I don't own NCIS Los Angeles! My native language is Dutch and I'm dyslectic so sorry for any mistakes. Thank you for the reviews, alerts and favorites!

Chapter 22

'We tried to track Narah's phone but it's turned off,' Eric told Deeks and Kensi over the phone as they were driving through Narah's old neighborhood, just hoping to find her that way. 'We are looking on every camera to see if we catch a glimpse of her...but so far no luck yet.'

'Where would Narah go if she was feeling like she did?' Callen asked, who had come to Ops center. He and Sam just had the luck of being able to arrest the people behind the attack. LAPD and the FBI had taken over with interrogating each one of them. Deeks ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

'Her friends...' he answered, 'but Julia already went to Emily's and she wasn't there. She's now on her way to Ming...umm maybe her old apartment; she went there one time before. But she could be on the streets with her friends as well...'

'We found footage of Narah from about an hour ago!' Nell suddenly interrupted. 'She...umm...threw her phone in a trash bin after disabling it. Probably why we couldn't trace it. She threw it away in front of the school.'

'What if she ran into gang members?' Kensi asked worried. 'We don't have a way of finding her! What if she's in trouble?' Deeks took a deep breath and laid his hand on her knee.

'She's okay, Kensi,' he assured her and Kensi smiled weakly at him.

'Deeks, Kensi, we can go and ask her friend you told us about...Ivan and then contact LAPD,' Callen said over the phone, breaking their small connection.

'We will keep trying to locate her through the cameras,' Nell said.

'Thank you,' Kensi sighed. 'We will keep looking for her in the neighborhood. Keep us updated.' She hung up and Deeks parked the car.

'I think we can better continue on foot,' he told her. 'We can cover more ground like that with all the little alleys.' For a moment he thought she had not heard him but she nodded slowly before getting out of the car. They looked around to the empty streets.

All she saw were empty streets. There were no children outside. People had become afraid to let their children play on the streets, never knowing if a gang member would snatch them off the street. Narah brought her knees up and she hugged them. She felt alone in these streets. She felt the cold and no longer the warmth of the sun. She had not expected to sit here once again on her own. She had hoped never having to sit here again.

But her mother had left her, Kensi had left her and Deeks didn't want her. Why would she keep trying finding her place if there was no place for someone like her? She hated to feel tears rolling over her cheeks again. She did not want to cry. She wanted to hold her head up and look strong to the outside world. Don't look vulnerable was what her life had taught her, but she didn't live up to that lesson. So that she left like this was all her own fault. She became vulnerable by attaching to something that could end.

Kensi stopped in the middle of the street and Deeks turned around to see why she stopped. She was looking around with a defeated look on her face. As he saw her standing there he sighed and walked over to her.

'This is where we found her covered in the blood of those volunteers,' she mumbled at him. 'What if this time she will be covered in her own blood? Lying in some alley, all alone, dying...' Deeks grabbed her by her shoulders and made her look in his eyes.

'Kensi, we will find her and she will be perfectly fine,' he told her firmly. 'The only problem she will have is with us, for scaring the shit out of us. But she will be fine!' Kensi shook her head, fighting against the tears.

'She is just a girl!'

'Well she is a very strong girl. She survived the streets and lived with you for months. I just know she took over some of the bad-ass-ness you have inside of you.' His hands had moved up to her face, making it impossible for her to look away. 'Kensi, you will not lose her as well. I will make sure of that. I will do whatever it takes to get Narah back alive, you hear me?' Kensi slowly nodded and Deeks pulled her in a hug.

'I'm sorry, Deeks,' she whispered in his ear and he pulled away just a little. Tears were staining her cheeks but she couldn't look more beautiful. He felt his anger flow away the longer he looked at her. They did the things they did to make it better for Narah. All they had been thinking about was Narah. For both of them Narah was all that mattered.

'I'm sorry too,' he whispered and he gently kissed her lips. He felt her lips smile against his and he hugged her tighter. 'Let's find our girl.'

'I remember the first day you walked into this room,' Maltino said with a smile as he handed Narah a steaming cup of tea and he sat down opposite of her. 'I remember every first day...and in many cases the last day as well...but you were this sweet girl. Maybe a little scared.' He pointed at a table in a far corner. 'You sat at that table all day, not daring to move. Like you were waiting to be picked up again. You actually sat there for two days like that...until Ivan sat next to you...' Narah smiled and she glanced at the table for awhile. She remember how Ivan had walked over to her and sat down to just start telling one of his stories.

'It's unreal how quiet it is in here,' she said softly and she took a sip from the tea. 'It used to be always such a noisy place.'

'Yeah you would know,' Maltino laughed. 'You, Emily, Ivan, Tiny, Bouncer and Tasha made the most noise of all. Driving everyone crazy!'

'I did not,' Narah contradicted laughing, knowing much better. She glanced at the man who seemed to be enjoying his memory. 'What are you going to do, M?' He smiled hearing his nickname from the youth center.

'I want to open again, Narah...' he answered hesitantly. 'But I can't. The children won't be safe here...and that is what they need to be. So I don't know what I will do. Maybe...relocate the center...but then my children won't be able to visit here again. I will lose them. They can't travel much...so I wonder if there is anything I can do as long as the gangs are still out on those streets.' Seeming to realize what he just said, Maltino put his hand on Narah's. 'But you shouldn't worry about it. Concentrate on school...though a little bird told me you were already doing that.' Narah laughed.

