A/N - I love reviews, positive and negative (as long as they are constructive and not nasty) and try to address concerns by updating my story if I agree with the reviewer. I've updated this to address Deeks's relationship with Nicole Martindale (just so happened I had just finished rewatching Plan B when the review was posted). Please remember that I am EXTREMELY new to fan fiction and have never written anything prior to these stories. I am hoping to learn as I go...

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Chapter 2

He had lied to her and cheated on her! She had gotten up early and headed out to his place to surprise him. She had coffee and donuts sitting forgotten on the seat next to her as she watched the man she loved walk another woman out of his apartment and to her car, clad only in board shorts and no shoes. After witnessing their embrace and kiss, it was fairly obvious the woman had spent the night. She found herself remembering it had been him to suggest taking a night or two to themselves, conveniently forgetting that it was her actions that had led up to it. Now she wondered if this woman was the real reason. After he disappeared back into his apartment, Kensi restarted the car and drove blindly to the Mission.

Damn it, she had been so sure that they were finally in a good place in their relationship. Working through their first fight, realizing they need space at least a couple times during the week. Everyone knew they were together and, other than that one case where the partners had been switched up, things had been going back to normal. They were learning to keep their personal life out of the workplace. Now, this. Why did all her relationships fall apart? She was going to need to confront him about this, just, not at the moment. She could never continue in a relationship with someone who couldn't remain faithful to her.

She got to the Mission with no real memory of getting there. She wiped the tears off her face and, when she felt ready, got out of the car and headed in. She put her bag down and wished Sam and Callen a good morning. The first thing Sam teasingly asked was "Where's your not so better half, Kens?" looking past her.

"I'm not his keeper Sam. I'm sure he'll be in when he's good and ready." she replied waspishly. Sam and Callen looked at her in surprise then at each other. This wasn't good. Trouble between the partners would impact the whole team. This was the major concern they had had when they found out the two had moved past the friendship stage and into a full blown relationship.

She booted up her laptop and brought up some paperwork that needed to be completed. She pretended to be engrossed in her work, but didn't make any real progress. Deeks showed up a while later, apologizing for being late, saying that something had come up that he needed to take care of. She looked at him and snorted. Looking at her in confusion, he asked "Kensi, what's up? You okay princess?" She looked at him in astonishment, and then remembered that he didn't know she had seen the two of them together.

She glared at him and stood up from her desk. Looking him right in the eyes, she said "I can't believe you! After all the things you told me about your father cheating on your mother and how you would never do that, you do EXACTLY that! I guess it's in the genes. You're no better than your dad!" and stormed out of the bullpen. He stood there stunned and hurt. He had no idea what she was talking about. He'd never cheated on her, hell; he'd barely even dated anyone since he met her. Since they'd decided to pursue a relationship he hadn't even flirted with another woman, unless it was directly related to a case.

Callen advanced on him, asking "You cheated on her? After everything that's happened, I thought you were better than that!"

Taking in the stunned look on the younger man's face, Sam kept a calmer head and defended Deeks by saying "Let's wait to see what he has to say G, before trying and convicting him." Looking at Deeks, he continued "So, what happened this morning?"

Deeks shook his head as he was totally in the dark over what had just happened. "Nothing, I swear! This is the first time I've seen her since last night." He thought back through the hours since he had left the Mission between last night and now. Finally he could only come up with one thing that could have led to this outburst. "The only thing I can think of is that, early this morning, a friend of mine showed up on my doorstep. I met her and her husband several years ago, before I knew you guys. We've all been friends for a while. David is out of the country right now and Caroline is a little over three months pregnant. Their landlord started giving her a hard time, trying to evict her due to her pregnancy and she panicked. She came to me for help. I called the guy up and gave him an earful until he agreed to let them stay. That's it, I swear! I don't even know how Kensi could have found out about her visit." He thought back and grimaced. "I did walk her out to her car when she left. I only had on shorts and I gave her a hug and a quick kiss before she left. I suppose that could be misinterpreted, lead Kensi to think I had an overnight guest."

