Nell was sitting in front of the computer in ops like she always did. But for this moment she was alone, Eric not being with her. He was somewhere, she couldn't remember what he had mumbled before he had rushed off but it sounded important. He had been where ever now for twenty minutes and Nell knew for fact he had left the building because he would always come in every 15 minutes to see how she was going. She didn't usually like getting checked up on but she had gotten use to it with Eric.

She was with Kensi at the top of the stairwell when she knew he was back. She heard the back of his sandals as they smacked the tiled floor then the heel of his foot. He had an old Polaroid camera in his hand and a small envelope.

Nell tried not to enjoy the smile on his face too much so she went back to the folder Kensi was holding out and reading. She glanced back up at him as he made his way up the stairs. He now had this look on his face that told her he was thinking hard about something; she loved that look almost as much as his clueless expression. But she would never admit that out loud, she had already done that once. She would just keep it in a hypothetical folder filed under 'silly little crush'

The next thing she knew her name was said by him and she look up. "Nell, you're beautiful."

Nell's heart skipped a beat; she looked up with a shy smile and a blush creeping up her neck "You think?" her voice was full of hope and excitement.

Then came the camera snap and the picture after it. Nell was confused and her smile fell a bit. She looked at Eric who simply waved the picture and put it in then envelope. He then turned to Kensi.

"Kensi, you're beautiful" he repeated and took a picture of her. Kensi gave a bright smile, staring right at the camera, a hundred times less embarrassing than Nell's.

"Thanks" he briefly muttered before walking off again.

Nell's expression was completely lost and disappointed. She was now aware of Kensi watching her emotions spiral downwards. Nell tried to put what just happen behind her and go back to the file but her mind was caught up in how her heart fell with the second snap of the camera

"Some men are just impossible" Kensi told her quietly.

Nell shrugged and kept her eyes down on the paper "It's just a silly little crush" she said quietly as she glanced back to where he had left.

Never once had she expressed her feeling that broadly in a work place before. Even though it had only been in front of two people, one of them having no idea, she still felt awkward and self-conscious. It wasn't every day the person you had a silly crush on, your partner, told you that you're beautiful. She had gotten her hopes up, again.

Kensi placed her hand on Nell's back and gave a reassuring rub. Kensi knew all about Nell's thing for Eric from when she had spilled everything once she got back from a blind date Kensi had set her up on. That night Nell had done nothing but compare the curly haired, blue eyed, 6ft, business man with her blond, green eyed, 5'10, surfing partner.

Nell was back at her computer again, uploading everything Kensi and she had pulled from different files. Now for some unknown reason she was furious at Eric. Furious that he had made her put her feelings out like that and not notice anything. Her fingers against the plastic keys became more angered the more she thought about it. It's just a silly little crush, it will amount to nothing she repeated in her head.

The ops door flew open and this time Eric strode in and took his place beside her. When he looked toward her he could tell something was up in a second and it confused him, she had seemed happy before.

"You okay?" he asked twirling his chair towards her.

"Fine" she shortly answered.

"Is this about before, with the camera?" he questioned not taking her previous answer.

How did he get that so quickly?"No."

"So it is about something?"

Nell rolled her eyes now more frustrated "Yes, okay, it is about earlier. You happy? ... What earlier was that about anyways?"

Eric sighed seeing Nell's jaw clench, he had no idea what had gotten her in this mood. "I did this project back when I was a kid where I took a picture of women or girls after they had been told that they looked beautiful, today's case made me want to try it again" he explained.

Nell finally looked toward him "Really?" she chewed her lip.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Now why are you in such a mood?"

Nell looked down now feeling like a complete idiot and shaking her head "It's nothing."

Eric put his hands out and turned her chair to face him. "Clearly it wasn't, come on, you can tell me." His green eyes held genuine concern.

Nell sucked in a breath "It's stupid."

"I'll be the judge of that, go on."

Nell didn't know what had come over her, maybe she was hypnotized by how close they were or by how she could smell that he'd been to the beach earlier, but she started to confess. "Before... when you came up stairs and told me that I was beautiful I didn't know you were just doing an old experiment. So, I thought... I thought it was real." She held her breath.

"Oh" he mumbled.

"But I understand how ridiculous that is" she put in.

He nodded. "It was real... I mean, you are beautiful, Nell, you don't need me to tell you that..." He looked at her and her brows where still furrowed. "Look at it this way, I took twenty photos today-"

"That isn't helping" she blurted out with still a stifle tone.

He pulled his wallet out of his pocket "Out of those twenty photos, there's only one that is more important than all the rest that made it in here." He opened the wallet and behind the clear plastic was the smiling picture of Nell.

A bigger smile grew on her face this time, making her forget about everything else. Maybe it wasn't as silly and small as you thought it was, he has your photo in his wallet. You don't just have your partners photo in your wallet for no reason.

As she looked back at Eric he had a large grin as well, he gazed back at her with his green orb, showing her the same emotion she had been giving him for a long time.

Tell me what you think. This is a small on-shot compared to my others one and I wrote it today when I lost internet connection, it was a nice break from Days going by.

Thank you for reading :)

Love Zoe.