This chapter format is a little different. Hope it's not too confusing!
Takes place in season two.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA.
Nell grabbed a shopping cart and made her way through the aisles. She'd gotten home late last night, after finishing a case on Saturday, to find that her fridge was completely empty. This job had been taking up all of her time.
When she made her way to get some microwave-dinners, she saw someone she recognized. It was Kensi from work standing behind a cart next to the frozen aisle. Nell started walking towards her to say 'hi' but she halted when a little girl came over and put a box of cereal in the cart.
Kensi smiled. "Okay, I've narrowed it down to vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce or our standard favorite, rocky road. What do you think?"
"That one." Putting the rocky road icecream in the cart, Kensi started to turn to walk away, so Nell quickly hid behind the shelves of one of the aisles. She didn't really know Kensi or her life.
She wasn't even sure why she was hiding. This is weird, she thought. There could be a lot of reasons Kensi is shopping with a kid. The obvious answer wouldn't be so surprising. But for some reason she didn't think she was supposed to know.
She busied herself looking for food in the aisle she was in and after enough time she moved further. Looking around, she didn't see Kensi anymore.
12 hours earlier
"Kensi?"
"In position, just say the word." She replied to Callen while she looked through her sniper scope from the hill beside the meeting location. They were there to hopefully arrest their main suspect and some of his buddies.
"On three. One, two, three, go!" The shot pierced through the air, hitting right next to their suspect to distract him, as the three other agents moved in. Shots rang out in a battle between the good and the bad.
Kensi aimed and shot several times, resulting in some taking cover.
Deeks got one to surrender and Callen and Sam took down the rest.
"Suspect is in custody." Sam said through the comms so the entire team knew.
"Good work today. Let's wrap this up."
Kensi packed up her rifle and made her way down to the hill.
"Let's secure the weapons at ops, then everyone can go home, reports can wait till Monday. It's been a long few days."
Back at the mission. "One was taken to the hospital but he's going to be fine."
"Oh goodie." Deeks said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Well done, get some rest." Hetty said and then walked away.
Jules woke up and got out of bed to see who was there. She decided to do what she did every morning and just check if her dad was sleeping. Deeks jerked awake when his bedroom door opened.
"Daddy!" Jules practically shouted when she saw that he was home. Running towards him to land into his open arms.
"Hi baby. How are you?"
"I'm good. When did you get home?"
"Really late last night. It was almost morning."
"Really?!"
"Yeah." He had to smile at her amazement.
"Working on a Saturday, that's crazy."
"It is, isn't it? But I'm here now."
"I'm happy." She smiled.
"Me too."
"Did you have fun with nanny Alice?"
"Yeah, we did crafts."
"That's great." He kissed her head. "Kensi's here because it was so late."
"Yaaay!"
"Shhh, she's very tired. And we know how she gets when she's cranky."
Jules chuckled and nodded her head. "Just like when she doesn't get a donut."
"Exactly." He sat up a bit more against his headboard and then motioned for her to come onto the bed. "Let's watch some tv."
A while later, Deeks heard movement in the hallway and then the bathroom door close. "When Kensi comes back down the hall, tell her to join us."
Jules eagerly got out of bed to stand in the doorway and wait for Kensi. Moments later when she appeared, she waved her over. "We're in here!"
Kensi smiled at the little girl's enthusiasm. As she made her way into the room, Jules climbed back onto the bed and she saw Deeks casually laying there. Deciding to focus on something else, she looked at the tv. "What are you guys watching?"
"Spongebob." Deeks said.
"Wanna join us Kensi?" Jules asked sweetly patting the spot next to her on the bed. How could she say no to that?
"I do, but first I'm going to make some coffee. You want some too Deeks?"
"Oh yes, definitely."
"Jules can I get you something?"
"Milk please."
The fact that this was a very motherly thing, wasn't lost on her. She was getting very close, heck she was already very close to Deeks and his daughter. Her instinct was to run, but the truth was, she didn't want to. The thought of laying in bed, spending time with them and watching tv, even if it was Spongebob, sounded nice.
A few hours later, they were standing in the kitchen.
"You have no movie snacks?!" She stated shocked.
"Well I'm sorry, I've been a little busy these past few days."
"That's no excuse, I always have good snacks at home."
"That's because you're a hoarding junk food junkie."
She gaped. "How dare you?!" A hint of a smile on her lips. She had no other comeback and he knew it.
"Alright, everyone get dressed. We're going to the market!"
"We need movie snacks, tv snacks, afternoon snacks, dessert."
"Alright." He looked at Kensi incredulously. "We need some fruits and veggies."
"Have fun Daddy." Jules said as she sided with Kensi.
"Pick something healthy too please!" He shouted after them but they were already going down the snack aisle.
"What are we looking for?"
