Badabing. I'm back after some significant internet issues. Thanks so much to my reviewers. This may be creepy, but I would totally love to hang with you guys. Chillin' out to the perfect summer playlist. Life's good kind of day. We'll all be so happy you won't care that this is a short chapter. Right?

Ops was unusually quiet as Nell and Eric worked across the room from one another on different things. Nell had the tracking device Deeks had gotten out of Libby Armitage's watch while Eric combed through the laptop Sam had brought back from Libby's hotel room.

Eric sighed and pulled off his glasses, rubbing his tired eyes, "I'm sorry."

Nell glanced around the empty Ops center, "For what?"

"For skipping work."

Nell shrugged without turning around, "Not a big deal."

"I feel bad though…I mean I know that you and Nate are good- friends and-"

Nell rolled her eyes, and cut off her partner, "Apology accepted. Let's get back to work."

Eric let out an inaudible sigh and turned back to his examination of the laptop. Clearly, Nell was still slightly miffed. It wouldn't have been a big deal any other day…alright, so it might have been, he is a pretty crucial part of Ops, but it had been a really slow last couple of weeks. Is taking one day off so horrible? Not in the real world, but around here it seemed to be. Devotion doesn't even begin to describe all the OSP agents' feelings towards their job. It was pretty much there life. And of course, Nell was no exception. Plus, it didn't help his cause that she was a rule-follower-extraordinaire when it came to things like skipping a day once in a while. She was probably that girl in high school that actually showed up on Senior Ditch Day so she wouldn't get into trouble-

"Hey!"

Eric jumped at the sound of Nell's voice, hoping he hadn't been talking out loud (which occasionally happened), "What?" he asked, trying not to sound flustered.

"I think I found something, come here."

Silently relieved, Eric abandoned his post, "Whatcha got?"

"This tracking device is wirelessly connected to the internet; it bounces around and picks up local signals in whatever location it happens to be. That makes it nearly impossible to track because it doesn't remember or store the internet sources it used."

Eric grinned and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "But you managed to track it."

Nell grinned back, "I did. I followed the tracking device back to where it was sending its signal. It's an email account."

High-five, "Nice! Did you get into the email account?"

Nell nodded, "But that's where the trail peters off. It's a free email account set up at a library using a fake name. I could probably find where it's being accessed from the next time someone logs on. The history showed that it had been accessed multiple times a day but it's been inactive for over a week."

Eric frowned, "Are there any emails in the account that could help us?"

Nell shook her head, "Not really, all the emails come from the tracking device. No contacts, not even any spam. It receives an email update, with map, from the tracker every hour. If you want an exact location of the tracker, all you have to do is send a coded email to the tracker. Other than that, there's no outgoing mail either."

They stared in silence at the tracking device. Eric frowned even deeper and glanced over at Nell, "So, the question is, why did they stop checking on the tracker about a week ago? That was just after Libby Armitage was shot in San Diego then life-lighted to LA."

"They stopped tracking her because they knew where she was...and where she was going to be. The hospital-"

"Where they snatched her from," Eric finished grimly.

Fifteen minutes later, Callen's team stood gathered around Ops, frowning grimly as they listened to what Nell and Eric had discovered about the tracking device.

"Is there any way you can trace the ownership of the tracking device Sam asked finally.

Nell shook her head, "I tried, it was either paid for in cash or purchased off the Black Market."

Deeks picked up the watch, "What about the watch itself? Can you tell when or where it was bought?"

Nell shook her head again, "I also tried that. It's $6.50 at your local Wal-Mart. Over a thousand have been sold just in the last two weeks in the LA area. Pretty much impossible to see who bought them, but I'm running the list of credit card names through the system to see if anything pops up. As of yet, nothing."

The team was silent for a moment before Callen spoke, "What about the laptop we got from the hotel room?"

"Zip," Eric said sadly, "It's not even operational. I took it apart and it looks like someone dumped a gallon of something all over it. It also smells. I'd wager that someone rescued it out of a dumpster."

Kensi threw her hands up in the air, "Another useless lead!"

"Not all of the leads are useless," Eric said, waving a disapproving finger at Kensi, "Cupid's Heart Operation actually panned out."

