A/N: Whoa! I cannot believe how many of you left a comment on the last chapter! Wowzers, is all I can say. That, and thank you all soo much! It's really nice to hear that you're all enjoying this fic. I do apologize for the lack of romance, but it'll get there. It's a mix of a case and romance fic. More emphasis on the former, though. I want to try to make it like a normal episode, but with a few more personal touches and our guilty pleasures =P
Once again, I do hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry for the wait! Please read and review. Thanks!
"How are you getting back?" Kensi broke the silence that she had commanded from him. The journey to her place wasn't long, and it was only as they approached her block did she think of the question.
"Uh..." He faltered. Even from under her shades, she could clearly see the sheepish smile curving his lips slowly as he glanced over briefly. "Well-"
"You so much as put the tiniest scratch on it, and I'll make you repaint the entire car by hand, you got it?" She warned him, fixing him with the strictest stare that she could muster.
"Yes, ma'am." Deeks replied with his typical boyish grin that she could do nothing but roll her eyes to, though she knew that he wouldn't be able to see it.
Making him stop out on the curb by her apartment building, Kensi thanked him before repeating her threat about any damage coming to her car. When he silently accepted it, it occurred to her to worry about why he had listened to her without an argument, or at least a cheeky remark. First about the no talking rule that she had employed in the car ride, and now the threat.
Opening her mouth to question him, she shut it abruptly and got out of the car instead, deciding to let it go. If he wasn't going to rebuke, then she wasn't going to give him a reason to when she really wasn't feeling up to it. That was until she turned around and saw Deeks also stepping out of the car.
"What are you doing?" She asked him carefully.
"Getting out of the car."
"You had to drive me home. That's it." Kensi pointed out, a frown marring her features as she rounded the car to the sidewalk where he currently stood, eyeing the building appreciatively over his sunglasses.
"What, I don't get to come in?" Deeks questioned with a hint of hurt even as he started up towards the entrance of the place. Sighing, she shifted her bag higher on her shoulder before following him, catching up pretty easily when he couldn't get past the first set of doors. "We've been partners for months now, you know, and I don't even know where you live."
"You do now." She muttered, letting him in reluctantly and leading him up the stairs towards her apartment.
"So where's the harm in letting me see the place? It's not like you'll ever invite me around again." He shrugged. The goofy grin that seemed to never leave his face when teasing her appeared again and Kensi couldn't help but to feel a bit less stressed at the sight of it.
"I didn't invite you." She reminded him nonetheless as she dug out her keys and opened the door to her place.
"I'm going to let that slide." Deeks huffed. He entered the apartment after her, not waiting for her to make his way into the main living area.
Kensi shut the door behind them with another roll of the eyes. She made her way through the room that her partner was in, dropping her bag by the side of the couch where he stood and tossing her keys onto the corner table next to it. Heading straight into the kitchen, she could still hear him let out a low whistle as he took in the place.
"Nice. Clearly get paid better than LAPD." She didn't reply to his words, instead opening the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. The brief silence on his half unnerved her until he spoke up once again, this time his words taking on a suggestive tone. "Or perhaps it's cos you share it with someone else."
"Stop snooping." Kensi warned him, speaking loud enough so that she knew he would be able to hear her from the other room.
"A very certain someone else. A guy. I'm going to take a guess here and say boyfriend." Deeks ignored her. "No pictures around. Guess that's the norm for an operative." He babbled on, and she could hear his footsteps as he made his way around the room, probably using his professional skills to work out the more personal parts of her life. "You know, I'm just going to keep on making assumptions until you say something."
"You know what they say about assuming." She muttered, re-entering the front room once again to lean lazily against the doorjamb that separated it from the kitchen.
"You're not denying it. I know you; you'd deny it if I was wrong." He stated, spinning around to face her from the middle of the room and pointing his finger at her.
"Yes, I would." Kensi admitted vaguely, taking a sip from the water bottle whilst bringing out a triumphant smile on his face that fell into an exaggerated pout a second later.
"I'm kind of offended. I'd tell you if I was in a relationship." He told her, crossing his arms as she raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "What, you don't think I would?"
"No, I believe you would." She told him, pausing to twist the cap back onto the bottle. She copied his stance before carrying on."Just the fact someone would be in a relationship with you in the first place..."
