Author: Lizard971
Title: Falling, but not to Pieces
Fandom: NCIS Los Angeles

Prompt: LJ's hc_bingo prompt "Falling"
Medium: fanfic

Wordcount: 1697
Rating: G
Warnings: none

Summary: Deeks and Kensi are dealing with the aftermath of an accident
Characters: Marty Deeks, Kensi Blye

Disclaimer: Playing in a sandbox that is not mine.

AN: I'm not American, so 1st floor is not the ground floor. It's... the 1st floor. Apparently I managed to confuse my beta. LOL.

Thanks to Laz & Mish for their help with that one! I'm sorry you had to read the 1st draft Laz, it really sucked! I love you both to bits! 3

- Falling, but not to Pieces -

People always say it's the not the fall that kills—or hurts—it's the sudden stop. Sometimes, that's just bull and the fall hurts almost as much as the landing. Deeks could vouch for it.

Deeks was bored. He was bored and he hurt. He groaned when he rearranged himself on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable position. He knew it was a lost cause, since he'd basically been shifting around for the past three hours and nothing worked. Add to his misery how much the TV programming sucked, and that he didn't have the energy to get up and get a DVD; that's how he ended up watching the Food Network and feeling hungry.

He checked the time and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized Kensi would be stopping by soon to bring him food and check up on him. It made him smile. He hated being stuck at home and needing help from others, but he couldn't deny that being mother henned by his partner was kind of nice. Of course he'd never confess any of it in front of her; it was just too much fun to see her defend her actions and then try even harder every time he made a comment about it. What he didn't like, was that she was acting on some kind of ridiculous sense of guilt.

He was undercover. A group of arsonist had started hitting various buildings across town—some of which belonged to the Navy. He'd just managed to get accepted by the group and was undergoing a sort of initiation when things had gone wrong. The building they were targeting was supposed to be empty, except that a bunch of kids didn't get the memo and had made it their playground for the day. The incendiary devices was already set up and activated when Deeks heard the uninvited guests. He tried to warn the kids, tell them to get out, but they started running and hiding from him. Fucking kids. None of his "associates" seemed willing to help and he was left alone to deal with the disaster in the making. Mission be damned, he was not leaving without knowing the building was empty for good. He quickly updated Kensi on the situation and went after the brats. At least, left alone in the building, he was able to reveal himself as a cop and convince most of the kids that they weren't in any trouble, that they just needed to get out and play somewhere else. That left him with, apparently, two kids to find and a little under three minutes to do so. Of course, it wasn't enough; everything went ablaze around him before he could find anyone.

The bright side was that the kids started screaming for help somewhere from the first floor. He rushed there and found the two, huddled together in a corner, flames closing in. With no time to think, Deeks sprung towards them, picked the smaller one up in his arms and grabbed the other by the hand. The little group almost made it back to the stairway when, of fucking course, the floor vanished just in front of them. Alone, he would have just jumped over and hoped for the best, but that was not an option with the two kids clinging to him. By some sort of miracle, Kensi chose that moment to appear on the stairs, screaming something at him. Not trying to understand, he shouted right back.

"Grab the kid! I'm gonna throw him your way!" That was crazy, he knew it, she knew it and apparently the kid knew it too as he'd clung tighter to Deeks, screaming "no no no no" in his shirt. Deeks reassured him that it would be okay, that it wasn't even a big leap and he'd feel like Superman. Without giving anyone time to rethink the plan, Deeks got in position, Kensi doing the same on her side and before they knew it, both kids were safe on the other side of the gaping hole in his Kensi's care. She left to bring them out of the building, assuring Deeks that she was coming back for him.

With Deeks the only one left to make the jump, Lady Luck chose that moment to leave the building too, taking the floor underneath his feet with her. He screamed. He screamed in surprise and in pain; one of the broken floor boards ripped through his jeans, tearing a long gash in his thigh while his left arm and hand were torn to shreds—at least it felt like it—as he tried to grab onto something. The fall definitely hurt. The landing hurt too, but he blacked out almost right away, so it wasn't as noticeable.

