Chapter 28

On the End of the first week back from the hospital the two had their dinner, they promised each other to have after having survived this painful abduction. On one side she clearly was glad to be out of the hospital but on the other side, being at the place where all the drama for her and Eric had begun just week ago, she was clearly still terrified and struggled with nightmares. Thankfully Eric was by her side the whole time to calm her down, the warmth of his body made the pain ease away very quickly again and she didn't knew what she would without him in this difficult phase of the coping process with the abduction. Because of the doctor's orders to rest at least for another week, Eric decided to order pizza for both of them and to get by the waiting time a little bit the two watched some TV on the couch in the living room. Nell cuddled very close to him the entire time, whishing the entire time she could be back at work already so there she wouldn't haunted by her bad dreams anymore.

Eric could see the pain in her eyes the entire time, he had witnessed every night this week how shook up she was by the bad dreams. Eric actually wasn't sure what do in this situation, should he talk with Nell about this whole situation and recommend her to see a psychologist because of her nightmares? or should he just be there for her the whole time and try to solve this problem together? This whole was very difficult for him to solve, because he certainly didn't want to get on her bad side as this whole "thing" they had was something that meant a lot to him and certainly didn't want it destroyed by the fact that Nell was taking some of his advice the wrong way. They continued to watch the movie, until the pizza boy finally was knocking at the door with their orders and so Eric got up from the couch to get the door. Nell looked at Eric with a look that said: Don't be away for too long, he turned around one more time, planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, took their orders from the pizza boy and shortly returned to Nell on the couch.

They ate their meals and watched the movie in complete silence for the rest of the evening, just stealing some innocent glances at each other from time to time. Eric really wanted to have the old Nell back, because since what horrible things they had experienced together, she didn't smile the way he loved so much. He continued to focus on the rest of the movie, Nell still cuddled very close to him and he thought: *If I could take all your pain away at once, I would do it and I promise you this: we will get through this together* Later that evening Nell finally fell asleep, her head comfortably resting on one of Eric's shoulders. He softly stroke her hand, without waking her up he tidied up the couch table and then carried her into the bedroom bridal style.

At the weekend the following week he and Nell had a long discussion about the question, if she was really ready to go back to work again. "I know how bad you want to go back to work at OPS, but you do yourself and the team no good if you aren't a hundred percent." Nell thought about what Eric said, for a couple of minutes before she finally replied: "I know that Eric, I really do but I really need to do this, working again at OPS because that's the only the thing that keeps me sane. I really appreciate how much you care about my well-being and I certainly wouldn't do it, if I didn't myself that I am ready." She looked him deep into his eyes, got lost in it for quite a while and Eric knew by just looking at her face at how she determined she was in this case.

The first case back at work proved to be a very hard one, which got Eric really worried because he feared that Nell couldn't handle the stress. He even tried to take some of her workload but Nell assured him with a smile that she appreciated his concern but was able to handle the stress on her own and at that point he realized that he got a little overprotective of her. Then in the middle of the work the telephone next to Eric's workstation rang and as he picked up, Hetty said on the other end of the line: "Mister Beale come with Miss Jones to my office immediately, I have a special assignment for you." After the little mighty Operations Manager had hung up the phone, Eric said to Nell: "Hetty wants the both of us in her office right now; she has some special assignment for us."

Nell wondered what exactly that would be, as Eric led the way down the stairs to the bullpen and kind of hoped that it wouldn't be a field trip. "Miss Jones and Mister Beale, since NCIS Agents Jeffrey Parker and Stephanie Parker from Washington DC are part of joint investigation team here in Los Angeles for a while, you two have the pleasure of taking of their very nice kid." Nell and Eric were kind of stunned because they clearly hadn't expected that to be their special assignment but especially Nell was really looking forward to this whole thing.

Later that day the two finally met the cute little girl, they were taking care of for some time and Nell smiled at Eric in the way as she wanted to say: *Isn't she totally cute?* Today the sun was shining all day and as the three of them later sat in Nell's car, she spontaneously asked the little girl in the back seat: "Clara would you like to have some ice cream?" She really could see the little girl now, brightly smiling at her and then Clara answered with a lot of joy in her voice: "Yes that would be cool Nell."

Eric could also see now a big smile on his girlfriend's face and they all had a really great time at the café.

AN: That was the last chapter of the story, even if im not completely satisfied with it, I really hope you like it anyway. Thanks to- Miss tarletone for reviewing this story, Thanks to- nahtl 7 for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription.