A/N: To any returning readers, THANK YOU for sticking with me after such a long hiatus on this story. As I mentioned in one of my other recent posts, I hit a bit of a lull in my writing, then one of my fics was plagiarized which sort of put a damper on any remaining motivation to write for a little while. And when I did, I went down the rabbit hole writing a multi-chapter Walking Dead fic (not yet posted, but nearly completed.) As I'm finally back into the groove of writing, I'm back to working on my Nallen fics, including this one!

This chapter is intended to cover the duration of the Tuhan episode, and then continue from there. Judging by the wardrobe changes and the travel to and back from Mexico City I'm interpreting that episode/case as spanning two days.

Since it's been a while, here's a brief recap of where we left off:

Callen was pretty shaken up by Nell's encounter with Brown in the boat shed. This led to breaking some of their relationship "rules", including Callen staying the night at Nell's place and driving to work together the next morning. While at Nell's, he opened up about how he felt about her being hurt, and they agreed breaking the rules had been a good thing in this case because it allowed that conversation to happen.

And now, on with the story!


The day went fairly smoothly. No one seemed to bring up Nell's injuries, other than Nate who had only arrived that morning and been filled in by Eric when Nell arrived late. And even that conversation had been brief - he seemed more concerned with how she was coping with it and seemed quickly reassured that she was okay.

Callen managed to respond to Sam's ribbing about Joelle and keep things light and noncommittal, just like they'd already agreed at dinner last night. He also seemed to have truly gotten past the worst of his anxiety about Nell. At least with the case to focus on he managed to go more than a couple hours without seeing her and didn't find himself worrying about her. Of course, it helped that he knew she was safely tucked away in Ops. Still, he was taking it as a win.

No one even commented or asked about either of them arriving late. Although technically they weren't even late, just later than usual. Callen normally was there early to use the gym, but Sam wasn't planning to work out together that morning and may not have even noticed. And Nell and Eric normally arrived earlier than the rest of the team to prep the briefing for any new cases, but it seemed Hetty had specifically called Eric in early but not Nell given her injuries.

Had it not been for Eric noticing Nell's car missing from the parking lot, they probably would've slipped entirely under the radar. As it was, Eric was only concerned thinking she hadn't felt able to drive and she should've called him. But she explained that Callen had just stopped by to check in, with orders from Hetty to try to talk her into staying home, and they'd carpooled since he was already there. It actually worked out well that Eric noticed earlier in the day, making it easy enough to get a ride home from him without raising further questions. Nell couldn't help thinking this was the downside to carpooling when one person might get sent out of the country at a moment's notice, but it had been nice driving in together that morning.

That night Nell sat on the couch with her bags of frozen peas on her bruises, monitoring the case from her laptop. The overnight ops analysts were good, and they weren't expecting any activity until morning, but she still couldn't get used to just going home to sleep while her team was out on assignment. Sure, sometimes they were needed overnight, but other times Hetty insisted on sending them home. Presumably Callen and Sam were supposed to be safely in a hotel getting a good night's rest tonight, and she knew she should do the same.

But she never slept well when the team was gone. And tonight she was wondering how Callen was doing. He'd seemed better after their talk that morning, but he also still seemed a little shaken up. And now it had been a full day since he'd seen her and he probably wouldn't be back for at least another day. She just hoped he'd be able to get enough sleep to still be on his game the next day.

With one last message to check in with the overnight ops team, she closed her laptop and got ready for bed, grabbing one of the paperbacks from Deeks in the hopes it would help her settle her mind to fall asleep.

Of course the book didn't help much, but she eventually fell asleep and was able to get a few hours rest before her early alarm went off and she headed back into the office around 4:30.

The rest of the op seemed to go fairly smoothly, all things considered. Sam and Callen were out of communication with the team for a while, but that wasn't too uncommon really. Unlike Callen, Nell was used to being on this side of things during an assignment. Sure, she was a little uneasy, but unless too much time passed, she could operate with the "no news is good news" mentality. And sure enough, everything had gone smoothly.

