A/N: This takes place post season seven. Densimber Day 21.

"So, what did your mom want?" Kensi asked, snatching an onion ring off Deeks' plate. Knowing she'd slowly work her way through them, Deeks pushed half of the remaining portion onto her plate. At one point, it would have annoyed her that Deeks knew her so well, but now it made her love him even more.

They'd been gifted a long weekend from Hetty, so they'd decided to make the most of the time and visit a new restaurant in the neighborhood.

"Eh, she had a disagreement with her roofer and now she wants me to intercede," Deeks answered with a roll of his eyes. "I swear she thinks I'm her personal attorney, even though I keep reminding her that I haven't practiced in years. At least not regularly."

"I guess you should be glad it's not another boyfriend."

Deeks accepted her point with a nod of his head. He didn't look thrilled by the reminder.

"Yeah, definitely not looking forward to the next surprise double date. At least the last guy was reasonably normal. Which isn't saying much." He shook his head before Kensi could ask. "You don't want to know. I already told you about the guy who tried to build a bunker in her house."

Kensi patted his hand sympathetically. For all her own struggles with her mom, there was something to be said for Julia's overall normalcy. Sure, Julia could be pushy and nosey when she wanted, but she didn't have the dramatic and eccentric tendencies of Roberta.

"Alright, so no more talk about your mom," Kensi surmised.

"I appreciate that."

"Oh, did I tell you I heard back about that conference in August? The one on bilingualism. They asked me to present."

"That's amazing," Deeks said, leaning across the table to kiss her. "Congratulations."

"Thanks. It's going to be extra work, but I'm kind of looking forward to it. Maybe you can take a few days and come with me."

Deeks snorted at that. "I'm sure Hetty will love that idea. Maybe I can—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his gaze shifting, beyond her. His eyes remained focused somewhere beyond her shoulder for another second and then he blinked, shaking off whatever had distracted him.

"Babe?"

"Sorry, I just thought I saw someone I recognized," he insisted, flashing her a quick smile. It seemed forced, not crinkling the corners of his eyes the way a genuine smile did. He almost looked…unnerved. Which was unusual in and of itself.

He resumed the conversation, but she saw his eyes flick away every so often.

After the fifth time, she sighed in exasperation, and turned around, following his gaze to the corner booth. Two women sat opposite each other, one a brunette and the other a blonde. They seemed deep in conversation.

"Who is she?"

"Kens…"

Kensi turned back, frowning at Deeks as he started to wave off her question.

"Deeks, you can't stop looking at that table, and you're obviously nervous. She nodded to his hand which he'd just lifted to brush his bangs off his forehead. He immediately dropped it to the table, looking slightly caged in. "So why are you staring at those women?"

He sighed, dropping his head to stare at his loosely clenched fist. With the other hand, he started spinning a cardboard coaster.

"The one facing away from us is Sylvia Gray. My ex," he answered, his voice low.

"The one you have a—?" She could hear the shock in her own voice.

"A restraining order against, yeah." He nodded, then amended, eyes still focused on the table, "Well had. It expired last year."

"Deeks!" Kensi murmured, vaguely horrified. She'd never known more beyond his explanation that it was a "bad breakup", but she knew it couldn't be a simple fight if Deeks had gone so far as to involve the police. "Why would you let it expire?"

"Kens, it's not a big deal," he insisted, and she wondered if he was trying to convince himself too.

"Deeks, you know what happens when people no longer have those restrictions in place."

"Yeah, when it comes to violent, repeat offenders. But this is not that kind of situation. I haven't even seen her since I filed the restraining order."

Kensi shook her head in disbelief. Only Deeks would defend a person who had done him harm.

"So, you think it's a complete coincidence that she ended up at the same place as you?" Kensi asked, and Deeks shrugged.

"Probably. It is a small world after all. Can we just enjoy the rest of our dinner? I promise I won't get distracted again.

She didn't like it, but it wasn't like she could force Deeks to change his mind. He could be just as stubborn as she was. Most importantly, she needed to trust him to make the right decision. "Ok," she agreed, squeezing his hand.

