Chapter 4

It really broke Nell's heart to see this little girl suffer that much on one day: Not only had she lost her mother, Stephanie also didn't know if she would ever see her father alive again and the Intelligence Analyst somehow felt so helpless in this situation, what meant in the end that she was very glad to have Eric as her support by her side. Of course she did have some experience considering kids as she had been babysitting her nieces a couple of time in the past, so that made the whole thing a little bit easier for her but taking care of a traumatized child was another story. The car with the dead body of Stephanie's mother had left the parking garage a couple of minutes ago already, but of course the little girl was still petrified by this horrible sight in front of her and deep down she wished that she could do something to help with the search for Stephanie's father but since there was no signs so far that he was working for the government this case was unfortunately way out of their jurisdiction.

A dark haired LAPD Detective finally came up to them and said: "It looks like this isn't our case anymore, because I just had a longer conversation with one of techie's at Headquarters and the missing Frank Saunders is working for the Navy Intelligence Office. I feel very sorry for their daughter; she lost her mother and also doesn't know if she will see her father again." Of course there was still that one big question hanging in the balance right now: What should they do with Stephanie now? Nell then pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans and dialed the number of the only person that she thought could help a lot in this complicated situation: The almighty Operations Manager of the OPS Hetty Lang, who had been a mentor to her since the day she had started working at the Office of Special Projects.

Office of Special Projects

Hetty was right in the middle of drinking a nice cup of black tea when the phone on her desk started ringing all over sudden and of course the Operations Manager was a little surprised by this at first because she wasn't expecting any phone call at this early hour of the day.

"Hetty Lang."

"Hetty this is Nell and before you say anything I know that Eric and I have the day off today but we've got right in the middle of a kidnapping case that is related to the Navy and some sensitive data on an USB Stick apparently. The big problem in this case is the missing Navy Intelligence Computer Tech Frank Saunders has a little daughter and as she's maybe able to indentify one of the kidnappers I don't know if it's a good idea to just drop her off at one of her known relatives here in LA." While Nell had told everything that she knew about the case, Hetty had quickly searched Frank Saunders name in the Navy Database and as she read the report what was one the USB Stick that the Navy Intelligence had been able to confiscate just recently the first and only thought that came through her mind was: Oh Buggar!

The Operations Manager took a few minutes to quickly think through the options in this case and then said: "You and Mister Beale bring the girl here first so we can discuss this whole thing face to face in my office."

Whatever was on this USB Stick, it was definitely very sensitive information that Hetty didn't want to discuss over the phone and as Nell and Stephanie exchanged a short look the Intelligence Analyst knew already that this whole thing would be truly one of her difficult cases since she had started working at the OSP. "Okay we will make our way to the Office right away." After Hetty had ended the call with Nell, she got Callen to gather the team up in OPS as she notified him that they had a new case.

"Nell and Eric getting right into the middle of a kidnapping case on their day off, that's really not the kind of way that I would want my little free time that I have to be so rudely interrupted." Deeks said as he, Kensi, Sam and Callen finally walked up to OPS to get briefed on their newest case.

Of course LAPD Detective James Warner couldn't help but also feel a little bit sorry as the two Navy Cops got right into the middle of a kidnapping case on their day off, but sometimes this was the way that this job could go sometimes even if you liked that or not. The young woman called Nell Jones then finally got off the phone and he asked her right away: "What did your Boss say about the whole case?"

Of course Nell knew that they always did have a good working relationship with the LAPD but on other hand she also had to choose her words wisely as she couldn't tell him too much because of the line of work that she and Eric worked in: "Mister Saunders apparently worked on some pretty sensitive data for his employer the Navy Intelligence Service and as his child could also be in danger right now the NCIS is going to take her in protective custody. "

"Okay sounds pretty serious to me then and if you need any help don't hesitate to call me." Detective Warner said and as he said that last part he had a little flirty grin on his face as he looked at Nell and you could see very well that it took a lot out of Eric not to show the jealousy that he felt right at this very moment. Of course it didn't go by Nell unnoticed that Eric was a little bit jealous because of the little flirting between her and Detective Warner as she had stolen a quick glance sideways at her partner and finally replied with a flirty smile too: "Thank you very much Detective and I'll definitely come back to your gracious offer of help."

She watched the Detective go and as he was finally out of reach Eric couldn't help but say: "Is it just me or was he really flirting with you and you jumped right on the band wagon?" Nell had a big grin on her face as she replied: "Yes he did flirt with me but I didn't return it in any way, I was only being polite Wolfram and is it just me or are you a little bit jealous?" She closed the little distance between them and now was really close to his face as she had also laid both of her hands on his shoulders and patiently waited for his reply.

Eric was very intimidated by the fact that Nell was standing so close to him and it took him a while to answer: "I'm not jealous Rockstar, because I know that you and me will stick together always as partners in OPS and as boyfriend and girlfriend."

"That's very good to know Beale; it puts a lot of weight off shoulders. Moving on to another important matter, I know that we're supposed to have our day off today but that's apparently off the table as we need to bring Stephanie back to OPS where we're going to discuss where to go from here considering the kidnapping case and where Frank Saunders daughter is going to stay through the whole operation." Nell said and then she made her way to the position where Stephanie had been waiting for them the whole time, when they had talked with the LAPD Officer and then said to her:

"We're going to take you some place safe now and since you're still in great danger, we can't just drop you off at your relatives here in LA because we have to assume that the evil men already know where they live and that means that you will have to stay with us for now."

The little girl nodded shortly and said: "I miss my Dad very much when will I see him again?" As Stephanie waited for a response from Nell she couldn't help but think how nice she had been the entire time and that she had definitely already proven herself to be trustworthy. Kneeing down to her level Nell said in a very calm and soothing voice: "You will see your Dad again very soon; I will do everything in my power to help you find him and give those evil men the punishment that they deserve." As the three finally made their way to Nell's red Mini Cooper Stephanie lay her little hand out of the blue into the bigger one of Nell and the Intelligence Analyst couldn't help but smile as she saw how their hands were intertwined.

AN: Thanks to- ncis newbie for reviewing this story, Thanks to- xxunowhoxx for reviewing this story, adding it to her favorite stories list, adding it to her story alert subscription, adding me to her author

alert subscription and adding me to her favorite authors list. Please read and review