Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: LA.

Prompt #11: Children - Hetty feels like she's in charge of a pair of bickering children when the OSP tech center becomes a verbal war zone. Surprisingly, grounding them still works.

Words: 684

Hetty Lange walked into a war zone that morning.

"You idiotic twit! You can't do that!"

"Can and did!"

Hetty sighed and rolled her eyes. Eric Beale and Nell Jones were sitting in front of their computer terminals, but they weren't doing any type of productive work. No, they had some sort of video game up on the big screen and were furiously attacking their keyboards. Hetty didn't recognize the game, but then again, she didn't follow such things.

"I'm going to kick your ass!" Eric growled. On the screen, some sort of creature moved and attacked an elf-like person.

"Ah!" The elf-creature (apparently under Nell's control) pulled out a bottle and threw it at the larger beast, which Hetty thought looked like a minotaur. "Take that, Tauren bastard!"

Eric jabbed some keys, and the Tauren whipped out some sort of weapon. "I'm gonna squash your Night-Elf into tiny bits!"

"Not if I curse you first!" And Nell retaliated.

Hetty wanted to stop them, but she didn't think they'd hear or acknowledge her. She knew how wrapped up in their fantasy worlds they could get.

But then the language exceeded polite English language. Nell even began throwing some Spanish swears at Eric when his Tauren began mercilessly beating down on her Night-Elf. Hetty let them stew for a couple minutes, then decided to end this foolishness.

She needed her Tech Operator and her Intelligence Analyst on speaking terms.

Clearing her throat, she began saying, "If you two are - "

"Not now!" they snapped in unison, not looking at who they just snubbed. "Just leave it on the table!" Then they continued swearing like sailors as they button-mashed so hard their keyboards creaked.

And that's when Hetty's understanding attitude went the way of the dinosaurs. "I beg your pardon?" she said in arctic tones.

Both techs froze. A shudder quickly followed. Their fingers slid off the keyboards as their heads slowly turned to face her. "Hetty," Eric choked out, his eyes wide in panic. Next to him, Nell paled.

"May I ask what you two are doing?" Hetty asked.

Nell swallowed before answering, "World of Warcraft, Hetty. It's an massively multiplayer online role-playing game - "

"And what use does it bear with this investigation?" interrupted the smaller woman.

Both Eric and Nell's gazes dropped to the ground. "None," they replied in very small voices.

She fixed them with a strong glare, then looked at Eric. "I think you know what's coming, Mister Beale."

That sentence made Eric flinch. "Aw, Hetty - " His plea was silenced instantly when her glare turned icy.

Nell bit her lip. "Um, what's happening?"

Straightening her back to use her height as much as possible, Hetty announced, "You two are officially grounded from any of this massively multiplayer rock-pulling - "

Unconsciously Eric and Nell corrected her. "Role-playing...game..." Their voices teetered off when she stared at them again.

"This...game...until I say otherwise," she finished. "Be assured that if I find out you two are playing behind my back, or if you employ any of those hacker tricks you're so proud of, I will come for you and you will not like the outcome of our meeting. Am I perfectly clear?"

Vigorous nods from Eric and Nell.

"Good. Now get to work."

With crestfallen expressions Eric and Nell closed their WoW windows and started to work. Hetty left Ops for some tea in her office.

I swear, at times it feels like I'm working with children, she thought as the water began to boil. Well, grounding still works on those two, at least. I wish the same could be said of my agents... Maybe an experiment for another day, she mused, smiling to herself.

This one was, um, strange. I dunno, let me know about it.

Review, please!