A/N: Here is the third and final part of Frozen.
When we were last with Densi, they were facing impending hypothermia and Deeks had just suggested naked cuddling.
"Deeks, this is not a time for jokes," Kensi sighed, or she tried to. It came out as more of a croak, her throat dry and hoarse from the cold. Each word made her throat ache, like it was being tore from her.
"Who's joking? I am completely serious," he insisted. "Skin-to-skin is proven to be one of the best defenses against the cold."
Kensi rolled her eyes, not really sure why she was protesting, but not feeling like giving in. Maybe it was because she didn't want to admit the situation was as dire as it seemed.
"We have the fire."
"And it's barely providing any heat." He stepped closer and tipped her chin up. His fingers were red, but still made Kensi's skin burn with the difference in heat. "Face it, Kens. Our clothes are soaked, we're quickly heading towards stage three frostbite and impending hypothermia and if we don't do something soon, we're going to start losing appendages. And I happen to like my fingers and toes. As well as a couple of other essential parts."
Pulling in a small breath that burned her throat, Kensi glanced at the fire. Damn it but Deeks was right. She could barely feel it even from half a foot away and she was freezing.
"Fine," she said, finally relented. "But we need to stoke up the fire and have things set up so we don't have to get up a bunch."
"Sweet. I've always wanted to spoon for survival." Deeks ignored her glare in favor of moving the cot closer to the fire. She watched him for a moment, worried that he was straining himself too much. Even with the liquid stitches, he could reopen the cut which would put him at risk of more bleeding and possible infection.
Worry wasn't going to save them though so she pushed those thoughts away, and added several more pieces of wood to the fire, moving the rest in easy reaching distance of the cot.
Kensi had a roll of string in backpack and together they ran it across the room to hand their wet clothes on and then tucked the three, depressingly thin, blankets around the thin mattress on the cot. By the time they were finished, her fingers were barely moving, and she felt increasingly lethargic.
She fumbled with the zipper on her coat, grabbing at the pull several times without any success. Deeks already had his boots and coat off.
"Oh baby, come here," he said, noticing her struggle. Kensi was cold enough to let him lead her to the cot and not resist when he began tugging off her boots. She gasped when the cold air hit her now less protected feet. "Sorry."
Deeks grimaced as he removed her coat, jeans and t-shirt, revealing more reddened skin. He stripped off his own thermal shirt, which was partially dry near the shoulders and used it to dry some of the moisture from her damp hair, which was frozen in icy tangles around her face.
At any other time, she would be distracted by the sight of him half naked and kneeling in front of her while he slowly undressed her. Now she just wanted to get them both under the covers as quickly as possible.
Wordlessly, Deeks left her to finish undressing and to hang up their clothes then dried his hair with one sleeve of his shirt. Kensi slid under the covers as he ran over in just his underwear and crawled in beside her. He tossed his boxer briefs over the side of the cot a second later, making a face.
"Never liked those anyway," he commented, drawing the layers of blankets over their heads.
"Get over here," Kensi croaked out, drawing him closer. She hissed at the initial contact, feeling like her skin was burning, but knew it was a good sign that she wasn't completely numb. Deeks wrapped his arm tightly around her, his hands resting on her lower back, and intertwined their legs, creating a barrier all around her.
Cradled in his arms, she felt marginally warmer, but there was a fine tremor running through her now. Deeks held her even tighter, like he could somehow will away her hypothermia induced tremors.
"God, this would be so much more fun in Malibu," he sighed a few minutes later. "You could wear that blue bikini of yours, the one that almost got us kicked out of Mammoth last year. I'd even break out my short shorts. Just laying out in the sun, surfing, and eating fish tacos."
"I think you'd turn into a fish taco if I let you." Her skin still ached a little but the combination of their bodies pressed together and a tiny of heat coming from the fire was starting to thaw her bit by bit.
Deeks contorted his head to look down at her, his expression skeptical.
"Uh, I seem to remember you were the one who ate six tacos all on your own last time."
