A/N: Thanks so much for all your thoughtful comments on the last chapter. It looks like notifications are messed up again, so I'm not getting emails and you won't get them either until the issue is fixed. I'll still try to respond to reviews as I can.

"Is one of your parents home? Looks pretty dark in there," Officer Hanna observed as he stopped in front of the Deeks home. Deeks slid further down in his seat, hoping to avoid too many neighbors seeing him.

"My mom's working a double tonight," he answered reluctantly. "She won't be back until the morning."

Officer Hanna sighed, and rubbed his hand over his jaw. "Ok. Any other adults around who will keep an eye on you and make sure you don't do anything foolish?"

Deeks started to shake his head, then stopped abruptly as a terrible idea occurred to him. Mr. Blye was likely home by now, or would be soon. He could only imagine what would happen if he showed up in a cop car, but the alternative would probably involve a stay at the police station instead, and that sounded even less pleasant.

"Um, another friend's dad might be home."

"Is he responsible?"

"He's in the military."

"Good. Sound like just what what you need right now," Hanna told him, and despite everything, Deeks almost rolled his eyes. He still gave him Kensi's address, hunching until they'd driven out of his neighborhood.

"You know, I don't do these kinds of things. I'm not looking for trouble, or to take the east way out," Deeks told Hanna. He didn't know why he felt the need to explain himself. For a cop, he'd been surprisingly forgiving and understanding, but Deeks hated the idea of yet another person forming the same old opinions of him. "I have a job, and I go to school. I'm doing everything I can, man." He made a bitter sound. "Not that it matters most of the time."

"Hey, I don't believe in pity parties," Hanna said, alternating between glancing at Deeks momentarily and watching the road. "From the little bit I've seen, you don't have the easiest life, which means you will have to work harder to fight against all of that."

"Sometimes I get really sick of fighting."

"Believe me, I know. You can do it though. You just need to stay away from people like that other friend of yours

"Yeah, right," Deeks murmured. He already knew he'd messed up; he didn't need a lecture from a guy who'd known him for less than an hour.

"Now remember this was your one warning. I ever catch you doing anything that illegal again, and I will throw your scrawny butt in jail. Or the equivalent," Hanna confused.

Deeks nodded to show he'd heard, and understood, and quickly opened the squad car door. Officer Hanna accompanied him up the sidewalk, and to the door. In his haste to avoid seeing the inside of a jail cell, he hadn't considered what would happen if Kensi answered the door instead of her dad. He wasn't sure which would be worse.

Fortunately, Mr. Blye was the one to answer. His face flashed from confusion to concern in a matter of seconds as he glanced to Deeks.

"Marty, what's going on?"

"I'm Officer Hanna. I found your young friend here in a rough part of town," he explained to Deeks' surprise. "Said one of his friends was in trouble. I offered to take him home before he got himself in trouble too.

"I see," Don said, and Deeks dipped his head in shame. Maybe the police station would have been better after all. "Is he being charged with anything?"

"No. Just if you could keep him in for the rest of the night. Make sure he doesn't try to help any other friends."

"I definitely will," Don assured him. "Thank you for looking out for him."

"Of course." He tapped Deeks' shoulder with the back of his hand. "Hey kid, it you ever need advice, call me." Officer Hanna handed him a business card, and Deeks slowly took it. "Have a good night."

Donald Blye closed the door behind him, turning to face Deeks, who fidgeted under his gaze.

"I'm assuming the friend was your pal Ray?"

"Can I plead the fifth?" Deeks whispered.

Don nodded, settling a hand on his hip. "That answers that question. Whatever you got into, are you gonna do it again?"

"No, sir," Deeks replied adamantly.

"Ok then." Sighing, he ran his hand over his short hair. "Sit down and I'll make you some soup."

Kensi practically ran into the house as soon as her dad pulled into the garage. He'd told her on the drive that Deeks would be spending the night—something that hadn't happened since Roberta Deeks had a brief hospital stay. Otherwise he clammed up, vaguely repeating that Deeks just needed a place to sleep.

When they walked in, Deeks sat on the couch, one leg tucked under him as he chewed on his bottom lip and stared at the TV. It was currently on some infomercial for tube socks with built in lights, so she didn't think he was actually paying attention.

His eyes flicked to her for a second, but otherwise, he acted like it was perfectly normal for him to be there. Her dad hung his keys up, moving around the room, though she noticed his gaze kept drifting back to Deeks.

