They say 2 heads are better than one, but what about 4?

THE 4 GEEKATEERS

NCIS Home Office, BullPen

"We seized multiple servers from the safe house but it's going to take some time to go through all the data, Boss" McGee reported to Gibbs.

"How long, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"Based on the firewall architecture and the layers of programming code safeties…" McGee started to explain.

"McGee! How…long!" Gibbs asked, impatiently.

"A couple of days, a week at most." McGee reported.

"We don't have that long." DiNozzo replied.

"It can't be helped. This is some high level stuff. Even with my skills it's going to take time." McGee said.

"Call Cyber. Have them send some manpower." Gibbs ordered as he sat down at his desk.

"No can do, Gibbs. Cyber is backed up, they won't be able to spare anyone." A voice said. Everyone turned around to see Director Vance.

"Then what do you want us to do, Leon? This is our best link to The Brethren." Gibbs asked.

"I made a call and have some extra help on the way. Agent McGee, would you please call Miss Schuto up here. Our help should be arriving in the next 15 minutes." Vance looked at his watch.

Everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out what he was up to. McGee dialed Abby. "Hey, Abbs. Director wants you in the bullpen." He said. She acknowledged and they hung up.

10 minutes later Abby came up and leaned against McGee's desk. Just then the elevator ran and everyone looked toward it. A tall blonde in glasses and a short redheaded woman stepped off.

Abby's eyes grew wide and she took off running toward them. "NERIC NERIC NERIC!" She said, excitedly as she grabbed them both in hugs.

"Chill out, Abby. We are happy to see you to." Eric said, failing to contain his smile.

"Why didn't you tell me you were in DC?" She said.

"We weren't. We were in Phildelphia. We were coming to DC next week and we wanted to surprise you." Nell said.

"Well you are here now so you're forgiven." Abby replied as she hugged them again.

The three walked back to the bullpen to greet the others.

"Thanks for coming on short notice." Vance said.

"No problem, Director. It's what we do." Nell replied with a smile.

"Agent McGee, why don't you take Miss Jones up to MTAC and get her situated. Miss Schuto, you can take Eric to your lab and work there." Vance explained.

"Right this way Nell" McGee said as he gave her a hug. "Good to see you again." He said as they walked up to MTAC and he unlocked the door.

"Come on, Eric. You have work to do." Abby said as she excitedly pulled Eric along. The rest of the team could only smile as they returned to their work.

MTAC

"Here we are, Welcome to MTAC" McGee explained as he held the door open for Nell.

"Wow, this is impressive! You constantly talk about the stuff we have in Ops and this is what you get to play with?" Nell said.

"One of the most connected places in the United States Military." McGee said. He took her over to one of the work stations.

"Here, you can work off of this one." He said as he sat down in the next station. Nell sat down and pulled out her laptop and booted it up.

"I've been able to get some info from the servers but not fast enough. There is a ton of data to sort through." He explained as she logged in and connected her computer to the MTAC network.

"Well let's see what we have." She said as she started to sort through the data.

"Wow, you weren't kidding." She said as she looked at the massive volumes. "And this is just one server. How many were recovered?" She looked over at him.

"Seven." He said.

"Yikes. Well, no sense in wasting any more time." She said as they started to work.

Abby's Lab

"You know I'm still mad at the two of you for not telling me you were coming." Abby said as they entered her lab.

Eric set his bag down and pulled his laptop out. "Look, Abby. I'm sorry but we decided we wanted it to be a surprise. We rarely get a chance to come to the East Coast and we wanted to make the trip special." He said.

"It's ok, Eric. I'm just messing with you." Abby gave him a smile.

Eric logged in and pulled up the server information.

"Tim was able to crack one of the servers but it took him quite a while to do it." Abby explained.

"I can see why. This is some high level encryption. But I've seen this code before." He said.

"You have?" She said as she moved over next to him.

"Yea, case we worked on 6 months ago. Navy research contractor got infiltrated and their servers were compromised. Took Nell and I 3 days to find out how they got in." Eric said as she typed in a few commands.

"Team Neric to the rescue!" Abby said.

Eric looked up. "Neric?" He asked.

"You know, Nell and Eric! Neric!" She said with a goofy smile.

He couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, just don't tell that to Deeks, please. We will never hear the end of it." He said going back to his work.

4 hours later

Eric and Abby were hard at work when Nell and McGee walked in.

"Hey guys." Nell said.

"Hi Nell!" Abby said, excitedly pulling her into a hug.

"How goes it?" McGee asked Eric.

"Not too bad. Thanks to the experience Nell and I had on the Contractor case from 6 months ago cracking the encryption on these servers is going a little quicker. Still going to take time to get into them." Eric said.

"We have been digging through everything found so far but there is still a mountain of data." Nell said, leaning against Eric.

"We decided to take a break and wanted to know if you guys wanted to get some lunch?" McGee said.

"That is a great idea. I'm starving." Eric said as he locked his laptop and closed it.

"There is a great Pho place that just opened up nearby." Abby said.

"Awesome. Let's go!" Nell said excitedly

One hour later

The four walked along the pathways of the Navy yard. It was a nice day, too cold for Eric's comfort but he wasn't complaining. As they walked back to the NCIS office they stopped at a marker nearby. It was a chunk of wall. It was the monument to the aftermath of the Navy Yard bombing by Harper Dearing. They all stood looking at it in silence.

"I'll never forget that day." McGee broke the silence.

"I've never been so scared in my life." Abby replied.

"I really wish we could have helped." Nell said, her voice breaking slightly.

"We were so busy dealing with Janvier and the aftermath of losing both Renko and Hunter to that bastard, and then Callen shooting him…" Eric's voice trailed off. Nell reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently.

McGee threw his arm around Eric and Abby slid up next to Nell. They all stood there, silent as they looked upon the marker.

"I'm glad you are all ok" Eric said.

McGee squeezed him. "We survived, as did you guys." He said.

Nell squeezed his hand again. "Come on. Let's get back to work."

They split apart and made their way back to the Office to continue working

Bullpen, Evening

The team was working into the evening using the intel that Eric had retrieved and Nell and analyzed. They were winding down when Eric and Abby came up.

"How's it going?" Bishop asked them.

"Only have four more servers to crack and then it's all up to Nell and McGee." Eric said.

"No wonder they call you the Wonder Twins. No Offense, Abbs" DiNozzo said.

"None taken, Tony. I know when I'm in over my head." She said.

"Well you are talking to the man who broke the internet." Eric breathed on his fingernails and rubbed them on his shirt.

"It was pretty epic." Nell's voice came as she walked down the stairs and entered the bullpen.

"How's it going on your end?" Eric asked as she stepped up to him.

"I don't think I've ever had to sift through that much intel in my life." Nell said as she wrapped an arm around his waist as he threw an arm around her shoulder.

"I know we've said it multiple times but you two are life savers." Bishop said.

"Well the work isn't over just yet. Go home. We can pick this up in the morning." Gibbs ordered.

"So where are you guys staying?" McGee asked.

Nell and Eric looked at each other.

"That's a good question." Eric said.

"We weren't supposed to be in DC until next week so our hotel reservations aren't valid. It's going to be hard to find something this late." Nell said.

"Really, you two? I have plenty of space at my place." Abby said.

"We really don't want to intrude." Nell said, with a shy smile.

"Oh please, when would you two ever be a bother?" She said.

"Well I guess we can't really say no, can we?" Nell said.

"I don't think that was ever an option with her." Gibbs said, eliciting a chuckle from the team.

"Let's go get some dinner." McGee said as he packed his things and the 4 of them left. Once they were out of ear shot of the team Eric asked in a low voice.

"Hey. Tomorrow before we come in do you guys mind if we make a quick detour? We really want to see him." Eric said. Nell nodded in agreement.

Abby took their hands and squeezed them. "I'm sure he would love it." She said as they continued to walk toward their cars.

Abby's apartment

"Home sweet home." Abby said as she opened the door and led them in.

"Wow. This is nice!" Nell said as she looked around the apartment. The amount of gothic items in the place would have surprised anyone else but considering how well they knew Abby nothing really surprised them anymore.

"You guys can share the couch or if you want you can take my bed and I can sleep out here. I'm fine either way." Abby said.

Nell and Eric looked at each other nervously.

Abby picked up on it. She groaned loudly.

