11Another Densi Holiday fic inspired by Tumblr's "Densi-mber". This started as the moms sharing holiday baby stories of Kensi & Deeks but might have grown into something more. Anyhow, here it is and I hope people like it. As always reviews are welcomed and much appreciated.
Little Drummer Deeks
The drive was made in complete silence, the couple still at odds about their upcoming breakfast meeting and both wanting to have their way over the other.
None of them wanted to be the one to break the silence, but as it typically was in this sort of situations, the young detective was the one to cave first. "Come on princess, do we really have to go?"
"Deeks, we have been debating this for a week, and I already told you in no uncertain terms this meeting is happening" she didn't take her eyes away from the road as she drily responded, tired of having the same debate over and over again.
"But…"
"No, buts Deeks. We're already on the way, and we're not canceling…"
"We could say there's a national security issue that required our participation… no one will give it a second thought."
Kensi blew out her breath and took advantage of the traffic light to turn around and look at her boyfriend, the man she loved with all her heart but who could always irritate her like no other. "Come on baby, you're acting like we're driving to a doctor's appointment or to an LAPD meeting…" She reached out to grab his hand and squeezed as she said the next words, "we're just meeting our moms for breakfast…" Seeing the uncertain look still in his eyes, she decided to keep trying to reassure him, "we walk into firefights all the time, and put our lives on the line daily, today is just breakfast… with our moms… for the holidays… there's no reason to worry about, everything will be great."
"Yeah… You, me, Julia and Crazy Bertie in one table… What could possibly go wrong?" He then paled and look at her as if he just had the worst realization in the world, "…and what if Guy is there?" He buried his head in his hands and moaned.
"Oh Marty… You're such a drama king…"
"Deeks…" he mumbled from under his hands.
"What?"
"You called me Marty, you know I prefer Deeks…"
"Sorry baby… I forgot…" Then a recurrent question popped in her head and she decided this was a good time as any to ask. "Why don't you like anyone calling you Marty?"
"Not now Kens…"
The finality of his words gave her some pause and she realized the subject must not be a pleasant one so she decided to stop asking… for now. But she was determined, and soon enough she will get her answer.
"But really, why do we have to go? If Guy's there… I'm looking for an excuse and leaving…" He could be really insistent when he wanted and apparently this time he had no intentions to stop his whining.
"Everything will be fine, and if Guy is there, we will just talk to him like the adults we are and maybe… even try to get to know him, considering he's with your… mom," she said the last words sounding uncertain and slightly worried of his reaction. At his silence, she decided to continue, "Shaggy… you know your mom's life hasn't been easy, she deserves to be happy and to find someone who gives her that… just like we found each other…"
"But… He's her trainer…"
"Yeah… and you were my partner!"
-x-x-x-
Kensi's final response silenced any further argument or reproach from the man setting beside her and they finished the last 10 minutes of their drive in silence, eventually arriving to the restaurant and going straight to their table.
Roberta and Julia were already there, both talking loudly and smiling widely at whatever it was they were discussing… Probably something having to do with the two people making their way towards them.
"Martin, I'm so happy you could make it. I was just betting with Julia if you would bail out or not" Roberta got up to hug her son, not missing the opportunity to fluster and slightly embarrass him.
"Hi mama… you know I would never miss the lovely opportunity of meeting you and Julia" He said the first part of the sentence with an ironic tone, but at the end he turned around and smiled warmly at Julia.
After hugging their mothers and wishing them Happy Holidays, the couple took their seats, each next to their respective mom and facing each other and started looking at their menus so they could order quickly.
After some minutes of silence and sensing the tense aura around the couple, Roberta decided to continue her previous conversation with Julia, hoping with it to bring her son and future daughter-in-law out of their heads.
"So Julia… I brought the picture I promised you the other day…"
Deeks perked up at the statement and worriedly asked… "What picture?"
"Oh Martin, I can never shut you up and today you decided you finally wanna rest that tongue of yours, but now you suddenly want to talk again?" Roberta looked at her son with raised eyebrows, always knowing what was going on through his head and the best way to rattle him.
"We met last week for some drinks and Bertie here promised me a picture that she so kindly brought today" Julia got in the way in order to avoid an argument between the mother and son, all knowing how common those were from the few times they all had met together.
"Drinks? I hope you're talking about tea… or coffee… I wouldn't want to add alcohol into your mix." Deeks had paled a bit at the admission that the two moms have met without them present.
"Martin, don't be silly we were obviously meeting for some wine… and maybe it then got to other drinks…" Roberta answered with a smile, enjoying how her son's face kept losing color as she continued.
"And it's not the first time… It's a glamorous activity that we partake in every couple of weeks," Apparently Roberta wasn't the only one enjoying the young man's discomfort and Julia was keen to join in.
