SUNDAY - MID-MORNING

KENSI FLASHBACK CONTINUED

FRIDAY 0010

"Yeah, who is this?"

"Tiffany. Tiffany Williams."

Kensi asks what's wrong, and Tiffany launches into a story about a boyfriend who's getting more and more angry, more and more aggressive, more and more violent.

"I think he's going to kill me," she says in a panic.

"No one is going to let that happen."

"Where's Deeks?"

"He's working tonight, he won't be back until morning."

"I'm afraid."

Kensi is up and out of bed, putting the phone on speaker and putting on the jeans that Deeks discarded at the foot of the bed four hours ago. "Come to our place. Just leave," Kensi tells her.

"It's more complicated than that," Tiffany tells her.

"If you're in danger, you need to get out of there."

"Kensi, I can't."

"Send your address. I'm coming to you."

Tiffany agrees and hangs up. Kensi finishes getting dressed. She sees the nighttime cold medicine Deeks left for her on her nightstand and leaves it there. Rummaging through the medicine cabinet she finds something touted as non-drowsy and takes the required dose. She hears a text come in on Deeks' phone and forwards it to her own. She puts his phone back on the nightstand, grabs her badge and her SIG, and heads to the car.

She drives to Tiffany's address. It's new. She didn't live there the last time she and Deeks spoke to her, but if she's being honest, it had been a long time – at least eighteen months. At some point Tiffany got a new boyfriend and started spending her time with him and they all just fell out of touch. Kensi is hit by a moment of guilt, realizing that Tiffany was in trouble and they didn't even know.

The drive is fifteen minutes. Kensi momentarily worries this is a bad idea. When she gets to the house, and looks in the windows, she sees Tiffany pacing inside. She knocks and Tiffany opens the door, grabbing Kensi's arm and pulling her inside.

"OK, so tell me what's going on," Kensi instructs, and Tiffany tells her story. She sits and stands and paces. She starts at the beginning.

How she met Michael Salazar, how attentive and exciting he seemed at first. How it didn't take long before he got protective, and then went from protective to possessive. Then possessive to obsessive, and obsessive to rough. She talked about moving in with him too early, becoming afraid to say no to him, being afraid of him in general.

Then she told him that she wanted to break up, and rough moved to violent.

"We need to get you out of here. Let's go upstairs, pack a few things and go."

That was when Kensi heard the baby cry.

Just the sound makes Tiffany tense. She lights a cigarette. She looks sheepishly at Kensi, as if she has something to be embarrassed by.

Kensi crosses to where Tiffany stands and takes her shoulders, steadying her.

"You have a baby?" Kensi asks her, and Tiffany just nods.

Kensi pulls her into a hug, congratulating her, but Tiffany squirms out of the embrace.

"Michael is dangerous, I can't leave her with him, and I can't take her on the run – if he finds me, he'll kill us for sure."

Kensi's hands pulse a motion in front of Tiffany to tell her to pump the breaks on the panic.

"Deeks and I would never let that happen. We're going to pack some things for you, some things for her, and you guys will come stay with us while we get a plan together. We'll get a restraining order, we'll get a ruling to keep him away … Deeks will know what to do, and he'll be home in the morning."

Tiffany almost believes it. She leans back into Kensi as a tear slips down her cheek. Then she heads upstairs to settle the baby back down to sleep. It takes longer than Kensi expects, but then Kensi has nothing to compare it to. By the time Tiffany gets back downstairs it's closing in on 2AM.

"When do you expect Michael home?"

Tiffany looks at her watch. "Around 4AM," she tells her.

"Plenty of time," Kensi encourages. Then she gives Tiffany instructions. "You need to grab any papers, any identification, any bank information, any credit cards, anything he could use to track you. We'll get all of it out of the house tonight."

Tiffany just nods. She grabs a shopping bag and goes to a drawer or two, pulling out a few things.

"There isn't much. Most of it isn't here, I keep it somewhere else."

Kensi rubs her hand on Tiffany's back as encouragement, and Tiffany turns and looks at her.

"You never judge me. Never ask me how I get into these situations, how I became a hooker, never ask me about me and Deeks. You make me feel like a person." There's a little wonder in her voice, and tears in her eyes, and Kensi takes a few minutes to encourage her.

"You are an actual person. People end up in bad situations. People made choices, or don't have any choices. You're going to be ok. We're going to get your feet back under you." When Tiffany seems skeptical Kensi reaches back into her own past. She tells Tiffany about living on the street. She doesn't try to compare their circumstance, just encourage her that there's life on the other side.

They move upstairs, into the master bedroom and grab a small duffle bag.

"Don't make it obvious that you're leaving. Only take what you need for few days. If he thinks you're coming back it will buy us a little time."

Tiffany nods and makes some choices. When the bag is ready Kensi takes it and the shopping bag from earlier and brings them to her car. She comes back in, drops the keys on the coffee table and heads back upstairs to help Tiffany.

Tiffany moves into the baby's room, and Kensi tiptoes inside to help.

"They sleep through a lot. You don't need to be so careful," Tiffany points out. Tiffany fills a small bag with what Kensi assumes are baby essentials. Tiffany is just about to pick up the sleeping girl when they hear voices and motion downstairs.

