They arrived at a three bedroom beach house. Its backyard ran all the way down over the sand and into the surf, and its rooms were filled with sunlight and the scent of the salty air. Deeks inhaled a deep breath and smiled.

They unloaded their bags, Nate ordered takeout, and after they'd eaten, Deeks went to his room to rest after his long, tiring flight.

Deeks awoke to the sound of waves murmuring against the shore. Looking out of the window, he saw that it was dark outside, but he would not be able to fall back asleep so he left his bed and followed the sounds of the ocean out to the beach. He found Nate sitting in a chair in the sand, a lamp by his side, reading. It was a warm night, and Deeks found himself enjoying the gentle breeze that teased at his hair. He walked towards Nate and sat beside him.

"Sleep well?" Nate asked.

"You can say that." Deeks assured.

They sat in silence for a while, neither wanting to break the calm quiet the beach had surrounded them with, and also, neither of them knowing exactly where to start. Finally, Deeks was the one to break it. "So. How does this thing work?" He cleared his throat. "I mean, the shrink thing."

"Well, there's no guide book, no 'do it this way' instructions for the 'shrink thing," we just start and see how it develops. We start out and I assess how you are doing mentally and then we start helping you figure things out. I'll warn you, you will have to be patient and not try to rush it or quit in the middle, because I will bet you that there will be times you want to throw it all out of the window." Nate warned.

"Don't worry about that. I'm here until I'm on hundred percent recovered. I really need to get over this; I can't live like this. I can't live with the way things are up here," he pointed to his head. "I need to find some peace, and I know that won't be easy."

Nate nodded. "I'll try my best to help you with that, but you'll have to cooperate with me and not hold anything back in order for me to be able to."

"Yeah, sure. Anything you need." Deeks replied steadily.

Nate smiled. "Great. We'll start tomorrow if you want?" He changed his statement into a question at the last minute, realizing he didn't want to push things, especially because he realized he didn't actually know much about this detective's life. In fact, he didn't know anything except the little bit that Hetty had told him.

"That would be great… but what do we do now?" Deeks queried with a smile.

"Well… if you are up for it, we could hit a club, get a drink, and have some fun."

"Sounds good."

They both headed into the house to change into more appropriate attire, before getting in the car and heading out. Nate drove a circuitous route, pointing out place to Deeks to try and get him familiar with the Sydney area, before arriving at the club he was familiar with. When the walked inside, Deeks looked around worriedly for a moment, before he started to ease himself into the mood, little by little.

"What can I get you guys?" A blond woman—the bartender—with deep green eyes, asked, smiling at Deeks.

"Two beers, please, Natalie." Nate answered from behind Deeks.

"Oh hey Nate! Didn't see you there. Is this your friend?" The bartender greeted, noticing Nate for the first time.

"Yup, this is Marty Deeks, a friend of mine from L.A. Deeks, this is Natalie."

The woman extended her hand towards him. "Hello Marty."

"Hello Natalie, and you can just call me Deeks." He said, taking her hand in a firm grip.

"Okay, Deeks. Two beers on the way!" She went to grab them, but Deeks stopped her.

"Actually, I'll take a glass of water if you don't mind."

"Sure." Nate gave him a slightly confused look, but didn't question him, instead making a note to himself to ask the detective about it later.

The two sat at the bar, waiting for Natalie to return. Nate looked around at the other people in the club, and found himself amused because nearly all of the women were glancing at Deeks repeatedly. 'If Kensi were here,' he thought to himself, 'she would kick their asses.' He knew from the few times that he'd seen them together that there was something between the two, no matter how much they tried to deny it, and he also saw that even though several of the women were trying to get Deeks' attention, he wasn't showing any interest in them. "So how are you and Kensi doing?" Nate asked. He saw Deeks immediately stiffen at the mention of Kensi's name.

"I thought we were here to have fun and save all of the shrinking for tomorrow?"

Nate didn't miss the edge in Deeks' voice. Apparently something wasn't going right between them. He held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry. My bad." Changing the topic, he motioned around them. "Looks like you're the center of this club."

"What do you mean?" Deeks asked, playing dumb.

"I don't remember ever being in this club when a single person held the attention of nearly all of the women in here." Nate replied, not calling him out.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." He replied, continuing the game because he noticed everything around him; he wouldn't be a good detective if he didn't.

