A/N: I'm back! And I'm so sorry for not posting all summer. It's been quite a busy one for me. Basically, I was hired on as a camp counselor for an 8 week sleep-away camp way back in March, and I knew then that I was probably not going to be able to post at all over the summer. When June arrived, and I was getting ready to leave, I posted chapter 11 without an explanation to you guys, with the hopes that I'd be able to finish and post chapter 12 before I left or in the first few weeks of training, when I was still allowed to have technology. I was sorely mistaken. So, it turned out with you guys waiting for a new chapter for nearly 4 months without explanation and me getting the best tan of my life while still worrying that you all thought I'd abandoned the story. I am so very very sorry.

This chapter has been half finished since the beginning of summer, and I intended for it to be at least twice the length it is now, but I felt so guilty about leaving you waiting for so long that I'm just going to post it now, and the second half in the coming weeks. I'd just like to end this lengthy apology by thanking everyone for being so incredibly patient throughout this long long summer. You guys are so dedicated to this and you are the main source of motivation for me to keep writing. Thank you so so much! Without further ado, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS: Los Angeles

Deeks did indeed call Kensi, and the next Tuesday, around 2 in the afternoon, they were on their way to Camp Pendleton for the promised shooting lesson.

"I have a question," Deeks said around a mouthful of Swedish Fish. They were stuck in the unavoidable city traffic, baking in Kensi's car, even though the AC was on full blast. The sun was directly overhead and beating down through the windshield, turning the candy—Swedish Fish for Deeks and M&M's for Kensi—soft and sticky. That didn't stop them from eating it though.

Kensi nodded, cueing Deeks to continue. He swallowed and said, "What made you want to be a federal agent?"

Kensi had her sunglasses on, effectively hiding most of her already inscrutable expression. After a moment of silence, she said, "Helping people, mostly. Especially military families, like mine."

Deeks nodded, mulling this over. "You're from a military family?"

"Yeah, my dad was in the Marines."

"That explains the shirt."

Kensi looked over at him, her eyebrows knitting together above her sunglasses. "What shirt?"

"The one you wore at the beach the day after the party."

"How do you remember that?"

Deeks shrugged. "I remember interesting things, I guess."

"What was interesting about it?"

"Well, there were giant letters across your chest, for one thing." Kensi looked over at him, and Deeks was sure she was giving him a half-exasperated, half-disgusted look from behind her sunglasses. He grinned at her cheekily, causing her to roll her eyes.

Kensi sat back against her seat, her hands firmly planted on the steering wheel in the chaotic stop-and-go traffic of LA. She held out her hand and Deeks filled it with M&M's, as he'd dutifully been doing the past half hour they'd been together in the car. After she was content with chocolate candy in her mouth, she said, "Be serious."

Deeks was struck with the irony of the statement coupled with her mouthful of candy, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he said, "I thought it was interesting that you were wearing it, I guess. Not a lot of Marines live this far north of Pendleton."

Kensi swallowed her candy and said, "It was my dad's."

"I figured. So I'm guessing you moved around a lot?"

Kensi nodded quietly. Deeks watched her face change, and he wished he could see her eyes. He was sure they wore a faraway look, as if she had slipped back into memories, but he couldn't be sure. "We moved around every few years, but somehow, we always made it back here, so this is home," she said simply. "What about you?"

Surprised, Deeks turned to her. "What about me?"

"Have you always lived in LA?"

"Oh, yeah. I've never been too far from Reseda."

"You're from Reseda? Monica is too."

"Yeah, she and I made it, somehow."

As the car rolled to yet another stop, Kensi pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and looked at Deeks sternly. "There is no 'somehow'. You made it on hard work and you deserve this. Don't ever put your success down to luck or chance," she said fiercely.

Deeks reeled back, shocked at her outburst. He knew guarded Kensi, and snarky Kensi, and he was just to starting to discover playful Kensi, but this was a whole new facet of what was already a maze of a woman.

Kensi turned back to the road. "Sorry," she said. "Monica says the same thing and it drives me nuts. You worked hard to get here, so you should own it."

"I get that," Deeks said. "And I'm sorry for being self-deprecating. It's just that, in Reseda, we aren't brought up to think that hard work gets you anywhere. Most people there either work their asses off for nothing, or they laze off and only just get by. Hard work rarely leads to success, so to be here, it must mean that something happened by chance. It's a fluke, as far as most people are concerned. Even the people at school seem to think that." Deeks was not trying to get her to pity him. He really wasn't, but it started to come out that way. He'd never been able to tell anyone this, not even Paul, who he knew just wouldn't understand. Despite her apparently decent upbringing, he knew that somehow, Kensi understood this. The fact that she and Monica—who had grown up so similarly to Deeks—were best friends reinforced this.

"Don't ever let them tell you you're not worth it. My dad drilled that into me when I was a kid, and I've made Monica live by it since I met her. When they tell you that you can't do something, you say, 'Watch me.'" Kensi suddenly looked embarrassed, as if she'd said too much, and she dropped her sunglasses over her face. "Sorry. Monica says I need to get a soapbox."

