Just quite when Nell Jones became his girl, Special Agent Callen did not know. What he did know was that with the exception of Hetty Lange, the fiery redhead had come to be the most stable female influence in his life.
He knew from the moment he met her she would be trouble. But back then he thought it would be a whole different kind of trouble. She'd arrived with a bang, asserting her position with a forthrightness not to have been expected from someone so young. Their operations manager, the indomitable Hetty Lange, was notorious for burning through intelligence analysts. No-one could explain it, they just seemed to rub her the wrong way. And at first everyone expected Nell to follow in their footsteps but she didn't.
But her fitting in certainly didn't happen overnight. A few cases in and Callen was still surprised she was around. She seemed too young, too inexperienced. Maybe it was her petite stature, her youthful face and her bright eyes. His thoughts about that had led to some now regrettable comments in the field about her looking like she was running away from home and telling her not to take candy from strangers. The withering look she'd shot him told him she wasn't to be scared off easily.
And she wasn't. Not only had she made herself indispensible to the team, she somehow became indispensible to him. She became the voice inside his head, the person he turned to when he needed to bounce an idea around, and at some point the person he trusted to help him with off the books, personal matters.
No matter the situation, no matter how dire things seemed, Nell Jones was a professional. She was clear, she was calm, she never panicked, at least not when she was on the job. He could rely on her. But he had also had the privilege of seeing her with her mask off. Over time she had allowed him to be there in her most vulnerable moments, she'd allowed him to see her scared and unsure of herself, to see her cry, but also to see her joy.
And that was the real trouble with Nell Jones. She had let him in and damnded if he not gone and walked right through that door. He'd allowed himself to care. Sometimes too much. But they weren't like Kensi and Deeks who were partners in and out of work. Callen and Nell were the relationship that wasn't. They were not a couple. They had never kissed. Their intimacy was chaste - a touch on the shoulder, a warm smile, a reassuring look. It was playful banter, comfortable familiarity, respect and admiration. And despite all social conventions suggesting they were a perfect match, they would never be anything more than what they were. If either thought differently it was never expressed.
She was just his girl.