For today's prompt: Densi after a bad case.

Kensi found Deeks' truck in the Squid and the Dagger parking lot. He'd disappeared while she was typing up her report. She wasn't mad that he'd left without telling her, but she was worried.

Their case today had not ended well; three innocent people had died and there was nothing any of them could do about it. Deeks had taken it particularly hard, clearly more so than she'd realized if he'd ended up here.

It was after hours so the place was empty, other than Deeks who sat at the bar, his head hung low between his shoulders. Kensi approached him silently, resting a hand on his shoulder as she took in the bottle of liquor and glass next to his elbow. It wasn't their finest stuff, but it would certainly get the job done if Deeks was looking to get drunk.

Deeks' shoulder twitching minutely beneath her hand was his only response.

"Are you ok," she asked.

"Yup," he responded through his teeth and threw pack a shot of what Kensi saw on closer inspection was actually scotch. It wasn't like Deeks to drink excessively, even in times of stress.

"This isn't going to fix anything, baby," she murmured and he let his face fall into his heads. He scrubbed them over his skin and hair before replying.

"I hate cases like this." His voice sounded bitter and sad.

"I know, me too." She started running her fingers over his neck in soothing circles.

"I felt so helpless, Kensi," he whispered, finally turning to face her. She swore there were creases around his eyes that hadn't been there that morning. His expression was heartbreaking and reawakened her own distress. It was days like these when she hated what they did, the days when no matter how hard they tried, they didn't save the day.

Wordlessly, she pulled Deeks into her arms, hoping to comfort them both. He held her tight against his chest, burying his head in her neck. She felt him breathing slowly and deeply for several moments and then he pulled back, settling her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going. Or think about how you were feeling. This has to be tearing you up too," he whispered, sounding angry with himself.

"It's ok. I understand. You needed a minute to think." He sighed and scrubbed at his eyes, looking a lot more like himself than he had a few minutes ago.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do," she answered honestly. "But right now I'm more worried about you."

"I'm fine." Kensi ran her fingers through his hair again and held his gaze.

"Babe, you're sitting in a dark, empty bar drinking $10 scotch by yourself. I think that's the very definition of not ok," Kensi told him and Deeks closed his eyes for a second.

"I swear I wasn't going to get drunk, I just needed something to take the edge off," he promised.

"And I believe you. I just don't want you drinking alone. Not like this." Deeks nodded, sighing deeply again.

"Let's go home," he said, pressing a distracted kiss to the side of her head. Even though he was trying hard to act normally, she knew his mind was still on the case.

"Tomorrow will be better," Kensi reassured him, even though she wasn't sure she fully believed it.

"God, I hope so," he said fervently.