Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: LA.

Prompt #2: Sparkle - There was a glint in her eye whenever she was presented with a challenge, and he was happy whenever he was the one to put it there.

Words: 503


Eric knows what it takes to get his partner excited.

She likes it when she finds what she's looking for. Whether it's the cord for her iPod or some intel on whatever case they're working, when she finds it, she gets this smile on her face that makes her look like a kid.

She gets really fired up when she's defending her opinion on something. She's tiny, but make no mistake, this red-haired pixie will doggedly make her point against all comers. An excellent example was when she argued the importance of Lieutenant Commander Chambers's HPS information to his director; she outlined the potential risks of ignoring it, predicting nuclear threats and terrorism, and managed to make him speechless.

She loves it when she's right. Eric guessed it was a female thing, being so excited about being correct no matter what about. After said confrontation with the Captain, she was practically glowing in the Ops Center with a satisfied smile on her face after Callen's small rebuke to "pick on someone your own size."

If she actually gets to work in the field - holy crap, she's over the moon. It rarely happens, but when it does, she's always ready to go with a grin. When she was able to cut power for the news vans during the whole Tracy Keller incident, it was a crowning achievement for her.

But the absolute best way to get Nell Jones excited is to give her a challenge.

Then her eyes light up like Christmas bulbs when the plug goes into the socket. Then she gets that cute determined look on her face. Then she blocks out everything else until she completes the challenge.

Eric likes seeing her like this. It makes her look cool, her eyes intent and focused on the screen as she keys in passwords and and keywords and lines upon lines of command code in search of her objective. Sometimes when she hits a roadblock, she gets this cute little pout on her lips and her eyes narrow, as if cyberspace was deliberately messing with her.

And when she gets really, really annoyed, she starts muttering under her breath.


"Stupid mother-of-idiots encryption with stupid viruses and stupid passcode..."

Eric smirked to himself as his partner began the muttering. "Need some help, Nell?" he asked her.

"No," she said shortly. Her eyes never left her screen as her fingers furiously typed away. "I got this."

The grin on Eric's face only widened as he returned to his own work. She'd been at this particular job for over two hours.

Challenges always excited Nell.

Challenges from him were usually the ones that put that special sparkle in her eye.

And man, did he love putting it there.


Kinda cute, right? Review!