A/N: Just randomness I thought up after re-watching the episode. It starts in Nell's P.O.V. but changes to Eric's a little later, it should be very obvious where it changes.
Wow, it has been forever since I posted anything NCIS or NCIS: LA, I've been too busy with my Narnia story. LOL anyway. Hopefully within the next month or so I am going to have the first chapter of a multi-chapter AU Neric story that is based a few years in the future, it is going to be titled "Amnesia" so keep your eyes opened for it!
Question; how did y'all like the season premier? I liked it but at the same time I didn't like it.
DISCLAIMER: Nope, I don't own it
"Hey Nell, you want to go get drinks?" Eric asks me as we are walking to our cars.
"Not really, not tonight. Sorry Eric."
"Come on Nell, it'd do you good" I can hear the pleading in his voice.
"Eric... I'm tired and I've had a long, stressful day. I'm ready to go home.
"I know, that's why I want to treat you."
"How about this; you come to my house and cook for me? You can treat me that way" I recently found out that Eric is a wonderful cook.
"Sure, I'll be over in a little bit, I'm going to stop by the store and pick up a few things I'll need" he smiles.
"Okay, see you in a bit" I say as I climb into my Cooper.
I get to my house about thirty minutes later and decide that I am going to change before Eric get here so I head to my room and put one of my few pairs of jeans and an old sweatshirt on knowing that Eric could care less about my appearance.
Eric arrives about fifteen minutes later, walks into my kitchen and takes over like it's his house, only pausing to ask where I keep certain things.
"Watcha making?" I ask about ten minutes later, looking at the slightly weird combination of things on my counters.
"It's called vegetable and chicken stir fry."
"Sounds good" I smile. Since I learned that Eric could cook a few weeks ago he had cooked for me at least a dozen times and it had always been good.
About an hour later I'm sitting on my couch when Eric calls me into the kitchen saying that dinner is ready "it smells amazing Eric" I exclaim as I walk into the kitchen.
"Thanks I hope it tastes good too" he smiles at me as he scoops two platefuls out of a pan, and then tops it with something before putting the plate in front of me.
I shamelessly shove a couple forkfuls into my mouth before making a disgusted face and saying "Ugg, how do you eat that stuff?"
"It's really that bad?" Eric asks hastily as he tastes a decent sized forkful of it before noticing the grin on my face "You're just joking aren't you?"
"Mmmhhhmm" I smile wider and nod my head "I'm sorry but I had to do that."
"Nell…" I can tell he is trying to be annoyed with me but the grin on his face gives it away that he isn't.
"But it really is wonderful" I tell him gratefully as I shovel more into my mouth.
"Thanks, it's one of my mom's old recipes so we used to have it a lot and I could make it by the time I was ten… or at least most of it, some of the cutting I had to have help with.
"How come nobody on the team knows you can cook?"
"I don't know, I guess it's just my hidden talent" he shrugs.
We finish the meal in relative silence, I help him with the clean-up, and then we sit down in my living room to watch some TV before he leaves.
ERIC'S P.O.V.
We sat down on Nell's couch to watch some TV before I leave and, somehow, a few minutes later she has snuggled up close to me and I have awkwardly put my arm around her. I look down a few minutes later and see that she has fallen asleep, I sigh. I know I have to leave, but I'm afraid that if I move she will wake up, and I don't want that.
I spend that next few minutes trying to figure out how to get up without waking her, and then finally just decide that I'm going to have to get up and hope she isn't a light sleeper. After I have finally gotten up I now face another problem; trying to decide if I should carry Nell to her room or not.
I decide I really should take her to her room so I carefully slip one arm under her neck, to support her head, and the other arm under her legs and then slowly lift her off the couch, and I'm surprised how little she weighs. I slowly make my way down the small hallway to her room and then lay her down on the unmade bed.
I cover her up, take one last look at her before turning the light off, grab my stuff and leave. I get to my house, drop my bag at the door, and then go straight to bed not even worrying to change clothes, and barely remembering to take my glasses off.
It seems like I've barely been asleep a few minutes when I'm woken up by my phone ringing. I slowly reach to my nightstand, grab the phone that I know want to throw at the wall, and squint to see who would be calling me at this time… it's Nell. "Nell, why are you calling me at two in the morning?"
"Eric…" I tense at the sound of her voice; something is wrong.
