Author's Note: Here's a little something I made quite a while ago that isn't really going to fit with 'The Ops Team'. A lot of little things don't fit and I'd have no idea where to put it even if it did so... I just made it another story.
Eric was pacing by the entrance to the cafeteria, they must have located the exit on the other side on purpose, it was to tempt employees into spending more of their paycheck on food. He was sure of it - and fighting the urge to buy another muffin. Getting up early enough for the private sector was taxing; at this point he was pretty sure his red blood cells were just carrying caffeine to his brain, oxygen stopped cutting it an hour ago. The jitters were the only thing keeping him from passing out right then and there, and wanting to sleep only accentuated how confined he felt in the pants and long sleeves. Hetty had sized him up a little too accurately with a single glance but, it wasn't the fit so much as the fact it covered his calves and feet. The socks itched and the shoes were clunky and uncomfortable.
When he saw Nell at the bottom of the stairs he couldn't help but think that blond wasn't a bad look for her. The casual attire of the troubleshooting department elicited a pang of jealousy, though if it weren't for the 'Gone Fission' shirt under her jacket you wouldn't have guessed it was casual. Seattle was cold, sure, but she at least had the option of wearing shorts and flip flops if she wanted to. He had to be neatly groomed and presentable for the stuck up engineers, lawyers and accountants.
She smiled when he waved at her but, didn't say anything until she met him by the door.
"Hey." He opened the door and waved her through ahead of him.
"Hey. How's tech support treating you?"
"Are you kidding? I've got to wear this monkey suit and I spent all day swapping people's mice, except for the half an hour that some guy spent yelling at me because he liked his old mouse."
She stopped after the door to the cafeteria. "If there's no jacket and tie it's not a monkey suit. And, really? You replaced it without asking?"
"No, I just walked in and asked him if he wanted a new mouse."
"Yeesh. Well, they had me on licensing troubleshooting which was a total yawnfest, after a few hours I got frustrated with the tracker, so I rewrote it."
"You rewrote it?"
"Yeah, it's just VBA."
"What happened to keeping a low profile?"
"I didn't advertise it, besides I was already done the allotted issues for the day."
"So why not be normal and take a break and chat by the water cooler?"
"Hey Derek." He didn't realize until he had already spun around that he just gave Nell ammunition for the next week by turning to the older woman who greeted him. She offered him a quick wave as she walked past.
Nell took a moment to study her before turning back to Eric. "So, Derek." She drawled with her best imitation of a gravelly, deep tone. "Made a friend today, did you?"
"She's my supervisor, I replaced her mouse and we talked for a bit about my old job." It was quite the ordeal for him to keep a conversation going about a tech support job he never had, fortunately most of his more innocuous email-related conversations with Granger sounded pretty convincing once the names were changed.
"She's pretty."
"She's like, forty five."
"So?"
"I'm only thirty."
"Half plus seven." She dragged on the last consonant and smiled suggestively.
"I'm pretty sure she's forty eight. Can we go now?" He quipped, gesturing to the door before walking off without her.
"You're no fun." She mock-pouted before following him through the door.
"Do you think Sam and Callen had a better day?"
"In shipping? Are you kidding? I'll be surprised if Callen still –" She stopped, looked down at her pocket, and fished out her phone. Before she even read it she smiled just by seeing the sender. With a sly peek he saw that it was her dad's number. Her family was an interesting one, very clingy and incongruously, rarely visited. Though he was interested in learning more about them, perhaps even meeting them, it was a difficult subject for him to bring up.
"Your dad?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, he…" she giggled. "He asked if he could visit me – and if he'd have to don a disguise and alias to do so." Her phone buzzed again. "Max Power. Real original, Dad."
"He knows what you're doing?"
"No, he still thinks I'm a news producer. I told him that I'm on a trip but still in the country, and that I've got someone looking out for me." She responded, tucking her phone away after tapping out a short response. "That's all he wanted to know."
The rest of the walk to their car was silent. Eric was chewing on his lip, a nervous habit he had tried to stamp out probably a dozen times by now. It must have been nice, having a family that wanted to be a part of her life even now that she was out on her own. If he was honest with himself it was something that he couldn't even imagine.
Nell insisted on driving, she liked to speed and run stop signs, and frankly he liked to watch her tense up like she was racing while she weaved between traffic. He wasn't sure he could drive a car in a big city anyway, half the reason he rode a scooter was because he wanted a reason to avoid the infamous freeways and traffic of Los Angeles. Nell never showed the same fear, though he wasn't actually sure she was afraid of anything.
