He had his reasons for keeping it secret, now he has all the reasons to tell the truth

THE ONE THING

Pinacle Systems

"Hey guys." Eric called out as they stepped through the door.

"Perfect timing. We've been getting nowhere with this break in. We are still not even sure what they were after." Sam explained as Eric and Nell walked over to the group.

"Whatever it is…" Eric said.

"We'll find it." Nell finished.

Eric and Nell set up at two of the main workstations on the floor as the other 4 discussed their next plans.

"Sam and I will do a sweep of the area. You two check exits to the building. If we can find out where they went out we can have an idea where they went." Callen said.

"What about them?" Deeks nodded toward Eric and Nell, working away.

"We'll be fine." Nell said.

"You armed?" Sam asked.

"Of course." Nell said.

Eric looked Sam in the eye and gave him a slight nod, subtle enough that only Sam would pick up on it.

"Ok. Keep radio contact at all times. Don't let your guard down." Callen said to them as they left, leaving Eric and Nell alone.

"How goes the back trace?" Nell asked him.

"Slow but it's working. Whoever these guys were they were pros. They covered their tracks very well."

"Big, bad Eric Beale? Out of his league?" Nell said, giving him a sly grin.

"Not a chance." Eric said.

Eric and Nell continued to work away as the others radioed in.

"Floors are clear." Sam replied.

"Got possible exit point. Ground Floor, North West entrance." Kensi replied.

"We are good up here. All is quiet." Nell said.

"Ok. Sam and I are on our way to you Kensi. How much longer on the backtrace?" Callen said.

"Not much longer. I'm close to finding out what they were looking for, but the data is heavily encrypted." Eric repored.

"Well this is a Navy Research contracted company, no surprise there." Deeks said.

"Once we get the raw data we can take it back to Ops and piece it together there." Nell said.

"Ok. Finish up quickly. Something doesn't seem right." Kensi said.

"How so?" Callen asked.

"This exit point looks too easy. Like it was staged." She said. Everyone knew that Kensi had an eye for Forensics. No one doubted her opinion.

"Hetty, do we have any sort of outside surveillance of this building?" Callen asked.

"Checking now." Hetty said, conversing with one of the other techs.

"Multiple viewpoints covering every entrance to the building." She replied.

"Scan them all, see if there was any footage of them leaving out the North west entrance." Callen said.

"Scanning now" Then tech replied. After a few moments. "Nothing since they went in this morning."

As if on cue the lights shut off to the entire building.

"Power just got cut." Deeks said.

"They are still here." Sam said.

"Nell, Eric, what is your status?" Callen said.

"We got what we needed just as the power shut off." Eric replied.

"Stay where you are. We are on our way to you." Callen replied.

"I hear footsteps." Nell said.

"Hide, now!" Sam said as they started running toward the stairs.

Eric and Nell were quick to gather their things just as a group of men walked into the workroom.

"Spread out. There were two of them here." One man said.

Nell waved to Eric to follow her as they crawled along the ground between the cubicles. Nell quickly checked around the corner to see someone walking toward them. She reached behind her and pulled her gun. She looked behind her.

"When I say, run!" She whispered. Eric nodded, unseen by her he pulled out a small gun from his side cargo pocket.

"Now" She said as they both ran as the man was turned away.

"Hey!" One of the men yelled out from the other side of the room as he opened fire. Nell and Eric had just enough time to dive behind a wall as bullets flew by them.

"We are taking fire!" Nell yelled into her ear piece.

"On our way!" Sam yelled as they were running up the stairs quickly.

Nell was able to fire off a few shots to keep the men at bay but then she heard a few gun shots that she didn't recognize. Looking above her she saw Eric firing a few shots from his gun.

"What?" She asked.

"We'll talk later!" Eric said, trying to get Nell to focus.

After a few tense moments they heard Kensi's voice yell out. "Federal Agents!" She said as the men turned their attention to the others. A few brief exchanges of gunfire and the men were down. Hetty advised them that ambulances were on the way for the wounded.

Outside Pinacle Systems

Everyone was gathered outside as the paramedics loaded two of the men to attacked Eric and Nell. The coroner loaded the rest.

Sam and Eric were talking over by the Challenger as Callen, Kensi, Deeks, and Nell stood by the ambulance. Nell's face was rigid and she made to attempt to hide it.

"Did any of you know Eric could use a gun?" She asked, her voice devoid of any friendliness.

"Not a clue."Deeks said. They all knew if that Deeks didn't know then pretty much no one would.

"Seems Sam did." Kensi replied.

"Doing ok?" Sam asked Eric.

"Yea, a lot better than I thought I would after being in my first firefight." Eric said, leaning against Sam's Challenger.

"You did good in there. I don't think you could have held them off with just Nell firing." Sam said.

"Thanks Sam, that means a lot." Eric said. He let out a sigh. "I'm dead." He said.

"Why?" Sam asked.

Eric nodded toward the group. "Because she is going to kill me." Eric said.

