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Chapter 9: Close Call

Kensi stood poised with Deeks at the back door of the warehouse their latest suspect was in.

"On my count," Callen's voice crackled over their coms. "One…two…three, move in!"

Kensi kicked in the door, allowing Deeks to go in ahead of her. She covered his back as they walked through the warehouse.

"Guys," Callen said quietly. "Find Smith, we'll find the bomb."

"Copy that, Callen." Kensi replied into her com.

She and Deeks wandered through their half of the warehouse, waiting for Smith's hired guns to pop out from behind a crate and rain bullets down on them. There was nothing, though, which was weird. Smith—an ex-bomb technician from the Marines—was highly paranoid since returning from Afghanistan. Two of his best friends had been killed in a bombing over there, but since it had been a classified mission, they're deaths had to be deemed as merely killed in action. Smith was coming to the final stages of placing a bomb inside Camp Pendleton as revenge for covering up his friends' deaths. He would have more security than usual, but there wasn't a peep.

"It seem a little quiet to you?" Deeks whispered.

"I was just thinking that," Kensi replied.

"Callen, Sam, anything on your end?" Deeks asked.

"Nothing," Sam replied.

"You guys be careful," Callen told them.

"Right back at you," Deeks responded, and they all fell silent.

They walked a couple more yards when Kensi held up a hand to stop Deeks.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You hear that?" she said quietly.

Deeks paused, tilting his head, straining to hear the dim voices that Kensi had heard a second ago. Then the voices came again.

"Let's go check it out," Deeks suggested.

They turned a corner and saw a large office tucked in the corner. The only window was a small one on the door, where Kensi could see people moving inside. She scanned the area, but couldn't see anybody else.

She shook her head in confusion. "Why isn't there anybody out here?"

"I don't know," Deeks replied, sounding just as confused as she felt.

They crept up to the door, and Kensi tested the knob as silently as she could. It was unlocked. She signaled that to Deeks, and in response, he held up three fingers. He put one down after the other, till all that was left was to signal her to open the door. She swung it open quickly, raising her Colt assault rifle before the door had bumped against the wall.

"N.C.I.S., hands behind your heads!" she demanded.

The four guys in the room, including Smith, dropped what they were doing and calmly turned and put their hands up. Smith looked at Deeks, then Kensi, and gave her the tiniest of smiles. She kept her features blank as she cuffed him and one of his henchmen. As she and Deeks were leading the four of them out to put them in the van they had waiting outside, she exchanged a look with Deeks. From the look he gave her, he was just as suspicious as she was.

"We got Smith and his guys locked up in the van," Kensi announced through her com. "We're gonna go check out his office now."

"Tell us if you find anything. Sam thinks he's found the bomb, so we'll let you guys know," Callen answered.

It wasn't five minutes later when Callen told them to head to the center of the warehouse.

"You go," Deeks told her as he plugged a flash drive into Smith's computer. "I wanna make sure Eric gets these files."

She hesitated, not wanting to leave him here alone in case Smith had a back-up plan.

Deeks noticed her hesitation, and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be right there, Kens. Promise, this will only take a minute."

She nodded. "Okay. See you in a minute then."

With Callen's voice directing her to where he and Sam were she found them quickly.

"What's up?" she asked as she approached, taking in the large bomb at Sam's feet. The absence of light and a countdown on the device told her that Sam had deactivated it.

Sam looked up at her, suspicion filling his features. Callen had a matching expression.

"Let me guess," she said. "way too easy?"

"Yeah," Sam confirmed her suspicion. "It took me less than a minute to disarm this thing. With all the components it had, it should've taken longer than that."

"When Deeks and I found Smith, he and his guys were all in the same room. They all put their hands up the second we walked in the room." she told them.

"Is this all seeming a little off to you guys?" Callen asked.

"Very," Sam agreed, sharing a look with his partner.

Suddenly, a concentrated look crossed across Sam's face, and he bent down to take another look at the bomb.

"Okay, that was your 'I have a hunch' look," Callen commented. "What is it, Sam?"

"Just a hunch," Sam told him.

"Thank you, that's very helpful." Callen muttered.

As Sam worked, Kensi looked back in the general direction of the office, wondering what the hell was taking Deeks so long.

"Uh-oh," Sam muttered, and Kensi turned to see him lift off the top part of the bomb.

Suddenly, Deeks voice came over their coms. "Hey, guys, I think I found something…the bomb, there's—"

"Another bomb inside of it." Sam finished.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks for stealing my thunder, but yeah. How'd you know that, anyway?"

"Because we're standing right in front of it," Kensi told Deeks.

"Deeks, what else is there on the bomb?" Sam said a little loudly.

Kensi looked down and saw why Sam was worried. If the clock counting down on the smaller bomb was correct, they had 2 minutes and 37 seconds before it blew.

"Smaller than the first one, obviously. Um…blast radius…guys, the blast radius isn't big at all…it looks like…"

"Looks like what, Deeks?" Callen asked.

"It looks like it covers this building only." Deeks finished.

Kensi shared a look with Sam and Callen. So if Sam couldn't disarm it, they'd all be blown to hell if they didn't get out of there.

"What's the point of blowing the warehouse up? To blow up his files?" Kensi asked, her eye catching on Sam frantically trying to find the correct wire.

1:58.

Callen paced, and Kensi could practically see the gears turning in his head. "No, not his files…he must've known we were closing in on him, or he wouldn't have hired those guys. If he knew we were closing in on him…if he knew we were closing in on him…" Callen looked up, realization dawning in his eyes. "The bomb is for us."

1:43.

"Okay, but why?" Kensi asked, glancing once again in the direction of the office where Deeks was.

