Two days later I'm on a flight out of Los Angeles. It is a ridiculously long flight from Los Angeles to Prague, but I don't have much to do. I slept most of the flight, chalk it up to the time I spent flying in the military. I prepared myself for what was to come. I go over what Isaac told me about the building that Anton is working out of. When I landed in Prague, there was a familiar face waiting for me.

"Well, hello there." I said.

"Nice to meet you, Major Deeks." Madison said.

"What do I call you? Madison? Or is it Mr. X? Which do you prefer?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" Mr. X asked.

"It would seem that it doesn't matter." I said, realizing that Madison was never their last name. I let that sink in, and then asked. "Is there anything else I need to know before I head out there?"

"Put a coat on. Its cold out there, Major Deeks." X said, as he handed me a manila envelope.

I took my eyes off X for a moment to look at the envelope, but I knew that X had walked away. I put the envelope in my bag, and head to the safe house. I went to the building that was in the file that X gave me. I broke into the building to see what I was working with, or what was against me. When I leave, I put in a call to a friend to hack the camera system. I want to know how many guards there are, and where Lara is being held. I was on this building for two long, frozen days before I was rewarded with three vehicles. The middle car had my target, and to my great surprise, there was a fourth person who had cloth sack over their head. Twenty bucks says that's Lara. Over the next two days, more people show up. The following night, I entered the building and made my way to the party. I know that Anton has a basement, and there was going to be a party. Before the night was over, Anton was going to kill Lara.

I entered the room just as Anton was preparing to kill Lara. Lara and I made eye contact, and all she did was smile. This went on for ten minutes, and then moment of truth. The moment Anton killed Lara, I made my presence known. The last thing he saw as the Quickening over took him was me standing in the back with a full automatic rifle, and unloaded it into the crowd. I have thirty minutes before Anton comes round. And amazingly, the one thing that stood out to me, was that none of the people in the room were immortals. I clean, and sharpened my blade while I waited for him to wake. I checked Lara's pockets in case she left a message for me on how to handle her burial. There was a message. All that was written on it was an address. I recognize the address, and I realize what Lara was asking me to do. The place was in France, but it wasn't the place that stood out to me. Somewhere along the lines, the establishment developed a reputation for fulfilling last wishes by sending people on a scavenger hunt. My last duty to Lara is to go visit places she never got a chance to see, or places she wanted to see again.

"How did you…find me? You're not supposed to be here. This location was off the grid" Anton said, on the edge of hysterics.

That was a fast thirty minutes. I thought. "Who do you think that I am? I'm the Phantom." I said.

"This is impossible!" Anton said, his voice going up a few octaves.

It's been a while since I've struck real fear in a target that I almost enjoy this, but then I remembered why I was here. "Nothing is impossible, just highly improbable, but you forgot who you're talking to. I've made a living of pulling off the impossible. I've spent nearly five thousand years killing people like us. Just so you know you won't be alone." I said.

"What? What do you mean?" Anton asked.

"Isaak is already waiting for you." I said, and then decapitate Anton.

The first thing I noticed about Anton's quickening, albeit being an arms dealer, wasn't tainted by an evil presence. If I could dance, I would, but I'm already break dancing like I'm having a seizure. When the Quickening finished, I made the phone calls, and then transported Lara's body to France.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Paris, France-

I arrive at the location with Lara's body in a coffin.

"Can I help you?" a woman behind the counter said, in French.

"I have a delivery for Doc Watson." I said, also in French.

"Name." she asked.

"Laurette Renard." I said.

"Put the coffin in the corner." the woman said, and then laid a folded piece of paper on the counter. "If you will follow me."

I grabbed the paper, and followed the woman. This establishment has to orders to either cremate, or bury it patrons. Lara chose burial, and the weird part was that the burial plot was surrounded by members of her family. I shake my head, and said my good-byes. I spent years working with Lara. I think Lara even had a thing for me, but neither of us wanted to discuss it. Not that she wasn't worth the time or effort, I just never took the relationship seriously. I never did get to say good-bye. As they were lowering Lara's casket into the ground, I opened the paper to see where I was supposed to go. These were location I have never been to. Lara's last wish was for me to see places that she had like, or had loved before she died.

