Kensi lay half on top of him in her bed, her head pillowed comfortably on his chest while the fingers of her left hand reached up to toy with his too-long hair.

"You okay?" Deeks asked, running his hand up and down her spine in a soothing rhythm.

It had been yet another hard case, for Kensi especially. It had drudged up the past in all the worst ways for his girlfriend. He knew deception was hard on her and he knew it must've been even harder when the people she was deceiving were American Marines, like her father, who had come back less than they'd been when they left. The men and women she was around in the centre, the men and women she had fooled, were heroes she respected. They were people like Jack, who'd returned to her only to hit the ground and leave.

Then there was the fact that Kensi's undercover character hit closer to home than either of them wanted to admit. When Hetty had briefed them on their roles in the operation Kensi had stubbornly ignored Deeks' concerned gaze. They were halfway through the case though, when she had sought him out. The pair had slipped into a storage closet for a too-brief five minutes as she took refuge from the thoughts plaguing her mind in his arms. Very few words were exchanged between them during her short reprieve but Deeks knew what was going through her mind. She'd pulled back, wiped her tears and whispered a soft thanks as she'd pressed her lips to his cheek before silently slipping back into character and out the door.

Added to the emotional roller coster of their undercover jaunt was the fact she'd put a Marine in her crosshairs, literally, and was told to take the shot. She'd admitted to him in the car on the way back to the mission that it had put her right back in Afghanistan, peering through the scope only to see her ex-fiancée whom she had assumed dead. Come to think of it, to say it had been a hard case was a gross understatement.

"Kens?" He pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You okay?" He repeated.

"Yeah. Just thinking." She mumbled in response, hugging him tighter.

"Are you sure? Anything I can do?" He offered, his hand still drawing senseless patterns on her back.

"You're doing it." She assured him. Silence fell back over them for a few minutes as Kensi continued to card her hands through his locks and Deeks continued to rub her back.

"Are you still going to mentor Chad?" Kensi queried, breaking the heavy stillness in the room.

"I was thinking about it. What do you think?"

"I think if you want to, you should go for it. You seem to have a lot in common with him. It'll be good for you." She looped her leg around his as she said it, further entwining their bodies.

Deeks silently contemplated her words for a moment.

"What?" She pushed, tugging gently at his hair to bring him back to her.

"Would I be good for him though?" His hand paused it's journey on her back.

"Of course you would be."

"It's not like I had the best male role-models in my life Kens. I don't really know what one looks like." He confessed quietly.

Kensi moved her hand from his hair down to his chest and pushed herself up to look at his face.

"Deeks," She waited until his eyes opened and he looked at her. "You want to know what a good male role-model looks like? Go find a mirror. You're a good man Marty. You're going to be a fantastic mentor. Any kid would be lucky to spend time with you. And one day," She paused. They'd talked about kids in general terms throughout their partnership but they'd yet to really discuss them within the context of their current relationship. She drew in a breath. "One day you're going to make a great father to our children."

She leaned down and kissed his lips soundly.

"I'm proud of who you are." She murmured as she lay back down at his side, cuddling closely.

"I'll call them tomorrow." He decided. Straining his neck forward, he kissed her hairline. "Thanks Kens."

She squeezed him in response before loosening her hold slightly and relaxing into sleep. He followed soon after.

The next weekend Deeks pulled his truck up outside the address the mentoring program coordinators had given him. The place was well worn and children's toys were scattered around the front yard. Deeks climbed out of the car and shook off his nerves as he approached the front door.

He knocked and could hear a small commotion inside, the patter of running feet, a voice instructing the owner of said feet to slow down, and then the clanging of something falling over.

The door opened and Deeks was face to face with a tired looking woman.

"Hi. I, ah, I'm Marty Deeks. I'm part of the mentoring program." He introduced himself.

"Oh, that's great. You're here for Chad, right?"

Deeks nodded and the woman turned and yelled the teen's name up the stairs.

"He'll be down in a minute. I'm Darcy by the way." She introduced, extending her hand. Deeks shook it. "Come take a seat."

Darcy moved back into the dining room where she was feeding a messy toddler in a highchair. Two minutes later Chad stood in front of Deeks.

"Hey, you must be Chad. I'm Marty." Deeks stood to his feet, his nervous hands deep in his pockets.

"Hi." The young man replied, obviously sizing Deeks up.

After a moment of assessing silence, Deeks rocked back on his heels.

"So, I was thinking we could go surfing. There's supposed to be decent swell today."

"I don't have a board anymore." Chad sounded pretty disappointed by the fact.

"That's fine. You can use one of mine. We'll just have to stop by my apartment and pick them up."

Deeks felt a small swell of pride and accomplishment as Chad seemed to perk up at the suggestion, an almost smile gracing the corners of his mouth.

"Okay. Let me grab my stuff." Chad jogged back upstairs and returned again quickly. He told Darcy where he was going and bid her farewell and the pair drove in slightly awkward silence to Deeks' apartment.

"If you were planning on taking me surfing, why didn't you just bring the boards with you?" Chad finally asked, breaking the invisible barrier between them.

