Work Text:
Lucy gets woken up at 4am with a call from Tennant.
Being an NCIS Special Agent means she is called at unholy hours at times, and those calls wake her up like an adrenaline shot, when she hears words like “case, body, murder, victim, come in, need you.”
This one is nothing like those.
Tennant simply asks her if she’s home (yes), if she has made any commitments for her day off (no), and something about seeing her later.
Lucy, herself, during the time of the call, is exhausted physically and emotionally, from her first undercover job, and from her other nightly activities with the DIA Officer Kate Whistler, who is still snoring next to her wearing nothing.
So Lucy goes back to sleep without much thought. If she were not as tired, or if she had heard the lists of words her brain associated with work, she would have registered that Tennant will see her later at her place, where Lucy is still snuggling with Whistler, who to the best of everybody’s knowledge, should not be naked in Lucy’s bed.
Lucy gets woken up again around 8 with insistent knocks on the front door.
She groans and buries herself deeper into her favorite spot on Kate’s shoulder. It is a testament to how tired Kate must have been from last night if she is still asleep, and not out and about at 6 in the morning. But that also means that out of the two of them, Lucy has to be the one to answer the door.
She bolts right out of bed the moment she hears Tennant’s voice calling her name through the door.
Shit shit shit shit shit why is she here?
She puts on the first clothes she can grab (a t-shirt and sweatpants), does a quick check of herself through her phone’s camera (no hickeys or lipstick marks to be found), then closes the bedroom door, all the while making sure that Kate is still sound asleep (and hopefully not waking up anytime soon).
She opens the door to not only Tennant, but also Jesse, Ernie, and Kai.
“Heyyy guys! What a surprise! Whatcha doing here? Not that I don’t love seeing you guys! You know I love y’all’s faces!! Is that breakfast? And coffee? For me? You didn’t have to! What’s the occasion? Why are we here?”
Everybody is looking at her in bewilderment. Tennant has that face where she is trying to figure things out, Jesse and Ernie practically say are you okay? with their eyes, and Kai just looks like he is still processing all of that.
Lucy is just surprised she said all that in one breath.
“Hey, Lucy, sorry to bother you on your day off, but I promise I have a good reason,” Tennant seems to decide to dismiss her weird behavior, “and I called you earlier, remember?”
Lucy might have a very vague recollection of that phone call.
“Right, right, sorry. I think I was too tired to process then.”
“Soooo, can we come in?” says Jesse, when Lucy doesn’t make any moves to let them in at all.
She moves out of the way and lets them in almost instinctively, while internally freaking out about Whistler, who is still sleeping in the bedroom, with whom she is in an agreement to keep their relationship a secret from work. And now her entire team is here. Cool, cool, cool.
She wonders if Whistler can parkour out of the window.
In the next two minutes of the team setting up breakfast and coffee at the dining table, Lucy figures she can entertain them for a bit and kick them out before Whistler even wakes up. Is this a bad plan? Yes. Is this the best plan she can come up with in her state right now? Also yes.
Lucy picks up a scone, takes a sip of her coffee, and says in the most casual tone possible.
“So not that I don’t appreciate all this, but why are you guys here?”
“I know you had a long day yesterday, and I told you to take today off, but we have a new case that requires the whole team.” Jane’s voice is apologetic, and while she understands, Lucy really really wishes the circumstances were different.
“Of course, so how about we finish this quickly and head to Pearl?”
“No, can’t do Luce,” says Jesse, “this case is sensitive, it stays with our team alone, and we’re working on it under the table.”
“What kind of sensitive are we talking about?”
“There’s an intel leak at NCIS,” Jane sounds tense now, and both Ernie and Kai straighten up, “Last night someone leaked confidential information from our office, and it doesn’t look like this is the first time. I haven’t been able to figure out who yet, so we can’t be too careful. We’re meeting at your place, Lucy, because you went on your first undercover mission yesterday and we can use a ‘good job’ party as cover.”
She nods. She fully understands the gravity of the situation…but still, couldn’t this have happened literally any other day? She wonders if her grumpiness is obvious, because Ernie shoots her a concerned look.
She clears her throat.
“Were you able to narrow down who it could be?”
“Not yet,” answers Tennant, “I’m waiting for a response from DIA, they might be able to zero in on who it is based on the intel leaked.”
“Whistler answered you yet?” asks Jesse, who sees the way Lucy’s eyes widen and her body tenses up at the question, “You good there Luce?”
“Yep! Never better!”
And now Tennant is shooting her a concerned look too.
“Not yet,” Tennant seems to let it go, for now, ”she has today off, and it’s still early. I’m going to text her again, it’s Whistler, so I’m sure we will get a response soon.”
Shit shit shit shit
Now how can she tell them that Whistler is actually right in the next room? Hey so funny thing we slept with each other last night and might even be in a secret relationship but that’s good cause now she is already here?
And that has to be when they all hear sounds from the bedroom.
