The quotes at the beginning refer to 4x22 – The Ravens And The Swans
"How many have you recruited – like Hunter, Grace and me?" Callen spat out.
Hetty tried hard not to lose her composure "I suggest you stand down."
Now Callen shouted at her "How many?" completely enraged.
She couldn't restrain herself any more and shouted back "A lot!"
.*.*.*.*.
The strident shouting match between the Operations Manager and the Senior Agent-in-Charge could not be missed in the Office of Special Projects. Nell had never before seen Callen act in such an indignant way and likewise never before - and this was really worrying her – had she seen Hetty losing her imperturbability. The whole situation seemed surreal. All the involuntary witnesses of this disagreement felt completely uncomfortable and had been shocked.
Later that day, Hetty sought talks with Callen as things calmed down again. Hetty was familiar with Callen's temper and she was able to handle it at the most. But this case had even demanded a great deal of her emotionally, so that the situation could have escalated anyway as it did.
Nell had overheard what was said, that in the past some of the former foster kids had been recruited to NCIS by Hetty herself. Hetty in person had watched the development of 'her recruits' over the years, as hiring and fascinating young adults without roots and without somebody around that cared much for them, was quite plain. It wasn't that easy to convince young graduates from a well protected parents' home. Especially, as the provided job was definitely not quite hazard-free.
At last, Nell wasn't quite sure, what had induced her to make inquiries about her herself. Perhaps it was just her curiosity to find out, why Hetty had recruited her for NCIS and what the reason was that her boss had a rather high opinion of her and what she could be.
She was not 'branded' a foster child, so this recruitment-option had been ruled out. Her parents had bought a nice house in the suburbs of Twin Falls, Idaho, when she was a baby and she had a very nice childhood there together with her older twin-brothers. Her parents always took care of their children and encouraged them on their way to become grown-ups. They always expected the best for their kids and also expected of them to do the best with their lives. Nell was a quick learner and figured out very soon, that giving the best she could would pay off later. She finished High School easily and got a grant at the University, which she had graduated, early and high-flying. Well before she had graduated, she already had a lot of job offers in her pocket. In the aftermath of her training in Quantico it was Hetty herself, who had hired her in a café there and Nell decided to join NCIS. And here she was. Working for over 2 years here, for her it became more and more like home now.
Nell ran down the contents of her file. As an NCIS Intelligence Analyst she fortunately had access to retrieve (almost) every sort of data, and so there was no exception with her own electronic file. Hetty was doing her homework excellent. NCIS chose its staff carefully and obviously there were no coincidences. Nearly every step of her life was in it. She even found pictures of her childhood: her mother, cradling baby-Nell in her arms, her father with Nell and her brothers near a lake, the whole family at Nell's graduation ceremony, Nell in Quantico, … She could find her certificates of High School and University and other proofs and certificates of trainings and courses she had participated. But there was no further information what might have made Hetty hiring her, what made her 'specific'. So she figured her recruitment was because of her special analyzing skills, her efficient and effective workings, her technical aptitude and maybe her extensive knowledge of South America…
The more she was thinking, her thoughts turned back to her file, and she reflected over something she had not seen in there. There were loads of information about her parents and brothers as well, including some of their certificates. She ran down her own documents and suddenly hesitated. One in this large flood of data was missing. Why couldn't she find it? Was it just a mistake? Or was this document just stored anywhere else accidentally? But Hetty would never make any mistakes, would she?
.*.*.*.*.
Days flew by without making any progress in her investigations. Besides, there was a case they had to solve which demanded her undivided attention to have the four field-agents' backs. But finally the would-be assassin was eliminated and everything went more relaxed. So she started to continue her own search.
When she examined the documents of her family members carefully, she stumbled upon a clue on the birth certificates of her brothers. There was another - handwritten - family name mentioned on them. She started a data search with this name alone, but there were too many entries about which would not help her in any way. So she tried a do-over combined the handwritten name with her brothers' date-of-births'. And there she actually got only two results. The first names of her brothers and the birthdates matched: with this handwritten name. And this made her pause for a moment. Her brothers actually existed under this other name, too, for whatever reason. What she found out afterwards made her feel miserable and left her with a premonition of what was to come. Her brothers had been adopted as she now knew, - did her brothers even know? - and what was up with her? There wasn't anything like a birth-certificate anywhere. Everything she attempted, to find something about herself came to a dead end and it was already late. It bothered her immensely. But she was worn out and so she decided to call it a day.
