Chapter 9: Elimination

So guys I apologize for the delay. Thursday I wasn't home all day, Friday was just crazy, and Saturday, well...I was watching NCIS:LA from nine am till eleven pm No breaks. It was awesome. Best lazy day ever. And I gained some great material. Got through all of the first season and the first three of season 2. But alas, I come bearing this gift as I watch more LA goodness.

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Two teams. They were joined with some other pros in a quick half hour game in an outdoor arena. The object of the game? Elimination. With Mark, Cali, Drew, and Mike on Deeks' team; and Leslie, Nathan, Hannah, and Hunter on Kensi's team, the teams knew this was going to be a fun game.

Adrenaline was pumping through Deeks' veins. He really wanted to best Kensi. As their teams separated and got in place Deeks couldn't help but grin as different scenarios of the game played out in his mind. All of them ended with him as the single victor leading his team to victory.

"Ready!" He heard Mark shout, who had taken point as their team leader.

"Ready!" A woman's voice echoed from across the field. He knew it wasn't Kensi's however.

"Game on!" Mark shouted and they all began to move stealthily. Deeks moved with precision just how Sam and Callen had taught him. He may not have been a pro at paintball but he was a pro in marksmanship. He pretended as though he was going in with the team to take out a high level threat like he'd done many times before. The only difference was he didn't have Kensi watching his back. She was the high level target.

There was a flash of movement in front of Deeks but before he could fire a shot, Cali had already fired. He watched as Nathan moved off the field with his gun raised high, one down.

Twenty minutes into the game and there were still three left on Kensi's team and two on Deeks. Mark and himself were the last ones on the field, moving like a well oiled machine. But Deeks knew what a real partnership was like. So even though they worked well together on the field, Deeks knew his partnership with Kensi was a standard of true partnership that few could achieve. As they moved swiftly on the hunt for Hannah, Hunter, and his real target, Kensi, he had to admit this was the most fun he'd had in a while.

Seven minutes later and all that remained was Kensi, himself, and Mark. Mark however had agreed to letting Deeks go in for the kill. Deeks tried getting into Kensi's head and surprisingly it wasn't difficult for him to anticipate his partner's move. Deeks motioned for Mark to keep moving forward as he went up and hid on top of one of the obstacles.

Time continued to tick and he didn't see Kensi until she jumped out and shot Mark. With a grin on his face Deeks lined up his shot and fired off a round. It hit her right on the back. He watched as she whirled around in surprise and he peaked out from his hiding spot with a grin.

He heard someone call out, "Time!", and climbed down from his perch. He met up with Kensi who just looked at him flabbergasted.

"Don't look so surprised Princess."

"How did you?" She asked speechless. She couldn't believe Deeks had outsmarted her.

"I know you like hiding in crooks on the ground. You'd only come out if you thought you had a good angle to attack from. Once you came out of hiding that gave me the perfect chance to hit." Deeks explained proudly.

Kensi laughed. She thought for sure she had figured out what Deeks would do. She knew he liked going in hard and quick which is why she was sure he'd come up from the middle, apparently Mark had been a decoy.

As they walked off the field Deeks and Mark were congratulated on their victory and good plan.

"Hey Marty, we're going to hit up Friendly's for a victory meal, you in?" Mark asked politely.

"As long as you're paying for the ice cream and my partner here is in." Deeks said nudging Kensi with a look that was practically begging for her to say yes.

"I could eat." She replied.

"Awesome. We'll change and clean up and meet you guys in the lobby." Mark said. "Good practice team." Mark said to everyone else around. The team began to head back together as did Kensi and Deeks with their fingers entwined.

"So, I can't wait to tell Callen and Sam that I beat you at paintball today." Deeks said with a proud smile.

"Please. You just got lucky." Kensi scoffed dismissively, gently body checking Deeks.

"Oh sure. Yeah that's what happened. I didn't totally take you by surprise." Deeks joked with a grin.

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"That was actually pretty fun." Kensi admitted as they walked through Deeks' front door.

"Yeah, up until you practically wolfed down my entire banana split." Deeks accused.

"I was hungry." She said sheepishly shrugging her shoulders.

"Clearly, my chicken tenders and Royal Razz disappeared quickly too."

"It's not my fault you ordered from the kids menu."

"Because it comes in a cool basket!" Deeks defended.

"Well they looked good so naturally I had to try it." Kensi said.

"It already had a smaller portion!" Deeks complained.

"Not my fault you got something that wasn't sharing friendly." Kensi said shrugging her shoulders and plopping down on the couch.

