A/N: Thanks to wanna-be-bold for suggesting this fic and the help along the way as we wrote it. This is my first collab fic as well as my first crossover fic and it was a pleasure to have her as a writing partner.

Chenford

"See Tim, the beach isn't that bad." He grumbled under his breath barely resisting the urge to cross his arms over his chest.

"I never said I didn't like the beach. I don't like the ocean. The beach just… happens to be associated." Lucy rolled her eyes playfully and smiled at him. They were walking close together, their hands brushing occasionally, and they both wished they could reach out and grab the others.

Lucy had started listing all of the good things about the ocean, so he looked over at her, his breath catching for at least the fifth time that day. She looked beautiful in a long yellow sundress that made her skin glow and matched personality perfectly. Her hair was down and flowing over her shoulders and she had a carefree smile on her face that would make anyone around her happy.

They had been walking for about thirty minutes, Lucy talking for most of that time, when she went to twist her moonstone ring, only to notice it was missing.

"Tim." He stopped in his tracks to see her looking up at him with wide, panicked eyes. "I lost my ring."

He placed his hands on her shoulders to try to calm her. "It's okay. We'll find it. We haven't been walking that long, let's just retrace our steps." With tears in her eyes she nodded, letting Tim wrap an arm around her and turn her around to where they had come from.

After almost an hour of searching with no luck Lucy finally let the tears fall. "Ugh it's no use Tim! It's gone." She turned away from him, trying not to let him see her cry. She tried and failed to push down the voice of her mom in her head, telling her it was irrational to be crying over a lost ring. This wasn't just any ring. It was the ring that led Tim to where she was buried in a barrel in the desert. The ring that ultimately saved her life that day.

Behind her Tim was kneeling down, digging through the sand and trying not to let his mind drift to almost two years ago when it was the desert dirt he was digging through. That ring was the reason he had found her when he did, and he wasn't giving up his search.

Finally, just like that day in the desert, he saw the glint of the moonstone in the sun, smiling as he picked it up.

"Lucy." She could barely hear her name as it fell from his lips in a breath, and she turned around. As soon as she saw him holding her ring her hands covered her mouth, her eyes watching his every move as he held it up to her.

When he stood back up, she couldn't resist and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a long hug.

Eventually the sound of clapping broke through and they pulled away, looking for the source only to see a group of people smiling and clapping at them. Lucy slipped the ring back on her finger and waved at them shyly. Tim's brows furrowed in confusion, standing still until he felt Lucy's hand on his shoulder.

Without a word between them they started walking again, slipping between the crowd and walking quickly in the direction of Tim's truck.

Densi

"All I'm saying is, if we knock out that wall, it'll open up the whole space," Deeks said. He looped his arm around Kensi's back, drawing her into his side as they moseyed along the beach a few feet from the shore. They'd both kicked off their sandals and stopped for ice cream from a small stand by the pier.

"And like I keep telling you, we don't need to be starting any more remodeling projects while Rosa is still getting settled," Kensi replied, licking at her cone.

"Oh, come on. She loves the idea."

"You know, I never pictured you two ganging up on me so often." Kensi shook her head, no real heat behind her words as she tipped her head up to give Deeks a wry smile.

"We are not ganging up on you," he insisted. "Ok, maybe we don't knock anything down, but can we at least repaint? I need something a little brighter."

"Paint I can do," Kensi agreed, finishing off the last of her cone in a single bite. As they walked together arm in arm, they climbed up to the pier, keeping to the side as more adventurous runners quickly outpaced them.

"I wonder what's going on down there," Kensi said, gesturing to the small crowd that had gathered about mid-way to the shore. In the very center, a man was crouched in the sand, a woman in a bright yellow dress standing directly in front of him.

"Oh, somebody's getting engaged today," Deeks decided confidently, grabbing his phone.

"How can you tell?"

"Why else would he be kneeling like that?" He aimed his phone in their direction, zooming in.

"Deeks, don't record them," Kensi protested, grabbing at his arm.

"Hey, I don't see anyone else with a camera and I bet they'd appreciate the chance to look back at this moment someday."

"True. I always wished we had at least one picture from ours."

As she spoke, the man dipped his head, pausing a moment before he raised his right hand, extending it towards her. She clapped her hands together, long dark hair dancing around her shoulders as she bounced on the tips of her toes in obvious excitement. Her brand-new fiancé rose, and she threw her arms around him in a tight hug, fingers briefly cupping the base of his skull.

Around them, the small crowd burst into applause and enthusiastic cheers.

"Oh my god, this is so beautiful," Kensi murmured, cupping her hands over her mouth as she leaned over to watch through Deeks' phone.

