1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**** So before I get back into the full swing of updating my existing stories this idea has been bouncing around in my head for a long time now and I'm almost 95% sure that I have not seen anything like it so I hope you guys will enjoy this AU story with a little twist on the team of NCIS: OSP. This first chapter is going to jump around in the series for a bit and will have some original content as well as slight variations to the series as a whole. It will really start going when I get to about Episode 1 of Season 2. ENJOY!**

**Identity**

It had been a typical day for NCIS Special Agent Martin A. Deeks as he walked into the new location of the OSP. Well as typical as things had been since Callen had been shot nearly seven months ago. The resulting whirlwind of activity had left everyone reeling as Callen had come extremely close to dying, Laura Macy had been demoted and reassigned, everyone had been investigated and the entire office had come extremely close to being shut down and disbanded.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you viewed things, an older and diminutive woman named Henrietta Lange had been appointed as the Operations Manager of the OSP Unit and the first thing she had done was start a wardrobe for undercover assignments. This had confused Deeks and Sam since the targeting of the units team leader seemed to be a bigger issue than having a rather expensive custom tailored clothes for undercover operations when the unit was very close to being shut down for good.

As Deeks walked into the building his personal cover cellphone started to buzz in his pocket and when he pulled it out he looked at the number on the screen and groaned rather loudly. Knowing that not answering the call would be worse than actually talking to his psycho ex-girlfriend Deeks hit the receive button as he put his shoulder bag on his desk and began talking to his ex.

"Gotta go see you know who."

Deeks heard the voice of Sam and was to engrossed in the argument with the same woman who threatened to skin him alive in his sleep when he broke up with her and he paced around as he fought with her over something so stupid that he didn't even know what it was about other than the fact that she was screaming at him through the phone.

Off in the corner Deeks spotted his partner and probationary NCIS Agent Dominic Vale fighting with the new coffee maker, and losing badly something that mildly amused Deeks since Agent Vale was a M.I.T. graduate and couldn't figure out a simple coffee machine. From the corner of his eye Deeks spotted Callen talking to Hetty and he quickly hung. Which was good timing as Eric let out his trademark whistle from the balcony adjacent to the Operations Center.

"HEADS UP! Director is coming online….Hey Callen."

"Eric"

"Well look what the cat dragged in." Deeks said as he moved to stand behind Callen with a cocky grin on his face.

"Deeks who let you outta the animal shelter?" Callen joked as he reached out and clasped hands with the Juinor agent of the team and the two pulled each other into a 'man hug'

"Oh ha ha. I figured you would have gone slinking back to the FBI."

"No once was enough thank you very much." Callen said smiling as they let go of each other. "You still working at the shelter on the weekends?"

"Every chance I get."

**The Only Easy Day**

Deeks was sitting in his BMW M3 as he watched Dominic walk with a medium thick manila folder as the younger man made his way towards Kurt Holgate's red Jeep Wrangler. As soon as he got behind the Jeep Dominic fumbled his folder and dropped some of the papers, as he bent down to put the tracking device on the bumper.

"Alright Eric thanks…yeah let me know if you find out anything else." Deeks said as he finished up the phone call with Eric as Dom made his way towards Deek's car.

Dom opened the door and climed in with a very pleased look on his face. "GPS tracker is activated."

Deeks couldn't help but grin at how pleased Dom was with himself and thought back to a time several years ago when he was just as green as Dom and happy that he could do something like put a tracker on a car and not mess it up.

"Good job Dom. Just don't look around next time, makes you look suspicious." Deeks said in a even and friendly manner and waited for Dom to nod before he spoke again. "Eric confirmed that Holgate is part of a task force working on a human trafficking ring here in LA."

"So what if Holgate's not involved?" Dom asked as he moved to get comfortable in the seat.

"I hope he's not. I would not want to be on Sam's bad side." Deeks said with a slight nod of his head as he looked at Dom but kept Holgate's Jeep in her peripheral vision.

Dom sighed heavily and looked at the jeep and Deeks could easily see the look on the younger agent's face. "I think I'm already on his bad side."