"Ok. One, I know about the two of you. You hide it as well as the Easter bunny in a monochrome movie. That and you two aren't the only ones I keep up with. Deeks is horrible at keeping secrets and Hetty likes to keep me updated on everyone and you know she sees everything. Two, I couldn't be happier for the two of you." She grabbed them both in hugs.

Her face turned serious as her eyes narrowed. She pointed at Eric, her finger almost touching his nose.

"Break her heart and no one will ever find your body." She said. Nell chuckled but Abby turned to her with the same look. "That goes for you too, missy."

"Trust us, Abby. I wouldn't trade her for the world." Eric said as he threw an arm around Nell.

"Me too." Nell said.

"Good" Abby said.

"We'll sleep out here tonight." Nell said.

"Okay. Tim is going to meet us for breakfast, and then we will go to see him real quick before work so we should get some sleep." Abby said.

"Sounds good to me. I'm going to take my shower now, so you ladies can have it in the morning." Eric said as he finished his toiletries out.

"Okay. I'll get the bed ready." Abby said.

"You'll finally get to see the infamous coffin." Eric said, giving Nell a wink.

"Oh just go, dork." Nell said, giving him a playful shove.

20 min later

Nell finished helping Abby get the living room ready for them. They were sitting at her kitchen island, drinking some tea Nell brought when Eric came out in his PJs.

"Polar Bears?" Abby said.

"Yea. Figured we were going somewhere cold." Eric said.

"Yea, that makes sense." Abby said, smiling as Nell handed him a cup of tea.

"Thanks" Eric said as he took a drink.

"Hetty rubbing off on you guys?" Abby said with a smile.

"Let's just say we appreciate the finer things more often now." Nell said with a chuckle.

Abby tried and failed to stifle a yawn. They decided to turn in for the night. Nell went to go change as Eric cleaned up. Abby wished them both goodnight as she went into her room. Nell came out as Eric was finishing up. He turned the lights out and they climbed into the "bed" together.

"I guess I can now say I have slept in a coffin." Nell said as she curled up against Eric.

He kissed her temple gently. "Good night, Rockstar." He whispered

"Good night, Eric" She replied as they snuggled in together.

The next morning

Eric woke up first just as the sun peaked. He looked over at Nell and smiled. He softly brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. She breathed in at the contact and opened her eyes, smiling when he saw him.

"Morning." She whispered.

"Hi." He said.

"I thought we were supposed to be on vacation." She said.

"Yea, but duty calls and all that stuff." Eric said with a slight laugh.

"Yea yea. I've heard that before." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Go get a shower. I'll get some coffee ready for us. Abby should be getting up soon." He said.

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Ok…I guess." She said smiling. She rolled off and stood up, walking to the guest bathroom to get ready. Eric got up and changed into a fresh pair of clothes before starting the coffee. Abby came out soon after, dressed in a pair of bondage pants and a t-shirt.

"I got some coffee ready. Want some?" Eric said, holding out a cup for her.

"Awesome! Thanks" She said as she took it and drank.

Abby's phone beeped. She checked it. "Timmy will be here in 20 min." She said.

The bathroom opened and Nell stepped out dressed in a sweater and skirt.

"Wow, Nell. You look so beautiful!" Abby said as she admired her clothes.

"Thanks." Nell said with a smile as she took a drink of the coffee.

They stood at the kitchen, talking about past cases, when there was a knock on the door. Abby opened the door and let McGee in.

"Morning Tim" Nell said.

"Morning guys. Sleep well?" He asked as he took the offer of the coffee.

"Very well. " Eric said.

"Awesome. We should get going so we can eat, make our stop, and get to work on time." McGee said.

They all grabbed their things and left Abby's apartment

Arlington National Cemetery

The 4 stood in front of one of the markers. Nell and Eric both knelt and laid a single flower in front of it. They stood up and backed away, both staring at the name

NED DORNEGET

"Our game nights aren't as much fun without Slab Plankchest around to be a goof" Eric said.

Nell wiped a tear from her eye. "I remember when he told us he made Agent, how excited he was."

"He grew up so much after that. I was shocked that this man standing in the bullpen was Ned." McGee said.

"I miss him." Abby said, fighting tears of her own.

