Young Geek Love - Glasses
A/N- Thank you to everyone who reviewed and thanks to everyone who is reading Actions and Consequences, and I am working on the fourth chapter but.. I'm stuck so I finished writing this idea instead. It's a little bit of backstory and some love between our favourite geeks.
Disclaimer : I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.
Nell had been working away for so long that she'd lost track of time. It wasn't even like she had anyone to talk to. Lots of other people that normally worked up in Ops weren't here. Included in this group was Eric. She wasn't overly concerned as to where anyone else was, but Eric. It was entirely unusual for Eric to not be at work and for her to have not received a text or voicemail from him explaining his absence. As she thought of it, she subconsciously picked up her phone, flipped it over and pressed the centre button to turn the screen on; there were no text messages. Since she was all alone she unlocked her phone and dialed Eric's number, she let the ring tone play a few times through before she heard his voicemail take over: "Hi, this is Eric Beale, please leave your name and number, or your message, " the automated response played.
She sighed as the voicemail flicked over; beeping, indicating that she could leave her message.
"Hey, Eric. It's Nell, I was just wondering if you were coming in today because as of now you're three hours late. Call me back when you get this. Just want to make sure that you're okay."
God she sounded cheesy! And now she had that horrible recording on loop in her head. It made her sound like an uncharacteristically worried girlfriend, which was practically every thing she didn't want to be.
She decided it would be best to just let it hang, and try to distract herself from her partner's absence. Until a blatenly obvious idea hit her.
She got up from her chair and walked out of Ops, down the stairs, past the bullpen and into Hetty's office.
"Hetty," Nell said to get her attention
"Yes Miss Jones," Hetty answered.
"Would you happen to know where Eric is?"
"Mr Beale has a doctors appointment," she replied, "I'm surprised he didn't tell you."
"As am I," Nell said confused, "thanks Hetty," she said turning to walk back up to Ops.
"Miss Jones," Hetty said. Nell stopped walking and turned around.
"Yes, Hetty."
"We have a case. I just got off the phone after having a very heated argument with the director of Homeland Security. Arguable duristiction over the murder of a former marine. I convinced him to give NCIS the duristiction. The file should be sitting in your inbox as we speak," Hetty explained, "team briefing in ten minutes."
"I'll get right onto it."
00..
An hour later the team was briefed, Nell was running kaleidoscope and facial recognition whilst running a background check for possible suspects and chasing down a lead given to her by Kensi and Deeks.
It was at this time that the chair next to her moved. Being pulled back by a hand, she looked over and saw that Eric had managed to sneak up on her.
"Sorry I was late, I had an appointment with my Optomitrist and then my mum called, it got very hectic," Eric explained.
"That's okay, and Hetty told me about the appointment. Anyway, we've got a case."
"Okay."
"Former marine, Robert Johnson was stabbed in his home yesterday afternoon at roughly three o'clock. I'm currently compiling a list of possible suspects, and using facial rec and kaleidoscope to track down a lead of Deeks and Kensi's."
"Where is he currently employeed?" Eric asked.
"He was employeed at a newspaper printing company called 'Black-White Prints'. Callen and Sam are there now interviewing co-workers."
From what Eric saw he had his work cut out for him, so he got to it. Knowing there was very little point in asking Nell a question now when she was zoned in on her work. He figured she'd noticd eventually.
A break had finally come when they'd had no hits from kaleidoscope or facial rec. That was when Eric decided to ask Nell his question.
"So earlier when I was on the phone with my mum she invited me to lunch this weekend. Well, actually she invited both of us to lunch this weekend," Eric said hesitantly, turning to look at Nell.
"Great, I'm looking forward to meeting her," Nell said genuinely greatful but without turning to look at Eric.
"Sorry, I didn't ask you first but she just sprung it on me out of nowhere," Eric said sounding flustered, like he was trying to cover for something.
Nell swiveled around in her chair to face him, placing her hand on his shoulder, "Honestly, I'm really excited to be meeting your mum, plus it gives me something to do this weekend. Don't worry that you didn't ask me first,"she said looking him dead straight in the eyes. And that was when she noticed that there wasn't a lens of plastic in front of his face.
"Oh my god Eric, you're not wearing your glasses!" she exclaimed.
"I got contacts," Eric replied proudly.