"What do you mean?" Deeks said since he had been spending most of his time at the office in Ops doing research for some of his semi active cases and working with the department's legal office on various matters so he hadn't really been around when Sam and Dom interacted.

"It just seems that nothing I do is every good enough for him." Dom said and his frustration seeped into his voice.

"Look Dom Sam was a SEAL and he demands the best from himself and he can't help but expect the same from everyone he works with. It's just how he is man, you'll get used to it."

"It's just…It's hard being the new guy."

"Yeah but once you prove to Sam that you can protect yourself and the team he will let off. If Sam is tough on you in the office it's because he wants to know you can take care of yourself in the field." Deeks said as he settled back into the driver seat knowing that observations like this could take a very long time. "Besides no one had made you go dumpster diving for evidence, or made you crawl around under a house just because you're the skinniest one." Deeks finished up with a grin and Dom couldn't help but laugh.

"ok ok I just never really though about it like that. Thanks Deeks."

"Hey no problem man. I've been in your shoes so I'm here for you." Deeks said and coudln;t resist the urge to mess with Dom a bit. "Unless Sam truly doesn't like you personally then your on your own."

**Predator**

Deeks walked to the bullpen from the legal department's office's when he spotted Dom sitting at his desk with a defeated look on his face and it was late enough that very few people were still in the building. Deeks stood there and watched Dom for a bit when he felt someone walk up beside him.

"How's he holding up Nate?"

"He's struggling to accept what happened isn't his fault. Professional he knows that, but emotionally he blames himself for Joel Hardy's death." Nate said as she looked at Dom and studied his behavior, or lack thereof. "I've offered to talk to him about it but it feels like he wants to try to process this on his own. Which isn't a bad thing essentially."

"But given how new he is to all of this he doesn't have anything to compare it to." Deeks said finishing Nate's train of thought.

"But some with experience would be a good sounding board." Nate replied as he gave Deeks a pointed look and for a few seconds Deeks had to wonder if Nate knew about his past before joining NCIS, the part that was a sealed juvenile record. Before he turned back to look at Dom and solemnly nodded his head.

"I'll take care of it." Deeks said as he walked away from Nate, a little faster than normal.

This of course was noticed by Nate who chose to let it go. As the operations psychologist Nate knew that the members of the OSP team saw things that would be disturbing to anyone given enough exposure, but what made the members of the team so resilient was their commitment to the job and the fact that all of them, with the exception of Dom, had skeletons in their closet. While Nate could make an educated guess about Callen and Sam given their background Nate was still puzzled by Deeks. What would lead a UCLA Law school graduate and Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney to leave a promising and potentially lucrative career as a lawyer behind to join NCIS and apply to the Office of Special Projects.

Deeks walked into the bullpen and looked at Dom. "Its late Dom."

"Yeah"

"Everyone else went home for the day."

"Yeah."

"Your only response is yeah."

"Yeah."

"Agent Vale a three headed unicorn is pointing a flamethrower at Hetty's desk."

"Yeah…..wait what?"

Deeks half chuckled at the younger man and clapped him on the shoulder. "Grab your gear and come with me." Deeks softly ordered his partner as he grabbed his shoulder bag and a few belongings.

"Where are we going?" Dom asked as he did what he was told.

"To refill your karma man." Deeks replied but continued his explanation at the confused look on Dom's face. "Look Dom things in this job happen. 99.9% of them we have no control over, sometimes they happen to some very bad people, other times people who simply made a wrong choice. And every once in a while we come across something that happens to someone who didn't deserve it at all." Deeks turned to look at Dom as the two men walked towards their parked vehicles. "When that happens all you can do is learn from what happened and try to do better next time. Look what happened today could have and has happened to all of us before. But in the end you saved who knows how many kids and school staff and protected a lot of parents of the heartbreak of having to bury their son or daughter. Focus on the good Dom."

"What…What if it never gets any easier?" Dom asked softly as he looked at Deeks.

"It never really does, but if it ever gets to the point where it doesn't bother you on any level at all that's when you need to worry. Now come on lets go do some more good and help some people."

"How?"

"You every volunteer at a homeless shelter before?"

