On their way, Deeks took out his phone and dialed Hetty's number. "Hey Hetty."

Kensi couldn't help listening.

"It's about what we spoke of earlier." Deeks continued, making Kensi even more concerned. "Yes. I'm sure of it… Okay… we are going there now." He hung up.

"What's going on, Deeks?" Kensi asked.

"There wasn't any sign of anyone breaking into the house; it was Patrick. The bastard did all of this! He was abusing his family." Deeks took a deep breath and died.

"How do you know that?" She questioned, unsure of how he could have learned that when they'd only spent fifteen minute in the house.

"There were no forced entry marks on the outside of the door—actually, I'm pretty sure he tried to make it look like someone had broken in, but he was stupid because the marks were on the inside of the backdoor. I checked all of the windows and all of them were locked and none of them were broken. I'm telling you, he is the one who did all of this." Deeks finished explaining, anger radiating from him.

Kensi kept an eye on him all the way to the hospital. His breathing was a little more heavily, but he was trying to calm himself down… trying to take deep breaths.

When they arrived at the hospital, Deeks went to check on the wife and son and talked to the doctor about their condition. When he entered the room, he immediately saw the bruises on their bodies and, as he'd suspected, he saw old ones as well as the new ones. The doctor confirmed his suspicions, but Deeks knew that when they confronted Patrick, he would just stick to the story that some intruders attacked him and his family.

Deeks shared his thoughts with the team, but Callen cautioned, "in order to get a strong case in court, we would need the wife or the son to make a statement."

So they sat in the waiting area, waiting for Jenna to wake up. Hetty joined them after a while, and two hours later, the wife awoke. When she'd been checked by the doctors, the team entered.

"Mrs. Kiver, could you please tell us what happened last night?" Callen asked her quietly.

Jenna tried not to make any eye contact; she was clearly embarrassed and felt exposed because she tried to pull the covers up to cover more of her body. "Someone—someone broke into our house and h—hit Patrick and then turned on William and me and started to hit us…"

Deeks cut her off. "Oh come on. That's not what happened and you know it. Why are you trying to cover for him?" Deeks snapped at her, bringing tears to her eyes which brought him angry glares from his team mates.

"Deeks!" Kensi hissed in a warning tone.

Hetty cut in. "Let's give Mr. Deeks and Mrs. Kiver a moment alone." She left no room for argument and ushered everyone else out of the room.

"Ma'am?" Deeks asked, more gently. He tried to get her attention but she kept her eyes firmly on her son, lying in the bed next to hers. It was there that Deeks found the right opening. "You see that? You see your son? Is that what you want? For him to grow up in that Hell, waiting for his father to beat the crap out of him? To beat the crap out of you? Look at yourself. Why do you defend him? And don't think of lying because I saw everything in the apartment, and I know that no one broke in. He did all of this, and whether you are defending him out of fear or love, it's not right because it's just going to keep coming and coming… it won't stop." His voice cracked and trailed off as memories began seeping into his mind.

Jenna cried more. "Let's assume you are right… how the Hell do you know about that?" She snapped at him through the tears streaming down her face.

"Because I've been there. I've been through all of it. My mom took all of that crap, saying that he loved us, but I didn't believe her for a second, because there is no way in Hell that someone who loves you would do this to hurt you! No way would they beat you until you are on the edge of being dead," he told her fervently.

"How—h—how did you get out of it?" She asked timidly.

"It didn't end well… my mom kept saying it would get better until one night he pulled a shotgun on us. Before I shot him in self-defense, he managed to fire once and hit my mother; she almost died, and would have if the neighbors hadn't called 911. So, please. Just tell us the truth and he will never hurt you or William again." Deeks pleaded tears gathering in the corner of his eyes.

"Okay." she answered him.

Relieved, Deeks moved towards the door. "I'll go get my team so they can take your statement." At her nod, he left.

"She is ready to talk," Deeks told the team. Hetty and Kensi noticed the glassy eyes that were slightly red, but said nothing.

"Well, who would've thought that Shaggy is an expert in abuse." Sam said without thinking, immediately regretting his words as he realized how cutting they were. Deeks gave him an angry look then stormed out before he did something he would later regret.

"Mr. Deeks!" "Deeks!" Hetty and Kensi called after him at the same time.

Hetty turned to Sam with a glare. "What have you done, Mr. Hanna?" She demanded angrily.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Oh for the love of God!" Hetty muttered, slumping back in her chair.

"Hetty, what's wrong? Why did Deeks storm out?" Callen asked, concerned for the detective.

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you this, it's up to Mr. Deeks to tell you that, not I."

"Hetty! Please tell us! He was different from the moment he came to Ops. What's wrong with him?" Kensi pleaded.

Hetty sighed. "Well, the reason why I talked to Mr. Deeks this morning was because I had my suspicions that this was a case of abuse and I needed to talk to Mr. Deeks to make sure he would be able to work this case."

"And why is that?" Sam asked.

"Because Mr. Deeks was abused for several years when he was a kid." Hetty told them with a sigh.

"What?!" They exclaimed together, shocked at what they'd heard.

"His father used to abuse him and his mother, and I'm afraid it did not end well; his father was about to shoot them with a shotgun when Deeks was able to shoot first. Mr. Deeks' mother was struck by his father's stray fire and ended up in the hospital. His father ended up in prison. Now, I trust you understand how wrong your words were, Mr. Hanna?"

"Oh my God." Kensi cried.

"What's wrong, Ms. Blye?"

