A/N: This just came to me as I was watching Personal.
"I'm not dying am I?"
Kensi doesn't push too hard about his next of kin, although it's clear she's curious, and he doesn't offer. He doesn't tell her that if he were truly at risk of dying, that Bates has his mom's number. With instructions to only use it if absolutely necessary. Deeks doesn't tell Kensi a lot of things about Marty Deeks' extraordinarily messed up family history.
As they start delving through his past, he knows it's inevitable that Gordon Brandel will come up. Still, he waits until it's absolutely necessary to give the fewest details he can.
Kensi and Nell's hastily concealed shock when he mentions that he shot Brandel at age eleven, is mildly satisfying. Or at least it would be if it didn't bring with it a host of awful memories. Even after all this time, he doesn't like to think about it.
He thinks Kensi would be even more shocked if he told her that other than a couple of short, abruptly ended phone calls, he hasn't spoken to his mom in the last few years. She doesn't need to know that he was hurt; it will only make her worry and earn him a lecture about danger and how she told him so.
And to be quite frank, he's not sure his fledgling partnership with Kensi is sturdy enough to withstand the force that is his mom. She means well, but Roberta Deeks does not handle crises well.
Next of kin?
It's complicated.
Instead he says, "Good question."
Maybe he'll answer someday when he's not sporting two bullet holes and feeling like the weakest link. Or maybe he'll let that part of Marty Deeks stay tucked away.
