Chapter 8

"So," Callen drawled, tossing his jacket on a spare chair as he walked in. "Has the CDC been called yet?"

"Not yet," Sam quipped as Kensi sent Callen a glare that could've melted Alaska.

"You know you could have some faith in me, you know," She hissed at him before turning to glower at the rest of the team. "I'm trying to be nice here."

"We know that," Nell said quickly. Even though she was rather tipsy, she could still see that Kensi was on the verge of getting very angry. "And you've tried really well."

"Key word is try," Eric added. She kicked him under the table. "What?" He frowned at the redhead, "Would you rather I lie and say it's fantastic?"

"No," Deeks drawled. "But you could more polite."

"What about that chicken thing you said you'd cooked?" Sam asked, trying to be more supportive. "Chicken's easy to cook."

"Ah," Deeks stammered and looked to Kensi, who rolled her eyes with a huff and went back to the kitchen, reemerging with the blackened chicken.

"Except it's not easy to cook if you're completely crap at cooking," She looked down at the charcoal covered meat, dismayed.

"Did you cook that using dynamite?" Eric asked.

"Yes," Kensi said sarcastically. "And a grenade."

"Don't be stupid Kens," Callen said seriously, "If you used a grenade, there wouldn't be any chicken left."

"And how do you know that?" Deeks looked to the seasoned agent, a mixture of curiousity and disbelief on his face.

"Russia, '92." Callen explained with a nonchalant shrug. "It was the only way to start a fire."

"Have you heard of rubbing two sticks together?"

"Have you ever tried that?" Sam deadpanned, looking at the detective.

"No, I live in civilisation, I pay my electricity bills," He retorted, leaning back in his chair.

"Sometimes," Kensi muttered, remembering the time she'd leant him money.

"They were exceptional circumstances," He waved a finger in her direction. "And-"

"I'm still hungry," Eric spoke up, cutting of what was certain to be another Deeks' rant.

"I'm Sam, nice to meet you," Sam said, holding out his hand.

Eric glowered at the proffered hand, "That's not funny."

"Is kinda," Callen shrugged, always backing up his partner.

"You're acting like children," Nell pointed out, gesturing widely with her wine glass.

"Why don't we just order pizza then?" Deeks suggested, trying to be helpful. In the corner of his eye, he could see Kensi's hand curling itno a fist and knew her legendary temper was getting close to boiling point.

"Had it last night," Callen shook his head. "Chinese?"

Kensi shot down that idea, "Only if you like waiting an hour for cold food. There's no good places near here."

"Fish and chips at the Pier?" Eric ventueered.

Callen glanced at the tech, giving the idea some thought. "You're not driving," He said, seeing the empty bottle of wine between him and Nell.

"I only had one. I'll drive," Kensi stood and grabbed her keys.

"Maybe I should have drunk more," Deeks grumbled loudly.

"So that's a yes to fish and chips?" Sam asked for clarification.

"Apparently," Callen nodded. "I'll drive you and Nell."

"That means we're got Eric," Deeks announced unesasarily.

"Don't say it like that," The tech told him as he got up. "Or I'll reprogram your GPS to go to the opposite location you tell it to."

"Does that already," Deeks shrugged then paused. "You can do that?"

"Duh," The smug tone made Deeks worry even more.

NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA

Callen dug into his paper cup with relish, "This is the best meal I've had all week." They all sat along the edge of the pier, feet dangling in the water.

Sam eyed the half melted ice cream dripping off the plastic spoon, "You need to eat better."

"Ice cream is good," Deeks argued from his place on Sam's other side, licking his spoon clean. "And it's got milk in it."

"Doesn't make it healthy," Kensi shook her head at him, creating a whirlpool with her spoon in her gelato cup.

"Cheer up Kens," Eric bumped shoulders with her. "It could have gone worse."

"Not really," She replied darkly.

"You could have blown up the kitchen," Nell said cheerfully. "My brother did. He used an aerosol can near the stove and set everything on fire."

"See, we didn't blow anything up," Deeks tried to put a positive spin on their disastrous attempt at a dinner party.

"But next time," Callen started but Kensi cut him off.

"Let someone else cook, I know."

"Actually, I was going to say do what Sam does."

"G," Sam hissed furiously at his partner.

"And what does Sam do?" Deeks asked curiously, peering closely at the Navy SEAL.

"Nothing," Sam said quickly.

"Oviously it's not nothing or Callen wouldn't have said anything," Eric retorted, also curious.

"No it's nothing," Callen said with a gleeful smirk.

"You can't do that. You can't say soemthing's something then say it's nothing," Deeks pouted.

"It's not fair," Kensi chimed in.

"Honestly, Sam does nothing."

Nell frowned slightly, cocking her head as she realised, "Sam does nothing."

"Exactly," Callen's smirk grew into a small smile.

"I hate you," Sam shook his head at his partner.

"I don't understand," Deeks looked between Sam, Callen and Nell. "Sam does nothing?"

"He doesn't cook," Callen explained with a knowing shrug. "He orders take out then puts it in dishes so you think it's home cooked."

"Why you!" Kensi fumed. "But… why?"

Sam shrugged, "I do cook sometimes but I get lazy sometimes."

"I'm never talking to you again," Deeks huffed and folded his arms.

"It's that a promise or a threat?" Callen chuckled a little.

"I hate you," Kensi pouted.

"No you don't."

"You're cooking next time," She ordered sternly.

"Better than you," Sam reminded her.

"Still hate you," She folded her arms and looked pointedly out to sea.

A/N: So this ended up way longer than it was supposed to – originally it was supposed to be a chapter in On The Run, but it morphed into this. This will probably be my last story for a while. I start uni tomorrow and have basically 40 hours a week of study plus work so I'm going to be very busy but I hoped you liked this story. Thank you for all the reviews!