The couple had stopped hugging by now, looking vaguely embarrassed by the attention. It reminded Deeks of him and Kensi when they were in the fledgling days of their romance. The woman discreetly slipped the ring onto her finger and touched the man's shoulder. Together, they slipped through the crowd, hurrying down the beach in the opposite direction.

Chenford

"Well, that was weird." Lucy glanced back at where the crowd was starting to disperse, still wondering what just happened.

"Yeah, I wonder what that was about." They shrugged simultaneously, continuing their walk down the beach and back to his truck. "Oh hey, I was going to take Kojo for a hike Saturday if you want to join us."

"That sounds nice. But uh, wouldn't you rather take Ashley instead?" Tim sighed as he climbed in the truck, watching Lucy maneuver her way in carefully.

"No, she doesn't like hiking, or Kojo. Besides, Ashley and I broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry Tim." She laid a hand over his where it rested on the center console as he backed out of the parking spot. "What happened? You looked so happy when you proposed."

She felt that pang of sadness that occurred every time she remembered seeing him down on one knee in front of Ashley and hoped he couldn't hear the change in her voice.

"Fake proposed, remember? It wasn't real." Lucy rolled her eyes, mumbling a 'whatever' under her breath. "And you know I only did that to get back at you for freaking me out all day thinking she thought I was going to propose."

"I still don't get how she was okay with you pretending to propose to her."

"Well it was easier since she doesn't want to get married, or have kids." He shrugged like it was no big deal and Lucy squeezed his hand where it was still under hers. She didn't have to fake the sympathy in her voice this time.

"Oh, Tim I'm so sorry. I know how much you want that."

"I'm starting to think it's never going to happen for me." The pain in his voice was clear to her and she felt her heart break a little at the man who had experienced so much heartache and deserved so much happiness.

"It'll happen one day Tim. When you least expect it." He glanced over at her, hoping she was right.

"What about you?" She turned to face him, tilting her head in confusion. "Do you want a family someday?"

"Yeah. I always imagined I'd settle down once I was in a good place in my career but now…" She shrugged and felt him squeeze her hand. "It's not like I have the best track record when it comes to relationships, even Chris broke up with me after trying to get me to meet his parents. Anyway, I don't see marriage in the near future, and it seems like the only hope I have at kids is getting my eggs frozen."

"You have Tamara." If she hadn't already known he was joking his smile would have given him away and she laughed. "But seriously Lucy, it'll happen for you one day too. When you least expect it."

Densi

3 Days Later

"Hey Deeks, what do you want for dinner?" Kensi asked, walking into the newly appointed office/slash storage room to find Deeks watching something on his laptop. She peered closer, frowning at the screen and her husband. "Babe, are you watching the video you took of that couple the other day?"

"Yup." He turned his head just enough to give her a quick grin.

"That's kind of strange."

"I'm downloading a copy—"

"And that's even creepier," she interrupted, and Deeks sighed, giving her a would-be patient look.

"I'm downloading a copy so I can post it and hopefully find this couple," he explained, looking extraordinarily pleased with himself as he sat back.

"Oh, Deeks, no, that's an invasion of their privacy," Kensi said. "I'm sure they don't want a video of them plastered all over the internet."

"Hey, it's not like I'm doing it for clout or something," he gestured to the paused screen where the dark-haired man knelt in the sand, the woman slightly blurred. "Look at them." He pressed play and it started over again with the guy looking downward, one hand placed in front of him.

Despite herself, Kensi found herself leaning on Deeks' shoulder more firmly. She noticed that the woman seemed anxious, fingers twisted together as more people surrounded them.

"What was he waiting for?" she asked no one in particular.

"Maybe he has a flair for the dramatic," Deeks suggested. "You know, I briefly considered going back to the restaurant we went to the first night we slept together, but then I decided against it."

"Which I am extremely grateful for 'cuz that would have been really awkward," Kensi said, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah, I realized that too. I actually decided on a beach proposal kind of like this. Only it would have been at night and just the two of us." He made a face. "Then the whole coma thing kind of derailed all of that."

"Sorry my timing is so terrible," Kensi drawled.

"That's ok, I like how it turned out in the end. Besides, how many guys can say they got to practice proposing three times?

"Um, it was only two."

"Three, the first technically happened–"

"Just restart the damn video," she said, pressing a rough kiss to his mouth to quiet him. He grinned as he clicked the touchpad, and the video started from the beginning.

Kensi pulled up a chair, leaning her chin on Deeks' shoulder again as they watched. Ok, it was pretty romantic. Particularly when the man raised his hand, eyes only for the woman in front of him, a half-smile visible. Kensi tensed in anticipation as they watched it all play out again: the hesitation before the woman accepted, their obvious delight as they embraced. Her fingers trailed up Deeks' neck and gently played with the soft hairs there.

