A/N: Thanks for being patient, everyone! I'm glad the last chapter went over so well, considering there wasn't much Densi. Fair warning: this one doesn't have much either, and it's a bit shorter than usual. Don't worry, though, because chapter 8 has some great Densi moments. It's in the editing stage right now, so I'll have that up very soon. Please enjoy, and don't forget to follow/favorite/review!
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS: Los Angeles
"Monica," Kensi warned as her friend walked up. "Whatever you're planning has to stop right now before it even starts."
Monica handed Kensi her smoothie. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said airily.
Kensi raised an eyebrow skeptically, shaking her head. Monica laughed. "I'm serious! We were just talking. Turns out Marty's from Reseda, too." Monica sat down on one of the towels Kensi had laid out and took a sip of her smoothie. "This is really good!"
Kensi sat down, too, not quite believing her friend, but giving up the argument for the moment. "I know. I can't believe you've never had it."
"Just another reason for us to come to this beach," Monica quipped.
"Now you're just asking for me not to believe you. 'Just talking' my ass."
"You don't have to believe me," Monica said, trying to sound flippant, but only sounding sneakier. Anyone else would believe her, but Kensi saw right through it.
She sighed, "Monica, don't try and set me up with that guy. He's a jerk."
"Kensi," Monica's tone was serious now, "I'm not trying to set you up with him. I just told him to apologize to you. That's it."
Kensi looked at her friend for a moment, gauging whether she was being truthful or not. There was still something she was hiding, but she seemed to be telling the truth for the most part. Kensi decided to drop it. For now.
Monica looked at her expectantly, waiting for further rebuttal, but Kensi changed the subject. She wasn't the only one who could change the subject in an instant to avoid confrontation. Monica was just better at it.
"How's the argument with the registrar's office going?" Kensi asked.
Monica raised her eyebrows, impressed at Kensi's transition away from an argument. She then sighed dramatically and dropped her sunglasses back over her face. "It's a pain. My LSATs were the best in the class, and I even had my advisor email the office. He told me to appeal to the admissions board."
Although Monica would be going to law school, per California law, she still had to have 2 years' worth of credits in pre-law studies in order to take the exam that would get her into law school. She'd taken the correct amount of credits, just not in a consistent order, and she was having trouble registering for her final semester's worth of classes, as well as for the "Baby Bar", which was the exam that would admit her to law school.
"But I thought you didn't want to go to grad school here," Kensi said, confused.
"The law school is in charge of giving the exam, so they have the final say," Monica explained. The bitterness in her voice and the irritation at the administration was clear. "Can we talk about something else? This is just going to stress me out. We're supposed to be relaxing."
"'Relaxation.' That's a foreign word these days," Kensi said.
"Better take advantage of it while we have it," Monica replied, a trace of bitterness still evident in her voice. She sighed again and took a drink of her smoothie.
Kensi set her own smoothie down, making sure it was lodged into the sand so it wouldn't spill. She stood and pulled off her shirt and shorts, down to her bikini. She sat back down and leaned back on her elbows, tilting her face to catch the warmth of the sun.
"He's looking at you," Monica noted, laughter fighting its way through her voice.
"Monica," Kensi started, warning in her voice.
Monica laughed. "Be flattered, Kens. All that training has seriously paid off. Holy shit, girl."
Kensi smirked, proud of herself. "You're not so bad yourself," she pointed out.
"I know," Monica said proudly. She pulled her sundress over her head, revealing a bikini that she had expertly chosen in order to show off her toned figure. Monica may have had more curves than Kensi, but she worked hard to make sure those curves were in the right places. Kensi sometimes found herself envious of Monica's body. Yes, she had long legs and good skin and was happy with her size, but Monica was sex and softness and just the right proportion of muscle to curves that Kensi just didn't have. It was a mystery to her as to why the other girl didn't have better luck with men. To Kensi, it honestly made no sense.
The girls laid out in the sun, chatting periodically but mostly quiet, for nearly an hour. Their smoothies had been finished long ago when Monica's phone rang. Kensi looked over as Monica sat up and pushed her sunglasses back to look at the screen. She rolled her eyes, sighed in exasperation, and then answered.