Deeks woke up in the hospital the next day, dosed up on pain medication and Kensi sleeping in the plastic chair by his bed. Comforted that she was safe, he promptly fell back asleep and she never even noticed. He got the story of his rescue from Hetty, when he woke up again for a bit longer the day after that; also learning about his partner's guilt over not being there to catch him. She might be strong, but there was no way she could have hauled his ass up without getting hurt as well. Truth be told, Deeks was glad she hadn't been there to see him fall.

He stayed in the hospital a little over a week, to give his various injuries time to mend. The doctors wanted to keep an eye on his concussion and his lungs. He was on oxygen for five days because apparently smoke inhalation was a bitch and even now, ten days later, he was still coughing from time to time. Those coughing fit always sent Kensi into extra mother-hen mode, because he'd broken and bruised four ribs in the fall—or most likely the landing—and he couldn't suppress the pain that coughing brought. At some point he also developed a small fever, the gash on his left forearm—yes, it had only been a gash, a deep one, but just a gash—not healing properly. That too resulted in more mollycoddling from Hetty and the team—well, really, just Kensi again, with Hetty bringing him some of her "special" tea.

When he was finally deemed well enough to be released, he insisted on going back to his place, even though moving around on his own was a lot harder than he wanted to admit. His knee was wrapped in a brace, after being sprained in his little stunt, and handling the crutches—with his other injuries—was pretty rough. That's why he was now spending most of his days vegging out in front of the TV, watching shows that left him hungry.

That's how Kensi found him when she arrived with dinner.

"Oh my God, Deeks! I can't believe you haven't moved your ass since I left. Don't expect me to be your maid forever." She looked at him and Deeks could see the worry hidden behind her words.

"Oh, Fern," he replied, "don't be like that. You know I'm nothing without you and you love it."

Not showing their true feelings was a trait they had in common and a rule they lived by. They always used humour and teasing to deflect their worry about each other; both too proud and emotionally damaged to open up and say things as they were.

"Who would bring me my pain meds and look after me if not you? Because between you and Hetty, Callen or Sam, I'd really rather it be you. Sam would just haul me up and manhandle me around because he can't do things like a normal human being. Callen would just stare at me, eat my chips, drink my beer and tell me to get them myself. I'd rather not think about what Hetty would be like... I think she scares me more every day." That was the last of the concussion talking. There's no way he would admit something like that in a normal state, would he?

"Ha! I knew it! She scares the crap out of poor little Shaggy," she teased while still handing him a couple pills with a glass of water, having perfectly understood his 'subtle' request; she could also see the lines of pain on his face. "Why you don't keep your meds nearby, I don't get. Next time, either you suffer through the pain or you just get them yourself. You're supposed to start your physical therapy soon anyway. Here, don't take them on an empty stomach." She offered Deeks a take-out box from his favourite Chinese restaurant; before settling down on the couch next to him, like every evening since he was released.

"How's the leg? And the arm?" she asked, but left him no time to answer. "Don't tell me you've been watching the Food Network all afternoon, because that just can't be healthy." She leaned over him to grab the remote, careful of his healing ribs.

"Better than the telenovelas you make me watch the rest of the time. I don't even understand half of their Spanish. Give me that back."

Like every evening, they pretended to wrestled for the remote, banter going on about who wanted to watch what, when really, neither of them cared.

Like every night, they'd fall asleep on the couch after a short while until a loud commercial on TV woke them up.

Like every night, Kensi would help Deeks get ready for bed, tuck him in, making sure he had everything he needed nearby.

Like every night, Kensi would pretend to be leaving before going back to the couch to spend the night there, leaving early in the morning after checking on Deeks one last time.

Like every night, Deeks would wake up to soft snoring coming from his living room, then smile, knowing his partner was playing softy again and go back to sleep, mind at ease.

Falling usually leads to something being left broken or damaged in its wake; all Deeks could see though, was how this fall has left him and Kensi stronger together.

FIN