A/N: A little angsty Roberta and Deeks fic.

"Ok, so the liquor shipment comes in on the first Tuesday of the month morning, the rest of the supplies are every other week, and‒"

"Honey, I've got this," Deeks' mom interrupted, giving him a fondly exasperated look. "I know how things run." It was true, she'd picked up the slack a lot since Kensi convinced him to hire her. He still wasn't sure it was a great idea to leave her in charge without any supervision.

"I'm just worried that it's a lot to keep track of."

"I promise I'll take good care of things while you're away." She patted his shoulder and then started prepping the cash register.

"Mm, yeah, well, I might not be gone all that long," he muttered darkly, arching an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that?" Roberta asked, turning back around with a concerned look. "You said the program is three months."

"I'm old mom. Everybody at FLETC is going to be in their 20s, maybe 30s. The chances that I get through the whole three months are not great."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, age means nothing. Just look at me." She made a dismissive sound and gestured vaguely in his direction. "Of course you're going to make it!"

"I haven't been doing so great lately," he sighed, feeling that same sense of failure that he had for the last couple months. "I mean, I lost my job, I'm probably going to lose our bar, and…well, you know the rest, mom."

He started to get up, intending to go to the back room. There were bills-which he really didn't want to think about-to take care of. His mom grabbed his arm before he could fully stand and pushed him back down.

"Woah, where do you think you're going? You can't just leave after unloading something like that," she said, planting her hands on her hips. "Marty, you can't help it that the police department decided to cut your position. It had nothing to do with the quality of your work. And the bar was closed for months by city mandate. There was nothing you could do about that either.

"It was already failing before we had to close." He grabbed a clean glass off the table and tossed it in the air a couple times, resisting the urge to smash it against something. "I'm actually thinking maybe we should just close it before it loses even more money."

"Martin Atticus Deeks, that is enough," his mom snapped. His head jerked up and he was surprised to find her glaring at him. "You snap yourself out of this pity party right now."

"Mom-"

"No, I'm serious. I won't stand here and let you convince yourself that you're going to fail and not become an agent." He rubbed his forehead, trying to maintain his composure.

"You can't just demand that I not fail at something, mama," he said doggedly.

"Oh, yes I can," she said firmly. "I refuse to believe that the little boy who stood up to his own father and despite a hundred obstacles standing in his way, managed him to become the wonderful, successful man standing in front of me right now is any kind of failure."

A lump suddenly formed in his throat and had to fight against the tears threatening to fill his eyes.

"I don't want to disappoint everyone." He shook his head, remembering everything he stood to lose if he did. "I can't. And it's all I can think about some days."

Roberta's face lost some of its fierceness and she crossed over to him, stooping to fold him in her arms.

"Kiddo, you're not going to disappoint anyone. I think everybody's incredibly proud of you. I know I am." He couldn't keep the tears back at that's he held her as tightly as he could.

"Thanks, mom," he murmured.

"Any day," Roberta told him, patting him firmly on the back. "Now you're u should go home, because a little birdy told me Kensi's getting done early. You two could probably use some time alone."

Chuckling at her well-meant meddling, kissed the top of her head, and nodded. His worries hadn't magically disappeared, he didn't think they ever would, but he felt better for finally telling someone other than Kensi.