Chapter 20 – Deeks

'Are you sure you're okay?' I asked worriedly, watching as Kensi slowly limped her way across the street to where Emily Paulson was hovering in wait, along with the rest of the neighbourhood that had been roused by the rather loud explosion.

'I'm fine, Marty,' she replied shortly. 'Don't baby me.'

'I know, you don't need it,' I replied softly. 'But just… lean on me? Please? For my peace of mind?'

She sighed and reached out and hooked her arm though mine. 'Happy?'

'Much,' I replied.

'How's the scrapes?' she asked.

'Stings a little. I've suffered worse with road rash,' I said, lifting my free arm to reveal the carpet burn.

'Poor baby,' she said, giving me a small smile as she carefully watched for my next words. I'd never been so thankful that she could read lips.

'You're lucky you landed on me,' I said, shaking my head. 'You bruised my butt.'

'Oh. Your poor little butt. You want me to kiss it better or something?'

'It'd be nice if you did,' I said honestly as we approached the Paulson's front yard.

Suddenly, the familiar purr of Sam's Challenger approached, and Sam pulled up outside the house. He and Hetty got out, and Hetty let Callen out of the backseat while Sam ran towards us.

'Are you okay?' he asked breathlessly.

'Huh?' Kensi asked. She'd missed the movement of his lips as he talked.

'He asked if we're okay,' I said, deliberately facing her. 'I think we're pretty okay,' I said to him. 'The explosion damaged her hearing. Thank God she's the one that can read lips, right? If it was me, we'd have loads of fun.'

'What about you, Marty?' Hetty asked.

'Some carpet burns. Kensi bruised my gluteus Maximus when she landed on it after we took a dive to save our asses from a nice little box with a big punch.'

'Are you okay?' Emily ran up to us, clutching a folding chair. 'Here, Kensi.' She unfolded it with a flourish, and Kensi eased herself down into it.

'There's a weird ringing in my ears,' she said, rubbing at them.

'That will go away,' Hetty assured her.

'I hope you're right,' Kensi said uncertainly.

'Oh, Marty, your arms!' Emily said, alarmed.

'They're just carpet burns,' I assured her. 'They'll be fine in a couple of days.'

'Here, come inside where you'll be more comfortable,' David said, motioning to his house.

'Of course,' Hetty said, patting Kensi on the arm.

'We called an ambulance, and the police, and the fire brigade will probably turn up considering that your house is still on fire,' Aaron said, motioning to it.

'Oh, come on,' Kensi sighed, spotting it. 'We haven't even been there for a month. We have the worst luck, Marty.'

'Tell me about it,' I said to her, helping her out of the chair and into the house, followed by David, Emily, Aaron, Callen, Sam and Hetty.

The now much too familiar sound of emergency sirens wailed, getting closer and closer before finally pulling up outside.

'I'll go co-ordinate with my ex-colleagues,' I said quietly to Hetty, who I could see was repressing a small smile at the stress on "ex".

'Be careful,' she said, almost so quietly that I almost missed it.

'Always am,' I replied giving her an easy grin.

I could swear that she snorted at that.

Much to my relief, it was Rory and Theo that had turned up.

'Geez, Marty, you're real good at getting yourself and your girl into trouble,' Theo said, shaking his head. 'What happened here?'

'We got up this morning, someone rang the doorbell, Kensi went to answer it and found a box. She opens the box – finds wiring and C4. Screams "bomb" and we both hit the deck. Boom,' I informed them.

'Get Arson down here,' Rory said to a uniformed cop, one I didn't recognise. He noticed my scrutiny of the uniform. 'We made sure that these uniforms know you as ex-Detective Marty Johnson, not undercover hack slash part-time fed Detective Marty Deeks.'

'Shit. That bomb really did a number on the house.' Theo paused, thinking. 'NCIS got cameras around the place?'

I thought for a minute. 'There is one that is actually pointed out into the street. That could give us a lot.'

'It definitely could,' Rory agreed. 'Can you get NCIS on it? Do they got external access to the system?'

