WHEEL OF FORTUNE…Write about a stroke of extraordinary bad luck

Kensi and Deeks entered the Mission in a very familiar pattern. Kensi was rolling her eyes as Deeks was waving his hands in the air.

"It's true, Kensi. What happened at the lights just proves it," he pronounced.

"No," Kensi said slowly, slinging her bag down. "It proves that people in LA are strange. Stranger than you even."

"I'm not too sure about that," Sam said from his chair.

"Oh, ha, ha, ha," Deeks replied, putting his hands on his hips.

"Do we want to know what happened?" Sam asked, looking at the pair curiously.

"Probably not."

"No," Callen and Kensi replied at the same time, Kensi pulling a face after for good measure.

Sam just gave them an expectant look as Deeks huffed and puffed around them, putting his bag down and sorting out some coffee.

"A guy who was protesting at the crossroads threw paint across several cars and got yellow paint all over the side of the car," Kensi explained.

"Ouch," Callen winced.

"What was he even protesting?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Kensi replied with a shrug. "He was blathering on about the sun and chickens. Or kittens. He was hard to make out."

"Global warming?" Callen guessed.

"Who knows."

"That sucks but what does that prove?" Sam queried.

"That I am cursed with bad luck," Deeks announced.

"Don't get him started," Kensi warned.

"Mercury in retrograde again?" Sam teased.

Deeks pressed the button so he'd get his magic liquid and turned to the larger man with a pout.

"No, that was last month if you remember-"

"How could we not," Callen muttered, remembering Deeks' ridiculousness a few weeks ago.

"-I am now just simply cursed," Deeks continued.

"Simply cursed? You piss off a gypsy or something?" Sam joked.

"You wouldn't be laughing if you had the string of bad luck I've been having."

"You were fine yesterday," Sam pointed out.

"He's just having a bad morning," Kensi explained with a sigh.

"It's not just a bad morning!" Deeks exclaimed. "I stepped in dog vomit this morning because Monty thought it would be a fantastic idea to throw up just where I get out of bed because he ate a sock again, we've run out of fruit, a seagull crapped on me, my body wash leaked everywhere and neither of us could find our keys," he finished breathlessly.

"And the donut place was closed," Kensi added.

"That too."

"You were actually going to have donuts for breakfast?" Sam asked incredulously, knowing that Deeks normally point blank refused to have anything remotely unhealthy for the 'most important meal of the day'.

"I deserved it," Deeks said stubbornly.

"That's all rather unfortunate but how does that make you cursed?" Callen queried, reluctantly curious now.

"He's not," said Kensi.

Deeks just pouted at her and turned back to get his coffee. He definitely needed it.

"Are you serious?" Deeks suddenly exclaimed, jumping back from the coffee machine.

Brown liquid was oozing out of the lower joints of it. The acrid smell of coffee beans filed the air.

"What the hell?" Kensi spluttered, standing up to try and see better.

"What did you do?" demanded Sam.

"I just wanted coffee," Deeks moaned, poking the mess on the floor with his foot. "Do we have paper towels?"

"Yep," said Callen, lobbing over an unopened packet.

Deeks caught it and gave him a confused look.

"G, why do have paper towels?" Sam finally asked after a few beats of silence.

"For possible spills from Kensi's desk," he replied, not looking up.

"Hey!"

"Fair enough," Sam said with a grin before turning back to Deeks. "So how did you break the machine?"

"You better not have," Kensi said, vaguely threateningly as she poked Callen

"I didn't do anything," Deeks whined as he tore what must have been a quarter of the packet out and dumped it on the floor to soak up the mess. "I'm telling you that I've been cursed!"

"You haven't been cursed, some screws have been removed from the back of this," said Sam after poking around the machine.

That got everyone's attention.

"Seriously?" Kensi asked incredulously.

"Who even does that?" Deeks added.

Callen pointedly shuffled some papers in an effort to look busy.

"Really, G? The coffee machine?"

"I thought I put it back together," their team lead protested. "There were no extra parts this time."

"We have a rule about this, G," Sam moaned.

