The Fourth
Author's Note: I don't usually write angst (I tend to stick with fluff), but this idea popped into my head and I was dying to share. Let me know what you think!
Summary: Nell goes into labor, but something is keeping Eric from being by her side. Will the family be reunited? NellxEric, oneshot, complete.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS: LA
"Federal agents, I need some help here," Kensi announced, flashing her badge to the receptionist. Three nurses ran around the counter as Deeks rounded the corner, pushing Nell in a wheelchair. One of the nurses grabbed the wheelchair handles and Kensi reached out to take Nell's hand, quickly informing the nurse of the situation while they rushed down the hall, the other two nurses hot on their heels. The receptionist handed Deeks papers and a pen attached to a clipboard and gestured to the waiting area. Deeks sighed, preparing for the long evening ahead of him.
"Federal agents, can we get some help here" Sam announced loudly as he rushed into the emergency room ahead of the gurney. Two of the attendants rushed to his side, coming up on either side of their newest patient as he came through the door. "Two gunshot wounds." Sam summarized for the doctor who joined them. "He's lost a lot of blood."
"Let's bring him to OR 2," the doctor ordered. "We'll do what we can," he promised Sam quickly before they passed through the doors where the agent could not follow. Sam sat down in the waiting room. He kept his back to the corner, watching both the exits closely as he waited.
"Any news?" Callen asked, approaching Deeks. The LAPD liaison shook his head.
"You just missed Kensi. She came out to get some ice chips, but that was it. She said it could be a while," Deeks explained. Callen nodded. "How's Eric doing?"
"We haven't seen him since they rushed him into surgery. Sam's still down in the waiting room. I thought I'd come up and see how you guys are doing. Hetty should be here soon," Callen relayed.
"It's going to be a long night," Deeks decided. Callen nodded.
"Any word on Mr. Beale, Mr. Hanna?" Hetty requested. Sam had been sitting in the same spot for almost two hours. A nurse joined them before he could respond. Sam stood up as she approached.
"You came in with Mr. Beale?" she checked. Sam nodded.
"This is our supervisor," he introduced quickly.
"How is he?" Hetty asked.
"One of the bullets hit his shoulder, and it could cause some major nerve damage if he recovers," she began.
"If?" Sam interrupted.
"The second bullet grazed his lung. The doctors are working to repair it now, but with the amount of blood he's lost..." she trailed off. Sam sat back down, shocked. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'll come back out as soon as we know more."
"He should have been wearing a vest," Sam told Hetty after the nurse had left.
"There was no way you could have known," she argued.
Flashback
"Eric, you got what you need?" Sam asked.
"Just about." Eric typed the last few data items into his calculations. "Okay, that's everything. Did you guys get all that at OPS?" he asked his Bluetooth.
"We got everything," Nell confirmed. Eric closed the laptop. Callen grabbed the rest of the equipment.
"We'll see you in a few minutes, gentlemen," Hetty added as the trio began to walk out of the building. Nell winced, a movement that would have been barely perceptible if she had been with anyone except her highly-observant team.
"Nell?" Kensi asked. She shot Deeks a look over the redhead.
"I saw her do that earlier," Deeks realized. Kensi's eyes grew wide.
"How far apart?" she asked. Nell grimaced, trying to avoid answering the question and worrying her team more than they needed to be. Eric stopped in his tracks.
"Nell?" he asked, his voice equal parts hopeful and fearful.
"Eric, meet us at the hospital," Kensi decided. "Deeks, help me get her into the car." As they helped Nell stand from her chair, two gunshots rang out on the other side of the call, followed by a flurry of shouting.
"No joy," Callen called out. "I don't have a visual on the shooter. Repeat, I do not have a visual on the shooter."
"Eric's down," Sam responded. "We need an ambulance here!"
"Eric?" Nell whispered, frozen in her spot. Kensi pulled the tablet out of her hand and began to send the information to the local dispatches.
"Deeks, get Nell to the car. Boys, we'll meet you at Memorial Hospital. Ambulance and police are on their way to your current location," she ordered, taking control. Once she completed her tasks, she handed the tablet to Hetty. "Can you monitor them?" she requested. Hetty nodded.
"Stay with me, Eric," Sam pleaded. It was the last thing that Nell heard before she removed her headset and left the building.
End Flashback
The next hours passed slowly. The team members split their time between the two waiting rooms, desperate for news from one or the other. Granger called to let them know that the office had opened an investigation into Eric's shooter, but he insisted that none of them should join it until they knew more. The hardest part was not upsetting Nell, who still had another life depending on her. The team had opted not to fill her in on all of the details as they learned about Eric, knowing that while she would be angry, she and their unborn child would also be safe. They kept the rest of the team out of her room, leaving Kensi alone by her side.
"Let's take a look at how you're doing," the doctor decided as he reentered the room where Nell and Kensi waited. "It looks like you're just about ready," he announced. "I'm going to need you to put these on," he told Kensi, holding out a pair of scrubs. Kensi nodded.
"Ready?" she checked with Nell.
"Ready."
"We've done what we can to stabilize him," the nurse assessed as she reentered the waiting room for the last time. "He's still sedated." she explained, her tone gentle. "He has a rough road ahead, but if he makes it through the night, he should recover. We'll know more tomorrow. You can go and see him whenever you'd like to."
Sam took a short moment to adjust to the news before he stood from the seat he had claimed when they first arrived. He began to walk, then jog, and eventually run through the corridors and up the stairs to the maternity ward, where the rest of his team waited around the corner from Nell's hospital room. All heads turned to him as he approached, slowing his pace.
