Chapter 15

A cell phone buzzed by Deeks' head. He slapped his hand around on the nightstand trying to locate the annoying device.

"Yeah?" he mumbled.

"Case on deck," announced Eric. "Wait, you're not Kensi."

Beale sounded too chirpy for this early hour. Deeks swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. It was 5:20 a.m. "No . . . no, I'm not." In the dim light he looked again at the phone. "Oh man, I have Kensi's phone . . . so she must have picked up mine in the confusion of last night."

He ran his free hand through his already unruly hair. Of course, Kensi's phone was in here because his was still on the coffee table. In his eagerness to join her in bed, he'd failed to bring it with him.

"No problem. I'll call your phone to alert her," said Eric.

"No, no, that's okay. I'll call her. You're probably really busy there in Ops. We're on it, uh, I mean I'm on it," he mumbled. "I'm on it. On the case. Right."

In spite of being in a strange bed, Kensi had slept well. She rolled over and stretched under the covers. "What's going on?" Then she realized Deeks was talking to someone on the phone.

Wait! That's my phone.

On the other end of the phone, Eric has momentarily stunned. He definitely heard a female voice and his eyes widened. It was muffled, but sounded suspiciously like Kensi.

"Okey, dokey. Um, I will see you guys . . . soon." Shouldn't be too hard to call Kensi since she's right there beside you. Deeks has only been here a couple months and he and Kensi are already . . . together?

Eric wished there was someone in Ops right now with whom he could discuss this juicy development. He spun his chair around and glanced with dismay at his fellow techies: Paul, Joey and Kwan. They were huddled together analyzing some obscure data point. They were excellent at their jobs, but sadly were lacking in the social skills department. Only yesterday when Kensi was in Ops, they stopped what they were doing to unashamedly drool over her. Then Eric had to call them on it:

"Guys, really? Can you stop staring at Kensi? I need you to check that traffic cam video, like pronto. Besides, only Deeks is allowed to stare at Kensi."

"Why?" asked Joey, genuinely perplexed.

"Traffic cam video. Now, people!" Eric sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty. We have a case," said Deeks to a yawning Kensi.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Another one already?"

"Yikes!" said Deeks.

"What?'

"Your hair. It's all . . . wild and wooly," said Deeks and pointed at her head.

She frowned. "Yeah, well, yours isn't much better."

"It's called styled by pillow," said Deeks.

"That's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard. Come on, we have to swing by my apartment so I can get some real clothes."

"Yeah, the guys would question why you're wearing an LAPD shirt. Okay, let me get a quick shower," said Deeks. Monty jumped up and started barking and looking from one to the other.

"Fine, I'll take Monty out while you get ready." Kensi gathered up their evening wear and took it to the living room.

By the time Kensi and Monty returned, Deeks was dressed and pouring dog food into Monty's bowl. "Woof, woof!" There was never this much excitement in the mornings when it was only Deeks. He pawed at Deeks' pant leg.

Deeks looked down and patted his head. "Sorry, Monty. We don't have time to throw the ball around this morning."

Not that. Can we adopt her? You could say she followed you home. I hope she doesn't have a chip.

"Okay, your phone, my phone," she said as she checked them. "Do you think Eric heard me?"

They had another one of those moments as their eyes held. "Oh, I'm sure he heard. But don't worry about it. He's not going to tell Hetty or Callen. Anyway, what happens at home, stays at home."

"Because nothing happened," said Kensi in an effort to reassure herself.

"Unfortunately," said Deeks with a smirk.

Kensi punched his arm. "Don't be a pig."

"I'm just being a guy."

"Well, don't be."

"Would you rather I be a girl?"

"Right now, I would rather you be a silent partner."

"Okay, but one thing before I go radio-silent."

Kensi looked at him expectantly. "What?"

"In the future, it wouldn't hurt to stash some clothes here for situations like last night."

"Won't be necessary. Last night was an anomaly."

"But you never know when an anomaly will occur," said Deeks. "You know, like an earthquake."

The Mission

Callen arrived first and immediately noticed Kensi's car and the flat tire. No doubt there's an interesting story behind this.

Sam pulled up and said, "Kensi beat us here?"

Callen pointed to the tire. "Not unless she parachuted in."

"Right. I would only expect that of Hetty," laughed Sam.

Two minutes later, Kensi and Deeks arrived. They ran in and dumped the evening clothes on their desks before going up to Ops. "We can hang them up later," said Deeks.

"What do you have, Eric?" asked Callen when everybody reached Ops.

"Late last night there was an incident at the Crimea Café involving two marines and their dates. According to witnesses, there was some loud disagreement with the waiter and the couples were thrown out.

"Crimea Café. Isn't Arkady . . ."

Callen nodded. "Yes, Arkady is one of the owners. He might be just a silent partner, I'm not sure."

Kensi cut her eyes to Deeks, daring him to make a flippant remark. To his credit, he didn't open his mouth.

"They didn't like the borscht?" asked Sam.

"If it were only that simple," said Eric. "Apparently, the marines took their dates home, went back to the scene and waited until the waiter got off work. Then they followed him home and beat him to a pulp." Eric brought up a video of the poor guy as the EMTs were loading him into the ambulance.

"Oh my word," gasped Kensi when she saw the man's bloody, swollen face.

"There's more," said Eric and looked at Kensi. "Our victim is Vladimir Starnoff, age 26, who goes by Vick since he came to America. He recently moved into an apartment in your complex, Kensi."

She exchanged a look with Deeks. "So, that's what was happening last night."

"You knew about this?" asked Callen.

"Sort of. Let me back up. When we got back here last night, I saw that I had a flat. Deeks drove me home, but the cops had my building blocked off. We didn't know what was going on, so I ended up going to, uh, to a friend's house."

Callen studied her for a moment. You mean you went home with Deeks. "Okay, why don't you and Deeks go to Starnoff's apartment and see what you can learn. Sam and I will pay Arkady an early visit."

"Arkady's a friend of yours?" asked Deeks.

"Not really, but he can be useful from time to time," said Callen. "He's former KGB."