Deeks laughed and said, "Maybe, but don't apologize for it. And next time Healy condescends me, I'll tell him to fuck off."

Kensi burst out in surprised laughter. "I'd pay to see that."

"Thanks for the advice," Deeks said after a moment. He dug his hand into the bag of Swedish Fish and popped a few into his mouth.

Kensi smiled slightly, but didn't say anything.

Deeks watched her, hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel, focused intently on the blue minivan in front of her. She held a hand out, and he poured more M&M's into her hand. After she'd chewed and swallowed, she looked over at Deeks.

"What?" Her brow furrowed over the sunglasses.

"You drive like an old lady."

As if to prove his point, Kensi inched forward behind the car in front of her, pressing the gas and braking alternately until she was a few feet behind the minivan. She shuddered to a stop and turned to him. "I do not!"

Deeks swept his hand out to the generous space between Kensi's car and the minivan. Kensi looked to the road and then back at Deeks. "I'm cautious."

"You're like a grandma with a suspended license."

"I resent that statement," Kensi said, lifting a hand off the wheel and raising a finger to punctuate her point. She immediately gripped the wheel again as she inched forward.

"No, seriously. Who taught you to drive?"

"My dad," Kensi retorted defensively.

"The dad who was a Marine?"

"Yes," Kensi answered shortly.

Deeks sat back, blowing out a breath and lifting an eyebrow.

"What?!"

He shrugged. "I'm just saying, either your dad is a bad driver or you definitely do not take after him."

Kensi's breath caught and her hands tightened on the wheel, knuckles turning white. Deeks took this in, instantly realizing that playful teasing had turned into something serious, and that he'd hit a shallow nerve.

"Hey, I—I'm sorry if I said something wrong. Are you okay?"

Kensi stayed silent for a moment, ramping up the tension in the car. Finally, she said tightly, "How about we don't talk for the rest of the ride?"

Deeks nodded, not saying anything. He was cringing internally, though, berating himself for ruining what was turning out to be a good run. She was opening up. She was laughing more. And now he'd royally screwed up. He didn't know how, but he had.

He was so busy in his own world of scolding himself that Deeks didn't see her hand until she'd been holding it out for a few moments. She thrust it a little more in his space and Deeks jumped, surprise and repressed childhood instincts making him reel back in his seat. After a few seconds, he grabbed the M&M's and poured a few into her hand. She popped them in her mouth, chewed and swallowed, and returned her hand to the wheel, braking yet again for the blue minivan.

A tense, quiet hour and a half later, Kensi pulled up to the gates at Camp Pendleton. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Deeks looking around curiously, taking in everything. He hadn't spoken for the rest of the ride, and while she was grateful for the quiet to pull herself back together, she also knew that he was hurt. It was probably even worse that he didn't why he was hurt, because he didn't have any idea what he had said that had caused a deep pang in Kensi's chest. He'd been teasing, and Kensi realized that. But she wasn't near ready to let him into the ache that still filled her now; the ache that kept making her swallow down the lump in her throat.

Kensi pulled up to the guard station and rolled down her window. "Hey, Ed. How are you today?"

Ed, the guard who was always stationed at this gate on Tuesdays, smiled at her. "I'm doing great today, thanks. You coming to use the range?"

Kensi nodded and pulled her shooting license and gun registration from between her seat and the center console. "Here's my paperwork. I've also got a visitor with me today."

Ed peered past Kensi to Deeks, who smiled and waved. "Hi, Ed."

Ed looked back at Kensi, a mischievous question lighting up his eyes. Kensi just continued talking, as if she hadn't seen this. "He'll need a visitor's pass, and probably a rental."

"Not going to let him use yours?" Ed asked as he flipped through Kensi's papers, not really reading them. Protocol dictated that he look, but Kensi's frequency of attendance meant that he knew the words and dates by heart.

"Nope," Kensi answered. "I'm pretty protective of it. You know that."

"Oh, don't I," Ed told her, flashing his smile again. He handed back her papers and looked around to Deeks. "Good luck, young man. She's a livewire."

Kensi bit back a remark as Ed buzzed them through, the gated sliding open to reveal dirt road and a number of squat, short buildings. She prayed that Deeks wouldn't say anything about Ed's comment, and thankfully, he didn't. He was too absorbed in looking around at the base, his eyes flashing across the buildings and the many uniformed Marines going about their business. To Kensi, this was so familiar that she could drive the route to the range in her sleep, but to Deeks, this was a completely different world. She suddenly realized that even though she had held back from telling Deeks about her childhood of bases and many moves, this was, in a way, a window into that world.

The main administrative building came into view and Kensi parked in front of it amidst the other civilians who were using the range today. She shut off the car and turned to Deeks, who was still looking out the window. "We have to go sign you in. Think you can refrain from flirting with the receptionist?"

A surprised smile bloomed on Deeks' face. Mischief followed soon after. "Are you sure she won't refrain from flirting with me? The ladies love me, you know."

"Yeah, I've heard," Kensi said, mostly to herself. Deeks' grin made her roll her eyes. Her stomach flipped on its own accord.

