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 23

'We will have to speak to her,' Kensi told Deeks when they were finally safely home with Narah again. They glanced at Narah who was sleeping soundly in her bed. Kensi leaned into Deeks, who was standing behind her and she felt safe again. Their girl in her bed and Deeks' arms around her.

'I know,' Deeks whispered. 'But right now, we let her sleep and stand watch in case she needs us. And we also have to speak about it.' Kensi nodded. That she knew and she was a little worried about it. The adoption had been the reason of their fight. The reason of the huge mess.

'What if...with this mess...Narah no longer wants us...' she voiced her worry.

'You should have seen her look when you were holding her and told her you were really worried about her. I don't think anyone had ever told her something like that before.' Kensi turned to face him.

'What made you change your mind?'

Deeks smiled at her and brushed a lost strand of hair behind her ear. 'Seeing you two standing there in the room...I knew that you two were that mattered. There is nothing is the world I loved as much and nothing in the world could make me so happy to have them close.'

'We make you happy?' Kensi asked him with a grin on her face.

'More than anything,' he answered her and he kissed her. They were interrupted by the ringing doorbell. Deeks quickly looked at Narah, hoping she wouldn't wake up, before hurrying to the door. Callen and Sam smiled at him when he opened the door. Behind them was Julia standing.

'Come inside,' he said, holding the door open further. Kensi came walking into the living room as well when their guests walked in.

'I will get some beers,' she announced, looking at Callen and Sam.

'How is she doing?' Callen asked, sounding a little worried.

'She hasn't really said much, but she did come home with us,' Deeks answered and he took the beer Kensi offered. 'So I guess that's a good sign...and thank you guys for helping to look for her. We really appreciate it.'

'Of course,' Sam smiled and he patted Deeks on his shoulder. 'Anything for that girl. She's a good one.'

The next morning Deeks and Kensi sat nervously at the table, trying to drink their coffee but not really getting to it. They were waiting for Narah to wake up. They had a lot to talk about and not only with Narah. Unfortunately talking wasn't their strongest point.

'So...' Deeks said and he raised his eyebrows. Kensi raised hers as well and sighed.

'So...'

'This is too awkward,' he then said. 'How can we joke around but not speak when it comes to the serious stuff? We need to discuss our plans. We can't just jump into it. Preparation is important.'

'Says the guy who laughed when I gave you, Callen and Sam survival packages for an earthquake,' Kensi smiled before she realized what she was doing. 'Sorry...' Deeks smiled at her and took her hand.

'Just something we have to learn,' he told her. He let go of her hand when the door to Narah's room opened and the sleepy looking teenager stepped out of the room. One moment he thought to get up and do something else, just so it didn't look like they were waiting, but he stayed seated. Narah walked past them, not speaking a word.

'Did you sleep well?' Kensi asked and Narah shrugged while she filled a bowl with cornflakes. 'Something wrong, Narah?'

'No, all is perfect, right?' she answered bitterly and she wanted to walk back to her room when Deeks stopped her. He looked questioningly at her. She pulled her arm from his grip.

'You can talk to us,' Kensi told her gently and Narah put the bowl on the table.

'About how you left?' the girl said looking at Kensi and then she turned at Deeks. 'Or about the fact you don't want me? What do you want to discuss first? Or maybe about how my mother came back from nowhere? Which one first? Which nice heart to heart talk do you want first? Because right now...I don't want none of those!' She stormed off, leaving her breakfast standing on the table.

'I think we should have seen that reaction coming...' Deeks mumbled and Kensi nodded sighing.

Narah had insisted on going to school about half an hour later and Deeks and Kensi had brought her. With Narah at school, they decided to go to work, where a pile of paperwork was waiting for them.

'So how did it all end yesterday?' Kensi asked Callen.

'Eric and Nell got lucky and found a location from where the e-mails were send to Commander Lewis with some too difficult program,' he answered. 'We went to the location with LAPD and managed to get every last one of them.'

'Then FBI decided it was more their turf so they demanded the case,' Sam added. 'Which happens to suit us fine as we could help you two finding Narah. How is she doing?'

'Furious,' Deeks answered. 'So we haven't really had the chance to speak to her about...' Kensi glanced at him and he remembered they had decided against telling the rest of the team before they could ask Narah about it. '...everything.'

