The following Monday was a holiday and, since the case involving the murder of a Marine's son had been successfully closed, Hetty decided the team could wait until Tuesday to come in and do the paperwork. As the team filed into the office on Tuesday, refreshed from a three day weekend, Nell greeted them with a whistle from the balcony, saying "New case! Looks straightforward though."
"Why did she have to say that? Last time somebody said that, we didn't go home for almost a week." Sam complained as the team of agents trudged up the stairs to see what awaited them. Callen looked around, finally resting his eyes on their operations manager. "Where's Eric? Running late?" Deeks grinned, remembering the last time he was late and the punishment he received. He took a small amount of sadistic joy in the idea of somebody else getting on Hetty's bad side. Hetty replied, "No…no Mr. Beale asked for a couple days off so we will manage without him. No doubt Miss Jones can handle some extra duties for the time being."
Sam chortled as Nell nodded her assent, "Probably hiding, knows he screwed up last week. We'll set him right when he comes back." Deeks added, "I can hardly wait…" as Kensi nodded in agreement. Nell briefed the team, Callen set the agents to their tasks, and gave Nell instructions for what to do next.
All was going according to plan and the case seemed to be straightforward-until it wasn't. Kensi and Deeks discovered that their main suspect had not only one encrypted computer, but seven. After four hours and no progress, Nell knew she needed help if the team would be able to access and use the information locked inside the hard drives. It was crucial to the case; the team would not be able to move forward until the computers could be accessed.
"Job for Eric", Sam said, after reassuring Nell that she had done fine, despite not being successful. Hetty appeared from nowhere. "No. Mr. Beale is off today and is not to be bothered for this. We will pursue other means until he returns to work." The four agents looked at her with disbelief. The job was king. It ruled their personal life and everything and everyone in it. It was what all the people who worked at NCIS-OSP signed up for, lived for…loved. The idea of reorganizing or stalling their investigation for one person was unthinkable.
Callen turned to his team once Hetty was out of earshot. "Sam and I are going to have another go in the boatshed. Kensi, Deeks: find Eric and get his ass in here." Deeks and Kensi nodded and pulled out their phones.
Kensi called and Deeks texted. The texts went unanswered and the calls went straight to voicemail all five times Kensi dialed. Slamming her hands on her desk, Kensi turned to Deeks and said bluntly, "Let's go." Deeks just looked at his partner, noting the glint in her eye that warned him to be careful. Very careful. "Okay…where are we going exactly, we have no leads…?"
Kensi replied, "I am so sick of people running out when they're needed. We are going to Eric's and dragging his butt in here so he can get the computers opened up so we can solve our case. Are you coming or not?" she added in a murderous tone. Deeks, knowing her comment about people leaving when they were needed was not about Eric at all, just nodded and followed his partner to the car.
"Okay, Kensi, there is really no need to be so loud, I'm sure Eric can hear you if he's home…" Deeks said to his partner while staying safely out of striking range. Just as Kensi raised her fist to bang on the door again, it opened, revealing Eric, who was now jumping back at the sight of Kensi, angry and with an upheld fist, at his door. With Deeks. On a day off that he desperately needed to recoup from his weekend of living hell…
"You do know that I asked Hetty for a couple days off, right?", Eric said by way of greeting. Kensi took in the sight of her colleague's wrinkled shirt, disheveled hair, and baggy eyes. Noting his pinched look, like he hadn't eaten in days Kensi soldiered on, "Get cleaned up and get to Ops. We need you to crack some computers Nell can't get in to. Obviously you need your beauty sleep but we kind of have a job to do." Deeks added, "We'll wait and give you a ride. Five minutes, man."
Eric opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it. He had just had one of the worst weekends of his life and was exhausted. He had gotten home from the airport an hour ago and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and try to get some sleep, which had proven elusive since the previous Thursday when he got a phone call from a stranger in Connecticut, asking him to come home. The last place in the world he wanted to be was in the intensity and stress of work, with people relying on him to be at peak form when he knew he would let them down, just as he did last Friday. Above all, he wanted the privacy to deal with his personal life for a couple days before maybe telling his coworkers about…
Eric looked at the unemotional faces on his doorstep and shook his previous thoughts out of his head. "Okay, fine. I'm right behind you.", he answered and shut the door. A quick shower and a change of clothes and ten minutes later, he was out the door. In other eight minutes, he was in the gadget room in Ops, steadily running decryption programs and sending the information upstairs to the ops room for Nell to analyze and feed to the team.
