A/N: So, this one requires some backpedaling. How did Kensi and Deeks come up with Max? Why? This is that :)

The build up to this day had been absolutely excruciating.

There aren't many moments in Marty Deeks' life that he's insanely proud of. He shot his father for a good reason, but he's not proud of it. He's a cop, he does good for the sake of national security. But he has to kill people sometimes, and he's not proud of that. But he is proud of his wife. He's proud of himself for pulling together just enough courage to ask her to marry him. And he's proud that the little one growing inside of her is part his. She is his pride and joy, and that baby is making his world 100% complete.

So yes, waiting until the day that they get to find out if its a boy or a girl has been hard. He's so impatient. He wants it to be a little girl, one that looks just like her mother, with light brown hair and dark skin, with long eyelashes and rosy cheeks. He can already imagine watching Kensi braid her hair after a bath and he can imagine what she'll look like before her senior Prom.

But as much as he plays out that fantasy, he also entertains the thought of a little blond boy with chocolate brown eyes. He wants that too, except, it scares him a little bit. As sure as he imagines his little girl to be all Kensi, he can see their baby boy turning into him, and that's not as pretty of a picture.

But at the same time, it is. Kensi has taught him that although he really isn't that proud of his past, he's not a bad person. He stands up for those who can't help themselves. He's loving, and he's not abusive toward his wife. The thought of hitting Kensi makes him sick to his stomach. The thought of hurting their little baby is enough to make him grab a trash can just in case.

But still. Raising a kid that's inevitably going to be pretty much exactly like him is scary. But luckily, he or she's going to be half Kensi too, and that gives him a lot of hope and confidence. Because while she's been showing him all the reasons that he's a good person, he's fallen in love with all the same things about her that he didn't even think about before. He absolutely adores this woman, and it kills him that there are still parts of her that he's still learning. Yet its so alluring and intriguing to him in the moments that he does uncover something new. He eats it up like she eats ice cream (especially now that she's five months pregnant).

Five months pregnant... four months to go. Four months before he'll hold that baby in his arms, and he can't wait.

But something weird strikes him as she's getting ready for her doctor's appointment.

She's five months pregnant and they still haven't talked about baby names.

Five months.

That baby will be here in four months and the fact that they're yet to even think about coming up with name ideas is not okay.

"Kensi?" he calls, walking upstairs. He hears her call back to him. He finds her lying on their bed, squirming and writhing. Her jeans are almost around her waist, but even when she gets them all the way on, she can't button them. She finally gives up, quits the struggle and relaxes, looking up at him breathlessly. As she's catching her breath, he pads over to the dresser and pulls out a pair of black leggings and hands them to her. As his reward for knowing exactly what she needed, she pulls up her shirt, giving him a view of her stomach.

He thinks its probably one of the most stunning sights he's ever see, and he thinks that every single day. Her bump isn't excessively big, but at five months, she is bulging out just enough that it's clear that she's pregnant and her jeans simply don't button anymore. She's refused to wear maternity jeans, but he figures that there's a point where she'll give up that fight. It's coming.

Before forcing her way too tight jeans down her legs again, she lets him press a few kisses to her bump. She hasn't felt the baby move too many times, but in the last few weeks, its been more frequent. His kisses ignite a fire in her belly, like the baby is blowing bubbles in there, but she doesn't tell him. She know he won't be able to press his hand to the bump and feel it too, and she doesn't want to disappoint him.

She stands and tries to slip the leggings on. It's still hard, but much easier than with the jeans. He finally speaks up once her pants are on, telling her why he came upstairs.

"Has it occurred to you that we're 4 months away from bringing a baby home and we haven't even started to come up with names yet?"

She stops, and thinks long and hard. It hits her like it hit him. What have they been doing?

"Oh geez, what is wrong with us?" she declares, shaking her head. "How did we pull that off?"

He shakes his head. "No idea."

She looks at her watch. Still an hour and a half before her appointment. They've got time to get started.

"Okay, well, lets quit being terrible parents and get started. Before we find out if we're having a boy or a girl, we'll come up with names for both. So that way, we'll act like we planned for this," she says sarcastically.

He kisses her. "That's my girl." They head downstairs. She grabs a stack of paper and a clipboard, which she hands to him, and they settle into the couch.

"Girls first, " she said, rolling her head back. She taps her fingers on her bump, and it's making it hard for him to focus. Doesn't she know everything about that belly fascinates him?

After a few moments of silence, she speaks. "Callie, to honor Callen." He nods, and writes it down under the girls side of the list. He adds, "Samantha, for Sam."

There's a long silence. Lots of thud thud thuding of her fingertips tapping her bulging stomach. He tries to focus. He comes up with Brynn, because he knows that her last name meant something to her. She gave it up for him, but he wants to still give their kid part of who Kensi's father had been. But he doesn't tell her about the Brynn idea. It sounds stupid in his head. Plus, its not like they have to make up their minds right this instant.

She suggests that they move on to boy names. He immediately offers, "Donald, for your dad," but her answer wasn't what he expected.

"No way. Donald Deeks? He'd get laughed into next week." He gives her a look to ask if she's really sure about not wanting her father's name, but she gives him a nod back. He doesn't put the name on the list.

This pause is a long one, longer than the pause while think of girl names. After a century, she finally says, "I've got one."

He picks the pencil up to write whatever she says, and she wasn't expecting her to say Maxwell.

In fact, he hadn't realized what she said until he'd already written the first three letters. MAX. The three letters stared at him. He looks up at her, and she interrupts his silence. "Hear me out."

So he does.

"First off, his name would be Maxwell, not Max. He'd probably have Max as a nickname, but you could always call him Maxwell if you need to. Second, we're Max and Fern. Max does not mean destruction, Max doesn't mean evil and anger. Max does not mean everything bad you can remember doing or saying. Max means love."

It sinks into him. She's giving him the chance to let Max go. Max Gentry can disappear, Maxwell Deeks can change his life.

"A chance to start over," he whispered. "To change the meaning of Max. To make it a good thing."

"Now you're talking," Kensi smiles.

He adds the last four letters to Max. He writes Deeks after it. Maxwell Deeks. Maxwell Deeks. Maxwell Deeks.

He stares at it for a while. "Do you like it?"

He looks up at her, his honesty showing on his face. "I think I do."

"Well, we don't have to decide today. Hell, we might even have a girl."

"If its a girl, we're not naming her Maxine."

She nods, "I can agree to that."

She pushes herself up off of the couch and grabs his hand. He throws the clipboard down on the couch.

"Lets go find out," she says.

It was then only about an hour later that Kensi was lying in the office with the cold gel on her stomach. His hand is all tangled up in hers as the technician presses the 'wand' to her skin. The image appears on the screen, and both Kensi and Deeks are on the edge of their seats. The technician smiles and slides it around on the gel for a few more seconds, and finally makes her declaration. "You're having a boy!"

He chuckles. He's still scared as hell, but he's happy. He finds her lips and kisses her, but both of them are so happy that they can't stop chuckling long enough to kiss properly.

And its only just begun.