Nell finally comes clean with Eric about her relationship with Callen. How will he take it?

I only own my own characters which include Stefan Badžo in this story.

Anything in italics within single quotes is a quote from my one-shot "Can't Stay Away". Anything in italics and double quotes is thoughts.

Nope…no matter how hard I wish, NCIS LA nor any of the characters on the show are mine. And sadly, they never will be.

Reviews are always welcome. If you are enjoying this story, especially this chapter, or even if you're not, leave a review on the way out and tell me why.

Enjoy.

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CHAPTER 21: Nell Tells Eric

Nell woke to the smell of coffee early the next morning. Looking over to the other side of the bed, she knew she would find it empty. She grabbed her robe and quickly washed her face before joining Callen in the kitchen.

"Morning G. That coffee smells wonderful."

"Here's your cup milady. Just the way you like it." Callen handed Nell her coffee, grabbed his own and they went into the living room to enjoy it before starting their day. As they sat there, Callen noticed that Nell was bothered aout something but he had no idea what it was. Deciding to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, he asked her "What's on your mind little spider?"

Heaving a sigh, Nell took a couple of minutes to think about what she was going to do, then proceeded to tell G in hopes that he could help her with her approach.

"I'm going to tell Eric about our relationship today. He knows something is going on and I don't think it's fair to him not to tell him. I don't want him thinking there is a chance for a relationship between us. I love him like a brother and he's my best friend. I don't want to keep him in the dark about us any longer. Are you okay with me telling him?"

"Well, I don't want our relationship to become common knowledge around the office, but you're right. Eric deserves to know. And if you ask him, he'll keep it to himself. I trust him, he's part of our team. Are you worried about how he'll take it?"

"Yeah, I am. I hope we can still be friends and work together but I am worried."

"Don't be Nell. I know you'll handle it brilliantly and everything will turn out okay." Callen reached over and gave her a hug and a kiss before taking another drink of his coffee. We'd better get going or Sam is going to find us still in our PJs. He's driving me into work today. Let me know how it goes with Eric."

"I will G. Thanks for the pep talk.

"Any time little spider, any time."

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Callen and Sam were already at the Mission when Kensi went to pick Deeks up from the hospital. She was taking him home to clean up before they both reported to work.

Nell and Eric were up in OPS going over what they knew so far hoping to find something, anything, that might lead them to some additional information when Eric turned to her and asked the question he had been trying to get up the courage to ask for several days. After several minutes of nervously trying to think of what to say, he finally just blurted out his question.

"Nell, are you and Callen seeing each other?"

Nell looked at Eric and was glad he had brought up the subject. She had been sitting there trying to figure out how to broach that same subject for some time without any success. As she had told Callen, it was time to come clean with him about their relationship. "Yes, we are. We've been seeing each other for several months now, since the run-in with Inman in fact. We didn't want anyone to know, so we haven't told anyone officially. Sam knows because he saw us together. And I'm pretty sure Hetty knows, because, well she's Hetty. But Callen and I are not going to tell her officially. Not with the way she treated Kensi and Deeks. Will you keep this to yourself?"

"Of course I will. You don't even have to ask. Okay. Umm, okay. So, I can assume you aren't interested in me that way, right?" Eric asked.

Nell couldn't decipher the look on Eric's face. It didn't look sad or glad, but it wasn't stoic either. She also noticed a slight twinkle in his eyes like he had a secret of his own to share.

"Eric, you'll always be my best friend…more than that, really. I…I feel like we're closer than that, siblings or more like twins, maybe. You've always been there for me. I love working with you and I cherish our friendship, maybe more than you realize. I don't want to lose our closeness or friendship, but I've come to realize that I'm not sexually attracted to you. I'm so sorry if I hurt you or led you on in any way."

"No, no, that's okay, that's not what I meant. Umm…I…uh…I've been seeing someone too but I just wasn't sure how to tell you." He blurted it out before he lost his courage and then waited to see what she would say.

Nell felt her knees go weak with relief and her face lit up in a huge grin. "You are? Oh…that's...that's great! Who is she…is she good enough for you?" Nell wanted to hear all about Eric's girlfriend. She might only be his friend and work partner but she was very protective of him. "She'd better not hurt you, or she'll have to deal with me."

Eric looked at Nell and began smiling in turn. "So, you're determined to defend my honor then, if she hurts me?"

"You better believe it buddy. We're a team. So spill. I want details."

