Chapter Text
Kate was late. It was barely ten in the morning and her day could not be off to a worse start. Like the vast majority of her personal problems, these circumstances were entirely of her own making.
At least she was so late the morning traffic had nearly subsided, but that meant she didn’t have any red lights to attempt to put on her makeup. She had rolled out of bed, taken some advil to help quiet the pounding in her head, and taken a quick shower mostly just to burn the grime off of her from the night before. The rush didn’t give her much time to replay the previous evening, her one reprieve.
“Rough night, Whistler?”
Agent Boone was probably the most amenable of the NCIS team to catch her in this position, putting makeup on in her car mirror as she pulled back her half wet hair into a messy bun. She offered him a small wave, but quickly covered her mouth as she started to open it and felt an uneasy nausea creeping.
Boone got the message and hurried ahead to the elevator, as Kate exited her car and tried to steady herself. This was going to be a long day.
Lucy was not in a good mood. Not for any reason in particular, sometimes people just had bad moods. It really wasn’t something to think too much about. Last night was fine. Today was fine.
Her mood had nothing to do with hearing Jesse’s recounting of seeing a disheveled DIA Agent Whistler in the parking lot. Apparently Kate had joined the boys for a beer last night, but according to Jesse, they all parted ways after two beers at eight or so, certainly not enough to contribute to Whistler’s current state.
The downside of being on a team of detectives, is they all shared an innate curiosity. Well, today it was sort of an upside, because at least others could voice Lucy’s curiosity without her having to admit she was invested in Whistler’s mystery evening.
“Whistler doesn’t strike me as the type to continue her morning routine in the car.” Ernie was spot on, voicing Lucy’s observation.
“Very true.” Lucy didn’t mean to join in, but she had relevant information, “Not that I care. I don’t. Just offering facts, K- Whistler has a very consistent morning routine.” She tried very hard to pretend to be uninterested after that, busying herself with prep for the morning war room, but was sure to remain in earshot for the rest of Ernie and Jesse’s pow wow.
“So, she likely didn’t return home last night, if her morning was this off. Why else would she be getting ready in the car?”
“Wait, didn’t she say she was getting an Uber last night?”
“Yeah, but she was still waiting for it by the time most of us had left.”
“It’s a lead, but not much to go on.”
Lucy was thankful she didn’t have a mechanical keyboard so the fury of her typing didn’t echo throughout the open office. Luckily, Tenant’s arrival put an end to this investigation from hell.
“Maybe instead of gossiping about our DIA liaison, you Special agents can put your heads together and tell me where your other team member is?”
“Sorry I’m late team,” impeccable timing Kai walked in right at his mention, the grin on his face indicating he was really sorry about it, “Wild night?”
“Yeah Kai, you look as worse for wear as Whistler!” Kai uncharacteristically stiffened at the joke, changing the subject asking about today’s case. It was probably nothing. It had to be nothing.
Still, it didn’t help matters that a few hours later, Lucy saw Ernie, Kai, and Jesse amicably chatting and definitely heard “Whistler” mentioned but they abruptly changed the subject to the case when Lucy came over.
So, by the time Whistler came to the NCIS building to enter her credentials for Tenant to get access to a file for the case, Lucy had been stewing.
Kate avoided eye contact with her entirely, taking a route so indirect to Jane’s office it would have been funny if Lucy weren’t so annoyed. When Whistler left, stopping by Kai’s desk to have a warm exchange, Lucy had seen all she needed to, storming off to confront the woman.
Not that Lucy had anything to confront her about. This was about her team, and Whistler was complicating things, that's all.
As she approached unnoticed, Lucy was able to hear the tail end of Kate and Kai’s exchange.
“We are not making a habit of that, Kai”
“We didn’t do anything wrong”
“I never do anything like that. It was impulsive. We could have really made things bad.”
“Come on though, it was fun. Admit it you had fun.”
Kate grinned, “it was a lot of fun.”
Lucy lost her nerve. She suddenly felt intrusive. She turned on her heel, beelining it into the hallway, so she could collect her thoughts. When she saw Whistler enter the elevator alone though, her impulses took over. She needed answers.