When the team made it back to the OSP building, Nell casually stepped out onto the second floor landing overlooking the bullpen. She was relieved to hear Callen casually talking with the rest of the team. That he hadn't found some excuse to come find her right away was a good sign things were hopefully back to normal.

She finished up a few things in Ops and then took her time collecting her things, making a point to go past Callen's line of sight on her way out so he'd know she was leaving.

"Nell!" She heard Sam's voice call out and turned back toward them.

"Hey guys."

"How's the head?" Sam gestured to his own forehead.

"Practically good as new." She lifted up her bangs. "You guys aren't getting drinks with Deeks and Nate?"

"Nah, gotta get home to Michelle and the kids. These overnight assignments aren't as easy as they used to be. Good to be home."

"Yeah," Callen replied, prompting a look from Sam. "What? I have a house now! And a mattress. I've finally learned to appreciate sleeping in my own bed."

"Yeah, or you're just getting old and your back can't take the cheap hotel mattresses anymore." Sam stood up and headed toward his desk, "hold up Nell, and we'll walk out with you."

Callen followed suit, grabbing his bag as they headed for the door. "Oh please Sam, you're almost as old as I am."

"Yeah, but I take better care of myself. I keep telling you to try Pilates. Maybe a little yoga. When's the last time you ate a vegetable?"

"I dunno. I would've had cucumber in the tzatziki sauce the other night but someone disrupted my plans to order Greek food."

"G, you can't count condiments as a vegetable. That's like calling ketchup a tomato. Nell, back me up on this."

"No way. I'm not getting involved in this vegetable debate." Nell opened her car door and got in, pausing before shutting the door. "But if you need a recommendation for a pilates studio I know a few good ones," she called out, laughing as she shut the door to her car and watching them bicker a moment before she pulled out of the parking lot.

A few blocks later her phone rang and she answered through the Bluetooth in her car. "Hey."

"You're really gonna gang up on me with Sam about Pilates? Really?"

Nell laughed, "hey, it's good for your back!"

"Yeah well so are your back rubs and they're a lot less work."

"For you maybe."

"Hey, it's not like I don't reciprocate."

"Yeah, yeah. Are you still coming over tonight?"

"I can pick up dinner."

"I was thinking I'd pull out a lasagna from the freezer if you don't mind waiting a bit to eat. Trying to free up some room after all the frozen peas took over."

Callen chuckled, "sure, that works. See you in a bit then?"

"Yep, I'll meet you upstairs."

"Sounds good. See you in a few."

"See you."

Nell continued her drive in silence, thinking about her and Callen and how they really were getting pretty coupley and domestic, which if it was a little weird for her, even in a good way, it had to be really bizarre for Callen. As she made her way up the stairs to her apartment she thought maybe she was getting ahead of herself talking about changing their rules. But then again, that's why they needed to talk about it.

Nell shook her head, dismissing the thoughts for now and turning on the oven to preheat. All she cared about tonight was food, sleep, and Callen. They had all weekend to figure out whatever can of worms they'd opened by talking about changing the rules.

She heard the light knock on the door and took a quick glance through the peephole before opening it for Callen. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up as he stepped into her apartment, shut the door behind him and kissed her before setting her back down. "Hi," he grinned; arms still firmly wrapped around her waist.

"Hi." Nell slid her arms up between them and around his neck, pulling him down for another slow kiss. As they pulled back from the kiss she slid her hands down from his neck to wrap around his torso, pulling herself in against him and resting her cheek against his chest. Callen squeezed his arms around her gently in a hug, lowering his head to rest atop hers before suddenly releasing her and stepping back.

"Shit. Nell, was I hurting you?" He brought his hands to hover at her waist.

She rolled her eyes and tugged his arm back around her, pulling him back in for a hug. "Will you just hold me for a minute, damn it, I missed you. You're not gonna hurt me. And the bruises are lower than that anyway."

