Eric bales background story
Eric and Nell is sitting in ops. They have just finished a big stack of paperwork. Eric gets up from his seat and leaves ops. While he is out she sees a picture of Eric as a kid along with two people she assumes is his parents. It is his screensaver. She can't stop looking at happy little Eric along with his parents. They are on a beach Eric is, as always wearing surf shorts and Hawaii shirt. Nell can't help smiling at little Eric who is standing very proudly with his surf board.
"why are you looking at my screen?" Nell get shocked when she suddenly hears Eric's voice behind her. she looks up with a smile.
"I didn't hear you were coming back."
He sits down and moves his mouse so his screensaver picture disappears.
"was that your parents on your screensaver?"
"yes." he starts typing again.
"you never mentioned your parents to be before." She is trying to get him to start talking about his parents.
"there is nothing to tell." He says without moving his eyes from his screen.
"Eric you have meet my entire family. But you have never as much as mentioned your parents to me."
Eric stop typing and sign before he looks at her.
"there isn't anything to tell. My parents died when I was 13."
"how?"
Nell look at him with a soft look that he can't resist.
Eric: I have never told anyone this story to anyone before."
He looks down at his hands. Nell put her hands on top of his.
"When I was 13 my mom and dad where going out for dinner. I had convinced them that I could stay home. After 1 hour the phone rang. It was from the hospital. My mom and dad had been in an accident. I took my bike and biked as fast as I could to the hospital. I saw my mom was just about to get rolled in to surgery. I ran over to her. She was servile intrude but she asked the doctor to stop. They stopped. She took my hand and told her she loved me. She got an empty look in her eyes and her heart had stopped. She died pretty much in front of me. They couldn't save her because she had serious interest from the accident. My dad was in such serious condition they had got him straight to surgery. I stayed at the hospital for three days. My dad was in and out of surgeries for three days. I was just sitting in the hallway and waiting. Doctors, nurses, social workers and police tried to talk to me but I didn't listen to anyone. After three days a nurse came and told me I could go see my dad now. I was sitting in the room next to his bed. Just holding his hand like he used to do with me when I was sick… he never woke up after surgery. His body didn't respond Will to the surgeries so he died from the accident after three days. I never got to say anything to him. The last thing I told me before he and my mom left the house that night was to not stay up all-night and playing computer.
After my parents died I moved in with my grandparents but they never really understood my interested in computers and technology. They said I was a strange kid and that I should be more social and get a girlfriend. So I could be a normal kid."
Nell gives him a little smile that tells him that she thinks he is a normal guy.
"I started to isolate myself. Every day after school I went to the library just so I could be a lone. I started to do more hacking. One day when I came home from school the police was there. My grandparents were upset because I had hacked in to a government website. I was a campaign about the foster system. I hacked in there because it lied about how many kids got lost in that system every year. My best friend had been in the system since he was 3 years old. He had told me about this site that lied to cover up that foster families get paired to have foster kids so that they don't even get background checked before the kids Is placed there. So I changed the information on the site. I got arrested and my grandparents kicked me out of the house. I was about to be send in to the foster system when a woman who said she was from childcare came to me. She told me she had a job for me when I turned 16 2 years later. She had noticed that I always hacked for justices or the greater good. She told me that if I promised to finish high school she would give me a job where I could use my skills for justices and the greater good.
After I graduated high school I moved here to la from san Diego. I started to work for Hetty in my spare time as an assistant tech guy while I took my college degree. I pretty much lived in here when I wasn't in school. When I graduated college I started working here full time and I have been here ever since.
When Hetty first contacted me she knew about some of my hacks that I had never told anyone about or anyone had ever found out about them. Only Hetty and the one I hacked for.
Nell smiles "what kind of hacks? "
In 6th grade I had a teacher in Ela who liked me but hated my best friend. He always failed my best friend. So one time my best friend handed in my essay and I handled in his. I still got better grade then him. So I told my teacher that I accidentally handed in the wrong essay and gave him my originally essay. I got a better grade then my friend for the same essay. So I hacked in to the school system and chanced his grade to the grade he deserves. But the school never found out and neither did my parents but Hefty knew.
Nell smiles. "you are a great guy." She takes his hand in hers.
"did you do others illegal hacks?" she asks with a smile.
"not officially. Hetty told me if I did more hacks where I got in to trouble she could give me the job."
"but…" null says with a smile she knows Eric sometimes can actually be a rebel it just doesn't happen that often.
"in college I hacked in to a processors webcams and recorded something that I send anonymous to the principal and the professor got fired."
Nell look surprised.
"what did the professor do?"
"he actually got arrested because of me." Eric feels a little guilty about it.
"tell me about it." Nell says.
"okay I had a friend in college. She was one of the… popular girls. She always had a lot of the football players hanging after her but in the classes she always studied with me. One they she went to our professor's office for help with a project. When she came back she cried. She told me that he had said that he only wanted to give her a good grate if she… slept with him."
Nell look shocked.
"she knew he needed to go back to his office to get her papers that she forgot there. I hacked in to his computer and activate his webcam so I recorded. I send it to the principal's computer so I would get him fired. That was the plan. Not get him arrested."
"but he should be arrested for trying to seduce a student. That is illegal, Eric." Nell says
"I just never liked to get people in trouble."
"Eric Beale… you work for the naval criminal investigation service. Your job literally is to put bad guys in trouble and put them away." Nell says.
Eric nods.
"yeah I know but I never get the credit for that. It is Sam, Kensi, Deeks and Callen who actually catches the bad guys."
Nell shakes her head. "you are unbelievable Eric Beale."
Eric gives a little shy smile. "did Hetty ever found out about this?"
Eric shakes his head.
"I don't think so because hacking in to a professor's computer is a crime. No she told me If I committed a crime again I couldn't work for her. So I don't think so."
"but… putting a sex offender away is not a crime. You did something wrong to do something right."
Eric gives her a shy smile.
"sometimes I think Hetty knows everything about me. I mean she was watching me pretty much all the time in college. She even knew when I was going out with my girlfriend after work."
Nell smiles.
"you think she was watching you?"
Eric nods. He looks around to make sure there is no one there. Then he takes out a keychain from his pocket.
"you know what this is?" he asks. she takes it in her hand and look at it.
"it seems like some sort of small jammer."
Eric nods.
"it is."
"you jammed Hetty?" Nell sound very surprised now. She is looking at him with big eyes.
"she is killing me if she ever finds out."
"you are a very dead man Eric Beale if Hetty finds out about that."
Eric nods.
"if you found out your boos was watching every single second of your life would you want to do it… just sometimes?"
Nell look at him with a little smile.
"sometimes maybe."
"I only did it when I was with my girlfriend. I felt like that was moment Hetty didn't need to know about."
Nell starts laughing. Eric blush a little.
"you are right. There are things that Hetty doesn't need to know about."
Nell turns to her computer and starts to shot down her paper work.
"what do you say we go for breakfast it has been a long night?"
"sounds great." Eric says. The shot down ops and leave together. On the top of the stairs Eric stops.
"what's up?" Nell asks.
"this places have been my family and my home for so long now."
"the best family you could ever find." Nell says.
Eric nods. Nell takes his hand. Then they walk down the stairs together.