A small sliver of light from the moon made the headlights shine like spotlights in the dark night. Marty peered out the window as the car slowed. There were no houses in sight. Just some dark shapes that Aunt Barbara had said were the mountains off in the distance and a few trees clumped sporadically by the side of the road. Marty struggled to stay awake. The car bumping over the dirt road disguised the bouncing of his legs for a little while. When the other boys in the back seat complained, he switched to pinching his legs. It hurt but he had to stay awake!
Sitting in the car for long hours that first day, he had come up with a plan. His initial relief after talking to his mom had dissipated as the hours dragged by. What if this was a trap? What if his dad could find him? There was no way he was going to shoot him again. Maybe his dad wanted to shoot him now. And if his mom couldn't protect him, how could these people? He hugged DaKota to his chest.
Uncle Bernard had noticed him studying the maps in their hotel room that first night and had walked him through their route across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and finally into Idaho. Aunt Barbara had suggested they take the longer drive through Utah since Marty had never been there. Marty couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.
That night he lay in the hotel bed thinking about his situation. It might be harder for anyone to find him if they took a longer way to get wherever it was they were going. But he needed to stay sharp. Even though his mom thought the trip would be good for him, he thought he better be able to escape just in case. Or he might need to tell his mom how to find him. Maybe he could look in the car for loose change tomorrow morning in case he needed it to call his mom. His buddy Moose wandered in and stuck his face into Marty's. Then he jumped up on the bed. Marty sighed, threw his arm around the gentle beast, and finally relaxed and fell asleep.
Three days later they were finally arriving at the farm in Idaho. Marty's brow was wrinkled in concentration. He leaned forward to see between the two adults in the front seat. Last night when Uncle Bernard had shown him their route on the map, he said there was no map for the roads they were taking to the ranch. "Just some old farm roads out in the middle of nowhere."
He was pretty sure the map in his notebook was a big mess. It was too dark to see what he had drawn. And too bumpy to continue to draw. Mrs. O'Donnell had only given him one notebook and he had no money to buy another one so he didn't want to mess it all up. He'd have to figure out an excuse to drive back to that little town so he could see the route in the daylight. Maybe they had a bike he could ride. Good thing he had a good memory.
"How did you find this place?I thought you were going to call when you left the interstate," Callen asked as he helped Kensi from the car.
"Guess I was just on autopilot," Deeks said wearily, stretching his long limbs.
"Autopilot?" Sam was stretching too and looking around at the open space, a far cry from the dense LA city streets they were accustomed to.
"GPS," Deeks corrected himself. "I used the GPS."
"Really?" Nell had her doubts. "The GPS found this place? I didn't think it even had an address."
"It has an address. And hopefully a bathroom. Let's go inside. It's cold out here and I gotta pee."
"Wait a sec."
Deeks stopped at Kensi's command.
"It's so quiet out here."
They all took a second to listen. Coyotes yipping, a blast of wind blowing through the trees, then nothing.
"Quite a nice change from the blare of the radio for the past 500 miles," Deeks couldn't help but tease.
"'I Can't Live Without My Radio', "Sam admitted.
"Drives me crazy," Callen added as he herded the group into the farmhouse.
"The 'Candy' wrappers you leave all over my car drive me crazy," Sam retorted.
"Did you bring any candy?" Callen couldn't help but ask.
"You don't need any candy," Sam replied.
"Kensi has candy," Deeks offered.
"DO. NOT. GIVE. HIM. ANY. CANDY. He'll be up all night." Sam grabbed their go bags and brought them inside.
Nell stirred the pot on the stove. "Who wants dinner?"
"How long have you two been married?" Deeks inquired, grabbing two bowls and taking them to the stove to get stew for Kensi and himself.
"Oooh, garlic. It's going to be a rough night," he said to himself.
"I am not gassy," Kensi piped up.
"That's why we had to have the windows cracked open for the past 200 miles?" Sam threw out.
After Deeks set the two plates and himself down at the table, he suddenly stood up again.
"Root beer!" Was all he said as he walked across the kitchen.
