Author's Note – No profit to be had here, just having a bit of fun with a show I love.

So, yeah, sorry about the cliffie, but I just had to do it (and at least I got this one up pretty quickly)! Hope y'all can forgive me! I think there will only be one more chapter after this one.

Once again, thank you for all of the lovely reviews and all of the follows and favorites – they mean the world to me!

As Deeks and Kensi watch the sub slowly sink, they both feel vaguely ill. Out of the corner of his eye, Deeks sees Kensi put her rifle down and start to go for her belt. He immediately reaches over and grabs her arm. He can only hold on for a second before putting his right hand back on the controls, but it's enough to get her attention. "Kens, the divers are still in the water. If you go in, they just have to split their focus." He tries to ignore the fact that he felt a pulling pain in his side when he reached for her.

She looks at him, stricken, but she nods as tears pool in her eyes. She puts her hand on his right knee as she turns back to the water, staring at the sinking sub. He focuses on the same sight, but he's feeling a little lightheaded. Suddenly, Sam breaks the surface with someone under his arm. It only takes them a moment to see that it's an unconscious Callen. The divers are on them immediately, one helping Sam and the other towing Callen towards their small rescue launch.

Once they're aboard, the diver gets Callen turned on his side, and they all relax when they see their senior agent take a breath and start coughing. Sam waves a tired arm up at them in the chopper, his eyes widening slightly when he apparently sees that Deeks is the pilot.

Deeks would enjoy the moment more if it weren't for the fact that his vision is suddenly graying slightly. He takes his right hand off of the controls for a second again, and he touches his palm to his left side. His hand hits something wet, and he swears softly. He pulls his hand back, and he sees that it's covered in blood.

Kensi looks over at him in that moment, her face alight with joy that their friends are all right. She can't believe this all worked, but her face falls immediately when she sees Deeks staring at his bloody hand. "Marty!"

He jumps slightly and wraps his bloody hand back around the controls. His mind clears for a moment, and he grits out, "Nell, I need coordinates on the Coast Guard clipper now."

Nell rattles off the coordinates and then asks, "Are you going to wait for the guys?"

Kensi is blinking in shock as Deeks steers the chopper towards the coordinates Nell just gave him. He focuses on the ocean and sky in front of him. "Can't. I got clipped in the arm by a ricochet, but I think adrenaline masked the fact that it kept going and hit me in the side." Nell splutters in response, and Granger demands an explanation. Deeks just mutters, "Can't talk. Gotta fly."

Kensi swallows hard. "Director, he had to take off his vest in order to have enough freedom of movement to steer. I knew it hit his arm, but…" She has to choke down a sob.

At that moment, Sam's voice comes over the headsets. "Kensi, Deeks, where did you two go?"

Deeks just keeps his eyes on the view in front of them, and she can see that he's doing everything he can to stay focused. Kensi takes a deep breath. "Sam, Deeks got hit when the first guy fired. I think a shot ricocheted off of the chopper skid. It's not good, and he has to fly us. We're heading for a nearby Coast Guard clipper. I think the boat you're going to is going to meet us there."

"Kensi, what do you mean he has to fly you? My eyes weren't playing tricks on me?" Sam's voice is incredulous, and it riles Kensi.

"No, Sam, they weren't. Seems you've underestimated him yet again. Personally, I think it says a lot more about you than it does about him."

"Kens, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" she can hear the contrition in Sam's voice, but she's pissed off and feeling awfully protective.

"Save it, Sam. You can apologize to him when we see you, maybe right after you thank him for helping save you. How's Callen?" Her voice makes it clear that she's not interested in his apology right now.

Sam sighs over the radio. "OK. Hit his head dodging a bullet, knocked him out cold. He breathed in some water when I was hauling him out of the sub, but he coughed it all up."

Granger's voice breaks in. "Agent Blye, how is Agent Deeks?"

Kensi's eyes have never left Deeks, and she can see that his hands are starting to shake a little. She glances out the windshield and sees with no small amount of relief that they're in sight of the clipper and closing fast. She hears Sam say, "Agent Deeks?" but she ignores him.

"Not good, sir, but we're almost to the clipper. We need a med team waiting for us." Kensi's voice betrays the raw fear that's tearing at her.

Deeks takes as deep a breath as he can manage. The only upside to recognizing his injury but also having to keep Kensi safe is that the adrenaline is pumping again. He manages to grind out a few words. "Tell them to keep the pad clear. This may be a bit of a bumpy landing." He tries to judge their distance from the Coast Guard ship. "We're probably only a minute out."

"Why will it be bumpy?" Granger demands.