They got out of the car and Kensi led the way into the main office. Bridget smiled up at her from her desk. "Hello, Kensi. What can I do for you today?"

"I'm here to use the range," Kensi replied. She stepped aside so Bridget could see Deeks more fully. "And we need a visitor's pass."

Bridget's face lit up at the sight of Deeks, who held out his hand with a charming smile. "Hi, Bridget. Marty Deeks. I'm a friend of a Kensi's."

Bridget held her hand out and they shook. "It's nice to meet you, Marty. It's so great to meet one of Kensi's friends," she said, winking conspiratorially, as if she didn't believe the word one bit. "You need a visitor's pass?"

"That's right," Deeks answered, leaning against the high counter that formed Bridget's desk. He tilted his head and smiled at her, his eyes twinkling. Bridget blushed a little and then bent down to get his paperwork. Deeks looked over at Kensi and winked, nudging her a little with his elbow, clearly egging her on. She nudged back a little harder, causing him to wince as their elbows collided. Kensi watched with triumph as he struggled to compose himself when Bridget reappeared, placing the paperwork and a pen on the desk.

Deeks filled his paper out, chatting idly with Bridget as Kensi watched on, tapping her toes impatiently. He threw out little compliments to the receptionist every now and again and Kensi watched the woman become even more flustered with each one. Deeks finally signed his name at the bottom and traded Bridget the paper and pen for a visitor's pass. He and Kensi turned to leave, both thanking Bridget. As Deeks held the door open for Kensi, Bridget called out, "Hold on to him, honey. He's a keeper!"

Kensi blushed a little, and she knew Deeks saw because he grinned and the spring in his step became much more pronounced. "Hear that? I'm a keeper."

"Are you physically incapable of flirting with any woman present?" Kensi asked, deliberately ignoring his question.

"It's like I told you: The ladies can't resist!"

Kensi rolled her eyes and walked around the back of her truck to pull open the hatch.

"You didn't respond, which means it's true," Deeks said matter-of-factly.

"Not necessarily," Kensi shot back, pulling her gun case from underneath the blanket in her trunk. "It means you're too full of yourself for me to give you a response."

Deeks crossed his arms. "You need a better excuse."

"What I need is for you to quit nagging me," Kensi told him. "Come on, I want to get this over with so that we can beat the rush hour traffic." She turned and started to walk up the road.

From behind her, Kensi could hear Deeks following and saying, "That wasn't rush hour?" She laughed to herself, shaking her head.

He came up beside her then, swinging his arms, brushing his against hers. She kept her arm straight, holding the case between them. He looked down at the black box and said, "You keep this in your car?"

Kensi nodded and held it up a little in front of her. "Never know when I might need it."

"Tell me, are you that paranoid?"

"No. I'm cautious. I told you earlier."

"Cautious does not mean keeping a gun in your car, even in LA."

"Cautious means that I grew up in a military family, and I know that bad things happen sometimes. If I have the power to protect myself and other people, then I'm going to use it, even if it is a gun."

Deeks nodded quietly. Then he said, "So are you teaching me because I asked or because you want to pass on that power?"

Surprised, Kensi looked over at him, letting their arms brush. "A little bit of both, I guess. I hadn't thought about it that way."

"I promise I'll take it more seriously, then," Deeks said, holding his hand over his heart. His smile was playful, but his words held a weight that carried a much more serious tone.

Kensi nodded, appreciating that he understood the importance of this. His quick switch to somberness increased the guilt that Kensi still felt from the car. "I'm sorry," she said after a few moments. "About what happened in the car. You didn't do anything wrong."

He looked over at her, the sunlight catching his eyes. Even though he was squinting, Kensi could see the brilliant blue looking back at her. "Obviously I did."

She knew he was trying to hedge his way into an explanation. It was as if they were standing on a tightrope, teetering back and forth, only barely keeping their footing. Whether she told him about her dad or not, Kensi knew that Deeks wouldn't let them fall. He was invested, she realized, much more than she'd given him credit for. Whereas Kensi could easily jump back to a safety point, Deeks was far out in the middle, waiting for her to meet him.

But she couldn't. Not yet.

"I know what you're trying to do," she replied, trudging forward up the road. The range was slowly coming into view, and the pops of firearms could be heard in the distance.

He sighed, almost imperceptibly, as he followed her. "Looks like my manipulating skills still need work. Think it's too late for me to change my major?"

Kensi laughed quietly, thankful that he'd returned to jokes, but also guilty that he was getting so little for as much as he was putting in. "You're in it for the long haul, I think," she called over her shoulder.

"I don't know," he retorted, catching up to her. "Being a cop doesn't sound too bad."

Kensi looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "You? A cop?"

"Am I threatening Badass Blye's territory? Who knows, maybe I'll end up a better shot than you," he said as he held open the door to the rental shack.

"Don't push your luck," Kensi said, suppressing a smile that in turn suppressed the knot in her throat.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Deeks replied, his warm voice banishing all traces of the knot and leaving a flush in its wake.