Deeks rolled his eyes and sat down beside her. He threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled Kensi to him.

"God I need a nap." He said with a sigh.

"How are you tired?"

"You Kensilina, completely exhausted me last night. I'm still trying to catch up on lost sleep, not that I mind losing the sleep for recreational activities." He said with a grin.

Kensi laughed and shook her head. "Thank you. What do you want to watch?"

"How about tomorrow we have our own Avengers marathon." Deeks suggested interested.

"Sounds fun." Kensi said with a smile.

"I have all of them on Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital copy."

"Oh Lucky! I only have them in DVD!" Kensi said jealous of him.

"Well then we'll watch them in Blu-Ray on my PS3."

"Which ones?" Kensi asked.

"Iron Man, The Increible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and then of course, The Avengers. We can watch Iron Man 3 right now if you'd like."

"Absolutely! I saw it three times in theaters." Kensi said excitedly.

"Three?!" Deeks asked incredulously.

"Well yeah." Kensi said as if it were normal.

Deeks laughed. "You are so awesome." He said with a grin.

Kensi smiled. "Well I could have told you that."

"I only saw it once."

"What?! Once just wasn't enough. Do you remember when I was really sick on may second?"

"Yeah, you called in sick with a cold." Deeks said not seeing how it was relevant.

"Yeeaahhh. I wasn't sick." Kensi said.

"What then why wouldn't you come in to work?" Deeks asked confused.

"There was a marathon for Iron Man 3 that started at noon and I really really wanted to go. I had bought the tickets a month in advance." She said with a small smile of apology.

Deeks' jaw just hung open in shock. "How...why didn't you invite me?" He asked more disappointed than anything.

"I don't know. Probably because you said you had a date." Kensi defended.

"I said that to make you jealous!" He said incredulously. "I can't believe you didn't invite me to that."

"Wait what?" Kensi asked. "You faked having a date to make me jealous?"

"Yeah. I did that alot." Deeks said as if it were perfectly normal.

"Wow. All this time. How long have you liked me for Deeks?" She asked.

"Ever since I met that fiesty chick, Tracy." He said with a smile.

"Why didn't you ever tell me? That was four years ago Deeks!" Kensi cried.

"Because you kept making it clear that you weren't ever interested." Deeks stated.

Kensi got up in frustration. "I can't believe this!"

"Kensi calm down." Deeks said confused on why she was getting so upset.

He watched as she angrily paced back and forth in front of the couch.

"All this time! All this time! I thought you were just flirting with me like you do with everyone. I always told myself, don't think that way Kensi, he'll never like you like that. He's a player. He could never be interested in you the way you want. God, all the lies, the charade, the games. They were all just a front, this whole time! God I'm so angry with myself. Why didn't you ever make a move?" Kensi accused practically in tears.

"Hey, hey, calm down Kensi. Sit down, come here." He pulled her down to him still confused on her sudden breakdown.

"Why? Why did we do this so long? For so long I've felt so conflicted only to find out this whole time you've felt the same way. So why did you go on dates with other people?"

"Same reason as you. I thought I could never have you, I tried finding second best. I knew there would always be something wrong with the girl because they weren't you but I just, I thought you genuinely weren't interested Kensi." Deeks said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm sorry." Kensi replied. Gathering her breath. "I didn't mean to go off on you."

"It's fine. It sounds like we both had the same self questioning and frustration going on. Hard to believe that we could have been this happy if we'd only just taken a step forward sooner." Deeks said amazed at the irony of life.

"Yeah. But I'm really glad we're here together now. I've never been happier." Kensi said with a smile kissing his scruffy cheek.

"Not even with Jack?" Deeks braved to ask. He felt Kensi stiffen.

"Deeks, please don't go there." Kensi said with her eyes shut. He swallowed. It was the first time she'd called him Deeks all weekend.

"Sorry. I just wanted to know."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, what?" Deeks asked confused.

"Yes, I'm happier with you. With Jack I was happy too, but I just, being with you the past couple days... I don't know. It's a different kind of happy that I never quite felt with Jack." Deeks smiled. He knew why but suspected Kensi wasn't ready to hear it let alone admit it to herself.

"Me too." He said squeezing her shoulder tenderly. She turned to him and he placed a smoldering kiss on her lips filled with pre-mature words of adornment and love.

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So this took a turn I wasn't expecting. I hope you all don't mind. I'm a little iffy on if I stuck to the characters while at the same time peeling another layer. Let me know your thoughts, review please!