A/n Thanks for the proof Maddie! Check her stories out, NCISLAlover24!
And thank you guys so much for all of the support. Only the epilogue left. Will Kensi cave and have Deeks's babies, or will they remain a family of two?
XOXO-
Cierra

"If you don't think that's the cutest face you've ever seen then you are wrong. I mean, look at that little nose. Look at it. Baby feet are the cutest. Did you put lotion on him? He smells like lotion."

"Deeks."

"Can we keep them?" he asks, eyes wide. "If they don't have anywhere to go afterwards?"

"Yeah, no."

"Please? How could you say no to this?" He gestures to his puppy dog eyes and pouted lip, and she tries not to smile at how adorable he looks.

"Like this. No." Gracie's curled up in the sunroom on a couch upstairs having fallen asleep after a long day of playing with Deeks. Since it had been a nice day out, he'd taken her to the ocean after Kensi'd slathered sunscreen on her leaving his partner with JT, which she hadn't minded. Usually it's a constant struggle to get him out of Deeks's arms period (like it is presently; he's been holding JT while they sit on the couch together for a good half hour). Eventually Kensi had dug out a floppy baby-sized sun hat and took a towel and the baby outside, making sure not to stay out for too long for fear of burning JT's delicate skin.

They've been at the safe house for a week, and Kensi has to admit that she's having a better time than she expected. The kids are a challenge, but only because she's never really considered herself mother material and now she's looking after two young kids with absolutely no prior knowledge as to how to deal with them. But routines, bedtime stories, chores, cooking, even the objectionable baby talk all seem to make perfect sense to her. She doesn't even have to think about it, really. It's instinctual.

"My turn," she says, and when he casts her a look she huffs. "You've had him for, like, three hours."

"Three hours ago we were eating lunch. Which reminds me. What do you want to do for dinner?"

"You can give the baby to me and then you can go cook me a hamburger."

"I love it when you're assertive. Bossy works for you."

She smirks, the cocky grin turning into a triumphant smile as he hands the baby to her. Finally.

He is so well behaved it's insane. She didn't even think babies smile at his age, but JT has proved her wrong, considering all he wants to do is stare at her face like it's the most amusing thing he's ever seen in his life. She balances him carefully on her knee, letting him use her chest as a backrest. Tiny fingers curl around one of her bigger ones, and his hand reaches up, grazing her hair but not pulling it, touching it as if it's Mardi Gras beads hanging from a doorway.

"What is it with babies and hair?" Deeks wonders aloud with a grin as he watches JT run his fingers through her dark tips.

"Do you think we should wake up Grace?" Kensi asks, barely looking up from the baby in her arms. "So she won't want to stay up all night and so she can eat?"

"Yeah. Probably. Want me to?"

"You're cooking. I'll put JT in that bouncy chair thing in the kitchen so you can keep an eye on him." She stops in her pursuit of the stairs before turning around, scowling. "Just because I'm putting him down for a second or two doesn't mean that you can hog him the rest of the night."

He puts up both of his hands in surrender, not even trying to hide his smile. "Fine, understood."

They'd gotten a relatively small apartment together when they were engaged, but a week or so before their wedding they'd decided to start looking for a house. After more paperwork than any man should have to endure and twenty percent down on a three bedroom Cape Cod styled house that was close enough to work and the ocean to make each of them happy, they sit together in a living room that's almost completely empty save for a rug, a mini fridge, and the beers in each of their hands. Kensi touches her bottle to Deeks's, the glass making a clacking sound.

"To our house."

"To our house," he echoes back, taking a sip before leaning over to press a kiss to her lips. "And to you. And to me. And to us." Monty decides at that moment that he's gone without attention for far too long, coming up to the couple and crawling into Deeks's lap as if he were a Pomeranian and not a graying mutt. "And to Monty, apparently."

"To Monty!" Kensi toasts, grinning. Monty turns to her at the sound of his name, switching from Deeks's lap to hers and licking her cheek. "Ugh. Love you too, buddy. You can stop licking me now."

"Yeah, that's my job."

Laughing, she shoves her husband's arm playfully, lounging back against her elbows. "You know, this place is nice. Fireplace, which is completely useless considering it's Los Angeles but still a nice touch, masonry and paneling so it doesn't look like a barricade from mid-evil times, and hey, what do you know, a loft hammock."

"No house would be complete without one," he jokes, eyes sparkling mischievously. "I can't wait to have sex on it."