"Are you hungry, Kens? There's some vegetable soup."

"Nope, I already ate," she said. "We'll be upstairs." Grabbing Deeks arm, she dragging him off the couch towards her bedroom before her dad could say anything else. Deeks didn't protest, didn't say anything, which was just another oddity to add to the list.

"Ok, spill. Why were you here without me while my dad keeps looking like you're about to explode?" Kensi demanded as soon as she had her bedroom door shut. "He said you're staying the night."

Blowing out a short breath, Deeks pursed his lips, lowering himself to the edge of her bed. The last few days he'd been looking better; now he looked more exhausted than ever. There was a heaviness to his shoulders too that Kensi didn't like.

"Ray asked me to come help get out of a situation while I was at work," he said slowly. That wasn't a promising start, but she held back her immediate reaction.

"Ok. A situation as in he forgot to buy more milk?"

"No, the kind that you don't want to know more about."

"Oh my god," Kensi muttered. Her anger was directed towards Ray, but Deeks lowered his head a little in response.

"He asked me to come help him. Pulled a bunch of crap on me about being my best friend, and I caved like an idiot," he continued, bitterness and disgust in his voice. Kensi realized a few seconds too late that it was directed towards himself.

She sat down next to him, covering his hand with hers. "Hey, stop that. You're not the one who keeps getting himself caught up in illegal stuff."

"Yeah, I just keep letting him chin me into helping him out."

It didn't seem like her attempts to reassure him were doing any good, so she moved on.

"Ok, that still doesn't explain how you ended up here," she prompted. Deeks tilted his chin up, looking toward the ceiling. She wished he would just look at her.

"When we were about to leave, this cop showed up, and uh, he picked me up," he said woodenly.

"What?! Kensi exclaimed, jumping without thinking. "Oh my god, Deeks are you ok? What happened?"

"Yes, I'm ok," Deeks assured her quickly. He gently took her by the shoulder, looking at her fully for the first time. Even now, he was more worried about her than himself. "He said he'd let me off with a warning and take me home. Since my mom's at work, I asked him to take me here." He shrugged miserably. "At the time, it seemed better than the alternative. Your dad offered, well more like told me, I should spend the night."

"I'm glad you did." And she was. Deeks hadn't said it outright, but she pictured him in some jail cell or wherever they put minors for the night. It made her want to shudder. "What happened to Ray?"

"I don't know." He made a sound that could have been a strained laugh or almost a sob. "I just can't believe I screwed up this much. I promised myself I wouldn't let anything like this happen."

Kensi's heart ached for him. She didn't have any appeasing words or reassurances that would make it better, so she did the only thing she could think of. She sat next to Deeks again, so close that his leg pressed against hers, and folded her arms around him.

Deeks twisted to face her, burying his face in her shoulder. He shuddered against her, not crying, but shaking with everything he'd gone through.

"It's gonna be ok." She stroked her fingers through his hair and down his back. Deeks tried to ease back after a couple minutes. Kensi only let him move far enough to see his face.

"Thanks." He sniffed a couple times, his eyes red but dry.

"For you, anytime," she told him, wanting nothing more than to make the tired, sad look in his eyes go away. "C'mon, let's go make up the bed in the extra room. Then maybe we can watch a movie and convince dad to make his famous caramel corn."

Deeks managed a weak smile, untangling his limbs from hers.

"I don't know, are near criminals allowed caramel corn?" he asked, and Kensi almost choked in surprise.

"They are in this house," she decided.

Deeks got home a little before seven the next morning. Despite his protests, Don had not only insisted on serving Deeks breakfast, but also driving him home on his way to work.

While Deeks appreciated it, he couldn't help feeling like he was using up all his good will with the Blye family. Eventually, they'd get tired of him eating all their food and showing up with problems.

He dragged himself into the house, robotically going through the routine that he should have done last night. There were a few dishes in the sink, a basket of dirty laundry in the corner. He noticed a flashing light on the voicemail machine, and pressed the replay button, hoping he hadn't missed a message from his mom.

"Marty, please tell me you didn't get arrested too," Ray's slightly distorted voice said. Deeks groaned. Of course Ray had gotten himself arrested. They're booking me for breaking and entering. You gotta bail me out or call a lawyer or something," Ray continued in a lower, desperate tone.

"You gotta be kidding me." Shaking his head, Deeks pressed delete, and headed for his room. He didn't have the energy to even consider the request, or the anger burbling underneath his exhaustion.