A/N- I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever but…. It was like my muses took a three month holiday and came back really drunk and illiterate. So that caused me inspiration to falter. I started this fanfic a while ago and then stopped writing when I started Actions and Consequences.

This was meant to be a one-shot and part of the Young Geek Love series, but I'm considering a couple of chapters.

Thank you ncisnewbie for this idea, and I'm sorry that it took me forever to write.

Please R&R

TheAlphabetSong xx

Disclaimer: I only own my OC's I do not own any other character's mentioned, all are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.

"Eric, calm down. You're overreacting," Nell said as their taxi dropped them off at the bottom of her family's driveway.
"But, won't they question the fact that you never mentioned a 'boyfriend' before?" Eric asked, pulling their suitcases out of the taxi boot.
"Well..." Nell started, suddenly nervous and unsure of how to continue, "there may have been some assumed facts from conversations, that were never denied," she said hesitantly, as she paid the taxi driver.
"What kinds of facts?" Eric asked again. Now standing in the snow holding his suitcase.
"The type that you don't have an option of denying," she explained before adding, "because that's the opinion that half of my family held, and every time I tried to deny it. It was like trying to punch through stone walls with my fists."
"And this was how long ago?"
"The time frame is one that we will simply avoid," Nell answered, easily dodging Eric's question.
"But, just in case it comes up."
"Seven months."
"Okay, seven months."
"Let's go up because it's freezing out here," Nell said, starting up the snow covered driveways, pulling her suitcase behind her.
Eric followed in suit, and nervously re-looped his scarf around his neck, giving him something to do as Nell knocked on the door of what was her family home.

Nell turned her head to face him, "just try and relax a little. Do you think I would willingly let you face the firing squad alone and unarmed."

He returned her gaze with a panicked expression, "There's a firing squad?"

"We're in this together," she replied before looking back at the door

They could both here the scuttle of feet nearing the door, Nell's hand found Eric's, giving it a reassuring squeeze just as the door opened.
"AUNTY NELL!" her niece called throwing herself into Nell's open arms, before noticing Eric standing beside Nell, "GRANDMA! She brought a guest!"

'Yes,' Nell thought sarcastically, 'announce it to the entire family.'
"Hi, Lucy," she greeted, previous thoughts aside.
"Who's this?" Lucy asked.
"This is Eric," Nell answered simply, before turning her head to look at Eric, "Eric, this is my niece Lucy," Lucy held out her hand for Eric to shake it, and not knowing any other way to greet people, he gladly took her hand and shook it, before she disappeared inside.
"She's my oldest brother Liam's daughter," she explained, "she's fourteen, but has the maturity of someone much older."
When she looked back to the door there was a crowd of people standing, ushering them inside; taking their suitcases, all greeting Nell and Eric and saying how much they were glad to see Nell. It was a buzz of noise to Eric but Nell seemed to handle it with a certain grace, and of course that beautiful smile that she wore, but there was something more in her eyes that he'd never seen before that told him that she loved these people, and was so glad to have these people in her life.

Unfortunately Eric would never be able to say the same about his family.
His Grandmother was an obsessive racist, a Satanist and compulsive swearer with an instinctive hatred for the world, it probably had something to do with her failed marriage, her heritage, her up- bringing, and her very closed up heart, again just another product of her failed marriage.

One of his sisters had sadly died from her cocaine addiction, which she'd acquired after their mother's death in 89. He still remembered the first time he'd found her using.

Flashback
"GRACE! What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled one night, after finally finding his sister, sitting around the back of the garage.
"Drugs," she answered sounding as though she'd just downed an entire bottle of tequila.
"You know that they can kill you," Eric said hoping he'd get through to her.
"You know that sitting in your room doing whatever the hell you do can probably kill you, or get you killed," she carelessly rebutted, before tumbling forward and hitting the pavement head first. He'd immediately called their father over and they'd gotten her to the hospital as quickly as they could. He remembered the waiting, all the waiting. The unknown truths of what had happened, endless doctors wandering the halls with no answers for his questions. All he was left to do was wait. And hope he hoped so desperately that Grace wouldn't die so close after their mum.

End of Flashback

She had gained a concussion from hitting the ground previously, and because of the obscene amount of drugs in her system her body could not heal itself.

