The following contains spoilers from the NCIS: Los Angeles series finale.

So, it very much was not bad shawarma.

Two-thirds of the way through NCIS: Los Angeles‘ series finale on Sunday night, Kensi got a call from her doctor, who reported that, no, her tummy hadn’t been tainted by Deeks’ days-old leftovers. Instead, “We’re having a baby,” she informed her husband through so many happy tears. And thus, their family of three (including teenage foster daughter Rosa) will swell to four.

And Kensi’s joy is only rivaled by that of her longtime portrayer, Daniela Ruah.

“I was so happy. I was so elated,” the original cast member tells TVLine.

“I was elated,” Ruah continues, “because I think that these characters deserve everything and more. They’re good people, they fight for good, they fight for the betterment of the world, they’re selfless, and they’ve grown and matured so much in these last 14 years.”

Kensi, for one, went from being “a rebellious, homeless teenager with a father who was murdered and a mother she didn’t relate to, to losing every man she’s ever loved in her life,” Ruah notes, recapping the agent’s rough childhood. “She went from not trusting the world and not trusting destiny and being this independent, ‘I can do it myself’ person to finding someone who could help her rebuild her trust in the world, who gave her a good reason to trust the world.”

In that special someone, Deeks (played by Eric Christian Olsen), Kensi “found a partner to love her through all her quirks and insecurities — or over-securities — and who she could help rebuild from their own past traumas.”

Ruah takes a moment to collect herself after being overcome with emotion as she reflects on all that she herself has been through during NCIS: LA‘s run.

“My whole life, Matt, happened on this show,” Ruah starts. “I met lifelong friends. I met my husband (Eric Christian Olsen’s brother/stunt double David). I had my children, bought my first house, got to live in an incredibly crazy city….”

Rewinding further, the actress notes, “I was 16 years old when I started working on television in Portugal, and I remember giving an interview, saying, ‘I’m going to go to Hollywood one day.’ A lot of people maybe rolled their eyes at that — because you’re from a small town in a small country, you’re 16 years old and you have big dreams — but not many people [from Portugal] have made it in [on a larger stage] in that way.”

And the import of that is not at all taken for granted by Ruah, on the occasion of wrapping a 14-year run on American TV.

“To look at that piece of newspaper with that line above my interview saying ‘I’m going to go to Hollywood,’ and look at the date, and now I’m here?” she remarks. “And not just here but really, solidly here? Holy s–t.”