A/N:Hey everyone! I've been trying to learn American Sign Language and this idea just popped into my head. I hope you like it.

-Lily :)

Disclaimer: No, I don't own the characters, but I own the story and Lyd

ia.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walk into Ops. We were in the middle of a case. I was working extremely hard on cracking the code, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Hey, Eric?" I heard Kensi behind me, "We kind of need your help."

"Okay," I said and spun around in my chair. I stopped suddenly when I saw the sight in front of me. Kensi was holding a little girl's hand. She looked to be around seven. Kensi wasn't good with kids, she even said it herself. "What's going on?" I asked in a hesitant voice.

"Well you see this little girl came up to us at the crime scene, but I can't understand her."

"And you think I can?"

"Well…you do speak a language that none of us do." Kensi said, and it clicked. I waved to the little girl and motioned her closer to me.

"What's your name?" I asked in sign language.

"L-Y-D-I-A," she spelled out.

"I'm E-R-I-C," I spelled with a smile on my face. Lydia shyly smiled back.

"Can you tell me what you were trying to tell my friends this morning, L-Y-D-I-A?"

"Lydia," she quickly corrected using her sign name.

"OK, I'm Eric," I said, giving her my sign name.

"They are my parents," she said with a tear seeping out of her eye.

"What'd she say?" Kensi asked, sounding alarmed. I gently reached out to the girl and pulled her into a hug.

"Her name is Lydia and the two that were murdered last night were her parents." Kensi looked shocked to hear that, but she was also shocked to see the quick bond that had formed between Lydia and me. But I understood her and no one else had. She cried onto my shirt and I let her.

"Does she know what happened?"

"I'm pretty sure that she knows that they're gone forever, but I'm not sure about anything."

Eventually Lydia pulled away from me and wiped her eyes with her balled up hands. "Hey, Lydia, what's your favorite thing to do?" Eric said, hoping to give the little girl a way to get away from everything, even if just for a little while.

"I like numbers and math," she said with a weak smile.

"Really?" I asked. "Me too. Do you like Sudokus?" Lydia nodded her head enthusiastically. I turned away from her and started to look up easy Sudoku's. I felt a light pull on my shirt. I turned to Lydia.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking for something fun for you to do."

"OK."

"Hey, Eric, is there any way for her to understand anyone other than you?" Kensi asked.

"Hey, Lydia, can you read lips?" She nodded her head. It was probably second nature to her. It was almost for me too. "She can read lips, but there is another person who can speak her language."

"Really? Who?"

Nell walked into the OSP and saw the three of us. She looked at me with her 'what is going on here?' look, which was a small smile and one eyebrow raised.

"Hey, Lydia, this is my friend N-E-L-L. Nell, this is L-Y-D-I-A." Nell knelt down beside the seven year old. She is amazing with kids and I love her for that. Wait…backtrack there…did I just say love? I couldn't think about that right now; Lydia needed me.

"Nice to meet you Lydia," Nell said.

"Nice to meet you too, Nell."

"Do you know who that woman is over there?"

"No, but you are all good guys, right?"

"Right. That's K-E-N-S-I." Lydia turned to Kensi. "Hi, K-E-N-S-I."

"She said hi to you," Nell said to Kensi after seeing her confused face.

"No, I got that," she waved to Lydia, "but you can speak sign language?"

"Yeah, Eric taught me," Nell shrugged her shoulders as if it was no big deal to learn another language. She tapped Lydia lightly on the shoulder to get her attention. "Lydia, do you know what happened last night?"

'Oh no… I just got her to stop crying,' I thought. I really did not like that before. But she didn't start crying again. Instead, her eyes got all sad and she started to give Nell every detail about what had happened the night before.

She had woken up when she felt vibrations from the floor as if someone was running. She had jumped out of bed because she thought there was a fire. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she had seen a man pull the trigger on the gun and her mother and then her father had fallen to the ground. She was smart. She didn't cry out, instead holding a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream and ran to the closet and hid behind all the coats. She hadn't moved until Kensi had found her this morning.

I felt shock course through me as I listened to Lydia's story. I couldn't imagine going through that experience at any age, let alone as a seven-year old.

"Do you remember what the man looked like?" Nell asked. She looked like she was trying to keep the anger from showing on her face. I knew who she was angry with, but Lydia would not. Lydia nodded her head and started to describe the man.

"He had really dark brown hair, almost black hair. He was taller than mom or dad and I think his eyes were blue. And his lips were very thin." I guess it's true that people who don't have one of their senses, have the rest of their senses sharpened.

"Let's get her some of these Sudokus to work on so she doesn't have to think about it right now." Nell nodded her head and walked over to the printer and took out the Sudokus which ranged from very easy to very hard. Nell stapled them together and handed them to Lydia.

"Do you have a pencil?" I handed her my pencil and she was engrossed in her puzzles. She finished the easy ones in a matter of minutes. Nell and I worked on finding the murderer and put a bolo out for the man Lydia described. We were searching through the traffic cameras when we saw a man in a dark blue car that matched the description.