**Presently**

These memories and various others of Dom were racing through Deeks mind as he stood there dripping sweat from every pore of his body and he struggled to take a full deep breath after beating the heavy bag until he couldn't feel his hands anymore, let alone move his arms. It was the day after the funeral of one NCIS Special Agent Dominic Vail, former member of the Office of Special Projects and the partner and friend of Agent Deeks.

The rage Deeks felt inside of himself was far greater than anything he had even felt before in his life. Including the night he had shot his father, something that no one else from the OSP knew about, except for maybe Hetty, and he planned to keep it that way. As he stood there after beating the bag for a solid ten minutes Deeks was aware of a pair of eyes on him and he looked down at the floor before putting his gloved hands on his hips and taking a very slow long breath through his news.

"I'm really not in the mood to talk about my feelings or looking at ink blots or whatever the hell else you think I need to help me heal right now Nate." Deeks said his voice full of anger and frustration, but when he turned around and found himself face to face with his team leader, G. Callen.

"Well that's good because I forgot my ink cards." Callen replied with a joke trying to pull his co-worker and friend out of his funk.

"Look if you're here to give me a pep talk and that losing people is part of the job I really don't want to hear it."

"I'm just here to see how you're doing Deeks, that's all."

"Well lets see my partner was abducted, held for two months here in Los Angeles, then then died to protect Sam, alwhile holding out to the hope that we would find and rescue him so how the hell do you think I'm doing?"

"Look Deeks we all know the risks of this jo.."

"Ok stop. Yeah the legendary super spook G. Callen. The man who can become anyone at will for an assignment. I get it ok. You've been in this game a long time. And if you think this talk is going to go better with Mr. Navy Seal Sam Hannah talking to me you're wasting your time." Deeks said as he moved towards his gym bag that and pulled off his MMA gloves before he roughly grabbed his water bottle, or rather tried to but only succeeded in knocking it over. "Damn it!" Deeks stared at the water bottle for a small handful of seconds before he roughly grabbed his gym bag and walked towards the locker room to shower and changing hoping that he would calm down somewhat during the process. Almost an hour later Deeks walked out of the locker room only to literately run into Director Vance.

"I'm sorry Director." Deeks said as he stepped back from Vance and moved to walk away from him.

"A moment of your time Agent Deeks." Vance said in a tone that was more of an order than a question. "There are some personnel assignments that potentially could be in the works and I was wondering if you had a preference of duty assignment. I know you work here as an agent has been exemplary and that you have been an asset for the team's legal department. With your experience here and your background if you wanted to head up a team I would be…"

"Director no disrespect but I buried my partner yesterday so my career path is not very high on my priority list right now. And to be honest I don't know where I want to be….I uh….I think I'm going to take some time off to be honest." Deeks said in a sad and defeated tone. He had never been a quitter and right now he felt like giving up. "It's just….." Deeks trailed off unsure of what to say.

"That's understandable. I'll take care of the paperwork myself." Vance said with a polite nod at Deeks and offered him a friendly pat on the shoulder before Deeks began to walk off. "Oh and Deeks. Let me know when you reach a decision?"

"Yes sir." With that Deeks walked towards the doors that would lead to the parking area of the OSP and climbed into his car. As he drove away Deeks headed in a direction that was opposite of his apartment, the direction of Dominic's apartment. After fifteen minutes Deeks arrived to find a moving company at Dom's apartment. Deeks sat there for a few minutes watching them load Dominic's possessions into the back of the cargo truck before he pulled out his cellphone and a piece of paper with a phone number on it from his wallet before he dialed it.

"Hello Mr. Vail? Sir my name is Agent Deeks….I uh…I was partners with Dominic."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Let me just say that as much as I love getting e-mail notifications that this and any of my other stories have been favorite and followed I love getting reviews even more (insert disappointed/disapproving look directed at most of you LOL)**

**Additionally if you want to look at a story that was a request of mine to be written by someone who I think (and this story proved my point) is an exceptional writer look at 'Since you've been gone' by Callen37. I requested it, she wrote it, and it turned out WAY better than anything I could have done myself.**

It had been three months since the team had found Dominic Vail only to have him sacrifice himself to save Sam. Two months three weeks and four days since Deeks had taken a leave of absence from the Office of Special Projects to figure out if he still wanted to be a Special Agent with NCIS after his friend and first real partner had been killed in the line of duty. During this time Deeks had gone to meet with Dominic's family and had someone been accepted into their raterh large and loving family and he had stayed with them for a little over a week before Deeks and Richard Vail, Dominic's father, had a very interesting heart to heart conversation.

