A/N: Thank you for all your reviews/alerts and favourites. I can't believe this thing is so popular. I love you all!
Chapter Five
Eric rapped on the door again, "Come out come out. We know you're in there."
"Eric," Nell chided, shifting her grip on the large Tupperware container she held. "Give them a minute."
"I'm hungry," He frowned, turning his head to face her. "Someone stole my cookies." His blue eyes looked at her accusingly.
She shook her head, "Don't look at me like that; it wasn't me. And you probably should eat something healthier for lunch."
"They covered three food groups – they had nuts, cream and oats. They were healthy!" He objected before turning back to knock on the door again. "Come on, you can't leave us out starving in the cold." He kept knocking, resting his head against the door.
Nell glanced pointedly to the hot sunlight beaming down on them, "its LA – cold isn't really a factor."
"So? It's not polite to leave guests outside."
The door opened suddenly and Eric stumbled at the loss of resistance. "It's not polite to nag either," Deeks told him, smirking as the tech regained his footing. "That's what you call karma dude."
"Haha," Eric's eyes narrowed at the detective. "So has Kensi managed to burn anything yet?"
"Nope," Deeks grinned, popping the 'p' sound as he leant against the doorframe. He was being honest, which kinda surprised him. "She's actually better than me. But don't tell her that," He added quickly, fearing what his partner's ego would make of that statement. She'd never let him forget it. "Is that cake?" He changed the subject overtly, looking to Nell.
"Close," She answered. "Chocolate pudding."
"Kensi's favourite," Deeks nodded, internally applauding her choice. Somehow he could picture his partner eating all of it if anything else went wrong. And knowing their luck, it would.
She shrugged nonchalantly, "Everyone likes chocolate."
"So is there a reason we're still out here?" Eric craned to see past Deeks but could only see the empty hallway. "Where's Kensi?"
"Here," The tall brunette ambled up behind Deeks, tying up her wet brown hair into a messy ponytail. "I thought you said you were going to get them and go to the dining room," She eyed her partner.
"They don't know the password," He smirked, coming up with a reason on the spot.
"Password?" Eric echoed. "What are we in? Grade school?"
"Some of us are, mentally at least," Kensi looked pointedly at her partner. She was playing angry; she knew what he had down. He'd given her enough time to clean up without letting their arriving guests how close they were to be attacked by potato grenades. "Anyway, come in," She waved them through, being the gracious hostess.
Deeks plucked the Tupperware container out of Nell's hands as she passed, "I'll take that out of your hands."
"It only needs to go in the oven for twenty minutes to heat up," She instructed him. "It's already cooked."
"Okay," He nodded, committing the number to memory. He didn't have the analyst or tech's skill with numerical data. Sometimes he had trouble remembering the date. But that was usually after a good night. "I'll just stick it in the kitchen." He strode off, listening to Kensi make small talk. Walking into the kitchen, he dumped the container on the counter and paused, seeing something that was not quite right. Deeks looked around, double checking everything. There was still potato decorating the wall and half the bench top. Their groceries looked like a rabid squirrel had attacked them. By the amount of knives on the counter anyone sane would think they were serial killers. But everything was exactly how he left it. Then he spotted it. "Oh crap."
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Kensi sat down at the set table, gesturing for the others to do the same. "So any big plans this weekend?"
"Sleep," Nell answered simply.
"Sleeping's a good idea," Eric nodded in agreement. "A buddy of mine is having a Harry Potter marathon so I might join him and live blog it."
"Cool," Nell smiled at him while Kensi blinked in confusion.
"What?"
Eric tried to hide his sigh, "I'm going to watch the Harry Potter movies and talk to my friend online while I do it. It's just like being in the movie theatre with him," The tech shrugged.
"Except you're not in the same place," Kensi said slowly, pointing out the fact and working it out for herself.
"Meh," He shrugged again. "We're not even in the same country."
"How did you meet then?"
"See there's this thing called the internet-"His sardonic response was cut short.
"Kensi!" Deeks' shout from the kitchen was surprisingly high pitched and panicked.
"I'd better go sort him out," The agent got up in a hurry. As she left she heard Eric whisper something to Nell.
"Five bucks he's set his hair on fire."
Nell kicked him under the table but couldn't help but giggle. "Don't be mean."
"There's only one way this is going to end," Eric shook his head. "And it ain't good."
Kensi closed the door behind her, shutting out the rest of the conversation. "What?" She hissed at her partner. "You're making them think this is going to be a disaster."
He turned to face her, expression impassive. "What time did you put the chicken in?"
"An hour or so ago, why?" Her voice lowered as she realised something had gone wrong.
"I think the 'or so' bit turned our plucky chicken into charky chicken," He inclined his head, nodding to the oven where the tray of plum chicken wasn't a lovely shade of pink as the packet promised. It was black and surrounded by smoke.
"Oh no no no no no," Kensi cried, shoving mitts on her hands and opening the oven to get out the chicken. A barrage of smoke poured out. "Turn off the smoke alarm!" She shouted as a whisper. "I don't want them to find out."
"I think they're gonna find out when we serve charcoal instead of chicken," Deeks hoisted himself up onto the counter and stretched to reach the smoke alarm. As he pressed the button, his foot slipped on a piece of potato and he fell. "Kensi!" His arms flailed in an almost comical manner as he tried to regain his balance. He fell in what seemed like slow motion, colliding with Kensi in the process. Kensi hit the floor with a groan. Her back was going to be sore the next day. Deeks landed on top of her, taking her breath away. Literally. He grinned slowly, realising he was still in one piece. "I do like being on top," He quipped.
"Not much chance of that," She flipped over so she was lying on him. "Much better."
The door opened with a squeak, "Are you guys o-"Nell stopped speaking when she spotted them lying on the floor. "Um," Her eyes widened. "Never mind," She backed out of the room quickly.
"This night just keeps getting better and better," Kensi groaned, pulling herself up.
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Nell closed the door behind her and sat back down.
"You alright?" Eric glanced at her. She was blushing a little.
"I seem to have this talent to walk in on people at the most inopportune moments," She said, staring into space.
"Really?" He couldn't have sounded more interested if he tried.
The door opened again, "Sorry about that. Deeks thought the vegetables should go on now but we'll put them on when Sam and Callen get here," Kensi blurted, reclaiming her seat. "Deeks, you got any hot plans for the weekend?" She smiled tightly at him, turning to face him as he sat next to her.
"Maybe hit some clubs, find some-"
"Why do you have potato in your hair?" Eric's question cut Deeks off.
"Um," Kensi didn't know what to say.
"Haven't you heard it's the new in thing for hair treatments?" Deeks asked as if it were obvious. "It's this whole au natural thing that's big at the moment. Everyone's doing it."
Nell shook her head, "Never heard of it. But," She continued, seeing Kensi's expression. "Actually I think I have. Paris Hilton was doing it or something."
"Yeah, totally," Kensi nodded, smiling at her friend, grateful Nell covered for her. She got up, "Anyone want wine?" I'm gonna need it, She added silently.
A/N: I feel like I should apologise for not updating for a while. I went away and started writing an original fiction that distracted me. I will finish this though, even if writers block kills me. Thank you again for all the reviews; they motivate me to write more.