A/N: I'm back! Thanks so much for the reviews and follows and for anyone who's still come back to read more after such a long break between updates. Extra special thanks to swedecoder for being a repeat reviewer and to altarp2408 for such a thorough and positive review!

Anyway, on with the story - this chapter is much longer so I hope you think it's worth the wait!

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Nell, Callen, or anything else from NCIS: LA.

Callen felt his phone vibrate as he walked into the restaurant. He quickly opened the text and was relieved to see the brief message "Deeks stopped by," followed by a series of eye roll and pizza emojis.

He sent a quick reply, feeling better knowing Nell would have company for at least a little while. But that didn't lessen his annoyance with Sam when he realized the big important dinner was nothing more than a blind date. In fact, it was almost worse since now he couldn't just leave and go straight to Nell's place.

Joelle seemed nice enough, and he'd need to wait at least an hour or so before he could show up at Nell's place without running into Deeks. So Callen slipped into one of his more casual social alias personas and had dinner with Joelle.

She'd called him out on being distracted during the meal, which was impressive. Both that she'd said something, and that she'd picked up on it in the first place. He apologized and explained he wasn't quite the eligible bachelor Sam had made him out to be. Joelle had her own reasons for not wanting to move forward with anything. They got along surprisingly well considering they were on a blind date when they had zero romantic interest in each other.

Callen knew a simple "we didn't hit it off" wouldn't work, at least between him and Sam, and he wanted to avoid another lecture from Sam about how he needed to settle down, let people in and whatnot. And they were both a little annoyed that they'd been set up without having a say in the matter. So they'd agreed to be vague and coy about how the date went and whether they'd be seeing each other again to keep Sam and Michelle off their backs for at least a little while and maybe turn it around as a joke on them.

They exchanged numbers and he walked Joelle to her car before sliding into the driver's seat of his own and sending Nell a quick text. "On my way... Deeks?"

"Already left." Callen pulled out of his parking spot and headed toward Nell's place as soon as he saw the reply.

He hesitated briefly before grabbing his go-bag from the trunk and heading up the stairs of Nell's apartment building. She might be fine, but he was fairly certain he'd get even less sleep than usual if he went home tonight. Not to mention he probably shouldn't wear the suit from Hetty any longer than necessary.

"Hey." Nell opened the door, greeting him with a light kiss as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"Hey." Callen let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, relieved to see her with his own two eyes again. The relief was short lived though. Nell's hair was still damp from a shower and she'd changed into her usual sleepwear of a tank top and loose pajama pants. Callen could see the red marks across so much of her skin, already beginning to darken into deeper bruises in a few places. "Nell..." Her name barely more than a breath from his lips. He brought his hand up, lightly brushing his fingertips over the worst of the bruises around her neck and collarbone.

"Hey," she brought her hand up to cover his. "I'm good." She tugged on his hand leading him further into the apartment. "Really. See, walking and talking and everything. I'm good."

"I should've killed the bastard."

"That would've been a lot of paperwork." She turned to face him, brushing her hands over the lapel of his suit. "You would've missed the big mystery dinner."

"Ha." Callen barked out a short laugh. "All the more reason I should've killed him."

"Oh come on, you look nice. I never see you dressed up unless it's for a case. I like seeing you in a suit without a chance of someone shooting at you."

He gave her a look that said they both knew there was always a chance someone would shoot at him.

"Okay fine. When there's less of a chance someone will shoot at you."

"No, it's not the suit. Although I do want to change before I somehow managed to ruin this and have to face Hetty's wrath." He slipped the jacket off his shoulders and nodded his head toward the bedroom. "Gimme a minute to change before I fill you in?"

She nodded. "Go ahead, I'm gonna grab an ice pack. You want a beer or anything?"

"I'll get it for you." He started toward the kitchen.

Nell grabbed him by the waist and turned him back toward the bedroom. "Go change. I can get my own ice pack."

He turned and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Yes, I know. And you can stab your own bad guys and de-mag your captor when you're being held hostage." Another peck. "And you're a total badass. But can you just humor me and let me do this?"

Nell rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, bit she was smiling nonetheless. "Fine. But go get changed first."

"Deal." Callen kissed her lightly on the forehead and started walking backwards toward the bedroom, watching to make sure she was doing as agreed.

"I'm going, I'm going." Nell held up her hands in surrender and turned to walk back to the living room. She settled into the sofa and grabbed an Oreo from the package on the coffee table. She picked up one of the books Deeks brought her and started reading the back cover. It was actually a really thoughtful gesture and Nell couldn't help but think how lucky she was to work with a team that looked out for each other in more ways than just during the dangerous moments at work.