"You really did capture a beautiful moment," she murmured.

"Thank you. Now that I have this video, it seems wrong to keep it to myself if there's some chance that I can somehow get a copy to them."

"Yeah, you may be right," Kensi agreed reluctantly.

"The question is, what's the best way to get it around where they might see it? Youtube?"

"Maybe."

"Hey, I thought we were starting dinner soon," Rosa said, popping her head through the door.

"We were, but then Deeks drew me in with his obsession with our mysterious couple," Kensi explained.

"I am not obsessed!" Deeks protested.

"Oh, you mean the people you saw on the beach the other day?" Rosa moved closer to watch the screen for a moment as the video started over yet again.

"Yep. Deeks wants to post it somewhere they might be able to see it. We were thinking about Youtube."

"I think ClipTok might be a better choice," Rosa suggested, pulling up a chair.

"ClipTok?" Deeks repeated, arching an eyebrow. "Is that anything like TikTok, the Admiral's favorite app?"

"It's similar. Anyway, wedding and proposal videos are very popular. This couple might have a better chance of seeing it.

"You know what, I think we need to give these guys names," Deeks decided abruptly. "How about…Stacey and Cameron?"

"Oh come on, she looks nothing like a Stacey. And Cameron?" Kensi scoffed.

"Ok, then how about our old aliases, Melissa and Justin?" he suggested. Kensi nodded reluctantly.

"I suppose that's better."

"I like it," Rosa said. "Do you want me to show you how to put it on ClipTok?"

"That would be awesome," Deeks said. "Not that I couldn't do it myself, but somehow I have the feeling you'll do it significantly faster and make it look all pretty."

Rosa chuckled at that, taking out her phone while Deeks sent the saved video to her. Sometimes it amazed Kensi how readily Rosa went along with all their craziness, not to mention that she actually wanted to spend time with them on a daily basis.

"Alright, what do you want it to say?"

"Uh…do you know this couple?"

"That's super catchy," Kensi teased. "Mr. Wordsmith."

"Oh, you wanna go there? Ok, let's see, 'Mystery couple gets engaged', that sounds suitably clickbaity, right? 'Can you help identify them?'" Deeks offered, looking between the two ladies for approval.

"I can make that work if we add some good tags," Rosa said agreeably. "I think people will like the idea of solving a mystery. What tags do you want?"

"Let me think. What about engagement, surprise proposal, mystery couple?"

"Well, it's better than your first idea." Shifting her chair back, Kensi kissed the top of Deeks head, lingering for a few seconds. "Alright, c'mon you two," she said as Rosa finished posting the video. "Let's go make some roast chicken." She grabbed Deeks' hand, tugging him out of his chair and pushing him and their daughter through the door.

Two Days Later

Kensi and Deeks were relaxing on the loveseat out on the back patio when Rosa came rushing through the back door, an unusual level of excitement on her face as she hurried towards them.

"Someone responded," she said breathlessly, making Deeks think she'd run through the entire house. When Deeks raised an eyebrow in confusion, she added, "To the video. Someone commented and said her mom and dad are Justin and Melissa." She held up her phone as evidence.

"Wow, I didn't think anyone would actually respond," Kensi commented, sitting up slowly. She'd been halfway asleep and clumsily rubbed at her eye as Rosa handed her the phone. Deeks leaned over her shoulder to read the comment Rosa had highlighted. Sure enough, somebody called "tamtamandluce" claimed to know the couple.

"Oh, thousands of people did," Rosa said. "I told you that these kinds of videos are popular. Anyway, I messaged the girl who responded, and her name is Tamara."

"You're being careful with the information you share, right?" Deeks checked and she nodded. With that out of the way, he grinned widely. He hadn't actually expected to get any response, and now the possibility of meeting the couple made him a little giddy. Turning to Kensi, he nudged her shoulder. "Maybe we can invite Justin and Melissa to dinner and pass on the original video. What do you think?"

"I think we have to," Kensi said. "I'm way too involved now not to meet them in person. But first, we have Fatima make sure the person claiming to be this Tamara is legitimate."

"Of course. The question is, where should we meet?" While he discussed the merits of his and Kensi's favorite restaurants, Rosa busily typed on her phone.

"Tamara says her parents are available tomorrow at six and they like pizza or Mexican food that isn't too adventurous or fancy."

"We could always go to the restaurant where we had our first date," Deeks suggested, looking back at Kensi.

"No." Kensi said before he even had the question fully out. She sent him a warning glare. "Definitely not."