He pressed a kiss into her hair, "I missed you too." They stood there wrapped up in each other another minute or two until the beep of the oven interrupted them.

"We've got about an hour until this is ready," Nell said, sliding the lasagna into the oven. She gave him a coy smile, "you wanna grab a shower while we wait?"

"I'm not having sex with you against the shower tiles when you're injured."

"First, I'm bruised, not injured. Second, who said anything about sex?"

"I know that look."

"Yeah?" Nell double checked the oven timer and walked back toward him. "What look is that?"

"That look right there," Callen replied playfully, pointing at her face. "The one that says you're going to pounce on me if you don't get what you want."

"And what is it that I want?" She slipped one hand under his shirt, letting it roam over his abs and up to his chest."

"Me. In the shower apparently." He gently turned her toward the bedroom and wrapped his arms around her from behind, walking them both toward her room, dipping his head to kiss her neck

"The shower part's optional but you know how I like to multitask."

"Noted. But if we burn the lasagna I'm blaming you."

"I take full responsibility."


They burnt the lasagna. Mostly just around the edges though, and they were both firmly in agreement that it was worth it, even if they had skipped the shower portion of things.

After dinner they settled onto the sofa; Callen leaning back into the cushions and Nell curled into his chest.

"How was Mexico?" Nell asked quietly. " I wanted to check in, but…"

"Our rules."

"Mhmm." Nell nodded. "You seemed better after we talked yesterday, but then you had to leave so soon and I was just…"

"Worried?"

She nodded.

"I'm good now, really. I could've handled it better at first, but once I knew you were okay; once we talked yesterday and I knew you were really okay, I was okay too."

Nell let out a breath of relief. "Good."

"You know, the normal thing to be worried about would be me heading off to Mexico to track down a literal headhunter. Not the fact that I might still be worried about you."

"Yeah well, headhunters are a little out of the ordinary but tracking down killers in general is pretty normal for you. Being unfocused like you were the other day isn't so normal."

"Fair enough."

"You know, back when you and Sam first told me that story about the Kalinga headhunter, I was almost positive you were messing with me. Or like it was some old urban legend or inside joke or something."

"Well, it was only partially true after all. Hetty didn't just fly him into LA. Sam and I were sent to extract him."

"Yeah, because that's the detail that seemed unrealistic." Nell laughed lightly. "Funny we were just talking about that the other night and then we get called in on a case about him."

"Yeah," Callen answered, absentmindedly brushing his thumb over her hip. "I think you were right that we should talk about the rules."

Nell nodded. "I still think we should be careful; try to keep this between us. But I feel like the actual strict rules themselves might be more trouble than they're worth."

Callen held her more snugly against him. "I don't want the rules to stop us from doing what's best for us. Like being able to talk after something like what happened this week."

"Agreed. It seems like maybe it's getting to the point where they're keeping us from being completely honest with each other. Like, we aren't even bringing things up to talk about and decide together, because the rules have already made the decision for us."

"Exactly," Callen answered.

Nell shifted on the couch to face him better, leaning in and kissing him slowly before she spoke again. "Like, for instance if I wanted to spend the whole weekend with you, I might not even bring it up. Because the rules would say we only spend one weekend night at each other's place."

Callen nodded, smiling against her lips, "but maybe that's something we ought to talk about and decide. Not just follow the rule."

"Exactly." Nell kissed him again, briefly this time, and continued. "I think we should take the weekend to figure out what to do about the rules, see if we can come up with another way to keep everyone in the dark."

"I think so too," Callen answered. "And I think we just deserve the extra time together this week. And I just want to."

"Good," Nell answered with a kiss before standing up and reaching for his hand. "Then we'll figure the rest out tomorrow. And for now, you should come to bed with me."


A/N: as always, likes and reviews are always appreciated! I still don't expect to have a regular update schedule for this as I'm posting as I write, but now that I'm back to writing again I don't think it'll be another year long break by any means!