She'd overall felt pretty good about how well she'd handled the fight in the boat shed today, all things considered. She'd gone up against an armed, highly trained assailant twice her size with nothing more than a small knife and had kept him at bay long enough for help to arrive and injured him enough to slow him down if he had managed to get away. Still, up until her talk with Deeks she couldn't help but feel a little niggling of doubt in her abilities. Sure, as soon as she healed she was still going to put in extra time sparring, maybe ask Sam to work with her so she could practice going up against a bigger opponent. But Deeks had helped her feel okay about how things went today. Yes, there was always room to improve, but even the more seasoned agents weren't perfect and things like today could've happened to anyone.

She glanced up as she heard Callen walking into the kitchen. "Can you bring me two bags of peas and a glass of water?" she called out to him.

"Two bags of..." Callen started to ask in confusion, but trailed off and started laughing when he opened the freezer to see it nearly overflowing with at least half a dozen bags.

"And can you grab me a dish towel please?"

She smiled as Callen entered, handing her the towel and the frozen peas. "I take it your freezer is Deeks' doing?" Callen set her water on the coffee table and took a long swig of his beer.

Nell nodded as she arranged the frozen bags over the worst of her injuries again, wrapping a towel around the one at her collarbone to keep it from being too cold against her bare skin. Callen frowned as he noticed her placing the other one against her hip over her clothes. He hadn't noticed that particular injury yet.

"I have to admit he was right about the peas though. It's way more flexible and more comfortable than the stiff ice packs or an awkward lumpy bag of ice."

Callen gently lifted the bag of peas from her hip and lifted the edge of her tank top to closer look at her injury. A large bruise had already started forming and it looked like there might be some slight swelling. "Shit, Nell. How did this happen?" He'd been almost certain the worst of her injuries were just the bruises on her arms and shoulders from where Brown had held onto her.

"That's probably from how I landed when I hit the floor. Maybe the wall did a little damage too, but I think it was mostly the floor."

"Shit." Callen's eyes quickly did a quick scan of her body looking for other injuries. "The floor? when were you..."

Nell could see the growing concern in his eyes and reached a hand out to his, lowering the cold pack back onto her hip. "Hey, hey, I'm good. That's the worst of it, really." She gave his hand a squeeze. "Just some bumps and bruises is all. Nothing some frozen vegetables can't fix."

They both laughed softly at that. "Just bumps and bruises?"

Nell nodded and he let out a sigh of relief, moving to her other side with fewer injuries and gently tucking her into his side, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her temple.

"I was scared today," he breathed the words softly into her hair. "When you didn't answer my text. I was scared something happened to you."

"I know."

"I didn't know what was happening, or if you were okay."

"I know."

"No, you..."

Nell turned her head to face him, pressing a finger to his lips as she nodded her head lightly. "I know." She smiled softly as recognition registered in Callen's eyes.

"Fuck. You do know. How do you do it?"

"I just do." Nell shrugged. After thinking a moment she continued," remember during the Inman case, with the kill house? You told me to trust my training?"

Callen nodded.

"I guess, when I'm back in Ops and don't know what happening with you, or the rest of the team, I just trust your training. I mean, I know you could all still get hurt - or worse - even as good at your jobs as you are, but I just try not to let myself go there and just trust that you can handle it. I dunno, maybe it's easier for me because you're all so good and I'm still just - "

"Hey," Callen interrupted sharply. "I meant it when I said you're a badass. Don't let my fears be a reason you start to think otherwise. You did good today. I'm just used to being the one in danger and to having some control over the situation. And I'm not used to having somebody I care about enough to worry."

Nell nodded. "It gets easier... The not knowing what's happening when I'm stuck in ops. When I first started I worried about you guys all the time, especially if coms are down or we lose visual. But I've seen you all make it out of some terrible situations. And letting myself be scared or worried just makes it harder to do my job and help get you out of there. So I just taught myself not to go there. And now I just don't. At least not unless things are really bad, and even then I only let it through a little bit. Plus, I hate to say it but the team, and you in particular, are in danger and off the radar so often I'm almost used to it."

Callen could relate. He did pretty much the same thing when he was in tough spots during a mission, it was just different when he wasn't the one actually in danger. "Thanks. That helps a bit. But I hope you're not in trouble often enough for me to ever get used to it."

"I'll do my best," Nell laughed. "So, you gonna tell me what was so terrible about this dinner or what?'

