First, let me apologise for disappearing for over a week after promising to upload every day. Sorry! Unfortunately, my computer broke and kept shutting down randomly so I didn't think it was a good idea to start typing my stories up. It's all fixed now though, so I should be back on form soon! Woo! Secondly, this chapter isn't particularly long, but it was a hard one to write. I was thinking of uploading these as separate chapters, but one didn't seem to work without the other. Alrighty, I'll stop rambling now, or my authors note will be longer than the story. Enjoy!

Eric unlocked his door and tumbled into his house. Switching on the TV, he collapsed onto the sofa, sighing heavily. Hetty had ordered him and Nell to go home after seeing the second tape and told them that they should get some rest, or else. He didn't want to think about what his boss had meant by or else, so he flicked on a re-run of Doctor Who and tried to remember the day before instead.

He knew him and his partner had been called by the director of NCIS, and that they had been given a task that might have something to do with computers and rocket science. She had been driving him home and then… well, after that, he didn't know. Something had gone wrong and neither of them could remember a thing.

He decided to skip back a little, subconsciously avoiding the morning after. Thinking about THAT would just send his brain off on its own, and he didn't really like where those journeys tended to lead – usually to things he'd rather not face, especially not when he was stressed like this.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed and snapped him out of his thoughts. He grabbed it from the coffee table and after seeing the alert, leaped up from his seat. Eric bolted out of the door so quickly that he almost forgot to lock it behind him.

Meanwhile, Nell threw her bags to the ground. Sighing, she headed straight for the kitchen and opened her fridge.

*Great. Empty, of course.*

Slamming the off-white door, she started searching her cupboards instead, finally choosing a chicken Pot-Noodle and shoving it into the microwave. After the code was punched in, she leaned on the counter with her head in her hands. Why did all of this have to happen?

Her boss had ordered her and Eric home about twenty minutes earlier, but all she really wanted to do was keep working on their case. It was annoying not knowing what happened. Maybe if she just tried once more to remember…

How had she got the gash on her head? It began throbbing with pain even as she wondered, hurting more than she wanted to let the team know. Eric would insist on taking her to a hospital, and as much as the painkillers appealed to her right now, she would be better off working than waiting. She didn't even want to take this time off, but nobody could argue with Hetty.

Why did the director choose them for his project? Hell, what was the project? It could be the entire reason for this, it could explain everything if they knew. But no. They didn't know that. Because Vance couldn't spare a second away from his meeting to explain, they all had to try and figure it out for themselves.

Just as her mind began to drift to another question, the microwave bleeped and Nell was shaken out of her thoughts. She sighed and pulled the noodles out, almost dropping them in the process.

*Now she not only had a headache but her fingers were burnt. Perfect…*

She had barely finished running her hand under cold water when her cell phone buzzed. When she read the short message on the screen, she quickly shut off the taps and headed straight for the exit. Her meal tumbled to the ground as the door slammed, spilling over the tiles, forgotten in a frenzy of bad news…

I not only abandon you all for a week, I leave you on a cliffhanger! Dun dun dun... Please can you review this for me? Thanks!