BLAZE

Summary: What thoughts run through the minds of the "Wonder Twins" when Hetty brings in a beautiful young woman with strong computer skills to replace them to complete a mission. Will it bring love or disaster to to the members of our technical team? Spoiler alert and Tag to 06x19 "Blaze of Glory"

A/N: I know that there are some people that have been patiently waiting for more chapters of Quinn. I have taken some lessons from Eric and I broke the internet – not the whole thing, just my dial-up connection through Juno. Now I am in the ciber age with real internet so I can post this. I watched the program "Blaze of Glory" and the bunnies wouldn't stop hopping around. I tried to tell them that my internet connection no longer existed, but they just didn't care. So this was written and set in the bunny hutch to wait until it could be posted. They were not happy with that, but I went back to working on Quinn.

Disclaimer: The characters and sets of NCIS:LA are all owned by CBS, Donald P. Bellisario, and Shane Brennan. I only own a copy of the DVDs from season 1-5. I do get to play with everyone, but they all have to be home by curfew.

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Blaze

Eric's whistle called the team up to Ops. Nell threw the video feed up on the plasma, as Eric described what had happened less than a half hour ago. The Navy had just had their latest top secret missle system hacked. The military and production company engineers were completely locked out of the system. Nothing they could do could reverse the course or abort the missle. Instead of blowing up the target ship on its demonstration run, it veered off course and blew up a cabin cruiser. The realization quickly hit everyone. If this system had been compromised, what other US military systems were vulnerable. If the software that was responsible for this hack job were to be sold on the open market, our enemies would be in control of everything we would have to fight them.

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Kensi and Deeks were sent to deal with Naval command while Callen and Sam went to see if the Coast Guard found any clues among the remains of the destroyed cabin cruiser. One of the Naval officers found an anomaly on his computer. He had gotten an e-mail for a Defense Department Conference that was a fake. When he had clicked onto it to view the schedule, the virus was unleashed into the secure computer system.

Kensi and Deeks had brought the affected hard drive in. The wonder twins did their magic, and they found out who had sent the virus that stole all the secure data. As the team gathered up in Ops to strategize how they were going to deal with this, Callen had already decided that someone would have to infiltrate the online group, Disavow, to find out how deep the data theft had gone.

Eric immediately thought that he was going to be the one to go under cover. The thought of hanging out with geeks and hackers would give him a legitimate reason to get his foot back in the door of the black ops of the ciber world and the dark net. He had done that for a living when he was younger, before he got caught and was given a suspended sentence, but only if he kept his nose clean and volunteered to work for Henrietta Lange.

Granger dashed all of Eric's hopes, when he basically told the young man that he was too old for the assignment.

Nell looked at him with a smile, and said, "That would mean that the one going in would be..."

Hetty appeared out of nowhere and interrupted her, "Miss Blaze Talcott," and moved to the side to reveal an extremely attractive, extremely young woman standing there, long blond hair, brown eyes, designer hoodie, oversized blouse over green leggings, throwback tennis shoes, carrying a large bag.

Eric just stared at this vision of young lovliness.

Nell wondered if Hetty was robbing the cradle again, picking up strays and unwanted orphans, like she was known to do. I mean, she thought to herself, it's one thing for Hetty to bring her up into Ops, the super secret war planning room of the Office of Special Projects, a division of NCIS that very few people know about, because officially, it isn't really here, but to send this baby out on a mission undercover? What the hell was Hetty thinking? I remember when I was that young and naive. Let her see just a few dead bodies, let her experience her team members being shot, let her have to kill someone herself, and see how much that will quicky age her. Right now, this young girl was almost young enough to be Eric's daughter.

"Ah, Hetty, is she qualified for this?" the red headed analyst asked.

"Ms Jones, she is a senior at Stanford University and has interned at NCIS Monterey. When she graduates, she is going directly to Quantico Ciber Division."

"She's just a student, Hetty?" Deeks asked with surprise in his voice.

"Isn't the software controlled material?" Nell added. "We would have to vett her for this case."

"Her security clearance is higher than yours, Ms Jones."

"Ohh kay."

