Dislcaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA or it's characters. I do lay claim to Ellie Willis, Greg Langdon and all the other OC's mentioned in this story.

A special thanks to my wonderful sister for taking the time to read and edit this story and all the others I'm sure I'll be asking her to look over. You're the best Shortstuff!

Author's Note: So this takes place before The Marriage Question, before Ellie and Callen have even started dating. I'm hoping to fill in some more gaps in their history together (aka lots of other stories, some short, some long, if I can get them written) and as I was stuck on the story where they actually do start dating, I decided a break would be good for me. So I wrote this. It was meant to be much shorter then it actually is but Ellie and Callen decided to keep talking. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out however. Well enough of me, on to the story!

Detective Eleanor Willis leaned back in her chair as she studied the bulletin board hanging on the wall before her.

"Anything yet?" her partner, Detective Greg Langdon, asked as he walked into their shared office space with a cup of coffee.

"Not yet," Ellie answered, sounding a bit morose.

"A run might help," Greg suggested, knowing Ellie's preferred method of de-stressing.

"Took one this morning. Still stuck."

"Well budge over so I can look with you. Maybe I'll see something you can't."

Ellie gave him a withering look. "Yeah, right," she scoffed.

Greg just smiled and dragged his chair over next to hers. They had been partners for almost six years and had an affectionate brother/sister relationship.

"So what part bothers you the most, Ella? That we can't figure out how this guy got in to the apartment or that the gun he used traces back to someone else we can't link to him?" Greg questioned, highlighting the two major problems with their current case. Coralline Sutton, a 29 year old real estate agent, had been found murdered in her apartment. No signs of forced entry and the gun that killed her had been registered to someone with a solid alibi. Their current suspect was the woman's ex-husband, Lucas Sutton. His fingerprints had been found at the scene, his alibi had not checked out and he was the beneficiary of the half million dollar life insurance, creating motive.

Greg's cell phone started to sing Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood.

Ellie glanced over at him and started to laugh. Greg hated that song and Ellie had programmed it as Greg's ringtone since it reminded her so much of him. He couldn't figure out how to change it.

Greg was a classic ladies man. He could get just about any woman he wanted. His problem was breaking up with them. Ellie used to help him in exchange for Starbucks coffee every morning. But after Greg had slept with, then broke up with a barista at the shop he frequented; she attempted to poison him but instead got Ellie. Ellie spent two days in the hospital and afterwards swore she would never degrade herself by helping Greg break up with his girlfriends. Greg's punishment was mowing Ellie's lawn for eternity.

"You gonna get that?" Ellie teased, enjoying the look of annoyance on her partner's face.

"I hate you," Greg muttered before pressing the talk button.

Ellie just grinned and turned back to the board.

It was only a matter of seconds later that Ellie's own phone started to ring. Grabbing the phone, Ellie checked the number. It was one of her neighbors, the elderly Amy Nathanson.

"Willis," she answered.

"Detective Willis, there's a man breaking into your house," Amy said in a rush. She sounded both concerned and excited. This had to be the most excitement she'd gotten in awhile, being housebound except for twice a week visits from her daughter, who took her out for shopping and excursions whenever she came.

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked, wondering if her neighbor was having a Hitchcock moment.

"Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't have called if I wasn't," Amy sounded offended that Ellie had questioned her.

Ellie sighed. "I'll come right away," she promised.

Hanging up, she grabbed her keys and coat and gestured for Greg to follow her. Greg hurried after her, still talking on the phone.

Ellie parked behind a familiar black Dodge Challenger that was sitting in front of her house.

She sighed. "Go tell Amy that everything's fine. She lives in that house," she told Greg, pointing at the light green house. Ellie had filled him in on Amy's phone call once he got off his phone.

"I take it no one was breaking into your house?" Greg guessed, watching Ellie closely.

"Oh, someone was breaking in. But he wasn't going to rob me. Or kill me when I walk in. I'll be perfectly safe. Go talk to Amy please."

"Yes, ma'am." Greg climbed out and jogged off.

Ellie sighed again, noticing that she'd been doing that a lot lately. It was becoming a habit, one she wasn't sure she liked.

With a grimace, Ellie jerked the keys from the ignition and exited the car to deal with her unexpected but not unfamiliar visitor.

She wasn't surprised to find he'd locked the door behind himself. Using her key, she unlocked and opened the front door.

At first it appeared that the place was empty. But Ellie knew better.

"G? I know you're here," she called.

Raising an eyebrow when she spotted her mail neatly stacked on the table (Callen's handiwork, no doubt), she wandered over to look through it.

Ellie jumped when a voice said behind her, "What are you doing here so early?"

"Jesus, G, talk about scaring the crap outta me!" Ellie whirled around to face him.

He was smiling, his blue eyes lit up in laughter.

Ellie scowled at him. "The neighbor called. She saw you. This is the third time this has happened. Can't you break in without getting caught?"

"What would be the fun in that?" Callen was clearly enjoying Ellie's annoyance.

Ellie rolled her eyes.

Greg walked in, saying loudly, "Mrs. Nathanson is fine. And old. Ella, why don't you have younger neighbors? Preferably hot ones."

