Author's Note:

So…I realize that this is abrupt, but this is the last chapter of this story. I was able to wrap it up pretty quickly, hence the short chapter. I guess you could say I ran out of things to write about. Since this situation was quickly resolved on the show, I steadily lost interest in writing it- not that it hasn't been fun :) Thank you all for the amazing support, and I hope you will find yourselves reading some of my other stories!

-C

"Hey," Deeks said in a hushed voice, leaning closer to her. "The doctor says you have a recovery ahead of you, but you'll be okay." He ran a hand through her hair.

Kensi nodded at the information and said emptily, "Nothing that won't heal. As always."

"You don't have to play the tough guy game with me, Kens."

She bit her lip and shook her head as tears began welling up in her eyes. "I just don't want you to think differently of me."

"I've already seen your third heart, and nothing about it will change my affection for you in any way."

"I'm not so sure."

Deeks took both of her hands in his. "Try me."

Kensi swallowed an intensifying bubble of emotion in her throat. She felt as though she couldn't breathe. "Is this what it felt like after Sidorov?"

He squeezed her hand.

"We had received information on the whereabouts of the White Ghost and other Taliban movement in the area," Kensi began. "So I rode out into the desert and set up to take the shot. When I looked through the scope, I couldn't believe that Jack was behind it."

"And you missed the shot?"

She nodded. "Then I did something really stupid Deeks. I went out looking for Jack. I figured if everything Granger said was true about Jack being the White Ghost, then I knew he wouldn't hurt me. The Taliban captured me, and took me to a cave, but they had no idea what I was talking about."

Kensi paused for a few moments, difficult for her to continue. "Jack and I were held together for some time before they dragged him away. And then they started beating me. Guns, metal pipes, fists, anything. Sometimes they would stick the pipes in the fire before hitting me with them."

Deeks planted a kiss on top of her head fiercely.

"They didn't give me food or water, and both Jack and I were too weak to make the trek across the desert. The Taliban thought that hitting us more would make us go faster…and I was ready to die Deeks."

Kensi started quietly sobbing, sending the two of them into a silence where they just sat and held each other. For a long time nothing else broke the sound of her crying. Finally, she mumbled something in between cries that Deeks didn't quite catch.

"What did you say?"

"The thought of you is what got me through…for whatever its worth," Kensi repeated, louder and stronger.

"It's worth something, Kens. It's worth a lot."

"Deeks, can you make me a promise?"

"Anything," he said firmly.

"When I thought I was dying, I was thinking about everything that was left unsaid between us. And how we feared that we wouldn't work. Well I'm done with that uncertainty. I'm finished with being afraid. Promise me we'll work this out?"

He pressed his lips softly to hers and whispered, "I promise we'll work this out."

After three days of badgering nurses, visiting friends and family, and illegal take-out food, the doctors finally allowed Kensi to go home. It was finally a closing chapter in the whole Afghanistan ordeal that could finally be let go. She didn't hear from Jack throughout the next week or so, and Kensi didn't expect to. It was another haunting event in her life that she could finally put to rest.

It was an emergence of a new chapter of her life with Deeks. Although the nightmares still woke them up at night occasionally, they both had enough strength in them to leave them as just that- dreams with no power over them.