AN – So, I definitely failed in finishing this story before season 10 started. Life then continued to keep me from being able to write. No promises, but I think I'm back on track and will be able to stay on track (at least for the foreseeable future). Thank you to everyone who has reached out with so much awesome support.

This story is now finished! I had a really solid picture in my mind of what this chapter was supposed to look like. But when I sat down to write it last summer, it didn't work. I tried rewriting it a few times, but that didn't work. So, I let the characters lead and this turned into more of an epilogue than a standalone chapter. And I think that's better because nothing is ending for them; it's just beginning. (And it leaves things open for additions to this storyline down the road if anyone is interested AFTER I finish ADLS).

ALDS Update – I am currently refamiliarizing myself with the story. I'm using this as a time to write some oneshots in the ADLS universe of alternate ways for the team to find out about Kensi and Deeks's marriage.

I posted a oneshot called 'Mothers' this week – please check it out if you haven't yet.

00

Deeks

Deeks dreams about the future. He dreams about himself and Kensi, together and happy. He dreams about all the possibilities they have discussed since their life together had almost come to a screeching halt. His dreams are mostly happy now. He attributes the happiness to the woman sharing his bed.

When he wakes, it's to the knowledge that he is already living his future. The past three weeks have been part of a future that was not guaranteed. He's acutely aware that the past three weeks with Kensi, and every moment now, are a gift. Because their future together could have ended three weeks ago; in more ways than one.

He takes a deep breath as he opens his eyes. He stretches and only winces a little. His recovery is progressing slower than he had expected. He is still tired and sore most of the time. He finds it more comfortable to sleep and easier to breathe propped up, so he's sleeping in an almost sitting position.

Beside him, Kensi is sprawled flat on the mattress. Her broken arm is casted and flung above her head, resting on the pillow. Her other arm is flung outwards, resting against his thigh. Her tank top is slightly twisted, and has risen to expose a few inches of skin along her abdomen. Her bruises have faded away, but he knows her pain has not.

He reaches his hand towards her. He starts with tucking some wayward strands of hair from her face. Then he runs his fingers along her jaw, down her neck and across her clavicle.

She comes awake slowly. She mumbles something unintelligible, that may be a good morning greeting.

She starts to roll towards him and then hisses through her teeth and stops. Both arms go to her middle as she sits up.

"Sorry," he murmurs. He knows how much pain she is still experiencing from her healing ribs.

"S'okay," she says. "I just forget when I wake up."

"Until you move."

She laughs. "Until I move," she agrees. She adjusts so she is sitting facing him, her legs crossed. "How are you feeling?"

He raises an eyebrow. "I don't know. I haven't moved yet."

She laughs again. "We're quite a pair, huh?"

He reaches for her good hand and threads their fingers together. "We're awesome."

"You think we'll be like this when we're in our nineties? Complaining about our aches and pains?"

Deeks smiles. "I'm counting on it."

She smiles back. "Me, too." She squeezes his hand. "Any new dreams?" It's become routine for him to share. Since the accident his mind – probably fueled by pain medication – has been working through an array of options for their future.

"Yup," he says, forcing a serious expression.

Her eyes twinkle, and he knows she knows whatever he is about to say will make her laugh. This has also become a routine. "And?"

"We should both quit law enforcement and go join the circus."

She laughs. "Like a travelling circus?"

"Well, we'd probably have to start off that way, build up our brand, but that would only be a five year plan for a show in Vegas."

She rolls her eyes. "Sounds perfect. What kind of show?"

He purses his lips as her thinks for a moment. "I'm thinking acrobatics and jungle cats. With fire worked in somehow."

"Sounds so much safer than what we do now."

"Think we can add it to the short list?"

"Maybe the bottom of the short list."

He smiles at the amazing woman next to him, who will one day soon be his wife. He is awed, as he is every day, that she not only wants to marry him, but wants to build a new life with him.

He hadn't really understood before. He can't count how many times she had verbalized that she doesn't know any other life. It just took him an overly long time to hear what she was saying.

She really hasn't known anything different. She grew up on marine bases with the strong role model of her father, who served his country. From fifteen on, she had been driven to become an NCIS agent. She had studied criminology in college to help with her career aspirations, and then she had successfully applied to NCIS.

It's all she's ever known.