"I- I see that," she fumbled still trying to wrap her head around the image in front of her.
"To be honest I never really liked my glasses, but when you have to wear them eveyday for your entire life wearing them becomes like brushing your hair," Eric explained, "you don't do it because you want to, you do it because it's a necessity."
"I hope this decision has nothing to do with me," Nell said in a slightly quieter voice.
"And why would you think that?" He asked matching her tone, "I mean you encouraged the decision with your comments, but it's something I've always wanted to do."
Nell sighed, "It sounded like the right thing to say at the time," she said regrettably, "I mean, I meant it at the time and maintain it now. But you don't look like yourself without your glasses on."
"Okay," Eric said exhaling deeply, "this doesn't change anything. Does it?"
"No, of course not I just. It just took me by surprise, that's all. Just a little sudden."
"More sudden than my mum's invitation," he joked, lightening the mood.
Nell laughed, thankful for the change of mood, "Yes, more sudden than your mum's invitation."
Nell was still getting over the shock when they started to work again. Granted, she did think he looked better without his glasses on but they were also part of his personality, Nell had never known Eric without his glasses, it would be as strange as if he started wearing long pants. She knew he was smart, not smarter than her, but still smarter than the general population of Los Angeles, but his glasses made him look the part, when he wore his glasses he looked like a nerd; like her nerd. And frankly without them she was slightly worried she'd have competition, because without his glasses he looked like a different person, and this different person was incredibly good-looking.
Eric Beale, was not Eric Beale without his glasses.
00..
It was Saturday when Nell rolled over knowing that she was not getting anymore sleep this morning. Luckily it was quater past seven and she'd probably just laze around for the rest of the morning, or at least until she had to get ready... on second thoughts she'd better leave more time than usual becuase she knew she'd panic over every single detail of her apperence.
She flipped her tv on, figuring she'd tune in on the news, she'd try not to get sucked into the polotics of it and watch it just long enough to get the headlines. After she managed to drag her eyes from a very interesting news report, she walked into her kitchen and started to boil the kettle for a cup of tea. She ate breakfast and then went to shower, leaving more than enough time to procrastinate over what to wear.
This is why fourty- five minutes later she found herself sitting on her bed with half her wardrobe surrounding her. She turned her head as she evaluated each one and then coming up with some ridiculous excuse against it.
'Pull yourself together Jones' she mentally scalded herself, the last time it took her this long to pick out an outfit was before her first date with Eric. This is different, this is worse. Well, worse in the sense of she was meeting his mother. Not the fact that she didn't want to, the fact that she had to make a good first impression. That was something she wasn't great at doing, her first week working with Eric was a perfect example, but that turned out better than she hoped. She just didn't want what she wore to affect how Eric's mum saw her. Just in case she was one of those people that judged books by covers.
Green button up shirt with a black skirt and leggings with a -... No, doesn't match; Black dress with her blue cardigan- what was she kidding, she wasn't going to a funeral. Blue skirt, red long sleeve shirt, blue felt- like jacket? No, bad memories of how Brown had almost killed her. She discarded the jacket letting it fall onto the pile of clothes that were already towering precariously on her bed, she swapped the blue skirt for a black one of its kind and grabbed a denim jacket from her cupboard. She hoisted up a pair of black stockings she'd previously decided against and pulled on a pair of knee length boots.
Finally happy with what she was wearing she moved into the bathroom, where she kept her make up. She only put on as much as she normally wore, with slight undertones of red eye shadow to match her shirt.
It was eleven o'clock by the time she was finished procrastinating over every little detail. Earrings, no earrings, if earrings then what kind? Long hanging ones could give off the wrong apperence, but studs could just be considered plain and boring. Ugh. She had only herself to blame. She was an analyst, she was paid to think of every possible outcome and people's reactions to said outcomes.
At eleven thirty- ish Nell heard a knock on her apartment door. She grabbed her bag and opened the door, where Eric was standing. They walked through the hallway and down the four flights of stairs.
Eric had parked in the street in front of her apartment building.
"I like those earrings," Eric commented unlocking the car.
"Thank you," she replied getting into it.
They drove a while just talking about things until Eric found a spot to mention some things about his mum.
