Deeks found himself tossing and turning most of the night even though his eyes burned with exhaustion. His conversation with Don kept running through his mind every time he got anywhere close to sleep, followed by worry for Kensi. Finally, he dozed off into a restless sleep somewhere around five.
He dreamed he was in the middle of the ocean with Kensi. The sun was bright and hot above, perfect waves around them. Then Kensi started paddling away from him, the waves carrying her out from the short. He shouted to her, trying to catch up, to bring her back. She shouted something back, but it was lost over the sound of the waves, and the in the blink of an eye, she disappeared in a massive wave.
Deeks woke up with a gasp, flailing in the sheets and quilt twisted around his body. It took a couple moments to register that he was in his dark bedroom, and not bright blue water. The air felt thick and sticky around him; the window AC unit must have gone out again. Grimacing, he peeled the sweat-dampened sheet off his body.
He considered trying to get back to sleep, but a couple of loud crashes and thumps caught his attention. Dragging himself out of bed, he followed the clunking to the bathroom, and found his mom bent over the tub, scrubbing ruthlessly at the enamel.
"Mom?" he croaked out, rubbing the back of his hand over his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Morning, kiddo. This bathroom is a mess. I haven't cleaned it in weeks," she said.
"It's 6:30 in the morning. And I cleaned everything last week."
"Oh, sweetie, did I wake you up?" Abandoning her task for a moment, she stood to examine his face with a gloved hand. "You look awful. Why don't you go back to sleep?"
Deeks sighed internally; he should have expected this. Every so often, Roberta's guilt got the better of her, and she tried to make up for her perceived shortcomings.
"You didn't wake me up, I just had a weird dream. You should be sleeping too."
"Honey, I've gotten by on a lot less sleep than this. When you were a baby—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You didn't get a full night of sleep until I was three," he interrupted the familiar story. "Mom, you've working non-stop all week."
"Oh, you're one to talk," she shot back, dropping her hands to fist over her hips. She glared at him for a second, then sighed. "Let's not spend the little bit of time we have together arguing, ok? I'll finish in here and then we can have some breakfast and catch up."
He truly hadn't intended to start a fight again. It probably would help if he had actually slept
"Ok. Sorry, mama." Leaning in he kissed her cheek. "I'm gonna go shower, and then get started on breakfast."
Roberta didn't insist she could handle cooking, so he figured it was her attempt at a peace offering.
Their second bathroom was little more than a closet with a shower stall, but the warm water made him feel slightly more human, helping to wake him up and soothe some lingering aches from work. When he was done, he headed into the kitchen to figure out something for a suitable breakfast. His mom must have gotten a decent paycheck this week, because he found a carton of eggs, cheese, milk, and some produce in the fridge that weren't there when he got home last night. There was also a pound of ground beef and chicken thighs each, but he didn't even think of touching those.
After a little bit of consideration, Deeks decided on an omelet to split between the two of them. He diced up part of an onion, and sautéed it with a healthy dash of salt, pepper, and paprika from a little jar they'd had for as long as he could remember. His mom had taught him early on that seasoning was key if they didn't have much food or had to eat the same things repeatedly.
Once everything was nicely caramelized, he beat three eggs and added them to a clean pan. After eating at Kensi's house so often recently, it didn't look like all that much, but it was a feast compared to other times throughout his childhood. His mom still hadn't come out when the omelet was done, so he popped it into the oven with a lid to keep warm.
It wasn't quite 7:30 yet, but he had to wonder if Kensi was up yet. If she felt anything like he did, she wouldn't be sleeping in today. Deciding to take advantage of his mom's continued absence, he grabbed the phone and punched in Kensi's number, sinking down in the small space between the fridge and counter.
It rang several times before cutting off abruptly mid-ring and Kensi answered with a breathless,
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Deeks."
"Oh thank god. I've been waiting for you to call for hours," she said, sounding extremely relieved. "Did my dad yell at you? He said he didn't, but he was pretty upset."
"No, he didn't yell. He just made me feel about two inches tall."
"Yeah, he's really good at that."