Sam just quirked an eyebrow at him, pretty sure that Kensi had seen the two of them together that morning. Deeks thought about it and, when he realized that was exactly what she thought, he found himself getting angry. "How could she think that about me? I told her about my dad cheating on my mom and how it upset her. Even though he beat the crap out of both of us, she could never understand why the two of us weren't good enough for him. She would ask him about the other woman every time and it would only lead to both of us ending up bloody and bruised. I've always associated cheating with pain. I have NEVER cheated on anyone I was involved in and NEVER would." His anger burned out quickly and turned to sadness. He said softly, "I really thought, hoped, that she knew me better than that."

Callen asked "What about Nicole Martindale? You don't call that cheating?"

Deeks sighed. He held up one finger "One, that was an undercover assignment. We've all done things undercover that we would never do in our personal lives. I've done things as Max that make me want to vomit. There are people out there who are terrified of him. How many people do you think are terrified of Marty Deeks?" Sam opened his mouth only to close it when Deeks said "Please, Sam, please don't make a joke out of that." Sam realized that their normally jovial detective was deadly serious about this. Deeks held up a second finger "Second, Nicole and Ray were never in love. They went on a three day bender and woke up in Vegas married. Neither one of them even knew whose idea it was. The first thing Ray said to me after telling me they had gotten married, was to beg me to find a way to get him out of it. Ray was...lazy at times...he never followed through on terminating the marriage. Why do you think he didn't want to take Nicole with him when he relocated? It was his out. Plus, he had met Jenna and fallen for real." He held up a third finger "Third, I was not involved with anyone else at the time. Although, Callen, I will admit now what you wanted me to then. My feelings for her were all mixed up. The lines blurred between make believe and reality." He held up a fourth finger. "Last, I never slept with her. I used our mutual relationships to Ray to hold her at arms length. There was a physical relationship, but it never went that far."

"Call Kensi on it, Deeks. Let her know how wrong she was and tell her what was really going on. Don't let her get away with this. You let her get away with too much as it is." said Sam. Surprised at Sam's defense of him, he glanced at Callen, who nodded his agreement.

He took a few steps away from his desk when his phone rang. He recognized the tone as that of a burner phone he was using for an undercover op with LAPD. It was one he had thought had died a natural death as the phone hadn't rung in a couple of weeks. Digging into his bag, he pulled it out and answered "Yeah." Sam and Callen recognized that tone of voice, whoever was on the other end thought they were talking to Max Gentry. "Today?! Yeah, yeah, I can make it. Where?" he noted down the address. When he hung up, he pulled out his personal phone and texted it to Lt. Bates. Once sent, he called the man to follow up. "Lt. I just heard from him. It's going down today at 1:00, I texted the address to you just now. No, he was adamant that it be today. Yeah, if I leave now, I should be able to make it there by then." Hanging up, he looked at Sam and then out towards the hallway Kensi had disappeared down. He then looked over to Hetty's office but it was empty. They had yet to see her this morning; luckily for them she had missed the blowup between him and Kensi. Although he was sure by the end of the day that she would work her ninja skills and know all about it.

"Sam, I just don't have time for that conversation right now. I got to go if I'm going to make it to my meeting with Bates. I'll talk to her tonight. Can you tell Hetty and…and everyone else where I went?" he said as he started to head out of the Mission.

"Hey, what's the op Deeks?" asked Callen.

"Drug deal, trying to take out the buyers and the supplier at the same time. Max is one of the go-betweens. Supplier wants all players there so I need to meet up with LAPD to prep. It should be over quickly, I might even make it back here before quitting time. I'll call one of you with an update when it's done. I'll probably spend more time on paperwork than anything else." he answered before heading out the door, hearing his teammate's wishes of good luck and stay safe as he did so. Everyone but the one he wanted to hear it from the most.