"Yup. I'm pretty sure that group over there," Nate pointed with the beer Natalie had just dropped off to a table of four women whispering and staring at them (at Deeks in particular) "are talking about you and arguing about which one should come over here first to talk to you." Nate explained, enjoying the conversation.

Deeks turned his head to look at the table Nate had pointed at, and he saw four women who, sure enough, were staring at him and giving him their best flirting smiles. He returned theirs with a sweet smile of his own before turning back to Nate.

Nate had to keep his jaw from falling open a little bit when he saw that just one smile from Deeks made the women fan their hands in front of the faces and one of them squeal "oh my God he's so hot!" They were already wrapped around the detective's finger, and he hadn't even tried.

But, before any of them could get up and try their chances, a redheaded woman in her late twenties appeared from across the club and stood behind Deeks, clearing her throat to get his attention. He spun his chair around to face the woman. She had a pretty face, but she wasn't his type.

"I couldn't help but notice that you look new here." She said by way of greeting.

"Yes, I'm new here. Just got here this morning. Is there a problem with that?"

"No, no problem at all. Actually, I was wondering if you could help a lady on the dance floor?"

He hesitated before answering. "I'd love to." He stood and looked at Nate to see if it was okay with him. The psychologist winked and turned back to his drink.

"Lead the way." Deeks offered as she took his hand. He could feel the dagger-like stares the other women were sending them as she led him to the dance floor. "You'll have to go easy on me, I got in a car accident not too long ago and can't move too fast, so keep it at a slow pace." He requested when they reached the middle of the floor.

"Is that your way of telling me you can't dance?" She whispered in his ear.

"We wouldn't be here if I didn't know how to dance."

"Touché." She grinned.

Deeks pulled away from her for a moment, surprised. 'She actually used touché correctly!' He thought to himself, but that did not make him like her more, in fact it just confirmed that she wasn't his type. His type was brunette, not redheaded, and no blue eyes but eyes with a certain mismatched quality. 'Dammit Kensi,' he cursed to himself, 'I can't get away from you even halfway across the world.' He hoped that maybe after some sessions with Nate he would be able to get her out of his mind.

"Hey. You okay there?" The redheaded woman asked him when she saw he'd zoned out for a moment.

"Hmm, yeah. Nothing."

"You seemed like you were in your own world there." She said a little worriedly.

"No, I was just remembering an old friend, that's all." He saw her face fall a little, so he added, "But that doesn't matter anymore," and her face lit up again.

"Good!"

"So I didn't catch your name." He changed the subject.

"I'm Carla, and you are?"

"You can call me Marty?" He replied, giving her a cute smile.

"Well hello Marty." She returned his smile as they swayed slowly with the music.

"So. What do you do in life?" He wanted to divert the conversation back to revolve around her and not him.

"I'm a lawyer." She replied. Seeing Deeks bite his bottom lip to keep himself from laughing, she demanded in a slightly offended tone, "What?"

"No! Nothing… It's just that I'm a lawyer too." He said smiling.

"Oh, so we have a thing between us." She leaned into him more.

"I suppose we do."

"Maybe," she whispered, "we should get this to a more private place… maybe mine or yours." She gently bit his earlobe, and he immediately pulled away from her.

"That's not gonna happen tonight. I told you I just got in from a sixteen hour flight and I was supposed to rest but my friend there said that we needed to get some drinks. That's all." He saw her face fall again, so he added, "But maybe tomorrow," knowing full well that he wouldn't see her tomorrow, but he didn't want her to feel rejected.

"Yeah, that would be great." She said, smiling again.

Deeks turned to head back to Nate when she stopped him. "Wait. Could I have your number? You know, to call you I mean?"

"Like I said, I just got here so I still don't have a phone or number for that matter."

"Okay." She said, obviously a little disappointed.

"Maybe you could give me your number and I'll make sure to call you." He said, wanting to try as hard as he could not to let her down horribly. He'd been rejected in his life, and he didn't like it one bit and hated to inflict it on someone else. He would soften it as much as he could.

She headed back for her table where she pulled out a card from her purse and handed it to him. "This is my card. Feel free to call me anytime you want."

He nodded to her and returned to Nate. He sat down at the bar and drank the rest of his water in one swig.

"You know, those women kept staring at both of you." Nate commented.

"And I should care about that?" Deeks asked abruptly.