'Can't say I can blame her,' Callen noted. 'I would have been angry as well...especially since she heard you two fighting and after her mother turned up...'

'Yeah, that could have been done much better,' Kensi mumbled and she sighed. 'She was so angry this morning...I thought after last night...that it would have been different in some way...'

'Well a lot of things are still confusing and messed up for her,' Deeks shrugged. 'Did you hear anything from...umm...Alice? Anything about wanting to see Narah again?' Kensi shook her head.

'And I don't expect her to do so,' she added. 'My mom told me what Narah had said and how she had slammed the door into Alice's face...We do manage to make a mess out of everything.'

'She will be fine, guys,' Sam assured them. 'Most importantly is to let her rage about everything. Let her speak her mind.'

'So you ran away but went with them after a few hours?' Ming asked, still clearly not understanding and Narah sighed. She had explained it twice already to Ming. And she couldn't even really explain it. She did not know why she went home with Deeks and Kensi with the anger she felt now.

'Must we keep talking about it?' Ivan asked, saving her once again and she smiled at her friend. 'There must be something fun we can do...I mean we have classes: plenty of time to have some fun.'

'We could go to the mall,' Emily suggested smiling and the others sighed. 'No! They have a big sale and I need to buy something!'

'How are we even friends?' Narah joked and Emily threw her arms around her.

'I guess you just love me,' she smiled and they all began to laugh.

'Ladies and gentlemen, I understand English is not as interesting as your plans for this afternoon, but I would appreciate it if you could pretend,' Miss Trausure told them. 'Especially when you received such a mark for your essay, Emily.' Emily rolled with her eyes and let Narah go. Narah looked down to the assignments about the horrible book, which she never finished. The book sucked so much. It took only seconds for her mind to wander to a place she hadn't been in a very long time. She was only four or five and running towards the big fire truck that was returning. Her father was with two enormous steps in front of her, sweeping her up in his strong arms. He held her so high up. He said something to her but she could not remember. She was too focused on the big smile on his face. Her mother joined them, kissing her father. It seemed too scarily happy. Like they were a happy family.

A kick against her chair made her return to the classroom and she noticed that the students were leaving. Ivan and Emily were looking at her with their eyebrows raised. Narah quickly grabbed her bag and hurried out of the classroom.

Narah was confused when she didn't see Julia but Deeks and Kensi standing in front of the school when the day had ended. They were whispering with each other and had not yet noticed her. They seemed stressed and Narah couldn't help scanning the area. Were they here because of the gang? Ivan nudged her.

'Your foster parents are here,' he told her needlessly. Narah nodded and sighed. 'You want to come home with me?'

'No, I have to talk to them one day, right?' she shrugged and Ivan wrapped his arm loosely over her shoulder. She might be going home alone; Ivan showed her that he was supporting her. And that was why she loved that guy.

'Call me tonight, okay?' Ivan told her and she smiled at him.

'Stop worrying so much about me,' she laughed and Ivan laughed back.

'Can't help it,' he replied, 'you are my sister from another mother.' Deeks and Kensi had noticed them and were waiting for them to arrive. Narah saw the worried and secret glances they gave each other. She also knew Ivan saw the glances, as he stayed by her side.

'Good day at school?' Kensi asked, trying to act casual.

'Don't you two have work?' Narah asked bitterly.

'We only had some paperwork,' Deeks answered. 'We could leave early. Start the weekend at the same time as you...Hetty was feeling generous.' Narah shrugged.

'I would rather go to Julia,' she told them and with those words she turned to Ivan, who was looking at her with his eyebrow raised. 'Don't start,' she whispered at him. 'I will call you tonight.' Ivan nodded and gave her a last hug. She watched him walk away and got in the car. Deeks and Kensi kept standing outside, sharing glances again, before getting in. Because she was in no mood for talking, Narah put on her music, loudly.

'Maybe we shouldn't,' Kensi whispered at Deeks when they were back in Deeks' apartment. 'Maybe we should wait...she clearly hates us at the moment.' Narah was hiding from them in her room once again. Deeks gently stroked Kensi's cheek.

