Ellie x Nick Oneshots

Dinner

Today they had closed a case they've been trying to solve in the last few days, and since that meant that Gibbs had sent them home after they had finished their reports, they had been home in the early evening.

So Nick and Ellie had decided to go to a restaurant to eat dinner there.
Both of them dressed up in some nice clothes, and then they drove to their favorite restaurant.

They were seated at a table for two and ordered some red wine, though both of them only drank one glass.

When they ordered food after the wine had been served, Nick had to suppress a laugh at how much Ellie ordered. No matter how often he saw her eat, it always amuses him just how much his girlfriend can eat, and how surprised most waiters and waitresses always seemed to be when they heard her order, obviously not expecting a woman with a slim figure like Ellie to eat as much as she does.

And while Nick himself likes to sometimes joke about Ellie's eating habits, he didn't like it when other people did, especially not when they were mocking her, be it directly to her face or behind her back.

Just like a woman at the table next to them did, who was talking to her boyfriend, husband, date or whatever he was to her and was tauntingly laughing as she said ''Did you see how much that woman at the table next to us is eating? If she always eats as much as that I'd feel sorry for her date. Can't stay that skinny if you eat that much, aside from the fact that all the food she must consume must be quite expensive.''
She didn't even try to keep her voice down as she spoke, apparently, it was indifferent to her whether or not Ellie heard what she was saying. Which only made that woman even ruder.

The man sitting across from her nodded. ''I'd never date a woman who eats more than me,'' he stated, seemingly in agreement with his date.

Hearing that they were obviously speaking about Ellie in a way that he really didn't appreciate nor like, Nick's face froze up for a moment.

He looked at Ellie, whose expression had turned blank.
That showed him that she'd heard what the other couple was saying as well since she was quite reserved and never really wanted anyone to see or know what she was really thinking or feeling.

After a while, Ellie simply turned her attention back to her meal and continued eating, having decided to just ignore the other couple.

Nick, on the other hand, is much more of a hothead than Ellie is, -especially regarding negative things being said about Ellie- and therefore felt like he couldn't, and shouldn't, just stay silent.

So, with his brows contracted into a frown, Nick turned around to the couple sitting at the other table and addressed them in a loud enough voice for them, as well as other people sitting near them, to hear him.
''Hey, how about you just mind your own business instead of speaking badly of somebody you don't even know? Don't you have anything better to do? And, for the record, you should actually envy her,'' he said, nodding his head in Ellie's direction,'' for being able to eat the way she does and still looking like that. So do me a favor and shut up.''

The couple looked at him in shock, it was obvious that they hadn't expected him to call them out on what they had said.
Nick turned back around to Ellie with a smug little smile and continued eating his meal as well, while the surprised couple at the other table now kept quiet, so Nick was glad to see that his little speech seemed to have had an effect.

Ellie looked at Nick for a moment, but decided to not say anything to him right now and instead both of them finished their meals.

After they'd paid and had gotten into the car, Ellie thought it was now time to say something.
''You didn't have to defend me, you know'' she said, and Nick was ready to justify himself for it, but then he saw her expression, saw that she had a little smile on her face and realized that she wasn't angry about it, but instead seemed amused.

''I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to cause I like doing it. And they were being rude. They had no right to judge you or to speak ill of you. And since you hadn't seemed like you wanted to call them out on it, I decided to do it,'' he explained to her.
''Nobody gets to speak about you like that, not as long as I'm around.''

''Well, I appreciate it. But let's stop talking about that and get home. I'm sure we can find much better things to do at home rather than wasting our time talking about rude people that we'll most likely never see again,'' Ellie said with a suggestive little smirk on her face, leaving no doubts in Nick's mind just what she was referring to when she'd talked about doing better things at home.

So, with the same smirk as Ellie on his face, he started the engine of the car and drove them home.