Eric had a huge grin of his face at Nell's words. "Well, I met her a couple of months ago online in one of my gaming chat rooms. We got on really well online so decided to take a chance and meet. We met for coffee and ended up talking for hours. We both had so much fun getting to know each other and finding out how much we have in common that we decided to go on an actual date. It's progressed from there. We see each other a couple times a week now. She knows what I do, in general terms only, so I don't have to lie to her. She just doesn't know where I work or for who and she's okay with that. We're taking it slow though because neither one of us is in a hurry and we want to be sure about each other. I really like her Nell. She reminds me a little of you, but she likes a lot of the same things I do. She even surfs!"

"You did let Hetty know right? She needs to be checked out if you think you're getting serious due due to your security clearance. At least you won't have to worry about her separating the two of you because you don't work together."

"Yes, I told Hetty. I also told her I didn't want to be the one to check her out. Hetty said she'd do it and let me know if she found anything. She hasn't said anything so far, so I guess Becca checked out okay." Eric's face showed how relieved he was that he hadn't heard anything bad about Becca from Hetty.

Nell could tell that Eric was excited about Becca which made her very happy for him. She had been so afraid of breaking his heart when she told him she was seeing Callen and to find out that he felt the same way about her as she did about him made her feel like a ton of bricks had just been lifted off of her shoulders. Then to find out that he had found someone else that he was madly in love with gave her a huge sense of relief. He might not know it yet, but Nell was sure he was completely head over hells in love with this Becca person. She had been serious when she told Eric Becca better not hurt him or she would have Nell to deal with. She was happy for him just like she had told him. She reached over and gave him a big hug.

"Maybe we can double-date some time" She mentioned.

"I'm not sure. Do you think Callen would want to do that?" Eric would never admit it to Nell but sometimes Callen intimidated him.

"Leave that to me Eric. Besides I know he won't mind. He thinks of you as part of the team and a member of his little family. We'll talk more after this case is over. We should probably get back to work."

"Yeah, I really want to find another lead on this case, but I'm not having any luck" Eric groused.

"Me neither, Eric."

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Kensi unlocked Marty's front door with her key and lead the way into his apartment. "Go take a shower, Marty. I'll wait here."

"Care to join me?" he gave her a lustful look.

"We don't have time lover boy. Just get in the shower."

"You're no fun Fern, you know that?" Marty turned and padded down the hallway into the bathroom.

As soon as he was in the shower, she followed him into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet seat. She could see his silhouette through the shower door and sat there appreciating the view. She was ready to hand him the towel as soon as he was finished. She wrapped it around his hips and then leaned in for a kiss. "That's going to have to be enough until tonight, Marty" she whispered as she turned and left the room.

"Damn it. Too bad we don't have the time for me to show her just how much I love her" Marty grumbled as he got dressed then joined her in the kitchen where she had made a pot of coffee. She already had their travel mugs filled with a second cup for each of them to drink on their way into the office. When they arrived at work, Deeks could see that both Callen and Sam had a couple of bandages on their worst scrapes and both of them were stiff and sore by the way they were carrying themselves.

"You feeling better Deeks? You had us worried there for a while." Sam was looking him over very carefully.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. Got a little replacement blood and some fluids in me last night. I wanted to go home but Hetty put a stop to that idea. Kensi had even reluctantly agreed to stay the night to watch over me. I have a slight headache, this morning but nothing like it was last night."

"Are you sure you should be working today?" Callen asked.

"I'm fine Callen. I got a good night's sleep, even if it was in the hospital, and I'm good to go." Marty was hoping neither Sam nor Callen would say anything about some of the things he remembered saying when he was half out of it from blood loss. It was bad enough he remembered how loopy he was. "I sounded drunk for God's sake. I'm surprised Kens didn't gage me when I blurted out that she was beautiful and I liked her. I really can't believe she didn't punch me when I said she could be on top any time! I must have looked pretty bad. It's a damn good thing Hetty didn't hear me. Or did she? Aw, shit; I hope not. Well, if she did, I can only hope she decided it meant nothing because of the concussion. I don't want her to have any suspicions about Kensi and I. It's none of her damn business anyway."

Callen was getting ready to tease their very own liaison officer about some of the things he had said the previous day when Sam grabbed his arm "We're out of here. We have a date in the gym. Call us if there's any news from upstairs." Sam almost pushed Callen out of the room and Marty could hear Callen asking why he had done that. He would have to thank Sam for the save.

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"What was that for? I wanted to say something to Deeks." Callen protested as Sam kept pushing him toward the gym.

"He doesn't need your teasing right now G. Can't you see his headache is worse that he's letting on? I know he's good to go, but he doesn't need to get riled up by you." Sometimes Sam thought Callen was blind as a bat when it came to other people.

"Oh, yeah I guess you're right." Callen admitted. He decided he'd talk to Nell about it when he got the chance.

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