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It had started when the team had to interview an old suspect about a new case. Tammy had volunteered to be the one to go to the prison to talk to them. She never expected to glance over and see Eva Azarova just as she was leaving, but that’s what had happened. She stood, speechless, with her and Eva having made eye contact and staring at eachother for a few seconds with disbelief and longing in their eyes. Before either of them could think to do anything, Eva had been ushered away down the corridor by a guard, and Tammy was left standing alone. Since when had Eva been in this prison? She knew Eva had originally been put in a federal prison in a different state, so she must have been moved at some point. Tammy made a mental note to check Azarova’s file when she got back, just to see what she was doing there. After a few more moments, she remembered what she was doing, and the information she had acquired on the new case that the rest of the team would be waiting to hear. She left the prison and made her way back to the HQ, calling the team on the way. She was back in work mode, but the thought of Eva Azarova stayed in the back of her mind; a thought that would later spark something more.
It was only a couple of weeks later, once the case was finally over, that Tammy actually had any time to think about anything other than work. She remembered while sitting at her desk, filling in paperwork for the last case, that she had been so busy with work that she never got a chance to look at why Eva was back in New Orleans. She typed the name into her computer and saw that Eva had been moved over to the prison almost two months earlier due to “an incident with a past acquaintance”. That was a whole two months where Tammy had been so much closer to Eva and not even known it. In fact, she had even visited that very prison three or four times since Eva had been transferred. Tammy thought about the last time they had spoken and began to feel a longing to be able to talk to Eva again. She had previously accepted that she would probably never be able to see Eva again, and so decided to immediately push down and forget about any feelings she might have developed for the other woman during the playbook case. But now, all the feelings she had been suppressing since Eva kissed her that night came flooding back, and although Tammy knew she shouldn’t, she just wanted to see her again. As she lay in bed that night, waiting to fall asleep, her head became filled with thoughts of Eva. Despite the limited time they had spent together, Tammy felt the urge to get to know her better. She knew she should have stopped herself there, after all, Eva was a criminal, and any idea of becoming close to the woman or even talking to her again should have been immediately dismissed. But, this didn’t stop the fact that Eva was all Tammy could think about, and their brief encounter in the prison. Anyway, she truly believed that Eva wasn’t an inherently bad person, and so there was nothing wrong with wanting to talk to her. And she was sure that she had seen that want in Eva’s eyes in the prison, too. If anything, she just wanted to check up on her, to make sure Eva was doing alright. After all, “incident with a past acquaintance” wasn’t exactly going to have been a good thing. Ideas began forming in her mind, and as she fell asleep, she had decided on what her next move would be.
Her plan wasn’t put into action until a couple of days later when she had another suspect to interview at the federal prison. She was going to visit Eva at the same time, since it was likely no one would question an agent talking to a prisoner there, especially if they had already been interviewing another one of the prisoners about a crime. So many of the criminals had connections, and a lot of the cases NCIS worked on overlapped, so there were often federal agents going in and out of the prison in an attempt to gain information. At least, she hoped no one would ask why she was talking to Eva.
As she pulled up to the prison, Tammy hesitated. What if someone on the team found out what she was doing? Or what if they wouldn’t let her see Eva? Or if they asked why she wanted to talk to her? It was one thing visiting a prisoner in secret, but she couldn’t just straight up lie to the guards. Despite all this, she knew she was going to do it. She was going to be in the prison anyway, and she couldn’t knowingly be that close to Eva again and not have the chance to talk to her. She took a deep breath, tried to ignore all the panicked thoughts that Eva might not even want to see her in the first place, and walked through the door.
The prisoner she was interviewing ended up being useless, she’d had no information on the case whatsoever. As he was escorted away, Tammy sighed deeply. Hopefully, someone else on the team had made some kind of a breakthrough, because it certainly wasn’t going to happen here. Walking over to a nearby guard, she knew what she was going to do next. She just hoped it would work.