"We all do, Abbs." Eric said as he gave her a hug.

"At least he died honorably. How many people in Cairo owe their lives to him? How many families still have loved ones thanks to him?" Nell said.

"Too many to count." McGee replied. He glanced at his watch. "We had better get going" He said.

Nell and Eric both placed their hands on the stone. "Bye, Ned." Eric whispered.

They turned and walked back up the path

NCIS Office MCRT Bullpen

The elevator opened and the 4 stepped off and walked into the Bullpen. Bishop and DiNozzo were already at work.

"If it isn't the 4 Geekateers" DiNoozo said with a smile.

"Gibbs in yet?" McGee asked them.

"Updating the director" Bishop said.

"Well let's not wait to get chewed out. See you guys at lunch" Abby said as Eric followed her toward the lab and Nell followed McGee back to MTAC

NCIS Lab

Eric was hard at work cracking the 5th server while Abby was working on some things for another case.

"So what made you guys decide to take vacation here?" Abby asked.

"I've always been interested in colonial history, ever since I was little. There was a recent exhibit at the museum in LA about that era and one weekend Nell and I went and found we shared a deep interest. So we decided that for vacation we were going to take a whole trip through the NorthEast." Eric said as he was typing away.

He stood up and popped his back for a bit. He walked over to where Abby was standing.

"There is another reason why we came here." He said in a low voice. He finished an object out of his pocket. When he opened it and she saw the ring she jumped up excitedly.

"OH MY GOD, ERIC!" She yelled out. Eric calmed her down.

"Hey. Keep it down. I want it to be a surprise." He said. She stopped jumping but still had to struggle to contain her excitement

"Where are you going to do it?" She asked.

"I don't know yet. I haven't decided." He said.

She grabbed him in a hug. "Oh that is so awesome!" She said.

"Those servers better be cracked for you to waste time hugging my forensic scientist, Beale" A gruff voice came out.

Eric froze as he pushed Abby off of him. He turned to see Gibbs walk in.

"Not yet. Sorry, sir" He said. Abby cringed.

"You hang out with a SEAL so you get a pass." Gibbs pointed at him. "Don't ever call me sir."

"Sorry, Agent Gibbs." Eric said as she slid around him and back to his computer.

"Go easy on him. Gibbs. He gets enough heart attacks with Sam, you don't need to make it worse" Abby said.

She reported on her findings to him as Eric started to work with his head down. Gibbs turned around and left, grinning a bit at Eric's demeanor as he walked out.

"He hates me, doesn't he?" Eric said.

"Oh Gibbs is a big softy, somewhere beneath all those layers of gruff and coffee.

MTAC

Nell and McGee were hard at work going through all the data. A message popped up on Nell's computer.

"Eric's opened #5. Two more to go" She said.

"Wow he is fast." McGee said.

"You should see him when he gets in the zone. It's like he is a whole different person." Nell said, smiling.

"Sounds like you two are getting along great." McGee said.

"What can I say? He is my best friend." Nell said.

"Only best friend?" McGee said, with a raised eyebrow.

"Ok, Tim. Yes, he is more than my friend." Nell said, rolling her eyes.

McGee smiled. "Didn't want you to deny what is plainly there."

"You are worse than Deeks sometimes, you know that?" She said.

"I always thought that was DiNozzo. Something tells me they would get along great." He replied.

The door opened and Director Vance walked in.

"How goes the digging?" He asked as he walked up to them.

"ONI is going to have a field day with all this intel, Director. I think this might be the biggest intelligence score in the last decade." McGee replied.

"This intel not only covers movements of The Brethren, but countless other terror organizations that they are connected or affiliated with." Nell replied.

"Excellent work. How long until the analysis is complete?" He asked.

"Eric and Abby need to crack two more servers but its slowing down a bit because Abby is getting bogged with other cases. Thankfully Eric can handle things on his own. Once the last server is cracked with can start filling in the pieces missing and have the full analyses summary complete by the end of the day. Then we can turn everything over to ONI to do their full analyses" McGee reported.

"Good. You both are plenty ahead of where we thought we would be so why don't you go collect Mr. Beale and Miss Schuto and take a long lunch." Director Vance said.

"Wow, thank you sir." Nell said with a smile.

