Chapter Text
The NCIS team has been working a tough case for the past month. Lucy and Kai were taking the lead of the overnight surveillance. They were going on night nineteen of watching the activity of the club and suspected drug dealers. Jane and Jesse were feeling the loss of half their field team being gone during the day for over two weeks. The regular cases didn’t stop so for the short term while Lucy and Kai focused on building a case on the illegal drug ring they had to call up Alan and another new agent, Matt, to help out.
Alan and Matt got to the bullpen early, excited to be called up and eager to help. Alan got settled at the fourth free desk in the bullpen and Matt scoped out a desk that looked empty and took off his backpack.
“Whoa whoa whoa man, uhhh, what are you doing? You can’t sit there! That’s Lucy’s desk!” Alan said quickly, his voice nervous.
“Well it looks empty to me. And isn’t Lucy who I’m filling in for? So she won't even be here today and I’m sure she won't mind”
“I don’t think so man, she was gone for 4 months last year and no one sat there the entire time she was gone.”
Matt thinks Alan is being ridiculous and rolls his eyes, ignoring his teammates pestering.
A few minutes later Ernie walks out of the kitchen, green smoothie in hand. His eyes land on Lucy’s desk, the wrong agent sitting in the chair. “Who are you and why are you sitting at Lucy’s desk?”
“My name is Special Agent Matt Rogers and I am actually on this team as Lucy’s replacement so -”
Ernie cuts him off, “Her replacement? You’re not replacing her. She’s the lead agent on an ongoing case right now and you are sitting at her desk.”
Before Matt can respond Tennant opens her office after hearing Ernie's voice. “Ernie, good morning, do you have any updates on the whereabouts of our suspect or any connections he has here on the island?”
“Not yet boss, I just came up for a smoothie while the face recognition runs. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.”
As Ernie leaves, Tennant turns her focus to Alan and Matt, “Alan, Matt, thank you for joining us to help out on the new case. As you know we’re a few agents down right now. Head up to the war room and Jesse will brief you on what we know soon as he gets here. Oh, and Special Agent Matt, when you come back down you can get settled at a desk over here, this one actually belongs to one of my agents already.”
Matt is in disbelief, there is no way he almost just got his head bit off over a desk.
****
As they finish their briefing in the war room Tennant sends them back down to get started on research while she and Jesse finish up. They think the suspect from their murder case might be connected to one from back on the mainland but need confirmation from their contact at the FBI first. Until then Matt and Alan are stuck doing grunt work flipping through old files. Alan stops at the bathroom on the way back so Matt is alone when he walks into the bullpen and sees someone sitting at the forbidden desk he made the mistake of sitting at this morning. She’s blonde and beautiful but Agent Lucy isn’t supposed to be here today so this must be another naive newcomer. And a chivalrous warning is the perfect excuse to talk to this beautiful woman in her expensive looking suit.
“I have to warn you and save you some trouble, you definitely shouldn’t be sitting here.” Matt says leaning up against the side of the desk.
“Excuse me?” Kate is confused who is talking to her and what he’s even saying.
“This desk. Apparently, it belongs to a very special agent and it's a second degree offense to sit here even though she's out. I almost got my head ripped off this morning and you’re too pretty for that so I figured I would save you before anyone else comes back” Matt gives a smile.
Kate hums in response and her eyes go right back to the computer to continue her search, annoyed at this young frat boy's attempt of flirting and interruption “She is a very special agent”.
“FBI TO THE RESCUE” Jesse’s voice booms from the doors. “Whistler, please tell me you’ve got something for us”
“I do actually, look.” Kate turns her screen towards him to show the possible connections between their murder suspect and cases the FBI has handled in other states and the FBI’s notes on his most recent location here on the island.
“Whistler, great work. Let’s head to this address and see if he’s still there”, Tennant was standing behind the blonde with a hand on her shoulder. Now Matt is truly baffled by this scene. He was committing an act of treason this morning by sitting there but this ‘Whistler’ isn’t even an NCIS agent, she's FBI for heaven's sake and no one is batting an eye.
***
They got their suspect and quickly got a confession. He was all too happy to tell them all about his murders with a sick sense of pride for how long he got away with it before they could catch him. It was about 6:30 and they were wrapping up their paperwork and writing statements before heading home when a guy walks in carrying two take out containers. Matt vaguely recognizes him and figures it must be Kai. He and Lucy had to check in with Tennant before driving together to their surveillance location for the night.
He places one of the containers on Lucy’s desk before going to sit at his own. “What is this? No food for anyone else? I’m starving over here man” Jesse started giving him a hard time.
“I didn’t think you guys would still be here this late, plus you get to go home and have dinner with your family, Lucy and I have a 10 hour shift of staring out a window and using binoculars to monitor these idiots”
“Well we wrapped up our murder case today so you know how it is, gotta do the paperwork before we leave. And the kids are on a hot dog kick right now, everyday.. Hot dog, hot dog, hot dog…” Jesse’s complaining drones out as Matt watches Kate open the take out container clearly labeled with an L and take a bite. There is just no way.. Now he truly has no idea. He looks around the bullpen to see if anyone else is seeing what he's seeing. He accidentally sat in Lucy’s chair this morning and three people called him out in five minutes but Agent Whistler is literally eating her dinner and no one is saying anything.
His thoughts of her must have summoned her because the elevator doors open with a ding to reveal a small figure. Black pants, black combat boots, and a black hoodie with the hood up. She has two coffees in hand and Matt knows this must be the infamous Lucy Tara. She placed a coffee on Kai’s desk as she walked past and only hummed “mhmm” in response to his thank you.
She clearly just woke up and was still in the process of fully waking up, her sleep cycle truly messed up from the month of night shift surveillance. Matt watched with anticipation, maybe Lucy herself would snap and say something to the FBI agent occupying her space. But, she just silently sat on top of the desk and held her coffee cup with two hands closing her eyes as she took a sip like it was the only thing saving her in this moment. Jesse was unfazed by her grumpy demeanor, “Well good morning sunshine” the glare he received just made him laugh.
Whistler also seemed amused by Lucy’s clear distaste for mornings and talking before coffee - even if it was almost 7pm. He watched Whistler rub Lucy’s back and offer the open dinner container, “Here, Kai brought dinner from his Dad’s and I already pulled the pickles off the sandwich for you.”
***
On the way out in the elevator with Alan he finally asked, “What's with FBI blondie?”
“FBI blondie?? You mean Special Agent Whistler? She is FBI but she’s the NCIS liaison so she’s technically kind of on both teams which is cool and before this she used to be DIA and worked with the A Team then too.” Alan loves talking about his friends from the A-team.
“Is that why no one cared that she sat at Lucy’s desk all day or messed with her dinner?”
“What? No. Well, yes.. Kate’s been a part of the team for years now but also, before that she’s Lucy’s girlfriend.”
Her girlfriend? Getting kicked out of her seat 3 times was embarrassing enough but trying to flirt with her girlfriend all on his first day.. Matt groans. He hopes Kai and Lucy wrap up with their night shifts soon.