AN: The last chapter. Wow. This is the longest fic I've ever done, so this is an accomplishment...? I guess. Thank you for sticking with me. I will say that this is my favorite chapter and I like how I ended it, even though I did change it a couple times. It just feels like how it would actually happen, y'know? Well, I hope you enjoy. -NZ

She was on her third beer of the night. The ice cream was almost gone. She already watched Titanic and she really didn't feel like crying anymore. She sighed and got up of the couch to go to her stack of DVDs.

God, she thought to herself. I'm pathetic.

She flipped through the DVDs, quickly considering each one, then moving on to the next. She stopped at An Affair to Remember. She clicked her tongue. Maybe. "Wait," she said to herself, "the ending." She cried at the end of that movie. Everyone with a heart cried at the end of that movie and, contrary to popular belief, Kensi did have a heart. If she didn't, she wouldn't be this upset over an asshole who left her years ago.

Jack.

Her mind wandered to the last conversation that she had with him in the hallway, probably the last conversation that they would ever have.

"You sure you don't wanna come with? I hear New Mexico is beautiful," he said to her, grinning slightly.

Kensi looked at her ex. She knew that he was joking. She also knew that he was being somewhat serious. If she said "yes", he would scoop her up and put her on that plane without hesitation. That was just how Jack was. A small—very small—voice in the back of her head considered it, but only for a second, because as soon as she thought about running away with Jack, a face popped into her mind and it wasn't Jack Howard.

"Jack…" she trailed off. She could never exactly say "no" to him. That was another thing about Jack. She was helpless against him, which really pissed her off.

However, Jack wasn't focused on her anymore. Claire had come up to them. "Hey, kiddo. Make sure you're ready. It's a two hour flight."

Claire ignored him and went to hug her. Kensi was taken aback, but she hugged the girl right back. This is the last time I'll see her, she thought. A lump formed in her throat. She met Claire when she was just a kid, and now it was over.

Claire pulled back. "I'll, um…" she started. Claire bit her lip. She couldn't say "see you later" or "call you", because she obviously couldn't.

"Yeah," Kensi said for her, understanding. God, this was hard. It was like losing a sister. Claire smiled sadly and turned to Grabowski, walking away from them.

"God, I'm an asshole." Kensi turned back to Jack. He looked…guilty. He should be.

"Yeah, you are," she said bluntly.

He laughed. "Guess I deserved that."

"You deserve a lot worse, actually."

"Right," he said. "Well, this is goodbye…?" he left the question opened, the offer still stood.

"This is goodbye," she said, more confidently than she actually felt.

Jack started to turn before Kensi stopped him. "Wait," she said and she pulled the picture of them out of her pocket and into his hand. "Take it."

"No, Kensi, I can't—"

"Yes, you can. Please," she said, making his hand close around the photo. "Something to remember me." God, that was such a line. She needed to watch something else because this was getting ridiculous.

Jack's eyes met hers and Kensi almost felt weak. He was looking at her the way he used to look at her in the beginning, before he went off. Like she was something beyond his reach. It made her stomach hurt.

"I hope he knows how lucky he is."

She knew he was talking about Deeks, but before she could reassure him that they were only partners—because they were…right?—Jack leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

It was a sweet gesture, something she sort of enjoyed; it was a farewell kiss. He was letting her go, and she was doing the same. Closure.

It was over a moment later and Jack grabbed his bag and she watched him walk out the door.

Kensi replayed it in her mind and she was soon crumbling back to tears, Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant soon forgotten. She was alone again. Maybe this was the way it was supposed to be. She would've invested in cats, if she liked them.

A knock on the door pulled her out of it. She sighed and pulled herself up, wiping her eyes and smoothing her shirt.

She smiled when she opened the door and found a pair of blue eyes staring back.

"Hey, Fern," he said, an easy smile on his face.

She smiled wider at the nickname. "Hi."

"I figured you were running low," he said, indicating to the plastic bag he was carrying. "I have Mint Chocolate Chip, Dutch Chocolate, and Homemade in the Shade, you know the vanilla one with the chunks of fudge?"

She opened the door and he stepped inside. "Where's Monty?"

"At home, I didn't want to wake him," Deeks said. "Plus, I kinda just wanted it to be you and me tonight. You know, partner bonding and all." He made his way into her kitchen. "What do you want?"

"Mint Chip, please," she said as she looked through her DVDs again.

Deeks soon came back with a big bowl of ice cream and handed it to her. "Thanks." He looked over her shoulder at the movies.

"Hey, can we not do a rom-com tonight? I'm not feeling it."

She laughed. "What are you 'feeling'?"

He knelt down beside her, looking through the collection. His eyes lit up as he found what he was looking for. "Back to the Future: Part I. Everyone loves a good 80s-era Michael J. Fox. And, it's got a Star Wars reference and a Star Trek reference in the same sentence, so it gets bonus points for that."

"You're such a dork."

"I'm taking that as a 'yes'." Deeks opened the case and popped the disc into the player and joined Kensi on the couch. His arm was resting behind her and he was messing with the remote. She watched him quietly as he sped through the trailers to get to the menu.

Once the actual movie started he relaxed back into the couch. Kensi bit her lip. She took a breath and set her bowl of half-melted ice cream on the coffee table. She then scooted closer to her partner and leaned against him, so her head was on his chest. What am I doing?

She felt him tense for a moment, and then his arm wrapped around her. They stayed like that in comfortable silence for a while. Soon, she wasn't even focused on the movie, just the way his chest went up and down as he breathed and the scent of mint toothpaste, sunscreen, and Monty.

"I went to go see the third one with my dad in the theater," she said, suddenly. "I was eight. He loved this stuff. It was probably one of the few non-military things I knew about him. He tried to convince my mom to buy a DeLorean," she smiled at the memory. "It was before…everything happened."

Before her parents fell apart, before it was just her and her father, before he left her and she was alone. Before she found Jack and before he left her, too. This seemed to be a pattern.

"It's been a hard week," she whispered, tears threatening to cross the boundaries.

"I know, Kens," he said quietly.

"He wanted me to go with him," she felt him hold in a breath. "I didn't."

Deeks let out a small laugh. "Obviously."

"It was…because of you," she said quickly. "I didn't go because when Jack asked me, I saw your face in my head." Good going, Blye. Way to make an ass out of yourself. But she looked up anyway. Her partner was smiling slightly.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay," she repeated, mostly for her own benefit. She put her head back on his chest.

Yes, they still had a case. They still had to find Viktor. Sam and Callen probably were working at it non-stop, which should have made her feel guilty that she wasn't there, and it would…tomorrow. But, at that moment, she was content to watch movies, pseudo-cuddling with her partner.

"I'll never leave you, Fern," he said quietly into her hair.

There were more feelings implied there, they both knew it. They were just comfortable with this, the thing they had right now. They would talk about it someday but, today was not that day.

She smiled. "I know."