I have been thinking about, for a while, what happened between the post-it note episode (5.23 and Christmas 6.11)

so how I felt like there was a step between those two episodes that was missing.

I know there are a lot of post post-it note fanfics out there but I hope you like mine.

Post 06.01

It had been about a month since they had decided to put it out there and told each other how they truly felt about each other. They had decided to never speak about it again and everything where suppose to go on as nothing had changed.

It had been a really rough day at the job. They had come so close to losing Callen and Sam in that submarine. After the team had had a few drinks in the boadsheat Callen and Sam had headed home. Shortly after Kensi and Deeks left. Eric and Nell had stayed to clean up.

"so you want to come over at my place? We can watch a movie. I have a box of Oreos." Nell tries to tempt him.

"no ill head home. I'm tired" Eric says without even looking at her. He is putting the clean glasses away in the cabin.

"okay. We just usually spend time together after a tough case. And I mean the last few weeks has been pretty tough and we haven't really spend any time together. It actually…" Nell pauses and waits for Eric to stop making noises with the glasses. He is standing with his back towards her. "feels like you are avoiding me." Nell says a little nervous.

"now why would you say that?"

Eric turns around. He sounds defensive almost upset.

"Why don't you want to spend time with me?" she asks.

"okay let's go to your place and what a movie than.

"no… not if you are upset." Nell throws the cloud she used to whip the table clean with, in the sink right next to Eric. Eric exhales heavily.

"Alright, I'm sorry Nell. Let's go to your place and have a movie night."

"you are sure?"

Eric nods. "yeah I'm sure." He says and forces a little smile on his face to convince her.

Nells apartment

Eric and Nell are relaxing on Nell's couch. they are halfway through the star wars movie. There is an awkward silence in the room. Usually overnight is comfortable and relaxing for them and it is a way for them to cope with what they see on the screens in ops, but lately, this has changed. They are sitting further away from each other on the couch it is like there is a big elephant in the room. They are sitting with an awkwardly large distance between them and not even looking at each other or touching each other. Usually, Nell is resting her head on erics shoulder. But tonight Eric is sitting straight up and Nell has pulled her legs up under her.

They both lean forward to reach an oreo. Eric's fingertips lightly brush against Nells hand.

"sorry." He pulls away way too fast light he was chocked with electricity when he touched her. Nell is wondering why he is reacting to touching her like that. Like a scared teenage boy who is afraid to touch a girl. Nell can feel the awkwardness around Eric so she decides to push him a little. She moves closer to him to rest her head on his shoulder. He moves further away from her. A few minutes later she moves closer to him, again and again, he moves away from her. She keeps doing it until he is corned and he can't move away from her without ending up on the floor. So she leans her head on his shoulder and moves his arm so she can snuggle into his side. First, his hand is resting on her hip, then he moves hit and quickly realizes that he placed it on her thigh and he almost jumps like a scared kid again.

"Eric," Nell says.

"sorry." He says and tries to find a comfortable place to rest his hand and ends up resting his arm on the top of the couch. Nell is getting frustrated about him moving his arm. She grabs his hand and places it on her hip again. It is getting a little less awkward now that they are not sitting in the separate end of the couch. after a while, Nell leans forward to grab an oreo and she hands one to Eric and leans back into him while she is eating it. Eric uses both hands to open up the oreo to eats it as two. Afterward, he rests his hand back on her hip. He draws little circles on her hip until he realizes that her shirt has crawled up a little and his hand is touching her bare skin on her hip and he jumps again and moves his hand even faster than the last 2 times.

"sorry. Sorry… I didn't mean to…"

Nell sits up and pauses the movie and tosses the remote on the table. She has had enough of him jumping awkwardly everytime he touches her.

"what is going on with you? She asks.

"nothing. I'm sorry." He says touches his hair awkwardly with his hand that was resting on her hip earlier.

"why are you so jumpy tonight?"

"I… I don't know… I'm sorry"

"stop apologizing."
"sorry."

"what is going on? You have been different and weird for the past few weeks."

"I don't know… I mean… thinks has changed." He says and looks away from her."
"yeah, everything changes." She says. "change is the only constant thing in life." She says trying to get him to look at her.

"no, I mean… he looks down at his sweaty hands. "I didn't mean for anything to change between us, but…" Nell is confused.

"but what?"

"the post-it notes we wrote a month ago… I can't forget them."

Nell starts smiling. The worry about what I wanted to say is melting away.

"Eric…" she places her hands on his face, forcing him to look at her. "you don't have to."

"but… we said we would talk about it but I feel like things have changed between us." He feels guilty about ruining their movie night tradition. He was the one who started the hole posted it note putting-it-out-there-while-you-can-thing.

"Eric listen… things have changed between us since the first time we meet. First, you hated me, than.."
"I didn't hate you." He interrupts her. She gives him a knowing look. He gotta admit he wasn't fond of having a partner at first.

"than…" she continues. "we started working a little bit better together. We overcame our differences and we slowly became partners and later friends."

"and now we are…" Eric says, not sure what label to put on their relationship, or friendship or partnership or whatever they are. Nell knows what Eric what to her to say. She looks down. biting her lip like she does when she gets nervous.

"now…" she looks up at him again. "now we are taking another step." That was not what he was hoping for her to say.

"so what are we now?" Eric asks confused about the situation.

"I think we are partners and friends who enjoy spending time together." Eric nods in agreement. He can't hide his disappointment. He leans back into the corner of the couch. adjusting himself to a more relaxing position, almost laying down. Nell leans into him and rests her head on his chest.

"how about just take small steps and slowly finds out what this next step in our friendship and partnership means before we put a label on it?" Nell asks.

"okay." He agrees, still with a slight disappointment in his voice. Nell has his arm tight around him and has a hand resting on his chest and head resting on his chest too. He has trouble once again figuring out an appropriate position for his arm. Nell ends up taking his hand and leading his arm to rest around her back and her hand to rest on her arm that is resting on his chest.

"and Eric…" she looks up at him to make eye contact with him. "don't be afraid to touch me. I'm a big girl I can say it if there is something I don't like. So don't freak out about touching me."

"right… yeah… okay." He says relieved.

"we will figure this new step out together," Nell says and closes her eyes. Shortly after Eric can feel her warm slow breath through his shirt and her slow and steady heartbeat.