Hey everyone, this is my first story, so please review an tell me what you think :)

I don't own any of them, otherwise there would have been a Jones, N. episode a long time ago.

Jones, N.

Nell rubbed her eyes sleepily as she slowly registered the sound that had awoken her. Glancing over at her alarm clock, she noted that it was a little after six in the morning. Who on earth would be knocking on my door at this hour in the morning? She thought, dragging her tired limbs out of the warm cocoon she had been in. Shivering slightly in the cool morning air, she pulled her fluffy pink dressing gown, trudging down the hall to her front door. At the last minute, she pulled open the drawer of the little side table and slipped her gun out and into her pocket. She hadn't really wanted a gun at first, but Hetty insisted she had some way to protect herself; after all, she had had the training.

Pushing the pistol into the covered pocket of her dressing gown, she pulled the door open, rubbing her bleary eyes as she did so. Shocked, her mouth dropped open. She stood there gaping for what felt like ages before she could manage to speak.

'Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?' Why on Earth had her parents flown all the way out here without calling to tell her they were coming?

Her mother smiled at her, but Nell detected a hint of fright in her eyes. 'What, a mother can't come and see her daughter without her motives being questioned? What is this world coming to?' She attempted to sound jokey and light, but her voice came out an octave too high, and a bit too quick.

Deciding that standing outside in the cold wasn't going to help the situation at all, Nell ushered her parents inside, shutting the door quickly, leading them through to her tiny living room. She told them to sit on her navy blue couch, went and got some coffee and came back with a small tray, three steaming, stripy mugs on it. Settling down in her bright red armchair, Nell faced her parents.

'Mom, Dad, what happened. Because you know I love having you here, but you usually call first. So, what happened?' She asked them directly, staring straight at her mother, knowing that she would be the one to break first. She hadn't watched those countless interrogations for nothing. Her father cleared his throat.

'We don't want to worry you Nell. We're fine.' Nell swivelled his gaze to him, narrowing her eyes and giving a distinctly Hetty-like glare. He stared back at her, unflinching. Her mother spoke up after a few seconds of this, knowing what could happen if father and daughter kept it up too long. Her words quickly ended the contest, as Nell whipped her head towards her, nearly causing herself whiplash.

'Nell, somebody tried to kill us.'

Nell couldn't believe what she had just heard. 'WHAT!' she practically yelled at them. Why the heck hadn't they told her? She could help them!

Well, she rationalised. They don't exactly know I work for a federal agency. Calming herself, she turned back to her parents. 'When did this happen?'

Her mother looked a little scared by Nell's outburst. Her father kept his cool; after all, he had been a Navy Captain. He looked steadily at his youngest daughter, their matching hazel eyes meeting.

'Yesterday afternoon. We took the first flight to LA we could find. We wanted to be as far away as possible, and you're the furthest away from us now.' There was a hint of sadness in his voice. Nell felt a bit sad too. She loved her parents, but she'd always been a Daddy's girl.

'Okay.' Nell thought hard to herself. There was only one option open to her that she felt comfortable with. 'I have to go make a call.' She stood up and walked into her kitchen for some privacy. Picking her cell phone up off the counter, she dialled the familiar number.

'Nell, dear. Whatever is the matter?' Hetty's ability to know something was up when Nell hadn't even spoken was uncanny. Then again, the older woman probably didn't get too many calls at 6:20 in the morning. But, this is Hetty. Nell thought.

'Hetty, I have a problem. My parents just arrived at my apartment. Somebody tried to kill them yesterday.' She garbled into the phone. If she had been on the other end of the line, she would have had to have it repeated. But Hetty seemed to understand her perfectly.

'Well, that is a problem. Why don't you bring your parents to the boatshed, I'll call the others and set up a protection detail, and we can try and figure out what's going on.' Hetty's calm, rational voice and plan helped Nell to relax.

