All is well....

[helsinkibaby]

So I have watched Paper Soldier, NCIS LA 4x12. (My broadband upgrade? Worth every damn penny of what I'm paying that is less than what I was paying before!)



So, from the POV of a Nate/Kensi shipper, I got my hug! *squee* And didya see the smile on her face when she saw him there?

But then there was the Nate/Rose stuff.

Unlike the posters that I've been reading at TWoP, I'm not surprised that Nate had feelings for Rose... the scenes between them in season one could have come off as Rose being more into him than he was into her, but it could also have been that Nate is really, really awkward with woman he likes. I will not write the fic where he and Reggie Higgins commiserate about losing it over people they like. No I got the feeling though, in season one, the way that Callen and Sam were teasing him about having a thing for coroners that he did like her and they knew it. Also, remember in season 2, a couple of eps before he came back, they showed Rose talking to Sam and Callen in the morgue and there was a shot to a picture of Rose and Nate sitting beside a tree together (Like on a picnic) smiling at the camera. It was when she said that she wished Nate were here because he always knew what to say.

I really like Rose, and I loved her enthusiasm about getting to meet Hetty. That said, the fact that Nate/Kensi is my OTP makes it tricky to work in the fact that Nate had taken her out for dinner the previous night but that she sprung for dessert at Sprinkles, the cupcake place. And that at the funeral at the end, Kensi told Nate to go over and talk to her.

That said, I will now attempt to rewrite it as my headcanon!

When Nate gets "played" by G about romance strategies, he says that he gets to know a woman as a friend first. G asks him how long for this one; Nate says three years.

Kensi joined NCIS in 2006 (per K Blye not sure which part). Say she served her time for a year in another place; she could have joined OSP in 2007. Which is where Nate would have met her. (I'm working a point here, stay with me!) Cue liking her (but not doing anything about it because of the whole psychologist who debriefs her but man I'd like to debrief her type of way) and nothing happening until...

Three years later. That would bring us up into 2010. And what happened in 2010? Dom happened in 2010. Macy happened in 2010. Kensi was close to Dom; she was his partner. Nate was close to Macy, as evidenced by every scene they had in the back door pilot and I am secure enough in my self knowledge to know that if TPTB had kept on Louise Lombard and kept Nate as the darker Nate instead of the lovable doofus we know and adore, I would have shipped that like a mad shipping thing.

Nate talked to Kensi after Dom. (In whatever the episode was after "Found"; I'm too lazy and stream of thoughty to look up the name.) There was a lovely moment where Callen (?) was looking around the bullpen and saw the two of them talking, Nate putting his hand on Kensi's shoulder, Kensi smiling at him as if to say that she was ok. (And seriously? You get scenes like that and people were going mad shipping Callen/Kensi in season one? WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO PEOPLE?). It's not a stretch to think that after Macy, she would have returned the favour, or rather, they would have leaned on each other.

And then he debriefed her.

(You may laugh. But this? This exact idea? Is referenced in one of the two (yes! two!) big bangs I'm currently drafting for this pairing!)

Which makes me all squeeful when Callen says he wouldn't have the patience to wait three years and Nate says, "When it's the right one, you will."

*sigh*

As for making the rest fit into my head canon, here goes!

Nate can't have been halfway around the world when Hetty called him in. (Though how the woman knew they'd need him to interrogate Rose, I do not know. Maybe as a precaution?) We knew from 3x20 that he was working with a CIA/NCIS Joint Task Force (can someone please throw Clayton Webb into a fic with him on that? Please? Oh crap, there's a plot bunny, go away!) so he might still be working there, he might be just working somewhere closer to home than Yemen/Afghanistan/delete as appropriate, he was going all over the world in Patriot Acts after all. "Yemen, Venezula, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, a half a dozen stops in between - profilers are in demand these days." Yes, I have the quote handy.

Either way, he's in Los Angeles, having not been there for a while. And Kensi, being Kensi and being secure in her relationship with Nate (or wanting him to think she is, whatever!) tells him she has no problem with him going out for dinner with his old friend (who, once upon a time, was more than just a friend) and leaving her at home with America's Next Top Model.

That said, when he gets home and is all happy because he's had a nice time and he's later than she thought he might have been and he's all, "Oh, Rose brought me to Sprinkles and we had dessert" and Kensi is all, "Dessert? Are you kidding me?" and did you notice her bad mood at the top of the episode? It wasn't just about the cactus people!

Which is why she hugged him in Ops when he came in... she wanted to let him know that he was forgiven/she wasn't angry any more.

And yes, she said Rose is their friend, and so she is. It's perfectly acceptable to be friends with your man's exes. (Hey, two of them were invited to our wedding, so this is personal experience talking!)

Then at the funeral? "Hey Nate? Why don't you go and talk to her?" Of course she said that. Because she knows he's been moping around, beating himself up over the interrogation and making Rose think that she still had a chance with him when after all, Kensi is the one who owns his heart.

Well..

Turns out I can head canon just fine!

OK, the other stuff.... "Don't pretend like you know Daddy." Chester Fitzpatrick. Heee!

Sam telling Hetty to shut her trap will never not be funny.

Also, if Nimoy ever gets a dog, we're calling it Felix.

Eric just blurting out to Nate that he and Nell kissed, and Nell's "this is not happening!" While I'm sure the anti-shippers were ready to scratch their own eyes out, I roared laughing.

And Nate isn't dead! Yay! And it looks like they are indeed, per the TV Guide article, playing the game that Hetty is grooming him to be some sort of agent. (Which totally belies season one's Chinatown, but anyway) And if that got me my Nate back, I would be so happy!



I think that may just be the longest fandom related post I've posted in a good long while. Go me!