Anonymous: The airplane ride back home with K&D.
Deeks can hear his heart pounding all the way up in his own ears. He wonders if Kensi can hear it too.
She's seated beside him, staring at the floor. Her eyes are glazed over, her lips pressed into a firm line. He assumes that she's thinking about the torture and tries not to think about it himself, but that's almost impossible.
Not wanting her to be in this alone, he reaches for her hand almost instinctively, squeezing her fingers between his. Her head pops up and she's pulled out of a daze.
He's staring at her, eyes wide and bright and blue and beautiful and everything she's been missing over the past couple of months. And even now, even after she knows that she's safe and that they're both going home, Kensi still can't help but cry as she sees the concern written out plainly across his face. The concern for her.
The tears spill over and she rests her head against his shoulder, then wraps both arms around his midsection. "I hate this," Kensi whispers. Then she breaks down, her sobs roaring impotently into chest.
If someone saw her, they might mistake this show of emotion for weakness. But Deeks knows full well what it is, and it's not weakness.
It's anger.
"I've got you," he says. Sam and Callen are staring but he doesn't care, not even a little bit. Neither does Kensi, apparently.
After a few seconds her chest deflates a touch and she relaxes into him, still crying but somehow the tiniest bit resolved. She believes him and he knows it.
Kensi closes her eyes and spends the next twelve hours pressed up against his side, wishing to be home but thankful that he's there to make the journey with her. And it seems that he feels the same way, as a couple of hours later, when he thinks she's asleep, Deeks presses a kiss to the top of her head.
She smiles.