"What about you? Are you allowed to leave the house?"
"Yes," Kensi sighed. "I've just got the stupid driving restriction." He practically heard her rolling her eyes. Deeks smiled at the derision in her voice. Kensi wasn't disrespectful to her dad often, but when she was, she didn't hold back.
"Hey, it could have been worse," he pointed out.
"Yeah. I'm really sorry about pulling you in on my stupid plan," she said, sounding actually guilty for the first time. "I didn't think about how much trouble you could have gotten in."
"Kens, are you kidding me? How many times have you talked me out of one of Ray's stupid plans? This didn't even break the top ten," he disagreed. Now that he'd confirmed for himself that she wasn't still as upset as last night, most of his worry had disappeared.
As long as Kensi was reasonably happy, he was happy. Or close enough.
"Oh my god, don't remind me about those," she groaned. "I'll get mad all over again. Seriously though, don't let me take advantage of you again."
"Now you're just being ridiculous."
"Deeks."
"Fine. In the event that I ever feel that you are taking advantage of me, which is a very slim possibility, then I will put an immediate stop to it."
"You're an ass," Kensi said, but it sounded like she was trying not to laugh. "So, do you want to risk incurring my father's wrath and come over later?"
"Uh, I'd love to, but both my mom and I have most the day off. We're probably going to spend most the day together cleaning and stuff. You can come join us if you want," Deeks offered, already anticipating Kensi's response.
"Cleaning you say? Oh no, I just remembered this super important think I have to do," she said, just as he'd expected.
"Kensi's mortal enemy: the broom."
"Shut up. I'll see you tomorrow then."
Kensi hung up, and Deeks replaced the receiver, pushing himself up from the floor with a groan. Well, now he had one less thing to worry about.
Kensi crossed the street, her destination a large municipal building. What should have taken only 20 minutes, if she'd been allowed to drive, had taken nearly an hour between waiting for and taking the bus. A week into her driving ban, and she was feeling decidedly confined.
She pushed one of the heavy doors open, walking into a large room with gray and white walls and a row of partitioned desks. A few people were already waiting, and she joined the end of the line. The woman directly in front of her looked back, eyes running up and down Kensi. Kensi offered her a reassuring smile, but she just frowned, and turned back around.
Fantastic. Deeks would pull this off so much better than her. He had a natural ability to adapt to almost any situation, and play a given part.
With every minute that passed, Kensi grew antsier, unable to stop from tugging at her bottom lip or fiddle with the cuticle around her left thumb. Finally, one of the employees called for Kensi to step forward.
"What can I help you with, honey?" the woman asked, giving Kensi a motherly smile.
"Yes, I'd like to pay down the water bill for Roberta Deeks," Kensi said with as much authority as she could. She'd practiced the same line a dozen times on the bus ride over. The woman in front of her eyed Kensi with a raised brow, but didn't question it, turning to rifle through a filing cabinet drawer.
"Can you tell me the home address for your account?" the woman asked when she returned with a file.
Kensi rattled off the address without pause, hoping that they didn't get into too many more personal details. She knew Deeks' phone number and Roberta's birthday, but that pretty much exhausted the limits of her personal knowledge.
"Alright, looks like we have a balance of $123." Peering over the top of her glasses, the woman glanced at Kensi expectantly. "Are you paying with cash or check?"
"Cash." Reaching into her purse, Kensi pulled out a white envelope and carefully counted out six 20's and three 1's before sliding it all across the counter. She saw the woman's lip twitch with a smile as she double checked the amount, and then recorded the amount in a ledger.
"Very good. Let me go get you a receipt."
Kensi was half-tempted to leave before she ran out of luck and someone decided to ask for her name or age. The woman finally returned with a yellow slip of paper, which Kensi took without reading.
"Thank you, have a nice day," she mumbled, hurrying back out. As she rushed across the street again, she imagined Deeks laughing at her. She'd accomplished her mission though, mistakes aside.
Now Deeks had one less bill to worry about. It was well worth the raiding her money from umpiring to pay for it.
A/N: So, what do you think of Kensi's plan?