Chapter Text
It was yet another early Monday morning. Being called to a crime scene right from the comfort of her own bed was not Lucy’s favorite way to start the week. She held her denim jacket close across her chest with one hand as she ducked underneath the police tape that was crossing off the sandy boardwalk of the beach from the parking lot.
“You know it’s Monday when the case makes you go to the beach first thing in the morning.”
Next to her, Kai laughed as he gratefully accepted a cup of coffee from her. “You know that most people would disagree with you, right?”
Lucy just shrugged it off. It wasn’t a particularly warm morning, the strong winds causing high waves. Not the best weather for a beach day.
“It’s not that abnormal to be afraid of the ocean. I think more people should be afraid of what’s down there.”
“You mean like all the dolphins that are gonna be addicted to cocaine now?”
“Exactly, in fact, I wouldn’t even trust a sober dolphin.”
Kai laughed quietly and turned to take some more photos of the scene. It seemed a little pointless to Lucy, the only evidence in their case being that the bag of cocaine that had washed up at this specific beach two days ago had turned out to be connected to their dead-sailor case. Due to the strong winds and shifting tides, the bag could’ve come from anywhere. The case itself was already a week old and colder than the coffee she was currently sipping on.
Lucy slowly followed her partner, careful not to step into one of the tide pools and get her new boots wet.
“Hey! What are you doing there?” A loud voice behind them called out.
Lucy turned around and had to keep herself from falling over because the lifeguard that was headed their way might as well have come straight out of a lesbian Baywatch fantasy. Red swimsuit and all. Her blonde waves danced in the wind and although she looked quite angry, Lucy couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was.
“The police tape isn’t for decoration,” the lifeguard shouted against the wind.
“Uhm, we are police actually. Well, kind of,” Lucy said, once she had found her voice again. She took a couple steps closer to the woman and pulled out her badge. “Special Agent Lucy Tara, NCIS.”
The blonde crossed her arms over her chest, not seeming impressed in the least. “Why is the navy involved in this?”
Before Lucy could answer, Kai joined them and answered for her. “A sailor on our base died from a forced overdose and we believe it came from the same batch of cocaine that washed up on the beach here last week.”
“So what are you looking to find here? The police already collected all the evidence.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to look again,” Kai responded.
The blonde seemed annoyed at his answer. “Well, this beach has been closed until further notice. Nobody has been here all weekend.”
“If the beach is closed, then why do they even need a lifeguard around?” Lucy asked.
“Because people keep ignoring the tape,” the lifeguard answered. Her tone carried just a hint of mockery.
Lucy couldn’t help but feel a smile creep on her face. Trying to stay focused, she pulled a notepad out of her back pocket.
“Can you tell me who worked here on the day the package was found?”
The blonde sighed and uncrossed her arms. “Sure, let me check the log.”
She turned around to walk to the lifeguard stand. Kai gestured that he would finish up the photos so Lucy quickly followed the blonde, who had already started walking away. As they approached the red stand, Lucy noticed a second lifeguard standing at the top and watching them. Just like his partner, he was wearing the red uniform even though there seemed to be no need for it.
“Miller, this is Agent Tara. She is working on the cocaine case,” the female lifeguard told her partner as she entered the small stand.
“An agent, huh?” He said, his eyes traveling down her body and back up again. He was giving Lucy the ick right off the bat.
She squeezed past him to enter the small room. It was chaotic to say the least. With different floating devices, boxes of various diving equipment and a half eaten sandwich on top of a large notebook.
“Oh, that’s mine,” Miller said, and then rushed to pick up the sandwich and take a large bite out of it. The blonde wrinkled her nose in disgust and turned back to the book. She only very reluctantly touched it at the corner of the page, Lucy noticed with a smile.
“Here are the names from everyone on shift last weekend,” she said.
“And you were here, too?”
“Yes, here,” she said and pointed towards a name at the top of the list. “Kate Williams, that’s me.”
Lucy nodded and quickly scribbled some notes onto her notepad.
“Do you have to interview us for the case?” Miller asked, accidentally spitting some crumbs on himself, that he quickly brushed off. “I’m free right now if you want to chat one on one, Agent.”
“Get lost, Dan,” Kate sighed, without looking at him. He just laughed and took his sandwich outside. “We already gave our statements to the police after the initial incident.”
