Many thanks to those who continue to take the time to review, favourite and alert. This is the final chapter to round up for the tag to Overwatch. Enjoy! Remember to review. It gives encouragement to write more.

Part 3/3

It had taken less than ninety minutes for Kensi to be released from the doctor's care. She gave a small chuckle to herself as she passed by the closed examination room door and could clearly hear Deeks exclaim about the size of a needle. A loud yelp from her partner a moment later and Kensi began to feel guilt over what she had done. Deeks had only been overtly concerned for her welfare and she wasn't used to that. She had said time and time again that she hated lying to the innocent and yet that is exactly what she had just done to exact her revenge – revenge for a partner simply worried that she was hurt and covering up the injury.

Kensi walked out of the building into the darkness now pervading the parking lot and headed over to Deeks' car. She had been mulling so much in her thoughts that she had forgotten that Deeks had the keys to the car. She resorted to breaking into the Chevy Malibu with just a twinge of guilt. Opening the rear door, she dropped her bag on the back seat before settling herself into the passenger seat. While she could easily have hot-wired the car and gone home, that same guilt had her staying in the car and waiting for him. She moved the passenger seat right back and reclined the seat fully. She intended getting some sleep before her partner finally got himself extricated from the clutches of Dr. Davis. Before closing her eyes, she ensured that all the doors on the car were locked.

Kensi found that she was only able to doze lightly while waiting for Deeks. The Chevy Impala seat was not the most comfortable to sit in. Add to that her aches and it made it impossible to really find a position that enabled her to sleep at all.

The beeping sound as the locks on the car were disengaged and the flicker of lights accompanying it had her opening her eyes and lifting her gun which had been resting on her lap, to point at the person entering the car. Her hand relaxed and dropped the gun back down once she saw that it was her shaggy-haired partner dropping his body wearily into the seat.

"Do you think you're clever?" Deeks asked her quietly.

"Depends on what you are referring to." Kensi bit her lip and wouldn't meet his eye. She looked down at her watch. "Five hours, I'm impressed."

"With me or the doctor?" Deeks turned his body to face her, giving a grimace as he did so. "I have just spent five hours being attacked by nurses wielding needles the size of horse tranquilizers syphoning out my good quality blood. I've peed into more specimen jars than necessary and thank my lucky stars that they didn't require a stool sample. It was five hours more than I needed."

"Same here but you wouldn't trust me on that point."

"Kens, it was only two weeks ago that you got knocked out after being struck by Talbot. You had a concussion from the injury yet you got up and continued after him, despite it all. And you wonder why I won't trust your judgement when you say you are fine."

"It was a mild concussion. My judgement was and is fine," Kensi told him defensively.

"In respect of anything to do with your job – yes. In respect of yourself, I think you worry that everyone will see you as less of an agent if you let anyone know that you've been hurt. I don't think you realise that everyone knows how good you are at your job and you don't need to keep proving it at your health's expense."

"No I don't."

Deeks cocked his eyebrows, clearly showing his disbelief. He chose not to say anything more, letting the words that he had said sink in.

"I don't mean to," she corrected.

"I know it's not deliberate but it worries me. I need to know that my partner is okay to go on. Genuinely okay - not injured and covering it up. It's trust, Kens. Trust in each other that we know when we are able to go on and knowing when we need to call it quits."

"I'm not a quitter."

"I never said you were a quitter. We've both lost partners in our job and I don't want to risk losing another one," Deeks told her quietly, leaving unsaid especially you. "We need to trust each other in our re..partnership. We need to know we have each other's backs and that means knowing that each of us is okay, physically and emotionally. In future, I'll listen to you when you say you are fine as long as you are actually fine. I will call you on it, if I don't think that you are. I'm willing to do that – are you?

Kensi was blown away by his frankness. Never let it be said that Marty Deeks failed to surprise you. She had expected him to rant and rave over her accident, not to take this serious tack.

"Okay. Yeah. I can do that. I think. I can give you the doctor's report if you want." Kensi held up Dr Davis' summary report that was a copy for her general practitioner.

"No need. Doc mentioned that you were pretty accurate in your assessment of your injuries."

"Grazes on top of bruises. I'm going to be sore for the next couple of days." Kensi eyed the three paper bags in his hands. "What have you got there?"

