I am sooooooo happy that I was able to recover this one and not have to write it from memory! GAH! It's just so cute! SilverSentinal21, I know you were worried. I was able to rescue this and the three other Neric oneshots I was working on. Lucky for you (and me), I handwrite most of my prompts and keep them in a notebook and now because of the whole laptop dying situation, I am backing everything up to an external drive and a cloud drive :)

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The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the smell of fresh, clean morning air carried down the side of the mountain.

"Remind me again why we have to hike up this trail?" Eric huffed.

"Because it's the only way to make it up to the Colonel's house," Nell replied over her shoulder. "Keep up, slowpoke."

Eric struggled to keep up with Nell as they continued hiking. He really had no idea how she did it; she was so tiny and her backpack was almost twice her size but she hiked and hiked as if she had been doing it for her entire life.

"Can we stop, please?" Eric said breathlessly.

"Again?" Nell groaned turning to face Eric. "You should be able to tackle this trail. You surf!"

"I've never gone surfing at this altitude." Eric placed his hands on his knees and bent down to stretch and breathe. His statement was true but he did leave out the fact that he was terrified of falling off the side of the mountain. If he fell while surfing at least he had the water to catch him. Here on the mountain he had rocks and trees and wild animals. "How are you doing this?"

"I used to go hiking a lot as a kid with my dad. I guess I'm just used to it."

"Did you usually hike so close to the edge?"

"Oh, geez. You sound like my sister." Nell turned on her heel and resumed walking.

"Wait!" Eric cried running after her. They hiked side-by-side in silence for a bit until Eric asked, "What do you mean I sound like your sister? Do you mean I sound like a girl?"

Nell grinned. "No. I mean my sister is an absolute worrywart nutcase," Nell said handing half of a granola bar to Eric. "When we were little and there was a project of some sort she always took over and blew everything out of proportion. If I had to make a shoebox diorama, she made it huge and glittery and everything that I didn't like." She took a bite of her granola bar and thought back to the memories of washing glitter and glue out of her hair as a kid.

"Well, she's your sister," Eric said snacking on his half of the granola bar. "That's what sisters do. She's supposed to worry about you."

"Oh, yeah," Nell said her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Just wait until the day I get married. She'll have a field day."

"You? Married?" Eric asked.

"If and when the right guy comes along, yes." She folded the wrapper into a neat square and slipped it into her pocket to throw out later. "Now keep up. We're just a little ways out from the cabin."

Eric stopped breathing for a moment and Nell's voice faded as his thoughts started swimming. If and when the right guy comes along, she said. He could be that guy. He was already pretty sure he was that guy. He wanted to ask out Nell but he was afraid she's say no. But why was he afraid? Jakob said he saw something. Granted Jakob was only twelve but Eric could tell he was smart and very intuitive. Maybe he was on to something. Maybe he should ask her out. Maybe she'll say yes.

"Eric?" Nell's voice made him snap back to reality. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he replied with a small smile. "Just thinking." Looking ahead he saw Sam's hulking frame typing something into his cell phone and Callen talking to a local LEO. I'm going to ask her.

Sorry for the long hiatus. I had a lot of stuff going on during the past few weeks and then my laptop decided to up and die on me so I lost almost everything. I know it's short but I like it. I hope you do, too! Let me know what you think and what you want to hear! Cyberhugs!

Hullooooooo! Keelan speaking! :D I want to thank you wonderful viewers for reading my sister's stories! And I also want to thank the readers that acknowledged me:) I luff you people as much as I luff food:) which is a lot… I shall talk to you lovely people soon! Don't forget to review, please!
Much luff :) Keelan~3