Lucy nodded, making a note to get those statements later. When she looked up from her notepad, she noticed that the blonde woman was watching her curiously.
“Uhm, do you know anything about what boats were out here Friday night?” Lucy asked and pointed out towards the water. The shore line was filled with boats of various sizes bobbing up and down in the waves. It was highly likely that the drugs had gone overboard from one of them.
“It’s pretty much impossible to say. People like this place to anchor their boats because it’s close to the harbor but they don’t have to sign in anywhere when they want to go fishing.”
Lucy sighed, she would let Ernie know to try and trace the boats but it seemed like yet another dead end.
“Sorry, I wish I could help.”
The agent simply nodded. “If anything else comes up, you can give me a call,” Lucy said and handed over a business card, which the woman reluctantly took.
“And you’re always welcome to visit us again, once the beach is open for swimming,” Dan called out from outside.
When she saw the way Kate rolled her eyes, Lucy had to snort out a laugh. They locked eyes for a moment in silent understanding before Lucy turned to leave the small room.
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
After reconnecting with Kai, they drove back to the office, only stopping to get fresh coffee for the team. The case seemed to be slow overall. Without many leads or suspects it was only a matter of time before they would mark it as a cold case. Obviously, none of them would admit this out loud. And they owed it to the victim’s family to keep digging until there was nothing else to find.
“We got the statements from the lifeguards on scene, but they couldn’t tell us anything helpful. There is one more guy, who worked that day. He’s coming in later,” Kai started the update.
“The other sailors also couldn’t tell us much about Johnson’s death,” Jesse continued. “Nobody saw or heard anything. You know how it goes.”
Jane Tennant nodded. “I think we should dig deeper into what’s happening at Kuana Bay. These boats fly under the radar and because it’s a private beach, we don’t have all the authority there.” The woman turned to her team. “We need to find out everything about the people that frequent that area. The lifeguards, coast guards, even the residents.”
The sound of her phone vibrating in her pocket interrupted her. A frown crept on Tennant’s face and she quickly excused herself to take the call outside.
Ernie still continued his briefing on what he had found out on the newest suspects so far. Most of them seemed to be living their normal, unsuspicious lives.
“So what about the lifeguards?” Lucy asked. “Miller and Williams.”
“I haven’t found much on them yet, aside from the fact that blondie here works as a swimsuit model on the side.”
Lucy almost spit out her coffee. With a lot of effort, she managed not to make her drink dribble down her chin when she looked at the picture Ernie had pulled up on their big screen.
“I take it you two want to go and interview her again,” Ernie asked, wiggling his eyebrow.
That made Kai laugh, “not my type but you go for it, Luce.”
Lucy forced out a laugh as she tried to casually brush it off. “Aside from the fact that she is currently a suspect in a murder investigation, I would never date a lifeguard. I know they’re heroic and save people from the deadly abyss that is the ocean but I prefer heroic with less water. Like a firefighter or something.”
“Don’t firefighters use a lot of water too?” Ernie threw in but Lucy quickly shut him up with an angry look just as Tennant entered the room again. Ernie hurried to close the pictures on the screen.
“What’s up, boss?” Jesse asked.
“The FBI is trying to shut us down.”
All heads snapped in her direction.
“What? Why?” Kai asked.
“And how come they have a problem now, after we’ve been on this for over a week?” Jesse added.
“I’m not sure, but while I figure this out, you guys keep digging,” Tennant said and the team members all nodded. “But, you know, carefully.”
“You got it, boss,” Ernie said. They all were quiet as Tennant left the room again.
“Well,” Jesse said eventually. “That’s not weird at all.”
A couple hours later the team reconnected in Tennant’s office. New evidence pointed at the fact that more shipments had come to the island than originally calculated. When Lucy closed the glass door behind herself, the guys were already talking about the possible handoff point, where the missing drugs could’ve been stored.
“There is an old boathouse not far down Kuana Bay from where they found the first package,” Ernie suggested, turning his tablet to the group.
“Who has access to that?” Tennant asked while slowly sipping her coffee.
She was on cup number 4, which usually wasn’t a good sign. The entire team seemed stressed, which was no surprise with the FBI hot on their heels.
“The coast guard, and the lifeguards on duty. Technically the owners but they’ve been off the island for two weeks now. So still a couple people.”
“Anyone suspicious?”
