Chapter 2- Except Skyfall

A/N- Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, favourited or read my last chapter, this is the next one and picks up where the last one left off. Please enjoy and leave a review.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.

They walked out of the restaurant and past Eric's car where he took his shoes off and put them in the back. He offered to take Nell's wedges but she politely declined, saying that she'd prefer to carry them herself. Eric didn't argue. As they neared the edge of the beach, there was a small drop between the footpath and the start of the sand. Nell stepped off it taking Eric's hand, pulling him down with her.

They landed in the sand; Nell still holding onto Eric's hand. He turned to face her. Not much else could make this night anymore beautiful. A beach side restaurant, a walk along the beach and Nell.

Yes, of course he could imagine his ex-girlfriends, not that there were many, but all of those dates were either disappointing memories, embarrassing memories, or ones that he'd previously washed away with shots of vodka and a bottle of Hetty's whiskey... It was a long story.

To that memory he smiled and let out a small laugh.

"What?" Nell asked.

"I'm just thinking about my methods of extinguishing my previous bad dates."

Nell's smile faltered, "is this a bad date?"

That's when Eric realized what he'd said, "no, no. That's not what I mean. I was thinking about how badly all of my other dates had gone in comparison to this. This. You. It's better," he replied stumbling a bit at the beginning but making an impressive recovery.

Nell smiled as she looked up at Eric whose gaze was fixated on the sea and beyond. He was clearly thinking about something. She sometimes wondered what, before her common sense kicked in and decided she was better off not knowing. Plus it would be a terrible invasion of privacy if she was able to read his mind and thoughts. Nevertheless, she was curious. Again she also did want to walk across the beach, so in full attempts of getting his attention, on tip toe, she reached up and kissed his cheek. Resulting in his head turning and his eyes following hers.

"Come on, Wolfram," Nell pleaded tugging on his hand.

He followed willingly, soon falling into step beside her.

They walked slowly, with their hands intertwined; Nell resting her head on Eric's arm. They strolled along the beach, whose only light was the moon.

"I know we live in the city, but shouldn't some stars be visible?" Nell asked.

Finding this comment slightly strange he looked up at the sky.

"They are covered by what I can only assume is thick cloud," Eric guessed.

Yes, although it did rain in LA, very few times was there ever cloud so thick that you couldn't see a single star.

"The one night that bad weather is forecast, is the one night that I don't want to leave," Nell complained, but unlike everyone else, it didn't sound like she was a whining three-year-old. Instead she sounded like she was simply stating a disappointing fact, that was out of her control.

"I'm sure it will pass," Eric assured, before a piece of contradicting lighting flashed in the sky, "or maybe not," he finished before he was drowned out by the sound of growling thunder.

"Well, that's convenient," Eric remarked sarcastically.

"There's nothing we can do about the weather. Just because the weather wants to intrude on our wonderful evening doesn't mean that we have to end it here," Nell reminded.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Well," she said continuing to walk, "when we've had enough of the beach, or it starts raining, we could either go and find somewhere for dessert or go to one of our places and watch a movie."

"I like the sound of that," Eric agreed, "but not that," he said after hearing another whip crack like sound of thunder.

The storm was definitely getting closer, so they started walking back the way they had come. It was a nice walk. And then the rain started. Thick, wet, drops that were few and far between, falling from the sky. They landed, leaving splotchy shaped, wet indents in the dry sand, turning it wet on contact. Nell and Eric picked up their pace slightly but they weren't in much of a hurry because of the spacing of the drops. This of course was until the storm must have been directly over LA. The rain started pelting down, stinging slightly as they hit Nell's bare arms and obscuring Eric's vision by splattering on his glasses.

Nell let go of Eric's hand and ran for the shelter of a nearby tree. It wore large, flat leaves; clumped closely together but still providing plenty of protection from the unfortunate weather.

Nell was laughing as she was running, which for her was odd, and unnatural, but it was that or singing in the rain. And judging by her not-so-great singing voice that she would never let anyone hear, she was laughing instead.

Eric, who was completely bewildered by the current personality he saw in front of him, was taken slightly by surprise. If it hadn't have been absolutely pounding down with rain he would've stood there in awe. Even after four years she could still amaze him; this girl who he thought he knew, was even more unbelievable than he could imagine. Everything she did or said was a constant surprise that often left him speechless, standing and staring in wonder. This was no different and once again it felt so real and genuine, as if through every action she revealed a little more of her truest self.

He chased after her and was glad when they reached the refuge of the tree. Even with the rain it was still fairly warm, but it could have been snowing at this point in time and they would not have felt it.

Eric stood with his back against the rough trunk of the tree, smiling down at Nell. He held both her hands gently, taking note of the simple, silver bracelet she wore on her left wrist; it was very dainty.

"What was that Rockstar?" Eric asked his voice a mixture of awe, surprise and curiosity.

Nell said nothing, she just smiled back up at him. Her hazel eyes held so much happiness that it gave him the motivation he needed to do something he had only dreamed about for the past two and a half years.

He leant down and kissed her smiling lips. Nell took a step closer to Eric, recapturing his lips to prevent him from pulling away quickly. Their kiss under the mistletoe had been cautious and gentle. They had already spent too many years waiting for the other to make a move, then backing away when an opportunity presented itself. They were both exhausted over the playing the waiting game. They could feel the fire underneath the other's skin caused by their touch.