"Sorry, I didn't see any root beer in the fridge," Nell said, opening it again to double check.
"What about in the cellar?" Deeks asked.
"There's a cellar? Don't you mean basement?" Callen asked quizzically.
"This cellar," Deeks said as he opened the door covered by a display of antique tin pie plates.
Nell and Callen exchanged a glance. In the 24+ hours they'd been in the house they hadn't noticed the door. How had Deeks found it so easily? How had he known to look for a cellar? And why didn't he call it a basement?
Deeks stepped into the dark, Callen at his heels. Reaching out, Deeks swung his arm around until he found the string to turn on the bare bulb overhead light. Below them was a flight of wooden stairs. Callen followed Deeks down, glad that Deeks was pulling down the spider webs ahead of him as he went. At the bottom of the stairs, Deeks reached over and turned on the light switch, illuminating a small room. Wooden shelves on two sides of the room held canned goods. An old refrigerator hummed in the far corner. As Deeks pulled a bottle of root beer out of the refrigerator, Callen turned 360 degrees, examining the room from top to bottom.
"Could be a bomb shelter," he thought aloud.
"Or a tornado shelter," Deeks added.
"Are there tornadoes this close to the mountains?"
"Just one that I know of- an F4 ripped through this area in the summer of 1987."
Callen just stared at him. "And you know this because…."
Deeks headed up the stairs. "I'm hungry, let's eat," was all he had to say.
He screwed the lid off the bottle and set it in front of Kensi. "I'm not gassy," she protested weakly. Secretly she was glad Deeks had thought of the root beer. It cured her stomach issues quickly. Guess it was a survival tactic for him to know how to keep them both happy on those long stake outs.
"Nell, this is really good. Perfect for a cool night in the middle of nowhere." Sam had enthusiastically finished his stew and went for a second helping.
"Wait," Deeks stopped him, "You can have mine."
"What's wrong?" Nell asked, coming over to put a hand on his shoulder.
Deeks rested his head in his hands for a minute, then smelled his hands and got up from the table to wash them. "Guess I'm just too tired to eat," he replied. "I'm going to get settled in. What are the sleeping arrangements tonight?"
"Why don't Kensi and I share the master bedroom down here? There are two bedrooms upstairs that you guys can share." Nell suggested. Was it her imagination or did Callen's face drop just for a second before he turned back to his dinner?
Deeks turned away and started walking towards the staircase then circled back and gave Nell a quick hug, thanked her for dinner, gave Kensi a quick hug, wished her a good night's sleep and yelled, "I get the queen bed!" before running up the stairs.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Sam as he raced after Deeks.
"Haven't you already been sleeping in the room with the queen bed?" Nell asked Callen.
"My stuff is in there," Callen replied. But I've been sleeping on the couch down here, he thought to himself, just in case you need me.
Out of the depths of sleep, Deeks heard a stairboard creek.Then another one.
"Wish that Callen would sleep at night instead of stalking around the place. What is it '1 in the Morning?'" thought Deeks. He felt pretty safe in the farm house but had already decided that he could easily slide onto the floor between his twin bed and the wall, grab his gun, already stashed under the bed, and shine his cell phone light at any intruder. The bed wouldn't stop many bullets but it would at least he could prop it up for a bit of a shield should he need one. Not that he was expecting any trouble. Maybe he'd have some fun with Callen.
Sure enough, the footsteps stopped outside the bedroom door where Deeks waited and Sam appeared to be sound asleep. Deeks slid down to the floor as quietly as he could. Suddenly, Sam bellowed. There was a shriek. Deeks turned his cell phone light in the direction of the noise.
Kensi and Sam both shaded their eyes from the harsh light.
"Turn that damn light off Deeks", Sam demanded.
"Sorry- I thought it was Callen sneaking up here." Suddenly Deeks was on his feet. "Kensi are you okay?"
She stood next to Sam with her arms hugging herself and breathing heavily. Probably trying not to cry, he thought.
Deeks made his way over to her as Sam sat back down on the bed.
