A/N- Thank you to XoxMountainGirlxoX for your prompt for this one-shot and I hope you enjoy it.

And thanks to all of you who are following and/or reviewing this story.

This is currently the longest one-shot I've written

R&R TheAlphabetSong xx

Sometimes when everything decides to crash and burn and everything you try to do goes south all you need is some advice from a friend who's been through it all before.

The apartment block that Nell lived in was being exterminated from a case of termites so she was staying at Kensi's until the residents were given the all clear to come back. Frankly the whole situation had been adding some stress to Nell's life because she really didn't want to have to find a new place but knew she would have to if the exterminators couldn't get rid of the termites and it was a very extreme case.

She parked down the street from Kensi's house getting her messenger bag from the passenger's seat of her car, as she got out of her car and locked it she swung her bag over her shoulder. She walked up the street to Kensi's, whilst fumbling around in her bag for the spare set of keys she had for Kensi's house. Approaching the front door she found the key and put them into the lock, as she opened the door she peeked into the lounge room.

"Kens?" she called, when she received no answer she called again, "Kensi."

No response, maybe she'd gone to get food because it was a well known fact to everyone in the OSP team that Kensi was a terrible cook. Nell opened the door and went inside, as she turned the light for the lounge room on she wished she had of called Kensi's name louder because there on the lounge she saw Kensi and Deeks making-out. As the light came on, they hastily broke apart.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Nell said, "I should've called your name louder and knocked or something. God! I'm so sorry," before continuing to apologise profusely until she was cut off by Deeks saying something which Nell didn't really listen to because she was still shocked by the scene that she had walked in on. Although to be honest she was surprised she hadn't walked in on them previously, it had been just over a month since Deeks had proposed- well started to, he didn't even get out the entire sentence out before Kensi accepted, and since that day they'd been rather close.

"- I think we all knew it would happen eventually," Kensi admitted.

"And it won't happen again. Sorry again, I promise that I'll be out of your hair as soon as they've gotten rid of the termites," Nell said.

"No, feel free to stay as long as you need, you aren't any trouble Nell and don't you think otherwise," Kensi replied.

"Are you sure?" Nell asked, "it's just that since you've been engaged I seem like I'm interrupting something all the time."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Deeks said, "I was just leaving anyway."

Not that Nell believed him she let him walk out

"See you tomorrow!" they both called after him.

~~Later that Night~~

It was around quarter to nine when Nell's phone started ringing; she looked at the caller ID and saw 'Eric Beale' on the screen.

"Hey Eric," Nell said picking up her phone.

"Hey, have you heard back from the exterminators yet?"

"Nope, not a word," Nell said and then just went silent and said nothing for quite some time.

"Are you okay, Nell?" Eric asked taking a more serious tone, "Nell? Are you okay?"

Nell sighed, "I really don't want to have to move, and I haven't heard anything from the exterminators, they said that they would call last week and I still haven't heard anything," she sighed again, "my mother's getting worse and work is just so hectic at the moment, with all the cases and the possibility that I might have to move. It's just a lot of stress at the moment."

"Look, you know I'm here for you," Eric said, his voice full of sympathy.

"Thank you."

"I have to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Nell."

"Bye, Eric."

~~ The Next Afternoon ~~

"Yes- no I understand. Okay. Thank you for letting me know, Bye." Nell hung up and slumped into her chair in OPS, putting her elbows on her desk and leaning her head in her hands. She'd just gotten off the phone with the exterminator company. They told her that she was going to have to move, because the termite problem was worse than they had expected. The residents had a week to claim all of their items from their apartments and move out before they tore the apartment block down.

Eric walked back into OPS a few minutes after Nell got off the phone; his smile immediately vanished when he saw the state that Nell was in.

"Are you okay?" he asked, placing his hand on Nell's shoulder, of which she shrugged off.

"I have to move. The termite problem was worse than they had thought, I have a week to get my stuff before they tear down the entire apartment block," Nell said looking depleted.

"Hey, Nell look you're smart and we can figure this out, I'm sure Kensi won't mind letting you stay at her place for a few more nights and I will help you house hunt on the weekends," Eric offered, sitting at his desk in his chair next to Nell.

"Thank you, but I think that this is something that I need to figure out by myself," Nell said removing her face from her hands and sitting up straight again.

"Okay, but know that I'm here if you need me," Eric said, his voice full of sympathy.

Nell went back to her work and Eric couldn't help but notice the way in which she did her work; with her eyes rapidly scanning the screen through all the Intel for any and all useful information, like she always did but, something was wrong and anybody could see it. Her posture was lacking and she looked as though she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. What was Eric going to do to comfort her; it was like she was stone walling him.

~~6:00am- The Next Morning~~

The buzzing of his phone finally pulled him out of a fitful night's sleep.

Eric grumbled to himself as he fumbled around on his bedside table trying to find his phone. When he finally found it he picked it up and read the text message on the screen; it was from Deeks it read:

Hey, the waves look awesome this morning, pick you up in 20.

It wasn't a question, it was a 'be up and waiting or I'll pick the lock and drag you out there with my bare hands' and Eric didn't want a repeat of the first time Deeks asked him to go surfing. It had been the first time that he and Nell had argued, now that he thought about it, it had just been over a little thing, but Deeks wanted to help the geek of the team so he came over to go surfing even though Eric didn't want to. Never the less Deeks came over with a relentless attitude to get Eric into the waves.