"I didn't have any lunch that day," she explained reasonably. Drips of cool water were beginning to trickle down her back from her thawing hair. She shivered again and burrowed a little further into Deeks' arms, tucking her head between his shoulder and head.
"Mm, we probably should have eaten something before we got naked," he said, his voice sounding slow and deeper than normal. It made her think of the sun, laying on the beach like he'd described.
"I'm not hungry." She let out a giant yawn, wanting nothing more than to close her eyes.
"We can't fall asleep," Deeks muttered right before her eyes slipped shut.
"We should come here more often," Kensi said, her voice light and dreamy as she trailed her fingers up Deeks' chest. The sun beat down on his head while waves gently crashed against the shore. He swung both legs up onto their lawn chair so Kensi straddled his thighs. He fiddled with the blue string of her bikini and she smiled mischievously, leaning to whisper in his ear.
"Go ahead, no one's around."
Just as he was loosening the knot, a figure bent over them, blocking out the sun.
"You got a pulse?"
"I think they're just asleep." A hand shook Deeks' shoulder and he turned away from it, wincing as a blast of cold hair hit his face. "Deeks, wake up." He popped one eye open, trying to figure out what Callen was doing at the beach with him and Kensi. And why it was suddenly freezing.
"Callen?" he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. He tried to sit up, inadvertently flipping the covers off Kensi. She yelped and sat up suddenly, looking around with a wild expression.
"Callen, Sam, what are you doing here?" she said, her words a little slurred as she tried to pull the blanket up around her shoulders.
"We tracked you using the GPS in your phones," Callen answered. "Nell got worried when you didn't check in yesterday."
"Thank god for Nell."
"Unbelievable," Sam said, coming to stand beside Callen. "In the middle of a blizzard and you still can't keep your clothes on."
"We were huddling for warmth," Deeks said, trying to sound dignified while he started shivering again. "I don't know if you've noticed, but it's like 10 degrees out there."
"And you just had to get completely naked."
"Our clothes were wet," Kensi said, brushing a handful of hair back. It was completely disheveled, sticking out in several places, and he had to resist the urge to lean over and kiss her.
"Speaking of clothes, you wouldn't happen to have some by chance." He leaned over and plucked at his shirt which was torn and still damp. "And maybe a parka or two?"
"We got you covered," Callen said with an amused smirk. "Sam, you want to call Nell and let her know we found them?"
"I'll get her to send a medivac too since we're never getting an ambulance all the way out here anytime soon," Sam added, eyeing the wads of discarded gauze and bandages. "Which one of you knuckleheads got hurt?"
Kensi immediately pointed to Deeks, having no problem selling him out.
"He's got a 2 1/2 inch cut, not too deep, but it was pretty bloody," she reported. "I did my best with the medical glue. He still might need some stitches though."
"Traitor," Deeks said and Kensi shrugged, patting his shoulder with mock sympathy. Sam walked off to call Nell while Callen pulled sweatshirts and pants from his backpack and tossed them on the cot.
"I'll give you guys a couple minutes." He turned go, but then turned back, gesturing between them. "If I hear anything even remotely suspicious going on in here, I'm tasing both of you."
Kensi made a scandalized sound as Deeks shivered beside her, his hands tucked in his armpits.
"Believe me, this is one of the few times where sex sounds absolutely unappealing," he assured Callen.
They dressed quickly, moving out of the relative warmth of the blankets as little as possible. Once they were clothed again, Deeks tugged Kensi against him, kissing her firmly.
"I'm really glad we didn't freeze to death," Kensi said as he held her tightly. "Or lose any...appendages," she added with a smirk. He picked Kensi up, intending to carry her from the cabin, and then abruptly sank back down with a grimace.
"Ok, maybe we should go to the hospital," he decided, clutching at his stomach as something twinged and possibly tore. Kensi helped him back down to the bed with a sigh.
"Well, I guess we're not going to Malibu this weekend." Deeks groaned again, his dreams of sun and bikinis quickly evaporating.
"I hate snow," he said vehemently.