Lord alive, guys, that's the warmest welcome to a fandom I've ever had. Thank you all so much. Shoutouts to the Guest who got the "take the shot" parallel, and to ethereal skies for your comment on everyone being in character (I was a little nervous about not having written Deeks up to standard).

So, here's the second half of the two-shot. After this chapter the story will be complete and will not be continued. That said, I do have some other WIPs, and I'll talk about those at the end of this chapter because I would love some feedback.

I won't keep you waiting, though. Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy the conclusion to my first NCIS: LA fic.

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It's a tactic very familiar to both Kensi and Deeks. Their captors have left them alone for a long time, over an hour, which is a classic technique designed to increase their anxiety and maybe even turn them against each other. And it might be effective, if not for the fact that they're both seasoned federal agents and have been (both individually and collectively) in far worse situations than this. (They're in trouble, but they're professionals, and they can handle this. Probably.)

Finally, they return. This time it's not just Ripped Jeans and Plaid Shirt but one of the other guys, a quietly intimidating bald guy with glasses and – of all things – a tattoo of a flower curling up one arm. Their dynamic seems to have shifted; they're more focused, more deliberate. Like they've made up their minds.

"Here's how it's gonna go," Ripped Jeans says as he gets close enough for them to hear him. "We're going to interrogate one of you now, and the other one after that. And after we're done with that, we're going to kill both of you." He flashes them a bright, sharp smile. "So who wants to go first?"

Deeks snorts. "When you put it like that, how could anyone say no? Where do I sign up?"

"Perfect," Kensi says to her partner, not waiting for Ripped Jeans to react. "You get to be the hero, and what do I tell our team when I'm unscathed and you're being shipped off to hospital missing several pieces of your anatomy?"

The detective goes pale. "They wouldn't – I mean, not even these guys would cut off my -"

"Fingers, Deeks," Kensi says, rolling her eyes, "I'm talking about your fingers. If these guys are pros, that's probably what they'll start with."

"Really?" Deeks shakes his hair out of his face – unable to do his usual 'swipe his hand across his forehead in a deliberately casual way' – and looks at their captors. "I didn't take these guys for pros. I figured they'd probably start with something lame, like electrocution."

"Hey -" Plaid Shirt starts, but Kensi talks over the top of him.

"I don't take these guys for the electrocution type," she says, giving them a dismissive look before turning back to her partner. "Waterboarding, maybe, but even that would probably take more brainpower than the three of them have put together."

"It's not just the three of us -" Plaid Shirt says indignantly, but Ripped Jeans silences him with a look.

"All right, I'll give you waterboarding," Deeks concedes, "but I think they'd start with something a little less intense."

"Like what?" Kensi asks. "A few threats, some blackmail?"

"Oh, not even these guys would be dull enough to just threaten us," Deeks says. "Even Plaid Shirt over here looks like he's bright enough to realize that's not going to work."

"You sure?" Kensi asks dubiously. "He doesn't look like he can even string a sentence together."

"Hey," Plaid Shirt interrupts indignantly. "I can -"

"Shut up," Ripped Jeans interrupts. When Plaid Shirt scowls, he goes on, "Just get out of here. Go make sure things are set up in the other room."

Plaid Shirt scowls at the two captives, but complies. Kensi and Deeks share a quick look, too subtle for the two guys in front of them to notice but just clear enough for them to convey their triumph: their plan is working.

"So what is the plan, then, fellas?" Deeks asks, directly addressing their captors for the first time in several minutes. "Little bit of torture before lunch, then you all head off to the local bar for a celebratory appletini?"

Refusing to rise to his antagonism, Ripped Jeans just grins. "Basically," he says, "but you're forgetting the part where we also kill both of you."

"You know what?" Kensi interrupts, doing her best to seem nonchalant. "This is taking too long, all because my partner cannot figure out when to keep his mouth shut." She pauses, looking at Deeks and then back at Ripped Jeans, and then announces, "You can start with him."

"Woah," Deeks says, startled, his gaze flicking between his partner and his captor. "Hey, no, I didn't agree to that -"

"Well, I agreed to it for you," Kensi says, still apparently unruffled.

Deeks glares at her. "Fine, I'll go," he says, "but only because I'm volunteering. That way I'm a freaking hero, not some sacrificial lamb with beautiful blue eyes and majestic hair."

"If you're fishing for compliments," Kensi says wearily, "then you might want to use some better bait."

Before Deeks can respond, Ripped Jeans speaks. "This is lovely and all, but we're kind of under a time pressure here."

"Don't let us keep you," Deeks says mildly. "Wouldn't want you to miss your lunch."

Ripped Jeans rolls his eyes, then gestures to Flower, who starts to make his way over to the detective. Apparently the game is over, and their captors have had enough for their banter (adorable though it had always seemed to the two agents involved – and their team, although none of them would admit it).

"Come on then, hero," Flower says gruffly, bending down to unchain Deeks' wrists.

Deeks tenses, knowing it's almost time to act, but then Ripped Jeans clears his throat. "Wait," says their captor. "On second thought, take the girl."

