A/N: This chapter is more the team than the kids.

The case that the team had landed involved the murder of Corporal Michael Donovan. His wife had gone to the base to surprise him late the night before, only to find him dead at his desk, his throat having been slit. The briefing on the case had been short and it had been agreed that they would split up, one group handling the interviews with Corporal Donovan's unit, and the other interviewing the wife.

Now as Sam drove to the base, he couldn't help but glance over at Deeks every couple of seconds. The younger man had been sent with him and had his elbow resting against the door with his head against the palm of his hand. He looked tired, and Sam couldn't blame him. However, he also couldn't help but form hundreds of questions in his mind about the man he had continued to judge from time to time.

Though it had been years since Deeks had joined the team, Sam still found that on occasion, he still questioned Deeks's spot in their mismatched family. There were times when Deeks would do something completely stupid that could cost them all, but then there were times when he would surprise the hell out of Sam. The moment that Sam had seen Deeks walk into the makeshift bullpen with those two sweet little children in his arms and followed by Kensi who was carrying a third child, Sam hadn't known what to say or do. His temporary inability to connect his mind to his mouth to form words had only increased when Kensi had explained the situation with the children and that Deeks had been helping her care for them for the past couple of days. Deeks, the messy haired surfing bum and goofball, was playing father to three kids; three kids that shared no genes with him what so ever.

Sam hadn't been the only one in shock either. Disbelief had been clearly written across Callen's face, so none of them had been the least bit surprised when he had split them up so that Kensi was with him and Deeks was paired with Sam. They had questions that needed to be answered before they could be put to rest.

"If you're going to keep staring at me then you might want to pull over." Deeks said, breaking the silence. "I would much rather not die today."

Sam shook his head and turned back to the road.

"I'm just surprised." Sam admitted. "Children are a lot to take on."

Deeks turned to face Sam, mild anger in his eyes.

"I know how to take care of kids Sam." Deeks stated.

"I'm not saying you don't." Sam soothed lightly. "I'm just saying that it takes a strong person to take on children that are not theirs biologically. Not everyone could do that."

Deeks sighed and closed his eyes before opening them again and looking out the window.

"Honestly, taking care of them scares the hell out of me, but they were put in Kensi's care and she needed help. Now that I've been helping her, I can't even imagine just leaving them." Deeks admitted.

"And what if the day comes where she doesn't need or want help with them anymore?"

"I don't know." Deeks sighed. "We haven't really talked about much. She texted me saying that she needed help and I've been helping ever since. If she asks me to leave then I'll leave, but I'm not going to walk away from the kids. They need Kensi and I and though they haven't mentioned their parents, I'm sure that time will come and they will need us more than ever."

"So you're in for the long haul huh?" Sam asked, even more impressed.

"Yes." Deeks simply replied and closed his eyes again in the hopes of getting some sleep.

"So you're now a mom of three." Callen said in awe once Kensi had explained what was going on.

"Yes." Kensi answered and bit her bottom lip.

It was still so new to her to think about the children as being hers. Her responsibility.

"And what about Deeks?"

"What about him?" Kensi raised an eyebrow.

"Is he just going to help out for a while or is he going to stick around?" Callen asked.

"We haven't exactly talked about what is going to happen or not happen." Kensi shrugged. "I'm not going to make him help me but I'm also not going to make him not help. The kids are already attached to him and he seems to enjoy being around them."

"So he's good for them." Callen said, not the least bit surprised that Deeks the big kid would get along with children.

"Yes he is." Kensi nodded.

"And what about the two of you," Callen asked and saw a confused look on Kensi's face. "It's obvious to anyone that the two of you care for each other more than friends and partners, however, neither of you have made a move towards anything else as far as I'm aware."

"Deeks and I are just friends Callen." Kensi tried to protest, but knew it was weak.

"Sure you are, I've seen the way that he looks at you." Callen pointed out. "He cares about you more than you might think. And now he's involved with the kids as well."

"What exactly are you saying Callen?" Kensi slowly asked.

"All I'm saying is that you and Deeks have become the most important people in the lives of three young children. Don't mess things up." Callen explained.

"I don't plan on it." Kensi said and glanced away from him.

"But you do care about Deeks, much more than a partner should." Callen pointed out.

"It doesn't matter how I feel about Deeks. He's my partner and things have to stay status quo." Kensi stated.

Callen shook his head while he pulled into the parking lot of the building that Corporal Donovan's wife was staying in.

"Kensi, you are both playing parents to three scared and sad kids. Nothing is going to stay status quo." Callen announced and got out of the car.

"What can you tell us about Corporal Donovan?" Sam asked the petty officer that had been instructed to show them around after they had talked to Corporal Donovan's unit and struck out.

"He was well liked." The petty officer, Young, stated.

"He didn't have any enemies?" Deeks asked.

"I didn't say that." Petty officer Young grimaced slightly. "He was well liked, but he did make a few people angry. Some men going through training came back to base drunk and high out of their minds which were something that Corporal Donovan didn't tolerate. After that he set tighter rules and restrictions that have really bothered a lot of people."

"What type of rules and restrictions?" Sam asked.

"He made it so that we had a 9pm curfew and anyone seen with alcohol or any drug of any kind, was punished through being humiliated in front of their own unit." Young explained.

"I can see why that would make some people angry." Deeks agreed.

"Do you know if anyone threatened him or made violent advances towards him?" Sam asked.

Petty officer Young thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. "No, I never saw or heard of anyone threatening him in anyway. Some people didn't like him, but it didn't mean that they would kill him."

"Well someone did." Deeks pointed out the obvious and got a curt nod in response.

"Thank you for your time." Sam said and shook the other man's hand. "If you think of anything that might be useful, give us a call alright?"

"Okay." Young said and shook Deeks's hand as well before he walked away.

Sam watched him leave and then pulled out his cellphone to call Callen who picked up just seconds later. Sam informed Callen of their lack of new information only for Callen to admit that they hadn't gotten very far with the wife either.

"We should probably all head back to OPS for now and see what we can find out from Nell and Eric." Callen suggested.

"Yeah I don't think we're going to get much here." Sam agreed.

Before they knew it, they were back in the car and heading back to headquarters.

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