I tapped Lydia on the shoulder and asked, "Can you look at this picture?"

"OK." She came over to stand next to me. She looked towards the big screen as I pulled up the image. I heard a sharp intake of breath and I looked back towards Lydia. She looked like she had gone into shock. I looked at Nell, silently pleading for help with my eyes. She nodded her head and knelt down beside Lydia. She gently put her hand on Lydia's back. Lydia slowly turned and looked at Nell.

"Hey, sweetie, are you OK?" She shook her head slowly.

"That's the man."

"Eric, take the picture down. It's him." I immediately did as she asked, not wanting to cause any more pain for the little girl.

"Do you want to stay here with us or go downstairs with K-E-N-S-I?" I asked.

"Both."

"Sorry, sweetie, but you've got to choose." I could see that she was torn between being away having to see the man and being with Nell and me.

"K-E-N-S-I." Lydia glanced at the screen as if the picture was going to come back. Nell turned around in her chair to see her scared face.

"Hey, Lydia, listen to me. That picture is not going to come back," Nell said, but Lydia didn't look convinced, "I promise you."

"OK… I want to stay with you two," Lydia changed her mind and Nell nodded. I smiled because Nell always knew what to say.

"Hey, Kensi? We have a lead for you and Deeks and Lydia is okay to stay with us. I'm sending the address to your phone," I said.

"Okay," Kensi said, smiling. She waved to Lydia and Lydia waved back. Kensi left Ops and Lydia went back to her Sudokus. Nell and I went back to our computers. We were pretty sure that we had found our man, Simon Carter.

Soon we heard through our coms the sound of the team breaking into the house. Suddenly I saw a man run out of the back of the house. "Guys, back of the house, we've got a runner," I said, typing furiously on the keyboard. I could hear Nell typing next to me twice as fast.

Luckily our team had quick reactions and they were able to cut Carter off.

As they were bringing him to the boatshed to interrogate him, I looked over to Lydia. She was still working on the puzzles, but she had a bunch of them spread out in front of her that were finished. I had a little bit of down time so I went over to her and touched her shoulder.

"Hey, Lydia. Can I try the next one?"

"No," she said, looking back down at her puzzle. I touched her shoulder and she looked up again.

"Why not?"

"Because this is the last one."

"Really? I printed out at least forty of them." I was surprised. I turned my head and sign to Nell so that Lydia could understand me too, "Nell, she is on the last puzzle already. She is a smart one." Nell nodded her head and turned towards Lydia, "Nice job!" Nell walked over and held her hand out to her. Lydia smacked her hand down, giving her a high-five.

"Is there anything else you like to do?" I asked.

"I like to play basketball."

"Okay, well we do have a basketball court and Nell is a really good player." I looked over to Nell and I saw she was smiling.

"Want to play?" Nell asked and Lydia nodded enthusiastically.

"Let's go," I said. We all headed downstairs to the gym. Nell found the basketball and passed it to Lydia. She ran down the court and shot the ball, but she missed by just a little bit. I sat on the sidelines because I knew that I couldn't play for the life of me. Nell grabbed the ball and handed it to Lydia. She stood behind her and positioned her for the perfect shot.

Nell gave her a little bit more power and Lydia made a perfect shot. Lydia turned to Nell and gave her a big smile.

"Great job, sweetheart," Nell said and I could tell she was proud of Lydia.

Lydia ran over to me and asked me, "Did you see that?!" I nodded my head.

"I could never make a basket like that." Her smile grew and she ran back over to Nell. They made a few more baskets, but then Lydia started looking tired.

"Hey, Lydia, you've had a long day. Do you want to take a nap?" Lydia vehemently shook her head with a scared look.

"You don't even have to leave this building," Nell said, trying to get to the real reason she didn't want to take a nap. Lydia again shook her head.

"We won't leave the building either," I tried. Lydia smiled hesitantly and I held my hand out to her. She took it. I looked back at Nell and she met my eyes with what on most people I would call adoration. But why would Nell look at me like that? I refused to answer that question right now.

Lydia held out her other hand to Nell and Nell took it. The three of us started to head up to the Bullpen. We brought her over to the couch and she sat down, obviously exhausted.

"We'll be right up those stairs if you need us, OK?" I said. Nell came back, but I hadn't even noticed she had left. She took the blanket she had found and tucked Lydia in. When she had finished, Lydia was asleep.

Nell and I went upstairs to call the Boatshed so that we could find out what was happening. When the call was connected, I said, "Hey, guys, any progress?"

"Yup," Deeks said, not giving any extra information. Kensi punched him lightly on the arm and turned to face the screen.

"He just confessed. He had no idea that a child was there. It looked like he felt bad, but he's still just a ruthless killer. He wanted their money," Kensi said.

"Well that would make sense, they were pretty rich," Nell said.