"I think that idea will sound a lot more appealing after I finish this drink."

"Damn, if that's all it takes then finish the six pack. After that it'll sound ingenious. We should totally conceive our first born on it."

She sighs. "Kids."

"Kids. I mean, Kens, this house has two extra bedrooms just waiting to be filled. Come on." He nudges her rib cage with his elbow before scooting closer, pressing a kiss to her neck and working his way up her jaw between words. "You know you wanna."

She kisses his lips, grinning. "I'm not nearly drunk enough to consent to babies tonight. You know it's not fair to talk to me when I'm not completely sober."

Relenting, he reaches for a new bottle, his last one laying empty at his side. "You're right."

"I am?" she asks, relatively surprised. "Wow."

"What? I want you to be sure," he insists, kissing her again. "Babies are like, kind of a big deal."

"Yeah, kind of. You know, it's not like they're life altering or anything." When he doesn't reply for a second, she raises an eyebrow. "Um, that was sarcasm."

"They change a lot, Kens. But not everything. We'll still have us, this, in the end."

She doesn't reply.

"I do your hair," Gracie announces, putting down the graham cracker that she had been pretending was a steering wheel to a racing car moments before. It crumbles a bit when she places it on the couch, but Kensi doesn't say anything. She can vacuum it up in a few minutes, if she can find where Hetty hid the cleaning products.

"Okay." She puts down the Capri Sun she'd been about to deliver to Gracie and leads her to the staircase, sitting on the lowest step so Gracie can stand behind her. "So, are you going to make me look like a dinosaur or what?"

"No. Not a dinosaur."

"A pretty princess?"

"No."

"A turkey? A doggy? A piece of popcorn?"

"You're silly," Gracie tells her matter-of-factly, grabbing a fistful of Kensi's hair. The agent tries not to squeak.

By the end, Kensi's almost positive that Gracie has ripped out more of her hair than she's actually gotten through the elastic. But that's okay. Gracie seems content, which is a relief. Lately she's come off as a little more subdued, probably just starting to feel the brunt of her father's absence. She seems happiest with Deeks nowadays, and sometimes they stay on the beach from breakfast until dinner. Kensi didn't mind, as long as it kept her little mind off of things that were far more complicated than she should have to deal with.

"See, you're a fairy."

"Thank you! I love it. This is the prettiest I've looked in my whole life," Kensi gushes, running the tips of her fingers over the lumps in her ponytail.

Deeks rounds a corner with a baby and a bottle in his hands, grinning. "Did I hear pretty?"

"I did Kensi's hair."

"She looks so gorgeous! Wow. You should do my hair like that."

"Think I could?" Gracie asks, eyeing Deeks's mop of blonde hair.

"It might be too short." Deeks frowns, running his fingers through the mass of unruly curls.

"That okay. We play space kitties instead."

"Think you can finish up feeding JT?" Deeks asks of Kensi, and she nods, happy to comply.

"Yeah. Go play space kitties. Sounds like fun." He smiles at her and she smiles back, both obviously loving watching the other cater to a three year old girl's imagination. Kensi with her afro of a pony tail and Deeks with his never ending play-times that always had him on his toes.

Later that night after dinner, Kensi's left alone with JT while Deeks is tucking Gracie into bed. The day's winding down, and with the little boy snuggled close to her heart, his tiny fist against her chest, lips slightly parted, Kensi classifies this part of her routine as one of her favorite parts on the day. She's humming a nameless tune into his ear, something about sunshine that she remembers from when she was little and her father used to sing to her at night.

She knows that the Op is bound to end sooner than later. The children's new identities are probably already in place. She imagines that now it's just a matter of finding an appropriate family for the kids and trying to discourage the cartel's pursuit by letting some time pass and take the blunt of the steam away from the situation.

So they've lost their father, Gracie's lost her mother, her step-mother was a druggie and God knows what else, and now they're going to be passed onto more strangers unless some miracle occurs and a great aunt twice removed is willing to drop everything and abandon her house, name, and everything she knows to go into witness protection and take the children under her wing. Looking down at the baby she holds in her arms, she wonders if she'll be able to give him or his sister away to nameless people with generic jobs and too-clean background checks. After all, paper could hide a lot. She tries not to think about Callen and his multitudes of foster homes, or Deeks and his less than ideal upbringing.

