Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS:LA. I do however lay claim to Eleanor Willis and Scott.
The Marriage Question
"Wanna get married?"
Eleanor Willis paused at the question her boyfriend posed. It confused her. It wasn't the type of thing G Callen usually said. In fact, it sounded so little like G Ellie wondered if the aliens had gotten a hold of him.
Marriage. There had been a time when Ellie had dreamed of getting married. She'd almost made it there too. Once. But her fiancé, a Navy SEAL, had been killed in action before they could actually make it to the alter. Ellie gave up the idea of marriage when it came to G. She understood to a certain extent his job and what that entailed. She also knew him. And she knew herself. Marriage just wasn't in the cards for them. Or so she'd thought.
Ellie sighed as she rolled onto her side to face the blue eyed NCIS agent.
"Are you serious?" she asked, flipping her light brown hair over her shoulder.
G looked at her, no teasing glint in his eyes and no tug at the corner of his lips to tell her that he had been joking. He looked serious.
Ellie felt a flutter in her stomach. What if he really was serious? What if he really wanted to get married?
"Because if you are, I want to know what you did with G and when he'll be back," Ellie continued.
G frowned. "Are you insinuating that I'm not the marrying type?"
Ellie paused to think about how to answer that question. Her immediate thought was no. But since G was the one bringing up the topic, maybe that wasn't the case.
"Marriage means settling down. It means not moving every couple months or living in motels. It implies permanency. It means you'd have to move in officially and, god forbid, fix a leaky faucet once in a while. I know two years is a long time but marriage is different then this thing we have going. I'm not opposed to the idea. But I guess I always saw you as someone who had a long ways to go before he reached that point, if he ever got there."
G looked at Ellie with that unreadable expression of his for several long seconds. Ellie just looked back at him, her gaze steady.
Finally he reached out and pulled her closer to him. Settling her in his arms, he asked, "And what if I said I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you?"
Ellie wrinkled her nose. "Resorting to clichés is not helping your case."
G grinned. "I had to try."
Ellie turned serious again. "How long have you been thinking about this?"
"Long enough."
The look on Ellie's face said she didn't like that answer but she let it go. "What brought on this idea of marriage?"
"What's with the interrogation?"
"Don't change the subject. Answer the question please." Ellie playfully swatted at G's shoulder.
G smirked. "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"
Ellie frowned at him. "What did I say about changing the subject?"
"Don't do it." G looked unrepentant.
Ellie sighed. "I'll answer your question if you answer mine."
G considered this. "Ok. You first."
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Fine. I meant what I said earlier. Marriage doesn't seem like something you would do. And I knew that when I entered this relationship. It just didn't seem like marriage was for us. I was ok with that then and I'm still ok with that."
There it was again. That unreadable expression. Ellie wondered if she'd said the wrong thing. She probably had.
G finally spoke. "I found your engagement ring."
Ellie froze. That had not been what she expected. Course she wasn't sure what she'd been expecting but that had definitely not been it.
"This has to do with Scott?" Ellie asked as she pulled away, or tried to pull away from G, to gain some distance between them, some space for her to think. He wouldn't let her budge so much as an inch.
"No, this has to do with us," he told her patiently.
Ellie was still lost. "Then what does my ring have anything to do with you wishing to marry me?"
"I thought you-"
Ellie quickly cut him off, panic filling her brown eyes. "No. No, no, no. You better have not brought this up because you thought I wanted to get married."
G sighed. "Hear me out, ok?"
Ellie didn't say anything, just waited, an unhappy look on her face.
"At first, when I found the ring, I admit that I thought it was what you would eventually want. But the more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. I want to get married to you, who, I would like to add, has reacted in way I did not think a woman being proposed to would act."
Ellie giggled, her anger banished. "How did you think I would react?"
"There was at least going to be kissing."
Ellie smiled broadly as she leaned in closer to G. "I can do that," she murmured before placing her lips on his.
When they finally parted G asked, "So was that a yes or a no?"
"That was a yes."
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