The detective shoots a panicked look at his partner, who, of course, shows absolutely no sign of fear – except for the tiniest flicker in her eyes, too quick for anyone but Deeks to notice, too subtle for anyone else to care. Flower moves away from Deeks, turning his attention to Kensi, while Ripped Jeans looks on from a distance. And although Kensi doesn't look scared, she definitely feels it. Both agents have been tortured before – Deeks at the hands of Sidorov, Kensi in Afghanistan – and neither wants to experience it again. But, more than that, neither one wants to see the other experience it again.

So Kensi grits her teeth again as Flower uncuffs her and hauls her unceremoniously to her feet, so quickly she almost loses her balance. As Flower leads her across the room, Kensi deliberately avoids Deeks' eyes; she doesn't want to see the fear, the concern, the guilt. She knows he wishes that it was him being taken, and she doesn't need his expression to tell her that.

She also doesn't need him to tell her when to act, because she gets her chance almost instantly: Flower looks over to Ripped Jeans for confirmation, diverting his attention at exactly the right moment. Kensi acts almost instinctively, responding to muscle memory of every fight she's ever been in. A well-timed punch to Flower's jaw makes him stumble, and she uses that momentum to push him as hard as she can – straight into Ripped Jeans. That moment of shock is all she needs in order to disarm Ripped Jeans (the only one who was armed; he was obviously in charge and didn't trust anyone else).

"On the ground," she instructs, stepping back and pointing the gun at Ripped Jeans in one fluid movement. His mouth tilts downward, ever so slightly, at exactly the same moment that Kensi realizes something's wrong. As he opens his mouth to speak she lands a quick elbow to his temple, enough to knock him out cold. "On the ground," she repeats more forcefully, and Flower, who'd been watching wide-eyed and silent, complies.

While Kensi and Deeks had been bantering earlier, they had also been evaluating – trying to test for weaknesses, look for escape routes, anything that could help. Which is why Kensi knows where to find rope (in the far corner, scattered among several toolboxes and some wooden crates) and the keys to the handcuffs (attached to Ripped Jeans' belt).

"Not that I don't love seeing you in action," Deeks says as Kensi uncuffs him, "but why'd you clock that guy? I really think that you being the only person with a weapon kind of gives you the upper hand without you having to… emasculate him."

Kensi pulls Deeks to his feet, tucking the gun into her belt – a force of habit rather than due to any actual need. "It would be," she says as she leads the way toward the door, keeping an eye on Ripped Jeans and Flower to make sure they don't have any tricks up their sleeves, "if the gun was loaded."

Deeks raises his eyebrows, casting Ripped Jeans a look that's half amusement, half admiration. "Really?" he asks. "You kept your guys in line with an unloaded gun?" He pauses, a thought occurring to him. "Maybe that's what Hetty does, you know? Her weapons cabinet's probably full of exotic tea or something."

"No," Kensi says absently, leaning toward the door to try to hear what's going on outside it (all the while wondering whether the guns that had been pointed at them earlier had been unloaded too, if all of this had been a ruse they'd fallen for hook, line, and sinker), "I've seen her weapons cabinet. It's full of weapons."

"Huh." Deeks pauses again, steeling himself for the fight he knows is coming – there's at least two other guys out there, and he and Kensi have no hope of backup. "Well, it's not like she needs weapons anyway. If looks could kill we'd all be out of a job – nobody would be gusty enough to commit a crime with the Duchess of Deception exactly one look away from executing them herself."

"Speaking of weapons," Kensi says tensely, pulling away from the door to look at her partner, "we have exactly none."

Deeks cocks his head, his gaze drifting between the two guys on the floor and the locked door ahead of them. "Good point," he muses. Then he looks at Kensi and jerks his head toward the door. "You go first."

"What?" Kensi's tone is part disbelief and part indignation, and if her arms weren't so sore from being cuffed behind her she would back her words up with a well-aimed punch to Deeks' shoulder. "I'm not going first. You go first."

After a brief pause, Deeks narrows his eyes. "Rock Paper Scissors?" he suggests.

Deeks picks rock, Kensi picks paper, and subsequently it's the detective who takes point. They pause, flanking the door, and put aside their banter for long enough to escape.

They're professionals, after all.

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So, what'd you all think? I know it was short, but it was always meant to be. Like I said, this was just a bit of fun, a test run if you will. But now this story is over, I'm going to be working on another one (or two). And I need your help. I'm going to outline my two WIPs, and I'd love to hear two things: first, which one you'd most like to see, and second, what you'd like to see in it (themes, scenes, characters, ideas, etc). Here goes. (Bear in mind that both stories will have a lot of Kensi/Nell friendship and probably some side Neric as well.)

A. "if she ran away" - a hurt/comfort fic in which Kensi is hurt and Deeks does the comforting. Kensi shows up after being missing for almost a month, but she's definitely not herself - and she's not letting anyone in. Reluctantly she allows Nell to help her, but remains adamant that she doesn't need Deeks' help. And Deeks, meanwhile, is equally convinced that he just needs to find the right way to support her.

B. "don't find me" - Deeks goes missing, but not before he manages to get a message to his partner. So Kensi, accompanied by Nell, embarks on a dangerous scavenger hunt to collect Deeks' clues, following his trail across the city. But as the clues become more cryptic and time starts to run out, Kensi realizes that maybe she doesn't know her partner as well as she thought she did.

And, that's it. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to review, PM, ask on Tumblr, whatever. I'll try to take any and all suggestions into account when I'm writing. Thanks again for supporting this story, and I hope to see you all again soon!