'She will be mad for a week and for a month,' he told her. 'If we don't do this now, we might never ask her and we will never become a...family...' She smiled at him and leaned in to kiss him. Then she nodded at him and together they headed to Narah's room. After their knocks had been ignored, Deeks simply opened the door, revealing the teenager sitting on her bed with a school book in her hands. She looked surprised to see them enter. Deeks and Kensi stepped over the clothes and other stuff lying on the ground to sit on the bed, both at another side.

'We want to talk to you,' Deeks said. 'Well...we want to ask you something. We know it hasn't been easy...not between me and Kensi nor between us and you...' Narah rolled with her eyes but Deeks continued. 'We also realized we did things wrong...and you heard the wrong things. Things you weren't supposed to hear...'

'Like how you don't want me,' Narah told him bitterly and Deeks nodded.

'I did not mean that I did not want you,' he explained. 'I love you very much, Narah and hurting you is the last thing I want to do...'

'Neither one of us wanted to hurt you in any way,' Kensi joined in.

'Well that you suck at doing that,' Narah replied, crossing her arms. 'You might not have meant it that way...but you said it. And you-' She turned to Kensi. '- you just left after the huge mess you made. You didn't even come to see if I was okay! You both put me through shit and now you're telling me you don't want do that! Well you failed...at everything!'

'If we failed at everything...why did you come back home with us?' Kensi asked softly and Narah's face fell blank. She blinked at Kensi, not knowing what to reply. Kensi kept her gaze at the girl. 'Tiny told me that when you walk away, you never return. Yet you return to us...even though we failed at everything, as you said...'

'Moment of weakness,' Narah mumbled while looking away angrily.

'When we found out you were gone, we fought,' Deeks admitted, glancing at Kensi. 'We blamed each other for making you want to go...not realizing we were both to blame...All that mattered was you. And we know that now. It's only about you. We can fight...but we can never let you get involved. You are the only thing we both love more than anything in the world.' They saw Narah's lip trembling but she tried to put on a brave face. Deeks glanced at Kensi, hoping that she would know how to proceed. Kensi put her hand on Narah's leg.

'What we want to say is...' She stopped to look for the words. 'What we're trying to say is that we love you and we don't want to lose you, ever. And because of that, we wanted to know if you would like...if you were okay if we adopted you.' Narah pulled her legs close to her chest, away from Kensi's hand, and she looked angrily at them. Kensi shot a worried glance at Deeks.

'You want to adopt me?' she asked and both Deeks and Kensi nodded their heads. 'After you thought you almost lost me...what do you think? Oh poor Narah is so sad, let's adopt her? Or is it because my mother came back out of nowhere? I'm not a fucking charity case! I want you to leave! Leave my room!' Shocked, Kensi moved away from the bed but Deeks didn't move.

'Didn't you hear me: freaking leave me alone!' Narah yelled into his face and she threw her pillow at him. 'Leave my room! Leave me!' Kensi pulled Deeks on his arm, out of the room. In the living room Kensi was shaking and Deeks pulled her into his arms.

'She hates us,' she mumbled.

'She's confused,' Deeks replied and he stroked her hair. 'Maybe we should have waited a little bit...but now we have to give her some time to progress it all...'

Narah walked around in the big almost empty room. She touched the chair and the wood of the mantelpiece. She touched the tin box standing prominently on it. Would all that she had fit into a tin box some day as well? She tore her gaze from the box when she heard him enter the room.

'Here you go,' Callen said and he handed her a mug with water. 'Now tell me why you wanted to come here?' Narah shrugged.

'Maybe...because you know how it sucks,' she answered and she took a sip. Callen glanced at her in silence and she swallowed the water down. 'You also been in the system...and you know...or at least kind of...how it is...'

'I know it can suck,' he said. 'But that doesn't really explain why you told Deeks and Kensi to drive you here. You could have called.'

'They want to adopt me,' Narah told him.

'You make it sound like it's a bad thing,' Callen replied and the teenager shrugged again. She started to pace around the room. She had hoped Callen would understand why it could be all wrong. She thought he would know...