His other sister Annie was much more successful than Grace, but had distanced herself from the rest of her family. Eric didn't know where she was, but he'd gotten a post card, with no return address, from her a few months ago saying that she was fine and had a job as a Journalist. Annie had always been independent and self-supporting, unlike Grace who constantly relied on everything else to just work out for her. Even though Eric knew he could find Annie in under three minutes, she was family and respected her reasons for wanting to be left alone.
His father was another story all together, one of which he was not going to re-live now which would result in dampening his mood and the Christmas spirit. Instead he focused on Nell's family.
From everyone that he observed and all the craziness that was going on around him and the amount of times he introduced himself. He noticed two majorly and slightly concerning things, the first was that everybody seemed to recognize his name as soon as he'd said it and the second was that everyone else, except Nell, including Eric, was really tall.
He was introduced to so many people he was struggling to remember names and faces. And suddenly everyone stopped talking and made way for someone or something to walk through, a woman who wore a striking resemblance to Nell walked straight up to Eric, surprisingly she was also just as short.
"Mum!" Nell exclaimed and ran up to her.
It all made perfect sense, now that he had seen Nell's mum.'
"Nell, darling. It's so good to see you. It's so unfortunate that you work too hard, well it isn't- but you know what I mean."

"It's okay, because I love my job and it pays the bills."

With one last squeeze Nell's mum released her daughter slightly, still holding her shoulder's so that she could look her in the eyes, "Anyway, enough with the clichés," she said.

Nell laughed and then turned away from her mother's hands and towards Eric, "Mum," she started, "this is Eric."

Nell's took her gaze from her daughter and fixed Eric, who was standing very awkwardly against the wall, with a pointed stare, eyeing him up and down. She looked like she was assessing an opponent, deciding whether she would be able to take them in a fight.

"You're tall," was the first comment that came out of her mouth, there was no 'hello, nice to meet you', she was just straight to the point.

"Mum," Nell half scolded, "you said forget the clichés, not forget the formalities."

She instantly mellowed, "Oh, please forgive me I 'm sorry. It's so good to meet you in the flesh. We tend to only hear about you a few times a year, which are coincidentally the times when Nell calls. I'm Felicity by the way, my husband Phillip, he won't be home for a couple of hours." By this point in time the rest of the family had gone back to milling around and catching up with each other, although a few still lingered within earshot of the conversation. Eric suspected that it was intentional, and one look at Nell and he knew he was right.

"It's good to meet you too, I'm glad that Nell finally managed to get home for the holidays," Eric said.

"And I'm glad that when she finally came home she made good on her deal," Felicity said, with a mischievous look at her daughter.

"What deal?" Eric asked his eyes flitting between the two women standing before him.

"You didn't tell him!" A voice said. It came from one of the family members whom had been eavesdropping.

"Karmin!"

"The woman laughed, "Come on Nell, we had a deal-"

"And we had a deal in middle school that you wouldn't let your little sister get pushed to the back of the cafeteria line," Nell interrupted firing back, "but how did it happen in the end?"

"From my memory it was you that decided to have a 'conversation' with your sister and then suddenly she is at the end of the line," Felicity added jumping in on Nell's side.

"Don't worry about them, they do this every year," Lucy said from beside him taking his concentration off the argument between Nell and her family and turning it towards the girl standing next to him, as she continued, "- well they did until she stopped coming home for Christmas four years ago," she trailed off with a depressing note, "So, what do you do, as in, like a job?"

"I, I um. I'm a Photo Journalist, that's how I met Nell."

"I knew that you met her at work I just didn't know what you did. She didn't tell me last time."

"She talked about me last time she was here?"

"She did and originally only to me, but then I leaked the information and it was fair game."

"So you were the spy?"

"Yeah, I watch those kinds of movies, I read those kinds of books, and I was the only one out of my siblings and cousins that wanted to do it last time. I mean I was only ten back then, but once I have a task to complete I am a perfectionist."

"What grade are you in?"

"I'm in ninth grade, I'm fourteen turning fifteen in June," she explained, "they'll be at this for a while, come on. There's time to meet every one else before my Uncle gets home from work and before they finish what used to be their annual debate. Plus, I can't think of one person here who hasn't heard of you and wants to know more."