Kensi started when Deeks reached out to touch her arm.
"Sorry Sam, I saw that head of hair and thought you were Deeks."
Sam took off the fur covered hat he'd been wearing to keep warm through the chilly night. He started to laugh but he saw that Kensi was beside herself.
Just then Callen appeared at the bedroom door. "Everything okay in here?" He asked.
Sam got up and pulled his sweater on. "I could use a glass of water. Let's go downstairs," he suggested to Callen, who looked questioningly around the room and figured he'd best follow Sam's lead.
"I'm sleeping in your bed- I really need to sleep." Sam informed Callen once they were downstairs.
"Do you think Kensi is sleeping with Deeks tonight?"
"I don't know but I don't want to stay up to find out. Just because everyone else is up half the night doesn't mean I have to be. I want to go into town tomorrow and get some presents for Michelle and the kids. Then 'I'm Going Back To Cali'."
"So you think they're a couple?"
"'Hell Yeah.' I told you about that night. They were all over each other. It wasn't just an act."
At first Sam didn't know what to think.He wished Callen were there to see this.Truth was, he didn't really know what he was seeing.He looked over at Nell.She shrugged her shoulders, wide eyed.
The night had started out pleasant enough.He and Kensi were undercover on a military base, where they both were posing as MP's while trying to determine if there was a black market of weapons coming into the base from contractors returning from Afghanistan.Just as she had when she was undercover with Callen, Kensi had been getting antsy.She played her part very well but she wasn't sleeping well and it was starting to wear on her.She snapped at Sam when they were alone or else ignored him and watched TV all night.
Nell and Deeks had come over for dinner.Their story was that Nell was Kensi's cousin visiting from Brooklyn.But the hidden agenda of the dinner was to see if Deeks could help Kensi relax.Another "conjugal visit", they joked.Kensi had vehemently objected to it, claiming she didn't need Deeks to help her do her job.She could work with other partners.
Fortunately Nell could smooth out any rough spots in the dinner conversation because there were a lot of them that night.Kensi snapped at Deeks all through dinner.Deeks started out replying good naturedly enough but he finally couldn't stand it anymore and started snapping back.
After dinner, Sam suggested Kensi and Deeks go down to the basement to pick out a movie for them to watch after dinner.
"Nell has much better taste in movies," Kensi pointed out, "All Deeks likes is chick flicks."
"And all she likes is that cop show with that sexy blonde guy," Deeks threw out.
"Oh, so you think he's sexy?"Sam couldn't help but ask with a smirk.Deeks stood up, threw his napkin on the table, and banged his way downstairs.
"Oh, come on.You're the one who always wants to watch that show.You're in love with that brunette detective," they heard Kensi prodding as she ran downstairs behind him.
The bickering continued all down the stairs and then all Sam and Nell could hear was a thud.
Sam motioned to Nell to follow him and opened up the desk in the office that hid their surveillance equipment.
Down in the basement, Kensi and Deeks were kissing.Kensi pushed Deeks up against the wall.She pulled back, then began arguing in a loud whisper that the surveillance equipment wasn't picking up.Kensi was gesturing with her hands.Deeks moved in for another passionate kiss.Kensi wrapped her arms around him and tried pushing him with her body into the center of the room while still kissing him.Deeks stepped back, put his hands on his hips and appeared to say, "Fine."Kensi took Deeks' hand and led him into the basement bathroom.
Nell and Sam looked at each other.Nell was wide eyed.Sam was grinning from ear to ear.
"What just happened?" Nell asked.
"Guess this really is a conjugal visit," Sam chucked as he leaned against the desk, watching the closed bathroom door.
"Kensi knows about the surveillance equipment set up down there.She's playing us."
Or maybe Kensi's playing herself, Nell couldn't help but think.
Sam settled into the queen bed in Callen's room for the night. Someone in the group needed to get a good night's sleep. The bed clearly hadn't been slept in; he was going to have to rib his partner about sleeping with Nell while the two were alone.
Callen texted Nell.