'They really care about you, as you probably know for yourself,' he continued. 'They can give you the family you always wanted. The home. The love. Why would that be a bad thing? Or do you not deserve to have it all?' Narah faced him quickly and his face was all serious. Did she not want the happy ending? She had dreamed about it...but it was always her mother who had come back to give her that happy ending. Not two strangers.

But was it her mother who could give her a happy ending as she felt so much anger towards her? Could she be happy with a woman who left her all alone as a child? Abandoned her like she meant nothing. Or could she actually get that longed for happy ending with two people who she had only known for such a short time, but who had been there for her?

Kensi could not sleep and she sat restless on the couch, chewing on her thumbnail. When Narah had finally come out of her room, she had asked them to bring her to Callen. It was all she had said to them. No goodbyes when they dropped her off at Callen. Kensi did not know Narah and Callen had become so close...She took a deep breath and got up from the couch. She could not sit. She was too restless. Somehow Deeks had fallen asleep but it wasn't soundly. He was tossing around in the bed, also a part of why she could not sleep. She walked over to the table where the laptop was standing and sat down behind it. Opening the file, she sighed. A picture of a man with kind eyes was staring at her from the screen. William Monero. Only twenty-four years old when he died. When she opened the next file an old picture showed up. A picture of a happy little family; Narah's family. She smiled at the sight of little three-year-old Narah, who had the biggest smile in the world on her little face.

'Hey,' Deeks whispered hoarsely and he rested his hands on her shoulders. Kensi placed her hand on his arm and she looked up.

'I thought you were sleeping,' she told him.

'I missed you beside me,' he replied and he sat down beside her. 'Having trouble sleeping?' Kensi nodded and he glanced at the laptop screen. 'What are you looking at?'

'Pictures...' Kensi answered. 'Pictures of little Narah and her family.' Deeks stroked her hair and kissed her temple.

'It will be okay,' he whispered at her. 'Callen will take good care of her.'

Nervously Deeks and Kensi were sitting at the table in the to him familiar café. Callen had called them for a place to meet. Narah wanted to talk with them. Nothing in his voice had betrayed whether it was good or bad news, so Deeks and Kensi were waiting nervously at the table in the view of the door, holding each other's hands. They held their breath as they saw Callen walk into the café, followed by Narah. She was wearing the exact same jeans, sweater and top as the day they had met. She looked like she had little sleep that night. Deeks gently squeezed Kensi's hand as Narah sat down.

'See you at work,' Callen told Deeks and Kensi as he walked out of the café again, giving Narah the chance to speak to them.

'How are you?' Kensi asked but Narah shook her head.

'Don't start that,' she said and she took a deep breath. 'First of all you need to know I am still angry at you for all that has happened...but last night I have been thinking...very long and very deep...probably not something I do very often. I have been thinking about what I want...a happy ending, like in the stories. In the end...I realized I have been happier in the short time with you than in a long time...' She took another deep breath and glanced at Deeks and Kensi, who were listening anxiously where this was going. 'So...I think I reacted the wrong way...I want to have a happy ending...and I think I can have that with you...you are my family...' Kensi glanced at Deeks, looking for confirmation of what she was thinking.

'Does this...does this mean you really want to become a part of the family?' Deeks asked. 'You want us to adopt you?' Narah nodded and Kensi gasped, tears forming in her eyes.

'Oh my God,' Kensi mumbled and she grabbed Narah's hand that was lying on the table. She gently squeezed it and Narah simply smiled. Deeks stood up.

'This calls for celebration!' he shouted. 'Josephine, we need your famous apple pie because we just got a daughter!' An older woman came hurrying out of the kitchen with a coffee pot in her hands.

'Oh...what?' she asked confused and Deeks walked over to Narah, putting his hands proudly on her shoulders.

'Josephine, meet Narah, our brand new daughter,' he announced proudly and Narah just started to laugh. The woman came over and hugged Deeks, Kensi and Narah all tightly.

'I will give you a whole pie to celebrate,' she said. 'And some cocoa, for old time's sake?' Deeks glanced at Narah, who nodded and Josephine hurried away once again, telling every customer in the café that her Marty had become a daddy. Kensi had sat down beside Narah and put an arm around the girl. Narah took a deep breath and leaned into the embrace, putting her head on Kensi's shoulder. And she felt safe. She felt happy.