Work is all consuming, and I am hating not updating. This was posted on tumblr about a week ago, long forgotten to be posted on here. For all you fabulous people.

x0-TB

He thought that once they were back stateside, her need for him would dissipate. Boy, was he wrong.

Once they landed she used both hands to hold his right hand as they walked to the car, barely allowing any space between them. Callen drove them back to OPS to pick up her car, and once they were in the SRX she sat next to him in the passenger seat and only allowed him to drive with one hand: she had both hands firmly wrapped around his right once more. He was almost positive that she would have wanted to be seated on the console for the ride, just to be close to him.

He pulled the car into her apartment complex and he looked over to her. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder. He used his free hand and wiped a piece of hair out of her face. "We are home, Kens." He whispered quietly as she let another tear fall.

"I know." She answered but she just stayed letting the tears keep falling. He sat there holding her for what seemed like forever. It was an uncomfortable position, the middle console digging into his side and he knew it must be uncomfortable for her, seeing as her torso was reaching over half of it.

"Let's get you inside." He said as he took himself from her embrace and walked over to open her door. She smiled weakly up at him, intertwining their hands once more as she exited the car.

He closed the door behind her and grabbed his bag from the backseat. She didn't stop him, she needed him more than ever. They walked up the pathway and Deeks reached into his pocket pulling out her set of keys. She looked at him with slight confusion, wondering where he got the keys from.

"Someone needed to take care of your fern while you were gone." He said as he put the key into the door.

"It is plastic." She said and he smiled at her, the Kensi he knew was still there in some form. He opened the door and turned on the light as they stepped inside.

She kept their hands intertwined and took a step forward taking a deep breath.

"Home." She whispered as the sobs overcame her again. Deeks pulled her in wrapping his arms around her.

"I told you I would take you home. Let's get you to bed." She nodded and he led her down the hallway to her bedroom. While she was gone he had cleaned the apartment, doing the 21 loads of laundry that needed to be done, vaccuming, dusting, and some organizing of a vary large DVD collection. He would nag about doing that for her one day, but tonight was not the time. Since he had done all her laundry he knew where her favorite pair of sweats was: top left drawer. He reached in and pulled them out.

"Put this on, you'll feel better." He said as he handed her the sweats. She smiled and nodded.

"I will, uh... give you a second."
"Stay." She said as she undid the button on her jeans. Deeks turned to the side, he didn't want to see her like this, he knew there were going to be bruises all over her body.

He heard the thud of the jeans as they fell onto to the floor, and he looked over at her legs a bruise on her right thigh the size of a watermelon, her left shin having two cuts, and her left thigh having smaller bruises all over it. He lost his breath, she shouldn't have those.

She winced as she put her sweatpants on and then when she took off her shirt. She had bruises all over her abdomen, it was like the one from the bullet to the chest she took a couple years past, except there were multiple, and they were all over. Deeks couldn't help but stare...Never in a thousand years would he have expected this.

She caught him staring and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Sorry." She said as she slid on the shirt and sat on the bed, putting her face into her hands.

"I should not have done that, I was so dumb." The tears falling again.

He sat next to her, pulling her into his side. "Stop that, you did what you had to do. It's okay, you're safe. We are home."

"Home." He whispered into her ear. "It's okay, you're home."

She wiped the tears from her face as reached on the bed to pull the sheets down for her. She slid into her bed, he could see the small smile on her face when she pulled the blankets taut to her.

"I...uh, will take the couch. I'll be here if you need me."

"No." She responded as she patted the spot next to her.

That was all it took. He took of his jeans and slid in the bed next to her.

"I need you." She whispered as he pulled her close to him, this time allowing all the contours of their body to be aligned, no seats to get in the way this time.

"I'm right here, I always will be. Always." He said as he kissed her forehead.

The first night was going to be the worst, but they had to start somewhere. He watched her fall asleep and he could swear he had her heartbeat memorized. He looked over at the clock, 5:01. She had not yet had a nightmare, woken up in a dead sweat, or been tossing and turning, she still looked like an angel. The first night had not been as bad as he had thought, his first night was one he wish he could forget. He looked over to her and whispered.

"It's going to be a long road, Kens, a long one. You're not going to fight this one by yourself. I tried that, didn't work. I'm not going to let you push me away. You asked me to be patient with you, and this is me doing that. I am going to keep that promise, even if it's the last thing I do."

And he vowed to himself in that moment to have all the patience it would take to get through this, and whatever else would come their way.

She was worth the wait, she would always be worth the wait.

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