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“I brought food.” You sing, entering Jack’s office. You frown, surprised to see the office empty.
You and Jack had started going out to lunch when a case had been frustrating you, you’d been stuck without a lead and were driving yourself mad trying to solve it when Jack had basically pulled you from your desk and forced you out of the building for lunch. The next week Jack had been struggling with a case of her own and you’d done the same thing to her. It had sort of formed into a routine. Every Wednesday, you’d meet up and go for lunch no matter what. It allowed you both a break from the office, and to catch each other up on the week so far. However, Jack had suddenly cancelled your plans today claiming she had too much work to do. You’d tried to persuade her otherwise, as the original point of these lunches was to force yourself to relax, but she snapped at you claiming she didn’t have time today. You decided you’d bring lunch to her then, to make sure she’d eat something. Yet she wasn’t here.
Usually, when she was stressing over a case, you’d find folders scattered across her office and darts in the dartboard from where she’d tried to calm herself down, but her office was spotless, and the darts all tucked away. It didn’t make sense. You turned back around about to leave her office when you notice her bag and coat were gone too.
You frown as you leave her office and head back to the bullpen, worrying your lip between your teeth. “Hey, have you seen Jack?” You ask McGee as you pass his desk.
“She left like 10 minutes ago. I thought she was meeting you for lunch?” McGee says confused
“No, uh she cancelled…” You walk back to your desk brain swarming with confusion and hurt. There had to be a reason, but you don’t understand why she wouldn’t have just told you the truth. You sigh, taking the food out of the bag. You half-heartedly snack at your food, offering what would have been Jack’s to the team which Ellie gladly swipes.
You don’t see her for the rest of the day, and you start to wonder if maybe she’s avoiding you.
“Hold the elevator!” You stick your hands out to stop the doors from closing and see Jack running over, quickly sliding into the lift out of breath
“Thank- oh, hi” The sunny smile on her face falls slightly as she notices it’s you. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” The air feels awkward between you both and you hate it. You can be quite an awkward person but around her, you’d never felt like this. “Did you get your work done yesterday?” You question, trying to fill the silence.
“Hmm?” She says confused “Oh yeah! Sorry about cancelling lunch”
“It’s cool, did you want to get lunch today instead?” You ask, fiddling with your jacket in an attempt to hide your nerves.
“Oh, I can’t, doctor’s appointment.” You know she’s lying; you can tell by the way she won’t quite look you in the eye.
“Ok. Never mind.” you sigh, unsure how else to respond. You’re hurt, you don’t understand what you’ve done that could make her want to start avoiding you. You barely say “bye” when the elevator comes to a stop and you exit.
“Has Jack been weird with any of you the last couple of days?” You ask, stopping by Ellie’s desk which McGee and Torres are also standing by.
“No” Ellie frowns. Torres and McGee both shake their heads. “Is she being weird with you then?”
You groan “I don’t know if I’m overreacting, but she cancelled our lunch yesterday but lied about the reason and then we were in the same elevator just now and she genuinely looked uncomfortable the whole time and said she had to go to the doctors and couldn’t do lunch today either” You chew your lip in worry.
“Well maybe she does have the doctors, Jack isn’t exactly the sort of person to lie” McGee tries to reassure you.
“Uh well, actually she mentioned to me and Ellie the other week how she’d just got back from a check-up and was glad she didn’t have to go back for a while” Torres explains, Ellie nodding in agreement. You sigh tiredly.
You don’t understand what’s happening because you thought the two of you were growing closer. The weekly lunch dates, the frequent texting, random coffee’s, the touching, the smiles. Just thinking about the way she smiled at you makes your heart flutter. Had you done something wrong? Maybe she’d worked out just how strong your feelings were for her and is backing away in hopes you’ll realise she’s not interested…but you’d thought maybe she liked you too.
“Dead Marine.” Gibbs barks, pulling you from your thoughts as he enters the bullpen. You push the whole Jack situation to the back of your mind, following Gibbs over to the elevator.
“Y/N” You look up from your desk where you are sitting going through bank records for the latest case, and over to Gibbs “Go give this to Jack”
Your face drops and you look to Ellie “I can do it, I don’t mind.” Ellie jumps up from her desk and you smile in relief.
“No, Y/N. Now.” Ellie shoots you an apologetic look at Gibbs’ sharp tone. You frown, getting up and probably a bit too roughly yank the folder from Gibbs’ hands. You spin round, heading up the stairs to Jack’s office.
Her door is open, but you still knock. She’s throwing darts. “Gibbs wanted me to give you this,” you say in explanation as Jack turns around to see you.
You think her cheeks redden but you can’t tell as she turns away “Just dump it on my desk.” You place it down but hesitate before exiting “Is there something else?”
Fuck it. You think “Is everything okay?” You fiddle with your hands now and Jack’s still throwing darts.
