"Why don't humans ever just listen?!" A couple of bodies muffled his shouts. Well that, and the gunfire. "We yell drop your weapons, and they start shooting."

"Welcome to LA," Kensi replied sarcastically. She'd already disabled one rebel, but the other was still firing his rifle like a complete and total fuckwad.

They'd all been expecting some sort of disorganized attack today. It was the anniversary of the first rebel attack, though she couldn't even remember how many years this date marked. Too many. Why anybody thought it was a good idea to leave their homes today, she had no idea.

A bullet whizzed by her ear, splintering the wall behind her. Deeks gripped the random mother and child they'd ushered into the alley with them when the shooting started. "Kensi?"

"Fine," she answered shortly. "Or I will be as soon as this fucker runs out of bullets."

"Language," he scolded. "There's an impressionable child with us."

Another bullet cracked the exterior of the building they were hiding behind and Kensi angrily took aim at the shooter. "Are you seriously giving me a lecture about my language during a firefight? Shut the fuck up and just keep them from getting shot."

She crouched and waited for her opportunity. Just as the shooter turned his body to fire at the shops on the other side of the road, she pulled the trigger and connected with his temple. The boom from her .45 silenced the street, so the thud from the AR and the man holding it echoed throughout as they hit the pavement.

"Done." Kensi stood and holstered her weapon.

Deeks nodded and stood up, helping the woman he was protecting to her feet. "Go home and stay home. Maybe for like, a week," he said with a chuckle, trying to ease her nervous face.

The lady squeezed her daughter's hand tightly. "Thank you."

The little girl's hair was disheveled but she appeared much calmer than her mother. It must have been the superhero costume she was wearing. Halloween was long over, but kids don't let go of their undercover personas very easily. Deeks tilted his head and knelt down to her level. "Thanks for saving us all, Supergirl."

She smiled timidly, reaching out to Deeks' face. First she poked his cheek, then squeezed his nose. "What are you?"

The question was innocent, but Kensi noticed the way Deeks' smile faltered at those words. She had a deep connection to her Companion, and felt a pang of sadness in her gut from the tiny superhero's question. It didn't seem likely that a child would be able to tell the difference between a human and a cyborg though, right? "We're federal agents," Kensi explained quickly, forcing a smile.

The mother nodded another thank you and scurried away with her little girl. Adrenaline was still pumping in Kensi's ears from the shootout that literally just ended, but she tried to calm herself back down by taking slow, deep breaths. She pulled her phone out to call for backup/cleanup, glancing at Deeks. He hadn't moved. "She didn't mean anything by that, Deeks. She was probably like, three at the most."

"She is this many," he said, holding up four fingers as he stood up. Together they walked out of the alley, surveying the damage while Kensi input their location for crime scene cleanup. "And she knew I was different. Kids are intuitive, they know more than you think."

Kensi kicked the automatic rifle away from the man she just shot. "What do you know about kids? You never even were one. No offense."

"Why would I take offense to that? No one has ever had to wipe my ass and except for that one time in Vegas, I've never worn a diaper."

"Um." She bit her lip. "I'm gonna need to hear this story."

"Sorry darling, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Kneeling on the ground, he searched the pockets of one of the shooters. He pulled out a few full magazines and a small pistol, setting them off the side before moving to the next guy.

He seemed distracted, maybe even disconnected. Sometimes she purposely blocked him out of her brain, and it felt like he was possibly doing that to her. It was hard for her to get a read on what was going through his mind. "You sure that little girl didn't upset you?"

"She didn't, no." He shrugged. "It's fascinating that she knew that I wasn't like her, but it didn't upset me. What bothers me is that she wasn't scared. I saw her thoughts. They were full of cartoons and games and a song that she hums in her head all day long. She trusted that she and her mom were going to be okay because I was protecting them. I'll never understand how humans can be so awesome and trusting and then magically become these creatures that hurt each other and feel no remorse when they do it."

"Santa Claus," Kensi answered simply.

Deeks narrowed his eyes. "The fat guy that sits at the mall in November and December is to blame for the downfall of the human race?"

"No, dumbass. But in a way, yes. When we're kids we believe in magic, like Santa and the Easter Bunny because that's what we're told is real. But then you finally wake up and realize that the awesome Lego set you get every year doesn't come from the North Pole, it's actually from Aunt Barbara in San Diego."

He shook his head. "What about the kids that don't celebrate Christmas? And who the hell is Aunt Barbara?"

"She's a metaphor. Santa is a metaphor." They had gathered all the weapons and sent their messages for backup. Thankfully no one that they could see had been hit by the spray of bullets. "I'm saying that everyone has that moment where you lose your innocence and start to see the world for what it is. An ugly place."

"Not everyone," he responded softly.

Sometimes it was hard for her to remember that her partner wasn't human. Sure, she joked about it all the time, but the longer they were together, the more accustomed she became to his eccentricities. And then, like now, she would remember that they are very, very different. He didn't have a childhood, or Santa, or first crushes, or birthday parties. He never lost his innocence, because he never had it in the first place.

"My oldest memory is playing out in my backyard with my Dad." Her parents, or her younger years at all, wasn't something she ever really talked about. But offering a piece of herself was the only way for Deeks to do the same, she had learned. "I was about that little girl's age. It's not very clear, but it's a happy memory."

Deeks crossed his arms, looking at her like he knew exactly why she told him that story. "I'm glad your first memory is a happy one."

"Deeks."

"I don't know what you want me to say here." He sighed. "I woke up one day, like waking up from the deepest sleep you can imagine from a giant shot of caffeine. I already knew everything and yet I knew absolutely nothing. I could quote Shakespeare but didn't know shit about real love or happiness until I had my own human. Before that, we had to learn everything about how to be like a human. Like, stupid little things that you completely take for granted."

"Potty training?" Kensi joked.

"It takes some of us longer than others," he deadpanned, but his lips curled slightly into a smile. "All I'm saying is that I wasn't born innocent like you were. Hell, I wasn't born at all. My birthday isn't some occasion deserving of bouncy houses and chocolate cake. It is simply when a human decided my body and mind were ready to come to life."

Gently placing all of the weapons and ammo they'd gathered from the scene in a pile, Kensi brushed her hands off on her jeans and walked over to Deeks. She raised her arms, trying to determine the most appropriate place to touch his body. How would one comfort a cyborg, and did he even need comforting? Whether he needed it or not, she felt like she had to give it. Her hands landed on his folded arms, prying them apart so she could hold his hands. They were warm as always. "So, when does DKS-35 turn into DKS-36?"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me that I'm getting old."

"Seriously. I promise, no bouncy houses."

"Bouncy houses are scary. How do you ever stop bouncing?" He squeezed her hands and twisted his lips. They could both hear the cleanup trucks approaching from a few blocks away. "Fine. January 8th. Santa tried to bring me on Christmas but I must have gotten lost somewhere in Greenland for a few days."

"Santa's not real, Deeks," she teased with a smile.

He raised an eyebrow. "What if I told you he was?" Her eyes grew wide and he immediately burst into laughter. Pulling away, he yanked on her ponytail. "I'm kidding. Maybe. Come on, we've got work to do."

Kensi made a mental note to write down January 8th somewhere at home so she wouldn't forget the date. She wasn't one to ever waste an excuse to eat birthday cake.

"Don't bother, you'll still forget it," he muttered, winking as he jogged to meet the cleanup crew. She grumbled in his direction, knowing damn well that under normal circumstances he would probably be right. But while he thought humans didn't ever listen, she wanted to prove to him that his human did.