Chapter Six

G. Callen sat at his desk, propped his feet upon the desk, and tilted the chair back as he leaned back. He stared at the high cathedral like ceiling and ran a hand down his face before he pinched the bridge of his nose. He had left the boat shed, ten minutes ago, five minutes after Nell had. He felt no better about the Op, about Nell's capability as a field agent than he had before the trip to the boat shed, actually he felt worse. He had muddled his original plan of isolating Nell from the others so that they could talk about what would be expected of them, of her. He needed to know before they started the Op that she could handle the basic of threats, but all they had proven was that they did not need to worry about how realistic the pair of them is, because for the briefest of moments, he had believed that they could be together. He shook his head and applied more pressure to the bridge of his nose. He needed to focus. He needed to unwind. He needed to hit something.

He looked around for Sam to persuade him to spar with him, but could not locate him. He smiled when his eyes landed on Deeks who stood with his hands in his pockets just outside of the wardrobe area trying to peek at what the wardrobe coordinator had handed Kensi.

"Deeks!" Callen roared as he stood from his chair then walked toward Deeks.

Deeks jumped looking around for Callen. His eyes were wide and his mouth slotted open just so, a piece of purple gum peeking through from in between his front teeth. The murderous look upon Callen's face scared him. He said with his tone of voice varying decibels, because of that fear. "Hey man, I was just joking. You know me, joke joke joke! Ha. Ha. Ha. I didn't mean what I said whatsoever, man! I promise! Pinky promise if I have to!"

Callen looked at him confused, "What are you talking about?"

Deeks exhaled a long breath in relief that Callen did not know about the comments that he had made about Nell. Deeks answered the question when Callen's confused look changed to prompting, 'answer me now.' "Oh, you know me, always joking when I shouldn't." Callen gave him a 'get to the point' look. "I said a few jokes that went too far. I guess I'm lucky that Kensi didn't rat me out."

Sometimes, a veiled truth was the best answer.

Satisfied with the answer, Callen asked, "Where's Sam?"

"Ops." Deeks answered, relieved that Callen bought it. "Something about his backstory."

"Okay." Callen said and then trailed a look from Deeks' eyes to his feet back to his eyes. Deeks did not like that look. He swallowed. Callen continued, "You feel like sparring?"

Deeks almost choked on his gum, as there would be no way he was ever going to knowingly spar with Callen when he was pissed. A calm Callen was almost deadly; an angry Callen would mean a trip to medical for whoever sparred with him, or a possibly a first with a visit to OSP from Medical Examiner Rose Shwartz. Deeks did not like his chances, so he once again used a veiled truth. "Maybe some other time, Kensi's almost done with wardrobe, after we're going to, The Starship, to snag an invite."

Callen nodded. "Let me know what you two come up with."

"Will do." Deeks responded. He watched Callen walk away and toward the staircase that would lead him to Ops. Deeks hoped that Callen would never find out about those ill-spoken comments. He took a glance toward Hetty's office, mostly obscured from where he stood, however he saw Nell sitting in front of Hetty's desk. Deeks bit his lip and looked away ashamed. Nell was one of his best friends, actually the first he had made at NCIS, which said something as he was here six months before she. She did not deserve his comments. He hoped that Eric would forgive him. Above all, he wanted Nell to never find out, more so than he would prefer Callen never to know. Callen would justly kick his ass, but Nell, he never wanted to hurt, not because she could hurt him places that Callen or even Eric did not know, but because he valued her friendship, and he feared that Callen would hurt her more than enough, after all he had during the briefing. Marty Deeks decided right there to man up and confront Callen before Nell officially started the deep cover assignment.

Meanwhile in Ops, Eric had spent the past five minutes going over Sam's backstory. He would be thirty-seven year old, Shawn Samuels, a former Navy Petty Officer dishonorably discharged in 2003 for assaulting two men in his Unit.

"Why dishonorably discharged?" Sam asked, unimpressed.

"Because," Eric replied readily as he knew that Sam would have an issue with that detail. "If all goes well, you'll be a monitor. The reason why you attacked the two men, one an officer, was that they were manhandling an Iraqi woman. It'll get you brownie points with the club; protecting a woman at cost to you."

"Okay," Sam conceded and summarized what Eric had previously told him about Shawn. "No family comes from a broken home. Odd jobs, never staying in the same place long, bartends, bounces, and security, freelance when the price is right. Engaged to the sister of Deeks alias," Sam trailed off, as Eric had not told him the name.

"Eddie Brandt," Eric replied. "His older sister's name was Georgetta "Georgie" Brandt. She was killed in a robbery in 2002."

"You come up with that name and story?" Sam retorted.

"Nope," Eric answered. "It's in his documented alias file. This is why whenever one of you comes back from a case; you have to report everything, every detail that you told anyone as the alias. Whatever is in your reports, me or Nell, log in the database."

Sam questioned, "Deeks wasn't NCIS then. How do you two have it?"

"When Hetty brought Deeks," Eric twitched his nose and mouth at the Detective's name, "On board, he and I were required to back log every alias he had ever used with LAPD. Let me tell you, he has a great memory even though lately he has loose lips."

Sam caught on to what Eric was referring. "Eric, the kid didn't mean what he said."

"It's okay." Eric said firmly as he typed information into Kensi'.

"No, it's not." Sam replied disbelieving. "You're pissed. You're not normally an angry person and when you are it's obvious."