"Time to finish our conversation, Tif," Michael yells as he enters the house. Tiffany starts to shake at the sound of his voice. She's silent, and he continues. "You want to leave me? You think that I'm going to let you leave me? Better guess again." After a moment of silence, he yells even louder. "Get down here, bitch, I'm talking to you."

Tiffany leaves the baby where she is and heads down the stairs, Kensi right behind her with her hand on the grip of her SIG.

"Who the hell is this?"

"I'm a friend of Tiffany's," Kensi answers, moving forward and using her arm to corral Tiffany behind her. "Tiffany and the baby and I are going to take a little ride." Without ever losing eye contact with Michael and his two friends Kensi gives Tiffany instructions. "Go get the baby and an overnight bag for her and come back."

"Over my dead body," Michael says.

"Doesn't need to go down like that," Kensi warns.

"If you are going to try to stand between me and that woman, it will."

Tiffany turns and runs for the baby's room, and Michael makes a move for the stairs. Kensi makes herself big on the stairs to be an impediment. One of Michael's friends draws a gun. He points it at Kensi who begins retreating up to the second floor.

"Go," Salazar tells his friend, and the one with the gun out takes the lead. Kensi's reflexes surprise him, and she kicks him down the stairs. When the second friend draws his gun, Kensi makes for the upstairs hallway. He takes a shot at her as she ducks out of the hallway and she feels a gunshot fly by, hitting something that shatters on the wall. Kensi returns fire, hearing one of them go down. She makes her way back to the nursery, and gives more instructions to Tiffany, who is on the edge of coming completely undone.

"Take the baby and get in the closet," Kensi barks, realizing for the first time she doesn't even know the baby's name. Tiffany is in shock, and not thinking straight. Tiffany runs at the crib. She picks up the baby, but as the footsteps get louder she puts the baby against Kensi's chest, two hands pushing the child at the unprepared agent.

"Tiffany!" Kensi yells, but they are out of time. Kensi wraps her left arm around the baby and holds it close to her body. Tiffany runs for the closet and throws her body to the floor, precipitating a grunt of aggravation from Kensi. It's like having one hand tied behind her back, except it's in front, she has to shield it from danger, and it's screaming at her. The door to the room flies open and Kensi twists her body to the side, putting the baby as far from the danger as she can. Kensi extends her weapon at the approaching man, and feels the bullet hit her at the same time she hears the shot, making her stumble but staying up.

Her reaction is right on target. She unloads three bullets into Michael and watches him fall to the floor. She approaches the door, peaking out into the hallway. The third man sees her, and reaches into his coat pocket. Kensi fires a shot to put him down. As he falls to the floor, she sees him pull the pin on a grenade and throw it. A labored toss bounces once in the hallway and enters the room. Kensi kicks it back into the hallway. With her gun hand, she slams the door with all the strength she has in one arm.

There is no more than a beat before she hears the grenade goes off, and although Kensi is trying to put distance between her and the door, she doesn't get far enough. The concussion of the blast knocks the door off the hinges, and it hits Kensi in the back and the head, knocking her to the ground. Every fiber of her is aware of the little life she holds in her arms. She rolls to make sure she takes the brunt of impact with the floor.

Her head feels like it's going to explode. Her side feels like there's a knife jabbing a hole into her. The baby is screaming, and she squints as she looks at it to make sure it's ok. She wants to speak to her, to soothe her, but everything is coming in and out of focus, and the periphery of her vision is being taken over by an expanding field of black.

She sees Tiffany kneel down beside her.

END FLASHBACK

Deeks isn't sure he's breathing. He's glad he was sitting, because listening to Kensi remember the lost seven hours sapped every bit of his strength.

He tries to temper his anger for Tiffany. How could she put Kensi in danger like that? How could she leave her baby like that? How could she walk away and leave Kensi bleeding on the floor, the baby screaming, and just go? After everything that he's done for Tiffany, was this how she repaid him? He tries to be reasonable – she wasn't trained for danger, she was afraid for her life, she didn't know what was going to happen. Panic can happen to anyone.

The good news is this – it's mid-day on Sunday, and they know what happened. The team will put a full court press on to find Tiffany, and the story gives a reasonable explanation of events that doesn't involve Kensi being a kidnapper. It should at least get LAPD off their back.

The care team brings Kensi back to her room, and the doctor isn't gone a second before Deeks takes hold of her hand, kissing it and then hugging this woman he loves so much.

"You did great, baby. With remembering what happened and back at the house. I'm so sorry I wasn't there to have your back."

"I didn't imagine it would go like that or I would have called Ops right away."

"I know. I know."

"Have you heard from Tiffany? Is she ok?"

He shakes his head. "She didn't reach out, but now the whole team is looking. We'll find her."

"I don't even know the baby's name."

He leans over and kisses her on the head. "We'll figure it out." She makes space and he comes to sit with her, holding her hand.

"She belongs to you and Deeks now. You're a family." Kensi says as though it's just coming to her. "That's what Tiffany said when she leaned over and talked to me. "She bent down and gathered my hair off my face and she said 'she belongs to you and Deeks now. You're a family'. Why would she say that?

It all makes sense to Deeks now. That was the source of Kensi's fleeting thought that the baby was theirs.

"Maybe she thought she wasn't going to make it. Maybe she was going into shock. She doesn't handle dangerous situations particularly well."

"We need to find her, Deeks."