Title : Cure for the soul.
By : GirlOfSpring
Pairing : Nell/Callen
Summary: It all started with a certain intelligence analyst who needed her music and a certain special agent who was disturbed by the noise. A Nallen story
Disclaimer : Don't own anything except for my own ideas that I have used to write this. And the mistakes I make.
Note: So, I started this with what was supposed to be a oneshot. Now I've decided to make it into a story. I am still figuring stuff out about the site(I never know if the rating is correct and how far I can actually go) and writing in general (Planning? I have never written a complete story and I suck at planning..), so there might be time between updates. I will just do my best to create something that you readers can like and appreciate.
And last but not least, thank you all so much for all the story favorites, alerts and reviews! It is amazing to know that there are people appreciating my writing and I hope that you will like this second chapter as well.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
"And after you dispose of these files, you are free to go Miss Jones"
Hetty was holding a small pile of files stamped 'Confidential' that Nell easily took over while nodding to her boss.
"Ok. I finished doing the background check you asked me to. I'll bring down the file with all the necessary information after I finish this" She smiled one moment to the older woman before turning around and walking to the backroom where she knew she would find the oven.
Humming silently she opened the door, put the files on the metal grid, closed the door again and then pressed the big button that would start the progress of burning the files. She stayed there for a moment, staring into the dark orange flames while they burned away the paper. Through the door she could feel the warmth vibrating on her face and for a moment she closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling. Around lunchtime it had started raining and with it had come the familiar cold that came forth when there wasn't enough sun.
Slowly she opened her eyes again, stepping back slightly when the warmth was a bit too much. The destructive orange caught her gaze and for a second she imagined it to be blue. The same light blue that was carried in the eyes of a certain Special Agent, with the icy stare that could change into one of intense fire. A shiver ran down her back and after quickly checking if the file was destroyed, she turned around and all but fled the room. She couldn't let herself think about 'The Look', as she had started calling it.
She found that, once it had come up in some dark corner of her mind, that it would get hard to concentrate on the work she was trying to do because she would be mentally catapulted back to that evening a few nights ago when he had walked in on her listening and dancing – dancing! – to her music in the command centre. And when this happened, all these confusing feelings started soaring through her body. She just couldn't allow that to happen.
Her solution: she ran from it. She threw herself in her work, even if it was difficult to concentrate. And above all, Callen hadn't really said a word to her since, hadn't really done anything actually. Nothing had changed. They were co-workers and once in a while they would end up in the same bar with the rest of the group, but out of these moments they didn't really have any connection. It hadn't meant anything, so now it was up to her to do the same and move past this.
She crossed the bullpen and on her way to the stairs, she quickly looked over to the four desks where the four agents were doing their own load of paperwork. Shaking her head, she climbed the stairs.
Nothing had happened.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
It was raining.
The sky was dark with clouds, making it clear to the inhabitants of Los Angeles, spoiled with sunshine, that they wouldn't be leaving them just yet. At least not until they had soaked them to the point that it would take weeks for them to feel dry again. It wouldn't be long until the rain would be joined by thunder and lighting and the party could get started.
Nell just hoped that the power wouldn't fail as it had done the last time they had this big a storm.
She sighed and shook her head while looking at the sky. She inched just a bit too close to the edge of the overhang, which resulted in a few rogue raindrops falling on her cheeks. She jumped back in surprise. The rain wasn't necessarily cold. It was.. well. It was wet. But that was what it was supposed to be. If rain wasn't wet, something was wrong with the world. But that didn't change the fact that she had a problem at the moment.
With a firm movement, she straightened her jacket while her hazel eyes darted past the small courtyard to the grand gate. Only outside, a few blocks down the street, had she parked her car that morning, in the bright sun and a cloudless sky. It was some crude joke, that now she had to make a run for it through the pouring rain with only her small jacket as protection against the water. And her jacket wasn't even waterproof.
Nell mumbled a few curse words under her breath and looked back to the doors that she had closed behind her. She could go back inside and wait for a while longer, but she had already postponed her leave with an entire hour, in which she had done all the extra work she could think of. It was a quiet day, the first in a long time, so it had been early when she could leave the command centre behind her. Now she almost wanted to go back inside and find something else to do, just to avoid the rain.
It wasn't that she didn't like the rain. In a different situation, she wouldn't have been bothered by the constant downpour and just gone outside, but now she was carrying a bag with her laptop, phone and iPod and all three weren't exactly objects that could survive this kind of weather. Yes, she had her bag, but she didn't entirely trust the fabric to protect these things that were such a big part of her world, at work and at home.
Another few curse words escaped her lips while she once again edged closer to the edge to see if there was somewhere a silver lining to the dark clouds.
No such luck.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
Callen was fiddling.