'_Don't you think it's about time Martin?' Richard asked as he walked out onto the back deck with a beer in each hand and held one out to the younger Caucasian Federal Agent._

'_What do you mean Rich?' Deeks asked as he took the offered beer and nodded his thanks to the retired Chicago Police Officer._

'_You know exactly what I mean.' Mr. Vail said with a very pointed look at Deeks 'It's not that Rose and I don't appreciate you coming here like you did, Lord knows you've been a huge help around the house and its made losing Dom easier.' Richard paused as he took a swig of his beer and leaned against the railing. 'But you need to move on with your life son. Even though I don't want to play this particular card but do you really think Dominic would want to you quit doing what you love because of his death?' Richard turned to look at Deeks and noticed the look in his eyes. 'Yeah yeah I know, low blow. But it's the truth.'_

'_Yeah…it's…Dom was my first real partner and I honestly believed he had what it toke to be part of our unit.' Deeks said as he took a drink of his beer and leaned his rear end against the porch railing. 'We all know the risks of our job….I uh….I just never figured something would happen to Dom so soon, you know?'_

'_Look kid I never wanted Dom to be a cop. I wanted him to be a….I don't know I just wanted him to go to college and get a good job where the most stressful part of his day was what to eat for lunch.' Richard said as he smiled at a memory and let out a half laugh. 'The day he told me he was joining NCIS and moving to L.A. I sat down with him and had a long conversation about it. It may not have been what I wanted for my son but I couldn't have been prouder of him. We didn't get to talk very often after he joined you guys and I knew enough not to ask a lot of questions. But whenever he spoke about you guys he always had great things to say, especially you.'_

Deeks brushed that particular memory of his time off from the forefront of his mind and he grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it open before he stepped in. It was still early so Deeks assumed he was the only person who was in the building, or at least that's what he assumed until the voice of an older woman called out to him from the stairs that would lead to the operations center of the building.

"Good morning Mr. Deeks. I trust you are once again yourself?"

"Morning Hetty, and yeah I'm back."

"We both know that's not what I asked Mr. Deeks. That being said I am glad to see that you have decided to return." Hetty said as she walked down the stair and moved to stand in front of her junior agent.

"Well if you're asking if I'm the same person I was before Dominic was abducted, missing for almost three months, surfaced on a video where he was going to have his head removed and then gave his life to save Sam. Than the answer is no." Deeks said evenly and was only slightly surprised that there was no anger or bitterness in his voice. "But if you're asking if I have come to terms with what happened and can do my job than the answer is yes."

Hetty and Deeks stood there for several seconds staring at each other seeing who would beak first. It seems Hetty gave Deeks a small reprieve as she nodded at him before speaking. "Very well but under two conditions. First you retake your weapons qualification, and I do mean ALL of them." Hetty said putting emphasis on the word all, meaning Deeks would have to re-qualify with his service pistol, the various assault rifles in the armory and his sniper rifle. Of course Deeks gave her a cocky grin since he knew he was still an incredible shot, even if he hadn't fired a weapon in the past three months.

"The second is you will talk to Mr. Getz for a full psychological evaluation. Failure to complete any of these conditions will result in suspension until you can pass them."

"No problem."

"And an Agent competency review board." With the Hetty walked away from Deeks before calling to him over her shoulder. "Mr. Getz will be at the boatshed this afternoon."

Deeks pursed his lips and glared at Hetty for a second ro two before he moved to put his shoulder bag on his desk and looked at Dom's for a second before he walked towards the armory. As he did so he absentmindedly wondered how Kensi's undercover assignment. It was that he didn't care about the mis-matched browned eyed LAPD Detective, he just had bigger things to worry about. Like if he was going to keep his job at OSP, or even NCIS.