"Hi, Mrs. Williams, what can I do for you?"
Kensi watched Monica listen to the woman on the other end of the phone. She was pretty sure Mrs. Williams was the mother of the twins that Monica watched in the afternoons and evenings. Monica loved the kids to pieces, but their parents were a frequent topic of Monica's overview of her day as she vented to Kensi about the mother's crazy complaints and mandates, and the father's unhealthy relationship with other women, including his unwelcome advances on Monica.
Monica grabbed Kensi's wrist suddenly and looked at her watch, still holding the phone to her ear. "I can be there in about 45 minutes, if that's okay."
Kensi heard the voice on the other end jump a few octaves and Monica pulled the phone away from her ear and grimaced. When the voice quieted down, Monica said sternly, "Mrs. Williams, if you want to call a closer babysitter, I won't be offended. Otherwise, I will see you in 45 minutes."
Monica tone seemed to calm down the woman, because her response was much quieter this time. Monica smiled sweetly, a façade that Kensi knew well, and responded, "Okay, I'll see you soon!" And she ended the call with a jab of her finger.
"Oh, my God," Monica groaned. "If I didn't think I could save those kids from becoming just like their parents, they would be searching for a new nanny."
"Time to go?"
"Yep. Creeper Dad has some last minute benefit that they got invited to, so they need someone to watch the kids. Sorry to cut our afternoon at the beach short."
Kensi waved her hand, dismissing this. "It's not your fault." She pulled on her shirt and stood up to slide up her shorts. Monica followed her lead and slipped her dress over her head.
"Our one mutual day off and now I have to work. No relaxation for the wicked, I guess."
"We got a little bit in," Kensi pointed out. Monica shrugged in agreement, still looking disappointed at their interrupted day off.
They gathered their towels and started the trek across the sand. Kensi had picked up their cups and stopped to throw them away as Monica moved on ahead.
Just as she was about to walk towards the parking lot, she heard "Kensi!"
Kensi turned and crossed her arms, already knowing exactly who it was. Deeks was running across the sand. He stopped a few feet away. "Hey."
"Hey."
He fidgeted a little and then said, "I wanted to apologize. For what happened last week."
Kensi raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"Yeah. Look, I didn't mean what I said. I say stupid things sometimes. It's kind of a problem."
"I gathered that."
Deeks looked down at the sand and then back up at Kensi, his brow furrowed. He stared her straight in the eye and said, "I'm sorry. I'm not asking you to forgive me, but I am owning up to what I said. I just, you know, wanted to tell you that."
Kensi searched his face, gauging his sincerity. For all she knew, Monica had put him up to it and he was a good actor. He was a law student, after all. But…he seemed genuine. His blue eyes held an honesty and true guilt that not many people had when they apologized. "Sorry" was usually an empty sentiment, in Kensi's experience. It was actually kind of refreshing to see a real apology, even if it was from someone she was sure she couldn't stand.
"Thanks," Kensi said, a little awkwardly. "It doesn't redeem you, but thanks." His face brightened up a little bit. Before he could say anything, Kensi was walking away. She didn't do emotion well, and that conversation looked like it was headed for feelings central. So she bolted. He wasn't the only one with bad habits.
Kensi reached the car, where Monica was standing in the open drivers' side door. "Did he say sorry?"
"Yes," Kensi said shortly. She opened the passenger door and sat in the seat, arms folded.
Monica grinned, "Good." Then she turned to Deeks, who was still standing on the sand. "Hey, Marty!" She yelled.
"What are you doing?" Kensi hissed at her friend. She could only reach feebly across the center console, trying to tug Monica back into the car.
She watched through the windshield as Deeks looked up, his face breaking into a grin. "Yeah?"
"We're having a little get together at our place in a few days to celebrate the end of this heat wave. You should come. And bring your friend. Paul, right?"
"Monica!" Kensi gaped. She hadn't heard anything about a party and was pretty sure Monica was making this up on the spot.
"Sure. Yeah, I'll ask him."
"Great. See you around!" Monica started to drop back into the car when Deeks' voice stopped her.
"Wait! Where do you live?"