Eric blushed, but nevertheless followed the relentless Lucy further into the house.

"Actually, I can think of one person here who hasn't heard of you," Lucy added as an afterthought.

"Who?"

"My little cousin Rosie. She is two and a half now she wasn't even born last time Nell was here."

"How much do people know about me?"

"Not much, you're just the mysterious male love interest in Nell's life. She hasn't said much else just some very cryptic clues, like we asked how if you were tall and she would reply with 'well he's not short', and I think that's what everyone else is so fired up about. Hence the deal that was made."

"What deal?"

Lucy laughed, "No way am I filling you in now, but I'm sure that it's a story that will come out around the dinner table either tonight or tomorrow. But I must be honest I'm waiting for your reaction and the suspense is killing me."

If Eric had to guess at Lucy's motive for keeping him in the dark, he would probably say that one of her older relatives was paying her off to keep her mouth shut, or they had bet running over when all would be revealed and she didn't want to lose. Either way, he decided, there was money involved.

The rounds were made and he was glad and not so glad that Nell's family was so big because it meant that he had to have more awkward conversations and in some cases share his life's story with some prying relatives, but on the other hand it kept him from being alone and letting his own family drift back into his memory and focus. And again on the up side for every five plates of information he gave out to people about himself he received a fair amount of information on Nell in return. So, he could have been put in worse situations.

Once Lucy had introduced him to everyone in the house they circled back around to the on-going debate just inside the front door.

"That's beside the point, there is no way that she would ever have stolen and hidden your Lord of the Rings series if you hadn't of provoked her-" Nell pointed out to her older brother who had taken sides with Karmin, trying to turn them against each other.

Karmin turned to her brother, "She does this to us every time."

"And yet you still choose to play," Nell reminded her.

"Yeah, well, the big sister has to at least try to beat her younger sister at most things."

They shared a look, although it looked more as if it were a staring competition. Their faces lit up into smiles.

"I've missed that," Nell said.

"You and me both sister," Karmin started, "we tried a couple years ago, but the younger sibling is always the easiest to pick on. So without you here it was no fun."

"It's great to be back. I missed you all so much."

"And I see that since you've now returned you have brought with you a friend," Nell's nameless brother said referring to Eric, "Please tell me that for the love of god this is the Eric you didn't shut up about last year."

"You see that is where Karmin, dear sister, was wrong. I promised to make good on my deal, I did not promise to tell him about the deal."

"Yeah, well I think a lot of people would be out of pocket if you did tell him," Felicity interrupted.

Nell rolled her eyes, it was so obvious she almost slapped herself across her face. Of course they had bets going you imbecile. Don't be so naïve and believe that your family will ever change their habits.

"Well, it's good to be able to put a face to the nameless figure. Actually it's good to be able to put in anything that is more than: 'Eric- co-worker, not short' in your profile, she wouldn't even tell us what your hair colour was," Nell's brother added again, "Hi, by the way, it's nice to meet you. My name's Blake, I'm one of Nell's older brothers."

Eric held his hand out, "I'm Eric, it's nice to meet you."

They shook hands, "Before we leave I will promise you the big brother talk. You know the whole you break her heart. I'll break your neck. That whole idea," Blake explained half- jokingly.

"I'd really rather you didn't," Nell interrupted, "and besides isn't that stereotypically the father's job?"

"Yes, but Dad won't be off his shift for anywhere from half an hour to the early hours of tomorrow morning, so therefore it will be my job of scaring off your boyfriend."

"Fine," Nell said giving in, "are we in the guest bedroom?"

"Yes," Felicity replied.

"Okay, we've got it from here. Let's go get settled before my Dad gets home," Nell said walking off with her suitcase trailing behind. Eric rolled his behind as he followed Nell to the guest bedroom. His thoughts were mixed, he had obviously thought about the requirements of acting as Nell's boyfriend. He knew he would probably get the speech from her father. He knew that he would have to act at least semi-romantic with her Christmas present, and he knew that there would be questions asked when they got back to work after their trip and that they would need to have their stories straight if anything –not of that kind- but anything that they didn't want the team and Hetty, or worse- Granger finding out about. That he'd thought through. What he hadn't thought of was the prospect of sharing a room- and a bed, with her. Of course it made perfect sense according to their cover, but the thought hadn't occurred to him until now.

