A/N: This chapter is based off of season two episode "Bounty". Again I have changed or edited things to suit my purposes. They'll be part two for next week.
As always, thanks to everyone who has supported this story, I really appreciate it! Even if I sometimes forget to respond to your comments.
"Try to aim for the inner part of area 9," Kensi instructed as Deeks aimed his borrowed gun across the shooting range.
"Which one?" he asked.
"I don't care as long as you get out of the 8's." His aim had improved marginally, but not enough to truly satisfy Kensi. If he was being completely honest, Deeks wasn't exactly putting in his full effort.
He aimed again, falling into the stance Kensi had demonstrated during his first session. This time Kensi didn't move to assist him, leaning against the wall with her arms tightly crossed.
It was probably a good thing. The tension between them was at an all-time high. While Deeks was fairly certain he wouldn't toss Kensi across his desk in his desperation to finish what they'd started the other night, he didn't need the distraction.
Just sitting next to her was distraction enough. He kept remembering what it felt like to have her body pressed against his. Her hands running over his chest.
"Deeks!" Kensi prompted and he jerked.
He sighed under his breath. They really needed a night off without any interruption. Deeks pulled the trigger, hitting the line between sections 8 and 9 on the right.
Kensi made a noise, but didn't comment as he sighted the target again. He felt a little bad for not making this easier on Kensi. Hetty would no doubt hold her partially responsible when he didn't progress as expected.
"You want to come over tonight?" he asked, partially to distract himself from more inappropriate thoughts.
"I would, but I promised Nell I'd go out for drinks if we finish early enough," Kensi told him apologetically. "I think she's kind of lonely."
Deeks hadn't spent much time around Nell Jones, the newest Intelligence Analyst in apparently long line. She seemed eager to prove herself, maybe a little too much at times, but she got along well enough with everyone. Deeks had even gotten a smile or two out of her.
It was fun to watch her and Eric descend into mutual bouts of geekiness, when they weren't competing against each other.
"Maybe I can tag along." He squinted and shot. The shoulder again.
"I'm not sure that's a great idea." There was an odd note in her tone and he frowned.
"Why not?" he asked. Kensi didn't answer immediately so he turned to face her, dropping the gun to his thigh. She looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Are you embarrassed to be seen with me." He said it jokingly and it seemed ridiculous, but it there didn't seem like another likely explanation for her reaction.
"Of course I'm not!" she said, giving him an annoyed look. "Why would you even think that." She sighed and pushed herself of the wall. "I just think that it might be a little strange if I invited you to come with and no one else. Everyone thinks we're just…colleagues and I'd like to keep it that way a little longer."
"Ok," he agreed quietly. "But you know someone is going to figure it out sooner or later." He didn't say anything, a little more subdued as he considered the paper targets with two holes in its right side.
Kensi sighed again, finally walking over to him. She took the gun from him, set it to the side, and leaned against his side.
"You know I wish it was different, but it'll make it so much easier if we don't have to worry about everyone watching, waiting for us to screw this up too."
"I know. But just to be clear, we're not going to mess anything up, including this "thing"." Kensi made a face, but didn't move away and said,
"Please stop calling it our "thing"," she requested. He grinned, enjoying teasing her.
"Yeah, I'm probably not going to," he said. Kensi rolled her eyes, briefly tugging him closer to kiss his cheek. "You know, that's not really helping with the whole "keep us a secret at work" thing, right?"
She pulled back, her expression mischievous, as she started emptying the gun for him.
"It's called self-control." Her grin was massive. God, she could be so annoying sometimes and he absolutely loved it. "C'mon let's see what's going on in the bullpen.
It turned out that Sam and Callen were in the midst of their own little discussion. Callen was goading Sam, who was naturally taking the bate. He seemed in an exceptionally irritated mood.
Deeks almost made a joke about them sounding like an old married couple, but figured that would be going just a little too far. Especially since he and Sam had been on better terms since the Maragos case.
"Where have you two been?" Callen asked. Kensi froze, looking ridiculously suspicious at the innocent question. Neither Callen or Sam seemed to notice since they were focused on their own conversation.
"Uh, Kensi was just telling me about an old boyfriend she had," Deeks answered after a second, grinning as Kensi glared at him. "She said he was super hot, right Kens?"
"Mm, he wasn't that great," Kensi said darkly, her eyes promising payback when they were alone.
"Ooh, looks like there's trouble in paradise," Callen commented. Deeks saw Kensi's eyes dart his way before she shrugged with false nonchalance.
"We're fine," she insisted.
"It doesn't sound like you're fine. It sounds like you two can barely stand each other half the time," Sam said, standing up. "If you're going to be working together, you need to start building a healthy relationship."
Deeks had to force himself not to laugh. He wondered if making out against a wall counted as a healthy relationship in Sam's mind.
Narrowly holding back a smirk, Deeks said,
"We'll work on it."
Eric whistled for them at the top of the stairs, saving them from further conversation about relationships.
Eric and Nell quickly filled them in on Thomas Booth's kidnapping and they were off to check out a stolen Audi. Kensi maintained a larger distance between them than normal, but he thought it was mostly for show.
By the time they made it to the scene, Kensi seemed to have forgiven him or was putting aside her annoyance for the sake of professionalism.
While Kensi briefly spoke with an on-scene cop, Deeks scanned the area and noticed three males, maybe on their late teens watching from the opposite side of the street.
"Hey Kens," he said, touching her arm and nodding to them. They didn't move as he and Kensi approached.
"Gentleman," Kensi greeted them with a smile. "Is there anything you can tell us about what happened here?"
