A/N: Anon asked for "NCIS:LA, trope: game night."

In the weeks following Kensi's return, the team is fractured, scattered. Kensi keeps to herself, which means that Deeks is at loose ends and spiralling, which means Callen and Sam have to babysit him, which means Eric and Nell have to keep the whole operation together; and Nell is at loose ends because her best friend is isolating herself, and so on.

Nell takes a risk and goes to Hetty, and the next night Hetty visits the bullpen, saying, "It's time for a team-building exercise. There's a board game café in Glendale where all six of you will go directly after shift. You'll be off the clock, but if I hear of any unapproved absences, there will be consequences. Understood?"

Everyone mumbles their assent, though no one is especially excited about it. Even though Callen and Sam have their own thing, no one has been exempt from the off-kilter sense of wrongness in the team lately.

Kensi, especially, is dreading it. At work she can keep her loose and broken pieces safe inside, committing to the job and never letting her own issues get in the way. But she hasn't been social, because that's a risk. That's dangerous.

She avoids everyone's eyes, knowing she's the reason for this, and focuses on her paperwork.

When they arrive at GameHäus, Sam orders a round for the group. They start with Cards for Humanity, at least in part because it doesn't actually involve interaction. Deal cards, choose cards, announce a winner. It inspires initial suppressed snorts of laughter, but before long they all have tears streaming down their faces, getting sillier and sillier. Even Kensi.

It's a brief vacation from the thoughts in her head and the feelings she hasn't been able to escape. Her fear won't let her stray too far, but still she laughs, still she enjoys.

After a while they switch to Cranium, a game that uses teams and parts of their brains that usually stay dormant. It seems logical that they use their day-time teams, and it also makes perfect sense that Callen and Sam can't stop fighting, Kensi and Deeks work quietly together, and Nell and Eric beat them all into the ground.

"This is not fair," Calllen says. "They're smarter than all of us combined."

"Speak for yourself," Deeks replies. Their tally is only ten points behind the Wonder Twins, while Sam and Callen trail by seventeen.

"You can't draw," Callen mutters to Sam. "Or act. I'm never playing on your team again."

Completely chill, Sam retorts, "I have kids. I know board games. This one's on you."

They head out arguing, and Eric and Nell exchange a look.

"We'd better go too," Nell says. "I'll drive you home, Eric."

Kensi and Deeks are left at the table, and Kensi turns to get her coat without making eye contact. Deeks stays in his seat, watching her.

"Can I drive you home?"

She stops moving but doesn't look up or reply, and Deeks can see her mouth start to work, knows she's starting to chew on the inside of her cheek. Finally, she nods, and Deeks dons his coat and waits for her to lead the way out of the café.

Outside her apartment, Deeks keeps his hands on the wheel, stares straight ahead, and Kensi sits silently in the passenger seat. He thinks at her, Invite me in, invite me in, and eventually she says, "D'you want a beer?"

A lot of stupid replies fly through his mind—thought you'd never ask, you sure know the way to a man's heart, etc—but instead he just says, "Yeah, sure."

He looks around her living room for clues, but it looks pretty much exactly the way it always does. She's obviously sleeping on the couch, but again, that's not really an exception. He settles in one corner of the couch and when she brings the beers, she takes the far corner.

They sit in silence, sipping from the bottle. After a while, Kensi opens her mouth, and Deeks turns his head just slightly to look at her from the corner of his eye, but she closes her mouth again and starts picking at the label on the bottle.

"Maybe we should have brought the games home with us," he jokes, and she forces a wan smile. He tries again: "We don't have to talk, you know. You didn't make me talk, when… so…"

She breathes out in relief and nods. "I don't know why it's so hard."

"You know I've been there. You don't have to explain anything to me."

When he looks up, she's watching him with the smallest hint of a genuine smile on her face. He smiles back, a tiny bit of the weight on his heart lifting.

Promise me you'll be patient with me, she said, right before she left. They've always needed patience to work together, and now it's just another phase of the long road to a goal of someday being on the same page. He still believes it's possible; even if it feels like they've moved a mile backward. Considering the steps they took before she left, a mile backward is still a smidge ahead of where they were. It would take a lot more than this to shake Deeks's faith in them.

"Trust me for a second?" he asks, and she cocks her head. He holds out his arms, feeling like a complete idiot, and says, "Come here."

"Deeks…"

"Just try it, okay?"

She stares at him for a long moment, thinking about it, and then she moves forward and into his arms. Resting her head on her chest, she lets her arms fit around his torso as he wraps his own around her. It takes a minute—for her to relax, to settle—but nothing bad is going to happen; her fear is entirely irrational; and she can't always give in to her irrational fears.

So she makes it happen: she relaxes her muscle groups one by one, and she turns her mind to focus on concrete things instead of amorphous terrors. She hears Deeks's heart through his chest, she feels his torso close to hers, and she feels his arms wrapped securely around her.

She feels, almost, safe.

"Okay," she breathes out, and he raises his hand cautiously to stroke her hair.

"This is all I will ever ask of you, okay?"

Her eyes fill with tears and she chokes them back, turning her face against his chest. "Yeah." She rubs his arm through his shirt and says, "Thanks, Deeks."

"Anytime," he replies softly.