'Still close friends to Principle Plumford?' she asked and Maltino nodded.

'Of course, how else would I get my knowledge about my children,' he answered and he sighed. 'But...I don't know about you...I think it's time to get something to eat. So I will go the kitchen to make us something. Are you okay staying here a little longer?' Narah nodded.

'After all the time I spent here, I will most definitely be fine staying here on my own a little longer,' she promised the man. Maltino smiled and he touched her shoulder as he passed her on his way out of the room. Narah watched him leave and she started to walk around the room. It was dark and it made it strange. Not familiar at all. She touched the coffee table between the couches. Two hundred thirty-seven names. All of children who had passed through this place one time. Two hundred thirty-seven people who lost their safe place.

'Have you seen this girl?' Kensi asked a store owner when she showed him a picture of Narah. 'Wavy brown hair, fifteen years old?'

'Yeah, I have seen her,' he answered. 'She used to come here every day...getting food...sometimes buying and sometimes stealing...one time she even tried to get liquor but that went to step too far...special girl...but I haven't seen her in a while. Wait, maybe William knows more. William!' Kensi turned around as she heard someone approaching her and when she saw the boy, she recognized him from the youth center case.

'Wow, I didn't do anything,' he told Kensi, recognizing her as well. 'I work here fair and square for the old guy!

'It's okay, William...or do you prefer Tiny?' The boy shrugged and got a warning glare of the store owner.

'Damn it, William! I told you no gang names!'

'Sorry to step in, but William, I need to know where Narah is,' Kensi interrupted and again William shrugged.

'I know squad about that,' he told her. 'Narah left this neighborhood and I never spoke to her again...probably thinks she's too good for us now.'

'Well, she is missing right now,' Kensi told him, a little pissed off by the way he spoke about Narah. 'So if you see her, tell her that we are looking for her.' William started to laugh.

'Oh damn woman, if Narah leaves a home, she leaves forever,' he smirked. 'If I were you, I would start looking for a new income!'

'William, words!' the storeowner warned angrily and Kensi walked out of the store, furious about what the boy had said.

'My mom didn't find her at Ming or Emily's place,' Kensi told Deeks as she hung up and she stared at her phone. They had been looking for three hours already and they were getting tired, worried and more frustrated. 'The girls didn't know anything about where Narah could be hanging out, as expected. No one betrays their friends.' She took a deep breath and glanced at Deeks. 'What are we going to do next?'

'Well, Callen and Sam talked to Ivan, who also doesn't want to talk about anything concerning Narah,' Deeks replied. 'And if anyone would know where she is, it would be Ivan. So Callen and Sam are staying a little longer talking to him...Damn it, Narah.' Kensi looked surprised at Deeks cursing as he ran a hand through his hair. Just as she wanted to comfort him, his phone started to ring and he answered it quickly.

'Marty Deeks? Oh hello mister Maltino...wait, what did you say? Hang on one second, I will put you on speaker.' Kensi stepped closer to hear what the man had to say. Standing side by side, they listened, anxiously.

'...you that Narah is here right now, at the youth center...it seems to me she walked away but she didn't want to tell me anything about it...so I thought something else was going on, therefore I called you...'

'Thank you for calling us, sir,' Deeks told the man gratefully. 'She is okay, right?'

'She is doing okay. I can let her stay here as long as she wants...no one else is using the rooms...but I thought you should have a choice in this as well, since you took care of her.' Kensi looked at Deeks.

'We are on our way,' she told the man and Deeks hung up.

'The car is not far...' he said but he saw Kensi already walking in opposite direction. 'Kensi! Where are you going?'

'I am going to get Narah,' she shouted at him. 'I don't need a car for that. The center is close by!' Deeks couldn't help to smile at her determination to find Narah and he jogged up to her. His nod made her smile as well and together they went to find their girl.

Mister Maltino walked towards Deeks and Kensi when they arrived at the youth center and he smiled friendly at them as he let them inside.

'I knew you were a different kind,' he told them and he pointed at the blue door in front of them. 'Narah is in there...I'll be in the living area when you need me.'

'Thank you,' Deeks said and he shook mister Maltino's hand. Then he glanced at Kensi and took her hand in his. This was the moment that they would see Narah's reaction to them. He felt Kensi's hand shaking in his, or it could be his own hand. Together they took the step forward and opened the door. They saw Narah standing next to the bed, staring directly at them with a shocked expression. He left Kensi's hand slowly slip out of his. Before he fully registered it, he saw Kensi running towards Narah and pulling the girl in a hug. The surprised and confused look on Narah's face told him a lot. She had not expected them. She was standing there with Kensi's arms around her and Kensi was holding her tight.

'Have you been crying?' he heard Narah ask Kensi confused.

'I was just really worried about you,' Kensi answered and he saw Narah's lip trembling. The girl leaned into Kensi's hug and as she did, she began to break down. Kensi became the one thing holding her standing. Deeks still stood in the door opening, watching his two girls hugging and crying. Suddenly he realized that they were all that mattered to him in this world. For them nothing would be too much. Hesitating he stepped closer to them. When he was standing next to them, and both of them glanced at him, he joined the hug. As he was holding at him, he felt Kensi looking at him so he looked up as well.

'Let's do this,' he told her. Kensi's face lit up through the tears and she kissed him full on the mouth.

TBC.

Sorry it took a little while to update but my sister was busy with school and had little time to check the chapter. Also I was quite busy with study...I hope next one will come sooner!