Kensi feeling sorry for her boyfriend, and knowing that as partner, in everything, she needed to have his back decided to help, not knowing that really she was making things worst. "Okay, okay, enough of this, I want to know what picture you both were talking about."
Roberta smiled in a way that could be argued was more like a devious grin as she looked for her purse and starting rummaging for something. Eventually stopping as she took a piece of paper and held it in her hand, not letting anyone see what was on it.
After putting her purse back behind her chair, she passed the picture to Julia, who looked at it with a huge smile on her face and quickly showed it to Kensi, who squealed in a matter not common to Bad-Ass Blye and looked at her man with loving eyes.
Deeks on the other hand had a pretty good idea of what, or rather who, was in that picture and just wanted to jump ship and abandon these three women to enjoy their breakfast on their own.
"OMG Marty you were the cutest kid… look at that hair and that perfect little face…" Julia reached across the table to squeeze his cheeks, making Roberta and Kensi burst out laughing at the redness that had suddenly appeared in said cheeks.
When the picture was finally passed to the man in question, he found himself staring at a young Marty Deeks who was probably around 4 years old. His bangs were already long and they were partially covered by the fluffy red Santa hat that he was wearing and which highlighted his striking blue eyes even more. The green vest and Christmas tree sweatpants that he was sporting only adding to his embarrassment at seeing the picture.
He remained quiet and passed the picture back to his mother, glaring at her as he did so.
"Baby, do you think you could dress like that for me one of these nights?" Kensi breathlessly asked even as she started laughing again. At first wanting to reassure him, but now enjoying the teasing too much not to join the other two women.
Deeks couldn't believe the three most important women in his life were ganging up on him… Or really he could totally believe it and he just knew that he shouldn't have come to this meeting.
"And Kensi, you should have heard some of the stories Bertie was telling me the other day, Marty was such a funny kid." As Julia said the words, Deeks head fell on the table and he closed his eyes, wondering if this supposedly simple and harmless breakfast could get any worse.
"Roberta you have to tell me now, I can't wait to hear what crazy things little Deeks was involved in." Kensi's voice was full of amusement and curiosity, especially wanting to know of some good times in her boyfriend's childhood.
Deeks, still with his head on the table, turned to look at his mom pleadingly, but realized he was doomed as soon as he saw the smirk spreading on her face. A smirk that was so similar to his own.
"It would be my pleasure Kensi…" Roberta then proceeded to tell Kensi and Julia some stories of her boy, all which sadly painted the picture of the perfect childhood they all knew he didn't have.
"…Every Christmas morning he used to come down running down the stairs wearing his holiday pajamas and a Santa hat, eager to open his gifts and start playing with them." As Roberta finished the story Kensi wondered about Deeks' father on these stories. They all showed a normal childhood, with laughs and presents and love, but from the few stories he had told her, she never associated any of those words with Brandel.
Kensi opened her mouth to ask, but then decided against it, not wanting to get the mood down. But Roberta was a very intelligent woman and she knew what the woman, that had finally given her son the happiness he deserved, wanted to ask.
"This was before things turned… complicated with my ex-husband. At this time we were a normal family and he used to enjoy the times with his son a lot…" As Roberta kept talking her eyes glazed over and she got a faraway look on her face, clearly lost in her memories. "…Until Martin turned 5 or 6, Brandel was a great father, we didn't have much but he provided everything he could and every Christmas he got his boy at least one new toy…"
Kensi looked at Deeks who hadn't said a word since Roberta started telling her stories and wondered what he thought about them.
"…I always remember one Christmas when Martin was 3, Gordon got him a toy train that he loved… after that he always asked Santa for a full train set, but then…" She suddenly stopped, evidently having reached the not so pleasant part of her memories, "…It just didn't work out."
Wanting to turn the conversation back to happier times, Roberta decided to tell her newfound family another story from their earlier holidays. "Martin used to love Christmas songs, so much that I used to call him my Little Drummer Boy, because that was his favorite and he used to sing it a lot during the Holidays. But his father was more traditional and having grown up in the 60s his favorite was John Lennon's Happy Xmas, so our household during the holidays was a strange mashup of traditional Christmas carols and more modern ones like Lennon's and Queen's Thank God It's Christmas… Martin and Gordon used to spend a lot of time together sitting in the front porch, sharing their love for music and the holidays…"
Kensi's eyes had started to mist with the stories, happy to know that at least Deeks had managed to enjoy some good early Holidays, even if somehow they had all turned out bad after that. She didn't know a lot of what had caused his family's situation to end the way it did, but now she was more curious than ever, and again she was determined to one day ask and get her answers.