The entire team tenses up, and everybody but Lucy and Ernie reaches for their service weapon out of reflex, before Tennant turns to Lucy.
“Lu-”
Just to be cut off by Whistler’s own “Lucy! Tennant said there’s a new-”
The bedroom door opens to reveal Whistler in a t-shirt and shorts, Lucy’s oversized t-shirt and shorts actually, and whatever she was saying gets cut short when she sees the entire team sitting around Lucy’s dining table.
Whistler goes back inside and practically slams the door close. Lucy winces at the sound. Kai is still looking at the bedroom door, eyes blinking four, five times like it would change what he saw. Jesse is looking at Lucy now, his eyebrows raised. Ernie is wearing a shit-eating grin, having the time of his life. Tennant just lets out a “huh.”
Lucy runs to her bedroom.
Shit.
“I can explain.”
“Please do! Lucy, I am freaking out. Your coworkers, your boss just saw me coming out of your bedroom in,” she waves her hands up and down her body, “this, this…sleepwear. Lucy, I can never see them again. Lucy!”
“Tshirt and shorts are not that bad. At least you weren’t wearing nothing.”
“Lucy!”
“Okay okay. There’s a new case, it’s sensitive and involves intelligence and a potential spy or mole or whatever and we want to make sure that they don’t catch wind that we’re onto them so we can’t do it at Pearl.”
“Okay, but why here? At your place? Why not Tennant’s?” Kate looks the most confused she has seen her.
“They might still get suspicious, and since I went undercover for the first time yesterday, Tennant wants to use a party as an excuse.”
“And…She didn’t tell you about it?”
“Well…She kinda did? But it was a super early phone call, and I was really tired!” Lucy winces, because this situation is plainly ridiculous, and while it sucks, not entirely her fault, “partly because of you!”
Kate has the audacity to blush.
“Wait…a spy?”
“Yeah, we think so.”
“That’s why you need DIA’s help. Got it.” Kate slips effortlessly into her work persona, and Lucy refrains herself from commenting on how Whistler’s whole mean-girl-at-work persona doesn’t have the same effect when she is still in Lucy's t-shirt and shorts.
“So…how are you feeling? Now that they know about…us.”
“Let’s focus on the case for now. We can talk about it later.” Whistler’s expression is impassive, and Lucy is almost ashamed to admit that she is still not well-versed in the many expressions of Kate Whistler, especially when she is shutting it down to focus on something else.
“Okay.”
Unsurprisingly, Lucy cannot focus on the case. She has been reading the same file for the last ten minutes. She is exhausted, the coffee does nothing to wake her up, and anxiety pools in her belly. She is grateful that her team didn’t make any comments when Kate came out to join them, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, the most casual she’s ever been in front of them. It also helps that Kate has decided to sit right next to her.
So everything should be fine and she should be able to focus on this because the case is much more important than her work-relationship balance and the potential of DIA Officer Kate Whistler walking away from all this and yet she can’t help but shake her legs up and down and while she is aware this is an anxiety tick she…
Stops when Kate puts a warm hand on her knee. She turns to look at Whistler, but she is still looking down at a file. Lucy gives herself a few seconds to admire Whistler’s side profile, then turns back to her own file, the hand on her knee grounding her.
Together, they work on the case.
They identify the mole quickly with Whistler’s help, and the team prepares to roll out. All tiredness and anxiety gone, Lucy is pumped to go and bring this guy in. A hand touches her bicep, and when she turns around, Whistler is looking at her with a small frown. She trails her hand down to hold Lucy’s hand, then pulls her into a corner.
Her heart thumps so loudly in her chest she feels like she can hear it.
Now, her rational mind knows that Kate can’t possibly want to talk about them right now, not right before they are going in to catch a mole, because she knows Lucy needs all her attention on that. But another part of her goes well this is the end.
But when she looks at Kate’s eyes all she can see is concern.
“Hey, I know Tennant and the team have your back. But this guy is still a federal agent, who has been leaking intel under our nose for almost two months. He’s dangerous. So…be careful, okay?”
“Hey, you know me, I’m always careful,” Lucy can’t help but let slip a fond smile, her voice packed with utmost confidence and she hopes that eases Kate’s worry.
Kate shoots her a dubious look.
“I promise to be careful,” she relents.
Kate nods, satisfied with her answer, and to her surprise, leans down to give her a soft kiss. Lucy can’t help but smile into the kiss, because this is the most affectionate Kate has been with her in front of her team. She knows her team is not looking, that they are trying to give Lucy and Kate the privacy Kate clearly needs, and Lucy appreciates them more than ever.
“I’ll go back to my place then the office to deal with whatever paperwork for this case. Then I’ll see you tonight? My place?”
Lucy nods, and reaches out to give Kate another quick kiss.
“See you then.”
She smiles all the way back to Pearl, and pretends she doesn’t see the team giving each other looks, and pretends it’s about the case when Jane gives her shoulder a squeeze and Jesse pats her in the back. Her body is thumped with less adrenaline, and a lot more happiness.