Nell was peeking through her curtain. She was sure she would never get out of her apartment and into her car without being seen by him. He must have been quite certain she had been planning to leave very early this morning – alone. Darn it!

It was almost midnight. He was sitting in his car for a long while, not directly in front of her apartment but in a good place to keep a close eye on her front door. Every now and then he could see a curtain moving, just slightly. He was not sure if she had noticed him yet but he knew she would have preferred to go on her short trip by herself. Nevertheless the queasy feeling had just increased and he would do everything not to let her go all alone.

All of a sudden the door opened and he could see her walking to his car. Well, now he could be quite sure she had noticed him… He quickly got out of his car and walked towards her, hands in his pockets. When she stepped closer, he could see anger in her face and her movements were furious. But she didn't say a word when she abruptly stopped in front of him, hands on her hips while her eyes flashed angrily at him. He however nonchalantly smiled a bit and held her gaze - and with an ease of mind he awaited the outcome. And he ascertained it was somewhat cute, how this small woman stood up to him so boldly.

Nell was sure she would never win this staring-duel and reluctantly stopped it. Rolling her eyes up and taking a deep breath she first had in mind to bawl him out, but instead her features softened a bit and her whole body language turned less forceful "Well, agent Callen. As I can't probably sneak off I would better get some sleep. And by the way it's downright ridiculous to let you sit here outside in your car watching my house or spying on me. Come in".

Callen was surprised at the sudden change of the situation. But in short, she was right. "I'm right there with you" he admitted. And he was a bit proud of himself, of his knowledge of human nature, as she had admitted to having planned to leave. With an impish smile on his face he followed her.

Sitting in her apartment with Callen made Nell feel a bit awkward at first. She was a mess in acting relaxed in the presence of people, mainly men, she admired. And Callen was one of them. He on the contrary leaned back on her couch casually. He always seemed to be so self-confident and strong. She offered him a beer, not without taking one for herself to become more relaxed, and after they had been talking a while she noticed that he really seemed to be interested in helping her to find the answers to the questions she had. Answers he probably would never find in his particular case. Nell could see that this was something that bothered him badly and that he cared for her as he would try to safe her from the frustrating experiences he had been through in his past and therefore he was - against his will - very familiar with the foster system. She had never thought there was something she would have in common with Callen: the urge to figure out where you really belong to, where your roots are. Maybe having Callen by her side in this chapter of her life wasn't such a bad thing after all. And besides he was a good guy and she trusted him.

.*.*.*.*.

He must have been up very early. When she awoke, there was a delicious scent of freshly brewed coffee in the air. Still drowsy she stepped into her kitchen and saw Callen sitting on her table reading a paper. "Good morning" he said looking at her with a smile "want some coffee?" Nell nodded. Very early in the morning she sometimes was a bit grumpy and so coffee was an absolute necessity to pick up the pace. She barely remembered her good breeding first and replied a "Good morning" to Callen before she realized how she must look like with her messy hair and only wearing her short black Peanuts-sleep shirt. So she hastily headed to the bathroom to get changed.

Stepping back into the kitchen Callen had already placed a coffee mug on the table for her. As an agent he had done his preparations well because he obviously knew the way she liked her coffee most - with milk and plenty of vanilla syrup.

"Thanks for making coffee Callen. That's nice" Nell said giving him a smile. "I think we need to go get some food on our way. I'm sorry I do not have enough groceries left here to offer you a proper breakfast, as I didn't do the shopping for lack of time."

"Never mind" he answered. "Let's go?"

"Give me 20" she responded and took the last sip of her coffee.

.*.*.*.*.

They finally departed at 7:15 am. Nell was excited. Very. She wanted to find out who her biological mother was and maybe to get to know her, and perhaps her father, too. She had spent a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons about doing this and in the end she had decided that she really was curious to find out what this woman would be like. Admittedly it also made her feel guilty about not asking or involving her parents. But for now she was not at the point where she had the courage to confront them with her recent discoveries. First she wanted to learn about the circumstances at that time and to take control of the new situation.

"I think we'll arrive in the afternoon" Callen said after a while. "Depends on how long we will need to get out of L.A." He turned his face and looked at this thoughtful young woman next to him. "Next exit-ramp is near a nice coffee shop. We could get some coffee and breakfast to go."

"Okay" Nell answered. "But I'm not very hungry. Maybe I'm too nervous."

Nell was very silent. That was unusual for her and Callen knew something else was bothering her.

"What are you thinking about, Nell?" he asked straightforward.

