AN: My second square for my badthingshappenbingo card over on Tumblr. Definitely having fun bringing these whumpy tropes to life! Please check out my bingo card and send other fun prompts my way to continue the fun!

Bingo Square: Infected Wound

This is the earliest Densi I've written, going all the way back to post-"Deliverance" (2x10). I'm not 100% happy with it, but I've fiddled with it for too long. I hope I was able to keep them in character enough. Please let me know what you think!

Got Your Back

"Deeks, you okay?" Kensi turned back to her partner, concerned when he wasn't keeping up with her stride. "You've been moving like an old man lately. You'd think you had never been blown up before!" It had been a week, but Kensi was finally able to laugh about their most recent mission.

"What? Uh, no it's not that. Sorry, just tired. Wore myself out over the holiday weekend, if you know what I mean," Deeks said with a wink. He dodged her responding punch to the arm, but caught the slight upturn of her lips and the eye roll. "Stuffing turkey with my date."

"Your date? You mean feeding Monty leftovers while alone on your couch watching the parade you recorded?"

"No, I mean spreading the legs, filling it up with my… famous… sausage stuffing," he added a quick hip swivel to the sultry voice he'd put on, which caused Kensi's smile to turn to a full out chortle. She tried to cover it up with a fake gag, and a second swing to his arm, this one landing its target.

"Ugh, you are such a perv! Really though, you look like shit, you feeling okay?"

"After the Russian goons we dealt with last week, this is nothing. I'm fine," he said. As they reached their witness's front door, he pulled his hoodie tighter around him. Kensi opened her mouth to contradict him, but he knocked on the door before she could voice her thoughts.

Another potential disaster averted, the team sat finishing their after-action reports before leaving for the evening. Sam and Callen finished first, bidding their younger team members goodnight before departing the mission.

Kensi waited until the men were out of earshot before addressing her partner across the bullpen. "Deeks, are you sure you're alright? I don't think I've heard you this quiet like, ever! You only had one fish taco for lunch, and you're still wearing that hoodie even though it's like 75 degrees in here!"

"Kens, I'm okay." Deeks remained focused on his laptop. When he finally glanced up at Kensi's disbelieving look, he felt guilty and relented. "I dunno, maybe I'm coming down with a cold or something. Nothing to worry about," he said, turning back to his report. "Hey, wanna grab a beer after this?" Deeks's face screwed up in pain while he rolled his back in attempt to crack it.

"Smooth segue. But fine, I'll go with it. Sure, I'm up for a beer, perhaps with a side of some dinner? I know I'm starving, and I had a full lunch. But don't you have leftover turkey and stuffing to finish?"

Deeks chuckled, remembering their earlier conversation. "Nah, wasn't good enough for leftovers. How about some pizza at the pier?" He saved his files and closed his laptop. "You almost done?"

"Yeah, like five more minutes, okay?" Kensi responded, typing faster in effort to finish. When Deeks didn't respond, she looked over her laptop to see him with his head upon his arms across his desk. She turned back to her report, leaving him a few minutes to rest while she completed her documents.

When she was finished and packed up, Kensi crossed the bullpen to Deeks's desk. "C'mon partner, let's go," she said, shaking his shoulder gently. She became concerned at both the heat radiating off his skin and the fact he didn't wake immediately. "Deeks? Deeks!" She came across more panicked than she expected, and she hoped he didn't notice.

"Kensi, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Even half-asleep, he was more concerned about everyone else before himself. He sat up, crossing his eyes upward to look at Kensi's hand resting on his forehead. "What are you doing?"

"You're burning up! Why didn't you tell me? Change of plans, I'm taking you home and we'll get some stuff delivered. C'mon, let's go."

Deeks stood up then wobbled. He braced his hands flat on the table, and Kensi's hand rested on his shoulder to help stabilize him. Once his head stopped spinning, Kensi grabbed a handful of the soft hoodie material and pulled him in the direction of her car.

