Deeks swallows hard, his adams apple bobbing. He finally tears his eyes away from Kensi and looks down to Hetty. "Would you mind… excusing us for a minute?"
She presses her lips into a line and nods. Deeks can't tell what she's thinking about and isn't sure that he'd want to anyways.
"Kens, lets just…" He awkwardly motions towards the door. She tucks her head and follows him out.
As soon as they've rounded the corner she swats him on the arm.
"Geez! What was that for?!"
"Why didn't you tell me they were reassigning you?"
He looks just as blindsided as she is. "They told me I was coming here this morning! I had no idea, babe! I promise!"
She looks around and hits him on the arm again. "What the hell?!"
"We're at work, Deeks! You can't call me babe."
He looks down to the floor, his forehead creased. "Right, right. Sorry."
Kensi shakes her head and folds her arms. "What do we do now?"
Deeks shrugs and grins. "I think I'm your new partner."
She doesn't seem so certain. "I don't see how this is ever gonna work out."
"What are you talking about?"
She laughs, the sound riddled with nerves. "What am I talking about? Deeks, we're like… I mean… you're my…"
"Boyfriend?" he offers.
Kensi closes her mouth and just stares at him.
"That is what I am, isn't it?" Deeks asks. "Your boyfriend?"
"Yeah… kinda."
"Kinda?"
"I don't know, Deeks!" She tosses her hands up in the air and raises her voice. Someone walks past, stares, and she immediately lowers it again. "We just haven't had that talk yet."
"What talk?"
"Ya know… the talk where we say that we're official."
"Aren't we?"
"I don't know! I kinda thought so."
"Why do you keep saying kinda?"
"Because I'm confused! And we-"
Kensi stops herself as Granger passes by them in the hall. She hadn't even realized he was in town.
"Everything alright, Agent Blye?"
She nods and fakes a smile. "Never better, Sir."
He retains a look of stoicism and gives Deeks a once-over before turning around to walk away.
"Who's that guy?" he whispers.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that we have a situation on our hands."
Deeks gives her one of his famous, perfectly crooked smiles. "I don't necessarily see this as a problem. It could be fun."
"This is work, Deeks, and our line of work isn't usually fun."
His smile doesn't falter. "Like I said- it could be."
Deeks starts walking back towards ops, but Kensi can't seem to move away from the spot where she's standing.
He notices her immobility and turns around. "You coming, partner?"
Kensi hesitates briefly, but eventually rolls her eyes and follows after him. Everyone is staring as they walk back into ops.
"You two good?" Sam asks.
Deeks looks to Kensi with raised eyebrows, allowing her to answer for him. She sighs. "Yeah. We're good."
Callen looks back and forth between the two of them a couple of times before extending a hand in Deeks' direction.
"G Callen, nice to meet you."
"Just G?"
Callen nods. "Just G."
Sam does the same, as does Eric and Nell. Kensi stands back and keeps her arms crossed the entire time, her mind spinning. How could Hetty not know? I mean, she hasn't told her about him yet, but Hetty knows everything! It just doesn't seem plausible that the super-ninja would skip over a factthis huge.
"Kensi?" Nell asks, interrupting her train of thought.
"Hmm?"
She looks up to find that everyone is staring at her. Great.
"Did you catch all of that?"
Nell's pointing behind herself at the monitor, where various pictures of what she assumes are suspects stare back at her.
Apparently, they just caught a case. Kensi zoned out for the entire briefing. Wonderful.
"Yeah, I got it," she lies.
"Good," Hetty interjects. "Mr. Hanna, Mr. Callen- go to the boat shed and have a little chat with our suspect." They nod and exit. "Miss Blye, Mr. Deeks- you two will investigate our victim's house. See what you can dig up."
"Right," Kensi says quietly. They both go for the exit and take a step back when their shoulders bump.
"Go ahead," he mumbles.
"Thanks," she replies.
Keeping as much distance as humanly possible between their two frames, Kensi and Deeks shuffle down the stairs. She catches Callen smirking at her from the bullpen.
"Have fun with your beau," he whispers as she passes.
Kensi slows down her pace slightly, and mutters at him through gritted teeth. "Shut it, G."
Sam gathers his gear and chuckles as they exit. "How do you think this is gonna play out?"
Callen doesn't even take a moment to think.
"Badly."