"You're sure?" Sure, he wanted an excuse to talk to her, but he also wondered how long this "thing" between Kensi and Deeks had been going on. Kensi only seemed to be able to sleep with Deeks near her and he was starting to wonder about how Deeks started sleeping again after his torture. Then there was that time he and Kensi had been undercover…
Nell came out from the master bedroom. She needed to get Callen's mind off of Kensi and Deeks and their thing. "Want some cocoa? I think I saw some jumbo marshmallows in the cupboard."
"Sure. 'Make It Hot', it's really cold in here."
While looking for the jumbo marshmallows, Nell discovered graham crackers and Hershey bars.
"We're having s'mores!" she exclaimed, bringing plates of the ingredients over to the wood burning stove in the kitchen.
"Watch out- you're dripping marshmallow on the grate." Nell held a plate under Callen's improvised skewer and the gooey white glob at the end of it.
"That's not marshmallow- that's just ash."
"That is white and that is not ash, it's marshmallow."
"Ash is white and that is ash," Callen said.
"Ash is grey."
"Ash is white."
Nell won the argument by scraping the offending goo off the grate. "See- marshmallow, white."
Callen picked up his s'more and pushed it into her mouth. He picked up a speck of ash with his finger.
"And see- ash is white."
Once Callen and Sam were gone, Kensi turned towards Deeks. She was wearing a hoodie and had her head bowed so he couldn't see her face very well. But he was pretty sure she wasn't "fine".
"Come over here," he said, leading her to his bed. He sat next to her. "Can't sleep?"
She shook her head. "Every time I start to fall asleep I hear their voices yelling at me and I wake up drenched in sweat. And then I get really cold. Why is it so cold in here?"
Deeks stood up, peeled off his shirt, and handed it to Kensi. "Take your shirt off and put mine on. It's nice and warm." "And Ms. Wikipedia, what % of body heat is lost through the head?"
"The same amount you would lose through your legs if you were wearing shorts."
"Really? My mom always said 80- 90%."
"I'm too tired to explain it to you but think about the surface area of the head…"
"Never mind. Just put on this hat," he said, reaching past her to open the door of the bedside table. He shook out the hat. She looked skeptical but put it on anyway.
Kensi sat down again. "I'm just so tired." A lesser woman would have been in tears. Hysterics, probably.
"Come here", he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and drawing her close. She was physically and emotionally exhausted. Plus the poor thing had just gotten into bed with Sam. He scooped her up into his lap.
Initially he started humming, just to see if she would tolerate it. Then he started singing softly.
"'Hush' little baby, don't say a word.
Papa's gonna buy you a mocking bird.
And if that mocking bird won't- (Kensi jumped slightly as Deeks startled her by tucking his hands into his armpits, folding his arms to resemble wings, and letting out a loud)- SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!
Papa's gonna buy you a brand new Glock.
And if that brand new Glock won't track,
Papa's going to buy you some Yummy Yummy Heart Attack."
Kensi snorted. She was too tired to make a snarky retort.
Deeks set her back on the bed. "Let's get some sleep," he said, yawning. Truth was, he was exhausted. He could barely keep his eyes open.
"I can't…" Kensi started. She just couldn't fall asleep. "I can't sleep lying down," she admitted.
Deeks pushed the bed up against the wall. Then he pulled the quilt off the bed Sam had been sleeping in. He climbed in and sat with his back against the headboard. He patted his legs. Kensi hesitated briefly, then sat on his lap with her back against the wall. Deeks pulled the covers up and draped them around them.
"Let's try sleeping sitting up. Do you want to talk?"
Kensi thought a moment about that. There was too much to talk about. She hadn't even processed it all yet. "No. I just want to sleep for a few hours and be warm for a change. But can you 'Rub My Back'?" And she really wanted to be held. By Deeks.
Deeks pulled the quilts further up around their shoulders and settled an arm across Kensi. She slumped against him. She looked cute in the hat but he missed being able to run his fingers through her hair. He took a deep breath but only caught the scent of the musty hat, not the scent of Kensi and her beautiful hair. As if reading his thoughts, Kensi pulled the hat off her head.