Kensi sees Deeks' hands wrap tighter around the controls, probably trying to stop the tremors. She softly says, "Granger, I think he's lost a lot of blood. His hands are shaking."

"Damn it," she's surprised by how upset the assistant director sounds, "I've got Jones talking to the ship. They'll be ready for you two."

The radio goes quiet, and she just keeps her hand on his knee. The clipper ship gets larger and larger as they get closer to it, and she unconsciously starts murmuring, "Almost there, almost there," over and over again.

She looks over at his face, and while he's very pale under his usual tan, his eyes seem steady. He senses her looking at him, so without taking his eyes off of the ship in front of them, he quietly says, "I got this, Fern." He'll be damned if he's the reason she gets hurt.

In return, she squeezes his knee. A few seconds later, they're over the clipper. She can see a medical team off to the edge of the marked landing pad, but they're hanging back as directed. The clipper gives him clearance to land when ready, and he slowly lowers them towards the deck. He starts to relax a little as they get closer, but then to his dismay, his hands begin to shake again.

It's all he can do to say, "Hold on, Kens," before he loses control a little. Luckily, they're almost down when that happens, so when they drop, it's just a few feet. They bang hard on the surface of the ship, jarring both of them pretty hard. In a last burst of energy, he reaches up and flips the switches to power down the chopper.

A few moments later, he sees the med team approaching the craft. He feels Kensi's hand grip his, and he hears her voice saying, "Baby, we're here, you did it. Stay with me, please. Please, Marty, stay with me." He wants to reply, but the blackness that has been threatening finally wins as the remaining adrenaline ebbs away.

Kensi feels his hand go slack in hers, so she un-does her harness and reaches around him to press against his injured side, desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood. She's horrified to find that his entire left side is soaked in blood. The doors on both sides are pulled open, but Kensi just yells, "It's him, I'm fine. He's hit in the arm and the side! Arm was a graze, don't know how bad the side is."

In under a minute, they have Deeks strapped to a gurney, and Kensi is running after them into the ship's interior. She hears them yelling to prep their emergency area, and she blinks when she realizes that a nurse is asking her if she knows his blood type. She chokes it out, amazed that she can call the fact to mind. A moment later, a pair of gentle hands guides her away. She looks around to see that it's an older female nurse. "I want to stay!"

"No, you need to let the doctors work." The woman shakes her head and leads her to a small patient room. In it, there is a pair of sweats, some thick socks and a Coast Guard sweatshirt.

Kensi blinks. "I'm fine – I didn't get wet or hurt or anything."

"Honey, you're covered in blood. I know you're OK, but you probably want to get out of those clothes." The woman gives her a sympathetic look.

Kensi looks down at herself, and she sees for the first time that the woman is right. Her shirt and hands are stained dark red, and there are stains all over her jeans from when she leaned over him and also from trying to wipe her hands as she ran behind the gurney. She has blood everywhere, his blood. She looks around frantically, and a second later, she's on her knees emptying the contents of her stomach into a trash bin.

The nurse is right behind her, and she holds Kensi's ponytail out of the way and gently pats her back. When Kensi is done, she sinks to the floor, back against the wall. She pulls her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around them. The nurse crouches next to her. "Honey, you need a shower. There's a bathroom – she points to a small door – there's shampoo and soap in there. I'll go get you a toothbrush, too."

"Is Marty going to be all right?" Kensi's voice is small and terrified when she finally speaks.

"His name is Marty?"

"Special Agent Marty Deeks, NCIS." Kensi nods.

"OK, I'll tell you what," the woman gently coaxes her to her feet, "You get cleaned up, and I'll go get you a toothbrush and a status update on your…"

"Partner," Kensi replies automatically, but then she looks at the woman, whose soft, sympathetic brown eyes almost make her break down. She adds quickly, "And boyfriend. He's both – my partner and my boyfriend."

The woman nods. "I understand. Now shower," she points at the small room. "If you need anything before I come back, my name is Susan. Someone will find me."

"Thank you, Susan. I'm Kensi, Special Agent Kensi Blye."

"You're welcome, Kensi. I'll be right back."

Kensi has to swallow a sob as the woman leaves, but she shakes her head to stop the tears. She follows instructions, stripping off her bloody clothes and climbing into the shower. Unfortunately, standing there under the flow of hot water just reminds her of their shower together that morning, and the tears come then. She finally gives into them, standing there and sobbing for several minutes until she can get it back under control.

Fifteen minutes later, she steps out of the bathroom. Susan had dropped off the toothbrush and toothpaste, and Kensi is feeling human again. As she emerges from the bathroom, hair loose and damp but combed, and borrowed sweats on, Susan enters the small exam room.

