Chapter 18

Kensi rolled over and reached out for Deeks. Her eyes opened when she found the bed empty. Looking at the bedside clock, she sighed. She knew where she'd find him, the same place she'd found him every night since Meaghan's assault. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, stretching to ease away the kinks. As she padded around the end of the bed, she had to grin at the sight of their clothes strewn around the neat freak's bedroom. Last night they had had other things on their minds, things that didn't include neatly putting their clothes away. She bypassed her shirt and picked up his discarded t-shirt. She put it up to her nose and breathed in his unique scent. Sea, sand and sun with just a hint of his aftershave. The scent never failed to make her toes curl. Pulling it over her head, she walked out to the living room, finding him hunched over his laptop at the table, just as she'd expected. Tonight, however, he was just staring at a picture on the screen instead of his recent nightly behavior of trolling through the LAPD database.

She walked up behind him and saw the picture filling the screen was that of a young couple. They were very striking, the woman a beautiful green eyed blonde and the man a blue eyed brunette. They looked very happy. She moved up behind him and ran her arms down his chest, resting her chin on top of his head. He didn't jump. Somehow he always knew when she entered a room, no matter how quietly she did so.

"You can't keep doing this Deeks. You can't work all day and stay up all night on the computer, searching for whatever it is you're looking for. You need to be rested and alert when we're out in the field, otherwise you could get one of us killed!" She pulled her arms back and took hold of the back of the chair, swinging it around so that he faced her. She knelt down in front of him, taking in his red rimmed eyes, the telltale beginnings of dark circles under his eyes.

"Talk to me babe! Tell me what's going on. I know it's more than just Meaghan's assault. If anything, we should be proud of her, pleased that she used her training to make herself safe. I know this has to have something to do with the Timmons kid or his dad, the judge. Did you have a run in with the judge when you were a Public Defender? What is it you're looking for? And who's the couple in the picture? Talk to me!"

Deeks huffed out a laugh "I was never in the high and mighty Judge Timmons's courtroom. He was a federal judge and I was just a lowly PD." Sighing, he reached out and ran a thumb over her cheek, thinking how beautiful she was. Making a decision, he decided it was time to tell her what was going on in his mind. He gestured towards the picture on the screen. "That's Katie Spears and her fiancé Michael Willis. Katie and I went to law school together. She was one of my best friends, as close to me as a sister. Michael was an awesome guy and just right for her. After they started dating, Michael and I became good friends as well. He even talked to me about proposing to her and I helped him pick out the ring. They were perfect together. That was their engagement picture that ran in the papers." He stopped.

"What happened to them?" she asked, picking up on the fact that he had spoken of them in the past tense.

"Katie was a federal prosecutor and she was good, damn good. A couple years before I joined NCIS, just after I had made detective, Katie was assigned a case against an arms dealer, Steven Parks. The FBI had run a sting on him and had him dead to rights. The case should have been a slam dunk. Instead, the judge on the case ruled most of the evidence inadmissible for the flimsiest of reasons. Katie had been livid, telling me later how the judge had sustained just about every objection the guy's attorney had voiced. He also overruled every one of hers. In the end the jury had to acquit the guy, there just wasn't enough left."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the judge was Timmons?"

"Yup. Katie filed a complaint against him, but it never went anywhere. She even tried for a mistrial but was denied. Timmons had friends in high places and was highly regarded. We never did find out if he was paid off, blackmailed or somehow threatened. Eventually it was dropped and everyone had to move on."

"It didn't end there, did it?"

"No. Two months after the end of the trial, Katie and Michael were gunned down outside a restaurant as they were leaving. They both died instantly."

"You don't think it was Timmons, do you?"

"No. At first it was thought it was just a random drive by. But then, a week later, the FBI agent who was undercover with Parks, as well as his handler, were both shot dead outside their apartments. Everyone associated with the case was now gone."

"So you suspected Parks? Makes sense. He took his revenge on everyone who tried to put him away."

"Yeah. A couple years ago he got caught again. This time he got a different judge and he's now doing serious time at Victorville. They were never able to pin the murders on him though."

"But you blame Timmons, don't you?"

"Yes! Directly or indirectly, he was responsible for five deaths by his actions, actions that let Parks go free! I…I totally lost it when we realized their deaths were related to the case. I may have accosted the judge and accused him of murder. I was lucky that he didn't press charges. I still think the only reason he didn't is that he didn't want anyone looking into my accusations. He thinks too highly of himself to let someone get away with that if he wasn't worried something else would have come out of it. I've kept track of him over the years but have never been able to find anything else that I could use."

Kensi sighed, understanding his frustrations and now having a clearer picture of what was driving him. When she realized something he said didn't add up, literally, she asked. "Wait, you said five deaths? Katie, Michael and the two FBI agents make four. Who else died?"

He looked at her sadly. "Oh…oh, no." she said softly.

He nodded at her. "Katie was three months pregnant. They had been out celebrating the news with her parents when it happened." Turning, he reached out a hand and ran it over the picture on the screen. "They would have been great parents. That kid would have been loved beyond measure." his voice broke a little as the loss became fresh again.

"Meeting Timmons's kid brought it all back, didn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah. I keep thinking, why is his kid alive and well, out there hurting people, when their kid died before he or she ever had a chance?"

Kensi put her hands to his face. "We'll dig into him! I know if we tell the rest of the team what you just told me, they'll want justice for them as much as you do. I think if we get the wonder twins on this, it will go a lot faster than you trying to find something on your own, especially when you're half dead from exhaustion." Getting up, she took his hands in hers and pulled him out of the chair. Once he was standing, she gently reached behind him and closed the lid on the laptop.

He put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. Mumbling into it he said "What did I ever do to deserve you in my life?"

She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "You're a good man, Marty Deeks. You deserve to be happy as much as anyone else. I can only hope that I'm the one that can give you that happiness."

He smiled at her, the sadness in his eyes retreating. "You already have, Fern, you already have."

Her heart swelled, this was as close to an admission of love that either had been willing to risk so far. She knew how she felt but was waiting for him to say it. She was hopeful that he was doing the same. One of these days, one of them was going to have to be the braver of the two. She stepped back and took his hand and said softly "Let's go back to bed."

Grinning at her, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"And just like that, the moment is gone!"