"I… I," Nate cleared his throat. "I don't know. I mean, if you want to." He finished, embarrassed.

"Relax man, I'm just messing with you. I'm not interested in any of them, I just didn't want her to feel rejected, so let's just keep it down. But, if you want to try your luck with them…"

Nate nodded. "Okay, we'll keep it down. But there is no way that any girl would be interested in me while you are still here, so I'm not gonna try my luck because I'll just be embarrassed. So, no more talk of women for the night."

After half an hour, Nate had had another drink, they headed back to their beach house, calling it a night… or so Deeks had hoped, but even once he'd collapsed on his bed, exhausted, sleep wouldn't come. He was surprised to find that he was worried and a little nervous. He thought perhaps it was because he was not used to being without Kensi, since she'd been a constant presence since he'd gotten out of the hospital for the second time, but he knew that this was the reason why he was here: to help him piece himself back together and be able to stand by himself. With all of these thoughts chasing each other back and forth in his mind, he was unable to fall asleep until the late hours of dawn.

In the morning—or actually, looking at the clock it was technically the afternoon—Deeks awoke and dragged himself out of bed to the shower. Afterwards, he walked into the backyard (a.k.a. the beach) and found Nate there drinking coffee and sitting on the deck watching the waves. Deeks sat beside him and found a cup of coffee waiting for him. He took a sip just as Nate was opening his mouth to warn him, and he immediately spit it all out.

Nate couldn't help laughing. "Sorry it's so cold! It was sitting there since this morning."

"You could have said something!" Deeks retorted, laughing as well.

"Well, I tried, but you drank it too fast… you have to admit it was kind of hilarious though."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Deeks admitted grudgingly.

They lapsed into a silence, though not an uncomfortable one; the ocean had a way instilling peace in the air. Finally, Deeks pulled his gaze from the waves and asked, "So should we start?"

"If you want."

He sighed. "Yeah, we need to get started with this."

"Let's go inside then." Nate stood and led the way into the house. Grabbing a chair, he motioned towards the couch. "You can take that."

"So. Where do we start?" Deeks asked as he stretched himself out and tried his best to relax.

"From the beginning."

"You've going to have to be a little more specific."

"What do you mean?" Nate queried.

Deeks had decided to be as blunt and as truthful as he could. "Well, do you want to know about the very beginning, like when I was abused by my father when I was a kid, or when my mother left me? Or do you want to start with the abuse I got in the foster homes I was sent to after that? Or maybe we should start with Sidorov abducting me and torturing me, or, maybe better yet, when I found out that the people I care about most, and consider my family, turned out to hate me and not trust me and abandon me? Everyone but Eric and Nell that is, those two were amazing. Oh, maybe we should start with the fact that when I needed my partner the most, she left me alone to be with someone else. Or perhaps you want to talk about how Sidorov managed to get me a second time, before torturing, shooting, and almost killing me? So, I think you're going to have to be a little more specific about what 'beginning' you want to start at." He had started out just rambling off the top of his head, but as the list grew longer and more recent, he felt some anger rise to the surface, as well as a slight feeling of surprise at how long the list actually was.

Nate stared at him for a minute, shocked at what he'd heard. He'd known that the detective had gone through a lot of pain recently, but he'd never in his whole life have guessed that Deeks had gone through that much Hell. What shocked him the most was that even after all of that, he was still alive and, at least until recent events, had such a cheerful countenance and outlook on life that one would never have been able to guess the traumas of his past. Most people who dealt with such traumatic childhood events would turn to crime or shut down, but Deeks hadn't done either of those things, and instead had turned into one Hell of a cop—one of the best, or so Nate heard. Nate pondered a moment before speaking. "Why don't you start from the point where you think you are having trouble dealing with?"

Deeks blew out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding before looking at Nate. "Well, I'm not really sure where that is anymore. I used to think that I'd gotten over my past, but the whole torture that Sidorov put me through… it was like my father abusing me all over again. And when everyone walked out on me, it brought back the memory of my mother dumping me; it's like everything I do to keep the people around me isn't enough… it's like I'm not good enough for anyone."

Nate nodded. "Then I guess we should start from the beginning, and what I mean by that is the abuse by your father. It seems clear that you haven't gotten past that, it probably felt like you had because you locked it up and put it in the back of your mind until events forced it to the front again."