As they entered the guest bedroom he looked around. There was a bed in the middle of the floor, with the head board up against the wall, the bedspread cover was a simple black base with white stripes. There was a window on the far side of the room with blinds that left a checked pattern on the clothes cupboards behind where Nell and Eric were standing. Next to the cupboards there was an open door to a bathroom. Above the top end of the bed there was a framed poster that was black scrawled hand- writing on lined paper saying: 'Wisty lives for the spotlight, but me? I'd rather write the script'. Across the room from the quote was a brown polished, timber desk completely contrasting to the rest of the white furnishings in the room. Atop the very out-of-place desk was a small television.

"I'm sorry about all the hassle before, and the argument, but every word was true," Nell started, "it was a yearly ritual, my mother, sister, brother and I all took side on an argument about the past. The first time was an actual argument that kind of ruined Christmas, but every year after that we'll start one because of the family tradition it became."

"Don't apologise for having a family reunion, it's been, what? Five years since you've seen them?" Eric questioned.

"I know, but I made good on one deal whilst breaking another promise."

"What promise, and what is this deal I keep hearing about?" He asked.

"The unspoken promise I made about not letting you face the firing squad alone."

"Yeah, well when the firing squad is armed with guns that shoot non-existent bullets, they look more intimidating than they actually are," Eric said continuing in an understanding tone once again.

"You might change that opinion when you meet my father."

A panicked expression leapt across his face.

"I said might," Nell added hastily, "I only have my sister's several experiences only one of them turned out well, and it's good that it did because unbeknownst to the rest of the family, they were already engaged."

"How did you know about their engagement?" Eric asked with his curiosity making an appearance.

"A sister's bond can never be broken, they either hate each other, or are inseparable. And we were, until she went to college and left me alone freshman year."

Eric nodded his head, "Umm, Nell,"

"Yeah."

"With this so called deal you seem to have made with the rest of your family, I figure that we're going to be a topic of conversation. And that we need something like a…"

"Like a history," Nell added turning away from Eric to open the curtains, "well, it's not like we don't have one," she muttered under her breath.

"It just needs to be something to tell the rest of your family," Eric said giving her the opportunity to choose what she wanted her family to know and what she didn't.

"Well, maybe we should try and keep it as close to the truth as possible. It would just make it easier than if we came up with a story and then someone asked a question that we didn't cover, and even though we sit up in Ops and we watch Kensi and Deeks, and Callen and Sam pick and choose covers on the fly, I don't want to have to be thinking constantly trying to remember what we have and haven't told them," Nell said keeping her face towards the window, not wanting to risk Eric picking out her real intent.

"How close to the truth do we want it to be?"

Nell turned around from the window, leaning on her elbows that rested against the window sill. She eyed him carefully for a minute, taking in his every glance towards another place. She finally responded with, "I don't know Beale,"- taking her arms off of the window sill she walked over to him, being careful not to break their line of eye sight. She stopped standing very close to him; rose onto her toes and whispered close to his ear, "How close to the truth do you want it to be?"

Her sudden boldness startled him, as did their proximity and her breath that brushed past his cheek. Neither of them said anything and they kept their eyes locked until the last minute when she broke eye contact and stared at the door. Eric turned to follow her line of slight to underneath the door. In between the door and the floor on the other side there was a shadow. It could have been from a hand, it could have been from a foot. The shadow was small meaning that it wasn't one of her brothers or sisters standing outside the door, it was most likely someone from the next generation listening with a glass against the door.

"Just go with it," Nell whispered so that only Eric would hear.

"Okay," he agreed.

"If you want to know about the deal, I'll tell you," Nell said returning to speak at a normal volume.

"How much do you plan on telling me?" he challenged.

Intrigued and waiting for her to answer he took a step closer restabilising their unbreakable eye contact.

"It depends, how much do you want to know?" She asked taking a step closer as well.

"Well, I would feel really guilty if what you tell me causes half of your family to have to cash up at the dinner table," Eric replied with a glint in his eye.

"It would be their loss," Nell replied with a mischievous half smirk, "I mean they place numerous bets on family happenings all the time, but this time I have got no idea how it will turn out."