Though his childhood had been less than stellar, he'd known options. He grown up far from the structure and drive of a military base. He'd been exposed to good people and bad, been exposed to good choices and bad. When he had started college as pre-law, he had kept his options open in case he changed his mind or didn't get accepted into law school. The he had worked as a lawyer before transitioning into law enforcement.

He'd lived in a few different worlds.

And now they were going to transition to a different world – a different life – together.

"There is no one I would rather run away and join the circus with than you," he tells her.

She laughs, though her eyes are sparking with happiness.

Despite the pain and slow physical recovering in the past three weeks, Deeks knows they have made more progress towards their future together in three weeks than the preceding year of their engagement.

He squeezes her hand. "I really can't wait to marry you."

If his subject change takes her by surprise, she doesn't show it. "Me, too."

"We really have to get planning."

She runs her thumb along his ring finger, where a ring will one day rest. "We could just go down to city hall?"

He knows she is only half serious, but plays along. "Today?"

"Eager?"

"Very."

She smiles. She drops his hand and then carefully swings her leg over him so she can sit straddling his lap.

His hands come to rest on her hips.

"I'm eager, too," she admits. She hesitates for a moment before continuing. "I'm really looking forward to calling you my husband."

He smiles. "Me, too."

She smirks. "You're looking forward to calling me your husband?" She jokes.

He huffs a laugh. "My wife," he corrects. A small jolt goes through him. He is really looking forward to calling her his wife.

"Sounds amazing."

"Amazing," he echoes. "So, city hall?"

She runs her hand up his chest. "Maybe not today. Because when we do get married, I want to be able to celebrate." She raises an eyebrow, just in case he doesn't understand her meaning.

He understands immediately. Despite joking and complaining about six sex-less weeks, the injury his body took is more significant than he initially understood. He still can't walk more than two blocks without a rest. He sleeps a lot. And his gorgeous and sexy fiancée sitting in his lap doesn't have the same effect it would have three weeks earlier.

"Three more weeks," he whispers. "And hopefully, no longer than that."

She sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "It's okay if it takes longer." Her hand winds its way down his neck to his chest, and comes to rest over his heart. "You almost died, Marty."

He captures her hand between his chest and his own hand. He enjoys the skin to skin contact. It's a different kind of intimacy between them; one that definitely won't lead to sex right now.

"I'm so glad I'm alive," he whispers. "I'm so glad I get to figure things out with you."

She leans in carefully to kiss him. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too."

00

Kensi

She sits back. Leaning forward to kiss him is worth it, but sustaining the position still causes her ribs to scream in pain. They really are a pair right now. Despite her discomfort, she smiles. She really likes the thought of them together in fifty-something years, old and arthritic, complaining about their aches and pains.

She felt drawn to Deeks since the moment she met him, and she's been certain he's the man she wants to spend her life with for a long time now. But somehow their connection has only strengthened in the past three weeks.

He's alive, despite the odds against him. He loves her enough to make some really big changes for her. He's willing to move, to change jobs, to build a new life. And when he looks at her now, she's pretty sure he sees more than he saw before. She's pretty sure he somehow understands her even more than before.

She's never had anyone look at her the way he does. It makes her feel giddy and happy in a way she will never admit to anyone but him.

"I don't want to get married at city hall," she blurts.

"Okay," he agrees easily.

She makes a face before explaining. "I just…I love you. A lot. And we're only going to do this once. So, we should celebrate it."

"Okay."

She narrows her eyes at his continued agreement.

"I just want to marry you," he says before she can say anything. "Big wedding, small wedding, city hall wedding, I don't care. As long as it's you and me getting married."

"Let's go for a medium sized wedding. I want to stand up and say vows with you and exchange rings. I want to eat really good food. I want to wear a beautiful dress and see you in a tux. I want to dance. I want to celebrate."

"Sounds perfect." He smiles at her. "But you do know it's our wedding, so something will go wrong."

She smiles back. "We'll figure it out."

"We always do."

"We just have to figure out what our future will look like," she points out.

He lifts her hand from his chest and presses a kiss to her palm. "We've got time."

"It stresses me a bit to not have all the answers," she admits.

He huffs a laugh. "I hadn't noticed," he says sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes.

His gaze turns serious, though he is still smiling warmly at her. "I think there isn't just one answer. I think as long as we're together and doing good, then we'll do a lot of different things. Live in a lot of different places. Have different jobs. Help in different ways. Make a number of different marks on the world instead of just one or two big marks. I don't think we'll ever have all the answers. We'll just make choices as they come up. And make the choices together."

