It didn't happen often but every once in a while Nell Jones liked to let loose. She wasn't a party girl but when a group of her old friends from college came to visit and asked her to go out to a club with them so they could experience L.A. she could hardly say no. It was the weekend after all, and she didn't have to be at work the next day either. And that's how she found herself dressed up in a fitted short sleeved low cut black dress, ankle boots with a 3inch heel and pretty buzzed on cocktails and shots, dancing in the middle of a crowd at one of the hottest LA clubs at 2am.
Xxx
Across town, G Callen was in bed, halfway between sleep and awake, when his cell buzzed. Stirring him from half dreams, he quickly woke up fully when he read the message. Middle of the night calls weren't all that unusual but infrequent enough that whatever was going on was serious. He quickly threw on jeans, a dark grey sweater, his black boots and biker jacket, and headed out.
As he headed out of his neighbourhood in his Mercedes he got a call from Hetty.
"I'm on my way." He said immediately.
"I expected nothing less Mr Callen." She began. "But you have to make a stop on your way."
"I do? Where and for what?" He asked.
"At The Project Club, for Ms Jones."
"I'm sorry what?" Callen asked, pretty sure he had misheard. Kensi yes, Nell...not so much.
"You heard me correctly Mr Callen. Mr Beale has informed me that Ms Jones is out with old friends at that club tonight and she is not answering my calls so I can only assume she unable to hear it over that wretched noise." Hetty explained.
Callen smirked. He liked Nell, she was cute and interesting, and whilst full on geek she managed to also appear somewhat normal, especially when compared to the eccentric Eric Beale. The thought of her hitting up a dance club though was so far from what he expected that he knew it would be fun to see.
"I'll swing by and see if I can find her." He told Hetty.
xxx
Nell was standing at a tall table with her friends, knocking back another tequila shot when one of them tapped her arm and leaned in so Nell could hear her speak.
"Don't look now but the hottest guy I have ever laid eyes on is totally checking you out." She said.
"Don't be ridiculous." Nell laughed.
"I'm serious. He's over there by the bar watching you." Her friend replied insistently. Curious, Nell glanced over her shoulder and a look of horror crossed her face. Leaning against the bar, most definitely was the hottest guy she had ever seen, and she knew him all too well. He had that knowing smirk planted on his face and he was wearing that leather biker jacket, the one that exuded bad boy and made her weak at the knees, not that he would ever know that. She quickly turned back to her friends.
"What is he doing here?" She said out loud, but not loud enough for her friends to hear.
"You should go for it Nell." Her friend encouraged. Nell rolled her eyes. "Look at him, he can't take his eyes off you." She grinned. "And if you don't I will." She winked.
Callen was leaning on the bar. He knew she'd seen him and it was pretty funny to see how shocked she was. He smirked, taking just a little pleasure at being able to throw the ever professional analyst off her game.
"I'll be right back." Nell finally said, as she grabbed her clutch and made her way through the crowd to where he stood.
"Well well well, Nell." He smiled as he looked her over. "Never took you for a clubber." He added with a raised eyebrow, his eyes looking her over head to toe.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, feeling her cheeks flush. That could either be the bottle of wine at dinner, the three cocktails in the bar and the four shots here, or because she was in a club pretty wasted and talking to a man she'd had a crush on for years who was looking at her in a way he never had.
"Can't a guy enjoy a night out, and talk with a pretty girl." He joked. Though the way she looked, all dressed up with make-up and jewellery and a low cut dress that fell just above her knees, he wasn't so sure it was a joke.
"Callen." She said firmly as she rested a hand on the bar to steady her, those shots were really creeping up on her now.
"Your friends are watching us." He nodded over to where all three women were staring at them, smiling and laughing.
"That's because they think you're hitting on me." She rolled her eyes, a defensive move to distract from the fact that it was something she'd dreamt about since the day she'd first laid eyes on him but knew would never happen.
"Would that be so strange?" Callen asked out of nowhere. "I mean, a guy hitting on you in a club?" He clarified, suddenly aware what his initial words could mean.
"Not guys who look like you." the words came out of Nell's mouth before she could even think about it and she dropped her eyes.
Callen cocked his head to the side and analysed the young woman before him. Was she embarrassed, did she think she wasn't good enough for a guy like him to be interested?
He quickly switched up the situation, sensing this might start heading somewhere he wasn't prepared for.
"You should check your phone, Hetty has been trying to reach you. We got the bat signal and you didn't answer."
Nell fished in her clutch and pulled out her cell, seeing four missed calls.
"Damn it." She sighed.
"Duty calls, and I'm your driver." He smiled and reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll be right back." She shook her head as she turned to go back to explain to her friends she had to leave.
Callen watched as Nell pushed, or was that stumbled, her way through the crowd back to her friends and he briefly wondered whether she was really fit to be going to work. There was no way to hear what Nell was telling them but from the giggling and laughing he knew what those women were thinking. A minute later Nell made her way back to him.
"I'm going to need water and a lot of coffee." She muttered.
"I got you covered." Callen said as he gently placed his hand on the small of her back and steered her towards the exit.
Xxx
The cool fresh air hit Nell like a brick wall the moment she stepped out of the club. She hadn't realised how hot the club had been until she shivered as the night breeze chilled her arms.
"I got parked just up the street." Callen told her as they moved past the dwindling queue of people waiting to get inside.
