A/N: Densimber Day 16
"Kens, how would you feel about staying at a private villa, with a beautiful view of the ocean, a personal chef, and a media center with all expenses paid?" Deeks asked Kensi, running down from their bedroom to where Kensi sat in the kitchen.
"What's the catch?" she responded with a suspicious look, getting up to meet him.
"There aren't any. Kip just bought a new place a few hours away and he's offering to let us break it in."
"That's awfully considerate of him."
"Well, he's a millionaire and feels indebted to me for some legal advice I gave him a while back," Deeks explained. He sidled up to Kensi, and drew her into his arms. "So what do you say? Next month we're not on rotation for the third weekend. It'd be the perfect chance to get away for a couple days."
"It does sound nice," Kensi agreed, shaking her head slightly. "But I don't know that we should go so far away. Something might happen and it would take hours to get back."
"Yeah, something could always happen," Deeks said, some of his enthusiasm dissipating in the face of Kensi's response. "Let someone else take care of the emergency for once. It would be nice to actually make plans and not cancel them or have to leave early. I mean, I'm pretty sure that last social even we've actually attended without being called into work was Kat's wedding. We can't even finish a dinner out without Nell calling us in."
"It's not funny, Deeks."
"Good, cause I'm not trying to be funny. I'm completely serious. We deserve to have breaks and vacations from our extremely stressful, dangerous, time-consuming jobs," he said, trying to reign in some of his frustration. Somewhere during the discussion, his hands had migrated from Kensi's waist to cross over his chest.
She took a few steps back, looking vaguely exasperated, but still dismissive.
"You didn't care about that a few years ago. Like when you were undercover," she pointed out. "I didn't see you for months at a time."
"Yeah, that was then. Things change. We've changed. A few years ago, we weren't a couple. I haven't done a long cover since we've been together."
Kensi inhaled deeply, pressing her lips together before she replied. "Deeks, you knew what you were signing up for when we started dating. This is our life and we just have to accept that. We're not like other couples. We have a responsibility to the people we protect and that trumps everything else."
Deeks stared at Kensi for a moment; he'd known she valued her job more than almost anything, but they'd never laid it out quite so plainly.
"It shouldn't. Otherwise what's the point of any of this?" he said, frustration giving way to anger. He regretted it the second hurt flashed across Kensi's face.
"Well, maybe when you figure that out, you can come find me," she said, snatching her jacket off the back of a chair. She gave him a challenging look, but he stood his ground, and after a moment, she pushed past him.
"Damn it," he hissed as the front door slammed shut behind her.
A/N: I know this is somewhat similar to arguments they have in "Silo" and "A Line in the Sand", but I see this as a possible moment building up to those episodes.