Hetty has always been a mystery, this Callen knows. He's beginning to think she's clairvoyant, though, because the day after he and Nell discuss the lack of Hetty intervention, she intervenes.

"Mr. Callen, a word."

It's a statement, almost an order, not a question.

They sit in silence at Hetty's desk for several moments, staring each other right in the eyes.

"It has come to my attention," she begins, "that your interactions with Miss Jones seem to have taken on, shall we say, a more personal nature."

Callen isn't sure what response Hetty is expecting, but he knows whatever response he gives should be the truth. They respect each other enough for that.

"We're seeing each other, yes."

Hetty nods and pours a cup of tea. She eyes him over the lip of the mug as she takes a sip. Callen merely raises an eyebrow.

"Are you sure of your intentions, Mr. Callen?"

He turns his head to the side in question. "My...intentions?"

"This is not a mission and Miss Jones is not a means to an end, to put it crudely."

Callen feels his defenses rise and deliberately tries to squash them. He's only moderately successful.

"I'm aware."

"I suggest if you have any...doubts...of where you think your relationship will go, you clue Miss Jones in."

Callen's brow furrows, unsure of Hetty's point.

"She's a smart woman, Mr. Callen, but she can't read your mind," Hetty tries.

"Oh. Got it," he says. "Is that all?"

Hetty nods, turning to some paperwork. Callen rises to leave. He's not two steps before her voice calls to him once more.

"And, Mr. Callen, do remember Miss Jones has spent a good deal of time creating and reinforcing many of your legends. You cannot hide from her."

Callen grins for the rest of the day.


To say Nell is a little frustrated with the pace of her relationship with Callen is putting it mildly. It isn't as if she expected to, say, jump into bed with him immediately. But she didn't expect him to be so, for lack of a better term, careful.

It makes her wonder if she really has a future with Callen. Sure, they spend an awful lot of time together now but he's never had her over to his place and he never stays at hers. She knows he's not that old fashioned, despite him saying he doesn't want to rush things, so she starts to think maybe it's her.

Her thoughts are interrupted with the arrival of Sam at her main floor station.

"Can I help you?" she asks, thinking if she was supposed to have done something for him.

Sam actually looks a little flustered.

"Yes, actually, you can," he says. "You can keep me from killing Eric."

Nell sits up in surprise. "Eric?"

Sam nods and pulls up a chair. "He won't stop talking about you and G."

Nell's eyes widen in shock. "Really?"

"Yeah, he keeps cornering me and trying to, I dunno, gossip? It's getting on my nerves."

Nell can't help it; she laughs.

Sam just gives her a look.

"I'm kind of surprised he hasn't announced it to the whole complex," she admits.

"Oh, trust me, I think that's the next step if he doesn't get his inner school girl out," Sam grouses.

"Sorry," she says. "We're the ones that mentioned you knew."

Sam sighs and shakes his head. "It's like he's never had friends in relationships before."

"Well, not many of us do," she reasons.

"How do you mean?"

"The field agents probably have it harder, but the support staff, especially like me and Eric, it's not like we can talk about what we do either."

"I suppose that's true," Sam agrees. "To be honest, I half expected you and Eric to hook up."

Nell blushes at the comment.

"I'll admit I was...curious about and maybe a tiny bit interested in him before I came here. He has quite a reputation in the community," she says, not looking at Sam. "And we do hang out."

"But?" Sam prods. "There's always a but."

"We're too alike."

Sam just laughs. "Well, if you wanted something different, G certainly fits the bill."

"How's that going, by the way?" Sam continues. "Not that I want to pry, like Eric. In fact, forget I asked."

"No, it's okay. To be honest, it'd be nice to talk to someone about it," she says. "It's...going."

Sam merely raises an eyebrow.

Nell sighs. "We spend time together and it's fun..."

"Let me guess," Sam starts. "You feel like he doesn't exactly share? Like he's holding something back?"

"Yes, that's it exactly," she breathes. "I thought it was just me."

Sam smiles again, this time a little sadly. "Unfortunately, it's G. We've been partners, and friends, for several years. It's never been easy."

"What do you do?"

"For a while, I just let him distance himself," Sam admits. "But then I realized G's never known any different. I mean, how much stability in personal relationships can a person have when they've hopped 37 different foster homes in 13 years as a child and moves homes almost yearly, if not faster, as an adult?"

"I guess that's true," Nell muses.