.*.*.*.*.
'Rien ne va plus', Nell thought some days later. Why the hell couldn't she find anything? She knew she was scratching at the surface, she felt it, – but the surface of what? For one thing she was really frustrated, and for another thing she was not used to not finding a solution, or worse than that, even fail. She had tried everything she could by taking advantage of all the available NCIS resources. But she didn't succeed.
But one morning Nell very early ran into the office as if stung by an adder, chasing upstairs into Ops: In the middle of the night she woke up and couldn't fall asleep again, her thoughts went round and round in her head when another idea popped up. She hadn't examined her parents' past carefully enough. She had been so distracted by the fact her brothers had been adopted (and didn't know that up to the present day she was afraid) and maybe she could have been as well, that it did not come into her mind earlier. So she started some new data searches and finally, finally! she found something. Somehow, there was another hint about her mother… She couldn't get behind the information. It was a very small document, hidden within a very old and confident file. Everything she tried to get further failed because the content of this file was encrypted and access strictly denied. Well, that was strange, wasn't it? She had a feeling in her gut that in this file the key to the truth was hidden.
Unsure what to do next she thought about involving someone and the only person who could help her was Eric. He could hack into nearly every system. He was the best in his field. But it made her feel uncomfortable asking him to do something that perhaps could cost him his job. Eric was very important to her, being her partner and a good friend who she wouldn't like to 'lead into temptation', knowing well he had a crush on her. But there was no alternative. She had been circling around the same question without finding an answer for days and now she maybe could figure it out within this damn encrypted file.
.*.*.*.*.
Nell had informed Eric with as less information as possible what she was asking him to do.
"Let's say I would do this research you're asking me for, for what exactly did you say it is?" he asked cautiously. He was fidgeting on his chair and looked nervously at Nell.
Nell knew that Eric, of course, would not be enthusiastic on the one hand, but on the other hand he was curious by nature. She turned his chair towards her to put a hand softly on his chest her eyes found his while she was giving him her sweetest smile and blinked at him. Then she leaned down a bit and whispered in his ear "Eric, I know you're the best and we will be clever enough to not leave marks anywhere". Her hand slid up squeezing his shoulder and remained on it.
She felt a bit guilty to take advantage of his weakness to be in love with her, as she could see him blush at the second he became aware of her closeness, and when he could feel her warm breath against his ear he was on autopilot completely.
So Eric tensely started scanning the secret data and tried to decrypt the documents in it when all the co-workers and especially Hetty had left the building. After all it was for Nell. The blond tech could not refuse her anything and trusted her entirely.
But even Eric was becoming insane. He only could track who had been the one that had set up the secret file and that was a fact he was very concerned about. Nobody else than their certain Ops Manager had done that and he immediately remembered at the Comescu-case what made him shudder. That couldn't be a good sign, he was sure.
After some hours of extensive search with this decrypted file he almost capitulated when suddenly a copy of a document popped up on the screen. That very small document Nell had already noticed in that file before and she had not been able to open, was a certified written confirmation, mentioning Nell's first name, her date and place of birth - the last name had been blackened out. The date of birth was hers but the place was another than she thought she knew it was. There was an official stamp of CPS Carson City, Nevada, on it and a signature she could not make out.
Looking at this document made her swallow hard and she was now dead certain she must have been adopted like her brothers. She was confused and felt unsure of herself and her roots, as if she was losing the ground. It was like being in a swirl, pulling her down inexorably. Eric placed a concerned and puzzled look at her but she just shook her head, not wanting to talk about what they had just found out, her face showing him that she was fighting the tears that wanted to come out. A desperate Nell was new to him. That was the very antithesis to the Nell he usually knew. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her holding her gently and Nell was allowing his embrace.
Yet, she had no idea what was about to happen to her.
A/N: CPS Child Protective Service