"Eric get over here now" is all I hear before the line goes dead. I don't know what that was about, but I know I have to get to her house… soon.
I drive as fast as I dare and make it to Nell's house in record time, climb out of the car, and sprint up the driveway, and knock on the door "E… Eric… is that you?"
"Yes Nell, it's me, now let me in" she slowly opens the door and as soon as it is open enough for me to fit through she pulls me in and shoves the door closed behind me. "Nell, what's wrong?" I'm now really worried because I've never seen her like this, but instead of saying anything she just throws her arms around me like I'm her lifeline. I let her stay that way for a few minutes before speaking again "Nell, why did you call me at two in the morning?"
"I can't sleep" she mutters, her face still buried in my torso.
"But you were sleeping fine earlier" I reply totally confused; she was sleeping fine when I left.
"N…Nightmares… about today."
"It's over Nell, you watched him die."
"But… but that was part of the nightmares… if they weren't about being held hostage they were about me killing him…" she shudders and I hug her a little tighter.
"I know this was a tough day for you, but you gotta calm down, why don't we go sit on the couch?"
"O…Okay" she replies shakily, and it takes a couple minutes to get to the couch because she refuses to let go of me, but we make it. After a while she has calmed down considerably, she stopped shaking half an hour ago, and I think she has gone back to sleep but then she speaks softly "will you stay Eric?"
"What do you mean?"
"Will you stay the rest of the night?"
"Of course I will, but I have to ask; why?"
"Because… I feel safe with you here."
"Safe with me?" I question "why me? Why not Callen? He hardly sleeps anyway, and has a gun… he could protect you a lot better than I could."
"But that's not what I need."
"What's not what you need?"
"I don't need Callen here the rest of the night, gun drawn, just to make me feel safe."
"What will I do that will make you feel safer than having Callen, with a gun, here?"
"You'll put your arms around me and hold me… I don't think Callen would do that."
"No, I don't think he would either" I chuckle at the thought of Callen being in my position; somehow trapped under Nell's small frame, her arms tangled around him, and his arms being placed on her back.
All stays quiet for another few minutes and then Nell speaks again "can we put a movie in?"
"Of course, what movie?"
"I was going to let you pick since I woke you up at two in the morning."
"A New Hope?"
"Somehow I had guessed you would want to watch one of those movies" Nell grins slightly "sure."
"Would like me to put it in and you can go change into something more comfortable?"
"No, I'll put it in. I'm not going to change" she says as she untangles herself from my body, and goes to her movie collection, finds the Star Wars movie, puts it in, grabs the remote, and walks back over to me "I'm sorry I woke you up in the middle of the night…" she says as she wraps herself around me again.
"It's fine; that what friends are for" I reply as wrap my arms around her "I just have one question; why does this" I gesture to as wrapped around each other "make you feel safer than Callen, or anybody else on the team for that matter, with a gun doesn't?"
"Because I know the bad guys are either dead or being held so I'm not afraid of them busting in and kidnapping me again, I just have the nightmares to worry about now, and being close to someone like you, someone I trust with my life, helps me" she tells me, but all that is being processed right now is that she trusts me with her life.
"Okay, whatever you need" we settle into a comfortable silence as the movie starts, and slowly, over the next hour, I feel Nell's breathing even out and I know she's gone back to sleep.
As the movie comes to a close I look at the clock and realize that it is almost five and we have to be at work in just over two hours, but I decide I'm not waking Nell up just yet.
I wait until five-thirty then gently shake her and say "Nell… it's time to wake up…"
"I'm awake" she grumbles adorably as she sits up.
"I can see that" I grin.
"You look like crap Eric, did you sleep at all last night?"
"Not after you called me."
"Gosh, I'm so sorry Eric. Are you going to be okay to work?"
"Yeah, I'll just grab some coffee. I know it's not the best, but it will work for today."
"I'm so sorry, why didn't you sleep?"
"I couldn't, I was thinking."
"About what?"
"You… I wanted to be awake in case you had another nightmare."
"O…Okay" she seems a little taken aback, but quickly recovers "will you stay here while I get ready? It won't take me long and then we can go to your house and you can get ready."
"Sounds good." So Nell got ready, we went to my house, I got ready, we went to work, and I spent another night holding her… only this time I slept too."
A/N: How did you like it? Did I get them in character? Did you notice any grammar mistakes that need fixing? Drop a review and let me know, thanks!
Love,
Rebecca!