I have been having big time writers block with a Lifetime to Forgot, and I was working one night when this fantastic prompt came to me. So this take place the night after Kill House, so I hope you enjoy.
He had been planning on driving straight home, he had told himself repeatedly that stopping at her house would only bring him trouble. She had been specific that she was fine, that she didn't need him, but for some unfathomed reason, he found himself outside her house, finger posed on the doorbell, convincing himself that this was the right choice. Excuse after excuse flew in his head why he was there, why he was standing outside her house at this time of night, but for a man who's life often depended on his quick thinking, he found no reason.
She had told him that she was fine after the debrief. He had been quick to offer her a ride home, something any concerned senior-agent-in-charge would do after a rough day, but she had told him that there was no need for him to go out of his way. He had been surprised but under the watchful eyes of Hetty, he could only nod before turning to finish up his paper work. He had left only once she had a ten-minute start and now here he was, no plan, no nothing, flying at the seat of his pants, outside her house.
She opened the door slowly, and he was quick to notice the gun tucked into the back her jeans, the baggy sweatshirt pulling in the right spots to show the imprint. Noticing his glance, she pulled the gun out carelessly, setting it on the side table by the door.
"I figure not to take chances. At this hour, who knows if they sent some of their friends to come finish me off or something." She replied, referring to earlier in the day, and he felt tension roll through his body as the exhaustion of the day hit him at full speed. She had been kidnapped under his own nose, and he felt thirty years older as he glanced at her warily, her youthful face set serious.
"Nell, they aren't coming back. If I thought that at all, I would have been here in an instance."
She blinked coolly at him before turning her back as he followed her into her now familiar kitchen. "Are you saying that as the senior-agent-in-charge or as my.."
She left the word hanging in the air, they hadn't officially classified their relationship as anything yet, and he bit his lip as he took a seat on her barstools that he had taught and helped her make one weekend. Her coolness towards the whole situation frightened him. As an agent, he knew she wasn't use too, or expected to be in these situations and her blasé reaction was not normal. As her boyfriend, (the word sounded so juvenile even in his mind because he would never see Nell as something so objective as a girlfriend), he was concerned about her even more, how she acted as if getting shot at was nothing new.
"Nell-"
"Besides, you are here now, aren't you?"
It was cheeky , something he would have said if the sides were switched and she leaned onto the counter towards him, the counter separating them. He felt a grin flit his cheeks, maybe the first one since he had realized she was safe, and he leaned closer to her too.
"Maybe, I just wanted to be here. Ever thought of that?"
"Yeah."
Their lips meet and he felt himself sigh under her touch. He had been more scared then he had liked to admit today, the case had taken a fast one into the wrong direction, and they had almost lost Nell today. And as silly and unbelievable as it was, in these quick past months, he had come to see a world without Nell as unimaginable. She was his air, his purpose, the reason behind his flitting smile and his "good" before every morning. She made him laugh, she was a voice in the morning, a place across the table. She was so important to him, and the thought of losing her, scared him senseless.
"G, you don't have to worry about me. I wasn't worried for myself, I was more preoccupied with worry for others."
He leaned back, crease lines forming on his forehead as he escaped her touch. "You weren't worried about me, were you, because there was nothing to worry about. I was getting you out and that is that."
She smiled softly, taking his hand in her's, their hands resting on the counter. "No, this is one time I wasn't worried about you."
"Aw I feel like the love."
She grinned under his words, but the act slipped quickly, her lip puffing out ever so slightly, causing him to sigh.
"You never have to worry about me, Nell."
His lips ran through her hair and she closed her eyes before opening her mouth again. "I'm going to worry about you, no matter what you say. It's part of who I am."
"A worry-wart." He commented back and she felt his lips turn into a smile against her hairline.
"Be nice to me, it was a long day." She threw back and he pulled back again so he was eye to eye with her, guilt spread on his face, causing her to wince at her choice of words.
"You weren't worried about the team, were you? They can hold their own Nell."
"I know G. I wasn't worried."
Frustration set in and he pulled back even farther. "Then what Nell? What were you so worried about?"
Her stance changed and he noticed it as her confident stance. She took it whenever they were in the middle of stressful case, when she was in the middle of her home elements with her computer, tablet, and Eric. Nell was a confident woman but she once in a while, she had a totally high confident sexy attitude, and this was a time like that. She smiled softly before turning to lean into him.
"I was afraid I wouldn't get to tell you I love you again. Or that I'm pregnant."
He felt as if his ears were ringing and his blue eyes meet her hazel ones, a smile on her lips. He shook his head softly as if to dust out the cobwebs before placing his second hand on top of their already looped hands, his words slipping out before he could stop them. "I can't believe you went in the field today, knowing that."
He hadn't ever imagined the moment where he was being told he was going to be a dad, it wasn't something ever written in his life story even after Nell got involved. But this wasn't it, his accusion towards her was all wrong and guilt flooded his features.
His tone was low and quiet, and she knew she had to play this carefully. "There was no choice, and I thought it would be totally safe. We had no reason to believe it wasn't safe." Her voice was firm, unarguable and he looked back up at her again.
"I suppose so."
"You know it G Callen, that is the truth. We could have done nothing wrong, and everything ended up okay, so there is no reason to be mad." Her voice was stern and he began to laugh causing her to pull away her hand.
'G?"
"Are you really pregnant?"
"In almost seven and half months, there is going to be a little baby running around."
"Let's hope this baby is nothing like me," Callen responded, a sparkle in his eyes as he stood up, already feeling twenty years younger, his usual pains not even bothering him as he crossed to he side of the kitchen. "A baby, wow."
"Yes G, a baby."
He was kissing her then, his arms wrapped around her waist, letting his hand round down her flat stomach, that fact that it wouldn't be like that for long was giving him a tingly feeling.
"I was afraid you would be angry, " Nell responded, her voice quiet as she spoke into his shoulder and he tensed at her fear.
"I could never be angry at you. I'm so happy." He responded, the words very unlike him but at the same time very so right and she melted into him. "Wow, a baby."
"You already said that."
He grinned then, pulling her to an arm's length away and she frowned as his grin.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm just imaging telling the team that not only are we dating, but we are also expecting a baby."
"They are going to be floored."
He nodded in agreement before grinning again. "Yeah, but the good kind of floored."
"Yeah," She responded and he hugged her once again before kissing her forehead.
"You are never going out into the field again, no matter what."
"See you already got this parenting thing done, our teenager daughter will never know what hit her when Papa Bear shows up. Ay Ay Papa Callen." She mock saluted and he laughed spinning her in her kitchen, as her laughter echoed and mixed with his. It was funny how this day had turned out, it had the making of a perfectly sucky day but as he laughed in her kitchen, he had decided that maybe this was the best day of his life.