Kensi turned the air-con up to full blast, hoping that sub-zero temperatures might just jerk him back to full functionality. A girl could hope, couldn't she? All that happened was that Marty started shaking with cold and wrapping his arms around himself, of course.

"Are you trying to freeze me to death?" he complained, shivering dramatically.

"Fresh air's good for you. It clears your head." Mind you, he had a point. When the goosebumps were standing out on your arms, perhaps it was time to ratchet down the freezing cold air to something humans were more comfortable with, rather than polar bears? Realising that her hands were actually turning blue, Kensi She adjusted the temperature accordingly. Yup, that had maybe been a bit brutal.

However, once he'd thawed out Marty reverted to taking drivel. "I quite like my head like this. It's like I'm floating, or something. Or maybe it's my head that's going to float away?"

"Whatever. But make the most of it, because you're not getting any more of those pills. Not unless you're in hospital under medical supervision."

"Spoilsport." Marty tried to stick his tongue out, but found it didn't want to comply, so he gave it up as bad job. "Are we nearly there yet?" he asked hopefully.

"We're about 5 minutes nearer than the last time you asked."

"When was that?"

"Five minutes ago." It was at this point that Kensi realised she would never have the necessary patience to be a parent, because right now she would have cheerfully throttled Marty. Maybe he'd be back to normal when he slept this off? Because, God forbid, she couldn't take much more of this. Drastic measures were clearly called for, or by tomorrow morning the chances were that Sam and Callen would find her swinging from one of the light fittings. If she didn't kill Marty first, of course.

By the time they finally reached his apartment, Marty was sound asleep again and, what was more, murmuring something under his breath. Kensi leant forward, trying to make out what he was saying and discovering that she was strangely desperate to hear him say her name. Only the words were too indistinct and slurred to even attempt to translate. Heaving a sigh, Kensi poked him in the ribs and was absurdly gratified to see how effective that was.

"Wassup?" Marty looked completely bemused, eyes wide with surprise.

"We're here."

"Where?"

"Home. Your home, to be more exact."

"Oh." Marty thought about this for a second. "That's nice. Are you coming up?"

"Oh yes."

"That's nice." He gave her a dreamy smile. "I do love you, Kensi."

"Yeah. How about you say that to me later, when you're thinking straight?" Kensi leant across and opened the door. "You want to try getting out? And maybe starting to walk to the door?"

"I can do walking," he assured her. After a false start, when Kensi had to remind him to actually unfasten his seat belt first, Marty finally managed to get out of the car and staggered drunkenly towards the entrance of his building, nearly careening into an elderly lady who lived on the ground floor.

"I'm so sorry," Kensi said. "We're trying to persuade him to stop drinking so much, but you know what it's like. They've got to want to help themselves."

"I thought he was a police officer?" She'd always felt safe, having a police officer living in the building – but not if he was a drunk.

"He used to be with the LAPD. He was a detective." Kensi shrugged her shoulders. "What more can I say?"

"You should get out. A lovely young girl like you, wasting time with a man like that? You can do so much better for yourself."

Feeling only slightly guilty, Kensi flashed her a brilliant smile and hurried after her partner, who was standing looking perplexed in the entrance lobby.

"Are you sure I live here?" For the life of him, Marty would have sworn he'd never been here before.

"I'm certain." Kensi had some very pleasant memories of the time they'd spent in his apartment. The kind of memories that stayed with a girl and by which everything else was measured as happening either before or after. Everything had changed after she went to his apartment one night. Smiling as she remembered, Kensi pointed to the stairs. "You want to get your butt up there?" With any luck, a bit of exercise might hasten the detox and they could make some more memories.

Sadly, this was not the case. All that happened was that Marty happily burbled away, getting more nonsensical with each flight of stairs they climbed.

"How about you take a nice shower before having a nap?" Kensi suggested when they finally got into the apartment. By this time, Marty had moved onto the subject of manatees, for reasons best known to himself, and was regaling her with chapter and verse about their eating habits.

"That sounds good." He managed to remove his shirt without any problems, but got rather confused when it came to his jeans.

"Trying unbuttoning them, "Kensi advised and went through to the bathroom.

"Are you going to join me?"

"Maybe in a while." She tested the water and found it to be suitably frigid. "Are you ready?"

"Uh huh." The voice was directly behind her and Kensi nearly jumped out of her skin when Marty's warm breath hit the back of her neck and his arms crept around her waist. "Sure you won't join me?" His voice was low and he punctuated each word with a kiss.

"Not right now. I'm still fully dressed – see? You go in first." She held the shower door open invitingly and then gave him a small push forward, shutting the door briskly behind him.

"Jesus! It's fucking freezing in here. What the hell are you trying to do to me?" The water was so cold it just about took his breath away and Marty could feel his balls frantically retracting upwards.

Kensi leant all her weight back against the door, as Marty tried to push it open.

"Kensi. This isn't funny. It really isn't funny. Let me out." He hammered so hard Kensi was frightened the panels might break, so she stepped to one side and the door opened abruptly, so that Marty tumbled out on the floor.

"What the hell was that about?" He glared at her indignantly, only too aware that it was very hard to try to maintain any level of dignity when you were stark naked, freezing cold and lying sprawled inelegantly on the floor.

"Whatever it was, it seems to have worked." Kensi just about managed to get the words out in between whoops of laughter. "Doesn't it? You're actually making sense now." She reached inside and turned the water off.

"It wasn't funny." Levering himself to his feet, Marty grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. He wasn't normally particularly shy, but no man really wanted to be seen naked and freezing. It really wasn't the best sort of look.

"Oh it was, believe me, it really was."

"How would you have liked being trapped in a shower cubicle and being pounded by gallons of icy-cold water?" he demaned

"All you had to do was turn the temperature back up." Kensi smiled at him and placed the palm of her hand on his chest and he thought of how warm and soft it felt. "Simple. Only you never thought of that, did you, Marty? On account of the fact you were stoned and randy."

"I'm stone cold sober now." Marty let the towel drop from his waist. "But I'm still aching for you."

"So I see." Kensi let her other hand drift around to caress his butt. "Maybe I could do something about that?"

"Maybe you could."