Eric's presence proved essential to the team's mission and the case was wrapped up in a matter of hours, with such a clean end and spot-on confessions and supporting evidence that nobody even chastised Nell for nearly jinxing all of NCIS in one fell swoop. As the agents and analysts gathered in the bullpen, ready to close out their night with a round at a nearby bar, Sam suddenly asked, "Anybody notice Eric looks like hell?" Sam took it as his responsibility to look after the team and was irritated that Eric had 'let himself go', even if had only been for a day.
The rest of the team was thinking, shaking their heads as Eric slowly walked past the group, giving a good night wave without so much as saying a word. Deeks noticed him first and called out, "Yo Eric! Sam says you look like hell. Come have a drink with us, it'll cure what ails ya."
"Not tonight, thanks."
"Why did you take the day off, anyway, if you didn't plan on having some kind of fun?", Callen asked, the team's luck having propelled him into a joking mood.
"I had…stuff. You know…that I needed to do…I guess…" was Eric's nervous reply. Nell smirked and pretended to cough into her sleeve as she said, "Surfing!" Eric looked at her, clearly wounded by the remark, "I told you that I wasn't going out this weekend."
The team looked at each other, grinning, knowing it wasn't like Eric to miss a prime day of surfing. "You know Hetty's going to rip you apart when she finds out you took time off work to surf", Kensi said. "I'd run if I were you."
Eric looked frustrated and repeated, "I didn't take my board out…" Sam nodded and said "Okay, okay we believe you, man. So what were you doing? Was it geek stuff?" he added, suddenly straight-faced and serious.
The rest of the team laughed, expecting Eric to laugh along as he typically did. "No...I…my mom—", Eric began as Callen broke off his words, "It was geek stuff!" the senior agent declared. Kensi rejoined, "Aww Eric! You don't have to hide your mom time from us!" The rest of the team giggled and Eric shifted uncomfortably on the edge of the bullpen, not sure what to do. Finally, Eric looked up, and set his eyes on Nell, since he knew they would be the easiest to look into as he spoke.
"She killed herself. My Mom. Last Thursday.", Eric deadpanned.
The agents and Nell suddenly quieted, turning to Eric, nobody saying a word. They were stunned at what Eric had said, each imagining their own horror had the same thing happened to them. Kensi was the worst, eyes already glassing with tears. She alone of the team knew how it felt to have a parent ripped away from you. It broke her heart when her dad died and her heart was breaking now for Eric's pain.
Eric waited a moment, looking at the ground in the silence of the cavernous room before looking up suddenly, "Ok…uhh, see you tomorrow then." As he turned again to leave, Callen said, a little too loudly, "Why don't you take time off and not come in tomorrow?" Nervously and a bit angrily, Eric said, "You mean like I did for today? See how well that plan went." Kensi and Deeks's eyes went straight to the floor, flooded with guilt.
Nell finally broke her silence, clearly hurt and shocked by what her friend had just revealed. As usual, her mind worked too fast and she blurted out, "Why did you tell me? Don't you realize how I feel now that I wouldn't switch days with you? We're partners, I need to know if something will affect you at work, Eric!" Nell realized how cold her concern sounded and put her hand to her forehead as the team looked at their normally quiet, clearheaded analyst, in shock.
Nell shook her thoughts clear and met Eric's gaze, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" Eric sharply cut her off, "You're right. I'm sorry- I obviously should have considered how my mom's suicide would affect you. You said we aren't partners and nothing I would tell you last week would change your mind about switching shifts. If you don't think I'm doing my job take it up with Hetty." And then he left.
The group was stunned. They had never heard Eric use that tone with anyone, ever and never suspected Nell would be the one he would use it with. However, Eric cared the most about Nell and was thus more easily hurt by her for the simple reason that he cared what she thought more than he did anyone else. Nell and Kensi both got up to follow Eric and apologize for what they did. At that moment, Hetty appeared from her observation point and said pointedly, "Sit your selves down this instant. Mr. Beale asked for privacy and I intend to see that he gets it."