"Ah. This is for you, compliments of Dr. Davis. Apparently you left without your script from the pharmacy so I have had it filled for you. Anti-inflammatories and pain-killers, the first is compulsory to take, the second is optional as you need it." Deeks passed the white bag over to her.

"Thanks."

"This is also for you." Deeks passed over the second, buff coloured bag.

Kensi frowned and opened it warily. Despite the intimate conversation they had just had, she was being cautious after having set up her partner. It contained a couple of ding dongs, twinkies and Ho Hos. She looked up in surprise.

"You haven't had any dinner and I can't really take you out at one in the morning, but I thought this might tide you over."

"Thanks." Kensi gave him a genuine smile that made her eyes sparkle.

"What about you? You can have one," Kensi offered him his choice of the goodies that had come in the bag.

"No. I'm good. The nurses provided me with a meal," Deeks said knowing that his partner would seize on the comment. He wasn't sure whether he could cope with a mocking Kensi at one o'clock in the morning.

"You sucked up to them," Kensi deduced.

"No. I just let them know that I was hungry and they felt sorry for me." Deeks deflected her comment easily.

Kensi just shook her head, not bothering to continue the argument – mild as it was. There was so much she could say but decided that five hours in a hospital was enough for the night. She knew her partner well enough and knew that he could turn on the charm and turn up the pain factor to get what he wanted.

"So what's in your little white bag?" Kensi asked, recognising that it was also a pharmaceutical one. "Just remember our little agreement a moment ago. It does go both ways."

"Absolutely," Deeks conceded, knowing that he was not going to get away with hiding his discovery.

"So what did the doctor say about you."

"Kensi…"

"We just made an agreement," she reminded him.

"I've got a fractured rib."

"And you were worried about me?" Kensi's eyebrows rose significantly in surprise. She had not been expecting anything to come of his examination, yet he had come off worse than she did in the injury stakes.

"It's an old injury that's been exacerbated by today's fight. I'm okay."

"Yet you got your own baggie of pharmaceutical goods." Kensi nodded towards the third bag. "What have you been issued with?"

"I've got my own collection of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pain-killers."

"And you were the one having a go at me for sucking it up and coping yet here you are with the fractured rib"

"Hairline fracture. Doc almost couldn't see it on the x-ray."

"I'll remind you of this next time you're complaining about sunburn." Kensi gave a small chuckle."

"What's so funny?"

"I wonder how much the guys have bet on how long I got the doctor to keep you in hospital."

"What?" Deeks exclaimed, not so surprised by the bet but rather that she was known to have done this before. "You've done this sort of thing before."

"Maybe," Kensi said evasively. "Let's get going home. I really don't want to turn up to work in the same clothes I was in today."

XXX

"Good morning, Sunshine," Deeks greeted his partner as she dropped into the passenger seat beside him with a groan. Since her car was still at the Mission, he had come by her house to pick her up.

"Is it?" Kensi asked rhetorically as she slipped a pair on sunglasses on despite the sky being heavily overcast. She hadn't put them on fast enough for Deeks to miss seeing the deep blue bruises beneath her eyes, which explained her moody demeanour. Obviously, his partner had got little sleep when he had dropped her off in the early hours of the morning.

"I suppose it depends on what side of the bed you hopped out of," Deeks told her glibly.

Kensi gave a grimace as she did up her seatbelt. "Why are you so happy this morning?"

"I'm always happy."

"Oh no. Someone take me out and shoot me now." Kensi leaned back in the seat and looked upwards, seeking some heavenly assistance. She turned her head towards him, dread lacing her words, "Don't tell me you get high on painkillers."

"Happy high." Deeks waggled his eyebrows at her. "Well, yeah, maybe just a bit." Deeks illustrated his point indicating a small distance between his forefinger and his thumb.

"How long am I going to have to endure this?"

"Doc said I needed to take them for ten days." Deeks gave her another big grin.

"You've got to be joking." Kensi was already planning ways to dispose of his painkillers in order to ensure that she didn't shoot him first.

"I am actually," Deeks quipped with a small laugh. "But it was good to see you react like that."

"One day I'm going to shoot you and no one will blame me at all," Kensi muttered to herself.