She smiles at the thought of not being limited. "I like that. Where should we start?"

His eyes leave hers and his gaze comes to rest somewhere over her shoulder as he thinks. "Well, you could train marines for a year or two at, oh let's say Pearl Harbor."

She snorts a laugh. Living in Hawaii has been a consistent example he's given over the last three weeks.

He chuckles as his eyes come back to hers. "We could live in paradise for a year or two. You could teach. I could run a dive shop. And surf."

She laughs again.

"It would give us some time to decompress. Maybe start a family."

"Mmm, I like that. What's next?"

"Maybe then you apply for the Foreign Services?" It's something they have talked about that Kensi had never thought about before. With her language skills and world knowledge, working at embassies around the world would be a good fit.

"Okay."

"It would be good to do this when the kids are younger."

"How many kids are we talking about exactly?"

"Ten," he dead pans.

She raises an eyebrow. "Want to try that again? Something not in the double digits?"

"But with ten kids we could be the Deeks Dozen."

"Or you could be the Deeks single and alone."

He laughs before answering her initial request. "Well, we start with one. And then…I think two is a good number. No one is lonely, but we're also not outnumbered."

"You're worried about being outnumbered?"

He fakes a serious look and nods. "Yes! They're our kids, so you know they're going to be smart, stubborn and a little crazy. Plus, they'll be annoying multi-lingual like their mom. Seriously, they'll know more languages than I do before they reach kindergarten. Or whatever the equivalent to kindergarten exists where we're living at the time."

Kensi laughs. "You're probably right. Okay, two is a good number."

His eyes sparkle at her like he's amazed they're actually having this conversation.

"What would you do?" She asks.

"Sometimes there are positions for spouses. Otherwise, I'll raise the kids. And maybe start writing my spy novels."

"Spy novels?" She asks with a laugh. This was new.

He nods. "A beautiful undercover spy falls in love with her handsome new partner. It would practically write itself. What's not to love?"

She is still smiling when she nods. "Okay. So, I'm working at one embassy or another. You're a budding novelist. What next?"

"Well, eventually we'll want to settle back in the States, for the kids. And we'll be rich from my very successful series of novels, which may be made into movies."

She laughs again. "Of course."

"You could go back to school, like we talked about."

"To become a counsellor," she adds, recalling their conversation from last week.

"And get a job counselling veterans with the VA," he finishes.

"I really like that idea." It had come up the previous week and been Deeks's idea. She had always wanted to do more to help veterans, but being able to go back to school had never occurred to her.

"And let's face it, within ten years you'd be running the entire VA," he continues.

"I'm not quite sure that's how it works…"

He waves his hand. "This is not a time for logic. It's for dreaming."

"No more logic," she agrees. "What would you do during this time?"

"Well, I'd continue my writing career. And maybe start a consulting business to look into cold cases? And start a rescue for retired police dogs. The money from the books could fund both."

Her heart tugs in her chest. "You're a good man, Marty Deeks."

"I try." He smiles at her.

"Alright. What next?"

"Well, the kids would be off to college. Scholarships to Ivy League schools, of course."

"Oh, of course," she agrees.

"Then you'd run for President with Nell."

She laughs out loud. It physically hurts her ribs, but it's worth it. "What?"

"The Blye-Jones Administration," he reminds her.

"I can't believe you remember that."

"I remember everything you say. And I happen to think you two would be perfect to run the country. You'd have my vote."

"Great. One down. A few hundred million to go."

"We'd get there."

"And then?"

"Well, after your second term, you'd retire from politics to run your non-profit."

"What kind of non-profit?"

He thinks for a moment. "Clean drinking water, accessible health care and world peace."

"So, just three small things."

He nods. "And by that point we'd be grandparents. We could ease our way into retirement." He smiles. "So?"

She leans forward to kiss him. "Sounds amazing."

"That or a million other possibilities. We just have to decide where to start and go from there. Life will happen."

"A number of smaller marks on the world," she echoes his earlier words.

"Exactly."

"As long as you're with me, I'm on board for it all."

"Oh, I'm on board. I'm on board for anything and everything. Especially if the board is a surf board. And it's in Hawaii."

She laughs out loud.

He smiles back at her, humour sparkling in his eyes.

"Where do we start?" She asks.

"We finish healing," he says.

"And we plan a wedding," she adds.

"Sounds amazing."