"Eric. Where's Hetty?" Callen asked as he walked into ops and spotted the tech at his computers.

"Lunch." Eric replied without turning from whatever he was frantically typing. Callen walked towards him and stood by his side, waiting for him to turn and look up.

Eric sighed and spun in his chair. "That's all I know, Callen. She said that she was going to go have lunch and hopefully be back in a couple of hours." He turned back to his computers and restarted his fast pace fingers over his keyboard.

"So in the middle of a case; that is proving to be a complete pain in the ass, and we're running out of leads, she goes to lunch?" Callen said with a frown. "Yeah, no. She's up to something." Callen tilts his head to the side and purses his lips, "Again."

His eyes not leaving the screen, Eric says, "The answers no, Callen."

"You don't even know that I'm going to ask you anything." Callen replies as he stares at the back of Eric's blond head.

"Yeah, I do. You're going to ask me to put a trace on Hetty and the answer is no. I'm way too busy." Eric paused in his typing "And I also like my face arranged the way it is." Hearing a beep at the opposite computer terminal Eric flies across the room on his computer chair and checks the results.

"Come on, Eric. When Hetty is all cagey about a case and then goes AWOL, it nearly never ends well for us." Callen implored as he stepped out of the way on Eric's return trip to his terminal.

"I don't think that's what this is." He said distractedly. Callen narrowed his eyes and leaned against the table.

"What makes you say that?" he asked crossing his arms.

"Hetty looked excited, almost. Like she was looking forward to whomever she was going to meet." Looking over his shoulder at Callen he added "and not in an 'I finally get to go and put a bullet in this bad guy' way. If she is going to get Intel on this case, she isn't afraid for her safety from the source." Eric turned back to his console and tapped at his tablet.

"Yeah, because all of Hetty's contacts are such good, wholesome people who wouldn't hurt a fly." Callen deadpanned.

"It could just be a lunch between friends." At the lack of a response from Callen Eric continued. "Yeah, I didn't think so either. That's why I got Kensi to go and check Hetty's weapons before she went to stake out Carmichaels with Deeks." Eric stopped talking and scowled at whatever he read on his tablet and swiped hastily.

Callen widened his eyes and shook his head slightly. "What did Kens find, Eric?"

"Hm?" he glanced up briefly and shook his head. "Oh, right, nothing was missing. Everything was in order. It looked like she only took her standard issue firearm."

"So you won't run the trace." Callen said and Eric shook his head.

"Nope. Busy." He dismissed and turned on his earpiece to talk to Kensi and Deeks. Callen waited until he was finished and walked towards the doors.

"Where's Chloe? I'll get her to do it." Eric scoffed and Callen sighed.

"If you think she has the ability, sure, ask her. Don't blame me when she sends you to San Francisco when she meant San Diego." Callen walked back to the table in the middle of the room and lent his hip against it.

"She's not that bad, Eric." He tried to reason, lightly. Eric let out a derisive laugh that had Callen's brow rise. 'Bitter Eric' was something that had been cropping up a lot in the past ten months.

"Compared to the other intelligence analysts Hetty tried to foist on me? Sure, she's the best of a sucky bunch." Eric's typing was becoming harder and less frequent as he worked through his obvious contempt for his most recently allocated partner. "Although, if your chosen job is going to be an 'Intelligence analyst' you would have thought that she would have possessed a little of said intelligence."

"Eric, where is Chloe?" Callen asked again, slower. He had a feeling he already knew the answer if the amount of work Eric was doing, on his own, was anything to go by.

"I think she's trying to quit. Again." Callen sighed. Yep, just what he'd thought.

"We've had this conversation, Eric. You can't keep running off all the replacements. You need the help."

Eric spun in his chair and threw a glare in Callen's direction. "Yeah, I do need the help." He agreed, nodding vigorously. "And I had help. I had Nell, but Assistant Director freaking Granger had her loaned off to god knows where, to do god knows what." Callen dropped his head slightly and nodded.

He couldn't fault the techs disappointment of Nell's reassignment. The entire team, himself very much included, had been vehemently opposed to Grangers decision to give her over to the CIA, when they had requested Nell's assistance on a classified case in South America, involving the Espinoza Cartel.

A case that had originally been NCIS's until the Agency had effectively called dibs, and claimed jurisdiction, as it involved an ongoing investigation, with more far reaching implications than the US Navy. Given Nell was already knowledgeable on the case, her expertise in below the boarder happenings, and her recent successful forays into field work, it was agreed that she would be an asset to their mission.

Nell had to been opposed to going, at first. Until she was read in on the case, in a private meeting with the CIA, Hetty and Granger. She had returned from the boat shed and met everyone in the bull pen, where she informed them of her change of heart. A cacophony of sound erupted from all the Agents and Eric; but she had just smiled sweetly and told them 'it was something she had to do'. An hour, plenty of hugs, advice and orders to come back soon and safely, later; she was gone.

That had been ten months ago. Ten months of intermittent communications with Hetty and Granger, with no signs her return. Any request for information about her well being or location was shot down under the guise of national security; all they knew was that she would be informed of her return or in the event of her death; which didn't assuage anyone's worries for her safety. Ten months of nearly fifteen replacements that couldn't hold a candle to Nell and her genius-like abilities and quick thinking. The old adage of 'you don't know what you've got 'til its gone' had never rung truer.

"I get it, Eric. I do. We all miss Nell, but we can't keep waiting for her to come back. We have to work with what we've got, no matter how inferior it is." Eric scowled for a moment before turning back to his computer. Callen, thinking that Eric was just going to be sulky and ignore him, rolled his eyes and walked back to the door when he heard Eric call out to him.

"Hetty's phone pinged at 'Jemima's', it's a tea shop on Venice." Turning back, Callen gave a nod.

"Try and convince Chloe to stay until the end of the case. I have a feeling it's going to be a bad one and we're going to need all hands on deck." With that he left for his car and to make sure that Hetty hadn't gotten them involved in anything too convoluted.

A/N: Less smutty and more case like; at least to begin with. Nallen all the way, though. Build up is a fun thing.

SJ x