As I was walking away, it dawned on me that I have to tell Hetty that she needs to go and visit Lauren Hunter's grave to pay her respects.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

OPS: four months later-

Hetty was in the shooting range watching Sam working out. Although Sam had past his evals, Hetty made a call to an old friend and have them talk to Sam.

"How's he doing?" Callen asked entering the range. "Passed his evals, right?"

"Oh, with flying colors" Hetty said, nodding her head.

"So he's good to go." he said. There was a moment of silence before Callen asked. "Have you talked to Deeks?"

"He appears to be screening my calls." she said, turning to look up at Callen.

"That's brazen, especially for him." he said.

"Indeed." she said.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

My apartment-

My apartment was as black as night. The past four months haven't been kind to me. Somewhere while I was out seeing the places that Lara wanted me to see, I developed insomnia. When I got back I couldn't fall asleep. I was desperate, and willing to try anything. I was reading that storms help calm the mind. Although it wasn't helping me.

"What am I doing?" I asked, as I laid back down on the couch after grabbing the container of milk from the fridge.

Nothing seemed to being working, and then the blinds were flung open. Gasping, I bolt upright to see that it was Hetty standing there. "God, Hetty, what are you doing?" I asked, as I ripped the headset of my head and placed it on the coffee table.

"Well, I thought I'd brave the monsoon to come check on you." Hetty said.

Hetty walked over to tablet, and shut of the music.

"Storm sounds. Supposed to make it easier to fall asleep, so…" I began.

"You having trouble sleeping?" she asked, and then walked over towards the couch.

"Heh. Yeah, I'd say I have a little case of insomnia." I said.

"Probably all that clenching and releasing." she said. I roll my eyes at Hetty. Hetty walked over to find a seat, but she was shocked to see my coffee table. "Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. You've been busy." she said.

"Well, when you don't sleep, you realize how many hours there are in a day you have to fill." I said.

"Well, if you're bored, perhaps you could come back to work." she said, clearing a stool of its contents and sitting down.

"I didn't even know that you, um—I didn't know that you were coming. If I knew—You want something? Some milk?" I asked.

"Oh, no, no, no. I can't stay long. I just came to, uh, see if your phone was working." she said. At that moment, my phone vibrated. Hetty picked it up and saw that I had forty-three missed calls. "Forty-three missed calls. Fancy that."

"Like you said, I've been busy." I said.

"So has Kensi. For the past few weeks. Without a partner. I'm gonna need a decision soon. Especially if I need to find a replacement."

"Of course." I said.

"I'll leave you to your storm. Hopefully it'll pass without too much damage." she said, and then walked away. I saw Hetty turned the music back on, but I saw Laurette's smiling face flash before my eyes.

"Hetty. Um, wait." I said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You might want to head to the graveyard, and take a fresh bouquet of flowers with you." I said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Laurette Renard was murdered four months ago." I said.

"Where?" she asked.

"Prague." I said.

"What were you doing there?" she asked.

"Killing Anton Sidorov." I said.

"Okay." she said, slowly.

"Before I could kill Anton, he murdered Lara. While I was waiting for Anton to wake up from the Quickening, I check Lara's pockets for anything." I said.

"Did you find anything?" she asked.

"I found a piece of paper with two words written on it. It was a name actually." I said.

"What name?" she asked.

"Doc Watson." I said. Hetty closed her eyes, and let her head fall in shame. Here Hetty thought I needed a swift kick in the butt because I was overreacting, but in reality I was suffering mental trauma from the world traveling I had been doing. "I spent the three months traveling the world, seeing what Lara wanted me to see. Somewhere along the line, the trip became too much and I couldn't take it anymore."