"You should be cleaning this up then," said Deeks, waving the sodden towels at him.

"I'm delegating, it was your coffee."

Deeks sulked and Callen took pity on him and helped clear up the last of the mess. It wasn't that much, thankfully, and it was sort of his fault.

"See, everything bad is happening to me," he told Kensi once the two of them were done and Callen had secreted the coffee machine away.

Hopefully, he could do something about it before it came to Hetty's attention.

"It's just been a bad morning," Kensi tried to sooth him. "It will get better from here. You'll see."

"Or worse, " he said miserably.

"I don't think anything worse can happen to you today. Especially since we don't have a case."

"What about my mom? Maybe something will happen to her or she'll do something weirder than normal. I should check in with her-" Deeks jabbered, fumbling for his phone only to have it snatched out of his hands by his partner.

"You are not doing its again. Your mom is fine," Kensi told him firmly. "And anyway, isn't it you having the bad luck?"

"Yeah, but my mom's antics definitely falls under that. Or maybe even your mom. Yu should check in with her have you spoken with her recently?"

"I talked to her the other day. She's fine."

"I'll just send her a text-"

"You'll do no such thing!"

"Come on-"

"Our moms our fine. You are fine. Can we get to work now?"

"Maybe I'm going to get sick. I haven't been sick in a while. Do I look OK to you?"

"Depends on what you mean by OK," Kensi muttered before stepping over to him and brushing his hair out of his eyes.

He had messed it up with his distracted fidgeting.

"You need to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop because there is no other shoe to drop," Kensi told him soothingly.

"But-"

"No shoe," Kensi said, placing a finger to his lips.

He took a deep breath and counted to ten.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"No shoe," Deeks confirmed.

"Good boy," she said mock-condescendingly, ruffling his hair.

"Do I get a treat?" he asked slyly.

Before Kensi could give him a teasing response a wadded-up paper ball landed between them. They both turned around.

"Though you guys had a rule," Callen complained.

"See! Bad luck!" Deeks said with a pout.

"Getting cock-blocked at work is not bad luck," Sam said with a snort.

"It most certainly isn't," came Hetty's disapproving voice from behind them.

Kensi and Deeks winced and sprang apart. They didn't notice Hetty giving a grinning Callen and Sam an amused look.

"Hetty!" Deeks exclaimed, overly cheerfully.

"We were just-" Kensi began.

Hetty held her hand up to stop them in their tracks.

"I don't want to know," she informed them as they gave her sheepish looks.

"Do we have a case?" Callen asked curiously.

"No, I just wish to speak to Mr Deeks," she replied.

That immediately put everyone on edge. It was never a good thing when things just involved Deeks.

"He's not doing another Op for LAPD, is he?" Sam demanded.

"Do you need me as well?" Kensi asked.

Deeks looked like he didn't know whether to be concerned at the implications or amused at his team's antics or touched at how defensive of him they were.

Hetty brushed all of their concerns aside with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"It is nothing to be concerned about," she told them calmly before turning to Deeks with a stern look on her face, "I just have a few issues with some forms pertaining to your liaison position, Mr Deeks."

Deeks chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

"And, uh, what would that be?" He asked.

"That they are overdue by several days."

His team gave him sympathetic looks as they all shook their heads at him.

"We were kind of busy with that possible leak in that Middle Eastern Operation," he explained.

"So, you left your work unfinished until the last moment?" Hetty stated with a raised eyebrow.

"No, of course not!"

"So, they are done, Detective?"

"Uh..."

"I thought not," Hetty said disapprovingly.

"They're nearly done," he tried.

"Good. Then you will have no problem getting them to be before lunch."

Without waiting for an agreement from him, Hetty turned on her heel and strode back to her desk.

"They're not done, are they?" Sam asked.

"Not even close," Deeks groaned.

"Better get cracking," Sam said cheerfully.

"Maybe I can take a late lunch," he muttered, looking in disbelief at the paperwork he had to do.

"Let me know how that works out," said Callen.

"Told you I was having bad luck," Deeks said petulantly.