Deeks leaned against the doorframe leading to the living room and watched with a small, content smile on his face as Kensi read "Harold and the purple crayon" to the children who were enthralled and silently listening to every word she read. Isla was sitting on Kensi's lab while the boy's flanked her like bookends.
It was wonderful to relax after the day that they had had. It had started badly with the call stating that a child had gone missing, and had only gotten worse from there.
Kensi and Deeks got stuck interviewing the parents of the missing child, Ben Harvel, and hadn't been able to get much information out of them aside from the fact that Ben had been put to bed around eight the night before and when his mother went to check on him that morning he was gone. The window was open with a ladder underneath, but there were no prints, no DNA and frankly, nothing to go on.
As far as Deeks was concerned, it was a case more suited for the LAPD, but because the father, Travis Harvel, was a commanding officer in the Marine's, it was their case instead.
An Amber alert had been issued and the team had followed every single tip and lead that they could get, but had ended up calling it a night, feeling defeated and downhearted at the thought of a six year old child missing and God knows where.
"Another mommy?" Elijah asked when Kensi had finished reading.
Deeks looked at Kensi quickly to see how she would react to the little boy referring to her as mommy and felt his heart warm and swell with even more love for the woman when she smoothed his hair down and kissed his head.
"Just one more." Kensi said. "How about you and your brother go pick a really super one to read?"
"K," Elijah beamed and jumped off the couch with Will right behind him.
Isla had fallen asleep in Kensi's lap and was snoring lightly.
"I'll go put her to bed." Deeks walked into the room and leaned down to scoop Isla into his arms.
"Thanks." Kensi said and leaned up to place a gentle kiss on his lips. "I'll bring the boys up after this story."
"You know you spoil them right?" Deeks lightly teased.
"I know." Kensi lightly smiled and brushed Isla's hair from her face. "You should get her to bed."
"Yeah," Deeks said and shifted the child in his arms a bit. "I'll see you up there in a little bit."
Kensi nodded as the boys came rushing back to the couch. Deeks gave them one last look and then started to climb the stairs to Isla's room. Once there, he went to flip on the light but stopped and instead found the rocking chair in the little girls room and sat down.
Deeks slowly started to rock back and forth as he watched Isla sleep peacefully. He wouldn't admit it to anyone other than Kensi, but this case had already greatly impacted him. Even though the children had only come into their lives, and they had become a family a few months ago, any case that involved children ate at his heart and made him think of nothing but getting home to his kids.
It didn't matter to him that the children were not related to him or Kensi or that none of them even looked remotely like he and his girlfriend, they were still his, still theirs. He had learned from a very young age that blood and genetics don't make a family, love did, and that was all that mattered.
And seeing pictures of the missing boy, and seeing how much he resembled Elijah, it had been almost too hard to bring himself to question the parents while the whole time they answered questions his mind kept flashing to his own young son. He knew that Kensi had seen his struggle, he had seen hers as well, and they had made it through and were both dead set on finding that little boy safe and sound and bringing him back home to his parents.
"I thought you were putting her to bed." Kensi said after she had tucked the boys in.
"I will, I just…I need to hold her right now." Deeks admitted and felt her warm hand rest on his shoulder.
"We'll find Ben." Kensi said in a tone of voice that suggested she was not only trying to convince Deeks, but herself as well.
"I know." Deeks nodded and looked up at her. "I just keep thinking, what if he was one of ours, what if one of our kids went missing some day."
"They haven't Marty; they're all right here with us." Kensi said.
"But they could." Deeks stated. "One day we could wake up just like the Harvel's and find that one of our kids is gone."
"Deeks…" Kensi said gently and ran her hand through his hair soothingly.
"I know." He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "I just keep thinking about that family. All day long we followed dead end leads and hints that brought us nothing but headaches and frustration. We have nothing to tell them. We can't promise that we'll bring him back, that they will ever see their child again and it tears me up Kens. One day you can be a happy, loving family, and the next everything is taken away from you. In the blink of an eye, your whole world changes."
Kensi walked over so that she was standing in front of him and crouched down so that they were eye level.
"We will find him honey." She said, the term of endearment slipping out and causing a small smile to touch his lips. "We'll find him and bring him home to his parents, it just might take some time."
"I wish I had your optimism." Deeks bit his bottom lip and rand the knuckles of his hand across Isla's tiny cheek.
Kensi stood back up and ran her hands down her pajama clad legs, biting her own lip as she thought about everything that Deeks had said and everything that was still coursing through her own head and heart.
"Bring Isla to our room; I'll go get the boys." She said and saw Deeks give her a questioning look. "They'll sleep with us tonight that way we can make sure that they are safe."
Deeks got out of the rocking chair and placed a kiss on Kensi's forehead. "Thanks." He said and left the room and headed down the hall.
He could hear Kensi as she went into the boys room and got them out of bed. It was shortly after that Will and Elijah climbed into the center of the queen sized bed and Deeks placed their sister between them.
"Make sure to leave us some room." Kensi lightly laughed when the boys started to sprawl out on the large bed.
"Okay." Will said and started to almost herd his brother into place.
Kensi and Deeks watched them for a few minutes and smiled as they started to slowly fall asleep.
"They're amazing." Kensi softly said into the otherwise silent room.
"They really are." Deeks agreed and wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss under her ear. "I love you." He then whispered quietly.
"I love you too." Kensi turned in his arms and kissed him deeply.
They broke apart shortly after and climbed into bed, the kids between them.
With morning came the sound of Kensi's phone ringing. She quickly reached over and grabbed it off her bedside table before she got up and left the room in the hopes of allowing the rest of the family to keep sleeping.
"Blye," She answered the phone once she was alone in the master bath. "We'll be right there." She sighed after listening to Hetty's message.
"Wha's goin' on?" Deeks mumbled when Kensi lightly shook his shoulder.
"Another little boy was reported missing." Kensi regretfully informed him.
"Another one?" Deeks sat up, fully awake now. "Ben just went missing yesterday morning."
"I know." Kensi placed a hand on his cheek. "Let's get the kids breakfast and head into work."
Deeks nodded and slipped out of bed to get dressed while Kensi headed down stairs to start breakfast. Once they were fed they headed to OPS where they were met by a very somber group of agents.
"Michael Bayard, age six." Nell started and put up a picture of the child.
It startled Deeks and Kensi when they looked at the boy, who looked very much like Ben Harvel.
"His parents put him to bed last night around eight and when his father went to check on him this morning he was gone. The window was open and there was a ladder under it. No DNA or other evidence was found at first, but there was a fingerprint. The problem is that we ran it through the systems and it doesn't match anyone on file." Eric announced.
"There is one person that claims to have seen something, but we know how the last round of leads ended up leading us." Callen ran a hand down his stubbled chin.
"Yeah, nowhere." Deeks groaned. "Do you think we have a pattern here?"
"Two six year old boys that look almost exactly the same." Kensi nodded. "Yeah, I think that could be a pattern."
"Makes you wonder if there will be another boy taken by morning." Sam said with sadness in his voice. "We have nothing to give to these parents and we can't truly tell them that we'll bring their sons back."
"Check with the witness and see where their tip brings you." Hetty looked to her team. "Let's do everything that we can to get these boys back to their parents.
The two sets of partners looked at each other and had a silent discussion before Kensi and Deeks nodded and headed back out the door and to the address of the Bayard family, hoping that soon they would be able to return not only this couples son but the others as well. Both couldn't help but think about their own kids at home, and felt the drive to do everything that they could possibly do to get those boys home where they belonged.