Their waiter brought their entrees a few minutes later, and they spent the next half hour enjoying the food while the discussion turned to what they should do with the extra bedroom. By the time Deeks had finished a very articulate defense for converting it to a workout room, Kensi had almost forgotten about Sylvia.

"Get me another beer," she requested as she stood to go to the bathroom. She gave Deeks a quick kiss, snatching the last onion ring. "And a basket of fried mozzarella."

There was a small line outside the ladies' room, and then a young drunk girl needed help getting her strappy shirt untangled. Kensi finally escaped about ten minutes later.

As she walked back to their table, she saw Deeks was no longer alone. Sylvia sat across from him. Even without having seen her head on before, Kensi knew it was her. Her arms were crossed on the table, and from this distance, Kensi could see her lips moving rapidly though she couldn't hear anything. Deeks sat with his back hunched, Kensi stilled, not certain if she should intrude.

This was completely unchartered territory for her; normally, she'd charge in without thought to the outcome. Somehow this felt different. Whatever Deeks had shared with Sylvia went deeper than she'd realized.

The decision was made for her a minute later, when Sylvia reached for Deeks' hand, her voice rising sharply at the same time. Deeks' visibly straightened, and he tugged his arm back, but Sylvia didn't let go.

By the time Kensi reached them, several people were looking their way. Kensi glared at the closest table until the couple sitting there hastily turned away.

"Sylvia, this isn't the place for this," she heard Deeks say, still speaking in a hushed, private tone. To anyone else, he might have appeared completely calm and collected, but Kensi saw the tension in his body.

"You can't make me leave," she shot back. She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. When Sylvia opened her eyes again, she looked calmer. "Marty, I just want to talk."

The way her nails dug into Deeks' skin said otherwise. They were so focused on each other, they didn't notice Kensi standing a few feet away.

Up close, Sylvia looked older than Kensi had anticipated. Grayish shadows framed her eyes, and though her clothes were high quality, they hung on her thin frame. Overall, she looked kind of careworn.

"Well I don't. I told you whatever we had was over long ago, and bringing it up again won't change anything."

"Maybe I want to apologize. You know, I never got that chance." Her tone left no doubt who she blamed for missing that opportunity.

"Sylvia, what happened the last time we were together," Deeks said, pausing for a moment. "Was not healthy. It's not something that you can come back from, and as much as I want you to be happy, and successful, I don't want to reestablish any form of a relationship with you."

"Then why did you let the restraining order lapse?" she asked helplessly.

"Because I didn't want to keep holding what happened over your head. You deserve to live your life, and so do I. I don't want to go back to LAPD, but if you don't leave me alone, I will," Deeks told her bluntly.

Sylvia's face caved, expression turning desperate. "Marty, please."

"I think it's time for you to go," Kensi interceded. Sylvia jerked, eyeing Kensi with wary recognition. When Kensi dropped her eyes to where she still clung to Deeks, Sylvia hastily snatched her hand back.

"Kens, it's ok," Deeks said, though he looked relieved nonetheless.

Sylvia lifted her chin stubbornly, apparently not ready to give in. There was a dangerous tenacity Kensi recognized, and it made her skin crawl "I haven't done anything wrong."

"Maybe not, but I'm overprotective. You need to leave now."

As Sylvia leaned back, clearly intimated by Kensi's couched threat, the woman she sat with earlier came over, looking deeply uncomfortable.

"Sylvie, I told you this was a bad idea," she hissed, glancing between Kensi and Deeks. "C'mon, let's leave before something you can't fix happens."

Casting Deeks a final look, she reluctantly stood. "I really am sorry," she murmured, letting her friend drag her away.

Deeks watched them go, not relaxing until they were actually out of the door. Then he pressed his palms over his eye sockets, exhaling unevenly.

"Are you ok?" Kensi asked, sliding her hand over his forearm. He nodded, running his hands down his face, finally facing her. He looked exhausted.

"Yeah, I just didn't expect that."

"I kind of got that. You want to tell me what happened with here?"

"No." He chuckled humorously, folding his hands in front of him. His food lay forgotten, probably cold by now, and Kensi was pretty certain he wouldn't be eating it tonight.

