Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS LA.
So I've recently become obsessed with this show, and especially the Nallen pairing. I kid you not, I will ship this till the day I die. In any case, I read a couple of stories where Nell herself was a foster child like G, and if you happen to read my Motherly Instinct story...yeah I basically decided to give Nell a big, slightly crazy (scratch that, definitely crazy) non-blood related family. Who also brings Callen into their fold (or, more accurately, dragged him in and refused to let him go). There will be family, friendship and romance, humour and drama and a whole lot of reasons why you should never, ever leave any of Nell's siblings alone with each other for more than an hour.
Enjoy and tell me if you'd like to read more about this saga I'm calling Not Bound by Blood.
"G, want to go out for drinks?"
Sam asked, glancing at his partner as the team packed up to leave for the night. They had just finished a case involving the murder of a Navy Officer and he figured his partner might not to relax.
"Nah, I'm going to go check on Nell," Callen replied, hoisting his bag over his shoulder. Kensi raised an eyebrow.
"That's nice of you." She commented, smirking at him. He returned the look with an ice-cold glare.
The young tech analyst had called in sick to work, saying she had unfortunately fallen ill with the flu and she didn't want to infect the entire office. It wasn't much of a surprise that Callen wanted to check up on her, however.
A few months ago Nell had been looking for someone to help her brush up on her self-defence and Callen was the only person available. They didn't expect it to last past a few sessions, but to everyone's surprise, the two continued.
They had actually become fairly close, one might even say they were friends, though Deeks had a very different idea.
Callen gave his teammates the two finger salute before exiting the office. Deeks looked at his partner, a wolfish grin on his face.
"So, Callen and Nell Bell huh?" Kensi rolled her eyes. "He's being a good friend and team leader."
This was a pretty frequent argument between the two partners, were Nell and Callen a couple? Deeks thought they were, or at the very least were denying their feelings, while Kensi thought they were just good friends.
Sam shook his head, chuckling. He honestly didn't know if Callen and Nell were a couple, but he personally was happy the two were friends, there was a lightness in the man he hadn't seen in a while.
And if the two did end up becoming a couple? He could probably get on board with that.
Callen stopped outside Nell's apartment, rummaging in his pockets for the key to her apartment that she gave her. He inserted the key into the lock, turning the doorknob and entering the dark apartment quietly so as to not wake the woman if she was sleeping—
And almost immediately had a lamp swinging at his head.
His instincts taking over, he quickly dodged the attack and grabbed the wrist of his attacker. To his surprise his assailant managed to break his hold and kick him in the stomach, causing him to grunt as he went flying into the wall.
A fist came up and hit him in the nose, bringing his hand up he felt blood. He didn't pause for more than a moment, however, knowing that Nell could possibly be in danger and he needed to—
"Julia, what are you doing?"
The loud exclamation made him pause, the sounds of someone (a young girl?) cursing and banging up against something. He winced as the lights came back on, filling the room with light, and his eyes widened when he saw who his attacker was.
A young woman stood opposite him with blonde hair flowing down her back in curls and bright blue eyes that glared back at him. She wore a loose baggy sweatshirt that did nothing to cover her long legs and her hand was bleeding from where she punched him.
He recognised the woman as Julia Stone, a famous model and actress who had been on the covers of many magazines and appeared on multiple TV shows, movies and ads.
What the hell was she doing at Nell's apartment? And why did she attack him?
He turned to see who the third party was, only to blink when he saw a girl around thirteen standing in the kitchen of Nell's apartment. She had similar blonde curls, but with warm brown eyes, and was looking between the two in shock.
"Tori, call the police!" Julia ordered, turning her attention back to him and lunging to resume the attack.
He reacted, moving to grab her arm and pin it behind her back. "That's enough, I'm a federal agent, not a robber." He barked, causing the girl—Tori—to stare at him bewildered.
"What is a federal agent doing breaking into my sister's apartment?"
The question made him look at her, her sister? "Nell is your sister?"
Before Tori could open her mouth to answer, the sounds of a low groan came from somewhere in the apartment.
"Seriously guys do you have to make so much noise, I'm trying to quietly die from illness here…" Nell muttered as she slowly made her way down the hallway.
She froze when she took in the scene, one sister had a look of utter confusion on her face while the other had her arm pinned behind her back by her team leader, who was sporting a bloody nose.
"Julia why is my boss pinning your arm behind your back, why does he have a bloody nose and why is my good lamp currently in a million pieces on my floor?"
"Here, this should help." Julia said, handing Callen a cloth while he sat on the sofa. "First let me say, I am so sorry for attacking you." She stated sheepishly, watching as he pressed the cloth to his face.
"I accept your apology, though on the bright side I have something interesting to tell my partner," Catching her confused look he grinned at her. "It's not every day I get punched in the face by Natalie Windsor herself."
Her face turned bright red. "Oh god, I'm never going to live that role down am I?" She asked, putting her face in her hands.
"Nope, just like you won't live down that one time we were in the Bahamas and you decided to—"Tori was cut off by a pillow being chucked at her head. She ducked with a laugh, winking at the older blonde.
"Seriously Jules, you already broke my lamp, don't hurt my pillows too." Nell deadpanned, returning to the living room after having cleaned up the last of her lamp.
Tori couldn't help but snort. "We have pans, knives and you chose to attack a presumed robber with a lamp?"