She's been absently singing for a good half hour or so, repeating the same melody over and over again. JT has long since drifted off, occasionally making those adorable noises that only sleeping babies can make. His hand had been grasping at the hem of her shirt, but as he's fallen asleep his grip has loosened considerably, his hand still curled near the edge of the fabric. If she wasn't a federal agent, she probably would've jumped when she felt Deeks's large hand come to rest on her shoulder.

"Hey," he whispers, pecking her cheek. "You going to put him in his crib?"

Coming out of her thoughts, Kensi nods. Then she nods once more and rises very quietly to her feet, making sure the baby looks comfortable in his crib before closing the door behind her and returning to the living room. This is another of her personal favorite parts of the schedule her and her husband have developed over the course of the mission: curling up on the couch with Deeks. Sometimes they turn on a late night show or SNL reruns, sometimes they make out, most of the time they talk. Sometimes it's a combination of the three. And their conversations usually aren't about children, much to Kensi's relief. It's just jokes, gossip, meaningless chatter. And it's perfect to her.

But tonight, even though she's content to act like everything's okay, he trails off halfway through a story about when Ray had went on a blind date for him with a chick who he'd described as, "Slamming hot. Not like you slamming hot, but maybe a level down. Maybe somewhere around Jennifer Lopez," which had made her grin, and how he'd told the same girl that he'd had plastic surgery on his face the next date and she'd believed him. It's a funny story, and she laughs, but he notices that something's up almost immediately. "I mean, she'd bleached her hair so many times I had to wear sunglasses when I went out with- hey, are you okay?"

The question's so off-topic and abrupt that she didn't even catch what he asked. "What?"

"Are you okay? You seem... quieter."

She nods. "I'm fine. And I'm really invested in this story. How long were you able to pull it off? What, did she meet Ray and realize what was up?"

"Oh, no. We dated for like a month. I broke up with her. She never knew. Then I dated her cousin who was probably stupider than she- and you're trying to get me off topic. What's up?"

She sighs. "How much longer do you think we're going to be on this mission?"

"Well, Hetty said we'd be on it for a month, so probably about a week. I don't know. Are you homesick?"

"No, I was just... I don't know."

"I do," he says. He slings his arm around her shoulders, and she curls up next to him. "You're worried about them."

It's not a question. "Yeah."

"They're going to be okay. The cartel probably doesn't even remember them by now. And Nell and Eric are working with Witness Protection. Their identities are going to be as solid as a rock."

"I know... I just... I feel bad that they have to go live with strangers. I don't want them to go through that."

"Me neither. There's not much we can do."

"I mean, Gracie already seems so lost without her dad."

"It's going to be alright, Kens. We'll figure it out. Hetty will figure it out."

"What if they get separated or something?"

"They're not going to."

"How can you be so sure?"

He shrugs against her body. "Just am."

Their wedding had been small and beautiful, but also a hell of a good time. She'd never wanted a big, extravagant venue with entrees that had names she couldn't pronounce and cocktails that she could hardly taste the alcohol in. And their wedding, well, it certainly hadn't been that.

After Deeks talked her out of the elopement, she'd begrudgingly agreed to throw a ceremony. And by the end of the night, she'd been glad he had. She recalls that the tiny dance floor had more energy than any club she'd ever been to, and the shots of whiskey she'd been throwing back were strong enough to make her gag and bring water to her eyes. Eric had agreed to man the DJ, and when he announced that he was going to play a slow song, at first she was angry.

But then her new husband had taken her into his strong arms, staring down at her with such love and awe that it made her knees weak. She remembers Deeks whispering, "Just relax, Fern," and once she had, it was the best dance of her life.

Her dad taught her how to slow dance. The memories of him letting her rest on his toes, moving the both of them with his steps, is always enough to put a grin on her face.

She misses her dad. Every day.

Tomorrow is the day that she's been dreading since she got the assignment.

Their suitcases are packed, Gracie's backpack overflowing with toys. The car seat for JT is waiting by the door next to his diaper bag.

It's the last night she gets to rock JT to sleep, and she doesn't want to put him in his crib after his breathing evens out. She wants to stay in the rocking chair with his head tucked into the crook of her elbow, his hand wrapped around one of her fingers. But as it nears eleven o'clock, she decides that she has to stop delaying the inevitable and put him into his bed.

When Deeks stepped out of Gracie's bedroom after reading their last bedtime story together, he seems about as sad as Kensi feels. She intertwines her fingers with his before leading him down the hallway, resuming their usual positions on the couch together. But, unlike every other night, they're quiet. His head rests against her chest, her arm around his shoulder, her fingers occasionally finding his hair and playing with it.