"This morning… this morning we were talking and he was annoying us and I just snapped at him! I told him that I would give his parents a prize for putting up with him, and—my God—I said I would give a prize to his father—the man who abused him when he was a kid! That's why he was angry with me this morning! That's why he was behaving differently…. He must hate me." Kensi fell to her knees, crying.

A moment later she leapt to her feet. "I need to see him!" She exclaimed, storming out and leaving the others to complete the case.

She got in the car and headed for the Mission as fast as she could, trying to catch up with him. She called his phone, but it kept going to voicemail. She cursed under her breath. When she reached the Mission she went directly to the bullpen. She found his bag but not him. She checked the whole building but he was nowhere to be seen. She went to Ops and asked Eric and Nell to track his phone, then all she could do was wait.

It was night when Eric called her and told her that Deeks was back in his apartment. She went there immediately. Kensi sighed in relief when she saw his car in the parking lot, but she got worried when she noticed the lights were off in his apartment. She climbed the stairs and knocked gently on the door. No answer. "Deeks, I know you are here, please open the door!" Kensi called in a soft voice, knocking a little harder. Again she got no response.

"Deeks, open the door!" She said more loudly, knocking more heavily. She heard shuffling behind the door, but it never opened. "Deeks please open the door." She begged, voice cracking.

"Please leave." A voice whispered from the other side. It broke her heart a little to hear how full of pain it was.

"Deeks I'm not gonna leave. I need to talk to you." She pleaded as a couple of tears found their way down her cheeks.

"There is nothing to talk about. Just leave!" He replied coldly.

Kensi knew that he was not going to open the door, but she wasn't going to leave him alone. She took her gear and picked the lock. When she opened the door, the room was dark. She switched the lights on and what she saw made her heart break more: Deeks was sitting on the floor his back to the couch and a bottle of Jack Daniels whisky almost empty in his hand. He took another swig from it.

Kensi walked forward and knelt in front of him. She took the whisky bottle from his hand… he didn't resist, just threw his head back against the couch and stared at the ceiling. "What do you want, Kensi? I'm just an annoying partner, so leave me alone." He muttered, not looking at her.

"I'm sorry, Deeks. I didn't mean it like that. I was just kidding about the parents remark." That got a chuckle from him. "You know that I wouldn't want anyone but you to be my partner, and I wouldn't change anything about you. You are perfect to me, Deeks." She raised her hands to cup his face and caressed his scruffy cheeks gently. She forced his gaze to lock with hers so that he could see she meant every single word.

"Deeks you are a great man, and a great cop, and what I said this morning—and what Sam said this morning at the hospital—was wrong. It shouldn't have happened and I'm sorry it got like that. Sam knows he was mistaken, and Hetty told us about the case and what happened to you… we all know we went too far and I'm so sorry for that Deeks."

He tensed and pulled away from her. "Hetty told you? So you are doing all of this just out of pity? Is that how everyone is thinking of me now?" He snapped, moving to get up and get away from her, but he stumbled and fell.

Kensi rushed to him and helped him settle against the couch again. He tried to shrug her hand away, but she kept a firm grip on him. "Look Deeks. I'm not trying to pity you; I would never do that to you. You are my partner and I care about you, so don't push me away or tell me to leave because I'm not going anywhere."

"Why won't you leave me alone? Why do you care?" Deeks demanded, irritating Kensi.

"Because I love you!" She yelled back at him, frustrated with his idiotic brain.

Deeks eyes widened and his jaw dropped in shock. When he looked at Kensi's face, he saw his expression mirrored there.

'Did I just tell him that I loved him?' She thought furiously to herself.

"Did you just say that you love me?" Deeks asked wonderingly, not sure if he was awake or if this was just a fabulous dream.

"I… what I…" Kensi stammered, not knowing what to say. She didn't know how Deeks felt about her, and if he didn't have the same feelings for her, then she would be destroying their partnership.

"Kensi, did you just say that? Or did it come out wrong?" Deeks became serious. He loved Kensi, but he didn't know if she felt the same and now he had the chance to know…

Kensi was taken aback by his sudden seriousness, and she started to doubt that he was actually drunk. She didn't know what to say, but the seriousness of his words made her believe that he was waiting for her to confirm what she'd said… like he'd been waiting for this conversation to happen for a long time.

"And what if I said yes…. What would happen?" She whispered, staring at him.

"Well, that would depend on whether you meant what you said or if you just said that out of pity for me…" he said with a hint of a smile on his face.

Kensi contemplated his words, and when she saw his small smile, she went for it. "I told you I would never pity you Deeks… And yes… I meant what I said. All of it," she answered him, waiting for his reaction. She saw his smile widen at her words.

Deeks couldn't be happier; the woman of his dreams, the woman he loved had just confirmed to him that she was in love with him. He sat up and cupped her face with his hands, closed the gap between them, and kissed her softly and sweetly on the lips, pouring all of his emotions and feelings into the gesture. "I love you too, Kensi." He murmured as they parted for air.

Kensi smiled into his lips. This felt right—actually, it felt wonderful. She wasn't scared or panicked or feeling the need to run away, quite on the contrary. She pulled him to his feet, guided him to his room, and helped him into the bed.

"Please, don't leave me alone?" Deeks pleaded in a quiet voice, and Kensi couldn't have been happier. She took off her jeans, and took off his shirt, before slipping under the covers and lying down.

Deeks shifted closer to her and pulled her towards him so that she was resting her head on his shoulder. She nuzzled her face into his neck, inhaling his scent—a scent she absolutely loved, especially after he'd been surfing. "I will never leave you Deeks." She murmured into his neck, giving him a light kiss.