A/N: Because mashmaiden got me thinking with her post about Deeks' desk. It's kind of all over the place and super tiny.
When Deeks first started as a liaison, he never expected to make it past his first couple weeks. If he didn't get sick of the ever present undercurrent of animosity and quit, he was sure that Hetty would "fire" him for some reason, be it that he was just a little too chatty, or his temporary teammates complained about him enough. With that in mind, he didn't bring in much. NCIS had already provided him with most of the necessities, so he only brought a couple personal items to store at the mission. And, unlike Kensi, he didn't openly display them. If he was let go, he didn't want to make a big production of packing while the others looked on.
After a couple months, when it became clear that he was actually staying, he slowly, hesitantly, added a few more personal items. Still, he kept them in his locker or tucked away in a small box on his desk. Even if the team tolerated him, for the most part, Deeks didn't feel like opening himself up to ridicule over his choices. But, his collection slowly grew and in some ways, it began to feel a little like home.
The day he killed Isaac Sidorov changed all that. He packed up everything and anything that didn't belong to NCIS in a box. It wasn't much. He was a mess, and he knew it, but he wanted every trace of himself gone from the place. He had no intentions of returning in that moment. When he did returned a few months later, still kind of a mess, and not at all ready, he left the box at home. It was mostly symbolic since he clearly was way too attached to the team, but it gave him the false sense that he had some small amount of control over his life.