"Hey, it was the closest thing to the door!"
Nell shook her head, smiling softly as she sat down next to Callen. "Here let me check…" She trailed off, wincing as she removed the cloth to examine his nose. "Ouch, she got you good."
"Yeah," He said absently, before giving her a serious expression. "Do you mind explaining why there are a teenage girl and Julia Stone in your apartment?"
Nell grimaced, sighing softly as she pinched the bridge of her nose before gesturing with her hand. "Callen, may I introduce you to my younger sisters Victoria Sanders and Julia Stone."
She turned to her sisters. "Girls this is my boss, G Callen."
She had to admit that seeing the look of unadulterated shock on Special Agent G Callen's face—combined with wide baby blue eyes and his mouth open in an 'o' shape—was quite amusing.
"I'm sorry, your sisters? As in plural?" He questioned, glancing between the blondes and the redhead seated at his side.
"Yup." Nell said, popping the 'p'. Callen shook his head in an attempt to wrap his mind around this utterly crazy turn of events.
"But, you look nothing alike." He admitted to having studied both of the blondes; Julia, because she was Julia freaking Stone—who would pass up the chance to admire her—and Tori because a teenage girl in the apartment of his analyst and friend was confusing.
Though he was starting to question Nell being his friend, because of the fact that she didn't tell him about having siblings, let alone that her sister was Julia Stone.
In any case, he couldn't see any kind of resemblance to the petite redhead.
"That's because we're not siblings by blood Agent Callen," Julia explained, flopping down on the bar stool at the island.
"You're adopted?" The question was directed at Nell, who flushed before looking away.
"Technically we're foster children, though we got out of the system when Mom took us in." His head snapped up to see Julia's serious, not at all joking expression and he re-directed his attention to Nell, who was looking at her hands.
"You were a foster child?" He asked softly, reaching over to place his hand on her shoulder. She slowly brought her head up, hazel orbs meeting bright blue as the two stared at each other.
Julia, perhaps sensing the tension between the two, stood up and moved to grab her bag. "I should probably head back to the hotel, we still on for brunch?"
Nell shook her head, snapping out of her thoughts. "Yeah, that's fine, nine o'clock?"
Julia nodded, glancing between her older sister and the man she had punched in the face. "It was nice to meet you, Agent Callen, maybe next time I won't injure you."
Callen snorted, waving at her as she left. The apartment was suddenly filled with silence after her exit, the temperature in the room increasing with the conflict between the two remaining adults.
Callen and Nell were simply staring each other down while Tori watched the two as if they were a tennis match. The sexual tension was very much suffocating the young girl, and she was quite tempted to tell them to get a room.
Tori had initially been hurt when she learned her sister's boss was a federal agent because that meant her sister was not, in fact, a TV editor as she said. She was used to being lied to, but the fact Nell, her big sister who never sugar-coated things unless they would emotionally hurt her, was the one doing the lying made her feel betrayed and angry.
Now, however, the hurt and anger had passed and what was left was curiosity. She'd be lying if she said the man sitting before her didn't make her want to giggle. He gave off the kind of bad-boy vibe that her brothers warned her away from and her father (if she had one) would have never approved of.
Blue eyes that seemed to melt in your soul, a rather strong body and—evidenced from the fight between him and Julia—capable of taking someone down. A rather dangerous man who probably could get women easily and had taken lives.
She also would have to be blind to miss the obvious closeness between him and her sister, the way he leaned his body towards her, the way he reached out to take her wrist and she let him…
Funny, because Nell had never been the sister who went after bad boys. That role went to Julia, who had dated guys with motorcycles and tattoos and, oddly enough, left them with a broken heart.
So, she was intrigued, which made her ask: "So Nell, I thought there was a rule in law enforcement agencies about dating between agents?"
That snapped the two out of whatever was going on. Nell looked at her sister with reddened cheeks while Callen raised an eyebrow.
"First off, I'm an analyst, not an agent so that rule doesn't apply to me," Realising what she just said she quickly backtracked. "Not that we're dating, because we're not, though Agent Callen is rather handsome and probably wouldn't make a bad boyfriend…"
She trailed off, her face now the color of her hair as Callen smirked at her while her sister grinned. "I hate you Tori, so much."
"No, you love me, otherwise you would have banned me from your apartment after the microwave incident," Catching Callen's questioning look the teen explained. "Apparently you're supposed to take the plastic off leftovers before you heat it up."
"Five hours to clean up and I was starving," Nell muttered, standing up to grab some more medicine as she began hacking.
Callen and Tori watched her pad down the hallway and listened to the door close. Tori turned to her sister's boss. "Well, this is awkward."
Callen nodded absently, he couldn't help but agree. Being left alone with the younger sister of your friend that you never knew about?
Definitely not what he was expecting when he decided to check on Nell. Maybe he should just send Sam next time.
He can see how fun it is, getting clocked in the nose by an actress of all people.
Callen looked in a mirror, wincing when he saw how red and swollen his nose was.
He was never going to live this down.
There is a second chapter that I will post tomorrow, but I have a job interview at eleven (yay!) so I don't know when it will be. Tell me what you think, and If you'd like to read more about Nell's slightly insane family and how the team interacts with them. (Hint: A lot of snarking, jokes and annoying each other may be involved. As well as irritating Granger).