"I was at my girlfriend's last night." Deeks explained as Chad followed him from the parking lot to his apartment.

"You have a girlfriend?" He sounded incredulous.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Deeks countered as they approached the door and he slid the key into the lock.

"No. I mean, not really." Chad followed Deeks as the detective got the door open. "Just, why would you spend your weekend dragging a kid like me around Los Angeles when you could spend it with your girlfriend?"

"Fair question." Deeks moved down the hall to grab the boards while Chad hung about int the living room, looking Deeks' DVD collection.

Deeks returned a few seconds later, two boards under his arms. "I see her pretty much everyday. We work together. Besides, I know what it's like to grow up in a foster home." Deeks stood the boards up against the couch.

Chad held a frame from a nearby shelf in his hands. He bristled slightly as Deeks mentioned foster homes but otherwise ignored that line of conversation.

"Is this your girlfriend?" He asked, holding the frame towards Deeks. It held a picture of him and Kensi during their Mammoth Mountain vacation.

"That's her."

"She's hot." Chad deadpanned.

Deeks chuckled lightly. "Yeah, yeah she is." He agreed.

"What's her name?"

"Kensi."

Chad nodded and returned the picture to the shelf, moving towards the boards.

"Which one's mine?"

"The green one. Wanna grab it and we'll walk down. The beach is only three blocks away." Deeks suggested, grabbing his own blue board and leading the way out of the apartment.

Chad's personality truly came to light as he and Deeks took turns riding the waves. As they waited for decent swells the teen began to open up, if only slightly, talking about school and his hobbies while Deeks corralled him with a few of the more tame stories of his early LAPD days. By the time they were driving back to Chad's home the conversation was flowing easily between the pair, their personalities complementing each other well.

"Thanks for today Marty." Chad smiled genuinely as Deeks pulled the truck up outside the foster home.

"Not a problem man." Deeks offered his hand to Chad who shook it with a firm grip. "Wanna go again next weekend?"

"Okay, sure." Chad grinned.

"Here," Deeks pulled his card out and handed it to the teen. "I'll see you next weekend."

"Thanks. See ya Marty." He waved briefly after he got out the car before jogging up the path and into the house.

"Hey." Kensi greeted Deeks from where she was curled on the couch as he let himself into her apartment later that afternoon.

"Hey." Deeks replied in kind. He made his way into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before returning to the living room and joining his girlfriend on the couch.

He sat on the opposite end to her. Kensi abandoned the book she had been reading on the coffee table and slid down next to him, bumping his shoulder with her own.

"How'd it go with Chad?" She asked.

Deeks took another mouthful of his drink before answering.

"Really well I think. He's a pretty cool kid. We went surfing."

"Of course you did." Kensi chuckled, turning her face to press a kiss to his jaw. "What's he like?"

"Ah, he's smart but a typical teenage boy. Likes to make trouble I think, he's into surfing and skating."

"So he really is like a teen version of you." Kensi grinned.

"I suppose. We're going surfing again next week."

"That's great."

"Yeah." Deeks agreed before falling silent again, picking at the label on his water bottle. Kensi sat quietly next to him, waiting him out.

"We talked about surfing and school and I told him a few of my good LAPD sorries."

"Stealing a pink bike with tasseled handles from an eight-year-old girl to chase down a perp?" She interrupted.

"Yes, among others. And I didn't steal that bike, for the record, I borrowed it. I returned it to her." He defended himself good-naturedly before turning serious again. "We talked and the conversation was good but…" He trailed off, searching for words.

"But…" Kensi encouraged a few moments later.

"But I didn't really get to help him I don't think, not in a practical way. I know what it's like to live in a foster home. I know that feeling of worthlessness and the feeling that you're not going to amount to anything because of something as stupid as circumstances beyond your control. I just want to help him, show him what he could be but it didn't really come up and I didn't want to push." Deeks sighed.

Kensi lifted his arm so it fell around her shoulders and leaned into him. "You and I know better than anyone that, at that age, in that kind of life, you don't really trust anyone. Kids don't take on board that kind of advice when it's pushed upon them, especially by people they hardly know. Give him some time Deeks. Be a friend. That's what he needs. Show him what he can be by modelling it for him. Eventually, if he needs you he'll come to you and ask. You're going to help him so much more if he comes to you. Just show him that he can. And even if he never does approach you for help or advice, he'll still have learnt a lot form you."

Deeks brought the hand not wrapped around her shoulders to her face, gently stroking her cheek before leaning down and kissing her deeply, thanking her for her encouragement and faith in him. It wasn't long before she was straddling his lap and then he was carrying her to the bedroom.

A/N: Hey! Firstly, for those of you waiting on Many the Miles, I've marked it as complete. For further explanation as they why you can check out the last chapter of the fic, my fanfiction profile, or my tumblr.

Secondly, I've taken a bit of artistic license in this fic in terms of what the mentoring service would allow so please forgive me that.

Finally, this will be probably a two part fic. I'm hoping to have the second part up on Monday before the episode airs.