"Tonight's going to be touch-and-go, but if he makes it through, they think he'll recover," Sam recounted.
"When can we see him?" Deeks asked. Before Sam could reply, Kensi joined them, still wearing scrubs.
"It's a boy," she announced, smiling as she took off the gown she had been wearing over her clothes. Sam cheered, Callen groaned, and Deeks laughed at them both as Callen handed Sam a 20 dollar bill. "Any word on Eric?" Kensi checked.
"It's still early, but the doctors are hopeful," Deeks relayed, wrapping an arm around her waist. She sighed, letting some of the day's stress roll away from her. Sam and Callen rolled their eyes. They stepped into the room, giving the couple some extra privacy. "Thinking about little mutant ninja assassins of our own?" Deeks asked quietly. "Because, as I've mentioned, I can help with that."
"I've been thinking more about Eric than Nell," she admitted. "If we can't keep Eric safe, how can we keep a child safe?"
"Eric is safe," Deeks reassured. "Besides, there's no way that Nell would let him get away with never meeting their son."
"Speaking of their son, are you ready to meet him?" Kensi checked. Deeks grinned and let her pull him into the room. As they entered, they found Sam holding the newborn with a gentle smile on his face.
"So do I get to hold Turnip head too?" Deeks joked. The whole team rolled their eyes. After Nell and Eric had decided not to share the name that they had picked out for their son, Deeks had started to call him "Turnip head."
"I think I would rather you call him by his name," Nell argued, reaching out for her son. Sam and Deeks moved to either side of her bed. Sam gently transferred the newborn back into his mother's waiting arms. "Deeks, meet Eric Bartholomew Beale. The fourth." Before Deeks could reach out and hold the newborn in his arms, a nurse entered the room, smiling.
"Mrs. Beale? They've moved your husband to the ICU. I can take you down there if you would like," she offered. Nell nodded. The nurse called a colleague into the room, and they settled the newborn into a bassinet before helping Nell into a wheelchair. The team followed as they wheeled her down the hall to the elevator, leaving her son in the capable nurse's care.
Nell gasped when they wheeled her to the door of Eric's room. She traced the wires from his body back to their machines, her eyes finally settling on the bandages that covered the right side of his otherwise bare chest. She watched his chest rise and fall with the steady, forced beat of the respirator keeping him alive. Kensi took the wheelchair handles from the nurse and gently moved Nell to Eric's bedside before leaving the room, allowing the couple a moment of privacy.
"Hey honey," she started, reaching out to take his hand. She almost pulled it away, not expecting the unfamiliar feeling against her skin. Instead, she held more tightly, willing him to open his eyes and come back to her. She sat silently for a few moments, trying to think of the right words to say, as if what she said could somehow make everything better. Part of her hadn't yet accepted his injuries, hoping that it was all some kind of terrible nightmare, wishing that she would wake up and Eric would be by her side.
"Please," she finally whispered, her voice choked by tears. "Please wake up."
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Kensi asked as the car slowed to a stop. Nell had been quiet for the whole ride. She had kept her eyes on her now-1-year-old son, secure in his car seat beside her. Deeks and Kensi exchanged a quick glance in the front of the car. They waited patiently as the rest of the team pulled up behind them before they stepped out of the car. Callen and Sam stepped out from the front of the second van, and Michelle Hanna exited from the backseat. She instinctively reached for her husband's hand. Callen joined Deeks while Kensi walked around to help Nell out of the car.
"Can you..." Nell began, holding 'little Eric', as they had taken to calling him, gently in her arms. Kensi reached out automatically, balancing the infant on her hip as Nell gingerly stepped out of the car. Kensi returned the little boy to his mother as they began to walk the path that would take them to their destination.
"Thank you guys for being here today," Nell announced, feeling unusually formal.
"I still wish we didn't have to be," Callen sighed.
"There's no chance we would let you do this alone," Sam reassured. Nell smiled sadly. Michelle stepped forward in the silence.
"If it's alright with all of you, I think that we should keep this brief. No sense dragging out this moment longer than we need to," she decided. "Nell?" Kensi reached out automatically for the little boy.
Together, Nell and Michelle removed the sheet from the headstone. Nell choked back tears as she read her husband's name in stone. The father her son would never meet lay six feet below them, buried deep in the ground. Sam kicked at the ground, guilt still eating at a corner of his soul for what had happened to the best technical analyst that the OSP had ever seen. Callen watched his partner wrestle with the remaining guilt, torn between matching his feelings and knowing that there truly wasn't anything that any of them could have done. Nell fell to her knees, her body shaking with sobs. Michelle shooed the rest of the group away as she knelt beside the grieving widow.
"I can't imagine what you're feeling right now," Michelle consoled when Nell finally caught her breath. "But I can tell you two things. The first is that we all miss him. Not in the same ways maybe, but we still miss him."
"The second?" Nell asked, her voice raspy from the emotions of the day.
"That he would be so proud of you. You're back at the office. You're raising that little boy on your own, and you're doing an amazing job at it." Nell nodded sadly, wiping away the last of her tears. She motioned for Kensi and little Eric to join them. Kensi set the little boy on his feet beside his mother.
"Can you say hi to daddy?" Nell encouraged. She wrapped an arm around her son.
"Daddy?" he asked. She pulled him onto her lap.
"That's right. This is where we can come and visit daddy."
Author's Note: Thank you all for reading, please leave a review if you're so inclined!