sorry for the wait, forgive me!

Thank you once again to EVERSHORT for being my beta reader!

now this story, im not a 100% sure on, let me know if its good or bad!

"Ah, Miss Blye, please sit."

Kensi sat down. She was nervous, but would not show it to this man. So far Sam had walked out without saying anything, and Callen seemed just as stressed. Kensi and Deeks had watched, both growing nervous by the passing minutes.

Behind her, Deeks sat in his desk trying to get Callen to talk. But she already knew that it was a lost cause.

"Neither one of your team mates were pleased when I tried to ask questions that weren't relevant to what I really wanted to know."

She smiled "We like people to be straight and honest with us."

He nodded, seeming to understand. "Then I will cut to the chase. How do you like working with Marty Deeks?"

Kensi froze. They were asking about Deeks?

"Its to make sure he's doing a good job, that he fits in with your team."

Trying to explain further just confused Kensi, and a small part of her was getting angry. "I like working with Deeks. He's a great cop."

The man nodded again, writing something down. "Do you think your partnership is the same as it was with Dom?" Pausing, he looked at the agent, but with all her training she gave nothing away - except her eyes narrowing.

"No its not." she answered truthfully. "It's different. But it's working just as well."

Nodding yet again, the man turned back to write.

"I don't appreciate you asking questions about my partner."

"I am sorry, but its for the best. Do you think that he is a good cop?"

"Yes I do." she spoke with confidence and admiration in her voice.

"Do you think that your relationship is healthy?"

"We don't have a relationship, we have a partnership. And yes, it's healthy."

The man laughed, looking at her seriously. "Miss Blye, he walked out of a hospital with sever bullet wounds, almost bleeding out the second time around saving you. What part of that screams healthy?"

He was smiling, the little ass was smiling. How dare he smile? "You have never been an agent before, you don't know the risk, the commitment, we have to our partners. If they're not there for you, then no one is."

The man wrote something down again. Unbelievable. "Alright. When was the first time you trusted your partner?"

"I don't know, we kind of gradually learned to trust one another."

"That is not true, Miss Bye. From previous reports, you wont trust just anyone. So what was it that finally made you see Marty Deeks worthy of being your partner? To where you trusted him enough to turn your back and believe that he would protect it?"

Thinking about it, she smiled at the memory. It was simple gesture, and when he risked his life for her was when she knew Marty Deeks was her partner for good.

Kensi sat in the hotel, watching her partner work. She still cringed at thinking the word partner, and saying it was out of the question. It was truly a terrifying thought. He was funny but annoying, she wasn't sure if she wanted to smile at him all the time or just shoot him. It was a toss up, really, on how she felt about her recent partner, but what could she do about it?

So here she sat, covering him, even though she wanted to be out there doing her job. But they had spotted her as an agent already. It was a simple undercover money drop off, but they hadn't shown up yet.

"Maybe this was a set up,"

"Deeks, just get out of there." She was getting antsy just sitting and watching.

"Kensi, they are only two minutes late. Chill would you?" Deeks responded with a sigh of irritation.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared to be aware, Deeks, you should try it sometime." Even through binoculars, she could see his eye roll with a slight smirk on his face.

"You're just upset that you have to sit this one out while I get to play hero."

"You're not a hero, just bait." she snapped at him. Deeks' smile widened.

"But I am out here, while you're up there."

Kensi didn't respond, which made Deeks laugh, knowing he got it right.

"You are an idiot, you know that? And I don't like you, will you just take this seriously? Otherwise, you're gonna get yourself…" she trailed off as a man behind Deeks nodded to someone else.

"Kensi?"

"Deeks, look-"

Before she could even warn him, the man behind Deeks pulled a gun and began bashing him over the head.

"Callen, Sam, Deeks got jumped! Get him now!"

She ran out of the room and made it to the sidewalk just in time to see Deeks fall to the ground, not moving again. "DEEKS!"

She raised her gun, but a van pulled in front of her, cutting off her view of her partner. Within seconds, it was driving away, her bullets chancing after them, but having no effect on them whatsoever. Within minutes, she had lost her partner again.

Five Hours Later

"It was my fault he got caught, I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy yelling at him." The guilt was eating her alive, with no word on her partner yet. She was talking to Callen, who just listened to her problems, never commenting. Kensi wasn't sure if she appreciated that or if it further pissed her off.

"Kensi, it's not-"

"We got something." Sam walked into the Ops room, holding a computer that was on, cutting off Callen's stupid reply. She knew nothing he said would ease the guilt that she felt. "You're not gonna like this,"

He said it directly to Kensi, who instantly tensed, waiting for the worse.

An image that would forever haunt her popped onto the computer, forever changing how she viewed Deeks.

He was chained to a wooden pillar, wearing only his pants. The only other thing he was wearing were bruises.

So many bruises lined his waist; his face was swollen and blood ran down his head, along his arms and chest. It was such a gruesome sight she wanted to look away, but couldn't. Instead, she wanted to weep. This was her fault. All her fault.

"Now I will ask you again," She stiffened as she heard the voice speak from the screen. It was truly frightening the way Deeks flinched away from it, but he looked up at the voice, without any comebacks - which truly told her, more than anything, that he was hurt bad.

"The agent you were working, with the female one. What is her name? Tell us the information, and I will kill you quickly."

Deeks, even with a shattered cheek bone, she guessed, glared at the man, but didn't answer. Kensi, however, felt like she had been punched.

"Their after me?" she whispered.