'That was our first order of business, yes. They can get into any computer, iPod, phone, television, stereo system in the house.'

'Then can you get them on it, please? You know how stretched thin we are, and this is technically their case too,' Theo said.

'Sure. Give me a moment.' I pulled out my phone and hit the second speed dial. 'Eric?'

'Hey Deeks. You and Kensi okay?' he asked.

'We're fine. Kensi's hearing's a bit… absent, at the moment, but she'll be okay. I hope. Hey, listen, you don't happen to have-'

'The footage from your front porch earlier this morning?' Eric finished for me.

'That's mildly creepy, dude. Okay, what do you got?' I asked.

'A woman. Pretty hot, too.'

'Did you get enough of her face for facial recognition?'

'You betcha. Going at your phone right now.'

'Thanks, Eric.' I checked my emails. Sure enough, one new one from Eric. I pulled it up. 'Bless people behind computers. And bless facial recognition. Maria Theroux.' I showed the picture to the police officers.

'Can we get a copy of that?' Rory asked, nodding to the phone.

'Yeah, sure.' I tapped the screen a few times, and Rory nodded when his phone signalled an incoming message.

'Have you made any progress on who hit your partner with the car?' Theo asked.

'None,' I said, shaking my head. 'So it's very possible that if they hit Kensi because they've broken her cover, they sent the bomb.'

Rory sighed. 'Is there a timeline on this assignment?'

'We've got literally three more days before Paulson finishes terminal leave and we can't legally protect him anymore.'

'Oh, God.' Theo sighed. 'Would it make your job easier or harder if we sent a patrol car past every now and then?'

'Harder,' I said immediately. 'Definitely harder. They'd get scared off, and the point is to catch them, not scare them off.'

'Alright. Just behave as normally, right?' he asked.

'Definitely. If you behave irregularly, they'll a rat,' I replied.

'Are you and your partner alright?' Rory asked.

'I think the bomb temporarily damaged Kensi's hearing. She can't hear anything below a scream. Thankfully, she reads lips, so it's not as bad as it could be.'

'And her knee?' Theo asked.

'She's getting better. Hobbling using a walking stick. I don't call her an old lady anymore because the last time I called her that, she stabbed me in the butt with her walking stick. She doesn't pull punches. Or jabs, as it turns out.'

Rory laughed. 'Good luck, man.'

I clapped him on the shoulder before moving away. 'Thanks.'

The next people I found was the two paramedics that had arrived with the police.

'Excuse me.'

'Yes?' The man lifted his head, and I was relieved to find that I recognised neither of them.

'My wife was in the explosion, she's sound in the way of scrapes and bruises, but she can't hear,' I said. 'She's in the house over there.'

'Thanks, sir. Were you in the explosion too?' the other paramedic asked.

'I just suffered some carpet burns from having to dive to the floor,' I informed him.

The paramedics eyed me carefully, but went without trying to persuade me that I needed looking over.

I sought the first fireman that I saw. 'Excuse me.'

The man turned around, and I realised that I recognised him. 'Marty!'

'Sh!' I clapped a hand over his mouth and looked around to see who was looking. Thankfully, no-one. 'Man, I'm undercover. I thought I told you to wait for me to greet you before you can call me by name.'

'You greeted me. You said "excuse me".'

'Oh, for God's sake.'

'Are you… under?'

'Yeah. Marty Johnson, nice to meet you. I'm married, I'm an ex-cop and someone's apparently trying to kill my wife. Can you tell me if it's going to be safe to live in my house?' I asked blandly.

I watched as he slowly digested the information before shaking his head. 'No, I can't tell you if it's safe to live in your house. I'll have to take you to my captain.'

'Then please, lead the way.'

He nodded and led me to a bald man who was in the process of removing his helmet.

'You the owner?' he asked gruffly, and my friend subsided with a small "bye".

'Yeah. Marty Johnson. What can you tell me?' I asked.