"I doubt if it's right what I'm doing" she hesitantly replied. Callen peered at her quizzically perking up his eyebrow. "Well" she continued "I don't know if it's fair to my parents not to let them know what I'm trying to find out. But I, I'm disappointed by them not having learned the truth by now."

"How do you think they would react to you?" he asked.

"Dunno" Nell sighed "I really love my parents, you know? They have always been there for me and constantly encouraged me on my way. I've never got suspicious of their behavior, as I'm not their biological child. Quite the opposite, I always felt, no I feel, honestly loved by them."

She paused and after a short moment she decided to let Callen in her life and thoughts. "I grew up in Idaho, together with my older twin brothers. My parents moved from Nevada to Idaho when I still was a little baby and they bought a nice house there. They almost spent their whole free time with us kids. It was wonderful. We all loved those nature-trips most. So we went swimming in Idaho's many lakes, went hiking, climbing, rafting, we were having picnics in the woods and slept in tents a lot and had plenty of fun. My brothers and my dad like fishing and so we often could prepare fish for dinner. The rural environment, the landscape, the way of life, it all was just the opposite of what living is like in Los Angeles now."

"Why do you think you can't ask them about the adoption?" he tried to figure out. "It sounds like it's very probable that they would understand your motivations."

"But in fact that's the problem. I worry they would not understand and would regard my actions as a breach of confidence. I'm so torn, Callen" Nell almost whispered her last words. And then she again turned silent for a while until she finally said "On reflecting I hope they won't spot my inquiries in any sort till I have talked to them about it after we're back from that trip. First of all, I am longing for getting to know this part of me, that has been kept back from me and I want to get to know my second family." Nell must admit to herself that voicing her thoughts had made her feel better since the burden she was carrying on her shoulders turned a bit lighter. "Thank you, Callen. It means a lot to me as you haven't got to do that" she said giving Callen a big-eyed look and smirked honestly at him "listening or giving advice and support, I mean, and coming with me."

Yes, he knew, he didn't need to help her, but she was the youngest team-member and he felt accountable for her, sort of. There were also some similarities in their lives due to their unknown ancestry what insisted him to support her and besides, it seemed, Hetty was involved…

.*.*.*.*.

Callen had turned the radio on and listened to a country music channel since Nell had been dozing - or maybe brooding? – for some time. Steering in total silence bored him. After a while he noticed that Nell was turning a bright smile at him. To be more precisely she was chuckling and trying to restrain her laughter, lifting one hand to cover her mouth, and he was really confused and wondering why.

"Can you tell me what is so funny?" he asked, shaking his head in astonishment.

Now, Nell couldn't help but laugh. "Don't get me wrong but I've never expected you, agent Callen, to sit in a car and - sing! - 'Country Roads'… really?"

Callen frowned. Had he been singing to the radio music without actually being aware of it? How could that be? Clearing his throat he asked "Was it so bad?" and turned a faint smile on her, his gloriously blue eyes glancing at hers.

"It was…" she tried to find words that would not hurt him too much "well… remarkable interesting?" but in reality it was… no, not really a torture, but her ears were bleeding… "In fact I hardly know you outside of work and this took me entirely by surprise."

She couldn't fool him. "So you suggest I'd better stop…" he responded amused, what sounded more like a statement, smiling back at her.

"I didn't say that" she replied lifting both hands in feigning regret, still grinning from ear to ear.

"I get the message!" he was feigning disappointment, but smiled. So, well, sad to say she didn't like his chant, but the fact that his musical interlude had raised Nell's mood was something one could call a success, or wasn't it?

.*.*.*.*.

At lunch time they arrived at Bishop, a neat sleepy little town. They decided to have a break for lunch in a nice diner. Just as they had sat down Nell's cell phone rang.

"Eric's calling" she said surprised and answered him "Hi Eric" and then paused to listen to him as she once put him on speaker to let Callen listen to what he was telling her.

"…for Hetty. She just called me into ops to track your GPS, but I don't know the reason why. I think she'll call you really soon now" they could hear Eric speak. "By the way what are you up to on the 395? " he asked curious. "And why is Callen with you? On Hetty's demand I tracked his phone, too, and it's very close to yours… You're on the way to Carson City, right? Well, I could have joined you, too…" now he sounded disappointed and - jealous? And Nell was quite sure that Callen wouldn't have missed the vibes of jealousy in Eric's voice.

"I'll tell you that later, Eric, I promise" Nell replied, not wanting to discuss their not existing 'thing' in Callen's presence. "Thank you for warning me, for whatever reason it is. I think I'll figure it out sooner or later. I owe you. Bye Eric!"