"Consider it a treat for interrupting your vacation, Miss Jones." He said as he left.

2 hours later

McGee sat back down on his desk after getting Nell back into MTAC to continue the work. He was checking a few things when an IM popped up from Abby.

Abby: Hey

Tim: Hey yourself. How goes it downstairs?

Abby: Going good so far. Eric is getting close to cracking the second to last one

Tim: Hopefully I can finish my stuff here before he does so I can help Nell

Abby: So you will never guess their true reason for being in DC!

Tim: Well are you going to tell me or leave me hanging?

Abby: HE IS GOING TO PURPOSE!

McGee's eyes widened, he took a quick glance around to make sure no one saw his reaction.

Tim: You serious?!

Abby: As dead as a corpse on Duckey's slab

Tim: When did you find this?

Abby: He told me a few hours before lunch

Tim: Wow, he is finally taking the step with her

Abby: Do you think she knows?

Tim: I doubt it. She isn't really hiding her feeling for him so I think somewhere in the back of her mind she expects it at some point

Abby: I can't wait! I'm so happy for them.

Tim: Me neither.

Abby: Ok G2G. Catch you later

Tim: Bye

He closed his IM and finished up the work, a smile on his face.

"Something interesting there, McGee?" Gibbs said.

"Nothing that can't wait until after I go help Nell with the analysis, Boss" He said standing up and swiftly moving toward the stairs

"Good answer, McGee" He said

Later that evening

Nell and McGee finished reporting on the intel they had went through and explained how they had sent everything off to the Office of Naval Intelligence.

"Excellent Job all of you. This is a huge undertaking. And we could have done it without you two." Vance said as he shook both Eric and Nell's hand. "I again apologize for this interrupting your vacation plans" He said.

"Merely delayed it, sir." Nell said.

"Good. I've extended your vacation another week. Henrietta said they could last another week without the two of you. I've also had the necessary changes made to your flight home so don't worry about it." He said with a smile.

"Wow" Eric said.

"Thank you so much" Nell finished.

"My thanks to you. Also I've had you booked into the Adams House hotel while you are here in DC. Consider this a gift." Vance said as he handed them a printout of their reservation.

"Pulling out all the stops, Director?" DiNozzo said.

"Just for guests, Agent DiNozzo. Don't expect this regularly." He replied.

Nell searched her back. "Shoot!" She said.

Eric looked at her. "What?"

"I think I left my wallet in MTAC. " She said.

Tony stepped out from behind his desk. "I'll let you in. Come on." He nodded toward the stairs. Nell walked after him. When the door closed Vance looked back to Eric.

"Actually Eric. The hotel was from all of us as a present." He said.

Eric smiled, figuring it out.

"I should have known Abby couldn't keep a secret long." He said.

Vance chuckled. "No, she really can't."

Vance went to turn away but then stopped.

"Also, Mr. Beale. If I may make a recommendation, the steps of the Lincon Memorial by the reflection pool would make a fine location. It is where I asked Jackie." He said as he turned away and walked back up as Nell came back down.

"Found it! Ready to go Wolfram?" She asked.

"Ready, Rockstar" Eric said.

"Don't be a stranger while you're here, you two." Bishop called after them

"We won't!" Eric called over his shoulder as they walked into the elevator, their hands griping each other as the door closed.

Again having a crossover because I can't get enough of them. This one was in the works for a while but I just couldn't make the ends meet

Thank you for Reading, Reviewing, Favoriteing, and Following

Slight update: I have plans for another 2 parter called My Friends are my Family. But I am debating on making that a stand alone series and not part of TftM. This series would focus more on the friendships between two members. It started as a Nell/Deeks episode and a Kensi/Eric episode but I have some ideas for maybe other episodes. Please tell me if that is something you would like to see more of

Also I recommend you take a picture because this episode will be the only time I ever use the term Neric.

Post Update.

I have made some updates to the Profile detailing my future plans. I will be limiting my updating on TftM while I work on the new projects so expect the backlog to start to dissapear. By no means is TftM going away but I am starting to get ahead of myself when my abilty to write doesn't keep up with my ability to think up new ideas.

Also with Episode 40 comming up I am going to let you, the readers, decide which episode I will post. Check the profile for a new poll