Thanksgiving
Am I the only one thinking WHERE IS THE SWEET NERIC FLUFF in Season 9? I feel like Mosley and Harley have totally ruined the opportunity for sweet Neric Fluff by bursting into OPS all the time.
So I don't really feel like there has been an inspiration to sweet Neric fluffiness in season 9 so I got some inspiration from the Thanksgiving episode from season 8.
I Am not American, but I had the great pleasure of experience American thanksgiving the last two years and now I am back in my European home country and MAN I miss American Thanksgiving. So, this is kind of my take on American Thanksgiving
Neric thanksgiving talk
This scene is before the episode starts. Before Eric and Deeks go to the boadsheet. So before the episode really starts.
Eric and Nell are sitting in OPS alone and working side by side as usual when Eric asks without looking away from his computer screen.
"what are your plans for Thanksgiving?" Eric looks over at her. "is your family coming or are you going home for Thanksgiving?"
Nell stops typing and looks at him.
"my mom, dad, my youngest brother and my 7-year-old nephew is coming to visit. The rest of my siblings must work or is spending the holiday with their wives' family. What about you? What are your plans for Thanksgiving?"
"I don't have any. My dad and my stepmom are going to my stepmoms parents and her family. I don't really like them."
Nell smiles at his reason for being alone on Thanksgiving.
"why not?"
"her nephews. My step-cousins are the kind of guys who made my high school a living hell. Not the kind of people I want to be thankful with. So, I think I am probably going surfing or something."
"so, you are alone on Thanksgiving?" Nell asks feeling sad for her partner. Eric nods.
"you could join me? With my family." Eric looks over at her with surprise. Nell feels embarrassed and pulls back. "you don't have to if you don't want to."
He starts smiling.
"I would love to."
"Yeah?" she asks and looks at him to make sure I don't feel obligated by the invitation. He smiles and nods and takes her hand in his.
"I would love to." She smiles.
"okay."
After the case is over.
Nell is packing up in OPS when Eric comes back from his day in the field.
"Hey there is my partner," Eric says. Nell turns around to look at him and smiles.
"hey. Welcome back. How was it in the field with Deeks?"
Eric hesitates. "it was okay. I missed my partner." He says with a nervous smile.
"you are sweet." She simply says and hands him his backpack that was standing on the floor next to his chair.
"you are ready to go?" she asks. He nods and they leave OPS together.
"so, Thanksgiving. Should I come over earlier and help with anything?
"we could go to my place and watch a movie tonight and then you could just stay for the night." She offers. When he doesn't say anything. she adds. "if you want to."
He smiles and leans his arm around her should and pulls her closer to him.
"sounds perfect but…" he stops halfway down the stairs. She looks up at him.
"can we stop at my place on the way so I can get some clean clothing?" she smiles.
"of the cause. Come on."
Nells apartment
Eric and Nell are laying on the sofa and the newest Star Wars movie is on the tv. Nell is lying on her side with her head on his chest. He is laying on his back and has a pillow under his head so he can watch the movie over her. Her shirts have slid up on her lower back while they have been watching the movie. He is moving his fingertips in circles on the skin on her lower back.
"could you hand me some more popcorn?" he asks.
"nope." She says with no sign of teasing. "do it yourself. You are lazy."
He starts to try to sit op so she gets pushed off him.
"hey." She protests and sits up.
"you didn't want to give me some popcorn. So, I got them myself." He says and stuffs a handful of popcorn in his mouth.
"Yeah, but I was laying very comfortable. Then you started to move around." She complains.
"too bad." He says with a mouth full of popcorn.
"you are so annoying." She gives him am a little slap with a pillow.
"don't do that again." He warns her with a daring smile in his eyes. She smiles at him. They look straight into each other's eyes.
"don't…" he says.
"or what?" she dares him.
"you don't want to know."
She looks at the pillow.
"I guess I will." She says right before she hits him with the pillow again. He is still lying down on his back. She looks at him with a daring smile.
"you shouldn't have done that." He says while he slowly sits up and takes the pillow his head was resting on. They start a pillow fight.
"I thought you were a gentleman who doesn't hit girls.
"oh really. That is the best you got when you are losing." He says while they continue fighting.
"I am not losing to you, Beale."
After a few minutes, she seems to be winning when he leans over her and she is on her back and he holds her hands down by the wrist.
"who is losing, Jones?" he says while he is leaning over her in a dominant position.
"Okay, okay. You win this one." She surrenders. They look into each other's eyes. The mood has changed. He leans down and kisses her lightly on the lips. Then he looks into her eyes again he releases her hands and she leans her hand behind his neck and pulls him down for another kiss. This time longer and more passionate than the first. Within short time everything about movie, popcorn and pillow fight is forgotten.