"Come clean with her. You owe her that." Sam said.

The walked to the rest of the group.

"LAPD will handle everything here so we should head back." Deeks said.

"Ok. See you guys back at the office." Callen said.

"I'm riding with you guys." Nell said to Kensi and Deeks.

"Uh…ok." Kensi said. No one, not even Eric, tried to push back on it.

Mission Ops

The team returned to the Mission with Nell making a beeline for Ops. Eric was the last to arrive with Hetty calling to him as he walked into the main area.

"Mr. Beale, may I have a moment." She said.

Eric walked up and sat down.

"Sounds like you had some excitement today." She said, sipping her tea.

"That is one word for it." Eric said.

"How are you holding up?" She asked.

"Good, better than I had anticipated. Sam's teaching really helped out." He said.

"Very good. Nate is back in the States so if you need him he is available." She said.

"I appreciate that Hetty, but Nate isn't the person I need to talk to." Eric said, hanging his head.

"I take it by Ms Jones arrival without you she didn't take the news very well." Hetty asked.

"That's the problem, Hetty. I never told her. Every time I tried I would freeze up. Every explanation I came up with sounded like I was being a chauvinistic pig toward her." Eric said.

"Well I suggest you just come clean with her. She will forgive you." Hetty said. Eric stood up and made his way toward Ops. He took a deep breath as the doors opened. He saw Nell sitting at her desk typing away. Her mind laser focused on the screen.

"Can we talk?" Eric asked as he sat down next to her and started pulling up the data.

"We have work to do, Eric." Nell said.

"Ok, what do you need me to do?" He asked her, backing off for now.

"Start decrypting the data we got from Pinacle." She said.

Eric started working away. The silence in Ops was almost deafening, to them and to the team when they came up to get an update on the break in.

Later that evening

Eric came down after everyone else had left for the evening.

"Hetty, have you seen Nell?" He asked her.

"She is in the burn room." Hetty replied.

"Thanks. Have a good night." Eric said as he walked to the burn room and opened the door. Nell was stuffing papers into the oven and turning it on.

"We need to talk." He said

"Yes, we do." Nell said, not evening looking at him. She pushed past him, locking the door and then returning to where she stood.

"When were you going to tell me? Were you ever going to tell me?" She asked.

"I wanted to tell you, I tried to tell you but none of the explanations I came up with were accurate." He replied.

"Since when has that stopped you before?" She asked, turning to face him with her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes showing the anger and the hurt she was feeling.

"Last year when Mattias found this location changed everything. You said so yourself. This wasn't the safest place anymore, then we find out we have a mole here. Mattias had you and Hetty pinned down while I was up in Ops. I could have done something." Eric said.

"So you don't think I can protect myself? Is that it?" Nell said, his explanation doing little to calm her.

"No, it's not that." He tried to say.

"I can take care of myself, Eric. I am not some damsel in distress like in your video games." Nell said, her voice raised.

"I know that…" He said before she cut him off.

"So you think that you can just learn to use a gun and not tell me and everything will be peachy?" She said.

"I ALMOST LOST YOU!" Eric finally yelled out. Nell stopped for a second and they stood in silence as Eric faced the wall and leaned against his, his head propped up on his arm.

"In the span of two months I almost lost you, twice." He said, his voice a whisper. He turned toward her, closing the gap has he took her face in his hands, his forehead pressed against his. Both their eyes were closed, reveling in the closeness.

"I can't lose you, not now, not ever. I have to do whatever I can to protect what matters most to me, that's you." He whispered to her, softly stroking her cheek.

She opened her eyes, a small smile forming. "Did…did you….just quote Tony Stark at me?" She asked.

"Did it work?" He said, smiling.

"It kinda did." She said.

"I know you can protect yourself. It's one of the thousand things I love about you. But if there ever comes a time where you are in danger and I can't do something and I lose you…." His voice trailed off as his throat constricted, not able to finish that sentence.

"You aren't going to lose me, Eric. I love you." She whispered.

"I love you, too." He replied as he brought his lips to hers. Emotions poured into each other with their lips, their senses exploding with the feelings coursing through them.

They broke the kiss, returning forehead to forehead as they tried to catch their breath.

"I'm still mad at you." She said, looking up into his eyes.

"How can I make it up to you?" He asked her.

"You can buy me dinner." She said.

"It's a date…that is, if you want it to be." He said, nervousness creeping back in.

"That is exactly what I want it to be, Wolfram." She said with a smile.

"You got it, Rockstar." He said, kissing her again.

They unlocked the door and left the burn room. Nell walked down the hallway toward the exit while Eric hung back for a few seconds; long enough to flash a thumbs up to Hetty, letting her know that all was OK. Taking long strides he caught up to Nell, reaching out and taking her hand, intertwining their fingers as they pushed the door open and stepped outside into the night.

This is the sequel to What Needs to be Done. This one recently popped in my head hence why there wasn't much time between posting on the Profile and publishing.

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