Chapter 7

Nell was still in the middle of rehab session as Eric arrived at the hospital the next day, he watched her taking step by step very carefully some sweat forming on her forehead. She shortly looked at her partner, him being there giving her the encouragement to continue the rehab session and she wanted to fight to get out as fast as possible. Doctor Farris was very happy because of the great progress that Nell had made in the short amount of time that she had been at the hospital; Eric hugged her tightly as she had finally finished the rehab session and then accompanied her back to her room.

She had a big smile on her face as she lay back down in bed, being very happy that her time at the hospital had almost come to an end: "Just a few more days and I'll be finally back at work, I felt so useless as I had to lay in bed all day, having to call a nurse every time I wanted to get out of bed." She hadn't slept very well last night, because of the nightmares that haunted her but she still could cover up that fact very well but deep down she knew that she had to face her fears one way or another. They talked a lot during the next hours, a couple of hours before lunch time Kensi arrived at hospital: "Hey Nell how are feeling today? I brought you some oreos but don't let the nurses see them ok?" Nell grinned at and gestured to the long dark brown haired field agent that her mouth would be shut and then Kensi quickly hid the oreos in the drawer of her colleagues night stand and shut it.

"I'm feeling better day by day and really can't wait to get back to work." Of course she was confident that the trauma she had endured wouldn't keep her from doing her job, no matter what it cost she would forget about the nightmares that had kept her most of the nights awake, she just had to because she didn't even want to consider the alternative: quitting her job at NCIS. The rest of the week went by very fast and as she kept on doing the rehab sessions at the hospital, she was almost back to a hundred percent but Doctor Farris kept telling her that she should take it slow the first days back at work or else her body would probably collapse under too pressure. The whole team kept visiting through the whole week, Nell secretly had eaten some oreos together with Eric and that reminded Eric of that one day where he and his partner had done that in the absence of Hetty. Deep down they felt also today that they were doing something wrong and they had felt that Hetty would come through the door any moment and would probably be not amused because she had forbid the both techs to eat in the presence of the high-tech at OPS. Eric had felt in love with Nell after he was first a little annoyed that she had the tendency to finish his sentences, after he had got to know her better he soon realized that there was definitely more between them as friendship but didn't knew at first if she felt the same way or if she even thought that it was a wise idea to start a relationship with a co-worker.

Soon they got a lot closer; making him realize that they may be really could become something more than partners. Flashback: Eric had just received a call from Nell, from the tone in her voice he could really tell that she was upset and he just wanted to be there for her right now tightly holding her in his arms. "Nell what happened?" His partner sobbed a lot during the call, barely being able to speak because of that: "He cheated…on…me! Jack…cheated on me!" He really didn't know what to feel right in this moment, should he be happy because of the fact that Jack and Nell weren't a couple anymore or also sad because Nell was really upset because of that.

"I'm really sorry to hear that Nell." Was the only thing that he could say right now and he hoped that was some consolation for his partner in this difficult situation. It took a while but finally Nell spoke again and asked her partner: "Can you come to my apartment tonight? I really need to talk to somebody about this thing."

"Of course I will be at your apartment right away after work." Eric replied because Nell was his partner and partners where supposed to be there for each other.

After he had finally arrived at Nell's apartment after work, he hit the doorbell and anxiously waited for his partner to open the door for him and he could imagine that she probably had red puffy eyes because she had probably cried a lot in the last hours. Wiping away some fresh tears she finally welcomed her partner into her apartment, Eric followed her into the bedroom as he had closed the door behind him, he kicked off his shoes, lie next to her and softly stroke with one hand over her back trying his best to calm down her sobs.

As her sobs had finally ended, the two techs just looked deeply into each other's for some minutes and both of them not sure what to do right now. Nell was the first to take the initiative; she moved closer to Eric's face and softly started to kiss him. Eric kissed her back after a short hesitation and their lips stayed connected for what seemed like a couple of hours, when they finally drew away from each other, Nell was the first to say: "I love you Eric."

End Flashback

AN: I hope you liked the chapter, please read and review.