Author's Note: Thought I'd forgotten about this one, huh? Okay, you're right. I sort of did. But it's as far away from Callen's canon romance drama that's pissing me off right now as I could get. Just some more fun Callen and Nell fic.

PART TWO: NELL

Chapter 2: Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?

Nell Jones attempted to supply their next course of action.

"It's time to bust some punks?" she said.

Callen looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head. Was it really so out of character for her to go all 5-0? The 'cool kids' weren't the only ones with a sense of humor. His shocked, bordering on terrified, or maybe disgusted, expression carried on a little too long for Nell's sense of comfort, even though she could see that twinkle of unabashed facetiousness in his eyes.

"Sorry," she said. "I've been watching too many cop shows... apparently -Anyway, we should be able to reconstruct and predict their movements if I extrapolate search parameters from some of Sloan's crazy brainstorms and plug it into our data gathering software."

"Can you do that on the DL?" he asked, frowning in thought.

Nell was pretty sure she knew the answer, but... "Um... why?"

"The CIA probably won't appreciate our pursuing one of their cases, especially since they did such a bang up job on it in the first place," Callen said with an eye roll.

"We should at least tell Hetty, though," Nell said, chewing her bottom lip. "Right?"

Callen shook his head.

"Plausible deniability?"

He nodded.

"You know that there's nothing we do she doesn't know about-"

"Precisely correct, as usual, Miss Jones."

Seeing Callen jerk in surprise made Nell only slightly less embarrassed that she'd started so very violently at the unexpected appearance of their boss, knocking over a rather high stack of paperwork, which exploded into the air and came fluttering down like a trail of feathers behind a frantic chicken. Where had the diminutive woman come from?

Nell glanced at the still closed door, and then surreptitiously tried to survey the rest of the room for any hidden seams that might be hiding secret passages, as the old spy continued to lecture them... only it wasn't quite the admonishment the intelligence analyst had expected it would be.

"While I cannot sanction my agents co-opting another agency's highly classified case, I am not directly responsible for their off-duty activities," Hetty said, catching a piece of paper as it drifted by her face. She glanced at it. "Hmm... this report should've been filed last Tuesday, Miss Jones."

Okay. What was she up to? Because Nell was receiving some mixed signals, here. Was she pissed that the aspiring field agent had taken on the failed and volatile case in her spare time, especially when Nell seemed to be behind on her administrative work? Or was she doing that secret Hetty thing, encouraging her little ducklings onto the right path without seeming to do so?

Nell glanced inquiringly at Callen, who gave her his standard 'I don't understand the woman, but I do love her' look reserved for when Hetty was, well, being 'Hetty'.

"Perhaps I had better call in some temporary assistance to process all of this back paperwork." Was there a mischievous twinkle in the old woman's eye? "For it certainly is not the best use of government resources to waste your talents on data entry and filing, now is it?"

"No. It's not." Callen said, speaking up in ardent agreement with his boss, and saving Nell from her shamefully shocked silence, her mouth hanging slightly agape. Some cool and collected undercover agent she'd make, Nell thought sarcastically as she pulled herself together.

"I'll make some arrangements then, shall I, Nell?"

The young woman nodded eagerly. "That would be great, Hetty. Thank you."

Hetty nodded that wily, sage nod of hers, before she left, this time visibly using the only usable door in the small office, giving none of her ninja secrets away.

After the door closed behind the old spy, Nell turned to her partner-in-crime, wondering if he still wished to be. Surely, there was no other reason for the playful glint in his eye.

"Got any plans tonight?" she asked, feeling the rush of adrenaline coursing through her, the prospect of working a secret case thrilling her in a ridiculous sort of way.

G Callen grinned down at her, that stupid charming smile of his, as he said, "Busting some punks."

A/N: In Part One of this story, we've learned that Callen and Nell can work together to survive, but can they also successfully bring down the bad guys?