Deeks leaned back in his chair, levering his feet up on the wooden table as he threw back the last of the coffee Kensi had grabbed for him. It was black and bitter, but not the worst coffee he'd ever had.
To avoid risking any suspicion, Deeks had finished out his shift, gone home to shower and sleep a couple hours, then drove with Kensi to what she'd referred to as the "boat shed". He'd been too tired to be that surprised when it turned out be an actual boat shed, complete with beach themed decor. It had better atmosphere than the tiny precinct conference rooms, if a slight fishy smell.
"I'm surprised you're not fighting this more," Kensi said from her spot on the other side of the table, crossing her arms. She sounded suspicious, which Deeks found fairly adorable. Not that he'd be telling her that.
Somehow she looked well-rested and not like she'd spent the night surrounded by sweaty drunk people.
"I can play nice," he objected.
"Oh right. You wouldn't even wear one of our comms. I'm surprised you're not in there demanding Eric hand over all his servers."
"That's offensive. And I'd never do that to Eric."
"You've met him once."
"And I felt an instant connection," Deeks teased. "No, if I wanted what Eric downloaded from that laptop, I'd just have my boss call your boss and we'd throw a bunch of paperwork at you until someone gave in," he explained.
"We're not exactly strangers to paperwork," Agent Callen commented, walking out from a smaller room. Deeks had assumed they were being recorded, so he wasn't all that surprised.
"Oh I'm sure, but uh, I'm also an attorney, so I can make life very difficult for you. If I wanted to."
"You're a lawyer. And the surprises keep coming," Sam Hanna mused, following after Callen.
"I found out it was more fun to arrest bad guys than to represent them," Deeks explained in answer to Hanna's unasked question.
"Well, I guess I'm just glad that you're on our side."
"As you should be."
"Ok, I think I got everything," Eric Beale said, walking into the room with a tablet in one hand and Nell Jones at his side. "There were actually decent protection on that laptop, but unfortunately not enough to keep me out."
Nell set up next to Kensi, smiling broadly as she glanced between him and Kensi.
"Hello Detective."
"Miss Jones," Deeks said with a nod.
"Call me Nell," she told him. "After the last week, I know way too much about you to be formal." She paused, glancing slyly at Kensi. "Though maybe not as well as Kensi."
"What are you doing here, Nell?" Kensi asked, speaking through her teeth. "Don't you have research to do?"
"I have some important questions. Mainly, what happened for the 8 minutes and 17 seconds you were offline," Nell responded, completely unbothered by Kensi's obvious annoyance.
Deeks pressed his lips together, scratching the side of his head as he tried not to laugh.
"Nell, I'll talk to you later."
Undaunted, Nell immediately turned to face Deeks. "Would you like to say anything for the record, Deeks."
"I plead the fifth," he answered, earning a snort from Callen.
"Alright, give 'em a break," Sam interceded. "At least until we finish up here. Eric?"
"Right. Among other things, the information we downloaded included emails and invoices, Eric explained. He showed a series of documents, explaining each one, before he finished on a bank account.
"Wow, we could use you at LAPD. No one could turn that around in a few hours," Deeks commented.
"Thank you. Wait until you see what I can do with a fried laptop."
"You two got some good information. There's enough proof there to arrest multiple people on money laundering. The problem is we don't have any proof to link a single one of them to our murder," Callen summarized, turning to Deeks. "I know it's not your case, but do you think you can handle a few more days to help catch a killer?"
"What's a few more dances at "Love & Lust" for a good cause?" Deeks responded. He caught Kensi's eye. "What do you say, Kensalina?"
"I guess I can handle you for a few more days," she said, her eyes piercing into his.