"We're the ones that have all the information on him. Blow us up, there's no case and he walks." Callen replied. "Sam?"

Sam shook his head. "He encased the wires inside and welded it shut. I don't have the tools I need. Guys, this thing is gonna blow."

"Alright, we gotta get out of here," Callen agreed. "Deeks, let's go. We've gotta get out, now."

"I'm coming, be right there." Deeks replied.

"Sam, come on," Callen urged his partner who was making a last-ditch effort to disarm the bomb.

He finally succeeded in getting Sam to move, and they started heading for the front door.

When Kensi hesitated, Callen looked back at her. "Kens, come on!"

"I'll be right behind you, go!"

Callen looked down at the timer. 1:02. Callen looked up at her and nodded. "10 seconds, Kens, then you move. Got it?"

She nodded and watched as the two elder agents made their way to the front of the warehouse.

"Deeks!" Kensi called out, hoping his voice would respond and he'd be just around the corner.

She had five of her ten seconds left. "Deeks! Come on!"

"Go, Kens, I'm coming!" Deeks shouted at her over the com.

Two seconds before she had to go. "Deeks!"

"Kens, GO!"

Her ten seconds was up. 52 seconds before the building blew. She had no choice, she had to get out. Kensi started weaving her way around the crates and forklifts that crowded the floor, glancing behind her once in a while for a familiar mop of blonde hair. She kept glancing at her watch, her heart pounding louder with each second that went by. There were 14 seconds left when she burst out the front door of the building. Callen caught her arm as she came out, pulling her back a safe distance from the building.

Her pulse raced as she watched the door she had just come from. "Come on, Deeks, come on." she muttered quietly.

She looked down at her watch. 6 seconds left.

"Deeks," she whispered, eyes laser-focused on the door.

Five…four…three…two…one.

There was millisecond where Kensi was pretty sure her heart stopped beating, right before the building blew. The explosion shook the ground, the building going up in a fireball of orange, yellow, and black. Debris rained down, and Kensi, Callen, and Sam, ducked, covering their heads with their arms. Glass shattered and the warehouse groaned as a chunk of the right wall caved in, metal creaking and wood snapping. Kensi watched as smoke rolled into the sky, flames flickering out of the broken windows, out of the door that her partner hadn't come through. Her heart plummeted to the ground.

"Deeks!" she screamed, running closer to the burning building.

"Kensi, no!" Callen grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back.

"No, Deeks!" she shouted, tugging at Callen's arms, trying to weaken his hold.

Sam's face came in view next to hers. "Kensi, come on, it's suicide, you can't go back in there,"

What Sam said made sense, but Kensi didn't care. She squirmed and finally managed to break free of Callen's grasp. She made it three yards before she was grabbed again.

"Whoa, there," a voice said, spinning her around away from the ruined warehouse.

"Callen, let me go!" she protested.

"Well, first of all, no. And second of all, last time I checked, I knew my first name."

Kensi paused for a minute, long enough to actually turn and look up at the person restraining her. Her gaze was met by sparkling blue eyes, and golden hair that glinted in the morning sun.

"Now, what was that about running into a burning building?" Deeks smirked, pulling her farther away from the building as it blew a shower of sparks into the street.

"I—you…I thought…and—" unable to form a coherent sentence, Kensi settled for punching him in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Don't do that! We thought—I thought you were dead!" she yelled at him, feeling tears of joy involuntarily burn in her eyes. "What happened in there? You said you were right behind me!"

"Well, I couldn't find you, so I went out the back," he replied almost sheepishly.

Kensi blinked at him. Duh, she thought. There's a back door. And he was closest to the back so obviously he went that way. Instead of replying, Kensi hugged him, burying her face against his chest, not caring that the Kevlar vest he was wearing wasn't the comfiest thing in the whole world. Deeks instantly wrapped his arms around her, placing kisses to the top of her head.

"Sorry to worry you," he murmured.

"Don't be fooled, Sam and Callen were worried, too," she laughed.

He pulled back so he could look at her. "Oh, really?"

Deeks turned around to face the guys with a huge grin on his face. "So I heard you guys were worried about me,"

Sam scoffed, and Callen shook his head and laughed.

"Nah, just didn't wanna have to fill out extra paperwork if you'd died." Callen teased.

"Paperwork, G?" Sam raised an eyebrow. "What about the wrath of Kensi?"

"Mm, good point," Callen agreed, shooting her a crooked smile.

She rolled her eyes, but really, at the moment, she could've cared less because Deeks was by her side. As a team of fire trucks pulled up, and Sam went to go talk to the firemen, Callen called Hetty to let her know that they were all okay. Deeks kept a hand on Kensi's back comfortingly. When they were alone, she allowed herself to be wrapped in his embrace again.

"Don't do that again," she told him, though she knew it was an unrealistic request. Her life, his life, they were always on the line because of their job. And once he finished his NCIS Special Agent evaluations, he'd be asked to do even more dangerous tasks. But right now, she just needed him to tell her that everything would be okay.

"I promised you that I wouldn't get killed, remember? It's gonna take a lot more than some paranoid bomb-fanatic to get rid of me, because there is no way that I am leaving you." he told her.

"I love you," she whispered, not knowing what else to say.

"And I love you,"

Deeks tilted her chin up, and leaned down to place his lips on hers. He kissed her gently, his arms wrapped around her, and she felt completely safe. She didn't care that there was a building on fire behind them, didn't care that they had four criminals locked up in a van, and she especially didn't care if anyone was watching, because all that mattered was Deeks.

Hope you guys liked the chapter =) next up will be some Christmas/New Year's chapter, it being that time of the year and all =)

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Thanks for reading!

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