"Deeks, what the heck is that?" Sam asked as Deeks got out of his truck.

"What's what?" Deeks asked innocently, slamming his truck door shut.

"That!" Sam gestured at the bike laying in the bed of his truck.

"What's it look like?" Deeks asked. "It's my bike!"

"We're going mountain biking, Deeks, not on a Sunday ride down the beach," Callen said pointedly, coming out of the mission wheeling a bike beside him.

"It's the only bike I've got!" Deeks exclaimed. ""It's my beach bike."

"Does it have the little basket and handlebar streamers too?" Callen quipped playfully, leaning his own bike against the truck's fender.

"No!" Deeks replied indignantly. "And why do you keep your bike at work?"

Callen didn't answer, just heaved his bike up in the bed of Deeks' truck, hooking the front tire over the back. The group had decided to carpool with Deeks so he could take all the bikes. Sam pulled his bike from the trunk of his wife's SUV that he'd taken today, just for this purpose, popping it into the bed beside Callen's.

"We'll just stop at the boatshed and get him the one there," Sam said, peering over at the flimsy road bike in the truck bed. "You can't ride that thing on the trails."

Deeks shrugged as Kensi pulled up in the Caddi, bike hooked on the rack hitched to the back.

"Fashionably late as always," Deeks murmured as Kensi shut her car off and hopped out, silver bike helmet in hand. She was dressed in the 'real deal' mountain bike attire, with clip on bike shoes, padded shorts, and a form-fitting zip-up jersey.

"I heard that," she said pointedly at Deeks, who threw her a goofy grin. She went around back and unstrapped her Cannondale, tugging it from the rack and carrying it over to Deeks' truck.

"You want some help with that?" Deeks asked, moving to take the bike from his girlfriend. She glared at him, effortlessly heaving the bike into the truck bed beside Callen's. She stopped short when she laid eyes on Deeks' bike.

"You've got to be kidding," she muttered. "You can't ride that thing!"

"Yes, so I've heard," Deeks replied sarcastically. "I will have you know, this bike is way better than all three of your fancy mountain bikes put together!"

Kensi snorted.

"The second you hit one rock on the trail, that thing is going to fall apart," she pointed out as she swung her bike up into the bed of the truck, hooking the front tire over the tailgate beside the others.

"Wait, there's rocks on this trail? This isn't a paved trail?" Deeks asked, somewhat nervously.

"Yeah, Deeks, it's mountain biking, not a straight paved bike trail!" Kensi said, swatting the back of his head. Deeks grunted. "We'll just drop by the boat shed and pick him up the bike there," Kensi said as they all piled into the truck.

...

"I am so not ready for this," Deeks muttered as he gazed down the rocky trail ahead of him.

"You got this!" Kensi encouraged as she pushed off and headed down the trail.

"Yeah..." Deeks muttered. He did pretty well for the first half of the ride, trailing behind the other three through the twisting dirt tracks. He watched as Callen, Sam,

"Deeks look out for the -" Callen shouted, only to be cut off abruptly.

"TREE!" Deeks shrieked as he whipped around the curve and straight into a tree.

"Deeks!" Was the last thing he heard before eveything went black.

...

Several hours and an ER visit later, Deeks was walking away with a minor concussion, sprained ankle, and a broken arm, casted and held up by a sling.

"I'm sorry, Deeks, that was stupid," Kensi admitted. "We shouldn't have gone on that trail with you so inexperienced."

Deeks nodded, his pride hurt more than anything else.

"You gonna be okay?" Callen asked. Deeks was grateful they had all stayed in the waiting room while he was being checked out, and not just dumping him there and leaving.

"I'll be fine, guys, just gonna go home and sleep it off."

"You want me to take you home?" Sam asked, an unnecessarily kind question coming from him.

"No, Kensi's got it, but thanks, Sam," Deeks replied as he hopped up in his truck with a bit of help from Callen. He groaned as he fumbled his seat belt into the buckle with his left hand, since his right was rather unusable at the moment.

After dropping Callen and Sam off at the mission so they could pick up their cars, Kensi took Deeks home.

"You gonna be alright, Partner? Or do you want me to stay?" Kensi asked as she walked him inside.

"I'll be fine," Deeks replied. "Thanks Kens."

"Alright. I'll pick you up tomorrow."

...

"Oh my gosh, Deeks!" Eric exclaimed as Deeks entered the mission the next day, limping, his arm in a sling. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Deeks mutters.

"He fell off his bike," Kensi, behind him, piped up. Deeks jumped, Kensi's appearance unexpected.

"Ohhh no, no, you didn't go moutain biking with them did you?" Eric asked, taking a sip of his energy drink.

"Yeahhhh, why?" Deeks asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Never do that again! When I went with them for the first time, they took me on the hardest trails and I fell so many times! I was so sore I thought my whole body was going to fall apart for a week!" Eric exclaimed. "From the looks of it, they did the same with you."

Kensi smirked, and Callen and Sam snickered in the bullpen.

"Apparently." Deeks turned to his teammates, glaring at them.

"Next time they go biking, we'll go surfing, man," Eric says, clapping Deeks on the shoulder as he headed up to Ops.

"I'll take you up on that," Deeks replied as he went to sit down.

"We are sorry, Deeks. I didn't think you would get hurt this bad," Kensi said. She, and the others, did legimately feel bad, and weren't about to do anything that stupid again.

"I know," Deeks replies. "Just don't make a habit of hurting your best team member!"

"Shut up, Deeks," Sam said.