"It's actually Operation Cupid's Heart," Nell continued as Eric pulled out his tablet and started typing away, "Cupid's Heart was a top secret project spearheaded in the early fifties."

"Basically," Eric said, pulling up photocopies of old papers on to the big screen, "a small group of scientists were trying to build indestructible soldiers who would stand up to anything, even-"

"A nuclear war," a voice from behind the group finished. Henrietta Lange sauntered up to the front of the room and continued her explanation, "Officially, Cupid's Heart was never a United States government sanctioned operation. But, many people in the government thought it was a good idea, so they 'unofficially' supported the project."

"Or they did, until one of the scientists came forward with information as to what was going on in the project," Eric said, pulling up more pictures and photocopies, "They were trying to build a human being that ran…almost like a car. Replaceable parts. Regenerating organs, limbs, even brains," Eric tried to look serious, but mostly failed.

"Sounds like a bad sci-fi flick," Sam muttered, frowning at Eric, who had the decency to look sheepish.

"Come on, you have to admit it's the slightest bit cool," Eric said, looking at Sam.

Nell rolled her eyes and continued, "Things were just beginning to get out of hand when the government stepped in, but everything about Cupid's Heart was unethical in almost every way. The US confiscated all the files and placed the remaining five doctors in prison for heinous crimes against humanity."

Kensi frowned, "Where are the doctors now?"

Eric handed Nell his tablet, "Of the six, two died in prison. Dr. Magda Petrof died in 1958 from pneumonia and Dr. James Red was killed in a riot in the early seventies. Of the three remaining in prison, Dr. Maurice Jenkins is currently in the infirmary at Jacksonville State Penitentiary with a terminal brain tumor, Dr. John Meriwether is in solitary confinement in Beaumont Federal Pen, and Dr. Joe Hazlett is in Marion, also in solitary confinement."

"And the sixth doctor was a Dr. Mary Drew-Scott," Hetty began, slowly pacing before big screen, "and Dr. Drew-Scott was a CIA plant. The head of the CIA at the time was one of the few government officials who was against the operation from the start. He sent Dr. Drew-Scott in because of her medical background and her operative status. Her cover remains in tack to this day; all the other doctors assumed that because she flipped on them, she stayed out of jail. She retired from the CIA about five years ago and is living outside of LA under the name of Mary Williams."

Deeks really wanted to ask just how Hetty knew all these tasty tidbits, but he refrained from asking and instead volunteered to go and interview the former CIA operative early the next morning.

As the partners were walking out, Kensi stopped and addressed Hetty, "Have you heard from Nate?"

Hetty shook her head, "No, Miss Blye, I haven't. Why do you ask?"

Kensi shrugged, "I just haven't seen him since this afternoon."

As the two partners walked out of the Ops Center, across town, Nate Getz slowly unlocks the door to his apartment, picks up the stack of mail, and headed inside. Most of the apartment is packed away and covered up, but he plops down on the couch, tossing the mail on the coffee table and stretching out his long legs.

He'd spent all afternoon prowling around the city and trying to calm himself down. Hours of brain wracking had led him to nothing. He had absolutely not idea where Libby where was, who would have kidnapped her, why she was a target…or any other answers. How could he know so little after they'd been through so much together?

He was disgusted with himself and he kicked the coffee table in frustration. A ragged blue envelope fluttered to the floor. When the lanky man leans over to pick up the envelope, his heart skips a beat. The handwriting is so familiar he can't get the envelope open fast enough.

So, did anyone else see the genius of my Operation Cupid's Heart? No? Okay. Well I was reading this book about Greek mythology and cupid and it just sorta happened.

How about this, does anyone else think that the only reason that Nell and Eric aren't together yet is because Nell is the next Hetty and therefore she can have no happiness? 'Cause I think that Eric is totally on board with the whole lets-be-an-aDORKable-little-couple thing. And yes, this little conundrum is seriously annoying me. 'Cause Eric and Deeks and Nate are the only people I really like on LA. I'm a hardcore original NCIS kind of girl.

Yours,

Agent Striker

PS. Did you like Eric's little inner rant? I was trying something new.

~ Striker

PSS. Sorry about the cliffy ;]