Nate wrote her a letter from wherever he was declaring Monty a service animal so she could have him with her on the plane. "The only service animal who probably needs his own service animal," Sam said. They were all subdued, eating in the Mission on her last day in California.

She still couldn't look at Deeks's empty desk. Maybe when she was gone, they'd arrange everything so people weren't reminded that she and Deeks had been there.

The flight was boring but felt like hell. Monty did keep her from screaming at someone or spending the whole flight crying. It's hormones, she thought. It's because I'm pregnant.

She was so tired when she got off, she sat down on the floor in baggage claim and tried not to cry. Monty kept close to her, trying to look intimidating. "You're the best," she said, cuddling him.

"Excuse me," she heard. She looked up. "I'm McGee, uh, Tim McGee, I think we met a few years ago."

"Right," she said. Monty growled.

"Why doesn't your dog like me?"

"Um," she said. "Were you recently around explosives?"

"Yes," he said. "That's why I'm here. I'm going to drive you to Gibbs's house. He has a room for you. But he's wrapping up this case."

"Monty was a police dog. Bomb sniffer. He probably smells accelerant on you." She pushed herself up to standing. "It'll be fine."

"He really doesn't like me," McGee said.

"He's quirky," she said.

They got to Gibbs's place past midnight. The light was on, though. McGee helped her carry her bags up, even though Monty was trailing him with a low growl.

"Your dog doesn't like Tim," Gibbs said, opening the door.

"I smell like bomb to him," McGee said.

"He's a bomb sniffing dog," Kensi said. "He's really good at it. He's just had some trauma, you know?" She was trying to explain and sounding very defensive. She said, "Sorry, I'm really tired. Come here, Monty, stop harassing the poor guy."

McGee beat a hasty retreat. Gibbs showed her the guest room. "Until you find a place." There was a pregnancy pillow on the bed. "Abby got that for you."

"I'm 10 weeks pregnant, I don't really need the pillow."

"I know," Gibbs said. He left her alone.

"Here we are, Monty," she said. She patted her stomach and thought, here we are, kiddo.

XXXX

It wasn't a bad job, working in DC. Abby helped her find a place, decorate it, get an ob-gyn, sign up for pre-natal yoga, find a vet for Monty and generally have a life of any sort. "Abby comes on a little strong," Ziva said.

"I don't mind," Kensi said. She'd turned into someone who liked to be lead around. It was just easier. She woke up sad, went to work sad. She really didn't mind Abby's enthusiasm.

The work was good. She was good at the interrogations and she was helpful to the team. Gibbs even said so.

She was going to have a sad baby, she thought. Her sadness would leech into the child. She tried not to think that way, but it was hard to stop.

Gibbs was driving her home from work after Ziva and Tony "seized" her car to pursue a suspect. She said, "It never gets better, does it?"

"Not really," he said.

Her tummy got bigger and bigger. She went by herself to the appointment where she found if it was a boy or a girl. "Girl," the doctor said, smiling. "We're very sure."

"Okay," she said. "Thanks."

She called her mom and told her the news. She emailed Nell so everyone in LA would know.

"I should be more excited," she told Abby.

"You should be whatever you are," Abby said. "You will have the rest of your life to be super duper excited as I'm sure you will be for your extremely adorable little future spygirl."

"You're sweet," Kensi said.

She talked to the baby. She didn't tell the baby she woke up three or four times a night and even 3000 miles away in a different bed, she was always convinced he would be there. She didn't tell the baby she thought she heard his voice sometimes and it made her want to scream.

When she was six months along, she was roped into helping with an op. She was torn between excited and scared. "Can I have two bullet proof vests?"

"I think that might give you away," Tony said.

"I don't want anything to happen to my girl," she said. "Okay, it is just a simple plant the bug."

She marched into the reception area, Tony trailing behind her. The receptionist said, "I'm sorry, you can't - "

"I know," Kensi said. "I know. But my stupid husband said we should have dinner out while we still can." Tony looked sheepish. "He's not the one with the baby inside, jumping up and down on his bladder. Please, please, I beg you, let me use your bathroom."

Kensi cupped her belly and pushed it up to look bigger. "Please?"

The receptionist nodded. "Okay, it's over there to the left."

"You are wonderful," Kensi said. She looked at Tony and said, "You are awful."

She was back in five minutes, thanking the receptionist again and pulling Tony with her outside. He said, "What took you so long?"

"I actually had to pee," she said. "It was a really nice bathroom."

She looked down at her hands. She'd worn her real rings, pretending to be married.

XXXX

Since Ziva was the one who asked, Kensi agreed to a simple surveillance gig two months later. She sat on a park bench with Monty, reading what looked like a Kindle for three hours. She was really taking pictures and videos of people coming in and out of a coffee slash antiques shop.

Monty was sweet but not much of a conversationalist. She was used to company on work outings like this.

She called Nell. "Are you busy?"

"Nope," Nell said. "It's good to hear from you. It's lonely in here."

"Eric's still not back?"

"Apparently," Nell said, "recovering from being poisoned takes more than a week. I think he might be slacking."

"Maybe he's hiding from Hetty," Kensi said.

"Maybe," Nell said. "I don't know why he thought he could drink Hetty's tea."

"Some smart people are remarkably dumb," Kensi said. "If we were skyping, I could show you the baby kicking - I have to tell you, it looks super disturbing."

"How is it disturbing? It's a baby," Nell said.

