OPS Shenanigans

Lunch Time

Lunch in the break room with Eric was Nell's favourite time of the working day. Which was saying a lot, considering how much she loved her job. The thing is, they hadn't told anyone yet about their relationship (well, except the assistant director - she'd been fine keeping it to themselves for the horrible month Granger was in charge (still couldn't believe that had actually happened!), but there had been no way Nell was going to not officially disclose their relationship once Hetty came back... luckily Granger had been fine with keeping the knowledge to himself.)

So, everyday life in OPS was pretty much the same as always, except that now those moments she and Eric spent eating lunch in the break room with their knees pressed together under the table and eating whatever they'd prepared together that morning in her kitchen (his kitchen was a wreck) were her favourite moments of the day. It was just that she kind of missed him during the rest of the day, when they were separated by secrecy and had to keep up a veneer of platonic friendship that was starting to grate on her.

So yes she loved her job, but she loved Eric more.

Which was terrifying, frankly. She'd never felt that way about anyone - never thought she could feel that way about anyone, but she'd learnt to follow her gut and it all pointed to her being so head over heels in love with Eric Beale that she was more excited about sharing a bag of chips with him in the break room than cracking a particularly difficult encryption code.

She should tell him, she knew that, but they hadn't really had that talk, you know? About how serious they were? Okay, so they were exclusive and they referred to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend and they spent practically all their time together outside of work, but there hadn't been a discussion as such. It had been almost three months now and they hadn't even talked about telling everyone they were dating yet.

Anyway, this is all sounding like Nell was in the middle of some kind of angsty crisis and she totally wasn't... the above are just some points that crossed her mind around lunch time each day.

The real point was that lunch was Nell's favourite kind of day and it was lunch time, so she was happy. She and Eric were sitting at their usual table facing the door, Nell was eating pasta from their dinner the night before and Eric had a sandwich made entirely with ingredients from her kitchen and a bag of chips from her cupboard. He was scanning the paper for funny stories to read aloud and their knees were pressed together.

it was perfect.

A computer tech Mickele was the only other person in the room, but he left after a few minutes and Eric started recalling Nell with a story about a woman whose boyfriend had to call the fire department to uncuff her from their bed when he lost the handcuff key. The man was stuck on the bed for almost six hours while his girlfriend searched the whole apartment.

"See, this is something we wouldn't have to worry about," he said. "Because you know how to pick handcuff locks."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, and Nell rolled her eyes. "Eric, I've already told you before now," she said. "My bed frame is wrought iron and I don't want to chip the paint."

Eric huffed but didn't argue, and hooked his foot around hers under the table. Nell smiled.

"Hey."

Nell's head snapped up and Eric's foot snatched back as Callen stepped through the doorway. He had a file in his hand and his face was fraut with a confused expression, but his eyes were darting between the two of them, and Nell watched in horror as his lips pursed thoughtfully. It was gone a moment later, though, so maybe she'd imagined it...

"'Suuup Callen?" Eric said in a horribly fake nonchalant tone.

Nell cleared her throat. "Hi."

Callen strode forward and held out the file to Nell. "I need you to sign this A221B Form for Granger."