"Yes, I'm aware of the phenomenon. It's called the bleeding effect. Immortals visit places that have a strong connection with an immortal that has just passed. Usually it's been used as a trap, but it has also appeared when the deceased had a strong connection with the traveler. Miss Renard cared deeply for you Mr. Deeks. My guess is that Miss Renard wanted one last world travel with you before you came back to Miss Blye." Hetty said, and then left.

I leaned back on my couch as I placed the headset back on my head.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Two hours later I'm on the beach, just staring out at the water. I just realized I haven't been surfing since last November. I miss it. I thought. I can hear a person walking up behind me. I knew it had to be someone from the office, but I didn't care. I just continued to stare out at the water.

"Wish you were out there?" Nate asked.

"No such thing as a bad day in the water." I said. There was a moment of silence before I continued. "I came. Even had my hand on the door. I don't know what happened. I just couldn't come in."

"Pretty sure you'd feel better if we talked." Nate said.

"Pretty sure I wouldn't." I lied, there's only one person I wanted to see right now and she was in another part of the city.

"Look, even though I'm here at Hetty's request…Well, I've got my own opinions. Only one who matters in all this is you. I have no agenda beyond making sure you're in the best place you can be right now." Nate said.

"And how can you possibly know what that place is when I don't even know?" I lied, knowing that seeing Kensi would help.

"Perspective? Seldom do we know what we need for ourselves." Nate said.

"What I need is sleep." I said. And to hold Kensi in my arms again. I thought

"Why do you think you can't sleep?" Nate asked.

"Because every time I close my eyes, my mind just keeps running." I said.

"With what?" Nate asked.

"All sorts of stuff, man." I said.

"The abduction?" Nate asked.

"Actually, no. I've been held hostage, and tortured before, that's nothing new. I just learn that certain areas around the world can have a psychological effect on people like me, and Hetty, and it can cause my memories to compete with another person's memories. Hetty called it the bleeding effect, all I know, it's like someone took all my memories and just put them into a blender." I said, standing and then walking towards the parking lot.

"The person must have cared deeply for you. You went through a traumatic experience." Nate said, following me.

"Yeah, but this is not my first traumatic experience." I said.

"No, but maybe something about this one had more impact. Your brain could be trying to make sense of what happened by comparing it to past experiences, but you got nothing that comes close, so it's working a little harder to resolve it." Nate said.

"Okay, so how long is that supposed to last?" I asked.

"I don't think I have a definitive answer for that, but the more you talk about it out here, the less you're gonna have to work on it in here." Nate said, as he tapped on his index finger on his head.

"So, what, in the meantime, I just walk around with the mind of a schizophrenic?" I asked.

"I don't think you have to worry—" Nate began.

"You know, it's funny because I already get the Shaggy jokes and how I'm halfway to homeless. You know, what's crazy is that I see these guys, I hear them talking to themselves, and its scaring the hell out of me because if I were to say what's going on in my mind, it wouldn't be that different." I said.

"Well, that's the real difference. You're worried about it. I'd be more concerned if you weren't." Nate said.

"So I'm not crazy?" I asked.

"Not yet. If you don't start getting some sleep, you're gonna start to act and feel like it." Nate said. There was a moment of silence while I digested Nate's words. "What about Kensi?"

"What about her?" I asked.

"You two obviously have something special." Nate said.

"Who told you that?" I asked, stopping to face the ocean.

You're partners. That's a special relationship. Look at Callen and Sam."

"Right. Of, course." I said.

"What is it about your partnership that's unique?" Nate asked.

"What do you? What do you mean unique?" I asked.

"Different from Callen and Sam or others. What's the one ingredient you'd say makes your partnership distinct from the rest?" Nate asked.

"Kensi reminds me of the woman that I was married to in my former life." I blurted out.

It wasn't the answer that Nate was looking for, but its step a starting in the right. "Well, once you can answer that truthfully to yourself, everything else will become much clearer." Nate said.

Nate and I continued to stare out at the water. It took me a moment to register Nate's words. I didn't answer the question, but I did take a step in the right direction.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

OPS: Hetty's office-

"So, what's the good word on our Mr. Deeks?" Hetty asked Nate as she entered her office.