"I'll have you know, I'm a catch!" Deeks scoffed, not impressed with her ribbing.
"If you say so." Kensi played along, smirking and pushing herself off where she had been leaning. "Now, you drove me home, you've seen where I live and you've seen the inside. Leave."
"Not even a thank you? Or some water?" He asked with faux offence. Kensi smiled at him, more cold than anything else, as she advanced towards him slowly.
"Leave, or I'll skip every resort and go to the last one to make you leave. In an ambulance." She informed him innocently. It took a moment for the words to click in his head, but once it did, he started to back towards the front door. With the mood that she seemed to be in, along with the fact that she still had her gun on her, Deeks wasn't up for taking the risk.
"Right, so I'm going to go then." He said as he neared the door slowly. The boyish smile was back on his face as he unlocked the door and opened it. "Feel better soon."
Kensi merely nodded at his words before he left, letting the door slam shut behind him, much to her annoyance. Gritting her teeth as the pounding in her head came forth once again, she went over to the said door to lock it. Bed was the first and only place on the list of things she wanted to head to.
Making her way towards her bedroom, she stopped for a small detour to pick up the spare shirt that was laying on the arm of the sofa. She wasn't the neatest person in the world, but it was usually the littlest things that seemed to peeve her off. It was only once she entered her room that it occurred to her that it was probably the clothing in her hand that Deeks had spotted and clocked onto the fact there was a male presence in her apartment. Silently impressed by his observation and deduction, she pushed it to the back of her mind as she drew the curtains to bathe her bedroom in darkness. Changing as quickly and simply as she could, she slipped into the bed that she could not separate herself from that morning and fell asleep before she knew it.
...
The sun was still bright when Kensi woke up again. It outlined the drawn drapes enough for her to see the rest of her room, which was unsurprisingly the same as it had been before.
Turning lazily onto her side, she reached out for her cell phone from where she normally kept it on her bedside table. A frown pulled at her lips when her hand simply hit an empty space, forcing her to push herself onto an elbow to see where the object she searched for had gone. The frown transformed into a confused pout when she realised that her phone was nowhere to be seen.
It took her a good 5 minutes to finally locate it, after getting up, drawing back her curtains and trifling through the clothes that she had left haphazardly around her room. Of course, her phone had been in the most obvious place; her jacket pocket.
Three things occurred to Kensi as she unlocked her phone. One, that she had only slept for a couple of hours; two, that going from the text that Callen had sent her, they had caught the perpetrator; and three, she no longer felt like hell. The latter only occurred to her when she replied to the text message, where he had asked how she was feeling.
She wasn't sure whether the siesta had been the trick that had miraculously cured her. Either way, she didn't dwell on it too long, instead deciding to make use of the time on her hands to clear up the mess she had created and treat herself to a long shower.
An hour later, Kensi grabbed everything that she could possibly need, yet fit into her bag. There was a new burst of energy coursing through her body ever since she had gotten up, and it had yet to fade. She had contemplated going for a run to burn it off, but after just showering, it wasn't tempting to get all sweaty in the hot afternoon sun. Considering that she didn't even have a car at that moment, she couldn't even go back to headquarters just to see what was happening.
Instead, she had decided to go for a walk. There was a park near to where she lived that she had only visited on a few occasions, never really having the time nor the want to go. And she was sure that there was a small parade of shops on the other side of that park. If there was something that her place needed, it was some real food. Though grocery shopping was never on the her list of top ten things to do with a day off, she knew it was a necessity, if not just for the sense of normality in her otherwise abnormal life.
...
If there was something that Deeks had learnt in the months that he had been acting as the liaison officer at NCIS, it was that the longer that the case was, the paperwork seemed to correlate exponentially with it. What was worse was the fact that Hetty expected them to get it done as soon as possible, which usually meant getting started on it on the same day if he didn't want to end up leaving half of it blank.
He was actually focusing on the work that needed to be done for once when Callen entered the previously empty bullpen. Instantly, Deeks' attention wavered. Subtly, or at least in a way that he considered subtle, he took a quick look around the surrounding area before turning back to where their team leader sat at his desk directly opposite him, wincing at the amount of paperwork that Hetty had thrown on his desk.
"Psst..." Deeks hissed, leaning forwards. Callen looked up at him from the papers, raising an eyebrow at his low voice. "Where's Sam?"
