49Sorry for the extreme delay in this chapter. I got kind of busy finishing my final semester of university and having a baby halfway through it! So here's chapter 4, FINALLY!
***Later that night***
Nell was laying on her couch, dozing as reruns of "Golden Girls" played on the TV. Upon her arrival, she had changed into sweats and taken the proper dose of her pain meds….which had, as expected, knocked her on her ass. All day, she had barely risen from the couch, except to get water and small snacks (to avoid the nausea that could accompany the meds) or use the bathroom. Eric had texted her periodically, asking if she was okay or needed anything, to which she replied "Yes" and "No, thank you." Therefore, she wasn't expecting the knock on her front door, which awakened her. She considered ignoring it, in hopes that whichever solicitor was standing on her doorstep would go away, until a familiar, but surprising voice accompanied the knock.
"Coming!" she hollered as loudly as she could in her post-slumber stupor. Clumsily, she got up off the couch and shuffled to open the door. "Callen? What's going on?"
Callen stood there, holding a paper grocery bag. "I just wanted to check in on you."
Nell raised an eyebrow. "You could've texted me to do that." She sensed there was something else he wasn't telling.
Callen knew he was busted and smiled a little. "Yeah, you got me there. Actually, I thought you might be a little hungry and need some help making food. I brought some soup and juice…." He trailed off as she moved back and opened the door further to let him in. He continued as he stepped inside. "…I don't know much what you like, so I kind of got a couple of varieties: apple, cranberry…soup is pretty standard, chicken noodle and vegetable beef."
Nell closed the door and smiled at him. "Chicken noodle and apple juice sound great, actually. Thank you, Callen; you didn't have to do this."
An odd shadow passed over his face for the briefest of moments, although not too briefly that Nell missed it. He turned toward the kitchen and she followed him. When she tried to help him locate necessary cooking implements, he playfully shooed her away.
"Ah-ah-ah! No need, I can find my way around a kitchen."
Nell snickered. "Really? From what I hear, your kitchen is a never-ending source of take-out containers. Do you even *own* pots and pans?"
Callen took on an air of mock-indignance. "Hey, just because I don't own them doesn't mean I can't use them." He said as he waved a small saucepot for emphasis. "Besides, I find these more useful as weapons than cooking implements." He paused for a moment and said with grin, "And I learned both abilities from Hetty." Nell snickered as the image of their diminutive boss, brandishing a stockpot lid and meat mallet as a shield and weapon, danced through her drug-addled brain. That snicker quickly turned into a full-on belly laugh as the image changed to include the armed-to-the-teeth Hetty successfully chasing off an intruder in that state. The laughter, combined with the meds, caused Nell to first lean against the wall, then slide down it until she sat on her kitchen floor, cracking up. Callen couldn't help but join in laughing at the sight of her becoming completely immobilized by her mirth, made even more amusing by the fact that she had yet to explain what was so funny.
"Nell, what the hell did they give you?" Callen asked, more rhetorically than seriously, as he carefully helped her up from the floor and into a chair at the table, once she finally stopped laughing. "Now what was so funny?" Nell told him as he continued heating up her soup. He raised his eyebrows at the mental image. "The sad part is, she did chase off some raccoons that way on a few occasions."
Once the soup was hot, Callen brought her a bowl and sat down across the table from her. Nell frowned and said, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"No, it's all for you. I'm not hungry right now."
Nell did not believe him. She gave him her best "Hetty-Gorgon" stare. "I call shenanigans."
Again, that shadow flicked across his countenance. This time, Nell didn't let it go. "Callen, I may be high as a kite on these meds, but I don't miss everything, and I certainly can still tell something is wrong. What's going on?"
He hesitated briefly before speaking. "Nothing. I just…kinda feel bad about you getting hurt. I wanted to try and make it up to you a little." He found himself unable to make eye contact with her as he made his admission.
Nell put down her spoon. "Callen, please don't feel bad. This kind of stuff happens to you guys all the time; much more often than Eric, Hetty, or I care for, frankly."
"Yes, but that's different; we're trained field agents-" Callen tried to explain, but Nell cut in.
"-As am I! Have you forgotten? I'm the 'Nellverine', remember?" She said with a smile at the last part. Callen did smirk at the mention of the moniker he had bestowed upon her.
"Yeah…I just…" Callen started, before the emotion threatened to cut off his reply. The image of her laying on the cold concrete, growing paler than ever as the pool of her blood grew around her, began to replay in his head. "It scared me to death to see you like that." He finished in little more than a whisper. Nell stayed quiet to let him continue. "It made me realize how much you mean to me, as a friend. I wanted so badly to fix it, to protect you better…and I just couldn't. And then seeing how much pain you were in and knowing that it was my fault, it just made it worse."
Nell nodded as realization kicked in. "That's why you were so adamant about me going home today." Her heart ached for him. "Well, I appreciate you doing so. I think we all get a little too tough for our own good sometimes. You don't have to 'atone' for me getting hurt, but if it makes you feel better about it, then I accept it, with the one condition that you forgive yourself and let it go from here on out. Deal?"
Callen nodded pensively. After a few moments of silence, he answered, "Deal."
Nell smiled in relief. "Good." She finished her soup and sighed happily. Callen took her bowl and she got up and began to make her way back to the couch. She winced as she sat down, which was not missed by Callen. He picked up her prescription bottle and asked, "When's your next dose due?".
"Right about now." She said with a grimace. He shook out the pill and handed it to her, which she took with her remaining apple juice. "You're welcome to stick around, but in about 15 minutes, I'll be conked out." Callen shook his head. "No, I'll be going here in a minute. Do you have everything you need now, before I go?" Nell nodded. "Thank you for everything, Callen." She said, her speech just beginning to slur. He smiled and replied, "You're welcome, Nellverine. Goodnight." She locked the door behind him and got back to the couch. In no time at all, she was comfortably sleeping.