Happy New Years everybody. I had planned on doing an NCIS LA Christmas story but unfortunately that didn't happen. Instead I decided to do this. I had taken down the last "Beating Heart" because is wasn't what I wanted. Well, I decided to try it again and so here it is. Inspired by the Ellie Goulding song Beating Heart and a video of one hell of a storm over Los Angeles. Hope y'all like it.

For three hundred days out of the year, Los Angeles was awash in brilliant sun filled days and gloriously smoggy nights. One of its nicknames was even "The City of Flowers and Sunshine". But that left sixty five days where there was no sun. And when Los Angeles sent a storm, it didn't mess around.

Lightning streaked across the sky as Deeks got out of his truck in front of Kensi's place. He had been on his way to OSP when he'd gotten her text. It wasn't wordy, it didn't need to be.

My place. I need you.

He looked up as a streak of lightning raced across the sky, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling growing slowly in the pit of his stomach. He knocked once, then twice. As he was raising his hand for a third time the door flew open and there she stood. An angel, his angel, framed in a halo of dark hair.

"Hey." He smiled, feeling that ball loosen just slightly, before he noticed the worry on her face.

"Hey." She gave him a small smile before letting him in.

"Woah, it's dark in here." He remarked as he tried to maneuver his way around the piles of mess that always seemed to accumulate in her apartment.

"Yeah. The, the lights gave out a minute or two ago."

"Storm's coming."

"Yeah." She turned and wiped her eyes so he wouldn't see the tears. But she felt his arms come around her middle. She tensed, and released.

"Kensi please," don't shut me out, don't go through whatever this is alone, talk to me, "what do you need?"

The room was dead silent for a long moment, only the sound of the approaching storm filling the air.

"I need you to kiss me." She finally said.

She turned in his arms to face him in the darkness.

"I need you to kiss me, right here, right now."

Nodded and slowly brought his lips to hers. She was wearing the flavored lip gloss he'd bought her. Raspberry.

"Now do it again."

"Kens."

"Please, Deeks. Please."

"Kensi," he drew his head back and looked at her, "talk to me."

She bite her lip. Communication, spoken words, they always did have a problem with that.

"I'm leaving. Granger is pulling me for a secret mission. I leave tomorrow morning."

"You're leaving?" He tried to wrap his mind around what she was telling him.

"I don't want to go." She shook her head. "You have to know I don't want to go."

There were a million questions running through his head. Where, what, who, how, why? But only one seemed important enough to ask.

"When are you coming back?

The relief she felt nearly cut her off at the knees. She had seen all the questions, all the emotions pass over his face, and yet all he wanted to know was when she was coming back.

"I don't know."

Before she could comprehend what was happening, Deeks had grabbed her face and firmly fused his mouth to hers. The lightning flashed and for a moment the entire world stopped. Racing hearts stopped mid beat. Breath was sucked from the lungs. They both clung tightly to each other in an attempt to keep from buckling. In that brilliant flash of light, they were the only two people on earth. Captured in a lightning flash.

When she felt strong enough to breathe again she opened her mouth to speak.

"Don't, don't say anything." He looked at her, stripping her naked with just a stare until she was completely naked, her heart and soul open to him. "If you're leaving tomorrow then I don't want you to say anything. I want to spend tonight exploring every inch of you. I want to memorize every inch of your body. I want…"

Whatever else he wanted was lost in a crack of thunder as Kensi put her mouth back onto his and pushed him into the bedroom.

As the storm intensified outside, the one inside was advancing twice as fast.

He rammed her up against the bedroom wall, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, his mouth hot on her neck. She spun him and they fell onto the bed, her landing on top of him, straddling him. Very slowly he eased her out of her shirt, keeping eye contact as he ran his hands over her bare shoulders and down her front. She reached behind her and unclasped her bra, giving him full access as he gently cupped her breasts.

She rolled her head back as the lightning illuminated the dark room, rain and sea spray lashing at the windows. Hungrily she grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head, giving him the perfect angle to replace his hands with his mouth, lightly nipping her at her nipples.

She felt the first blinding orgasm rip through her, ending on a hard gasp. "God." The fire of arousal in her belly erupt into a blazing inferno. He looked into her eyes and saw the flames shoot up into them. He almost lost it himself.

She grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled in over his head, allowing him to grab her hips and pull them in as close to his as he possibly could before their jeans got in the way. He shoved her off of him and all but tore the denim from his body, leaving him throbbing painfully in nothing but a flimsy pair of boxers.

He stood slowly and looked hungrily at Kensi standing on the other side of the room, her pants gone. She gave him a feral look that reminded him dimly of a lioness eyeing her prey as she slowly slid her panties to the ground and stepped out of them.

She hooked her finger in a come hither motion as she stared at him.

"Come."

He charged her and together they whipped themselves into darkness.

"Oh my god."

"No talking." Kesni moaned from beside him, her entire insides feeling like Jello. The faint rumbles of the subsiding storm could be heard in the distance.

"I don't think I'll be able to leave this bed anytime in the near foreseeable future. That was,"

"Wow."

He turned his head to look at her. "Yeah."

He lifted his hand to her cheek, caressing her face, letting himself drown in her perfectly mismatched eyes.

"You have to leave."

"I have to leave."

There was sadness in the words, but also acceptance. She used the last of her strength the hoist herself onto her side and lay her head on his chest.

"Kens?" He tried to sit up but she stopped him.

"Shh, I'm listening."

She placed her ear to his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart beating in his chest. He watched her and slowly stroked her hair.

"What do you hear?"

She was quiet for a second, listening to the steady thump, thump, thump. It sounded so concrete, so permanent, so safe.

"You."

She blinked hard, refusing to be the weepy girl who cried because she was leaving the man she…loved.

The man she loved.

"Promise me something." She raised her head to look at him.

"Anything."

Promise me, that if I come back,"

"When," he corrected her, taking her face in his hands and using his thumb to wipe away the tears. "When."

She covered his hand with hers, relishing the feeling of his warm palm on her skin. "When I come back from whatever this is, wherever this is. Promise me you'll still be here for me?"

He looked at her with such tenderness she thought her heart would break.

"Promise me."

"I promise." He whispered it as if he was saying a prayer. He gently pulled her face to his, touching his forehead with hers. "I love…"

"Don't," she stopped him, "not yet. Give me something to come home to you with."

His smile just about split his face in two. "Home to me?"

"To you." She nodded before she kissed him, slowly, carefully. It seemed they just couldn't communicate the way other people, normal people did. But when they kissed, every unspoken work was heard loud and clear.

"I don't care how long it takes, I promise that I will come home to you."

Promises are tricky things. Any kid on the playground could tell you that. But the truth is that they are really more important that any of us give them credit for. Because all promises, no matter how small, carry an extra promise. The promise that you'll be there, the promise that you care enough to be there for someone else to see that promise through. And sometimes, sometimes that second unspoken promise is just as important as the one you say out loud.

Hope you guys enjoyed that. You know how to tell me if you do, or if you don't. I had wanted to put all three of these (Two Beating Hearts, Wedding Dress, Human) into one compilation but for whatever reason it wouldn't let me. Oh well, check out the other two in the series. Review please.