"Argh! Ow!"

Kensi froze. "What?"

His shoulders raised in non-answer. Deeks realized belatedly that wasn't the best idea and he cursed under his breath. "I dunno, my shirt was like stuck to my back. Probably just sweat from the fever, it's fine."

Kensi stopped them at her desk, directing Deeks to her chair. "Okay, off," she demanded, pulling again at the soft material of his hoodie. "Let me see."

Deeks couldn't help it, he always had to tease if given the opening. "Trying to strip me already?

Gotta say, Kens, thought you were more a third date kinda girl. And in the office no less. Kinky!"

When he turned to face her, Kensi's glare was deadly serious. He slowly shrugged out of his sweatshirt, shivering slightly as the air hit his flushed damp skin. He went to reach over his head to remove the t-shirt and again cursed. His cheeks grew pinker than the fever flush as he asked, "Kens, could you give me a hand please?"

She lifted the hem of the black tee, surprised to see a series of scratch marks along his lower back. "What happened here?" She asked tracing one particularly deep mark. "Is this from your… date? And your stuffing marathon?" Despite her previous glower, bantering was what they did, so she cut him a little slack.

Rather than a snappy one-liner, the response was tired and resigned, "No date. You were right, just me and Monty. And he did enjoy dinner, but he insists on waking me up by jumping on my back as I sleep. He must have got me a bit harder than usual."

Kensi didn't respond as she turned her attention back to her task. She wrinkled her nose as it caught a strange odor. When the shirt hit Deeks's shoulder blades, she met resistance. A grunt signaled he felt it too.

"Sorry."

"Quick like a band-aid, just pull it," Deeks said. Kensi didn't leave him a moment to think about it before she did, and roar of pain crossed his lips as the shirt peeled away from his back.

"Deeks, I don't think these are just dog scratches," she said, worry evident in her tone.

"What do you mean?"

"Deeks, these are deep scratches and cuts. Unless Monty was trying to dig a hole in your back, he didn't do this. What is this fr…? Is this from last week? Why didn't you say anything, or get it looked at?!" Kensi was already digging for the first aid kit she kept in her desk, removing cleansers and gauze pads.

Deeks sighed, peeking through Kensi's box of supplies to distract himself while she dressed the wounds, seemingly covering his entire upper back. "I honestly don't know. I mean, I was hella sore after, you know, landing on the hard concrete with the weight of an eleph….whole other person on top of me." He grinned sheepishly up at the woman glaring at him. Really, I had just chalked it up to being sore and Monty. I didn't realize it was cut up that bad. Sorry."

"Alrighty, mister, I've done a basic patchwork job here, now let's get you off to urgent care!"

"Urgent care? I don't need urgent care! You patched me up just fine." Deeks put on his best pleading face as he changed his shirt to the spare from his go-bag.

"Sorry, that's a negative. You have a fever, and you smell this?" She held the used gauze under his nose. He shuddered. "That's an infection. So urgent care, now, or I'll sic Hetty on you." The threat of incurring the wrath of their tiny boss led Deeks to concede to Kensi's demands.

As they walked in the direction of the car, Deeks opened his mouth for another snarky rebuttal but Kensi cut him off before he could try. "Nope, we're going. And I'm ordering pizza to the waiting room." Deeks laughed at Kensi's constant need for food, which she returned with a playful shove.

The pair reached the doorway, and Kensi paused and turned to her partner, now completely serious. "Deeks, thank you for getting me out of that room, and I'm sorry it did all this," She gestured to his back. "You had my back that day, and in turn, ripped up yours."

"Anytime partner," Deeks promised. "Anytime. And thank you for checking up on me, I know I can be a bit stubborn when it comes to being sick and hurt."

"Anytime partner," Kensi said. The pair made their way into Kensi's vehicle and drove off towards the nearest Urgent Care. They may not have been partners very long, but both knew they could count on the other when it mattered.