"How much have you had to drink tonight anyway?" Callen asked when Nell wavered off a straight line as she walked.
"Not enough for this." she muttered under her breath, then shuddered and wrapped her arms across her chest as she concentrated on taking one step in front of the other and not falling over. She was definitely regretting her footwear choice as with each step the high heels of her boots seemed to be fighting with her brain to walk straight.
"Here." Callen said, stopping suddenly and pulling his jacket off before gently draping it over her shoulders. "If I bring you back drunk and frozen Hetty will have my head." He smiled softly as he tucked the jacket close around her front.
"Thanks." Nell said quietly, before inhaling a quick breath when she felt him drape his arm around her shoulders and pull her close to him.
"She'll also kill me if you break an ankle falling over in those boots." He explained quickly.
Xxx
Nell clutched her purse in one hand, and was intensely focused on her steps as she walked into the ops centre with Callen. Everyone was already there and she felt like everyone was staring as she made her way to the closest chair and sank down. She still had Callen's jacket on and could see Eric's eyes widening, knowing he had a tendency to think crazy things about simply explained ocurrances.
"So what's going on Hetty?" Callen asked.
"Well Mr Callen, that opportunity we've been waiting for on the Dunsmore case has arrived. Intel suggests the deal is going down at 6am, which gives us just a few hours to bring this case to a close and recover the technology." Hetty explained.
Nell was only half listening at this point. She knew she was drunk. She knew when alcohol was involved you couldn't trust your brain to interpret things accurately and her mind was just swimming. The way Callen had acted tonight seemed different, or had it? Maybe she was reading something into nothing because she had drank too much tequila. She sank down into her chair, a hand on her forehead.
"Drink this." A familiar voice said quietly in her ear. It was Callen, handing her a bottle of water. She gratefully took a long drink despite Hetty's no food or drinks in ops rule.
"You okay Nell?" Kensi asked, eyeing up the younger woman. Nell just groaned and put her head in her hands with her elbows resting on the table.
"Nell is uh..." Callen thought how to delicately say it but nothing came to mind. "She's drunk." He chuckled.
"Ooh" Kensi scrunched up her face. "Been there." She nodded knowingly.
"Can we get back to the business at hand please." Hetty said firmly. "We need a plan, so you kids better get to work." She added before she slipped out of the ops centre.
There was a moment of silence then Deeks spoke up.
"So like how drunk are you Nell? Couple glasses of wine head a little fuzzy drunk or a bottle of Jack deep and no idea what's going on drunk?"
Nell just glared at him.
"Number two it is." He chuckled.
"Can we just get on with it." Nell sighed.
"She's right." Callen agreed. "We don't have much time so why don't we make a plan. We need schematics of the meeting site..." he carried on but Nell stopped listening. She was grateful to him for taking the attention off her but she really needed to concentrate if they were going to pull this off.
Xxx
Nell had no idea how they'd pulled it off, how she'd pulled it off. But by the time the meet came around they'd made a plan, the team had got to the site, it all went flawlessly and even with her fuzzy head she'd been able to guide then over comms and they'd taken down the bad guys.
Leaving Eric in ops, Nell had slipped down to the bullpen to make coffee and while she waited for it to brew, she'd sat down on the old couch in the corner. And that was where the rest of the team found her when they returned in buoyant spirits from a successful mission.
Kensi and Deeks spotted her first, curled up in a little ball in the corner of the couch asleep.
"Poor Nell." Kensi shook her head. "She's going to feel awful today."
"She needs to go home and sleep it off." Sam added.
"Who's going to wake her up and tell her that?" Deeks asked.
"Not me." Sam raised his hands.
"Me either." Kensi said while she dropped her jacket on her chair.
"Oh come on, she doesn't bite." Callen laughed.
"How do you know?" Deeks asked. "You ever woken the Nelverine?"
Callen rolled his eyes as he dropped his bag on his desk.
"You guys go, make the most of your day off. I'll drop Nell home." He shook his head laughing a little.
The other three agents took the opportunity to get out of there, leaving Callen standing by his desk watching Nell. Taking a glance around to check if anyone was close by, he took the five or so steps over to the couch and crouched down so he was eye level with her.
"Nell." He said softly. She didn't stir. Reaching out a hand he brushed her cheek lightly with his fingers. "Nell, time to wake up and go home."
Nell woke with a start at a touch on her cheek. When her eyes flew open she found herself staring into ocean blue eyes and for a moment she was confused about where she was, what time it was and what was going on. Her hand flew to her head as the thumping headache hit her and she groaned loudly.
"Come on, I'll drive you home." He said as he stood up. Nell lifted herself up and looked around.
"Where is everyone?" She asked.
"They left already." He explained. "Let's go." He said, offering her his hand to stand up. Nell looked at it for a moment, then slipped her hand into his and let him help her to her feet.
"Sore head?" He asked as she winced and squinted her eyes.
"Mmmhmm"
"Next time take it easy on the tequila shots." Callen laughed as they started heading for the exit.
"Next time don't interrupt my night out to make me work." She joked back.
"So there will be a next time for Nell at the clubs huh?" Callen smiled.
"Maybe." She smiled back. "It was kinda fun." She smiled despite the hangover.
"Hmm, I might have to stick around for that." He said under his breath.
"What was that?" Nell asked having not hear him.
"Oh nothing, just glad you had a good time."