The television's on, but she's pretty sure he's doing exactly what she is: not watching. Just when she starts to contemplate turning the television off and going to bed, she hears the sound of tiny feet against hardwood.

"Marty?"

"Gracie? What the heck are you doing up, little missy?"

"Not tired," she answers simply, grinning. "Want... want ice cream."

"Tough luck, kid. It's almost midnight. That means bedtime."

She starts to giggle, running over to the love seat and climbing onto it, jumping up and down. "No-o-o-o-o," she sings between laughs, skipping from cushion to cushion. Deeks and Kensi exchange an amused glance before Deeks stands up, all smiles.

"Fine. But no monkeys allowed!" he exclaims, swooping her into his arms. She squeals with delight as he spins her and tosses her into the air, her body landing in his arms with her head thrown back as she laughs.

"Marty," she exaggerates, squirming, still chuckling. "Put me down!"

"If you insist." With no further preamble, he plops her onto the couch, tickling her until her voice is nearly hoarse due to how much she was giggling. Just as she's calming down, the Jimmy Fallon show changes to some sort of band playing a variation of soul music, and Gracie stands up on the cushions, proceeding to jump up and down on the couch with a sway, producing a dance that could only come from a very hyper toddler that should be in bed.

"I wish I could dance that good," Deeks says with faux desire. "Because when I dance, it's just kind of like-" He stands up, demonstrating a very over dramatic interpretive dance that involves a lot of flailing and illustrates just how bad of a dancer he is.

"I teach you." Gracie plunks into a sitting position on the couch, making her long curls bounce wildly as she swipes them haphazardly out of her face. She slides off of the couch, grabbing one of Deeks's big hands in her much smaller ones. "Like... this."

"Like this?" he asks, picking her up by her armpits and swinging her along to the imaginary music.

"No, silly! Like this. I show you. I teacher."

"Okay. You're the teacher."

Kensi watches as Gracie teaches her husband how to dance, and by the end of the tutorial the little girl's hands are in his, her bare feet atop his sock clad toes, giggles escaping both of their lips as Deeks lets her twirl underneath his arms. When she's happy with her work of crafting Deeks into a sufficient ballerina, she skips away from him, returning to bouncing up and down on the love seat.

"Kensi, you dance," she demands, her breath a bit labored. "You dance with Marty!"

"You heard the woman," Deeks says, holding his hand out to Kensi and pulling her into his waiting arms. "You dance with Marty."

And they did. They dance until JT starts to cry, and then they bring him out and Kensi dances with him, too. It's nearly two AM, and JT's sound asleep on his baby blanket near the fireplace and Kensi and Deeks dancing together again, her cheek against his chest, his head resting by hers. They stop when they notice Gracie, who has finally drifted off on the couch. Kensi takes one look at the sleeping toddler and swallows, turning back to face Deeks. "I don't want to go."

But the next morning they load the car up, and they head back to LA, and Gracie sings and chatters the whole way home, completely oblivious as to what's going on. Well, that's not entirely true. She realizes that she's in a car, and they're leaving a house that they haven't stepped foot out of since the last day she saw her daddy, and that the radio's on and the windows are rolled down and her hair is whipping in her face and Marty just bought her a milkshake. She doesn't understand that this could be the last time sees Kensi and Deeks, and that the two special agents don't even know where she's going sleep that night.

When they arrive at the boat shed, Deeks walks her in with his hand in hers.

"I remember," Gracie says, looking up at Deeks as she talks. "Mermaids are out now?"

"I think it's a little too early for them to be out right now. Mermaids are so lazy. All they do is sleep."

"Fishies sleep?"

"Don't know. I've never seen a fishy sleep."

Suddenly, Grace isn't holding onto Deeks, and she's running towards somebody in the boathouse. The somebody turns out to be a woman who was closer in age to a teenager than a full-fledged adult with hair as blonde as Gracie's and eyes nearly as blue.

Kensi adjusts JT's baby carrier in her hand, looking a Deeks. Her partner shrugs, obviously as confused as she is. Then Hetty comes out of the shadows, and greets them with a warm, "It's good to see you two."

"Yeah, it's good to be back. Who, um, who's that?" Deeks replies, eyes still trained on Gracie and the person who's currently hugging her.

"Her biological mom's half sister."

Relief crashes over her like a wave, and she feels her body slump as the weight of the dread regarding the children's future leaves her body. Beside her, Deeks wears a smile, and his hand finds Kensi's.