Before Kensi can ask, the woman holds up a hand and says, "He's lost a lot of blood, but they think he's going to be fine. He has a nasty three inch gash on his left arm, and the bullet then embedded itself in his side. Luckily, it hitting his arm slowed it down, so it's just soft-tissue damage, no organs. It bled a lot, though. He's in surgery getting cleaned up and they're transfusing him. They think he'll be in recovery in under an hour, maybe as soon as thirty minutes."

Kensi almost collapses in relief, and then another thought occurs to her. "Has anyone else been brought aboard?"

Susan nods. "Yes. They're asking for you, Agents Hanna and Callen." She opens the door and motions for Kensi to follow her. "They're both dehydrated, and Agent Callen has a concussion, but they're otherwise all right. The triage nurse put them both on an IV to get them hydrated."

They get to an open door, and Kensi enters the room at Susan's direction, only to find Sam and Callen, both similarly attired to her, inside. "Kensi!" Callen notices her first, and Kensi walks over to where he sits on the edge of a bed. She lets him pull her into a light hug, and she hears him murmur, "Thanks," in her ear.

She nods, stepping back. She turns when she hears an IV stand rolling up behind her, and before she knows it, Sam has her caught up in a bone-crushing hug. He speaks first, "I'm sorry, Kensi, I truly didn't mean anything by my reaction earlier. I was just surprised. I had no idea he could fly."

He releases her and steps back, and she can see how upset he is. She shakes her head. "No, Sam, I'm sorry. I totally overreacted. I was freaking out about him being hurt, and I went over-protective. I know you didn't mean anything. And before you ask, it's a long story but he's quitting LAPD and joining us. Hetty started the ball rolling a while ago, but it took Granger and Director Vance to push him across the line. That's why Granger called him Agent Deeks. The paperwork is done, Bates was just holding his LAPD resignation until after this op, because the chopper belongs to LAPD."

Callen speaks up. "Kens, is he OK?"

She nods, swallowing back the tears again. "The nurse said that it's just soft-tissue damage to his side. Didn't hit anything vital, but it bled a lot. They're patching him up and transfusing him now."

"I can't believe he managed to get you here with a bullet wound in the side. Piloting a chopper is pretty physical, and the wind has picked up out there. That took a lot of fortitude." Sam's voice is full of admiration.

Kensi gives him a small smile. "I think it was touch and go, but he kept it together. I'm pretty sure there was some serious adrenaline working. The landing was a bump – I think he just was done. He blacked out within seconds of shutting the chopper down." The tears pool in her eyes again at the thought of that moment. Sam clearly senses her distress, and he pulls her back to him in a hug. She clings onto him, and they stay that way for a while.

Still holding her, he finally says, "So, a pilot?"

She chuckles and hears Callen do the same. "Just helicopters. He learned when he was a kid. Long story and his to tell, but he's been fully licensed since he was eighteen. Said he keeps his hours up on weekends when he can."

Sam releases her, and she jumps up on the edge of the bed next to Callen, who looks at her intently. "You've been crying."

"Very observant of you, Callen." She shoots him a sharp look.

He holds up his hands. "I'm just worried about you, Kens."

"He could have died, Callen. He could have died trying to save you and trying to protect me. We finally are getting to be OK, and he could have…" she has to stop, tears threatening again.

Callen and Sam exchange a look, and after a rather comical exchange of head nods and raised eyebrows, Kensi rolls her eyes and snorts. "You guys are such cowards. Yes. We're actually sorting out our Thing. And yes, Granger knows, and no he doesn't care. As long as he doesn't catch us making out," at their disgusted faces, she says, "Hey, his words!"

Sam cracks his knuckles. "We're going to have to talk to our boy Deeks."

Callen also gets a glint in his eye. "Agreed. Got to look after the baby sister."

"Excuse me." Kensi stands and puts her hands on her hips. They look at her as though they'd actually forgotten she was there. "You will do no such thing." They both start to protest, but she isn't having it. "You will not go big brother on him, either of you. First, he'd never hurt me. If you don't know that, you don't know him. Second, if he ever did hurt me, he'd answer to me. Period. You two can take your caveman big brother crap and shove it up your…"

"Agent Blye?" She spins around to see a highly amused-looking nurse Susan standing there. "Marty is awake and asking for you." She furrows her brow. "Well, actually, he's asking for 'Fern,' but when I asked if he meant 'Kensi,' he said yes. Then he started saying, 'Fern, Kensi, Kens, Kensalina, Princess,' and several more names over and over. So, I'm fairly sure he meant you."

Kensi blushes a little and looks down. "Yeah. Those are all me."

