Authors Note- I know I said Fridays but I'm going on a camp tomorrow and won't be able to. This is two short chapters in one. I hope you like it. Please tell me what you think?
Disclaimer- I own Nell's family. Everything else is property of NCIS: Los Angeles.
After Nell's plane had arrived she collected her suitcase and began walking through the airport. It was scary how just a few years ago she had walked through the same airport ready to leave her family behind and start a new life for herself. Back then she had no idea how much she would miss them but now returning home she had no idea how she would be able to get herself to leave again.
There he was, Mike Jones, her father standing in a crowd of people holding a sign that read 'Princess Jones'. She smiled and walked towards him.
"Put that away dad! I did not just get off my first plane ride!"
Mike smiled wide and wrapped his arms around his daughter in a tight hug. "It's still in mint condition so why not use it to get that smile out of you."
"How is everyone?" Nell asked as they walked through the airport back to Mike's car. She couldn't help but feel that guilt inside for she was the only one of all her parents children who lived further than three miles away from the house they all grew up in. Everyone had made a great life for themselves there in that town but it just wasn't what Nell wanted. From when she was a little kid all she wanted to do was to move, she wanted to go anywhere and everywhere. She never saw herself staying in the same old boring town. NCIS gave her the opportunity to travel, it wasn't often as she was not a proper agent but it was still something. Her siblings despised her for leaving family behind but she knew they had to get over that, she wouldn't return.
Mike smiled, he knew that if he told her a lot about what happened when she was gone then she wouldn't feel so left out when everyone had conversations regarding whatever it was. So he took her out for a late lunch and then back to his mechanic shop and told her all about what she had missed. How the youngest, Adelyde (sixteen) had started dating her older brother James' (nineteen) best friend. And he told her about how Jessica (twenty-four) and Ethan (twenty six) had started running marathons together and became quite good. Then he told her about her mother, Monica how much she missed her and about the foods she attempted to make that just came out completely wrong.
Nell listened and laughed with her father as he spoke about all the joy in his life. She loved him and she loved seeing him happy. It was what made her happy. She knew that the relationship between her and her father was different to the relationships he shared with the rest of her siblings. Maybe it was because she was his first child. As much as she and her father denied it everyone knew that she was his favorite. Once her siblings had come to peace with it they used her as a weapon against their father. If they all wanted to do something or go somewhere they ganged up on Nell and made her ask him. It was slightly frustrating but it was what kept her loved by her siblings.
Growing up she wasn't exactly the first person her siblings would come to. She knew they loved her and she loved them but she was the black sheep in her family. It was because of her intelligence. None of her other family had that. As she grew up she also had to learn how to handle it and improve herself with it. She was not like them and they didn't like that. Her dad tried his best to get them to get along but nothing worked, they clashed. Now that most of them had grown up they had forgotten about that, they didn't see anything wrong with her. The only thing that got to them now was that she lived and worked so far away. Her family was anything but stuck up, they just believed a lot in what family was and what it meant. They thought she had betrayed them.
Her father was always the one who understood her even when he didn't. He was always by her side, helping her make the right decisions for herself and no one else. She spent a lot of her time in his mechanic shop. He taught her almost everything. She could fix almost any car. A few times Hetty even let her take a look at her cars and that was big, Hetty didn't let anyone touch her cars.
She was underneath a car looking for a problem while her dad got her a beer from the fridge. "Nell I know that this is going to sound very strange and probably make you worry but I need to tell you this."
"What is it dad?" He heard her concerned voice from under the car.
"Don't let anyone know you're here. Don't post about it anywhere on the internet and don't let your siblings post any pictures of you on the internet, don't even let them take pictures of you."
Nell crawled out from under the car with grease on her hands and some on her face. "Dad… what's going on? Why?"
Mike shook his head and looked away from her, "Nell It's something I can't discuss with you right now. Please just trust me on this and do what I say?"
Nell fought every urge within herself not to push for the answer. She saw the look of pain on his face and made herself let it go. "Okay. But you have to tell me one day okay?"
Mike frowned and nodded. He hoped he could.
The rest of the week went great. Nell got to have those beloved family dinners she couldn't possibly do at home. She got to catch up on Jessica's love life. She got to tell Adelyde how pathetic the dates were that she got from the dating website she had set up for her. She got to ride in the mustang Ethan had been saving up for since he was five. She got to play paintball with James and his friends, and beat them all. Then she got to spend time with her mom, teach her different cooking methods that she taught Callen to stop him from killing himself and her mother from killing everyone. It was perfect. When everyone else was at school or work she'd spend most of her time in her dads shop or going through the stuff in her room, bringing back the memories of ex-boyfriends or lost friendships. She enjoyed it.