"Anything that looks good."
By the time Deeks came back, they'd filled the cart with lots of items.
"What did you find?" He asked, looking at it all.
"We got popcorn." Kensi started.
"Chocolate bars." Jules chimed in.
"Cereal."
"Icecream."
"Twinkies."
"Pop Tarts."
"And our healthy food, fruit snacks." Kensi smiled.
"That's candy."
"Made with fruit." She reasoned.
He stared them down but they kept an innocent exterior. Sweet smiles looking back at him. "Alright, are we done shopping?"
He took the cart and turned, heading for the registers and Kensi and Jules high fived in victory.
Present day
Monday arrived faster than anyone would have liked, but there was work to be done. There wasn't a case yet and in some way they were grateful. They'd just finished a big case and they were all exhausted. Paperwork needed to be done and now they could catch up on it. Sam and Callen decided to take a break and head to the gym.
"Ah I have to go over to LAPD and sort some things out, I'll be back." Deeks said and packed up his bag.
"Okay, good luck."
With Callen and Sam checking on a lead, Kensi was left to do some paperwork for the previous case but she was starting to get hungry.
When Nell came to bring her some new information, Kensi asked her a question. "Wanna grab some lunch?"
"Sure."
They walked to a food stand close to work. "How are you liking ops?" She asked their newest team member.
"It's been going well. I love all the technology we get to use…"
"But?"
"...But I feel like Eric is annoyed that I'm there."
"No, he's just like that." Kensi laughed. "He'll adjust."
"I hope so."
"Trust me, he's just protective of the tech."
"What about you? How long have you been with NCIS?"
"Well I joined in 2003 but I didn't come to this office until about two years ago."
"Wow you all seem so close."
"You kind of have to be when you're out in the field. It doesn't come easily to me though. It took a while to get adjusted."
"Yeah, I don't really know anyone in Los Angeles. I'm from the East Coast and all my family is there."
"Must be hard to be so far away."
"Yeah it is. I miss them." She said. "Anyway, what about you? Did you grow up here?"
"I grew up on bases all over the world but the longest I stayed in one place was in California."
"Nice." Nell smiled. "What about social life? There doesn't seem to be much time for that."
"Yeah pretty much non-existent." Kensi laughed. "Get to know us cause we're your social life."
Nell laughed with her. "Are you married?"
"Hah no, I'm not." Kensi
"Seems like there's a story there?" Nell guessed.
"Uh no, not married, or engaged, or even have a boyfriend. Like I said non-existent social life."
"I don't either." She said. "What did you do on our day off?"
"Slept in and then literally stayed in bed all day watching movies."
Nell laughed, with a little girl she thought. "Me too. Just a day of relaxing."
Her phone rang and it was Eric. "He found something he wants me to take a look at. We should head back?"
"I'm glad to have another female on the team." Kensi said.
It was nearing the end of the work day and Deeks hadn't been back from LAPD. He got held up later than he thought he would so Kensi was packing up her things to go home. Eric's information didn't lead to anything so they'd gone back to paperwork.
When Kensi looked up she saw Nell coming down the stairs with her bag on her shoulder.
"Hey Nell, wanna come over? We can finish our conversation."
"Yeah, sounds good." She smiled, happy that Kensi was being so kind.
As Kensi ordered pizza, Nell looked around the apartment's living room. It wasn't a big room and it may have looked smaller with all the things Kensi had fit into the space but nothing indicated that someone else lived there.
"Everything okay?" Kensi asked as she hung up the phone.
"Yeah." Nell said quickly. "Sorry." She was embarrassed in some sense for looking around but she couldn't put the pieces together. "Actually, no, I know this is none of my business but I swore I saw you on Sunday at the market and you were with a little girl."
Kensi tensed, not liking where this was going. She didn't know if Nell had seen Deeks with them as well. "Oh uhm, ... just my friend's daughter." Nell saw the nervousness in her eyes. The hesitation, clearly not the whole truth. Kensi didn't trust her to tell her.
"Okay, yeah I don't know what I was thinking." Nell said.
After a beat of silence, Kensi said. "Do you want a drink?"
"Yes, please." They could definitely use that.
Nell wanted to kick herself, thinking that her awkward behavior had just screwed things up. Kensi was graciously opening her home to her so they could get to know eachother and she had to mess it all up with her accusatory ways. Why couldn't her brain just rest? This wasn't work, she didn't have to analyze people and situations when it came to her own co-workers.
A ringing doorbell pulled her out of her thoughts. "That was fast." Nell said as the pizza had just been ordered.
"Can you get that?" Kensi asked, still busy getting their drinks.
"Sure." She walked to the door and opened it. Who was on the other side of the door surprised her but not as much as the person standing there before her.
Oooh who could it be? Can you guess?
Thanks for reading!