A/N: Okay, so someone wanted to see what my version of an Eric/Nell fic would be. Now, I haven't had all the time in the world to think about this and I'm sure many of you would disagree with the way I see it, but, here's my opinion of what their relationship would be like
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters
Summary: She liked lilies and he liked comic books. Eric/Nell
He sent her flowers. Anonymously but the thought was still there, he'd sent her flowers; white lilies. She liked lilies right? He was sure she'd mentioned it at one point. If she didn't, then he definitely remembered her saying how she liked the idea of being sent flowers. So once a month he sent her a batch of four lilies. The message the shop had asked if he wanted to send only contained the words; "For a pretty woman."
Every day that the flowers were sent she'd always come in with a smile on her face. He always smiled knowing that he'd put that there.
She sent him a comic book. Just the once, as a small something to lift his moods after giving Sam that toy pony for his daughter. It was supposed to be just a one-time thing, that was it. She would send him one comic book and that was it. But when he'd brought that first comic book into Ops, grin on his face telling everyone how it was a pleasant surprise, she couldn't help but send him another one just two months later.
Now, every two months, it was a standard to send him the next comic in the series. She told herself it was to only make him smile on such a job that could break most people. It was just to help a colleague.
It took five months for Nell to begin to question who was sending her the flowers. Stealing away ten minutes to herself she found the phone number for the flower shop and called them up. "Hi, yeah, I'm just calling to see if I can ask the name of who's sending flowers to my address?"
"I'm sorry, we can't tell you that information."
Nell nodded, "I understand." She was already looking into their financials. She knew it was bad to use the NCIS resources for her personal business, but she just had to know. Her hand paused, hovering over the key board. Did she really want to know? She frowned now and retracted her hands. It made her giddy receiving the flowers every month on the dot, the fifteenth, made her smile. But it was slightly creepy, especially considering they were delivered to her home address.
It was that thought that pushed her to find out who was responsible. The only people that should know were Hetty, the team if they looked and her family and maybe a couple of friends outside of work. But nobody else and nobody would give out her address.
So that gave her cause for concern. She managed to get the deliveries list, which lead her to the orders list. After a quick scan down the list until she found her order, she opened up the contact number – she stopped. She recognised the phone number.
Her eyes frowned and she glanced up as Eric gave a whistle.
Shutting down the program she turned the screen off and followed everybody else into Ops. She knew that there would be glances her way, but that was it, nothing more. She had things to do that they didn't.
But Eric noticed her slight frown throughout the entire briefing and how she seemed almost distant. When everybody had left and it was just the two of them he turned to her, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said almost instantly. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? It seems like something's bothering you?"
Nell looked up at him with a tight smile. He showed genuine concern for her, concern that something was bothering her, yet he was the cause for her concern. How could she tell him that? She shook her head and waved him, "It's nothing, just a little something a friend told me."
"Okay, well, if you need anything, you know, I'm, I'm here and I will listen to whatever it is."
Nell nodded and turned back to the screens. "Thanks."
When his next comic arrived he frowned. There was a message attached to the front of it that simply said, "Thank you." There was no sign to say who'd sent it or who had paid for it and it made him curious. A curious Eric Beale with access to a sophisticated network at his fingers wasn't a good combination. When he was alone, Nell having retreated to do some paperwork for Hetty, he searched comic book orders from the store that his comics were coming from.
With the order list in front of him he looked up contact numbers and searched for any that were familiar. There was only one.
He glanced over his shoulder with a slight smirk to the corner of his lips. Then he frowned. What was she saying 'Thank you' for? Turning back to the screen he closed the windows and went back to work, the thought of Nell sending him comic books still in his mind. Then a thought came to mind, was she saying thank you for the other day?
With that thought in mind an idea sprouted.
When Nell next received her bunch of flowers she almost threw the card away without looking at it, but she hesitated when she saw it contained more words than normal. "Thank you for the comics." A blush settled in and she couldn't help the smile that lifted the corner of her mouth.
When she turned up for work that day she took in one of the lilies and took it straight to Ops. She smiled at the sight of nobody but Eric in the room. Checking that nobody was on their way, she stepped over to him and placed the flower in front of him with a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you," she said.
Eric seemed to blush, making her laugh. After a few quiet moments he moved to his bag by his feet and pulled out a comic book, passing it over to her, "And thank you."
A comfortable silence wrapped itself around the two for several minutes before Eric stopped typing and turned to face Nell. "Do, do you want to grab drinks after work?"
Nell stopped typing to look up at him. "Okay, sure."
"Sweet," Eric said with a grin turning back to his keyboard.
That night, once everybody had left, they agreed to meet at the bar and take a taxi home. Five drinks later, some beer, some tequila shots, and they were ready to leave. It was whilst they were waiting for her taxi that Eric smiled down at her with a grin, "Hey, erm, Nell."
"Yeah?"
"Erm, I, well, you know, really like you and-"
She cut him off then by grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him down to kiss him. It was long enough to tell a lot, but shot enough to leave him wanting more and when she pulled away he was left speechless. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Y- ye- Yeah. Sure."
The next day, they shared a smirk with each other and pretended to everybody else as though nothing had happened. For now, it would their own little secret.