Callen wasn't exactly the person to fiddle, but today was an exception. At the moment he had one of his pencils swirling between the long fingers of his right hand while with his left hand he tapped a rhythm of a random song. Kensi was sitting at the desk to his right and with every tap that he produced, she seemed to get more annoyed. At the desks across from theirs, Deeks got Sam's attention with a subtle move of his elbow, before nodding to their team leader. The ex-SEAL looked to his partner and slowly his eyebrows rose to an almost impossible level.
But it stayed silent. Until..
"Damnit Callen, stop it!" Slowly, not spooked by the sudden outburst of the only female agent, Callen turned his eyes to the woman sitting next to him. To add force to her words, she had slammed her flat hand on the table, causing one of the messy piles of papers there to slide sideways and starting there slow fall to the ground.
"Ow damn!" she cursed again, but this time directed to the files, that ungraciously had flown in all different directions after hitting the ground.
"See, I keep telling you that you should be a bit more organised with your stuff, because something like this could happen" Deeks commented, a smug glint in his eyes. Kensi merely rolled her eyes before getting up to pick up the pile.
"I like my desk like this. It makes it easier to find the stuff that I need" she mumbled while crouching to get under her desk, where one of the pages seemed to be hiding.
Callen still hadn't said a word and for another second he took in the sight of the paper on the floor, before restarting the song he had been tapping on his desk while making a note in his report.
"I agree with Deeks"
His words were followed by exactly two seconds of silence.
"What?" Kensi asked, an incredulous look in her eyes.
"G?" was the much simpler reaction of his partner, while Sam let his eyes drift between the three other agents.
Deeks just triumphantly pumped his fist in the air.
"Oh yeah! I absolutely am the King of Deskilmania!"
This time the silence was longer while three pairs of eyes turned to the blonde LAPD liaison.
"Too soon?" He asked with an innocent smile. This resulted in a shove from the much bigger agent sitting next to him.
"Even in a thousand years it will still be too soon" He commented. Kensi just stared at him for another second, before grabbing the first the she could get her hands on from her desk and in one smooth move, she hurled it to Deeks. The object happened to be an eraser and it hit him straight on the forehead.
"Hey!"
"Bulls eye!" She shouted. But it wasn't over with this. Deeks grabbed the eraser and threw it back at her, while pushing back his chair so he could go for cover behind his desk. Kensi had by now again dropped the papers she had picked up from the ground and done the same thing. Both Sam and Callen staid in their chairs, following the exchange between the two partners as if it was a tennis match, heads turning left to right and back again, following the now numerous things flying through the air. The eraser had been joined by balls of paper, pens and other random desk objects.
Callen turned his eyes to his partner and shook his head slightly.
"We should find a better nanny" He remarked, smiling. Sam grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, I was actually thinking about one of those boarding schools to send them to, so they can learn how to behave. At least when other people are around." This got Deeks' attention and his blond head peaked up from his desk.
"A boarding school?" Leave it to Deeks to get some fantasy by the mentioning of a boarding school. Kensi saw a clear shot and flung her neonlighter to his head, one again hitting him full in the face.
"Well, of course it would be an all-boys school" Callen remarked and he and Sam laughed when they saw the dreamy gleam in Deeks' eyes change into one of pure horror.
"Even if you would be able to do that, you wouldn't" he protested while pulling back his seat so he could sit again. His words were met by silence.
"Guys?" The other three agents just laughed and with that, the War of the Flying Objects was over and the agents got back to their work. Callen went to grab his cup for another sip of godly tea, but found that his cup was empty. He sighed and got up to brew himself some more.
While he was standing in the small area provided to make drinks or have a snack, he heard the voice of their intelligence analyst directed at his co-workers.
"Good night guys, see you on Monday!" Cheery as ever. He smiled slightly and from the corner of his eyes, he glanced sideways to the hallway that lead to the doors. He saw her walk by, seemingly happy to go home. She hadn't noticed him and he just finished pouring the boiling water in his cup when the doors opened and the clear noise of immense rain momentarily filled the bullpen. With his tea he returned to his desk.
"Damn, that is one heave storm" Deeks murmured while glancing to one of the obscured windows. Callen merely nodded in response. Then, without any reason, the image of Nell came up in his mind. She hadn't been dressed for the weather and she didn't have an umbrella. A slight frown appeared on his forehead. Was she just going to walk outside in this weather dressed like that?
Before really registering what he was doing, he had gotten up from his desk again and silently walked to the area which contained all the clothes for the undercover missions. In the corner, there stood an umbrella stand with a couple of differently colored umbrellas. Without thinking about it, he picked one and silently he slid outside to the door. He was already luck that Hetty hadn't noticed him taking it, or he would be in trouble.
Quickly, he followed the path to the door Nell had taking a few moments earlier.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
Nell was still looking up at the rain when she heard the doors behind her open. She glanced back and saw Callen walking her way, holding an umbrella in his hand. She didn't say anything while he walked up to her.