“Hey. Uh, I’d like to talk to Eva Azarova as well please?”
The guard she was talking to looked bored and tired.
“Sure. I’ll get them to bring her in.”
Tammy sat waiting for a couple of minutes before the door swung open again.
“Eva. Hi.” She tried to keep a straight face, and stop herself from smiling because, in the eyes of the guard, she was here for work. She glanced over at the guard. “Do you think you could leave us for a bit and wait outside? It’s just, it’s a sensitive case. She’s a nonviolent criminal anyway and there’s a screen between us.”
Eva raised her eyebrow at Tammy, but didn’t say anything.
The guard paused for a moment, before replying “Sure. I’ll be just outside. Shout if you need me.”
“Great. Thanks.” She sighed with relief once the guard left. She knew she was risking it by saying something like that. She had told herself she wouldn’t lie, but she had come this far, and she couldn’t exactly have a conversation with Eva while the guard was there.
The two women stared at eachother for a few seconds, neither of them quite knowing what to say. Eva eventually broke the silence.
“What are you doing here? What’s the case?”
“Um… yeah. There isn’t really one.”
“What?”
“I don’t have a case to question you about.”
“Oh. So… why are you here?” She hoped the other woman was here because she wanted to see Eva, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up, so she assumed it would be something to do with Russian spies or NCIS.
“Just… to talk to you.”
“You came here to see me?”
“Yeah. Well, no. I was already coming here to question someone else, but I decided I wanted to see you too.”
Eva smiled, and the two looked at eachother in silence again.
“I didn’t think I’d ever get to see you again.” She said quietly.
“Well, as a wise woman once said to me; never say never.”
The two women giggled, but as it died down Tammy’s face became more serious.
“How are you doing, Eva?”
“I’m in prison. It could be better.” She replied jokingly.
“Your file says you were transferred because of an “incident”. What happened?”
“Ah. That. Yeah, there was a woman in the other prison, we worked together at one point.
She ended up double-crossing us though.”
“What did you do??”
“Relax, I didn’t do anything. She… she tried to attack me one night. It’s fine, don’t worry. Nothing too bad.”
Tammy could tell that there was now uncertainty in Eva’s joking tone. She wasn’t telling her everything that had happened, and she was definitely hiding the seriousness of it all. Tammy decided now wasn’t the best time to probe any further on the matter, so she left it. After a short pause, Tammy said quietly, “It’s really nice to see you again, Eva.”
The other women smiled, before replying, “You see, the thing is. Since you know my name, I think it’s only fair that I get to know yours. You know, especially since we’ve kissed and everything.”
Tammy looked up and saw Eva smiling mischievously, and the two laughed again.
“Fine, I suppose it is fair enough. Tammy Gregorio.”
“Tammy… that’s cute.” Eva grinned at the other woman, and any fears Tammy had previously had about Eva not wanting to see her were by now long gone.
The two talked for a while longer, both knowing that at some point they were going to have to stop and Tammy would have to leave, but neither of them wanting to face up to that. The sound of a text message coming through brought their conversation to a halt, as Tammy read the words appearing on her screen.
Gregorio, we have a new lead. Come back as soon as you’re done at the prison.
Tammy sighed, knowing she couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Work?” the other woman asked.
“Yeah.”
“You have to leave now don’t you.”
“I do. I’m sorry.”
“No it’s fine, I’m just glad I got to see you. I’ve been thinking about you a lot since I last saw you here. Take care.”
Tammy smiled and stood up from her chair.
“Tammy…” Eva hesitated for a moment. “Will you visit again?”
“Absolutely.”
The two women smiled at eachother, and held eye contact until the very last moment when Eva was ushered out of the room by the guard, and the door slammed shut.
Tammy stood alone for a moment, smiling and savouring the moment for as long as she could, before leaving to make her way back to work. She would definitely be visiting Eva again.