Ellie and Callen shared an amused look. Greg was always on the lookout for his next girl.

"When I was looking for a house, Greg, my crystal ball told me to move to a place with lots of old people so my future partner wouldn't sleep with them," Ellie retorted.

Greg placed a hand over his heart while saying dramatically, "That hurts, Ella."

Ellie just grinned.

Greg turned his attention to Callen. "So you're the reason we're here and not solving a woman's murder."

Ellie's smile quickly slipped off her face. "Greg," she growled in warning.

Callen shrugged. "There is a trade off to having elderly neighbors," he commented.

Ellie wasn't sure which of the two men she was more annoyed with: Greg for his obvious dislike of Callen, or Callen for contributing to the insults about her neighbors. Ellie liked where she lived. She'd chosen her place of residence very carefully. And she was more then entitled to have whomever she wanted as friends, no matter what her partner thought of some of them. It was time to leave before she killed one of them. The paperwork would be horrendous.

"Ok, we need to go now," Ellie said, starting towards the door. She grabbed Greg's sleeve and dragged him behind her.

They were halfway out the door when Greg asked, "How does he get in? You're paranoid about locking your doors."

Ellie stopped so suddenly Greg almost ran into her. "That's it!"

Greg and Callen said unison, "What's it?" They sounded equally confused, probably the only thing they shared in common.

"I think I know how Sutton got in to the apartment," Ellie explained. "He picked the lock. So that on the outside it looked like no one had broken in."

Greg quickly caught on to Ellie's train of thought. "The CSI guys probably didn't take the lock apart because it didn't appear to have been tampered with."

"We need to go back to that apartment."

Later that day, after arresting Sutton for the murder of his ex-wife, Ellie went home. Callen was still there, reading a book while stretched out on the couch.

"Hey," Ellie said, dropping her keys on the table.

"Welcome back," Callen looked up from his book as Ellie walked by.

She causally dropped a small piece of metal on his chest.

"What's this?" Callen asked, picking up the key and examining it.

Ellie picked up Callen's legs, sat down in the spot they used to occupy and then let them rest in her lap.

"It's a key," Ellie said, as if that explained everything. She'd been thinking for awhile that she needed to give Callen a key if he continued to insist on breaking into her house. But Ellie had been hesitant to actually do it, afraid that one day Callen would disappear and never come back. She was well aware of his lifestyle after almost a year of him crashing at her place between apartments and the seemly random long stretches of time with no word from him whatsoever. Ellie finally gave in after Amy's call. She was tired of the neighbors calling to report that someone was breaking into her house, when in reality, it was just Callen.

"A key to what?" Callen was puzzled.

"My house," Ellie answered.

"Why?"

"Because the neighbors need to call me for legitimate reasons, not the guy who sleeps on the couch until I yell at him to sleep in the guest room. What are you reading?"

Ellie reached for the book in Callen's hands but he pulled it just out of her reach.

"Nice try at changing the subject. I don't need a key," Callen told her.

Ellie glared at him. She should have anticipated that Callen would become stubborn about accepting the key.

"If I get another call about you illegally entering my house, I'll just send a uniform to arrest you," she threatened.

"You wouldn't do that," Callen sounded confident, self assured in his knowledge that Ellie would not have him arrested. She liked him too much to actually follow through with that threat.

Ellie narrowed her eyes. "What makes you so sure?"

"You didn't arrest me today."

"Just keep the key. And use it. Don't tempt me to make good on my threat."

Callen looked at Ellie for a moment. She started to wonder if maybe she'd pushed too hard. Maybe this is what will make Callen leave and never come back. Ellie found that thought depressing. As much as Callen could be a pain sometimes, she liked the fact that he randomly dropped into her life and slept on her couch. She wasn't sure she could go back to how things were before their paths crossed again.

Callen interrupted her thoughts. "You never complain."

"What's there to complain about?" Ellie was confused. What was he talking about?

"That I break into your house illegally and that I stay in your house."

"If I had a problem with you staying, G, don't you think I would let you know? Am I the type to let someone stay in my house if I didn't want them there? Would I give that person a key?"

"Why do you let me stay?"

"Why wouldn't I let you stay?"

"You're avoiding the question."

"G."

"El."

Ellie sighed. "That's why. You still call me El."

"Do you want me to call you Ellie instead?" Callen sat up and swung his legs off of Ellie.

"No. I just... Every time you say it I'm reminded of what could have happened if you hadn't been there, if you hadn't done what you did."

Ellie knew they were treading into territory that neither of them really wanted to visit. Both had spent time in the foster care system. They had spent two weeks in the same home when Ellie was 14 and Callen was 17. That home had been particularly rough for Ellie. She credited Callen and those two weeks with pulling her through and helping her survive the system. During that time together, Callen had nicknamed Ellie El after she confessed that she thought his first name was cool, better then Eleanor.

"I owe you, G. A lot. I really don't mind you invading my house. You're not that bad as a house guest."

Callen was silent for a long moment. "I'll keep the key as long you stop thinking you owe me. Because you don't."

Ellie held out her hand. "Deal."

The End

Like it? Love it? Tell me how you feel, press the review button and review. Thanks for reading!