"I'm Eric Beale, senior tech specialist here. I can help you with anything you need." Eric finally found how to speak again, as he addressed the young student.

"I've heard of you," she answered and Eric could have sworn he heard music, not words.

"Nell Jones, political analyst," the pixie said, though no one seemed to hear her, or care.

"Blaze, that's a cute nickname," Nell remarked.

"Actually, that's my real name. I was conceived at a Bon Jovi concert." the young woman said.

"Been there," Deeks mentioned.

Okay, change that. She is young enough to be his daughter, Nell thought to herself.

From Nell's point of view, Eric was fawning all over her like a little puppy dog, trying to prove to her how good he was. I mean, really, he should know that he was too old for her.

From Eric's point of view it was perfect. She could be the student, and he would be her teacher. He might even have to keep her after class until she completely understood the lesson he was trying to get her to learn.

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Kensi bent down and asked Nell to meet her in the women's rest room. When the two of them got there, Kensi made sure they were alone, then looked Nell in the eyes as she asked her. "Okay, Nell, spill it. Why have you been acting so cold toward the new girl?"

"Blaze?" Nell said, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Right. And Deeks and I are going to quit our jobs here tomorrow and open up a fish taco truck on Rodeo Drive. What is your problem with her?"

"I have no problem with her, none at all."

"Are you upset that Hetty chose her instead of you to go undercover?"

"No, I agree with Hetty, that she is more qualified and certainly fits the age profile better."

"Then is the problem with Eric filling... Oh, WOW. That's it, isn't it? You have feelings for Eric."

"Yes, I'll admit, I have feelings for Eric. But they're not the kind you're thinking of. Not like you and Deeks. He is my partner, and I don't want to screw that relationship up. We work well together, and I don't know how well Blaze would fit into the equation.

"Are you sure that's all there is, Nell? Can you honestly say that there is nothing romantic between you and Eric?"

"From the first day that I got here, I think that Eric had a crush on me. But the feeling was never mutual. We go out to eat, bring home take out and watch movies, or play Mario Cart at either of our houses, and very rarely we even fall asleep and spend the night when visiting one another, but there are no sparks there. We are just friends and coworkers. Nothing more."

"Then what is the problem you have with Eric and Blaze, if it's not the green-eyed monster of jealousy?"

"I am more embarrassed for Eric, by how he is acting toward her. He is fawning all over her like a little boy. I'm just afraid the age difference between the two of them is just too great for anything to come of it. Eric is going to crash and burn when that happens."

"You don't know that for sure. Some May December parings work out, although it is hard to think of Eric as the December part of the pairing."

"But how well would that work for them, Kens? You heard Hetty, in a couple of months Blaze is going to be posted to Quantico. The relationship would be strained with just the age difference. Do you think it could survive the distance separating them? Remember how you and Deeks felt while you were over in Afghanistan? How often would you think that Eric would wonder if Blaze was picturing him to be an old, old man, and want to go out with friends her own age?"

"I can see that being a problem for Eric."

"How would that affect his work here, with his mind always on where Blaze is going, what she is doing, who she is seeing? He would be stalking her night and day, through her computer, through traffic cameras, through Kalidescope. I know she's young, but can you imagine the atomic explosion it would set off, if she ever found him doing that?"

"I'm beginning to see a big problem with that." Kensi said, not even wanting to think about those consequences.

"Okay, how about an even bigger problem than a long distance relationship?"

"And that would be...?"

"What happens if she outright rejects any of his advances?'

"Crash and burn?"

"Yupp. He might try to hide it, but you know it would eat away at him."

"What's worse, that's probably the more likely scenario." the junior agent said.

"We all will have to make sure that we are there to help him through it, no matter which way it falls."

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After the successful completion of another operation, Hetty invited the whole team out to watch a marionette presentation at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. When it ended, she took the team to a back room that was all set up for a party, and started dishing out ice cream Sundays. She accidently, on purpose, let it slip that the first time she saw Mr. Baker perform, she was five years old and it was at a party that Judy Garland threw for her daughter. Everyone was astonished that she was playmates with Liza Minnelli, or at least she said she was.

Nell noticed that Eric wasn't joining in the small party that Hetty was hosting.