"Just one thing about my mum. Don't bring up my dad. He's been out of the picture since I was born, I'm not even sure if he knows I exist, the one thing I am sure of is that mum hates him more than Callen hates Janvier."
"I'm sorry, and I'm not going to tell you that I understand how you feel, because I have no idea how it feels."
"Thank you. I guess it makes it easier that I never knew him, so it doesn't sting me as much as it's scarred my mum. But I'm also kind of glad that he's never come back into our lives becuase it would probably just screw up what my mum and I have."
"Okay, no mentioning your dad."
"And I think I should warn you that she has some slightly unsettling hobbies," Eric said hesitantly as if not quite sure how to word the last bit.
"Like what?"
"Well, she used to be a taxidermist," he replied, "but for the past twenty years she's been a social services worker."
"So she got tired of stuffing parrots and decided to help people instead?"
"Well when I told her that stuffing birds was creepy she decided that a career change was in order."
"Okay."
00..
They walked up the driveway and Eric knocked on the door. Nell wasn't nervous she was just anxious. The last time she remembered being nervous was when she was captured by Inman and had the magazine for his gun resting on her shoulder. She'd even had the team there with her. Yeah, no she could call it anxious or whatever she wanted to but she was in fact really damn nervous. As she heard footsteps nearing the door she grabbed Eric's hand and laced her fingers through his. Took a deep breath in hopes of having her smile hide her nerves.
The door opened.
The door opened to reveal a woman who looked to be around fifty, which was younger than she had expected. She had blonde- white hair that was a lighter shade than Eric's and she wore black framed glasses.
"Eric!" she exclaimed, pulling him into a hug coincidentally tearing their hands apart.
She pulled back, "I'm so glad you came," she said before spotting Nell and turning her attention Nell, "It's so nice to finally be able to put a face to the name, I'm Tristie,"
Nell nodded her head, "thank you for the invitation," Nell replied holding out her hand that wasn't holding Eric's.
She completely ignored it and instead pulled her into a hug, "I don't like handshakes," she stated after releasing Nell, "I think they're too formal. And I tend to reserve them for business meetings only," she explained as she ushered them through the door and into the living room.
"They are," Nell responded firmly.
Nell put her bag down next to the lounge and wondered around the living room whilst trying to eavesdrop on the whispered conversation that Eric and his mother were having.
"This is the girl that you haven't shut up about for the past four years!?" She asked.
Eric sighed, regretably wishing that they could have this conversation at another time. A time preferably when Nell was not evaesdropping on their conversation like he was sure she was now.
"And she's really pretty," she noted.
"Yeah she is," he said,with a dream-like quality to his voice.
"God, you're lucky," she commented.
"Yeah, we are," Nell commented from her spot on the other side of the room, before she turned around and asked, "can I ask what this is?" she said pointing to a photo of a younger Eric who appeared to be asleep and had a plait through his shoulder length hair.
"Me with shoulder length hair..." Eric replied plainly, acting as though him with shoulder length hair wasn't odd.
"We were coming back from visiting his grandparents and he fell asleep on the train ride home," Tristie explained smiling at the memory.
Nell let out a small laugh.
"And if you think that's good you should see this one," she said turning around and scanning the walls for something. When she found it she walked over to it with Nell following behind her across the room. Tristie took a photo off the wall. It was Eric slightly older than the previous photo wearing a white shirt covered from head to toe with several different colours of paint, also sporting a pair of slightly over-sized glasses. Similar glasses to the ones that he had worn until a few days ago.
"After that I discovered that he would never be an artist," Trisite noted.
"But you also never thought that I'd end up working in I.T," Eric added.
"Not that he ever told me anything about it anyway."
"That's because you weren't convinced that I had a stable job after the Vagas stunt."
"This is true," she replied.
"Wait," Nell interupted, "what Vagas stunt?"
Eric turned to look at her, "Umm," he scratched his head, "it involved me, Ira, and a blackjack table," he replied hesitantly.
"Is that why you were banned from Vagas?" Nell asked, as if it were almost comical.
"Yes," Eric answered instilling a silence in the room before he also broke it, "what's for lunch?"
"Nachos," she answered, "and I think I made a double batch so I hope you're hungry," she added leading them into a large room with a fairly big kitchen at one end and a varnished wooden table at the other, "I'm not sure if Eric mentioned it but I used to be a taxidermist so if Albert, there on the table, makes you uncomfortable just move him," Tristie warned.