On the Saturday night Mike found Nell sitting outside in the garden, watching the stars. It was something she always loved doing from when she was a young child. He sat beside her quietly and sipped on his beer.
"You know the other night we were all at Callen's house and I think we may have had a little too much to drink but we decided to go outside and lay on the grass. We all just lay there talking and watching the stars like nothing else mattered in the world."
Mike smiled again after seeing the pure joy on her face from the memory. "They are like family to you aren't they?"
"Yeah they are. It's weird how they are supposed to be my co-workers but the relationship we all share is much stronger than that."
"At least I know that they have your back, you need people like that."
"What do you think mom and everyone would do if they found out I'm not actually a TV news editor?"
Mike chuckled softly, "Adelyde and James would think you're totally awesome but the rest might try kill you for putting your life at risk."
"I'm an analyst, dad."
"But you did say you've been spending a lot of time in the field lately."
"I guess that's true."
"Are they training you properly to be there?"
"Of course. They are not sending me into a rough place without me being able to get myself out."
Mike nodded and squeezed her wrist comfortingly. "Promise me you will train yourself more when you get back?"
Nell looked puzzled once again. "Why?"
"You of all people know how bad this world is getting and I don't want you to be a victim of it."
Nell raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Fine, I think it would be bad parenting if I said that I want my daughter to have federal agent status."
Nell smiled and locked eyes with her dad, "Really?"
"I guess so."
Nell leaned back again and chuckled, "Well now I guess I don't have to hold out on it anymore."
###
After arriving back in Los Angeles Nell went straight to Callen's house and knocked on the door. She was ready to tell him all about what had happened back home but it didn't quite go down like that. Callen answered the door and stared at her. "What do you want?" He said.
Nell cleared her throat and frowned. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no, everything is perfectly fine. I've just been sitting here wondering what the hell I did wrong that my best friend doesn't even have the decency to tell me she's going to disappear off the face of the earth on another Hetty mission."
Nell felt it, she'd let him down. She could see the pain on his face and it hurt her that she was the one who had put it there. "Callen… I had two hours to pack and leave and Hetty said she would tell you."
"When I get an assignment to go undercover or who knows where I always find a way to come say goodbye to you."
"Time was limited and I wasn't sure if interrupting a briefing to say good bye to you would make people question our friendship."
"So what if it did? I was ready to let them think what they want."
"How was I supposed to know that? G I'm sorry."
Callen shook his head. "You know, It took so much in me to admit that I have feelings for you to myself and then to you, then you just go and run off like I don't matter to you. You broke my trust Nell."
Nell nodded and tried to keep herself from crying, "You know, I thought that you of all people would understand."
It came with the job and being an agent who'd gone through so much, she thought this was something simple, that he wouldn't even notice it, but he did. It had hit him hard. She'd betrayed his trust and Callen wasn't the type to forgive easily.
Nell made her way back to her car without another word and drove straight to one of Hetty's houses, hoping she would be there. She was.
"What's wrong my dear?" Hetty asked opening her door and letting Nell in.
Nell was pacing back and forth not saying a word. She was beginning to freak out and she was trying to control it.
"Nell?"
"Hetty would you please tell me what is going on?"
Hetty tilted her head and made her way over to the bar to grab something for the troubled young woman. "What do you mean?"
"You told Callen I went on a mission for you, the plane ticket you gave me and said my dad paid for was in one of your aliases names, my dad was acting really weird, telling me I need to train harder and that I shouldn't tell anyone where I was and he wouldn't let me pay for anything with my card. Why does the last week of my life not exist?"
Hetty frowned. Nell was too smart to be fooled. "Nell you need to calm down."
Nell shot Hetty a death stare before nodding and sitting down on the old couch. She knew she had to calm down so that she could use anything Hetty said to her to piece everything together. She took the glass of scotch from Hetty and took a large sip.
Hetty sat beside her. "Ms. Jones, there is not much I can tell you as I have promised your dad I wouldn't."
"Are you being serious? Did you promise my dad or are you pulling that mysterious shit you pull on Kensi, Callen, Deeks, all of them?"
Hetty ignored the comment and continued, "There is a lot you don't know about your dad's life and even some parts of yours. All I can tell you is that you need to push yourself in your training. You want to be out in the field more often so I will do that, so you can learn. You need to know how to protect yourself properly because somethings may just change."
Nell stared at Hetty intensely, taking in everything she had just said. She took another sip of her scotch and a small tear fell from her eye. "Great, that's just great. I'm best friendless and my life is in danger and I don't know why."
Hetty patted Nell's knee, "Knowing you, everything will turn out great."
Nell laughed rather sarcastically. She doubted that.
Shhh… Nallen has a lot coming.