"You love me too much to do that," Deeks told her. "Besides, you'd only have to train a new partner."

"It's probably the only thing that's stopping me right now."

Deeks knew when it was best to quit while he was ahead. The fact that she hadn't punched him when he had declared it all being a put on told him that he needed to divert to Kensi's favourite coffee shop and pick up some donuts to give her a sugar fix that might improve her mood.

XXX

Deeks strolled casually into the bullpen, carrying drinks for the rest of the team. Kensi headed upstairs to the ops to see Hetty and hand over the doctor's report though she was sure that Hetty knew the contents already.

"So how is she?" Sam asked as he took his drink from the cardboard tray, sitting back in his seat.

"Fine."

"G, isn't that what Kensi said yesterday – that she was fine." Sam looked over at his partner who was leaning back in his seat with his feet on his desk and reading the newspaper.

The two older men had already been to see Hetty before Deeks and Kensi had arrived and had been assured by the older woman that Kensi had not sustained any injuries in the collision.

"I'm not sure that the word fine is defined in the medical dictionary. But in terms of when Kensi says that she's fine, she generally is."

"Yeah. I found that out. But at least we had it confirmed medically," Deeks responded confidently.

"Don't you think that it's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, Sam?" Callen placed his newspaper down on his desk, watching Deeks face intently.

"For a person who whines about the slightest bruise, he didn't complain too much about a fractured rib," Sam point out.

"It's an old injury."

"How long did she get you held for?" Callen asked, smirking at the younger agent.

"Seriously, you guys bet on that?"

Sam and Callen exchanged grins. They both waited patiently, knowing that Deeks would spill the beans.

"Five hours," he said as he dropped into his own seat. "She managed to convince the doctor that my fight and fall into the canal might have dire consequences."

"Not too bad. I did try to warn you," Callen reminded him.

"You didn't need to be so subtle about it," Deeks complained.

"We could have hit you with a four by two and you still wouldn't have listened. Consider it as a learning curve. I'd also count yourself lucky that you didn't end up staying all night," Sam told him, taking a sip of his drink.

"So what did she do last time and to who?" Deeks leaned forward, his arms crossed in front of him.

"Mike Renko," Sam supplied with a muffled laugh as he recalled the incident.

"What did he happen to do?"

"Same as you but on that occasion she managed to convince security that he was an ex-lover that was going to attack her. They held him for the entire night and had LAPD turn up to take him in. It was only when one of the cops recognised him that they contacted NCIS to back up his story." Callen smiled as he re-told the story. Mike Renko had been ribbed over the incident for weeks and it had given him a marked respect for the dark-haired agent.

"So who won the bet?"

"I did," Eric called out to them as he came trotting down the stairs with Nell, Kensi and Hetty bringing up the rear. Normally, he would have been eager to take the spoils of the bet as the two men pulled out their wallets to pay their contribution, but he was obviously hesitating. He stood just inside the wrought iron of the bullpen, hands in his pockets and eyes avoiding meeting those of anyone else in the room. Kensi moved into the bullpen behind Deeks and Callen's chairs.

Hetty entered the bullpen with measured steps, her hands clasped in front of her. She cleared her throat before beginning to speak. Her eyes caught Sam and Callen in her sight, despite them being on the opposite side of the room.

"Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna, I appreciate that you need to fulfil your gambling needs but I would like you to choose more appropriate methods and not rope in others who are easily led like Mr. Beale."

Eric looked somewhat disturbed at having been accused of being a follower but wisely chose not to say anything. Hetty turned her attention to Kensi next.

"Miss Blye, while I appreciate the need to hone your undercover skills, I would prefer you not to use the medical staff of a hospital as your training ground. It is only because we discovered some valid medical data on Mr. Deeks that the medical insurance is covering the cost of all the tests that he endured."

"Mr. Deeks, I trust that you have listened to all that I have said and will note that surfing on company time is not acceptable." With that the diminutive leader left the team.

Deeks jaw dropped at that comment. Kensi leaned forward and pushed his jaw back, whispering in his ear, "she knows all." She went to her locker to put her things away in her locker.

"I certainly hope that she doesn't," Deeks thought to himself, watching his partner move away with a wistful look on his face.

End Part 3/3