Almost immediately after they closed their doors and started the car Nell's phone started to ring. "Can you get that?" She offered him the phone before turning on the car.
Without even responding Eric grabbed the phone from her hand. "Nell's phone."
"Mr. Beale, it is impolite to answer a lady's phone."
"I'll put you on speaker, Hetty." He pushed the speakerphone tile on the screen and set the phone down in the center cup holder.
"I trust the two of you are adapting well to civilian life?"
"I actually have to go through more security checkpoints now than I ever did at NCIS." Eric responded.
"You bring up an excellent point, Mr. Beale, I feel that our facility would be more secure if we had more checkpoints with armed guards."
"That's not what I – Ow!" Nell punched him before he could respond fully.
"What can we do for you, Hetty?" Nell asked sweetly, she gave him a snide grin before turning her head back to the road in front of her.
"Yes, before Mr. Beale placed his foot squarely in his mouth I was trying to inform you that the apartment has been fully swept and equipped, it is ready for you now."
"Good. Anything else we need to know?"
"That depends on the two of you, have you found anything?"
"I've got a way to interrupt anyone at any time, but I'm sure you already know that."
"Yes, Mr. Beale. I trust you are making yourself indispensable? Coworkers can be invaluable in cases like this."
"Working on it. However, until they give me a task that couldn't be accomplished by a trained monkey I won't have much luck in that area." He replied, smiling a bit too widely at the small laugh he got from Nell.
"Hmm. And you, Ms. Jones?"
"I've got access to the licensing support suite of network drives, which includes a network directory – I should be able to find the servers that handle email and file transfers from there."
"Oh, my supervisor has access to the schedules of almost everyone in the building. Nell and I should both have access to meeting room bookings."
"And Sam can go anywhere in the complex to deliver packages and letters with minimal suspicion." Nell added. Eric stared at her a moment before she noticed. "What? We had lunch."
"I asked you if you wanted to go for lunch. You said you were busy." Eric grumbled.
"I was busy! This was after."
"Focus, please. You both have a great deal of unpacking and work to do tonight. Don't forget to get some sleep as well."
Most of the evening was spent alternating between bickering over and setting up their own mobile (yet concealable) Ops. The knickknack webcam, the TV/NCIS network terminal, numerous listening and recording devices to keep an eye out while they were away and, of course, their laptops. The apartment was eerily quiet thanks to the soundproofing that was already done, the bulletproof windows didn't let in much light or sound either. The door, though normal enough looking, was actually a very heavy steel reinforced door originally intended for a bunker.
The apartment also had all the required touches of a home; the kitchen was equipped and stocked, there were two bedrooms and each had its own ensuite, the main room had a large dining table next to the kitchen and on the other end a couch set up before the deceptive TV.
"Wish I could afford a place like this."
"Here, here. Have you seen the bedroom? That mattress probably cost more than all my furniture combined."
"You bought your furniture? I thought you just found it at the dump."
"Fine, I bet that mattress cost more than my rig, laptop and surfboard and anything else I own that I actually paid for combined."
"That's still not very much."
Eric huffed in mock offense. "Are you done?"
"Not unless you've found something more fun for me to do."
"Well, I was going to watch some pay-per-view porn." He said with a wink at the camera in the corner of the room.
"That may not be the best career move, Beale."
"I was just joking."
"That's what I meant."
"At least now I feel like I'm where I belong. Why couldn't I just apply for a job normally with these guys? It would be a fairly short conversation. Ah, Mr. Beale, it is truly a privilege to meet someone with work experience like yours, we can put your talents right to work in Internet Security; how does $60 an hour sound?"
Nell scoffed. "I don't know, I like Derek better, he's more relatable. Seven years working for an electronics store, brand new certificate in network support, just got a place with his lovely girlfriend Jessica. The sky's the limit."
"Oh yes, Jessica. Degree in psychology, turned to a sysadmin certificate course in order to actually get a job. Was she actually a stripper to get through university or did that not make it to the final draft?"
Nell didn't look nearly as amused as he was hoping. "Remind me again how long you've been making fake identities?"
"Too long, old friend. Too long. That's why I try to keep them interesting."
Author's Note: I can't believe I forgot about this for so long, I was so happy with it when I wrote it.