A/N: Beware of angst
"Caleb!" Deeks called, racing around the back of the house. He was trying not to panic, but he and Kensi had searched almost the entire house. Caleb had disappeared sometime in the last half hour and worst-case scenarios were starting to take hold in his mind. "Caleb Matthew Deeks!"
He checked the treehouse they'd built in the summer, but the only occupants were a family of disgruntled spiders. Deeks was about to head back inside when he noticed the doors to the shed were cracked. He definitely hadn't left them that way.
Deeks slid the doors open all the way, illuminating the very front of the otherwise dark interior. There were random pieces of lawn furniture and tools littering the floor which he stepped around.
"Caleb?" There was a tiny gasp and he followed the sound to the back of the shed. He found Caleb scrunched up beneath a sawhorse in the corner, his head buried in his knees. He didn't respond at all when Deeks stopped directly in front of him, so he dropped to his knees and gently brushed the top of Caleb's head.
"Hey kiddo, what are you doing in here?" He still didn't move, but Deeks could feel his little body trembling. Something had him terrified. "Mom and I were really worried about you."
One bright blue eye peeked up at him at last from beneath several messy blonde curls.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"You don't have to apologize," Deeks told him. "But maybe you could tell why you're hiding in the shed." Caleb hid his head again and mumbled something into his knees.
"I didn't quite catch that."
"I broke mommy's vase," Caleb repeated more loudly.
"You broke a‒?"
"Mommy's vase. The blue one that Aunt Hetty gave her." He looked up again, his small face pinched with worry. It seemed like now that he had started talking, he couldn't stop. The words tumbled out in a rush. "I was climbing on the counter to get a plate and I thought I could do it by myself. But then I bumped the vase and it fell and broke."
"Ok, but that doesn't explain why you're hiding in here," Deeks pointed out.
"You tell me not to climb on the counters all the time and I didn't listen and now the vase is broken," Caleb explained. Sighing, Deeks reached for Caleb's hands.
"Come here, kiddo. This kneeling is killing my back." Reluctantly, Caleb extricated himself from the saw horse with Deeks' help. How he'd managed to contort himself into the tiny space was beyond Deeks.
He settled Caleb on his lap, curling an arm around his torso. Despite his reservations, Caleb automatically leaned into him, which Deeks took as a good sign.
"What did you think would happen when mommy and me found out about the vase?" he asked. Caleb shrugged, hunching in on himself a little again.
"I thought you would be really mad at me because I broke the rules." Deeks tipped his chin up, not liking where the conversation was headed.
"Caleb, did you think we would hurt you?" He hated asking the question; it made his stomach clench painfully. Caleb nodded minutely.
"I thought I'd probably get a spanking or hit like Tommy does when he's bad," Caleb said. Deeks had to fight down the rage that filled him, along with the urge to track down Tommy's father immediately. Instead, he held Caleb a little tighter and pressed his lips to his soft curls.
"I promise you that mom and I will never, ever hurt you," Deeks said firmly, his throat tightening as he thought of his own father. And imagined how afraid Caleb must have been to hide in a dark, dirty shed.
"Even if I do something really, really bad?" One of Caleb's hands curled in the back of his hair as he started to relax, anchoring him to Deeks.
"Even if you break every vase in the house." Caleb giggled at that, wrapping both arms around Deeks.
"I love you, daddy."
"I love you too," Deeks murmured, hugging him back. He groaned as he tried to stand and heft Caleb onto his hip at the same time. His knees protested, making a concerning popping noise. "Geez, you weigh a ton. We better let mommy know you're ok."
"Thanks for being a good daddy," Caleb said quietly as they walked back to the house.