The nurse beckons, and Kensi goes to follow her. Before she leaves, though, she turns and levels a hard look at a shocked Callen and Sam. "You heard me. One cross word at the guy who just nearly died saving your asses? You answer to me. Clear?" They just nod, wide-eyed. "Good. Now come and see him when you're done with your IVs. He was just as worried about you two as I was."

With a smirk, she follows Susan down the hall of the ship. A few doors down, she turns into a bright white room. If it wasn't for the gentle motion of the water, it could be mistaken for any military infirmary room. She pauses in the doorway when she sees him propped up in the bed. He's shirtless, and his torso is swathed with a large bandage, reminding her of the first time she saw him in a hospital bed.

This time, the IV line is in his right hand, as his left arm is also bandaged. He's still pale, but his color is definitely improving. Susan sees that she's frozen, so the nurse comes back to her and takes her arm, gently steering her towards the bed. "He's OK, honey."

Kensi nods. "I know, I've just seen him like this too many times."

Susan squeezes her arm and leaves them alone, telling her to call if they need anything. For now, he's hooked up to a heart monitor, and the steady, strong beat reassures her somewhat. The difference between the first time she saw him like this and now, though, is that she perches on the edge of the bed, taking his right hand carefully in her left, and reaching up with her free hand to brush his hair out of his eyes.

Her touch wakes him, and his eyes blink open. "Hey, Fern."

She smiles and leans forward to press her lips to his, and his left hand comes up to slip into her hair, She pulls back slightly, touching her forehead to his. "You scared me, Shaggy."

"Sorry, Princess. Next time, I'm wearing the damned vest. I'm a strong swimmer, and treading water beats the crap out of getting shot."

She leans back, shaking her head with a laugh. "Really, Deeks? Trying to be funny?"

He pulls her back to him and kisses her again. "You laughed, didn't you?" He shifts a little and hisses when it pulls at his side.

"Do you need more pain meds?" Her brow furrows in concern.

He shakes his head. "No. I'm good. I really don't want to be groggy, and it's not that bad."

They both look towards the door when they hear the sound of wheels on tile floors, and they laugh, Deeks with a wince, when Callen and Sam appear in the doorway, both rolling their IV stands. Kensi shakes her head and beckons them in.

They both roll their IVs over to the bed, sinking into the two chairs sitting to Deeks' left. Sam leans back and props his feet on the end of Deeks' bed, Callen doing the same at the middle of the bed. Deeks looks at Kensi and raises his good arm, gesturing with his head. Kensi slides up closer to Deeks and ducks under his arm to curl up next to his good side, resting her head on his shoulder and carefully wrapping an arm across his waist. Once she's settled, he wraps his arm around her.

They're all silent for a moment before Deeks can't stop himself from saying, "You went into a strange submarine? Really?"

Callen and Sam glare at him, but Kensi just laughs. He goes on, "I mean seriously, guys, smoke bombs, or maybe just wait for them? But no, both of you get in a strange sub. Makes total sense."

The two senior agents try to maintain their irritated expressions, but after a moment, they both start to laugh. Kensi and Deeks laugh along with them, Deeks wincing again. Over his protests, Kensi calls for Susan, who gives him a shot of pain meds in his IV. She grins at the laughing foursome, and she informs them that they're heading for the San Pedro Coast Guard station, and that they'll be there in an hour and a half or so.

Deeks is getting sleepy from the meds, but Sam stands up to look at him. "Looks like I owe you again, Deeks."

Callen nods. "We both do. And officially welcome to the team."

Deeks shrugs and smiles in embarrassment. "You don't owe me anything. It's what we do, right?"

Sam shakes his head. "I don't know, it seems like it keeps happening. I mean, hell, this is three times in a year, man. Anyone who ever tries to call you our weak link again is an idiot, and they'll have to answer to me."

Deeks reaches out with his left hand, and Sam takes it. He then steps out of the way, and Callen does the same. "I'm with Sam. We owe you, and we need you, Probie."

Rolling his eyes, Deeks just laughs. "And the name calling begins."

Sam and Callen both settle back into their chairs, feet going back up on the bed. Kensi snuggles closer to Deeks and says, "Suck it up, Shaggy. Welcome to Hazing 101."

Deeks would argue, but he feels the pain medication dragging him under. In seconds, he's fast asleep again, and Kensi follows quickly, almost as tired as he is. Sam and Callen shrug and exchange a look before leaning back in their chairs. As they near San Pedro, Susan comes to let them know they're almost to port. She smiles when she enters the room to see all four agents sleeping soundly, and she decides to leave them be for as long as possible. She's pretty sure they've all had a pretty long day.