“Daniel Miller, seems a little shady,” Ernie continued, pulling up his records. “Two reports of theft from when he was a teenager, but nothing drug related. I’ll keep digging, though.”
“What about Lucy’s new crush?” Kai threw in.
“HEY!”
“Anything shady about her?”
The last thing Lucy needed right now was her boss questioning her professionalism. Especially in a case like this. And besides that, she would barely call this a crush. The island was basically overrun with blonde wannabe surfer models. Lucy’s thoughts got interrupted by Ernie once again.
“That’s a bit more of a mystery,” Ernie mumbled, typing something on his tablet. “I can’t find anything about her that dates back further than five years. It’s like she didn’t exist before. And that’s never a good sign.”
“I want us to stay on those two,” Tennant said. “I want to know where they go and who they talk to.”
Kai piped up immediately “Lucy volunteers to follow Kate Williams.” Followed by an “Ouch”, when Lucy hit his shoulder. Tennant’s lips curl into something that could almost be considered a smile.
She locked eyes with Lucy. “You’re up for that?”
“Yes, maam.”
“Alright, take Jesse with you and make sure to stay out of sight.”
Lucy nodded, thankful that Tennant wasn’t openly questioning her professionalism. The other woman most likely knew that the guys were just messing with her, but in a bad moment (like a fourth-cup-of-coffee-moment), this could still go terribly wrong. Lucy was still a junior agent after all and she wouldn’t risk getting benched for the rest of her career.
“Kai and I are on Miller,” Tennant continued. “And Ernie, make sure the FBI doesn’t figure out what we’re up to.”
Ernie gave her a quick thumbs up and then hurried out of the office.
Lucy’s motivation was a bit higher the following morning, possibly because this time her day didn’t start at the beach. Also, it seemed like the winds had finally settled down again and the clouds made room for the sun to warm her face.
“Are you getting in or what?” Jesse called through the open car window.
“I had to get my five minutes of fresh air if we’re gonna spend all day locked in this car again.”
Jesse simply shook his head, “you can walk next to it, I don’t mind.”
They spent the morning parked in front of Kate’s apartment, waiting for something to happen. When the woman finally left the house and got into her car around noon, Lucy was already loudly complaining about her numb butt cheeks.
“Something isn’t right,” Jesse mumbled.
“With my butt?”
“No, Lucy, I think that black SUV has been following us.”
Lucy threw a glance into the side mirror. “How long has it been there?”
“A little too long for comfort,” Jesse responded.
They turned left on another corner but the SUV stayed behind them.
“Oh look,” Lucy pointed ahead of them. “Kate is parking in front of that building. You can round the block, let me out and then drive off to see if they’re following her or us.”
“I don’t know Lucy. What if she sees you and recognizes who you are?”
“Then I’ll improvise,” Lucy shrugged nonchalantly and Jesse sighed.
For a lack of better options, they chose to follow Lucy’s plan. Jesse stepped on the gas and sped around the corner, where he instantly brought the car to a stop again so Lucy could jump out. The small agent quickly hurried inside the corner store. From there she could see that the black SUV had rounded the building as well and was now speeding up to catch up with Jesse.
She was about to call her partner to let him know, when a familiar voice spoke up behind her.
“Are you following me?”
Lucy snapped around to see the very familiar lifeguard looking at her with a frown on her face. Great, that had taken all of five seconds. As panic started to bubble up her throat, she spoke the first words that came to her mind.
“You look good with clothes on.”
“What?”
That seemed to throw Kate off her game instantly. She was wearing a green hoodie and gray sweatpants and so far, Lucy had only seen her in her lifeguard uniform, so it was a valid comment. But Kate seemed to snap back into it sooner than expected as the frown crept back on her face. But the slight blush that had stained her cheeks stayed in place.
“Are you following me or not?”
“No, why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, why would you?” the blonde asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking beautifully intimidating. It made Lucy’s heart race for all the wrong reasons.
“I’m just here to…” she frantically looked around and grabbed a box off of the nearest shelf she could reach. “To buy some surfboard wax.
“You don’t peg me as the surfer type.” Kate responded with a raised eyebrow. Damnit, she’d seen right through her.
“Uh, no, I’m just picking this up for my friend.”
Kate didn’t look convinced in the least. However, there was something so very non-threatening about her aura, in the way she tried to hide the smile on her face, that kept Lucy from freaking out.
