Hetty looked at her two guilty looking agents and then down at the mess on the floor.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Deeks tried.
Hetty arched an eyebrow and looked pointedly around them. There were weights everywhere on the floor, like someone had just dropped a whole crate of them from the ceiling, the weight rack itself was on its side - inexplicably in the middle of the mat and the water bottles were artfully placed amongst all this mess with their lids off. Which meant there was also water everywhere.
She brought her gaze back up to her two now shuffling agents. Well, an agent and a detective but that was a mouthful and Mr Deeks was as good as any agent anyway.
"Okay," he amended. "Maybe it is as bad as it looks."
He didn't bother elaborating on it. Kensi smacked her forehead. Which sounded painful. To be fair, the mess pretty much spoke for itself. Hetty would really be worried about her deductive skills if she couldn't figure out what had happened. But still. She wanted to hear their version of events. If only for her own personal amusement. Mr Deeks did have quite the engaging storytelling style.
"Well, it's a long story."
"I have time, Mr Deeks."
Of course, she did. There was never time when you needed it and too much of it when you would really rather there not be. And Hetty suspected for these two miscreants of hers the latter applied.
"Deeks!" Kensi said in a warning tone, which he paid no heed to (as usual).
"Come on, I bet you can't land a hit on me," Deeks taunted, arms poised and ready.
Kensi, on the other hand, wasn't moving. Just staring at him. With a very unimpressed look on her face. Deeks danced around her a bit, making fake jabs at her. Still no reaction. He lowered his arms and pouted at her.
"Oh, come on!"
"We are meant to be weight training."
"No, I'm meant to be weight training," he corrected her. "You just want to stand around watching me flex my muscles."
"It's called spotting you."
Uh huh. If that's what she wanted to call it.
"Whatever you say, Kensalina."
Ignoring his taunts, Kensi patted the rack.
"Let's get started then."
"I don't want to do weights anymore."
"You made me help you drag them all the way to the middle of the floor. You're doing weights."
"But sparring is so much more fun!"
She raised an eyebrow. "Me kicking your ass is fun?"
Hey, she didn't always kick his ass. Just most of the time. But that still meant that sometimes he beat her!
"Yes?" He tried.
She snorted that adorable snort of hers.
"Okay, I'll spar," she agreed.
He looked at her in amazement, unable to believe that she had given in that easily.
"You're going to spar?" he asked.
"That's what I said."
"Right now?"
"Uh huh."
That didn't make him suspicious at all. Especially with the way his partner was smirking at him. Don't get him wrong, it was hot as hell but also incredibly worrying. It normally meant pain for him.
"Right now?" he checked, unashamedly stalling his butt off.
"Right now," Kensi confirmed, taking a fake jab at him that made him flinch.
"Well, it doesn't have to be right now," he told her, taking a cautious step to the side.
He knew she was more likely to pounce forwards so maybe going to the side would buy him a bit of time. He was definitely having second thoughts about this whole sparring business.
"Oh, don't want to spar anymore?" she taunted.
"Of course, I do," Deeks retorted, hoping his hesitance didn't show in his voice. "Though, I'm not seeing a lot of sparring."
That was almost definitely one of the stupidest things that had come out of his mouth. Especially when Kensi had both fists in the air and was on the balls of her feet ready to strike.
"Oh, I'll show you sparring..."
Deeks didn't even get a chance to react as Kensi lunged at him and he fell back-
"And that is how I brought down the entire display of weights," Deeks finished, then gave his partner a look. "Well, more how we took them down."
Kensi elbowed him. Deeks winced. "Ok, just me."
"I see."
Deeks grinned charmingly at her. In vain but it was worth the attempt. A solid seven. Maybe a seven and a half. He thought he saw the corner of her lips twitched so it was higher than a six.
"Is your back okay, Mr Deeks?"
"My back?" he queried, looking around them. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I didn't land on them or anything. I just tried to grab it as I went down but I upended it instead."
He couldn't help but wince at the thought of landing on the weights. That would not have been good at all. Uncomfortable wouldn't exactly cover it. Excruciatingly painful more like. His back twinged in sympathy at the thought. And, you know, in actual pain. Because although he hadn't landed on them, smacking your body against a stand of weights still hurt.
"Are you sure that neither of you need any medical attention?"
"Just for our pride," Kensi quipped.
Their boss looked at them and then nodded sharply. Deeks breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like they weren't going to get in any trouble over this. Hetty was walking away in clear dismissal which meant no scolding or punishment!
"I expect all of these to be tidied and put into their proper place," she informed them without looking back.
"Of course," they both agreed quickly.
They definitely knew better than to leave a mess like this lying around. Hetty would never let them forget it.
"That's it?" Kensi asked as Hetty reached for the door handle.
Now it was Deeks' turn to elbow her.
"Shhh, if that's all we have to do, don't complain!"
Her eyes widened in realisation and she nodded her head.
"We'll get right on that, Hetty."