"But, you're the one that has control over whether you tell me or not."

"Yeah, the thing is I still have no idea whether I want to tell you or not."

"And why is that Miss Jones?"

"Because if my siblings are betting that I won't tell you then I will tell you and if they are betting that I will tell then I won't," she explained before adding, "Mr Beale," as an afterthought.

"Well from your sister's reaction earlier I assume that she thought that you would tell me."

Nell's eyes flicked ever so quickly towards the underside of the door to find that the shadow had disappeared.

"Or it could have been from excitement that she would beat the rest of the betting family because she was right."

"It's a possibility," Eric admitted, "so who do you think will win?"

"Well if the past is anything to judge from I would say that Liam has a pretty good chance of being right. He is my eldest brother and Lucy's father he always seems to know where to put his money, but really only time will tell who will be buying drinks on New Years Eve," Nell said.

Lucy was long gone, probably off advising people of if they should 'forget' where they placed money in the first place, and if that happened would cause much controversy at the dinner table and it would all be fun and accusations. Eric didn't know that Lucy was gone, and that was Nell's biggest advantage. She could keep 'playing-it-out' even though the need for the scene was long over.

"My mum used to be one of the types who didn't like to be judged and she thought that she was being judged because she hadn't married off all of her children a few years ago. So last time I came back she arranged for me to meet this guy. She practically set me up on a date with him and paid him to kiss me at midnight on New Years Eve. I think she thought I would be upset if didn't have someone to kiss at midnight that year, because for the few previous years I had someone. I also think that my mum felt sorry for me because the rest of the family had someone" Nell said, "But I wasn't at all happy with what she had done. It's not like he wasn't a nice guy, he just wasn't my type and I did not want my mum getting involved in my personal life-"

"What is your type?" Eric asked interrupting her monologue.

Ignoring his question she continued, "I paid for his taxi ride home and then I started talking to my mum. Apparently she wasn't worried about people judging her, she was worried about me never being able to find someone. So I made finding someone my New Years Resolution. That was also partly the deal I made, it was amended slightly last year when I skyped and spoke with them. That is the part of the deal that I can tell you, the other part. Well, you did say you didn't want people out-of-pocket."

"I did say that didn't I?"

"Yes, I believe you did," Nell said, slowly interlacing her fingers with his as she drew nearer to him. She was in the middle of an internal debate over whether to kiss him or not. She wanted to, that she knew. What she didn't know was whether or not he wanted her to kiss him. He hadn't pulled away from her under the mistletoe, but that had been ever so brief that she wasn't sure it counted, he hadn't had time to react. She also knew that if he had of by some chance had feelings for her then, that a lot can change in two years.

'Stop contemplating and kiss him' a voice in her head screamed at her.

She decided to listen to her instincts and the voice in the back of her head that was drowning her debate.

"Nell?" A voice called accompanying a knock on the door.

Still debating whether to risk it with someone outside the door, she didn't tear her eyes from Eric's as she returned her reply.

"Nell, your father's home-" She literally leapt to the door and opened it to reveal her mum standing outside it, "and he's just as curious as everyone else to meet Eric."

Mentally Nell rolled her eyes, Eric had gotten more attention in this short time than Matthew Mcconaughey got at his wedding. Nell walked out of the room and walked with excitement towards her dad. He encased her in an embrace and shook her slightly side to side. She pulled back and her overjoyed expression faltered for a minute when she realised that she had –again, walked out in the middle of a moment. Leaving Eric –again, in a confused state of mind, probably disappointed or pissed off. Because now that she had made up her mind about kissing him she knew that she was currently feeling both disappointed because it had taken her too long to make her decision, and pissed off because once she had her mother had picked the perfect time to make an entrance.

"What is it Nelly?" her father asked.

She looked down the hallway and knew that on the other side of the kitchen there was someone she needed. Turning back around she took a deep breath and let a genuine smile hide her nerves.

"There is someone I want you to meet," she said as her smile grew, she turned her head back to look down the hallway and hollered loud and clear-

"BEALE!"

A/N- Let me know what you thought and if you want a continuation. Please leave a review. J

Also check out my YouTube channel with Neric and Densi fanvids, my channel is called SomethingAlongTheLinesOf...