Monica popped back up and yelled, "860 Bayshore. Unit 6. We're thinking Thursday. See you then?"
"No problem, see you then."
Monica shut her door and started the car. She had backed out and waved at Deeks, and was headed home before Kensi said anything.
"What the hell was that?" She wasn't particularly angry, just shocked and a little embarrassed at her friend for yelling across a beach parking lot.
"What? A party at our place sounds fun, right? Hopefully it rains by Friday," Monica replied innocently. She flipped the turn signal to pull out of the parking lot.
"You invited a stranger to our apartment. A jerk of a stranger, at that."
"No," Monica drew the word out, "I invited Marty and his friend Paul to our apartment. They're not strangers. And Marty's not a jerk. He apologized to you. He really does feel bad."
"I've heard, thanks," Kensi grumbled.
Monica looked over at her and grinned. "He's such a nice guy, Kens. And this party is going to be fun. I won't invite a ton of people, just the regulars. You can invite some of your training friends, too. Some of them live up here, right?" They were driving along the coast now with the windows rolled down, the sea wind blowing their hair around. The sun was starting to edge west in the sky.
"Fine," Kensi conceded. Monica grinned in triumph. "Just don't hook up with any Marines. It'll make it things weird at training if I have to wrestle with a guy who you had sex with." Kensi shuddered at the thought.
"If he's hot, then I'll be the one wrestling with him. You know how much I like to make you awkward." Monica's mischievous smile made Kensi roll her eyes and fight a laugh.
Monica pulled onto their street, still smiling. Kensi was watching her and not the road, so she saw Monica's expression change and heard her shrill "ohmygod!" before they both flew forward in their seats. The seatbelt caught with the brakes and cut into Kensi's neck.
Kensi caught her breath as the car settled back from being stopped so quickly. She looked out the window and saw a guy running onto the sidewalk, a backpack clutched to his chest.
Monica was breathing hard and Kensi looked over at her friend. "Are you okay?"
Monica nodded vigorously before clearing her throat, "Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. That guy just ran out in the road. What was he thinking?"
"I don't know," Kensi replied, turning to look in the direction he'd gone. He'd disappeared, though.
"Holy shit," Monica said. She cautiously stepped on the gas, moving the car forward. They were less than a block away from home, and she quickly pulled into her spot in front of their building. Once the car was in park, Monica turned to her friend. "Are you okay?"
Kensi nodded and unbuckled her seatbelt to inspect the damage on her neck. "Yeah, just a little seatbelt burn."
Monica winced at the angry red welt. "Idiot. Where did he even come from? There's no way he made it up that cliff."
Kensi shrugged and got out of the car, peering down the street in the direction the guy had gone. There was no sign of him. Monica followed suit and shut her door, towel in hand. She locked the car and the girls trudged up three flights of stairs to their landing. While Monica unlocked the door quickly—she was running extremely late—Kensi noticed that the smoothie stain was still on the floor outside the door. It wasn't as sticky anymore, but a few ants had found their way to it and were rooting around the floor on the landing.
Kensi stamped out the ants before entering the apartment behind Monica. The other girl was already in her room, rattling around in her closet. Kensi set her bag down and went to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water. She felt sleepy and drained after the short time at the beach, and now after their close call on the street outside. She just wanted to shower, eat, and fall asleep.
Monica reappeared, dressed and throwing her hair up in a high bun. She had her purse over one arm and a binder precariously trapped under the other. It was in danger of falling as Monica's arms moved to wind her hair up on top of her head.
"You good to drive?" Kensi asked worriedly.
"Yep. I'll just run over the next person who runs in the road," Monica joked.
"That's not funny."
"I'm okay, Kens. It was just a scare. I'll be sure to tell that guy what a moron he is if I see him on my way, though."
"Tell him from me, too. Dinner?"
"You're going to be on your own tonight. Gotta feed the munchkins and put them to bed. I don't know when I'll be home, so don't wait up."
"Sounds good. Have fun," Kensi called as Monica rushed out the door. She waved behind her and the door shut and groaned when Monica forced it closed.
Kensi heard her car start and pull away, and then she was alone.