A/N: Thank you for all your reviews/alerts/favourites. They never fail to make me smile. I'm glad so many people are reading and enjoying this story.

Because That's How We Roll (Part 1)

Silence ruled in the tiny house. No one spoke and the only sound was the slight rustle of the trees outside as the winter winds set in. Sam surveyed the rest of his team, who were spread out in the living room.

Kensi lay, eagle spread on the floor, staring into space and occasionally returning to earth just long enough to sneak popcorn out of Deek's bowl. Deeks was absently patting Monty and reading some magazine. Sam turned to see Callen standing guard at the doorway, watching the barren horizon for any source of trouble. He was too tense in Sam's opinion. Cabin fever was bringing out the worst in them. In all of them. Sam looked back to the living room, realising someone was missing. Nell was perched on the window sill, reading something thick enough to give him a headache. That meant…

"Nell," Sam asked, "Where's Eric?"

She glanced up at him and shrugged, "I don't know."

"Have no fear," Eric's voice boomed down the hall, "Eric is here and he brings gifts."

"You're a bit early for Christmas there, Santa," Callen said dryly, angling himself to watch both Eric's antics and the open door.

"Dude, this is so much better than Christmas," Eric ambled into the room, carrying a large surfboard.

Deeks looked up at it, slack jawed, "Is that…"

Eric grinned broadly, "Yep."

"A 1960'sGreg Noll Figure 8 stringer 10 foot Malibu. Oh God, I've died and gone to heaven," The blonde detective stared at the dust covered fibreglass board.

Kensi looked between the two awed men, "It's a surfboard."

"It's not any surfboard," Eric told her as though a baby could understand his wonderstruck state, "It's the godfather of surfboards."

"Calling that 'just a surfboard' would be like calling Superman a farm boy," Deeks explained, trying to use imagery his partner would understand.

"Should we give you three a room?" Sam asked with a teasing smile.

"You can give us a beach. No wait," Deeks scrambled to correct himself. "That didn't come out right." Kensi smirked at him.

Callen walked over to his partner, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Sam nodded, "Jailbreak."

"Jailbreak."

NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA

Deeks squirmed in the uncomfortable car seat. "Next time we have to steal a bigger car,"

"Hey," Kensi cried as Deeks narrowly avoided elbowing her in the face. "Watch it."

"I would if, you know, there was room to move or breathe even. Yeah, room to breathe would be nice, I think." Deeks said, still trying to get comfortable. All six of them were jammed into a small, faded blue Volkswagen bug that Callen had 'borrowed' on their last shopping trip. At the time, none of them had considered that fitting six adults in a car that small was barely physically possible. Sam was driving, hunched over the steering wheel and his head hit the roof of the car every time they hit a rock in the dirt path winding through the hills. In the back, Nell sat on Eric's lap, trying to make herself as small as possible so she didn't fly through the open window. With Nell in his lap and being squached by Deeks and Kensi in the backseat, Eric was feeling claustrophobic. And the fact they were driving through winding roads bordered by steep cliffs wasn't easing his fear of heights.

"Remind me again whose brilliant idea this was?" Callen asked darkly, his knees up to his ears as he was crammed into the passenger seat.

"Yours," Kensi answered curtly. "And if I'd know that I would be stuck between Deeks and Eric for three hours, I would have stayed back at the house."

"I'm glad we got out of the house," Nell piped up. "It was starting to feel like a prison."

"If that was a prison then this is hell," Deeks whined, sticking his head out the window to get some fresh air. The air conditioner was broken.

"Hey, if you all don't stop your whinging, I'm going to drop you off on the side of the road and you can walk home," Sam threaterned, using the review mirror to glare at the four in the backseat.

"What side of the road?" Eric asked dryly, glancing out at the sudden drop beside him and immediately regretting it.

"Eric," Kensi gave him a long sideways look, "Are you afraid of heights?"

"No. Maybe. Yes?"

Nell gave his hand a quick squeeze. "We'll sit on the other side on the way back," She said softly, so the others couldn't hear.

"Thanks," He nodded just as they went over a large bump in the road. His arms immediately tightened around her small waist. "You okay?"

"Yeah," She nodded, her hair bouncing up and down in his face.

"I'm fine too, thanks for asking," Deeks announced. "Not that anyone cares."

Sam frowned at the speedometer in the dashboard, "Oh crap."

"What?" Callen leant over. "Dammit."

"What is it?" Kensi asked as everyone else in the backseat craned to see what was wrong.

The old car puttered to a stop, halfway up a steep incline. They rolled back a few yards before Sam slammed on the handbrake. "That's what's wrong," Callen said.

"Great!" Deeks collapsed against the seat, whacking his head on the roof. "We're stuck in the middle of nowhere and the car is broken down. What are we going to do?"

"You," Kensi told him in a stern voice reserved for bossing around her partner, "Are going to get out of the car and sit down and shut up while we," She gestured to Sam and herself, "Fix this."

"You can fix this?" Nell asked, hopefully.

"Please, I hotwired a helicopter once," Kensi grinned. "This will be a piece of cake."

NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA#NCIS:LA

"Piece of cake my ass," Kensi grumbled as she leant into the engine of the aging bug. "Why does everything go wrong for us?"

"Because," Sam grunted, trying to twist off a rusted screw, "We're us." They had been trying to restart the engine for the past hour to no avail. Sam pushed himself up, out from under the bonnet. "Try it now G," He called and Kensi quickly moved out of the way.

Callen turned the key and the engine splutted for a second then died again. "No use," He got out of the car, not bothering to turn off the ignition.

Deeks sat on the side of the road, in the shade with Eric and Nell, "Can we call triple A now?"

"Yeah, if we want to paint a target on our backs," Callen scoffed at his idea, ambling over and sitting down. Nell passed over a bottle of water and he took it gratefully.

"I would prefer a target on our backs than vultures on our corpses," Deeks retorted, standing up to stretch. His muscles were cramping after the car ride and the wait.

"I second that," Eric raised his hand a little, like a shy schoolboy in class.

"It will be fine," Callen told them, "Sam and Kensi have fixed worse." As he spoke Kensi yelled an obscenity at the car and kicked it in the undercarriage. As soon as she did, the engine roared into life.

"Seriously?" Deeks gaped at his partner. "If I did that, I would just break my foot but when she does that-" He stopped talking as he watched, horrified, at the car rolling down the hill. "Kensi!"

TO BE CONTINUED.

A/N: I felt like doing something different. And this idea kinda developed into a two-parter. I hope you guys don't mind. Tell me what you think!