Later Eric wakes up. The movie is over. The disc is just running the menu repeatedly. The TV is on mute. It is dark beside from the light coming from the TV. It takes some time before he realizes where he is and who it is that is breathing hot air on his bare chest. Then he looks down and sees the beautiful red hair spread over his chest and an arm hugging around his stomach. Her face is turning away from him. He doesn't want to wake her up. She is sleeping so peaceful. It takes some time for him to remember how he ended up naked under a blanket on the couch with his best friend. If it wasn't because he could look straight at her right now he would tell himself it was another one of his very inappropriate dreams that he had had about his partner. He was just relaxing and enjoying the peach and quiet and feeling her peach full breath against his chest when it hit him.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and he and Nell planned to celebrate the holiday together and not just the two of them but with her family. He has never been good with the meeting the parents-part of relationship. he and Nell aren't even in an official relationship. they are friends and partners and trust each other with their life. He looks down at his beautiful redhaired partner sleeping with her head on him. He just slept with his best friend and tomorrow he is going to face her parents. How could he be so stupid and putting himself in such an awkward situation? As I laid there I considered his options to get out of this sticky situation. He could only think of two different options. Number 1: he could sneak out of her before Nell wakes up and hoping Nell would remember what happened and everything would go back to normal like this never happened. Or if Nell did remember it would probably make him super angry with him and it would make him look like a terrible guy. The kind of guy who uses girls for his own good. And that is the last thing he wants Nell to think of him. The second option he could think off would be the one where he stays and tell Nell how he feels about meeting her parents after this and they could work things out together. Or she would laugh at him for being ridiculous about this whole meeting her parent thing. Considering the fact that, he has already met them where they pretended to be together, but Nell has told her parents afterward that they were not actually together. He looks down at Nell. She is still sound asleep. That gives him time to consider which option that he will choose before she wakes up. After look time of thinking, he decides to stick along. Nell being angry with him and thinking he is a terrible guy is much worst then meeting her parents the day after they have slept together.
After a couple of hours, Nell starts to slowly wake up. Eric moves slowly away from her and collects his clothing and goes to the bathroom. When he is prober dressed again he starts to clean up from their movie night. When he is done cleaning up he doesn't really know what to do with himself. She is asleep on the couch. she moves and the blanket almost sleeps down. He moves the cover over her again. He is just standing there looking at her slowly waking up. She looks up at him with a smile.
"what time is it?" she asks. He looks at his watch.
"almost 6 am."
"too early" Nell complains. She places her head face down on her pillow before she looks up at him again.
"how long have you been awake? She asks.
"a few hours." He takes a sip of the coffee he made earlier to pass the time until she woke up.
"I can make us some breakfast." He says.
"great I will go take a shower." She says and places her head back on the pillow.
After Nell is done with her shower she can hear Eric is rooming around in her kitchen. She enters the kitchen and sees Eric making pancakes. He is standing with his back to her flipping a pancake. She observes him for a moment before she enters the kitchen and walks over behind him and wraps her arms around him.
"morning. Did you sleep well?" she asks with a flirting tone.
Eric doesn't know what to say. He swallows hard before he answered. "yeah. Fine." Nell notices the hesitation in his voice. She let go of him and starts to set the table with plates and syrup and cups while he finishes the pancake. While they are eating there is an awkward silence between them. It is driving Nell crazy. She decides to give it some time. After breakfast, Eric takes a shower while Nell cleans up. They both need some time to think about what happened last night that could have made the other one act so strange.
After her shower, He gets dressed in some relaxing clothing. She and Eric have planned to prepare Thanksgiving dinner all day so he doesn't need to dress up. Her family will arrive at around 4 pm so he will have time to change into nicer clothing later. He will also have time to think about what to do in details before her family arrives.
Eric enters the Kitchen where Nell is waiting for him. She is playing on his Ipad.
"you want to get started with the food?" she asks him.
"yeah." She puts the iPad away and stands up. He does not make eye contact with her even once. They have to spend a lot of weekends together as friends over the years and prepared a lot of meals together and normally they move around each other smoothly. They are like two pendula clocks on a wall. Swinging perfectly together in sync. Normally they would work around each other in Nell's small kitchen but today they don't seem to be able to find their natural rhythm. They keep working on each other and standing in each other's ways. They normally listen to music or talk about their geeky fan stuff but today there is not conversation or music. Just silence. She can't take this any longer. She needs to know what happened last night that makes him so uncomfortable around her now. She has been chopping the sweet potatoes for the sweet mash potatoes and she will take a step back to go to the sink to wash her hands. He take a step back right into her.
"sorry." He apologies. Which is about the 15th time he has said that word while they been chopping vegetables. "stop." She sounds really annoyed. He is confused. Now he has made her upset too. She loves this holiday and he has ruined it for her. "I'm sorry Nell. I don't think this is a good idea." He is about to walk away but she stands in his way. She is not about to let him go until she finds out what made him so uncomfortable.
"what is going on Eric?"