'Thanks, Hetty. I just have to get ready; I'll take them there soon.' Ending the call, she placed the phone on the counter. Just as she re-entered the living room, the front window exploded with a loud crash and a spray of broken glass. Nell stood absolutely stock still when she felt and heard a large calibre bullet whiz past her ear, close enough to whip some of her hair back. Her father, with his Navy-honed skills, had already pushed her mother to the ground before crawling behind the sofa and was crouched next to her. Snapping back to reality just in time, Nell dived behind the armchair just before a man dressed all in black crashed through the now-empty window frame, shooting the wall where she had just been standing. Completely scared out of her mind, Nell suddenly remembered the gun in her pocket. She pulled it out and checked the clip quickly: it was full. Taking a deep breath, she popped up from her hiding place and shot three rounds at the mystery man. She couldn't see his face because it was hidden behind a ski mask, also black. Startled by this unexpected occurrence, the man hesitated just long enough for Nell to dart into the kitchen and retrieve her cell phone. Ducking down behind the island, she rotated so she was leaning her back against it, sitting curled up so the man couldn't see her. She opened her cell phone and flicked a text off to the first person from work on her contacts list: Callen.

In middle of shootout. Guy trying to kill my parents. Need backup. Nell.

Hitting send, she heard the sound of the man's footsteps coming into the kitchen. Listening hard, she figured out he was coming around the island to her right. Staying close to the side of the island, she scooted around to her left, staying out of sight, before nipping swiftly out into the hall, grabbing another two clips of ammo from the drawer, just to be safe. Running back into the living room, she leant over her newly perforated couch and whispered to her parents.

'Down the hall, third door on your right. Lock the door behind you. Don't come out until I say it's safe. Now go!' Her mother looked at her with a mixture of shock and fear on her face, before being pushed quickly out the door by her father. Nell heard her bedroom door slam shut milliseconds before the looming figure of the man in black filled the doorway to the living room. Lifting his pistol, he fired two rounds directly at Nell's heart. Except she had already dropped to the floor and crawled behind the armchair again, so they sailed harmlessly into a glass vase, releasing a mini-tsunami and scattering bright coloured flowers and shards of green glass everywhere. Nell stood up and fired the last three rounds of her clip at him, before bobbing back down and reloading faster than she ever had before. Feeling three more shots hit the armchair, Nell figured the guy was out of ammo as well. His gun had looked to be same as hers. Taking the chance while she had it, Nell leaped up from behind the chair and emptied her clip straight into the guy's chest. He stumbled back slightly before falling back and hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Shocked into being immobile, Nell only reacted mentally to the crash of her door being kicked open, before she heard two familiar voices calling out to her.

'Nell, are you okay?'

'Nell, where are you?'

Regaining the ability to speak, Nell called back. 'I'm in here!' She started to shake involuntarily as she heard Callen and Sam enter the room. She couldn't take her eyes off the guy on her living room floor. Sam immediately went over to him, kicking the guy's gun away and checking his pulse. He looked up, and Nell knew what he was going to say before he said it.

'He's dead.'

Callen made his way over from the body towards Nell, concern written all over his face. 'Nell, what happened here? Are you okay? You said someone was trying to kill your parents. Are they alright?' Nell looked up at him with her huge hazel eyes filled with shock and fear. She tried to think, answer the questions. She gave him a brief rundown of what had happened, starting from when her parents had arrived and ending with her pumping the would-be assassin full of lead.

'…and I'm okay, at least, I wasn't injured or anything, my parents are in my bedroom and I think they're okay.' Nell finished, drawing in a deep breath. Callen studied her, thinking that while she may be physically okay, she wasn't mentally okay. He put his arm around her and steered her out into the hall, where they joined Sam, who was just finishing up a call to Hetty, updating her on the situation. Callen told him what Nell just had, including the part about her parents hiding out in her bedroom.

'I should probably go let them out, huh.' Nell moved away from the two men, walking quickly down the hall to her room. Knocking on the door, she called out to them.

'Mom, Dad, it's okay, you can come out now.' The lock clicked before the door creaked open slowly, her parents' terrified faces looking back at her in shock. Her mother was the first one to break the silence.

'You're not really a TV news editor, are you?'