"And she's a suitable mother?"

"When Nell and Eric find her a job and a house, I think she'll be everything Grace and JT need."

After Gracie finally releases her aunt, the young woman approaches the baby, who is still sitting in the car seat that Kensi's holding. "JT, thank God."

When she gestures towards the little boy, eager to hold him, Kensi kneels beside him and unbuckles him. She finds herself reluctant to hand him over. But she does.

The woman peers around the baby that she's cooing over, eyeing Kensi and Deeks. "And you two are agents?"

Kensi can't seem to find her voice, so Deeks helps her out, nodding. "Marty Deeks, Kensi Blye. We were assigned to watch over your niece and nephew until arrangements could be made for them."

"I'm Iris. After Johnny died I... I couldn't find... It's good to have them back."

"We're glad that you're here, too. Kensi and I were pretty worried there for a second about where they'd end up, weren't we?"

It takes Kensi a moment to realize that he was talking to her. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. It's good to know that they're, uh, that they have you."

"So, what happens next?" she asks, adjusting JT in her arms. "My new last name is Norris, identity's in place, back story memorized. Can we go?"

Hetty emerges from a shadow. "An agent is on his way to guide you to your new home, and details about your new job will be sent to you via mail. Expect to receive your new driver's license sooner than later as well." The sound of a car from outside is distinguishable above the swish of the water that moves below the boat shed, and everybody turns to look out the window. "It appears as if he's arrived," Hetty notes, moving towards the exit. "I expect you two back at the mission for a debriefing soon."

As Iris bends to buckle JT back into his car seat, Grace skips up to Kensi, tugging at her shirt. "We leaving now?"

"Yeah, bug. You guys are leaving."

The little girl grabs for Kensi's hand, trying to pull her towards the exit. "We go now."

Kensi looks at Deeks, and his eyes are trained on the little girl. The special agent squats down to the toddler's level, letting Gracie's hand drop from hers as she pushes a stray curl behind her ear. "Not me and Marty. Just you and Aunt Iris and JT."

Confusion clouds the girl's eyes, and she furrows her light brows, lip puckering slightly. "What?"

"We can't go with you this time."

Gracie takes one look at Deeks and bursts into tears. "Marty," she cries, and the detective immediately comes to her side, picking her up and pulling her close. She burrows her head against his shoulder, her tears spotting his t-shirt. "I see you again, right?"

"I wish I could." Kensi can tell he really means it, and a lump forms in her throat.

"I never see you again? Like my daddy?"

Kensi had to train her eyes on the ceiling to stop from crying. Deeks sat Gracie on the table that a few weeks before they had colored together on, running a hand over her cowlicks. "You know what, Gracie? I had the best time playing with you. You know that? And I promise that I will never, ever forget you."

"Marty," she sniffles, but this time when she reaches for him he can't hold her like he wants to because it's time for her to leave. Iris takes her instead, and Gracie screams his name instead of crying it, trying to squirm her way away from her aunt.

"Deeks..." Kensi forces out when the door shuts behind Grace and her aunt, trying not to let her voice crack. Deeks shakes his head, running a hand through his hair.

"Just... just take JT out, okay?"

"I'm-"

"Please, I just... I just need a second."

She nods, accepting the fact that Deeks needs a second to compose himself and picking up the baby carrier. When she steps outside of the boat shed Iris is just heading in, and she smiles, eyes sad. "So sad. Gracie lost my sister, then Johnny... I'd hate for her to develop attachment issues-"

"Gracie's a very strong little girl. I'm sure with some stability she'll be okay." JT starts to get fussy, and Kensi reaches down to unbuckle him on impulse, but Iris stops her.

"It's okay, I'll try to calm him down in the car. We should probably get going; long drive, you know?"

"Oh, uh..." But Iris already has the baby carrier in her hand, and Kensi watches as she walks away with the boy, his cries sounding small in comparison to his sister's.

Iris turns around and waves, expressing her gratitude with words Kensi can't force herself to comprehend. All that she can think about is the fact that Gracie and JT are leaving, and she didn't even get to say goodbye properly, and she'd probably never see them again, and a little girl just lost two daddys. She stands there staring after their car for what seems like a lifetime, long after its turned out of her sight, long after it recedes to nothing more than a dot in the distance.

Arms around her waist pull her out of her reverie, and she gulps, his chin resting on her collarbone. "Deeks..."

"I know, Kens."