"Seriously, Sam, I'm not mad at Deeks," Eric stated. Sam gave him a pointed look. "Well," Eric added reluctantly. "I'm mad at what he said about Nell, but mostly I'm mad at Granger. I'm disappointed that Hetty hands are tied. I'm afraid for Nell."

"Me too, buddy." Sam agreed as he patted and squeezed Eric's shoulder. As soon as he heard Callen, he felt Eric tense, which Sam found interesting.

"What do you got, Eric?" Callen asked as he entered the Ops Command Center.

"Sam's backstory is complete." Eric answered, his tone of voice strained. "Deeks' reinforced. Just started Kensi's. We're going with your Mr. Carl alias."

"And Nell's?" Callen asked.

Eric ripped the electronic earpiece off his ear and slammed it onto the desk beside his keyboard. Sam tightened his grip on Eric's shoulder, both in comfort and warning.

"Do we have a problem?" Called asked, his body language defensive, his voice of tone harsh, and intimidating.

Sam shot Callen a warning look that Callen ignored.

"Eric?" Callen asked with the same tone as before.

Eric took a deep breath, crossed his arms, touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and went to stand, but was prevented from doing so with the gentle pressure that Sam placed upon his shoulder. Eric gritted his teeth, unhappy that Sam was playing mediator, but a little grateful, because he knew he would not be able to defend himself against Callen, if this altercation became physical. Sam would prevent it from getting that far, if it were to go that direction. Eric hoped not, but mentally prepared himself for the possibility. He answered firmly, successfully disguising any fear he had and managing to shock both Sam and Callen. "Yes, we could, possibly."

"Is this about Nell?" Callen asked with the same tone as before, with a touch of disbelief added this time.

"G!" Sam exclaimed in warning.

Callen ignored Sam. "What else could be our possible problem?"

"I don't like this case." Eric stated as he continued to grit his teeth.

"Eric," Called sighed, letting go the harshness and intimidation from his tone. "I am just as angry over this case as you are, if not more."

"It's not just the case." Eric admitted. "I don't like Nell going undercover with you, the way she's going undercover."

Sam and Callen shared a look; Sam pointed and warning, Callen in horrified realization. Sam sat in Nell's chair, beside Eric, still a gentle hold on Eric's shoulder. Callen crossed his arms, bit his tongue, and looked at the ceiling before zeroing in on the back of Eric's head.

Sam asked the question that Callen did not want to know the answer to, but had to for the purposes of not only the case, but also how he would proceed with his actions, his intentions toward Nell. "Eric, are you and Nell?" Sam cringed while he paused, as he remembered what they had watched, what Eric had watched, what Callen did not realize that they had all watched. His tone of voice cracked a decibel when he said the middle of the following word. "Together?"

"No!" Eric exclaimed, surprised that Sam had to ask, after what they had watched. Nell was not the sort of girl to be in a relationship with someone, and do what she did with Callen in the boatshed. Eric would never see that interrogation room the same again. "Nell and I aren't together. She's my best friend."

"Were you together?" Callen asked his voice gruff.

"No." Eric denied adamantly.

"But you wanted more," Sam accused.

"Look guys," Eric took a deep breath. "Did I have a crush on her, when she first started," He paused. "Well, after I got past her whistle stealing and interrupting self?" Eric asked, Sam smiled at Eric's description of early Nell. Callen clenched his jaw not wanting confirmation, but needing it. "Sure, I did. Did anything come of it?" He asked. "No, it did not." He paused again as if to consider whether he should say what he wanted to. He did not want to betray Nell's trust, but he felt as if Callen should know. If any other reason, than the fact if Eric told him, Callen would have no excuse of not knowing. However, Eric could not bring himself to say the words outright, blatantly and clearly to betray Nell, so he worded it in the way that it revealed what he wanted to say, but could not. "Why? Because, the month of July does nothing for her, Nell prefers the month of October."

Sam almost swallowed his tongue, the shock that he felt unparalleled to anything he had felt in months, and he had been shocked several times over those. His tone of voice cracking displaying that shock, he asked. "What?"

Callen opened his mouth in shock and gave Eric a look of disbelief, wanting what that comment implied to be true, but also wanting clarification. He asked for that clarification, careful of revealing anything he felt in his tone of voice. "What are you saying, Eric?"

Eric cleared his throat, swiveled his chair around to face Callen, surprisingly Sam allowed him as Sam was still in shock, he stood and met eye contact with the Senior Field Agent, as he demanded seriously, "Don't break her heart." His eyes crackling with danger, he firmly threatened. "Callen, if you break my best friend's heart, regardless of whether it is you, or your alias, I will break G. Callen's electronic identity beyond repair so not even Abby Sciuto will be able to recover it."

Callen titled his head to the side as he considered the younger, taller, and normally not so dangerous Technical Operator. Callen smirked as he realized that Eric was serious and what impressed him so was the fact that not an ounce of fear was displayed in Eric's body language or tone of voice. Eric was serious, and he would do exactly what he said without a second thought. It did not scare Callen though, because he had just received clarification, verification that Nell did care about him or at the very least preferred him. Preference, attraction was a start, but Callen wanted more.

That scared Callen more than the thought of his electronic identity becoming broken.

That he wanted to care for someone.

That he wanted someone to love him.

That he wanted a normal relationship that normal people had.

That he did not intend to break off a relationship before it started.

That he did not intend to break a woman's heart.

Thank you for reading and to all who have reviewed. I appreciate all of the readership, alerts, favorites, reviews, and constructive criticism.