Alright I am officially pinning my hopes on Nick and Ellie because someone this show should be able to have a normal relationship where the other person doesn't get murdered righting the wrongs of their past, or get paralyzed in an explosion and give birth to twins during a hostage situation, or die tragically of cancer in childhood, or their husband cheats on them and then their rebound guy is murdered by a terrorist right after proposing, or fake their death and leave behind a surprise love child. I mean seriously guys, get it together. Also that Kasie line got me real good, and I can't stop thinking about it.


I don't know, put something in it you don't want to lose:

Nick looked at the jar sitting on his kitchen counter. A bit of moonlight came through the apartment window shining against the glass. Nick looked over at the clock, 3:24AM, he rubbed his hands down his face before resting his chin in his hands staring at that stupid jar full of water. He hadn't slept in days, every time he closed his eyes he saw ripples in the surface of the lake, heard himself yell for her, but no sound came back, and the lake grew still.

It was like every night he went home and he couldn't breathe again until she came into work the next day. 3:27AM. It was too early to go work, and if he showed up before six again he was pretty sure Gibbs was going to have a serious talk with him. Nick laid back down on his couch resting his head on his arm and stared at the ceiling. 20 minutes later he still couldn't sleep, he glanced over at the clock 3:28AM, oh for fucks sake.

He grabbed the jar off the table and slammed the front door of his apartment open and then closed behind him. The jar rested in the passenger seat as he pulled up to the building. He picked it up and made his way up the staircase before knocking quietly on the door. It swung open a few seconds later to reveal a clearly already wide awake McGee. Nick walked passed him into the kitchen putting his jar on the counter and filling a mug with scotch.

"What's with the jar?" McGee asked nodding towards it.

"Kasie gave it to me." Nick replied taking a sizable swig out of his mug. "I don't want to talk about it."

"So naturally you brought it to my house and put it on my counter so I wouldn't mention it. Got it." Delilah said rolling into the room. McGee grabbed two more mugs from the cabinet pouring scotch into his own and wine into Delilah's. The three surrounded the counter drinking in silence. "You going to tell Ellie you're in love with her?" Delilah said breaking the silence.

McGee snorted scotch out his nose in response and nudged her in the shoulder with a shut up look burning in his eyes.

"What? I may not have been here for the last one but I saw the aftermath and it was ugly. Couldn't we just collectively agree to not do that again." Morgan whining from her bedroom interrupted Delilah and she wheeled down the hall towards the twins room shooting a pointed look at her husband.

Silence fell between the men as they drank staring at the jar. "It's from the lake." Nick said barely above a whisper.

"Ellie was here yesterday." McGee said looking up at Nick. "Nightmares."

Silence fell again. McGee reached out and pushed the jar just in front of Nick "She's probably awake." He said taking the mug out of Nicks' hands and placing it in the sink. "And I no longer want to be."

Nick gave him a small smile and picked up the jar.


McGee came in to work the next morning to find Nick sitting at his desk, jar placed beside the picture of himself. He shot him a smile and sat down at his desk.

The elevator dinged as Bishop came out and made her way over to her desk tossing her go bag against the half wall. "Good morning," she called out looking around the bullpen "what's with the jar?" she called over to Nick.

McGee shot him a look, he hadn't gone to see her after all. "I'll tell you someday," Nick said before looking over at McGee "I've got time."

"Not forever." Gibbs said as he walked into the bullpen hands full of coffee. He passed out the cups to his team lingering briefly to look at Torres.

"No, not forever. But not right now." He took the coffee from Gibbs and his boss gave him a quick nod.

"Sailor dead on the USS Albany, grab your gear."

The four of them collected their badges, guns, and go bags and made their way onto the elevator. As the doors slid closed Nick glanced at Ellie standing to his side. Behind him McGee looked over at Gibbs who was eyeing the two junior agents suspiciously. "Rule number 5, boss." He said with a smile, turning his attention back to his phone.