	3. Human Trafficking PT1

**A/N:** Sorry about the long delay between chapters. But with all the recent changes in my life (i.e. work and residence) writing fanfics is not a large focus of my attention right now

Sam and Deeks walked into the OSP's gym and training area as various agents assigned to the clandestine branch of NCIS were training in hand to hand combat or simply working out before everyone's work day began.

"He's never asked." Deeks said as he walked side by side with the large former Navy SEAL.

"You've never offered." Sam commented, his voice barely tinted with fatigue and annoyance.

"So I should offer?" Deeks asked as he looked towards Sam.

"You never offer." Sam said and his annoyance was showing a little more this time.

"Never?"

"Ever."

"I kinda feel bad for not offering." Deeks said as the two agents kept walking. "You offered." Deeks countered trying to find out why Sam was acting this way about the particular subject they were currently discussing.

"That's why I'm telling you not to offer." Sam said trying to save Deeks from the same pain, aggravation, and sleeplessness he was currently suffering from.

"But I've got a spare room." Deeks pauses as the duo turned the corner that would lead them towards their desks in the bullpen. "Ok so it's an office and I'd have to move a few things around. But I could make room for a cot or something."

"Deeks G does not sleep." Sam said in his semi thick Brooklyn accent. "He…Cat naps twenty minutes at a time."

"That still doesn't explain why I shouldn't offer." Deeks said as the two men turned another corner.

"Then he gets up, moves around, makes his tea, takes the toaster apart then puts it back together, practices his Russian." Sam said rapidly and annoyed just thinking about the amount of sleep he has lost of the past couple of nights and how irritated Michelle was quickly becoming with Callen for his nightly antics, and Sam for offering their home as a place for Callen to crash.

"Yeah ok that's annoying just hearing about it." Deeks said since he was a extremely light sleeper, had been ever since he father had started beating him and his mother when the former lawyer was just seven years old.

"He doesn't sleep so you can't. Sam told the young shaggy haired blonde as he reached up to rub his eye.

"Well he never looks tired."

"Morning." A very chipper sounded Special Agent G. Callen called out to his fellow agents and team members as he started to jog up the steps towards ops.

"Hey." Deeks returned the greeting as he started to put his shoulder bag near his desk.

Callen paused at the middle landing on the steps as he looked at his two co-workers and stared at Sam. "You look like crap." He said flatly and he slowed to a halt, only to receive a sarcastic smile and thank you from Sam. While this was going on Deeks put his bag on his desk and turned to face Callen.

"Hey.." Deeks began but was cut off my Sam.

"Do not offer." Sam interrupted as he pointed a finger at Deeks chest in a tone that was both warning and order. Deeks sighed in defeat and moved to follow Sam and Called up to Ops. As the three of them walked into Ops Deeks thought it was a little odd that Hetty was in Ops first thing in the morning. Combine that with the fact that Callen practically made a bee-line to Eric who was sitting at his computer.

"Good morning Mr. Deeks. Mr. Hannah, over sleep again did you?" Hetty asked with a cheerful and almost playful tone to her voice which set Deeks spidey-sense on edge since Hetty was never this jovial first thing in the morning.

"What up Hetty?" Deeks asked warily as he looked at everyone in Ops.

"Earlier this morning I got a call from the LAPD." Hetty said as she paced back and forth in front of the large plasma screen that the team used for various mission related purposes. "They've lost contact with Detective Blye." This of course grabbed everyone attention since the pain of losing Dom was still very raw and close to them, none more so than Deeks. Of course Deeks back immediately stiffened and he felt his adrenaline start pumping at this news. "She's been on an extended undercover assignment since she left us"

"How long has she been outta contact?" Callen asked and Deeks could tell that the wheels were already spinning and it was one of the things that Deeks respected the most about his team leader. Callen's almost unnatural ability to put the pieces of a puzzle together with very little information.

"Yesterday afternoon." Hetty replied quickly still pacing in front of the screen. While it may or may not have been related to Dom's own disappearance Deeks could tell that Hetty was worried if she was pacing non-stop like this, especially since he had known her Hetty always had toe greatest poker face and never let any emotion show.