"Stinks."
Deeks draped the quilt over their heads. Much better. Except for the garlic smell. He needed to stop obsessing over the smell of garlic. And he should have eaten some dinner. He was starving but no way was he moving. Kensi needed him now. He rubbed circles around her back in the areas that weren't bruised.
"Stop sniffing my hair."
"Okay."
"It changes you."
"Of course. Of course it changes you. But you're still my bad ass partner and that hasn't changed. That won't change."
Kensi's hand migrated down between his legs. She rubbed her hand up and down the length of him and then left her hand on him.
"That just happened," she couldn't help saying. They shared a look. "Remember- from that time we had that "conjugal visit" when I was undercover with Sam?"
"Was that our first conjugal visit or our second? I can't keep track."
"That as the second one. The first one was when I was undercover with Callen."
"Speaking of…" Deeks leaned down for a kiss. "Not too painful?"
She answered by reaching up for another.
Deeks' soft kisses reminded her of some of their first really passionate kisses. Of course they had to happen at the most inappropriate time. Neither one was prepared to deal with it.
"Did you bring them?"
"Yeah," Deeks started rambling, "I didn't know how many to bring so I brought five and then added an extra one because it's a special one with ribs and it's purple and…."
Kensi grabbed the condom out of his hand and tore the wrapper off with her teeth.She strategically dropped a small piece of the wrapper behind the toilet.Deeks put the remainder of the wrapper into his pocket.Kensi unceremoniously dropped the condom into the toilet and flushed it down.
"Hey, we could've still used that," Deeks protested.
"Shit.Sorry."Then, a burst of anger.
"Use it with who?Joanne?Dawn? Janine? Hannah?Or one of the other dozens of women who leave you messages on your secret Instagram account?"After finding the hidden answering machine, Kensi had dug deeper and found his secret Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat accounts.
After obsessing over those calls and comments from all those unknown women and what they might mean, conducting her own covert surveillance, and even reading up on sex addiction, she was fed up.Suddenly it hit her. He had said "we".
Deeks saw the deer in the headlights look and knew she had realized what he said. "We," he began, moving closer to her and putting his hands on her legs, the better to protect his sensitive man parts from a sudden attack, "'You And Me', WE are going on a vacation.Hetty has already approved the time off once this mission is over.WE are going to the beach."
Kensi looked at her watch. "What do you think?Fifteen minutes?"She tried to change the subject.They were supposed to be just pretending this was a conjugal visit.But it was getting out of hand.
She might not make it a full 15 minutes.Deeks was too close and she had missed him so much over the past few weeks.They still had five condoms left.Why did he bring so many?
"Wait here a sec."Kensi ran out of the bathroom, grabbed the remote and turned on the TV before running back into the small bathroom.
"You know we can do better than this."
"What do you mean?"
Deeks' hand had accidentally slid under her skirt earlier and so he knew she was wearing a thong.He approached her slowly and ran his hand down her hip to her upper thigh.
"Give me your panties."
Kensi gasped but after he nodded she reached down and inched a lacy red thong down her legs.
"Perfect," Deeks gasped as he tore the fragile lace with his teeth.
He opened up the undersink cabinet and found a trashcan.He placed the ripped thong behind it.
"No," Kensi said, picking it back up and tucking it into his front pants pocket.A small piece of frayed red lace stuck out.
"Time?" he gulped.
Kensi took a deep breath. "About ten more minutes."
Deeks reached over and ran his hand through her hair. "Take your hair down," he suggested.
"Oh, good idea.How's that?" she asked as she took out her barrette.
Deeks stood in front of her and ran his fingers through her hair.But just on one side.
"Hey, you got some of the lace from my thong between your teeth," Kensi noticed.
"Is it noticeable enough?"Deeks asked, grinning.Kensi nodded.He was good.Too good.
