did get serious that she knew the situation effected him. So imagine her surprise when rolled his eyes and bit his bottom lip in frustration; something that was usually done by her when he was being unbelievably childish.

"We spent the night together, Kensi." He began. "And the next day was rough, but we were just getting into the swing of things. We were something, Kensi, proven by you when you called me your boyfriend. And then you were gone. You left on assignment with Granger and when you finally come back, you're not the same. You won't talk to me, you won't look at me, and you don't even care that we hardly worked together since you've been back. So tell me, Kensi…what happened?"

Kensi swallowed the lump in her throat and looked away from him. "That's classified and you know it."

"Just talk to me." He pleaded, grabbing on to her shoulders. "Please, just talk to me, Kensi."

"We have work to do." She brushed his arms away and moved past him to walk into the bullpen where she met Callen and Sam.

Sam pulled up some photos and began explaining some new details they were just given, while Callen gave Deeks a quizzical look; he sensed the tension as soon as they both walked into the bullpen and, even though Sam believed they were back to their old ways, Callen knew better.

Deeks shook his head silently before pretending to focus on what Sam was saying. By the time Sam had turned to get his attention, Deeks was already on his way up to Ops with a file in his hand.

"What's with him?" He asked his partner.

"Don't know." Callen replied, daring a look in Kensi's direction. "You, Kens?"

"No clue." She lied, avoiding any more questions by practically running up the stairs to Ops.

"Hey." Sam stopped Callen from walking. "You know something, don't you?"

Callen laughed and shook his head, patting his partner on the back before walking away.

The day took its toll on the four agents, mostly because of the strain between Deeks and Kensi that was hard to ignore, even for Sam. They had managed to apprehend their suspect and they were glad to just get out of there. But of course, what kind of partners would Callen and Sam be if they didn't try to resolve the problem between Kensi and Deeks first?

"I don't think so." Sam put a hand on Kensi's shoulder and sat her back down in her chair.

"Hey." Kensi glared at him. "Sam, what do you think you're doing?"

"You two." Callen began, shoving Deeks back in his chair, stepping around him, and rolling him further to meet Kensi's chair halfway. "Need to talk."

"We've talked." She snapped at him. "Can I go now?"

"She's right." Deeks agreed. "There's not much to say. We've already said it all. Now, I'm tired. Can I go home?"

"Okay." Sam nodded with arms crossed. "Then why don't we just, uh, head on over to Hetty's office and put in a request for a new partner?"

"Excuse me?" Kensi asked.

"You can't work like this." Callen explained, pointing between them. "This, whatever it is, it's not good. You can't be partners if you're not talking to each other, and judging by today, I don't think you should be partners anymore."

"So yeah." Sam and Callen shared a knowing look as they both stepped in the direction of Hetty's office. "Let's go put in that request."

Deeks made no attempt to stop them; had Kensi wanted to be his partner, she would have said so. Had she wanted to stay by his side, she would have-.

Kensi shot up from her seat and huffed. "Fine!"

Deeks snapped his head in her direction as Callen and Sam turned to her.

"Fine." She repeated. "We'll talk." Lowering herself back into her seat, she faced Deeks and chewed on her bottom lip. "I'm sorry."

Sam looked at Callen, who in turn looked at Deeks. "That's it? You're sorry?"

Deeks leaned forward and gathered her hands in his. "Kens…it didn't mean anything. Talia."

"I know." Kensi nodded. "I just…I didn't think you would have…It wasn't fair for me to expect…"

"It's okay." He brought her hands up and kissed her knuckles gently. "You didn't really…not…hook up with anyone, did you?"

"Of course not!" She withdrew her hands and smacked his shoulder. "I didn't want to."

Before Deeks could say anything more, Callen and Sam burst out laughing behind Kensi, who had leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms with a scowl on her face.

"Well, that's…" He gave her a nervous smile. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"Oh, yeah." She nodded, standing from her seat and moving her hands to rest on her hips. She looked down at him and smirked when she leaned forward and rested her hands on his armrests. "And it doesn't help your situation since I met her."

"She was nice." Callen tried to help.

"I don't like her." Kensi kept her gaze on Deeks.

"To be fair, I don't think she likes you either." Sam snickered.

Deeks cracked a smile; when Kensi left, there was a huge hole. Her desk remained empty, waiting for her return. So, when she finally walked back through that door, nothing had ever made him happier. But then came today and nothing scared him more than the thought of losing her.

He knew he was in for a world of hurt, especially since her smirk hadn't died down. But that didn't stop him from reaching his hand up to tangle in her brunette hair and bringing her lips to his.

Kensi was angry ninety percent of the day, but being back home and being kissed by the man she never wanted to leave, made her smile. Her anger and frustration melted away with the soft kisses her and Deeks were exchanging.

Callen and Sam gagged with Sam kicking Deeks' chair out from under him.

"Sam!" Kensi squeaked when Deeks fell out of his chair and pulled her to the ground with him, both laughing.

"I think you just made it worse." Callen said to his partner.

'Twas rushed. Sorry, guys =/

And if you guys have been reading my Olicity story "Toy Soldier" I want to let you know that I have not given up on the story, I'm just a little stuck. The next chapter is supposed to be the chapter where it gets "mature" (I guess is the word) but I'm having a little trouble writing it since I've never really written anything like that before. So, please be patient with me.