The one in front grinned at Kensi and shrugged. None of them seemed to even notice Deeks standing next to her.
"Last night we saw some guys around the corner, in the empty lot, with flashlights," he told her.
"Any idea what they looked like?" The kid shook his head.
"It was too dark. Five went out there and four came back. That's all we saw." Kensi nodded, giving him another smile and handed him a card.
"Well, if you think of anything else, let me know," she said.
"Unbelievable," Deeks muttered as they walked towards the lot. At Kensi's questioning look, he explained, "You didn't even have to try with that kid. He would have told you anything."
"There are perks to being pretty," Kensi said a little smugly. "And it certainly saves me snitch money."
She turned more serious as they approached two broken down, graffiti covered cars that looked like they'd been there since Hill Street Blues was filmed.
"You smell that?" Kensi asked and he nodded, wrinkling his nose against the stench. It was impossible to miss, which didn't bode well for Thomas Booth.
"Geez," Deeks hissed when they found his mutilated body carelessly slung across the backseats in one of the vehicles. Booth was stripped down to his boxers, drying blood coating several parts of his body and a grid of black marker across his chest. Deeks took an involuntary step back, pressing his hand against his mouth for a second.
"You ok?" Kensi touched his arm and he nodded again, even if it wasn't entirely true.
"Yeah, just took me by surprise."
"I'll go tell LAPD we found him," she said with a sigh, leaving Deeks with the body.
He forced himself to move past his revulsion, crouching down by the car. Someone had clearly tortured Thomas Booth; he'd been stabbed multiple time. He must have been in horrific pain the entire time. Deeks shuddered at the thought.
Kensi returned, with two officer, directing them to collect evidence from the rest of the lot. She crouched beside Deeks, sighing as she pulled on black latex gloves. She pointed to the grin of black lines.
"The Magic Marker lines all over his skin correspond to non-lethal wound points," she explained. "The lines are a target for the stab wounds."
"I know," Deeks said, almost to himself. Kensi twisted to look at him, raising an eyebrow and he added, "I came across something similar from a study case during law school. He must have been terrified when they started drawing those lines on, knowing what was coming."
"Gunshot to the head. Mercy kill. He was interrogated. Booth had information. Once he gave it up, kidnappers capped him and dumped the body," Kensi continued, her voice clinical as she mapped out Booth's death. It was a little chilling how calmly she could talk about these things sometimes.
"Lucky guy." His voice was dark. Pressing her lips together, Kensi just barely brushed his arm before she continued assessing.
"Despite what it looks like, there isn't any excessive mutilation that would indicate a personal grudge. Judging by the wounds, he was tortured for hours before he was killed."
"He knew something," Deeks summed up. "I guess the question now is what and how bad is it that the bad guys now have that information?"
"Yeah. I'll call Sam and Callen to give them an update," she said.
"Sam and Callen are trying to find Booth's son, Brandon," Kensi informed Deeks several minutes later. "Apparently he hated his dad and has a record, but they don't really think he's involved in any of this."
"Mm, daddy issues," Deeks muttered to himself. "Those are always fun." Kensi tilted her head, considering him with narrowed eyes.
"Speaking from experience?" she asked. Deeks chuckled at her complete lack of subtlety. "You mentioned that you didn't have a great relationship with your dad."
"Yes, I did." Kensi made a face at his non-response.
"You know you'll have to tell me sometime."
"Just as soon as you tell me what you write about in that journal in your bag," he countered. "Wait, it's me, isn't it? Just page after page of prose written about my golden locks and my-"
Kensi smacked his arm, pressing her lips together as she tried not to smile.
"You are such an idiot," she said, looking beyond him. Suddenly her expression changed and she dropped her gaze back to him. "You see that guy in the suit? Tailored one that costs more than I make in a year?"
Deeks discretely turned sideways, giving a slow sweep of the area before her looked where Kensi has indicated. "Yep." Kensi was right, his suit was of excellent quality. At least from what he could tell from a distance.
Kensi snapped a picture with her phone, again trying to be casual, but the man noticed anyway and took off at a run.
"He's going!" Kensi shouted, taking off after him. Deeks started to follow, but she tossed him her keys and ordered,
"Take the car, cut him off! There's an extra sig locked in the glove compartment just in case."
"What, so now I'm your sidekick," Deeks yelled, even as he followed her instructions. As he drove one-handed, he unlocked the glove compartment. "Right, cause a gun in the hands of someone who regularly misses the entire target is a great idea," he muttered to himself.
Kensi had disappeared down a side street and it took him a minute to find her. When he did, she was in the middle of fighting the suspect. He had Kensi pressed again a chain link fence and Deeks didn't even think as he grabbed the gun, pulling alongside them. He pointed the gun out the window and shouted,
"Hold it!" Kensi used the man's distraction to punch him, the force knocking him to the ground. While Kensi slammed the man into the fence and started searching his pockets, Deeks got out of the car, still aiming the gun at him.
The man kept insisting that they were making a mistake and after a moment Kensi took a step back.
"Put down the gun," Kensi told Deeks.
"What? Why?" He didn't know what could have changed Kensi's attitude so quickly.
"Diplomatic immunity." She held up his wallet which had an ID identifying him as Jafar Khan. Well, that wasn't good.
A/N: I want to sort of follow the show, rather than completely recreating events, but if there are particular things you'd like to see or have suggestions for how to make it less cumbersome, I'm all ears. Should I continue adapting the episodes, or just include key scenes and write mostly about Kensi and Deeks' relationship? I do have a couple things planned for a few chapters from now that I do think you all will enjoy.
Once again, thanks for reading!