"Making sure the perp is going where he needs to. Why are you whispering?" He asked in amusement as he relaxed back against his seat and crossed his arms to look at him.
Deeks shifted his eyes around once again, just to make sure that his words were true, before letting go of some of the stiffness in his body. Finally believing him, he placed his elbows on the table in front of him and carried on with his intended questioning, going back to his normal tone of voice.
"Can I ask you something?" Instead of replying, Callen simply nodded. "It's about Sam."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out." He retorted with a smirk.
"Do you think he likes me, yet?" Deeks asked, and when the agent stayed quiet, he carried on. "It's just that Kensi said he didn't, and I was thinking that she likes messing with me so maybe he does like me and, well... Yeah." He finished lamely after faltering. The look on Callen's face wasn't helping either. "Forget it."
"I don't know what to tell you, Deeks." He said. It was clear that he was trying to keep the smile from his face, but failing miserably. "But I don't think you're his type. And even if you were, he's married."
"Funny. You know that's not what I-" Breaking off, his exasperated words turned into one of surprise. "Wait, Sam's married?"
"Yeah." Callen confirmed as he got back to the paperwork that he needed to fill in.
"Why does no-one tell me these things?" Deeks huffed. Thinking back to earlier that afternoon at his partner's place, he came to the realisation that he really didn't know those on his team as well as he thought he did.
"Because it's got nothing to do with you?" The reply he got was distracted and didn't do anything to comfort him.
"Thanks, Callen."
"It's not important, that's why." Callen shrugged in reply to his sarcastic response. Deeks merely nodded in reluctant acceptance, turning back to his work when he carried on. "And about Sam liking you or not... Just don't worry about that. If he really didn't, you'd know by now."
"Ok..." He trailed off. There was something about the tone that the other man had used that told Deeks that he should be grateful for the fact that he was still alive rather than wondering if the ex-SEAL even liked him.
They fell back into silence as the two of them got back to their paperwork. It wasn't something that was normal for that area of the building. If they weren't working on a case, they were either arguing or joking, or even messing around with the odd game of cards or paper basketball. Deeks couldn't help but for his mind to start wandering a good 10 minutes later. Sitting in one place, to write nonetheless, wasn't an ability that he had perfected as of yet. He even contemplated leaving early, making up some excuse that was borderline to what Kensi had been experiencing earlier.
That was until the common chirping of a ringing cell phone broke the quietness. Practically jumping, it took more than a few seconds to realise that it wasn't his phone that was ringing. Deeks looked up at where the owner of the cell glanced confusedly at the caller ID, obviously unknown, before answering it.
"Callen. Yeah, that's right, why?" There was a elongated pause in which Deeks gave up pretending he wasn't eavesdropping, and sat back to see Callen do the opposite. "What? Why?" The mix of perplexity and genuine worry piqued his curiosity more. "You've got to be kidding me. Yeah, we'll be there in 15."
"What-?" Deeks began as soon as he had hung up and simultaneously stood.
"C'mon, you've got some liaising to do." Callen threw at him roughly, walking past his desk without even bothering to wait for him.
"Don't tell me we have another case already?" He moaned, following him anyway. Filling out paperwork wasn't something that he wanted to be doing, but neither was another case, especially if it had the potential of lasting a few days again.
His question, however, was left hanging as he caught up with Callen when he paused by the archway that led them to the corridor to outside, stopped by a certain someone's voice.
"Mr. Callen." Hetty said, standing by the entrance of her office, hands clasped behind her back. They were simple words, but Deeks could hear the warning in them. It was obvious by her strict look that she knew what was going on, not that that was much of a surprise to him. "Keep your cool. I do not fancy cleaning up after you."
"I'm always cool." Callen retorted with a mirthless smirk before carrying on out of the building.
"Ok, does someone want to tell me what's going on?" Deeks finally asked, straight-out looking between the petite lady and the retreating back of the leaving agent. The former simply jerked her head towards where the latter was almost out of sight, and Deeks sighed irritatedly, jogging lightly to catch up. "Well?"
"Kensi's been arrested." Callen answered. The nonchalant admittance made Deeks pause unconsciously as they approached the car, starting a moment later when the beeping of the car alerted him of it being unlocked.
"For?" He asked incredulously, walking up to and opening the door to the passenger's side as Callen did the same on the other side.
"Murder."
...