"It's my enormous 8 months pregnant belly literally moving from side to side as she moves around."

Nell said, "Have you picked a name yet?"

"No," Kensi said. She snapped three suspicious looking women going into the shop. Monty's ears were at up as he stared at them. "I can't decide. I don't even really have a list. I got nothing from my family - the ones I like start with D and the only time Marty and I ever talked about names, he apologized that we couldn't name our future kids -" little adorable ninjas, he'd said, making puppy dog eyes and chopping hand donations like, well, baby ninjas, "names that started with D. Because he said it would sound too much like Donald Duck, or something. I have to agree with that."

"I have to agree as well," Nell said. "Donna Deeks sounds like a superhero alter ego from the 50s."

"And I can't use names from Marty's side, I don't know, I think he hated most of them. Or he never knew them. And I don't want her to be the fifth Sofie in her class."

"Were you one of many Kensis?" Nell sounded skeptical.

"I was not and I loved that." They started talking about other things until McGee came to pick Kensi up. She said goodbye to Nell and promised to call again.

That night, she was trying to sleep when Hetty called. Kensi said, "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all," Hetty said. "I was speaking to Miss Jones and she mentioned your conversation. Specifically the baby name issue. I had a few conversations with Mr. Deeks about his family, so I thought I might be of service."

"He had a family member he spoke of fondly? Besides his mother," Kensi said. His mother's name was Dolly, a nickname for Dolores.

"A great grandmother he only met twice when he was very young. She was apparently quite the pistol. When he was choosing his new last name, he did a fair amount of genealogical research and he said she was the only one he'd wished he'd known better. She was a suffragette and a nurse."

"Please tell me her name wasn't Ethelberta," Kensi said.

Hetty chuckled. "No, but it was unusual. I looked it up myself to make sure I didn't remember wrong. Her name was Prairie."

"Huh," Kensi said. "I like that. Thank you, Hetty."

"It's a pleasure to help," she said. Hetty sounded sad.

XXXX

"Really?" Kensi stared down the guy in the ski mask pointing a gun at her. She liked working at the Navy Yard, but no one had ever blown up the Mission or gotten stalked there. She was 38 weeks pregnant and she wanted this done.

"Kensi," Tony said. "They are really holding us hostage. All of us."

The hostage taker waved his gun at the two of them. "You two are trouble. Back there." He separated Kensi and Tony from the other twenty agents and staff, and pushed them into one of the private conference rooms off the main floor. He closed and locked the door.

"There's five of them, one clear leader who just locked us in here. They know the layout," Kensi said, easing herself down to the floor. She rubbed her belly. "Also, I was the most likely to make people act stupid so they moved me out of sight."

"Yes," Tony said, examining windows and any other possible exits. They were all a no-go. "So they're smart. I hate when the bad guys are smart."

They didn't really talk the first hour as they tried to hear what was happening in the main room. "Of course Ziva and Gibbs won't raise their voices," Tony said.

"And they're the ones who are dangerous," she said. She was being a little sarcastic. She was pretty sure Tim could hold his own. But she did agree.

An hour later, her water broke. It wasn't like TV or the movies, there was no gushing waterfall. It did make a mess and she could not feel more gross. She also felt a sliver of panic. Tony sat down next to her. He was definitely panicked. "You're having this baby?"

"No, I'm having that baby over there," she said. "We've got time, I think. I guess. I haven't done this before, you know." She took a deep breath. "My mother was in labor with me for 28 hours. It was long enough my dad was able to fly back from Japan and be there when I came out." Saying it made her cry. She put her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. "Okay. Okay."

Tony patted her shoulder. "You know, I was in love once."

"Oh, shut up," she said. "You've been in love more than once. Don't be stupid."

"Okay," he said and sat back. She saw the tip of his ankle holster.

"You have a gun," she said.

"Yes," he said. "Just like I'm sure Ziva and Gibbs have weapons still on them out there."

"Give it to me," she said.

"No," he said, looking confused.

"My water broke. I'm about to be very loudly in labor. Someone will come. They will think of you as the threat and me as the pregnant useless person. I'll shoot them and you can give Gibbs and Ziva the opportunity they need to grab control." She looked at him. "I am not having my baby in some stupid hostage situation on this floor looking at this rug. It will be in a hospital."

Tony handed her the tiny gun. Girl's gun, she thought. She heard Marty in her head calling her Wonder Woman. She put the gun by her hip on the side away from the door. She said, "I'm about to get loud. Feel free to be hysterical as well."

"I don't think they'll believe that," Tony said.

"Yes, they will," Kensi said. She started panting and built to full-fledged hysteria. Tony joined in and was incredibly convincing.

One of the hostage takers opened the door. Like an idiot he stood facing them straight on. She looked at him while she panted and cried, lifted the gun and shot him.

She tossed the gun to Tony as he got up and ran toward the door. "Sorry I missed," she said, going back to her deep breathing.

"Solid shot," Tony said, as he grabbed the guy's gun.

"I got the shoulder, I was aiming for center. Go, go," she said. Tony closed the door. She could hear guns firing and shouts.

She was definitely having contractions.

After some excruciating period of time, Gibbs opened the door and sat down next to her. "The paramedics will be in here in a minute."

"Good," she said. "Please call my mom."

"Already done," he said. "Abby."

"I don't want, I don't want anyone in there with me, okay?"

He pushed her hair back off her forehead. "Are you sure?"

That was his 'you're making a mistake but I'll let you' voice. "I'm sure," she said.