'Mr Johnson, you're going to have to find yourself a new place to live for a week,' he said, shaking his head. 'Structurally, the house is sound, but the front door and the doorframe have both been blown to smithereens. I don't think that it would be very safe for you to live there, considering that someone appears to want you and whoever else is living there dead.'

'My wife. She opened the box.'

'Civilians,' he said gruffly. 'Well, the fire is out and the house is structurally sound, so you can go in and get your belongings, but I wouldn't advise living there.'

I sighed. 'I'll have to talk to my aunt.'

'Good luck with that, man.' He shook his head before walking away.

'Shit,' I said to no-one in particular.

'Potty-mouth,' an unexpected voice came from behind me.

I jumped. 'Sorry, Hetty.'

'I should think so,' she said, shaking her head. 'Well, what's the verdict, Marty?'

'Structurally sound, but not advisable,' I informed her. 'The door and doorframe have been blown to "smithereens", to quote the fireman. There's no security, Hetty. Anyone could walk in.'

Grimly, she nodded. 'Well, we'll just have to call off the operation and just position some agents outside in a car.'

'Damn it,' I muttered, shaking my head. 'Well, go break the news to my wife, yeah?'

'I believe she's being seen to by the paramedics you sent her way?' Hetty said, leading the way back to the Paulson's.

'Yeah,' I said, smiling slightly. 'She's mad at me, isn't she?'

'It's hard to tell who she's more angry at, you or the paramedics that are insisting on taking her pulse when she insists that the only problem is that she can't hear,' Hetty informed me, entering the house before me.

'Definitely Marty,' Sam said upon our entry to the living room. 'He caused the paramedic problem.'

'Honey?' I asked, trying a sheepish grin. She didn't hear me.

I stepped closer to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. 'Kens.'

She jumped before looking up. 'Oh. Marty.'

'How is she?' I asked the paramedic.

'I think after a few hours, she'll be alright,' the paramedic said, taking a pair of white latex gloves off. He patted her on the shoulder before picking up his bag. 'Good luck.'

He left and Kensi gave me a bright grin. 'My hearing's coming back already. I almost understood what Aunt Hetty was saying earlier.'

'That's good,' I said before hugging her tightly. 'Now, you're absolutely sure that that's the only thing wrong?'

'Absolutely,' she said after she'd figured out what I'd been saying. 'What's the verdict on the house?'

I sighed and took both her hands. 'You know how you said you absolutely adored the front door, with the diamond shaped frosted glass panelling in the middle?'

'Smithereens?' she asked hesitantly.

'Why is everyone using that word?' I asked.

'If the shoe fits… Can we live in the house?'

'Stability-wise, it's sound. However, considering that someone appears to be trying to kill you, and there's no door nor door frame, it's not going to be terrifically safe,' I said gently. 'We can't stay, honey.' This was my subtle way of telling her that we were going to have to scrap the op.

'Just for a few hours, right?' she asked, wide eyed.

'More like a few days, sweetheart,' I said gently.

'You could stay with us!' Emily exclaimed brightly. 'That wouldn't be a problem, right?' she asked, turning to her husband.

'If they don't mind being woken up in the middle of the night by Jess,' David said good humouredly, smiling.

'Not at all. Marty?' she asked me hopefully. I could basically see Hetty inwardly smiling, knowing that it was all playing into her hands.

'If it wouldn't be too much trouble,' I said.

'Not at all,' Emily said, grinning widely.

'Well, that's settled,' David said, smiling. 'Come on, then, let's get your things.'

::

And now they're exactly where they need to be. Anyone else think that Hetty had a hand in things there? Because everything always turns out the way she wants it to. Now if only she wanted Kensi and Deeks to get together…

Please review. They brighten my day so much!

Now, I never said that I was good at updating, did I? Sorry for the wait, and thank you to those who pestered me about it. You know who you are… As for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" I'm currently very blocked on that story at the moment, but it will eventually get finished. I know where I want it to go; I just don't know how to get there…

Thank you to all who review – please keep going, we're almost at 300!

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