“Everything’s fine.” Jack sighs, throwing the last dart and turning to face you “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know Jack” you shake your head in annoyance “Maybe because you’ve barely spoken to me these last few days” Your tone is sharp. Jack shakes her head, walking around you to her desk.
“I’ve been busy.”
“You’ve been avoiding me.” You bite back.
She looks at you and you can momentarily see the guilt in her eyes before she looks away “I haven’t been avoiding you” She huffs, dismissing you. You take a step back because ouch that hurt. She’s making it seem like you’re ridiculous, that you’re overreacting.
“Wow okay. You know what, I’m sorry for being concerned about my-” co-worker? Friend? Women that I’m madly in love with? “- concerned about you”
You shake your head and begin exiting the room.
“Y/N!” You turn back around, hopeful. “Can you please shut the door on your way out”
You bite your lip to stop the bitter laugh escaping, turning back around, you storm out of Jack’s office slamming the door in the process.
You lean against the wall outside her office, taking a shaky breath as you furiously wiped away the tears that had begun to fall. I don’t understand ran through your head over and over, making you angrier. You should be furious with her but mainly you felt confusion and loss because none of this made any sense.
Your phone rings pulling you from your thoughts “Y/N” you answer.
“Hey, where are you? We’ve got a lead” McGee questions
“On my way” You hang up and attempt to wipe away any trace of tears before heading back down to the bullpen.
Even Gibbs shoots you a concerned look when you arrive which means you definitely didn’t do a good job at erasing the evidence. “What’s the lead?” You ask and then everyone jumps back into work.
“Hey Cowboy” Jack quips as Gibbs enters her office, at his serious expression Jack’s smile falters “Everything ok?”
“Why don’t you tell me.”
Jack sighs, looking away from Gibbs “I’m fine. First Y/N, then Bishop, Now you. Hell, should I expect a visit from Torres next?”
“Sloane.” Gibbs warns
“Gibbs.” Jack returns in the same tone. Gibbs just stares back at her until she snaps “What do you want me to say?”
“Maybe start with explaining what happened with Y/N the other day” Jack flinches “Have you seen her since?” Jack shakes her head; she’s become particularly good at avoiding you. “She looks like hell Jack. She’s definitely not sleeping and looking at you I can tell you ain’t either.” Jack shuffles in her seat, uncomfortable. “She’s constantly getting distracted. I don’t want to bench one of my agents so you better sort whatever the hell this is out.”
Jack hadn’t realised you’d been affected by this as much as she had. She ducks her head in shame. She misses you so much. “What if talking to her-” Jack gulps “What if talking to her makes everything worse?”
Gibbs rolls his eyes “Just talk to the damn girl Jack.” Jack groans, leaning back in her chair as Gibbs leaves her office.
You’re getting in the elevator about to go home when Jack slides in last second. The elevator starts moving and she instantly flips the switch to still it.
You sigh loudly “Come to lie to me some more?” You quip, looking straight ahead instead of at the women next to you, crossing your arms against your chest, in hopes it’ll help hide your nerves.
“I deserve that.”
You laugh, your arms dropping. “No shit. You suddenly feeling guilty? Is that why you’ve decided to hold me hostage in an elevator.”
“I’ve felt guilty since the moment I started avoiding you but actually…I just miss you.” You turn around finally looking at Jack “That’s why I’m here also Gibbs basically told me to stop acting like a child and talk to you.” Jack laughs, fiddling with her hair. You finally notice how nervous she is.
“I’ve missed you too.” You confess and a hopeful smile spreads across her face. You frown “but I don’t understand what happened? Did I do something?”
“No,” Jack said firmly, she took a deep breath before continuing “You didn’t do anything.” Jack reaches out for your hand playing with your fingers carefully, you look down in surprise “I realised where we were heading and just how strong my feelings were,” Jack clears her throat “I got scared.”
“You mean…?” You trail off scared to continue.
“I think I might be falling in love with you Y/N and that terrifies me.” You’ve both moved closer without realising. Your spare hand moves to Jack’s cheek, and the anxiety from her face washes away. You both smile softly at each other.
“Who’d of thought it would have been you that freaked out instead of me.” You tease, and Jack rolls her eyes at you. The hand you have placed on Jack’s cheek moves and you run your thumb over her bottom lip. She gasps, eyes sparkling in the dark.
And then you’re kissing and god you think. It’s like you can finally breathe again. You walk forward until Jack’s back hits the wall of the elevator and she moans, moans. You just kiss her harder, her hands have moved up to your hair and you move yours to slip under her shirt. Jack finally pulls back, you’re both breathing heavily, foreheads resting against each other.
“For the record, I’m falling in love with you too.” Jack smiles, going to kiss you but you pull back slightly “but from now on, please just talk instead of avoiding me.”
Jacks nods “Of course. I’m sorry.”
“I mean it wasn’t all bad, got to see angry Jack for the first time in a while. Angry Jack well, she’s very hot.” Jack releases a raspy gasp.
“Really?” Jack smirks and you hum in response, kissing her again.