"You're not eating any ice cream." she said to him, a statement, and not a question.

"Ahh, no." he answered.

"You don't like the flavor, or you are going on a non ice cream diet?" she asked.

"In just a little while I'm going to go over and hang out with Blaze."

"Ah, with Blaze." she said, as her eyebrow went up quizzically.

Eric started blushing and quickly added, "and some of her friends. It's a mentor sort of thing."

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Later that night, in the gadget room of the Mission, Nell was working on one of the drones as Eric walked in.

"Whatcha doing here so late?" he asked her.

"Trying to retrofit one of these older drones with infrared." she answered him.

"Oh," he responded.

"So, how did your evening go with Blaze," she asked him, and then seeing him wince, quickly added, "and her friends."

Letting out a deep breath, Eric told her, "Blaze is ready to move on, to Quantico, I mean. Her friends were all busy texting most of the time. I spent a lot of time talking with Blaze's dad. She thought we had a lot in common. He is an electrical engineer. Like we could be friends. Seriously, he's forty-five years old. I just sort of left. There was no future there."

"Ohh kay."

"So, what have you done to the drone?"

After instructing her partner on the modifications that she has made, she asks if he wants to fly it. She started out helping him with the tablet, showing him how to maneuver, and then let him fly solo. Being somewhat unfamiliar with what he was doing, the drone crashed to the ground. She looked at him and thought, How much that was just like his experience with Blaze. Maybe it won't be that hard to help him get up and fly again after his emotional crash. She was just glad that she was there to help cushion his fall.

Then a small shudder went through her whole body, as she compared her own situation to the one Eric had just gone through. From the very first day that they were introduced to each other, Nell Jones had a burning crush on Senior Special Agent in Charge, G. Callen. The very first time that he looked at her, she found herself lost in the deep blue pools of his eyes. She was just as smitten with the flames of desire for him, as Eric was for Blaze. It was just that she was a lot less obvious about it, because she knew it would never work out between the two of them. He was just too old to get involved with a child like her. The number of years between Eric and Blaze were a lot less, than the number of years between her and Callen.

Nell took what little pleasures she could get from the senior agent, whenever and wherever she could. She had allowed Callen to get close to her, teaching her various ways to use her smaller size to her advantage in a fight. She always listened to his advice, even when it originally came from someone else, like Gibbs' Rule #9: Never go anywhere without a knife. It proved to be her salvation in the boat shed, when Robert Brown got her gun away from her, yet she was able to stab him, nicking his femoral artery, and almost killing him.

But even when she was practicing her wrestling moves with him in the mandatory training, going up against him on the firing range, or the once or twice they found themselves alone in a car, late at night on a stakeout, she never fawned over him like Eric did with Blaze. No one knew about her love for the Senior Special Agent, except maybe Kensi, who she might have told one night when both of them got stinking drunk on a girls' night out. But Nell knew that the female agent would never give up secrets like that, because they were sworn to in the bonds of sisterhood.

She knew she would look just as foolish as Eric and Blaze, if she were to declare her love for Callen. It would appear to be a father and daughter relationship, not one of two equal individuals. Callen would look upon her as a child, who had no knowledge of what what love really was. He would say she was experiencing a schoolgirl crush; not knowing what she really wanted. He would see that there would be no future for the two of them. In the end she would look just as ridiculous as Eric did.

But even more than the emotional rebuke that she might suffer at his hands, she was so deathly afraid that there would be absolutely no one waiting for her, after it happened, to cushion the blow, and help her get on with her life. Hetty would just shake a finger at her and remind her that this is why there are rules against co-worker relationships. Eric would feel hurt, as he would once more be reminded of his failed relationship with Blaze. The agents would all look at her with pity and laughter in their eyes, at the poor geeky girl that tried to soar so high and think she was able to love someone who never did relationships. She would have to leave the job she loved so much, and never again be close to the man she loved so dearly.

So she banked the fire in her heart, and with a pail full of cold reality, doused all the coals, stirring the remains with reason, to make sure that all the embers were dead out, until there was nothing remaining of the blaze that once was lit there by G. Callen.