"I met Sylvia shortly after I decided to quit law. She was getting her Master's in physical therapy. We met at a friend's party, and we hit it off. The first couple of months we were casual," Deeks paused, eyes distant. "Somewhere in there, things sped up really quick. We spent all our time together, which wasn't much since she had grad classes and I was at the academy."

"That sounds pretty intense," Kensi commented, and he sighed again.

"You have no idea. We'd only been dating for about 6-8 months when she started talking about moving in together," he continued. "I kept finding excuses to put it off, or just ignored the not-so-subtle hints. I tried to keep her happy even though I knew that there as a reason I didn't want to take the next step. I guess I didn't feel like dealing with the fallout."

She tried to imagine a much younger Deeks navigating a rocky relationship. How much had his experience with his father influenced his decision to stay in a relationship in which he wasn't completely happy.

"Then one day I came home from training, it was probably one in the morning, and Sylvia was there in my apartment. She had a key, but we kind of had a rule that we wouldn't go to each other's places if the other one wasn't there." Kensi nodded, as he looked to her, maybe for reassurance. "So she's sitting on my couch with a bunch of papers and I don't even know what." His expression turned almost guilty, and he dipped his head briefly. "I snapped and demanded to know what the hell she was doing."

"And Sylvia, god bless her, snapped right back. She said she knew I'd been cheating on her with someone, one of the strippers I knew. She claimed that was why I was always gone and never had enough time for her.

"I'm not proud of it, but I told her that if she didn't trust me, then she should just leave, and we were over," he said.

"Deeks, you did nothing wrong," Kensi told him, grabbing his shoulder for evidence. Deeks shrugged, looking unconvinced.

"I promised myself I would never raise my voice like that, and yet I turned right to shouting as soon as things got difficult."

"What happened next?"

Deeks' jaw tightened even more, his anxiety rising with her question.

"We started shouting at each other. You couldn't even hear what we were saying. Sylvia threw everything on the table on the floor, and I was so close to losing it, I knew I needed to take a step back. I didn't pay attention when she followed me into the kitchen, and the next thing, she'd grabbed a knife from the dish rack and started waving it around."

Kensi barely breathed, completely transfixed. Deeks' voice had dropped almost to a whisper, gravelly and shaky now.

"I honestly don't think she fully realized what she was doing. She was so, so angry," he whispered. "Of course, I was freaking out. I tried all the calming techniques I'd learned, but somehow that's more effective when you're not the one with the knife in your face."

He cleared his throat. "Eventually, I told her she needed to get the hell out or I'd call LAPD. And, uh, that's when she ran at me." His hand ran down his bicep, almost subconsciously. "She sliced straight down my arm. Fortunately, she didn't hit anything important."

"Oh my god, Deeks!" Kensi gasped. He'd let the woman sit a few feet away from him. He offered her a grim smile, continuing on, like he needed to get it all out without stopping.

"I blocked her the next time and got her to drop the knife. After that, she just started hitting at me. I don't even remember most of it. But the neighbors had heard the shouting, and uh, one of them called the police. When they got there, I was bleeding, Sylvia screaming and throwing anything she could get her hands on, they arrested her and brought me in to take my testimony."

"Like I told you before, I haven't seen her since I filed the restraining order." Deeks spread his hands wide, as if to ask, "what do you think?"

Kensi hugged him, needing to feel him alive and safe in her arms, as much as she wanted to provide some comfort.

"I'm so sorry that happened, Deeks," she murmured, hugging him even tighter.

"Me too," he said, and she knew he meant it.

Kensi pulled back, and gently grasped his chin. "It's not your fault though. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. But I probably could have handled it better."

"No, nothing gave her the right to attack you that way, baby." She held his chin until he met her gaze and reluctantly nodded. "I know you're not going to like this, but I want to run a background check on her to make sure she hasn't been stalking you or anything."

"Kens…"

"Deeks, please do this. For me. I need to know that you're safe," she begged, not feeling to bad about the slight manipulation.

"Ok," he relented. "But I'm not renewing the restraining order unless there's definitive proof that she's been trying to make contact," he added firmly.

"Alright."

"Can we go home now?" he requested.

"Of course." Kensi held him a little tighter than normal as they walked to the parking lot.