"No, I think everyone needs an unusual hobby," Nell agreed walking over to the turtle that was apparently named Albert, "Albert as in Einstein?" Nell asked.
"Yes," Tristie replied bringing a tray of food over, "Eric, can you please get out some plates," she called before turning her attention back to Nell, "it was the last animal I stuffed before I became a social services worker. I got rid of most of the other animals but I kept Albert because he was Eric's favourite, well it was Eric who named him Albert."
"Yeah, I couldn't decide between Einstein and Di Vinci so I compromised and called him Albert," Eric explained setting the plates out on the table.
As Tristie walked back over to the kitchen Nell walked over to Eric.
"Has she not noticed your lack of glasses?" Nell asked in a whispered tone.
"I'm not sure," Eric replied as his mum came over to the table and placed a bowl of sour cream and another of guacamole on it.
"Should we eat?" Tristie asked.
"I think we should," Eric replied sitting down.
00..
"This is really good," Nell admitted.
"I suggested that she should look at becoming a certified chef after I'd told her that stuffing birds was creepy."
"He was incredibly convincing when he was younger, I don't know where it went when he got older. And speaking of lost things, you're not wearing your glasses," she obsevered, "the only reason I could think of as to why you aren't is because you've lost them."
"No I got tired of wearing them, and contacts are easier," Eric stated easily, "well in my opinion, that is."
"You don't look like yourself without your glasses on," Tristie explained.
"That was Nell's argument. "
"She's a smart girl," Tristie said turning to Eric, "although I suppose to actually catch this one's eye you'd have to be more than a pretty face," she said turing to complement Nell.
"She is very smart," Eric said in attempts to change the subject, "her IQ's what.. it's like-"
"Nice try to change the subject, but it's not that easy," Nell interupted lightly, "and besides you're never getting that answer from me," she added.
"Those glasses in the last photo I showed you are same ones that he usually wears," Tristie continued, "I mean, of course the perscription changed over the years and he had to get the lenses changed but he always begged me to let him keep the frames the same," she continued, mainly talking to Nell instead of Eric who continued to eat his nachos partly becuase they were amazing and also becuase he wanted to try and distract himself from the fact that the two most important women in his life were (a) getting along and (b) probably plotting a way to get him to revert to wearing his glasses, "in every photo I have taken of him since he was four onwards he is wearing those glasses. Even in his high school and college graduation photos," she said wiping her mouth with a serviette and standing, "I'll be back in a minute, I'm just goimg to get those photos."
"No mum," Eric whinned, "do we really need to get the photos out?"
"Yes," she called back. He sighed, defeated knowing that he wasn't going to win.
"So," he asked in a whispered tone, "what do you think of her?"
"I am not analyzing your mum," Nell replied.
"Personal opinion?"
"She's great, and a really good cook."
She sighed.
"She's great, and I honestly don't know why I was anxious about meeting her," she replied.
"Yeah, she is great," Eric agreed as Tristie walked back into the room holding what she assumed, and Eric knew were scrapbooked photo albums.
"I couldn't find the photo I was looking for so I decided to bring the album instead."
She sat down next to Nell, ignoring Eric's protests and promises of him claiming to know where the photos were and saying that that there was no need to go through all of the album. She had brilliantly responded with 'this is the first woman that you've ever told me existed, no point in hiding from her', which seemed to shut him up.
"I was nineteen when I had Eric," Tristie started, "I wasn't exactly the smartest person in senior year, common sense wise. And when I got pregnant with him the only person who thought I could manage it was my father, my mother wasn't overly happy but she didn't offer any support. When he finally came I was thankful, because for my last trimester I couldn't go outside becuase I was constantly frowed upon," she flipped to the first page of the album where it showed a younger version of her in a hospital bed cradlling a newborn baby in her arms. Beside it read: 'Tristie Beale and newborn baby, to be named Eric Beale'.
"Beale is my last name, becuase his father was and is so far out of the picture that I was not giving him any claim to my son."
"That's understandable," Nell agreed, before scanning over the next page.