"Why do I feel like there's more to this story?" Rosa asked shrewdly. "Did something happen on your first date?"

"Nope. Definitely not." Deeks nudged Kensi until she couldn't help a tiny grin.

"You're the worst."

"That's not what you said last night."'

"And I think I have some reading to finish," Rosa said, apparently deciding that she didn't need any more details.

Chenford

Between classes, studying, and hanging out with her friends, Tamara had spent less time with Tim and Lucy lately, but they made up for it by weekly dinners. Tonight was Tim's turn to host and they sat around the table catching up before she whipped her phone out, a huge smile on her face.

"Oh guys, there's this new ClipTok video I think you should see." Lucy's face lit up, ready for whatever funny video Tamara wanted to show her now while Tim rolled his eyes.

"You know I'm thinking of implementing a no phones at the table policy." Lucy smacked his arm playfully, the other reaching for her phone as she heard the ping of the video being sent.

"Trust me, you would make an exception for this…" Tamara trailed off, waiting for Lucy to open the video. When she did, she leaned into Tim, tilting her phone so he could see it too. The video was from farther away, the couples faces not able to be seen, but it was clear that there was a proposal going on.

"Awww, they got a video of a couple getting engaged that's so sweet!" She looked up as she laid a hand on her chest before looking back at the screen. Tim's lips turned up into a soft smile, finding the proposal on screen sweet and romantic and secretly wishing that was something he would get to do again with the right woman.

With Lucy.

But he couldn't let them know that.

"Yeah, I guess that's cute, if not an invasion of their privacy." Tim grumbled, trying not to imagine the couple on screen as him and Lucy, having to force the idea of being down on one knee in front of her one day out of his head.

Tamara smirked at him, waiting for the video to continue.

"Stop being so anti-romantic. They just wanted to make sure this couple had a video of their engagement." Lucy turned back to the screen just in time to see the couple break out of a hug to a crowd of people around them and Lucy felt a sense of deja-vu. Suddenly the video zoomed in and the faces of the newly engaged couple were clear on the screen. "Is that…" She looked over at Tim whose mouth was dropped open wide as he still stared at the screen.

"Yep! That's you two, getting engaged. I guess congratulations are in order?" Tamara smiled until she got matching glares from Tim and Lucy and held up her hands. "Hey, it's not my fault that you two look like you're getting engaged on the beach."

Lucy blushed as she realized that yes, that was exactly what it looked like, (even she and Tim had thought so before they knew it was them in the video) and she suddenly realized she liked the idea of being proposed to by Tim. She shook that thought from her head, knowing that was never going to happen.

"Yeah but we-"

"We're not-".

They spoke at the same time, glancing at the other before looking back at Tamara, Lucy deciding to take the lead in this conversation.

"We're not engaged. We're not even dating." She looked back at the phone where the video was playing on a loop and looked closer at the caption. "Oh my gosh." She threw a hand on top of Tim's where it was laying on the table. "They're looking for us."

"What?" He looked back and forth between Lucy and the phone before grabbing it out of her hand and staring at the screen.

"They're trying to find us. I've seen videos like this before. They think we got engaged so they're trying to track us down to make sure we see the video. See? Look at the hashtag here," she pointed to the bottom of the screen where the hashtags were, "engagement, surprise proposal, and mystery couple." She looked back up at Tim, pursing her lips. "Do you think we should reach out? Try to track them down?"

"Too late." Tim and Lucy looked over at Tamara at the same time, eyes wide.

"What did you do?" She rolled her eyes at Tim before plastering on an innocent expression.

"Oh nothing. Just messaged the owner of the account to tell them that the couple is my parents."

"Can you ask them to take it down too?" Tim grumbled, receiving a light smack from Lucy.

"Seriously though, we don't care about meeting them, just explain the situation and tell them we're not engaged and ask them politely to take it down."

They watched as Tamara typed a few more things before looking up at them.

"What?"

"Well?" Tim asked, tilting his head as he waited for an answer.

"Oh yeah, apparently the girl's parents asked her to help upload the video to find you. And you're meeting with them tomorrow at 6."

"Tamara!"

"What? She said they were thrilled that they found you and want to take you to dinner to celebrate. At least get a free meal out of it." She shrugged, looking between them.

"I mean, I guess that's not the worst idea." Lucy looked to Tim for confirmation. He rolled his eyes.

"Okay fine. We'll go." Lucy smiled, looping her arm through Tim's and giving him a side hug. Tamara couldn't help but smile as Tim's lips quirked up into a small grin.

"Good. You guys like Mexican right?"

Maybe this was exactly the final push they needed.