"Wow, Nell, look at this," I said turning to Nell. She pulled her chair over to his and looked at the information I had pulled up on the screen.

"Oh my god," she said in awed voice, "The money is completely legitimate and Lydia will become a millionaire, but only when she turns eighteen." Kensi, Deeks, Callen, and Sam looked at us with daunted expressions. Suddenly, I felt a soft tug on my shirt. I turned around and smiled at Lydia, who was rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hey, you know you only slept for a few minutes?" I asked. My parental instincts were kicking in. She nodded her head, but quickly signed her answer.

"I woke up and you weren't there. I had to make sure you hadn't left." Nell looked at Lydia and I saw Nell's eyes soften.

"Oh, sweetheart, we said we'd be here," Nell said and again I admired her motherly instincts. Lydia smiled, but it still wasn't a full smile. I knew what the problem was. She was still afraid. I would be too.

"Lydia, you can sleep up here if you want," I offered.

"OK."

"Go grab your blanket and a few big pillows." She nodded her head but still didn't move. "What's wrong?"

"Is the bad guy coming back?" she asked, her lips quivering as if she was about to cry.

"No, sweetie, you never have to see him again," I said. Tears started to roll down Lydia's face and I beckoned her towards me, but before she came she said, "I miss my mommy and daddy." My heart broke at that and I pulled her towards me, hugging her close to me.

"What just happened?" Callen asked. I had forgotten that the whole team was watching. Nell translated everything that had just been said. As Nell was talking, Sam and Callen were becoming beyond angry at the guy who was going to be locked behind bars for the rest of his life. I could tell that Sam was thinking about his own little girl and that Callen was thinking about his own childhood in foster homes. As soon as Nell finished, Callen stormed out of the boatshed.

Lydia pulled away from me when she was all cried out.

"How about you and I go grab those pillows and blankets?" I asked, wanting Lydia to sleep so that she could process what had happened to her.

"OK." I looked back at Nell as I led Lydia out. She gave me an encouraging nod and a smile that seemed to say 'you're really good with kids.' Her smile was contagious and I smiled back.

We grabbed everything off of the couch to bring upstairs. Just as we were heading upstairs, Callen came storming in. He stopped short when he saw Lydia. He kneeled down in front of her and looked up at me.

"Well are you going to introduce us?"

"Callen, this is L-Y-D-I-A. Lydia, this is C-A-L-L-E-N," I both signed and spoke. Lydia pressed into my side as if she was afraid of Callen.

"Hi, L-Y-D-I-A," Callen signed, looking up to me as I fed him the letters again. Lydia smiled.

"I thought you couldn't sign," Lydia said looking up to me as if asking for conformation.

"He just learns really fast, sweetheart. Can you say hi?" I said. I guess that I just have a fatherly side.

"Hi, C-A-L-L-E-N." She tugged at my hand and tilted her head upstairs.

"I guess it's time to go make a bed upstairs," I said to Callen.

"And I have to go talk to Hetty." We parted ways. Lydia and I went upstairs so that she could get a nap in before child services came to pick her up.

Meanwhile, Callen went into Hetty's office.

"Did you finish up the case, Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked.

"Yes, but Hetty…." Hetty looked up from her paperwork when he didn't finish his sentence.

"Yes?"

"I really don't want her to have to go through what I went through."

"She won't if I can help it."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, and I do believe that you will approve of my plan."

Lydia was asleep in the corner of Ops and Nell and I were just finishing up our reports. We pushed the send button at the same time. We turned to each other and I gave her our usual underhand-high-five.

"Hey, Nell, do you maybe want to go out to dinner with me tonight?" I asked uncertainly.

"Like on a date?"

"Umm…yeah…I mean if you want it to be," I said. I have this tendency to ramble when I'm nervous and now would be one of those times.

"Okay."

"Really?"

"Yeah, don't try to change my mind," Nell said and bumped my shoulder with hers. We sat for a few minutes. I was just reveling in the fact that she had said yes. Soon I was pulled from my thoughts by a small hand tapping my arm.

"Hey, sweetie, what's up?"

"I need to use the bathroom."

"Come on, I'll take you," Nell said coming to my rescue.

When they came back, I had some more Sudokus for her to work on. After a little while of silence, the doors of Ops swished opened to reveal Hetty and Callen.

"Mr. Callen will watch Lydia for a few minutes. Mr. Beale and Miss Jones, would you come with me?" We followed Hetty out of Ops and down to her desk.

"We don't think that it would be best for Miss Lydia to go into the foster care system."

"Well I agree," I said.

"But what is our other choice?" Nell finished for me.

"Well…" Hetty stopped and looked at both of our confused faces. Nell suddenly seemed to understand. Her eyes went wide.

"You don't think we really could, do you Hetty?" Nell asked.

"Do what?"

"I am offering to let you, Mr. Beale and Miss Jones to foster Lydia."

"What?!"

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it . I love reviews and if I get enough I think that I will probably continue this story. So tell me what you thought.

-Lily :)