Nell dropped her wedges onto the sand and reached her arms around Eric's neck. She pushed up onto her toes to get a better angle and to pull herself closer to him.

Eric willingly let Nell lead because he trusted her not to get carried away more than he trusted himself. This of course was until she must have had a temporary lapse in judgement, when she made the kiss more intense.

Neither of them knew what made them pull away. It could have been that they had exhausted their supplies of oxygen or that their self- control had eventually kicked in or maybe just the fact that it was not the last day on Earth and they would probably have more time together in the near future.

The storm was now at its peak and the tree was doing nothing for the rain which was soaking them thoroughly. They pulled back, leaving their noses touching. Eric went to lean back in but Nell pulled back and ran back out into the rain ending in a graceful turn.

"It's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain," she called out as she walked back over taking her wedges from Eric who was standing smiling.

They walked back to Eric's car where he offered Nell a towel that he just happened to have in his car.

"I surf," was his one word explanation when he handed it to her.

It was still a reasonably hot night even with the rain so neither of them were cold as they climbed into Eric's car.

"Okay, so dessert or movie?" Eric asked.

"It's only nine thirty, so we do have time for both," Nell responded with a smile.

"So, ice-cream for dessert and movie at my place?"

"Sure," Nell agreed easily.

"Because, come on I have a much better selection of movies than you do," he added in interests of starting up a playful argument.

"Just because you have almost every musical on DVD does not mean that your collection is better than mine," Nell argued playfully.

"And what do you have to offer?"

"Titanic, Casablanca and every James Bond movie-"

"Except Skyfall," Eric interrupted.

"Except Skyfall," Nell continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

They continued their playful banter until they reached an ice-cream shop and Eric accepted defeat because, to be honest, she did have the better collection. Of course he'd never tell her that. They both got ice-cream and then continued discussion over movie choices.

00..

After much debate on every movie from 'Singing in the Rain' to 'This Means War' they had decided on Indiana Jones- Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Nell had never seen the movie before, whereas Eric clearly had seen it several times before because she could see his lips forming the shape of words as he whispered each and every line. Nell thought it was a cute quirk, part of his very Eric personality, one of his idiosyncrasies.

Nell learned all about Indiana Jones, how he was an archeologist turned part time teacher, part time adventurer. How in this movie he begins his travels by searching for a golden idol and then escaping from the clutches of Belloq, who ends up being the villain for the entirety of the movie. How when Indiana and his companion Marion are captured by the Germans (not Belloq) near the end of the movie they still manage to live. When the Germans went to open up the Ark everyone who was looking perished. Indiana and Marion were not looking, therefore they did not perish.

It wasn't until she knew that Indiana and Marion were safe that she started drifting off slowly. Letting what was once the television screen swirl into blurs of colour.

She didn't actually fall completely asleep because soon the end titles were rolling, and she heard a voice calling her name, pulling her from her daze.

"Nell," Eric said softly, running his hand through her hair, "hey Nelly."

She was slowly dragged from her sleepy haze.

"Sorry I fell asleep and missed the end," she apologized.

"Don't feel sorry. And besides you didn't miss much, just them finding their way to safety and an epilogue that leads into the next movie."

"Mmh hm," Nell said wanting more than anything to go back to sleep.

Eric must have noticed this.

"Do you want to stay here?" Eric offered.

"Mmh hm," she responded.

"I'd sleep on the couch and you could have my bed, but my room's a mess of wires and -" he started hastily explaining before he noticed that she was already sound asleep.

He stood up carefully and drew a blanket over her. It was a really comfy couch and even with Nell fully extended on it there was still room at the end. The advantage of being short.

Eric, having no interest in being a creepy stalker who watched their date sleep, or anybody in that case, took one more look at Nell before he, himself switched off the tv and tiredly wandered towards his room. Unlike Nell it took him quite awhile to get to sleep. He just kept collaging a mental scrapbook of his and Nell's moments together. Adding a page that would be called 'First Date'. But he too eventually drifted off.

00..

It was in the late hours of the morning that Nell woke in an odd place and on what she assumed was an unusually comfortable couch. She could smell what she assumed was pancakes cooking. She sat up and looked over the back of the couch and into the kitchen where Eric stood making pancakes. Through his pherepheral vision Eric saw Nell peek her head over the back of the couch, he turned his head towards her.

"Morning sleepy head."

"Morning Beale," she returned getting up and walking over to him and pressing a kiss into the side of his cheek and as he turned his head, she planted another on his lips.

"So what are you cooking?" Nell asked, even though it was pretty evident that her inital guess had been correct. It was pancakes.

"Pancakes," he responded as he transferred the pancake from the pan to one of the two plates, before turning the stove off.

They ate their pancakes with more than an adiquate amount of golden syrup. Nell noticed that Eric was a surprisingly good cook.

When they were finished, Nell noticed the time. It was quater to ten.

"Thanks for dinner last night, but I'm going to go home becuase I really need to change out of this dress," Nell said.

"We should do that again some time," Eric replied, standing to join her at the door.

"I'll see you on Monday."

"See you on Monday," Eric replied, leaning in to kiss her before she left.

Now the game of 'how long can we hide it from the rest of the team' will begin, Eric thought to himself.

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