"He's hurting." Nate said.

"Can he return to work?" she asked.

"Yes. Whether he will or not is a question for him. He's not sleeping. He can't get through this if he doesn't get some rest." he said.

"And his partner?" she asked.

"It's a complicated relationship." he said.

"Aren't they all?" she asked.

"You asked me if he could come back to work." he said. Nate couldn't stand it when Hetty veered off course.

"And now I'm asking about his relationship with Kensi." she said.

"Are you playing semantics with me?" he asked. Hetty sighed at the audacity of Nate's question. "He's very close to his partner."

"Too close to return?" she asked.

There was a moment of silence before Nate answered. "My professional opinion is: that if they don't reconnect, Deeks my never recover."

Hetty's eyes almost pop out of her head.

"Talk to me Hetty. You have a history with Deeks, and there are a lot of things that you two are hiding." Nate said, as he took a seat.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

My apartment-

Night had fallen. I was in my living room chilling on the couch when my phone rang. I looked at the caller id, and saw that it was Kensi. It's not that I didn't want to talk to Kensi, I was just couldn't bring myself to answer the call. But fate had other plans for tonight. The moment I declined the call, there was a knock at my door. I sat up, and waited. I wasn't sure if I even heard the knock at the door. When the person knocked on the door again, I stood and went to answer the door as I scratched an on my.

"I'm co…coming." I said

I looked through the peephole, and saw my beautiful wife—I mean partner. She held up a white bag with a huge grease stain on it. Must have been a long day. Probably didn't get a change to stop for lunch. Kensi smile went from one that show her teeth, to closed lip one.

"Oh." I said. I wasn't expecting Kensi to show up her. After a moment's hesitation, I opened the door.

I couldn't look Kensi in her eyes at first, and then we made eye contact. When we made contact I swear I felt like that time—which is irrelevant.

"Hi." Kensi said, after a moment.

"Hey." I said.

It took Kensi a moment to answer, she was afraid that I wouldn't let her in. Seeing as how I didn't shut the door, Kensi stepped in my apartment. "I've been calling." she said. Kensi lift the food and six pack of beer up to her chest, as she traverse the wasteland that living room.

"Yeah, I think I must have left my phone off." I said.

Kensi suspected that I was lying, but didn't call me out on it. That, and the fact that she was happy to be back in my life again.

"Guess what reopened." she said, as I shut the door.

Stunned that I didn't realize it, even by the smell, I asked. "Is that Yummy, Yummy Heart Attack?"

"Yep, three Fs from the Health Department and still going strong." She said, popping the P, as she took a seat on the couch.

"Yeah, if F stood for fabulous. Did you get the, uh, Drunken Pigs?" I asked, walking over to the couch.

"With extra kimchi. You're welcome." she said, as I took a seat on the couch. Kensi started to pull food out of the bag. I grabbed my container and opened it.

"I think I just felt a shiver. Want me to, uh, grab something to drink?" I asked, as I started to get up to get something to drink.

"Oh, no, no, no. I have got you covered, my friend." she said, pulling the six pack of beer up off the floor, and then put it in my hand.

I sit down, and think about this. I have to fight back the tears because I really do feel like I with my wife, and not my partner. I make a huge gamble. "Wow. One day you are gonna make somebody the perfect significant other." I said.

It was a huge gamble, but out the corner of my I eye I see Kensi smile ear to ear. Kensi grabbed the two sporks that were in the bag.

"Got a fork?" I asked.

"I have a spork." she said as she placed the bag on the coffee table.

"Heh, yeah. Yeah, you do." I said. I stirred the food around in the container and took a bite.

"All right. Oh, I have been waiting for this. The smell in the car…" she said, trailing off.

"Oh, are you kidding me? I forgot how good this was." I said, around the food in my mouth.

"This is so good." she said, and then took a bite of her food.

"You think this is bad for us?" I asked.

"Mm. Ah. You only live once. Ha." she said, and then took another bite.

"Yeah, probably a lot shorter when you eat like this." I said, and then took another bite.