Callen groaned, leaning his head back on the couch and squeezing his eyes shut. "Sam set me up."

Nell looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"On a date."

Nell muffled a laugh. "And the date was so bad it would've been better to kill someone today if it got you out of it? C'mon, Sam has good taste, it couldn't have been that bad."

"She was nice enough I guess. Decent conversation, and she was a good sport about it when I told her Sam was off-base with trying to set me up with anyone and that I wasn't interested. I just..." Callen tightened his arms around her just slightly, being careful of her injuries. "Tonight of all nights the only place I wanted to be was here, you know?"

Nell nodded.

"Sam made it seem like it was so important... And then to get there and it was all some big ruse for a date? A date that I wouldn't have wanted to be on even if nothing else happened today?"

"It all worked out though. Probably better you weren't here when Deeks showed up."

"Yeah, except today it probably wouldn't have raised any suspicions if someone did see me here. Deeks came to check on you, why couldn't I?"

Nell laughed, getting up to bring a chess board over onto the coffee table. She sat diagonally across from Callen on the other side of her L-shaped sofa and started examining the board, picking up where they left of in their game a few nights ago and moving a piece on the board. "Deeks may be onto us after today, so trust me when I say it's good you weren't here."

Callen tensed up. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh he just said something today about you seeming especially worried about me. And something about you being my knight in shining armor."

Callen laughed at that, but still looked a bit concerned as he took his turn, moving his rook to take one of her pawns.

"Relax, I don't think he knows anything really. He was just joking around a bit." Nell's knight took his rook.

"We'll have to be more careful though if we've already caught his attention. Sam is too observant for his own good too. I mentioned something about chess a couple weeks ago. I've got him convinced I'm playing against the computer since he called me out on not opening a chess set and not being enough of a player to play against myself... I should probably actually find a way to do that so it's on there if he gets curious about that too."

"I'll install something for you tomorrow." Nell nodded, yawning and leaning back against the sofa a minute.

Callen took the frozen peas from her and tossed them back in the freezer, grabbing a bottle of ibuprofen from the kitchen on the way back. "C'mon, let's get you to bed. It's getting late." He sat next to her and nudged her knee with his to get her attention. "You should take these too," he said, holding out her glass of water and two pills. She took the medicine and set the water glass back on the table before leaning into him.

Callen gently scooped her up into his arms, bridal style, silencing her giggling and protests with a slow, sweet kiss. "I know. But you're humoring me tonight remember?" He teased lightly as he carried her into the bedroom.

He was halfway through lowering her to the bed when she stopped him, "wait!"

"What?"

She tilted her head up to look at him. "Are you staying tonight?"

He held eye contact with her a moment and said, "if you'll let me."

She nodded, "then put me over there. On the other side of the bed."

Callen gave her a confused look but complied, carrying her around the bed to the side where he usually slept when he stayed over and gently laid her down, pulling the covers up over her. Still perplexed, he made his way back to what he thought of as her side of the bed, eyeing her phone and alarm clock on the nightstand as he slipped out of his jeans and pulled his t-shirt over his head. "Do you want your phone on that side?"

"No, it's fine there."

"Is your alarm set already?"

"Yeah, we're good."

As he laid down in bed and felt Nell turn into him on her side, her upper body draped across his chest, it finally clicked. "How's your hip?"

"It's really not too bad, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep on it for a few days."

"I'm so glad you're okay," Callen breathed into her hair.

As Nell drifted off to sleep, Callen simply stared at the ceiling, listening to her breathing, savoring the feel of her curled up against him.

A/N:

Well, I hope that was worth the wait! I'm really uncomfortable writing dialogue but somehow my fics keep ending up extremely dialogue heavy. Already being a Nallen shipper, when I watched War Cries my heart about exploded when we saw Callen's brief reaction to Nell's injury, and then I was livid to see him stuck out on a blind date when he obviously should've been home with Nell. So this was my version of how the evening went (that still fits with canon.) For them to work, Callen has to figure out how to deal with Nell continuing to go out in the field at times, being in danger, etc. and I feel like this is at least the beginning of that. This might be explored further in future chapters, but I make no promises on the direction or how long this fic will end up.

By now maybe you've noticed I'm not super consistent with writing and updates (I'm committed to keeping this a relaxing and enjoyable pressure-free hobby) but with that, I always try to avoid cliff-hangers and give some closure at the end of each chapter unless I have the next chapter nearly ready. I hope you can be patient with me and still enjoy the story in the bits and pieces as I get to it!

As always, reviews are appreciated!