There was a loud crashing noise followed quickly by the sound of shattering glass. That was a lot of little pieces by the sound of it. Nell winced, that was never fun to clean up. The smell of burning rubber invaded her nostrils, scorching the inside of her nose. A handful of screws rolled across the floor to rest just under hers and Eric's pod. Jumping out of it, she crouched down to pick them up, Hetty would not forgive them if they wasted money on a new piece of equipment just because they were missing some screws, and debated whether or not she should go and see if Eric any help or if she should get as far as way as possible. No point in getting involved in a telling off for something she didn't do, after all. It didn't sound like he had injured himself.
She placed he screws by her laptop when she heard, "Oh no."
It managed to sound doleful and panicked all at once in a way only Eric could. It made her stomach drop every time and now was no exception. She tensed up and covered her ears with her hands, expecting an explosion to occur. Surprisingly, it never came and instead there were three successively louder 'Thunks' and a loud sucking noise which didn't sound like a vacuum. She sighed and shook her head. All he was supposed to be doing was finding parts to repair their ioniser. Deeks and Sam had broken it last week and they hadn't had time to even try to fix it until today. Not that it looked like it was going to get repaired today either.
"Eric?" Nell called out hesitantly, still not entirely sure she wanted to get involved.
She didn't get an answer, not even a grunt. Actually, there was a very still silence that was almost eerie-
"Oh NO!"
BANG! Hsssss. Nell frowned, that noise was unerringly familiar but she couldn't pin it down. Eric scrambled into Ops with a panicked look on his soot-stained face, eyes wide and watering. He wasn't even using the new hover ability on his shoes, something he had not shut up about until Hetty had relented and deemed them acceptable work footwear. Privately, Nell thought their boss was just glad his toes were now covered. Flip flips currently didn't come with the hover chip and accompanying bands, not that that had stopped Eric from experimenting in his own (and failing spectacularly - a story for another time). Nell gave him a suspicious look as he flung himself into their floating work pod, it shuddered under the force. He ignored her and began frantically typing, getting caught up on the work that had come in. He was still far better at hacking banks for the team. He was much cleaner and sneakier. What that said about him as a person Nell didn't want to dwell on. He got the job done. Suddenly she remembered where she had heard that hissing noise before and narrowed her eyes at her partner.
"Was that a I-messed-up-dinner oh no or an I-forgot-to-lock-the-portal-gateway oh, no?" she asked, giving him a suspicious side-eye. He hadn't even bothered to wipe at his face. "And are you going to clean your face?"
She did not want soot prints all over the equipment. It did not look good on chrome. But back to the portal gateway, she always told him to triple check that thing before moving it to get to the spare parts box. It didn't lock smoothly and even one little open chink could cause no end of chaos and mess. Nothing deadly or anything but it was always a bitch to clean up after. As Eric fully well knew, who was currently shuffling his feet guiltily (and probably scuffing his beloved hover bands) and refusing to look at her. It didn't take a trained agent to read his tells.
She turned to face him, allowing her expression to become more stern. "Eric."
He chewed his lip and stupidly caught her eye as his gaze roamed. She had to stop herself from chuckling, with the soot marks on his face he looked particularly pathetic, he was all pouting lips and sad eyes.
"I forgot!" he cried, quaking under her expression.
Yep, definitely an 'I-forgot-to-lock-the-portal-gateway oh no'.
"What did you do?"
If you moved the stupid thing without locking it all of the surrounding items tended to get sucked into it and transported to the last coordinates that were entered. Nell was all for useful technology but she was the one who had had to retrieve three guns and a slingshot (don't ask) from Canada. In January. She had no sympathy for people who left their crap around it now. They didn't have to stare down a moose for a freaking gun.
"I panicked!" Nell raised an eyebrow. That was very obvious. "I nearly knocked it over into the Repairs bench because I was reaching across it to get something so I quickly slammed it to the floor and it landed face down," he admitted very quickly, chewing on his lower lip. He was chewing so vigorously that Nell was worried he was going to pierce a hole in his lip.
Then what he said registered with the diminutive red head.
"What?" she yelped and jumped out of the pod, stumbling slightly as she had forgotten the height which they had set it to. "Eric! You can't do that!"
Did he not know how sensitive that expensive piece of equipment was? She sprinted out of Ops and in the direction of the Repair Bench.
"I panicked!" Eric repeated, frantically running after her.
Though what they were going to do when they got there, Nell didn't really know. She didn't exactly want to risk lifting it up, it might have opened itself and the last coordinates were set for Egypt. She was not in the mood to get sunburn.
Hetty was so going to vaporise them. That was the third time they'd had an incident involving this this month. A new record.
They really needed to find a better spot for the Gateway Portal.