~~Flashback~~

Eric heard Deeks' car pull up in his driveway, he had got the text from Deeks about half an hour ago but was too tired to get out of bed and therefore had stayed there. Admittedly Eric didn't predict that Deeks would pick the lock and then continually make noise that was louder than the kids from next door were when their parties got really out of hand.

But that was exactly what he did. He turned on the radio in the lounge room and slowly- so slowly that it was agonising- turned up the radio until it was at maximum volume. He then came and started bashing on Eric's door, which he couldn't really hear over the radio but he could see the door moving. Eventually he moved to the plan of actually infiltrating his room.

"The waves are awesome at this time of the day," Deeks started before continuing to coerce Eric out of bed and eventually to the beach.

~~End of Flashback~~

So Eric picked the smart option and got out of his bed and in under twenty minutes was waiting outside, sitting in the steps of his veranda with his surf board leaning against the door.

When Deeks turned up it was about 6:30. Deeks' timing didn't surprise him; Deeks was renowned for being late. Deeks got out of his car but kept the engine running as he picked up Eric's surf board and put it in the boot along with his.

Eric climbed in the passenger seat of Deeks' car and put on his seat belt.

"Had to escape from Kensi?" Eric assumed.

"She wants me to help pick flowers for the wedding," Deeks replied.

"At six in the morning?"

"Had to get out before she did. Last night it was all table arrangements, so presumably, flowers is next."

All Eric could do to this was laugh before fading out, "still seems weird."

"What do you mean?" Deeks asked.

"When I first met Kensi she was known as bad-ass Blye, she never really connected with anyone and now she's getting married. It's bizarre. And especially to someone with a completely different personality," Eric concluded.

"Wait, wait. How is my charming personality completely different to Kens'?" Deeks asked.

"Well I don't mean that you don't make a good couple, because you do. – and I'm happy for you guys..." Eric trailed off, stumbling over his words before summing up his thoughts with, "opposites attract."

"Anyway, how's it going with Jones?" Deeks asked.

"Do you remember when Kensi came back from Afghanistan?"

"Yeah, of course I do."

"And the fact that we knew she was going through stuff but she could only get through it by herself? What did you do to comfort her?" Eric asked and in seeing the slightly confused look on Deeks' face added, "Nell's got a lot of stress on her with the apartment and other stuff, and she is really upset and I have no idea on how to be there for her but not..." Eric faded characteristically lost for words.

"Smothering, over protective, majorly concerned?" Deeks supplied.

"Not going over the top," Eric replied hesitantly, choosing his words carefully.

"It took Kensi and I- well mostly Kensi, because I was pretty open about my feelings. But anyway it took us a long time to get together, and we were almost there before she got sent to Afghanistan," Deeks explained, "after Afghanistan we had to take three steps back to take one forward, so I tried to be there for her and my first attempts well, let's just say they weren't my finest hour."

"Like the coffee situation on her first day back?" Eric asked.

"That one... And several others," Deeks said fading off at the end, "it took me a while to figure it out but I learned from my several mistakes and came up with a very simple master plan," Deeks said.

"Which was?"

"I gave her space," Deeks answered simply.

"So I should give Nell some space?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, you give her the space she needs until she comes to you and then you give her the comfort she needs," Deeks said whilst pulling into a parking spot, "now let's go and catch some waves before they die down."

Deeks and Eric surfed for about an hour and a half there wasn't a wave good enough to surf in sight. They drove past a coffee shop and they each bought a coffee, before Deeks dropped Eric back at his house.

Over the next few days Eric gave Nell space, he didn't ignore her, but he didn't smother her with attention either. By the end of the fortnight Eric could tell that Nell was less stressed and he silently thanked Deeks for his advice.

It was a Thursday night when Eric heard a knock at his door. He had a feeling he knew who it was but, didn't want to get his hopes up too much. When he opened the door he was happy to have his hopes met when he saw the distinctive red hair that told him he was right.

"To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Eric asked in a slightly funny voice, bringing out a smile on Nell's face.

"I just wanted to thank you for giving me space and letting me sort things out by myself," Nell said.

"Not all credit should go to me, I had to get a little advice from a friend," Eric said. Nell smiled again and looked down at her feet when nothing further was said.

"Do you want to come in?" Eric asked.

"No thanks, I haven't slept well in a while and I'm really tired so I should go back to Kensi's and get some sleep," Nell replied.

"Yeah, how's that been going recently?"

"Pretty good actually."

"Okay, but if that does suddenly go south, I'm sure sleeping on the couch won't kill me," Eric said with a slight smile on his face.

"Thank you for understanding," Nell said planting a kiss on Eric's lips.

"Thank you for not yelling at me when I didn't understand," Eric said with a more serious tone.

"Hey, since when have you ever heard me yell," Nell said lightly.

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

At that comment they both laughed a little, before bidding each other farewell and Nell left. Eric watched her drive down his street before he went back inside and returned to his video game.

A/N- I have a really good plan for my next one-shot and I'm really excited about it, so I hope you all get excited about it as well!