He was sitting on grass drenched in water from the sprinklers, but he was smiling so he clearly wasn't bothered by it. There was another, on the next page that had only a head floating above a bath tub full of soapy- looking bubbles. It was titled: 'Bath time!'. There was another a few pages over, where there was a dress up theme because in each and every of the five photos spread across the double page he was dressed as a different superhero. Well, as best as a three-year-old could. Superman was a red cape knotted at the neck; the hulk was a green shirt and shorts, complete with grass stains.
On the next page there was a close- up photo of Eric as a four-year-old wearing a pair of glasses that were way too big for his head.
"Your glasses are part of who you are," Tristie pleaded with Eric.
"Seeing you without your glasses on long- term is as misfitting as if I dyed my hair black," Nell added.
Eric appeared to be unaffected by their comments but he wasn't. Inside his head he was actually for the first time in a few days thinking about the people around him. And how something that he considered to be a small change had actually affected how the people closest to him saw him. It was in a new light, a spotlight, but most definetly not the kind that was to be treasured.
As they progressed through the scrapbooked albums Nell saw more photos of Eric with long hair, and many others of him throughout his school life. Tristie should have been a professional story teller, even though the job doesn't exist they should make the job just for her. She made him getting teased at school sound more dramatic than it was, and she made the funny stories sound like incredible adventures through unmarked terrain, even if it was only a school trip.
With the impressive stort telling abilities of Tristie it was easy to get lost in ghe story of someone else's life. Eric even interjected comments evert once in a while, but for the most part was content on watching the scene play out.
Nell turned over to the last page of the album to see three pictures. One of Eric around the age of seventeen or eighteen wearing a cheap- looking tuxedo holding up a single yellow- orange tulip.
When Eric noticed which page it was he stood up, collected everyone's plates and took them over to the sink. He scraped the plates and then started filling up the sink.
Nell turned back to the photos, the picture below featured Eric linking arms with a girl. She had dark skin and dead straight, long black hair. Maybe Indian? Nell thought.
"Who's the girl with Eric in that photo?" Nell asked.
"That is Holly Sajik, she was Eric's best friend. They were both loners, but they did pretty much everything together. Neither had a date for the prom so they went with each others as friends. It was a great night, but a week later she went missing, her body was never found," Tristie explained watching Eric out of the corner of her eye, "understandably, Eric didn't take it so well."
Nell looked over at Eric who had stopped washing the plates and was staring out the window. He was clearly listening in on their conversation and dealing with bad memories. From the looks of things Tristie didn't want to talk about it either and therefore moved on to the last photo.
"This is at his high school graduation, it was two days after the prom. He'd had an allergic reaction to something-"
"To Holly's perfume," Eric input quietly from the sink.
"And he had a rash all the way up one side of his face-"
"I looked like two-face from Batman."
Nell laughed at the mental image she had, which was practically a photoshopped image of Eric and two-face.
"So he refused to have any photos taken straight on, they were all side on."
"Well you can barely see me in half of the group photos at my graduation, considering I skipped a couple grades and graduated at the age of fiteen. I'm not the tallest anyway so I was like the invisible girl," Nell explained.
"But that meant that you got lots of single portrait photos," Eric stated.
"Yeah," Nell admitted as Eric walked back over to the table.
Tristie flipped back a couple of pages, "you're wearing your glasses in all of these photos, now it's as if you have shaved your head," Trisite argued.
"It's that bizarre ?" Eric asked.
Nell and Tristie nodded.
"Okay then."
"Good," Tristie replied, before asking, "would either of you like a tea or coffee?"
"No thanks, actually mum we have to go," Eric explained.
"Okay, thank you for coming by, and Nell, it really was so good too meet you. I could tell that you meant something to Eric because you're the first girl he's even introduced to me," Tristie explained.
"Well he means a lot to me too, and thank you so much for showing me the photos and all the stories, and especially the nachos. They were really good. It was nice to meet you," Nell responded, "hopefully I'll see you again sometime."
"I have a feeling you will," she said following Eric and Nell into the living room.
"Have a good week, if I don't drop in between now and next weekend," Eric said.
"I will, you two enjoy yourselves as well."
"We will," Eric said before there was a chorus of goodbyes and hugs and he and Nell walked out of the house.
A/N - Please leave a review I want to know whether you like this style of story and please check out my new Neric fanfic 'Actions and Consequences ' three chapters up with a fourth on the way.