"So, I think G just doesn't know what to do when things are going well. It's like he's programmed to believe everything will end badly so it does."

"That...doesn't sound encouraging."

"Just..." Sam gesticulates. "He can run away, sometimes. But I never let him run for long."

"You think I should wait for him?"

"No, that isn't fair to you," Sam says. "But you can be there for him."

"So, give him something to come home to?" she tries, still not understanding.

"Sort of. Think of him as like a lone wolf...or a feral cat. A mangy one. And stubborn, too. Not to mention-never mind. Anyway. He'll come to you if he knows you're not a threat. He'll return to you if he knows you'll be there. It's hard to explain."

Nell's quiet for a long moment before she speaks again. "And if I can't?"

"Then end it now, before it's too late."

Neither of them voice the fact that it's probably already too late.

"So, how far does this analogy go?" she asks instead.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if he's like a feral cat, should I like, expect dead mice on my doorstep or something?"

Sam barks a laugh. "If he starts doing that, call me. That's when we know he'll have to be put down."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Nell replies, seriously.

"Same," Sam agrees. "Damn, here comes Eric again. I'll see you later."

He beats a hasty retreat, leaving Nell with even more confused thoughts.


Kensi's staring at a blank spot about a foot in front of her face, trying to think up more interesting nouns to refer to a suspect in her latest report, when her eyes focus on what she's actually looking at.

Nell is at her workbench again and Callen's with her.

Kensi's eyes narrow and she blindly flings her arm out, smacking Deeks on the arm.

"Hey!" he complains, rubbing his arm.

"Don't be such a baby," she mutters.

"What was that for?"

She's still watching Callen and Nell, who are now standing quite close together. Does he have his hands on her shoulders?

"Look," she whispers.

Deeks is quiet as they watch. "Is he...giving her a shoulder rub?"

They tilt their heads to the left in unison and continue to watch. Nell smiles at Callen when he sits next to her and puts a hand on his arm affectionately.

"Whoa," Kensi and Deeks say together.

Kensi turns to Deeks, clearly surprised. "When did that happen?"

"A few weeks ago," Sam supplies as he walks into the bullpen, dropping into his chair across from them.

"What? No way," Deeks protests. "We saw them before and they were not like that."

"No, that was a couple weeks before a few weeks ago," Sam says. "Back then there wasn't anything going on. At least, not officially."

"Wait, what?" Kensi says, thinking and flicking a finger in the air counting on an invisible calendar. "Oh, I get it."

Deeks raises an eyebrow.

"There wasn't anything going on when we thought there might have been, so it was just after we thought there was something going on when there really wasn't that there really started to be something going on," Kensi explains.

Deeks just shakes his head. "My brain hurts."

"Anyway, now that you two are clued in, Eric can assault you with his need to gossip," Sam says.

A sharp whistle cuts through the air.

"Speaking of," Kensi mutters. "This ought to be interesting."

There's an odd tension in the room when the agents gather in Ops. Eric is practically bouncing on his feet. Nell and Callen are on opposite sides of the room and Kensi realizes that, if she thinks about it, they've been doing that a lot in recent weeks.

"Mr. Beale, is there something wrong?" Hetty asks when Eric doesn't begin the briefing promptly.

"What? No. It's just. No, I said I wouldn't say anything. But-"

Kensi and Deeks share a look and decide to give Eric some relief.

"We all know, Eric," Kensi says.

"You do?" he asks slowly, clearly confused as to what Kensi is referring to.

She rolls her eyes, then pointedly looks at Callen, then Nell.

"Oh. Oh! Oh, thank god, I didn't know how much longer I could keep quiet," Eric admits, visibly relaxing. "I mean, even though I promised I wou-"

"Mr. Beale!" Hetty calls out, trying to regain some order in the group.

"Right, sorry!" he says, then starts pulling up files.

The mission is pretty straight forward and Nell and Eric take turns providing information. Kensi half expects Callen and Nell to act differently now that everyone in the room knows they're involved but she isn't completely surprised when they act the same as they did before. After all, it is a professional environment.

She does, however, note that Callen waits for Nell and stands close to her, a hand on the small of her back, as they all file out of Ops and Kensi smiles.

"I have to admit," Deeks says, "I didn't think they'd get together. I mean, isn't he kind of old for her?"

Kensi grins wider. "I dunno, Deeks. Some women prefer an older man. Certainly one who's more mature."

Deeks scoffs at the implication.