Kensi laughed, and then I asked. "You got napkins?"

"Mm-hm." she said.

I reached into the bag to get the napkins, but my hand land on something that did not have the consistency of a napkin, let alone the same texture. I swallowed my food and then asked. "Is that dessert?"

"Uh, no, it's nothing." she said.

I shook the bag off of my hand to reveal a dessert that I told Kensi about a long time ago: A cronut. Kensi was acting all embarrassed, which is beyond me. "You got me a cronut?" I asked. No lie, I started to get choked up at the fact that my beautiful partner got me a dessert that I only mentioned in passing.

"Um, I did, but that was a while ago, and I left it at your doorstep, so that's old. Don't eat it." she said. Kensi took the cronut from me, and then got up to go throw it out.

"No, no, no. Don't throw it away. It's the thought that counts. I'm gonna frame this thing." I said, taking the cronut back.

I stare at the pastry for a moment as Kensi says. "You're so weird.

Kensi sat back down as I said. "I mean, look at that. It's like America and France made slow, sweet love and then had a pastry baby."

Kensi eyes almost pop of as she started laughing.

"You sure you don't want a bite?" I asked.

"No, seriously it's been out there for a while." she said.

"I'll probably still eat that." I said, after sniffing the pastry and then placing it on the table.

Kensi was about to take another bite of her food, but she remembered that one of her favorite movies was about to come on. "Okay. So Burnt Offerings is on at eleven.

I contemplated if I really had it in me to watch a movie. The one thing that had eluded me for four months was rearing its elusive head: rest. Kensi was taking her boots off as I said. "I don't really know if I'm up for a movie."

"Oh, yes, you are because I can't watch this alone. It is rated triple-b" she said, as she grabbed her food, and pulled her feet up under her on the couch.

"What's that?" I asked, taking another bite.

"Blood, breast, and beast." she said.

"What was the last one?" I asked, and then took another bite.

"Beast." she said, and then took a bite of her food.

"Well, you know how I like big beasts." I said.

Kensi glared at me playfully. There was a moment of silence and then Kensi said. "Either way you're watching it with me."

"I thought you loved horror movies." I said, dumbfounded by what I was hearing.

"I do, just not by myself." she said, still chewing the last bite she took. "Watch with me. Watch it with me? Watch it with me." she said pretending to beg.

"You won me over with the pastry baby." I said, around a bite off food.

"Ha, ha. Awesome, okay." she said around a bite, and then tried to get comfortable on the couch.

"Want to use my cat pillow?" I asked, offering her a pillow in the shape of a cat.

Kensi laughed when she saw that the pillow was pink. "It's pink. Very masculine."

Kensi stared at the pillow a moment, as I grabbed another pillow off the couch and put it behind my head. Kensi placed the pillow in her lap, and started to explain the premise of the movie as I finished getting comfortable.

"So Oliver Reed and Karen Black move into this mansion with their son and their elderly aunt, played by Bettie Davis, who I absolutely love, and then Burgess Meredith, who played Mickey in the Rocky films—It was so sad when he dies. Oh, my God, it's the best scene ever.—and his sister play the caretakers of this mansion, and then their mother, she's like an elderly recluse in the attic, and then—"

Kensi stopped midsentence when she saw that I had fallen asleep.

"Flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz show up with guns and there's a big shoot out." she said, knowing full well it was a lie.

"Mm, those monkeys are scary." I said, subconsciously.

Kensi was upset that I fell asleep before I was supposed to, but also she could do was stare at me. The stare was accompanied by a feeling of longing. Kensi wanted to reach out and caress my cheek, but she was afraid to ruin the moment. Even though Kensi wanted me to be awake and talking, just being in my presence was more than enough. Kensi kicked her feet out from under her and leaned back against the couch, our heads a mere six inches apart. Kensi looked away for a moment, she was afraid to ask me anything because I was in a vulnerable state, but she asked it anyway. "What happens next?"

There was a moment of silence before I said. "It's a love story."

Kensi was baffled by this, and started to freak out. "What?" Kensi asked.