She pulled off the phone and looked straight at Callen. Her face showed a faint of annoyance. Of course it was nice that Eric had just informed her about Hetty's intentions but she disliked it a lot to be called out on what she was doing or whom she was with.

"Eric is sore?" he assumed. "And you seem to be, too."

"Hm hmmm" she grumbled.

"I'm sorry that he might think that… well… maybe you should have told him that he doesn't need to fear about you two just because I'm accompanying you" he tried to interfere.

Now Nell looked at him even more angrily and blushed, rather less caused by embarrassment than - more probably - by annoyance. "That's exactly the crucial point, Callen. There is no 'thing' between Eric and me and no reason why I should have to report. I trust him a lot and he is probably the best friend I will ever have. We in fact are not, we have never been and I think we will never be together. We are too alike and that's, well, kind of boring in a relationship? At least I currently do think so. But why am I telling you that? …"

Yes, why? Of course she liked Eric, she cared for him, but more as a friend than a boyfriend, right? She had to admit, Eric had always been there for her. He cared for her and he always listened to her. And she liked Eric a lot. But what was the reason she repeatedly assured in front of Callen, that she had absolutely no feelings for Eric in a romantic way? Confused, she stared out of the window.

She had a hunch it could have to do with Callen. When she started working at NCIS she was attracted to the blue-eyed man who was one of the people she had seen first but back then didn't know and who later turned out to be her kind-of boss. Knowing this she had never allowed herself thinking about him as someone else than her superior and now her thoughts exactly turned into this direction. God help.

Surprised at her sudden rant he almost stared at her and just when he wanted to make a try to calm her down it was his phone that started ringing. Hetty.

"Callen" he answered the phone but hesitated to put on speaker like Nell had done before for now.

"Mr. Callen' he heard Hetty say 'I insist you both on cancelling this little trip you are going on. For Miss Jones' sake. I regret, I can't tell you the reasons yet, but I need you to trust me, Mr. Callen."

He was confused by her weird instruction but could not accept an order like that "Hetty, you'd better tell me why - you know me well enough. Without a serious cause, I'm sure we will not break off our journey. Well, that's what it is anyway. A journey. It was you that gave the team some days off to relax, remember?" He looked at Nell whose questioning gaze was turned on him and winked at her, smirking slightly.

He could hear Hetty sigh on the other side of the phone what made him grin broadly. He knew she once more had to deal with his blunt behavior and she was fair certain she could not convince him of the contrary without concrete explanations. But that was something she had no power to reveal right now.

"Mr. Callen, you can be stubborn as a mule. And as I am afraid of not being able to prompt you to turn around I entreat you to act as it befits a gentleman." She got off the phone without another word, not trying to reason with him what was so unlike Hetty.

Callen was stunned. What was that? That was strange. Hetty was acting strange. He was now in his early forties and had been treated by her like a child? And he wondered what she actually was thinking about him besides of being stubborn and maybe sassy. What was she going to insinuate? Did she believe he would make out with Nell? What gave her a reason to think so poorly of him? Was there a rule that fraternization was not allowed at NCIS or did she just not like co-workers being personally involved? Whatever.

He decided to deactivate the GPS in their cell phones (Nell agreed without hesitation as she was still a bit pissed off with Eric spying on her, even though it was on Hetty's demand, but she knew him quite well and was sure he would try tracking her now just out of his own curiosity, not intending to do her any harm but simply for being sure where she was. And that was something she wanted to avoid for now.). And he would do that with this in his car after lunch, too. Just to be sure. Something was going on but he didn't know if 'something' was going to turn out to be something good. And this exactly spurred him to continue helping Nell and not to stop.

After lunch they went on without another break. Nell badly needed to distract herself from her complicated thoughts and so she started talking about her loved ones what was easy for her. Time flew by quickly as Nell told him about her family and it was a wonderful and funny distraction so his thoughts didn't return to Hetty's previous odd behavior.

Passing a traffic sign showing "Lake Tahoe" in big letters, Nell got a broad happy smile on her face. "I have been there several times with my family" she explained, turning her head to Callen. "It's marvelous there. Once we had been staying for over a week in a Lodge amidst the woods and very close to the lake. You should visit this beautiful natural spot at least once. I dream about going to spend some days there again one day."

"I'm sure you will someday, Nell. At the least when you're retired and have left our time-robbing job behind" he replied ironically and smiled at her.

A/N Couldn't resist: COD on The Ellen Show "Fearless with Karaoke" *lol*