Chapter 3 Part 1

Last night, was a tough night for Nell. She kept waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares. The only thing that helped her sleep was seeing Callen's car still outside of her building at 2 am.

She thought it was kind of sweet of him to stay outside of her building, but she also felt bad that she made him feel like he had to.

Callen woke up to a knock on his passenger side window. He turned his head to see Nell's face in the window waving a hand and holding something with the other.

He walks out to the other side of the car and she hands him a cup of coffee. Then walks away. When she realizes he's not following her, she turns around and tilts her head towards the door directing him to follow her.

When they enter her apartment he notices she's still in her robe and her hair is wet from the shower she took.

He took a seat down at the counter, and they just stare at each other for a moment. He watches as she opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Finally one of them speaks.

"I'm sorry."

"For you what? You have nothing to apologize fo-"

"Yes I do." She interrupted."I shouldn't have acted that way last night. You were just trying to help."

"If anyone should be apologizing it's me. I shouldn't have pushed you to talk."

The room goes silent for a little while and they just sit there sipping on their coffees.

"You know you didn't have to stay." she says. It was more of a statement than a question.

"I know, but I wanted to." Which was true. He did want to stay.

"Why?"

Callen wondered if he should tell her about the car he saw outside just hours ago when he was leaving, but after seeing her yesterday, he decided against it. "Because Nell, after yesterday, I didn't want to leave you alone the way that you were. So I stayed outside, so if you needed me I'd be there." which wasn't false, so it wasn't like he was lying to her.

'That's so sweet,' she thinks. "I never really thought you cared."

"Of course I do Nell, how could you think that?" He said moving his hand to her arm in a comforting manner, feeling bad that he had ever made her feel like he didn't care.

'Did he just say what I think he just said?' "I know it's just, never mind, it's silly.-"

"Nell," Now he was standing next to her, with his hand on her chin, bringing her to look up at him. "Listen to me. I care about you, you're a part of my team, and I consider you my friend. I hope you consider me one too, because if not then that just makes this whole entire conversation awkward."

She laughed and flashed him one of her famous smiles. "Now there's that beautiful smile."

His eyes drifted of from her eyes to her lips for a second then back to her eyes and he started to slowly lean forward.

He was leaning towards her and she took a quick glance at his lips. All she was thinking was 'Oh my gosh he's gonna kiss me.' She forgot about everything else. For a moment it was just the two of them.

He was going to kiss her. Their lips were barely inches away from hers. Then it happened.

"Beep, Beep, Beep." His phone rang.

She huffed out a sigh of annoyance. He flashed her an apologetic smile.

"Beep, Beep, Beep."

"Callen..."

"Yeah hang on a second," he said as he walked out of her apartment.

"G, did she tell you anything?" Sam said.

"No, whatever it is she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm going to wait until she's ready to talk to me."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. I got a bad feeling about this G."

"Me too Sam, me too. Hey did you find anything about what I asked you earlier?"

"No. Like you said the car had no plates, and we lost him after a few cameras. I'm worried about her."

"So am I Sam. I better get back inside before she comes looking for me."

"Wait. You spent the night." Callen could hear the smile in his partner's voice.

"No."

"Oh really?" Sam said unbelievably.

"Yes Sam. It's not like that. Anyway, I better get going."

"Call me if you learn anything?"

"I will. Bye."

Chapter 3 part 2

"Callen?" She asked once he came back from his conversation outside.

"Yeah?"

"When we went out for drinks last night, I left my car at HQ, and I was hoping you could bring me so I could get it. If you don't mind?" She asked

"Yeah sure. I can do that, and it's not a problem Nell."

"Great! Thanks. Let me just get changed first and then we can head out." and she pointed to the direction of her bedroom behind her, then turned around.

Callen took that opportunity to look around her apartment see if he could find anything. He saw a lot of pictures of family. And other things. He picked one of them up. It was taken of her whole family on Christmas not to long ago. Nell was wearing this Christmas sweater and she looked so adorable.

"You ready to go?" He turned around to look at her. She had changed into a tee shirt with a blue phone box on it, a skirt and flats.

"Yeah I was just looking at some of you're pictures. You have a lot of them."

"Yeah," walking over to where he was standing. "That one's my favorite." she said taking the one he was holding from him and passing her figures over.

"You miss them?" Already knowing the answer.

"Yeah I do." Putting the picture back in its place. "Anyway. Lets get going."

It all happened so fast.

They were walking out of the building and he saw it again.

The car. Only this time, as soon as it saw Nell exit the building it started speeding down the street. The passenger side window opened. Just as the bullets started flying he pushed them both back into the building.

By the time he pulled his gun out to fire back at them the car was already to far away.