"Hnn. That's pretty soon to be hitting the panic button don't you think?" Sam asked in a almost annoyed manner and Deeks hard to force himself not to glare at the large former SEAL. Especially how Sam had reacted to Dom's kidnapping.

"Mr. Beale if you would." Hetty said and she moved off to the side effectively giving Eric the floor and letting everyone know that this had just shifted to an operational briefing.

As Eric moved from his desk to stand in front of everyone and started speaking a series of pictures focusing in the charred remains of a large four door sedan that was unidentifiable. "Fourteen hours ago LAPD found this car in south central. Two occupants inside, both killed by the explosion. Emilio Philip Ortega and his bodyguard Luis Manuel Fellano. Both with extensive records, mostly related to acts of violence."

"And both the target of Detective Blye's assignment." Hetty spoke up as she moved to once again stand in front of everyone. "Her case officer phoned to see if she has been in contact with us. I offered our assistance in the matter."

"Is there a military angle to this?" Callen asked and all Deeks could do was look at him. Deeks wanted to speak up, god he really wanted to, but he didn't really trust himself since this was his second partner to go missing and he knew that if he said anything it wouldn't be helpfully in getting Callen and Sam onboard with finding Kensi.

"No. But Detective Blye is still our Liaison Officer with the LAPD. Which makes her about as close to one of us as it gets." As Hetty, for all intents and purposes scolded Callen for his almost disregard of the matter Deeks couldn't stop his mind from going back to the outcome of the last time a member of the team went missing. Luckily Hetty started speaking again pulling Deeks from a memory he would carry for the rest of his life and one he wanted to forget. "Her case officer, Detective Alex Trainer will brief you all."

"Kensi should have phoned in the moment that happened." Sam said ad he, like Deeks remembered that gun fight on top of the abandoned theater where Dom has taken two AK-47 rounds that were intended for him.

"Hence the panic button." Hetty said throwing Sam's own words back at him and the large dark skinned former SEAL nodded solemnly before the three NCIS Agents moved to leave Ops. Two of them haunted by recent events, while Callen still remained calm and collected.

**A/N: From here on out the rest of the episode is going to change and everything in the seasons from here on out will change as well. I will also do a lot of "episode jumping" because it would take way to long to "rewrite" each episode with the changed of Deeks being NCIS and Kensi being LAPD**


	4. Human Trafficking PT 2

Deeks stood there and felt his blood run cold. _'This can't be happening. Not again not another partner…Not this time!'_ Deeks worry and dread were suddenly pushed aside as years of training and a promise that what happened to Dom WOULD not happen again as the junior agent of the OSP clenched his jaw and a plan started to formulate in his head.

"Callen, Sam go check out Ortega's car. I'm going to talk to some contacts in LAPD and see what I can find out before Trayner briefs us." Deeks said quickly before he practically sprinted out of Ops and towards his desk to grab his gear. He was just about to leave the bullpen.

"DEEKS! What the hell are you doing?" Callen asked slightly pissed off that his junior agent was trying to call the shots and looked like he was about to pull the 'lone wolf special' as Sam often called it from Callen's play book.

""What do you think? I'm going to find my partner." Deeks said as he grabbed his jacket and a small address book from his desk.

"Kensi is our Liaison Officer, not your partner." Callen said as he moved to block Deeks from leaving the bullpen. "And since when do you set up our plans?"

"Get out of the way Callen." Deeks said as he stood their facing off with Callen

"Deeks where do you think you're going?" Callen asked trying to put some sense into the younger man and get a feel for what is setting the scruffy surfer off.

"LAPD. Now will you get outta the way?"

"Why? Hetty already Kensi's handler will brief us." Callen said his voice rising as he frustration as Deeks kept building up.

"I was an ADA for L.A. County I knew plenty of cops who are higher up the food chain than a case handler." Deeks said growing with impatient with Callen. "Get out of the way Callen!"

"That still doesn't explain why you're acting like this." Callen was practically shouting.

"I'M NOT LETTING DOM DIE AGAIN!" Deeks finally snapped and took the opportunity that Callen's stunned expression gave him and shouldered his way past Callen and Sam before running to his BMW and tearing out of the parking lot before someone caught up to him.