"I would have love to meet you at that time, you were probably such a cheerful and happy kid…" The love and admiration in Kensi's eyes as she said the words were enough to melt any man's heart.
"Yeah princess, I was…" He sounded sad, and all three women noticed it.
Julia, wanting to cheer up her future son-in-law and the man that had returned her daughter to her, decided to share some stories of her own.
"Marty, I'm sure you would also love to hear some stories…" Kensi tensed at the words, thinking that it had been too good to be true, and now it was her turn. "Because my husband was in the military we moved a lot, and one year he was participating in some training in Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina… This was around the Holidays so a few of the military families decided to travel to NC to meet our guys in time for Christmas…"
Deeks was looking intently at Kensi while Julia told the story, seeing all the different emotions play across her face as the story progressed. From sadness, to happiness, to pure joy, and eventually back to sadness.
"After the training was over, all the families decided to make the drive to the mountains in Boone to give our kids a more normal and fun Christmas before their parents were deployed again… We spent 5 days there and it was magical… We stayed in this little cabin and while all the little girls stayed inside by the fireplace drinking hot chocolate and staying warm, our Kensi decided to go with all the boys and the fathers to do some snowboarding… and not surprisingly she gave them a run for their money…"
Deeks laughed, totally imagining a little Kensi, with her perfect mismatched eyes and long brunette hair, running around with the boys and snowboarding better than most.
"I remember that trip… it was one of the best Holidays we spent as a family…" Kensi decided to add her own comment, actually enjoying the memory and the warm feeling it brought her. "After we came back from the mountain, everyone went back to the cabin, but I remember I went with my dad to build a snowman, and we ended up having a huge snow fight between ourselves, until all the rest of the families came out and joined us…"
"Yeah, how could I forget the huge snow ball that one of the other kids accidentally, but I must admit perfectly, aimed at my face?" Everyone laughed, all imagining how the impeccably composed Julia would have reacted in such a situation.
The food had arrived 5 minutes ago but it had remained forgotten until Julia and Kensi finished their story. Now all four individuals decided to mentally return back to the present and enjoy their pancakes, waffles and omelets.
After breakfast… and dessert, was consumed some more stories were shared and after some 30 minutes they all decided it was time to say good-bye and each get back to their Saturday.
As they were exiting the restaurant and starting the walk back to their cars, Roberta turned around excitedly and looked at her son while she said, "next time we met remind me to tell you the story of the first time Martin saw snow, and how he fell on his face when Gordon threw a snow ball at him and my little boy thought it was a good idea to run in the slippery snow…"
Laughter followed all four people to their cars as they each thought the morning had gone well, all looking forward to their next Holiday meeting which had been set for Sunday of next week, to the excitement of the three women and faked annoyance of the one man.
As they started the drive back to the house, Kensi reached out and grabbed Deeks' hand, bringing their joined hands to her lips and kissing the bundle sweetly. "See baby, it went well…"
"Speak for yourself… 80% of the morning was just sharing stories about myself… and now mama also promised to show you and Julia even more pictures…" Unlike the morning he didn't sound as exasperated anymore, secretly having enjoyed the simple and carefree morning and listening to the stories of better and simpler times.
"Those stories were lovely, and I would really like to have met you back them… And I was just thinking G and Sam would so love to hear them, maybe we should share them with them when we meet for the Holidays, and the pictures too." Kensi's eyes were shining as she said the words, enjoying how they were clearly getting to her boyfriend.
"Don't even go there Kensalina…" Deeks muttered, not even wanting to imagine the teasing he would have to endure at the hands of the senior partners if those stories and pictures got to them.
They got back to the house 30 minutes later and as they walked towards the door hand-in-hand, as they always did and hoped to always do, Kensi decided her curiosity was winning and braved asking the questions that hadn't left her mind, "Hey, Deeks…" He stopped to look at her with one hand on the door handle, and the other hand still holding hers, waiting for her to continue… "What happened with your father? The stories today painted a different picture to what you previously told me… I know your mother said it was all well before… So I would like to know when and how it all went so wrong."
Hearing the questions Deeks closed his eyes and sighed, already expecting they would be coming soon after the talk his mother had started… He didn't want to go there, but he also couldn't deny his ladybird anything.
"Not now princess, please. That story is not fun… and it's related to your previous question, about why I don't like people to call me Marty…" He squeezed her hand, and mimicking her previous gesture in the car brought their joined hands to his lips and kissed them. "Today, I just want to enjoy the rest of our Saturday, go to the beach as we planned and have a nice dinner with you… But, I will tell you, I promise, soon…" He finished opening the door and stepped inside their home.
"I will hold you to that promise…" Kensi said as she also stepped inside and closed the door behind them, their new Holiday wreath silently shaking with the movement of the door...