The man on the screen began hitting her partner with a pipe, again and again and again, with each contact it made Kensi flinch with Deeks, the blows also affecting her. Deeks screamed as the pipe broke a rib, even through the screen she could see how he tried caving in onto his side to protect from further damage. But it was no use.

"Lets try again. Brown hair, tall, gorgeous. And she tried to save your worthless ass. Give me her name and further damage will cease immediately."

In response, Deeks spat at the man. The man sighed, and looked patient, yet extremely annoyed.

"I have been asking you the same question for hours, just give me her name, I will stop the pain, hell I will let you go at this rate. Just give me her name!" he screamed out the last part, his patience suddenly disappearing.

Deeks leaned his head back against the pillar, breathing through the pain. "There was this one time, this girl, she was totally hot. And she put out like a-" she watched silently as he was beaten further. Never once giving up anything about her.

"Wait, I know him." Callen ran toward Eric, saying something that Kensi couldn't hear. She didn't want to anyways, she was so focused on the pain Deeks was in, pain because of her.

She hadn't been nice to him, she had been horrible to him for the past three months of being partners, and she thought they wouldn't last, because she couldn't trust him. Yet here he was being tortured for a partner who didn't care enough about him, protecting her name no matter what was happening to him.

She cursed herself, making a silent pledge to change for him, to change to be better, to be the better partner that he deserved.

"Kensi," she glanced up as Sam called to her, holding up a piece of paper with a smile. "We got them."

Kensi was the first out the door, and the first to arrive at the warehouse. She didn't remember the car ride over, she only had one thought, and that was save Deeks. Callen took the front of the warehouse, Sam and her were in back.

Soon they were inside, flying bullets whistled past her ears. But she barely noticed that, or the men who were falling like cut down martinets. Soon she was pass the door that held the shaggy blonde cop that was now laying on the ground. The man who had beaten him stood over him, gun in hand. He glanced up long enough to see what ended his life before he was on the ground, laying away from the body that she cared about.

"Deeks," she was kneeling next to him, lightly squeezing his shoulder. He was cold, causing raw pain to build in her chest, spilling into her heart. "No, no, no." she whispered as she slowly turned him over.

She couldn't lose another partner, she couldn't lose another partner, please not again, please not Deeks.

He looked worse in person, he truly looked horrifying. His cheek was indeed shattered, his other eye was swollen shut, and blood spilled from his mouth. His chest was purple and black, knife wounds lined his chest.

"Deeks?"

His eye fluttered open. He tensed, as if waiting for an attack, but when his one eye saw her, he relaxed and laughed, which caused him to flinch and groan from the pain. She hadn't realized tears had wheeled up in her eyes until he said something.

"You miss me?" his voice was a mere whisper, but she had never been more glad to hear it. She hadn't realized how much it hurt when she thought she was going to lose him, or how she felt better staring at him, knowing he was alive and safe.

He risked his life to protect her, her name was all she had left of who she was, and he protected that, how could she not trust him?

She shook her head. "Not even a little bit." But she smiled at him so he knew that she was kidding.

"Ouch. That hurts, Kiki."

"And that's when I decided that I could trust him."

The interviewer nodded, writing furiously. "That's a very heroic tale."

She smirked. "That's Deeks for you. If you ask him, he'll say it's because he's such a knight in shinning armor."

The man nodded again, taking notes. "But he's your knight in shinning armor, correct?"

That wiped the smirk off her face. "He's a hero to anyone who needs help."

He nodded for the umpteenth time, making some more notes. Always taking notes. If she had her way, then she would break that pencil in half and shove it up his-

"Miss Blye, are you in love with your partner?"

Kensi seemed taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"It's very simple. Are you in love with your partner?"

"No, I'm not."

He smiled, he could hear the hesitance in her voice, which he mistook for confirmation or guilt.

"Well then, how would you describe your working relationship with Mr. Deeks?"

"We work like partners should work. We protect the other, no matter the risk. We're there for the other if we need to talk about anything personal."

"Personal, really? You tell him about when your father died? About Jack?"

Pain ate through her. "How did you know-"

But he cut her off. "I know a lot of things. Did he tell you how he shot his father when he was eleven?"

She froze. He seemed to take that as confirmation, making him write some more notes. "He shot his…"

It was a shock to hear, but it made sense now. Asking about his dad, how they weren't close anymore, how his father himself said he hated Deeks. It all made sense. But why wouldn't he tell her about it?

"Yes, he did, I bet he didn't tell you about the abuse growing up either."

Abuse! Someone, not just someone but his own father, hit Deeks! She looked down, hands fidgeting, shaking. She was fighting to remain calm. Breath, just breath. Anger seeped through her, towards this man and Deeks' father.

But not at Deeks. He had his secrets, and she had hers. They weren't so far into trust just yet to be personal, but then again she never really asked him. Again, the feeling of being a bad partner swept its way through Kensi, but anger was stronger.

If she wasn't careful, then she would lash out at this man, and that's the last thing they needed.

"Looks like the trust is not showed in return."

That's all it took.

Looking up, she was beyond pissed off now. Who was he to say this shit about her partner? "I trust him enough to turn my back when there is a gun man. I trust him enough to not let someone shoot me. I trust him enough to protect my ass and everyone who needs his help, he is a great cop a great agent."

She stood up, anger coursing in her.

"You know, I trust Deeks completely. With my life. But the personal stuff is even more than about trust. I've known Deeks for almost a year, and he knows more about me then Callen and Sam do. So yes, Mr. over-pressed-interviewer-who-seems-unable-to-get-laid, I trust Marty Deeks with everything I have."

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