Unknown to the agents in the bullpen Hetty had solemnly witness the shouting match between Deeks and Callen. Which mean she had also overheard Deeks last words before he stormed out of the building. After watching Callen and Sam leave to go check out the scene of Emilio Ortega's murder she pulled out her cellphone. "I'm afraid we have a situation best suited to your particular talents…..Yes I'll take care of it." Hetty said to the other person before he hung up and placed the phone back in her jacket pocket.

The rest of the day had been a hectic race against the clock to find Kensi, who its turns at had been semi patched up and left cheap motel as the effects of a heavy dose of Horse Tranquilizers worked itself out of her system. And then a desperate rescue plan to save her when she tried to go to Lazick and close the case on her own. Of course she had been made because someone had ratted her and Detective Andrew Trayner out. Kensi knew who it was as soon as the dust settled and set things in motion for the NCIS Agents to record the conversation between her and Detective Scarli. After the Team had arrested Scarli Kensi had numbly walked away from the scene trying to wrap her head around the fact that she and Alex had been sold out by one of their own.

What made it even worse was the fact that she had liked Alex. She hadn't slept with him like Lazick and Scarli had assumed because they were in the middle of case, but the two of them had gotten close, close enough that they had started to have feelings that partners shouldn't. At least she had and now she would never be able to talk to Alex about it.

And that train of thought led Kensi to her current situation. Sitting on her couch trying to drink the whole operation and guilt over Alex's death away. Part of her knew it was stupid and would just leave her with one hell of a hangover tomorrow, but that was a small part and the rest of her didn't care and just wanted to the pain to go away. But no matter how much of the cheap whiskey she drank the pain didn't lessen. Suddenly a knock at her door startled her out of her thoughts and she spilled some of the brown liquor from the glass in her hand when she jerked at the sudden sound and she muttered a small curse before she grabbed her sidearm and half stumbled to the door and looked through the people hole to see Special Agent Marty Deeks.

"Ugh I do not need you coming here to lecture me." Kensi snarled as she jerked open the door and glared at him with the pistol in her hand as she leaned heavily against the door for support.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here to join you." Deeks said with a smile and held up his own bottle of booze, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue and he offered her a weak smile.

Kensi just stood their staring at him before she finally sighed in defeat and began to stumble her way back to the couch and she ungracefully flopped down onto it before she grabbed her glass and started drinking again. Deeks rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him and moved to sit down beside her and accepted the empty glass Kensi offered him. After a few minutes and couple more drinks from each of them Kensi finally turned to look at Deeks.

"Why are you really here Deeks?" Kensi asked her voice lacking its bitterness she had greeted him with.

"I figured you could use a friend tonight." He said as he leaned forward to pour himself another glass. "I know how hard it can be to lose a partner."

"The missing agent?" Kensi asked softly as she remembered the less than warm welcome she had received when Hetty had worked her magic to get Kensi as their LAPD Liaison.

"Yeah." Deeks replied his voice full of the sorrow he felt when he thought about how Dom had died and he took a long slow drink from his glass. "I'm sorry how your first case with us went."

"Deeks you don't have to do…" Kensi was cut off as Deeks held up his hand to stop her.

"Yeah I do. You were….are my partner and I should have talked to Sam and Callen about it. But Dom's abduction was still pretty fresh for all of us and I should have had your back instead of giving you a hard time." Deeks said as he looked down at his empty glass and then looked at Kensi. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth."

"Thank you.' Kensi said and poured both her and Deeks another round. "So..um..Did you guys…." Kensi trailed off unsure of how to ask about Deeks former partner and mentally cursing her drunken state for bringing it up in the first place.

"Yeah, turns out he was being held in LA the whole time." Deeks said and for a moment he zoned out and the events of Dom's death began to replay in his mind.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring it up. I don't know what I was thinking." Kensi offered and gave her new partner a friendly smile and the new partners started drinking again.

"To old partners and new beginnings." Deeks finally spoke up after several minutes and held his glass up towards Kensi. The female LAPD Detective rolled her eyes before she tapped her glass against Deeks's and the both returned to drinking in silence each lost in their own thoughts about lost partners and each making a mental vow not to let it happen again.


End file.