Now it was Kensi's turn.No way was he beating her at this.She reached over and undid one of the buttons on his shirt.Wrapping an arm around him, she adjusted the contents of his back pocket so that it was sticking out just the slightest bit.She tugged on one side of his shirt so that it hung loosely out of his pants.Lastly she leaned into him, pulling his button down shirt out of the way and leaving a just visible lipstick smudge on his bare chest.She was pretty sure it was Deeks who moaned after that.She had taken her time with the smudge, not wanting to remove her lips from his chest.
"Maybe you should go out first," Deeks suggested.
"A few more minutes."They avoided each other's eyes.This was supposed to be a ruse to teach their coworkers a lesson.Deeks splashed a little water onto the vanity and then backed Kensi up against it.They both knew they were in trouble when he didn't back away.Kensi couldn't resist him when he was looking down at her with those puppy dog eyes.She had been sniping at him all night to hide the fact that all she wanted was to feel his arms around her, to listen to his heart beat as she rested her head against his chest.
Her lips met his and long moments passed before they stopped.They ignored the timer on Kensi's watch in favor of one last long kiss.Then a quick one. And another.
"You go out first," Deeks suggested.
"No, we go out together."
"We can't do that."
"Why not?This way we can look guilty."
"I'm telling you that won't work."
Kensi glared at him.They needed to go out together. "I hear them on the stairs!" she said, panicky.
Deeks leaned into her.Ground himself against her. "That just happened."
Suddenly she understood. "That's what that phrase means?!"
She took a deep breath and started to leave.Deeks grabbed her arm to bring her back.He looked her in the eyes, took a deep breath, and kissed her, raking his scruffy cheek against her exposed chest.She glared at him but managed to step out into the living room just before Nell and Sam made it into the room.
"Well Deeks wants to watch 'Titanic', but that's three hours so I was thinking that maybe we should look at what's on Netflix and …" Kensi rambled on.She fumbled with the remote.She was genuinely flustered and it played well into their ruse.She was pretty sure her face turned red as she remembered the times Deeks had said, "That just happened."
"It's Saturday night, we can watch a three hour movie if we want to," Deeks said, coming out of the bathroom and rubbing his hands against his pants.He sat down on the closest couch and pulled a cushion into his lap.He yawned, keeping his mouth open a few seconds longer than needed.He was having second doubts about faking this conjugal visit but it was Kensi's idea and he had to play along at this point. "Do we have any popcorn?" he asked, grinning at Sam.Sam chuckled and looked pointedly at Nell.Deeks turned towards Nell and yawned, stretching his mouth open and then grinning at her.Surely one of them would notice the red lace in his teeth.
It wasn't long before Nell went in to use the restroom and came out looking puzzled.She quickly regained her composure, in true Nell fashion. Kensi couldn't decide if they had pulled off their ruse or even if the ruse was such a good idea after all.
Nell had started the whole fiasco when Kensi was undercover with Callen a few months before. Kensi was livid when she heard about it. Now all she could think about were the other five condoms.She turned her head to hide her flushed face.
Too bad I'm not as prepared now as I was for that visit, Deeks thought to himself. Not that there's any privacy around here. He considered asking Kensi if a little make out session might help her relax enough to fall asleep. Deeks started to move his hand towards Kensi's breast but realized that her body was suddenly heavy against him. She had fallen asleep.
Now what? Deeks wondered. Could they resume their relationship from where they left off? What game was Hetty playing with them now?
The earthquake started before he even realized he had fallen asleep. Not a big one, he thought. But he was wet. Why was he wet?
Kensi was watching him struggle to wake up. "I was having a nightmare and I peed my pants."
"Yes. Yes, you did. And you peed my pants too. Should we go get cleaned up?"
"Maybe later."
"Maybe later?"
"I was kidnapped and beaten. A little pee isn't going to hurt me." Without waiting for a response, she closed her eyes and snuggled into Deeks' chest.
"A little pee isn't going to hurt me either. As a matter of fact, I might pee my pants later. We'll see. I'm pretty tired and the bathroom…"
"Deeks!"
"What?"
"Shut up and go back to sleep."
"That's my girl," Deeks whispered.