"I thought you might need this.." He said slowly, opening the umbrella and holding it above their heads. With a small step, he left the cover she had been standing in for the last few minutes, protected by the umbrella. He looked back and smiled slightly. She found her own lips twisting up in a smile before hoisting her bag a bit higher.
"Yeah, thanks" She followed his example and left the dry floor she had been standing on. She stayed next to him under the umbrella and together they slowly walked to the gates of the small courtyard. Callen smiled slightly and opened the gate before letting her walk through and somehow magically managing to follow her through the opening without actually getting either of them wet, since the umbrella was slightly too big for the opening.
"So, what was it with the music a few days ago?" She saw him glance sideways and blushed slightly while she kept walking.
"Well.. I thought that I was all alone in the building, to my defense. And it had been a long day. I like listening to music when I get home, it relaxes me." She smiled slightly before looking up to his face.
"Don't you ever listen to music?" He was silent for a moment and she didn't push him to answer the question. Suddenly she felt the soft pressure of his hand on the small of her back when he steered her a bit more to the left so she wouldn't end up stepping into a big pool. She hadn't really been paying attention to where she was placing her feet. The blush on her face that had faded for a moment, came back full force and she looked down to avoid any other incidents. He seemed to notice the awkward tension and immediately the warm pressure disappeared. Neither of them mentioned it.
"I don't own an iPod, I don't own any CDs and I don't own a stereo. The only moment on the day that I listen to music, is when I am in the car. Otherwise, not really" Nell finally looked up to study the face of the older man. He wasn't looking at her, his eyes trained forwards to their destination. He only listened to music in his car? She couldn't imagine living like that. Music was important to her. She couldn't really explain how, but music could always make her feel better.
"But is there some kind of music you prefer?" Callen merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I have never really thought about it. Although I kind of liked the music you were listening to" And that was all that he would reveal about himself. Still, Nell was surprised at this new information. It allowed her to add some detail to the image she had of the mysterious Callen. And she still felt the small pull of embarrassment with the memory, but somehow also a bit surprised he had liked the music. It wasn't really the standard music people in Los Angeles listened to at the moment.
Standing next to her car, she pulled out her keys and opened the door so she could put her bag in the car. She noticed that Callen had come a bit closer, holding the umbrella in a way that no rain would end up in the car and that she would stay dry. It also meant that when she turned away, she stood face to face with his chest. Her breath hitched and she looked up, warm hazel meeting cold blue.
"Thank you, again, for this.." She said softly, not entirely sure about her voice if she would speak up a bit more. He didn't move directly, just shrugged once.
"No problem" Then he moved back, allowing her to get behind the wheel. He stood next to the car while she started the engine and rolled down her window. The umbrella was still making sure now rain would end up on her and she looked up, smiling slightly. Somehow, she felt shy. As if she was a teenager again, one of the normal girls in school and one of the hottest guys around had paid some attention to her.
Callen lent down a bit and she caught a hint of his smell; dark and musky, mixed with the fresh small of rain.
"We wouldn't want our top intelligence analyst to be sick for a week" He remarked, before slightly gesturing with his hand to the road.
"Have a nice weekend, Miss Jones" Then he moved away from the car, allowing her to drive away. She closed the window, smiled one last time before hitting the gas and driving away from her work. It was Friday, time to go home, cook herself a great dinner and have a long bath without any thoughts on the dangerous Callen.
At the next cross roads, she had to stop for a red light and for a moment, she closed her eyes. Immediately, her senses were overloaded with the memory of his strong scent softened by the fresh rain. A honking car behind her, brutally tore her away from her thoughts and she continued her way home. She really had to get over herself.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
Callen waited a moment until the small, bright red car had rounded the corner before returning through the gate and inside the building. He snuck back to the room with the clothes and returned the umbrella to the rest of them.
"Mr Callen, if you are going to steal my things to use them for personal goals, at least return them in a dignified state. If you leave that umbrella closed, it's going to take days to dry, mess up my other umbrellas and even ruin that umbrella stand that was a gift from a very interesting English Duke. They are quite used to rain over there."
Callen turned around and saw Hetty standing in the doorway, her eyebrow slightly arched and with one hand gesturing to the umbrella he had tried to push in with the others.
"It wasn't for personal goals" was his only retort while complying to his boss and taking out the umbrella. He opened it again and put it on the floor, where it could dry before he would put it back in the stand. He nodded once again to Hetty, before walking back to his desk to finish his work.
"Hey Callen, can you tell Kensi again how you agreed with me?" Deeks welcomed him back, almost directly starting another war.
Hetty slightly shook her head.
"You just keep saying that to yourself, Mr Callen" she mumbled under her breath while returning to her desk.
~~~|G|O|S|~~~
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