After a couple seconds of silently staring at each other, the blonde turned to the side, grabbed a different box of wax off the shelf and handed it to Lucy.
“Tell your friend to use this brand. The one you have is shit.”
And with that she walked past Lucy and excited the store.
After that incident, Lucy obviously wasn’t able to follow their suspect anymore. By the time Jesse had come back around to pick her up, Kate Williams was already in the wind.
“Good news is, I lost the SUV after making it back to Pearl Harbour. Bad news is that we found the tracker they put on Kate Williams’ car in a dumpster about a mile from here.
Lucy sighed, clearly defeated, “so she knows we’re following her.”
“Yep.”
Just when they had thought the case couldn’t possibly get more complicated, Tennant had to prove them all wrong.
“They found another body,” she said as she walked into the office the next morning. “Joshua Hernandez, navy sailor, shot dead not far from his home last night.”
“Looks like someone is trying to clean up after themself,” Kai stated.
“This has cartell written all over it,” Jesse added, taking a look at the pictures of the crime scene in front of him.
The mood in the office was tense that day. Everything seemed to be connected to each other but they could not find any real proof for their assumptions.
Just as Lucy had gotten up to go and get a fresh round of coffee for the team, Ernie stumbled out of the elevator and almost knocked her down.
“Hey! What’s the rush?” she yelled, but he only dragged her back to the others.
“I have good news for everyone except Lucy,” Ernie started once everybody had their eyes on him. The small agent had an obvious question mark written on her face so Ernie quickly continued.
“After looking at hours and hours of security footage, the one person who keeps showing up at all the wrong places during all the wrong times is Kate Williams.”
He turned his tablet to the group, maximizing the security camera footage for them to properly see it. It was dark and grainy but the person under the hoodie leaving the house of their newest murder victim was Kate, there was no doubt in that.
All eyes slowly settled on Lucy, who let out a small sigh. She hated this.
“Come on guys, it’s not that serious,” she declared loudly. “Is she really pretty? Absolutely. Would I prefer for her not to be a drug smuggling murderer? Totally. But sometimes we can’t have what we want. So, let’s go bring her in, I guess.”
After that, the guys didn’t feel like making any snarky replies anymore.
“That’s not all,” Ernie piped up. “Daniel Miller didn’t show up to work this morning and all his bank accounts have been drained. They might be in on it together.”
The sun was almost fully set by the time they arrived at Kuana Bay.
“It doesn’t make any sense, though,” Lucy thought out loud. “Why would they come back here after the murder when this is the first place we’re gonna be looking for them.
Jesse shrugged as he got out of the car. “Most likely that they stashed something here. Cash, drugs, who knows.”
“Guys, Williams’ apartment is empty,” Jane's voice came through their comms. “And it looks like nobody actually ever lived here.”
Jesse and Lucy shared a look before Jesse responded. “We’re down at the beach now. Coast Guard said they saw someone matching Miller’s description walk through here half an hour ago.
“Alright, check it out, but be careful. Kai and I will be with you soon.”
With their weapons already drawn, Jesse and Lucy quietly made their way down the boardwalk.
“Lucy, you check the boat house, I’ll check the lookout,” Jesse commanded in a low voice.
Lucy nodded, quickly making her way over to the boat house. It wasn’t easy to stay out of sight in this big open area, but the oncoming darkness of the evening gave her some protection.
When she arrived at the boat house, she couldn’t hear any noise from inside. But her plans to enter quietly were crossed by a not very well oiled door. As it swung open, it let out a horrifically loud creak. Two wide, brown eyes instantly fixated on Lucy and the gun she was holding.
There she was in her green hoodie again, hair curly and wild and Lucy would be easily distracted by that if it weren’t for the fact that Kate was also standing over Daniel Miller's lifeless body.
“I can explain,” the blonde said with a shaky voice. Slowly, she raised her hands in the air.
Lucy tightened the grip on her gun and cleared her throat. Apparently sometimes her gut was wrong.
“Turn around slowly and get on the ground!”
“Look, this is not what you think but we don’t have time for this. The Olipo family is on their way here and if we don’t leave now we’re all gonna be dead soon. Miller was on their payroll and-”
“I know,” Lucy interrupted her nervous ramble. “Which is why you're coming with me. Hands behind your head.”
The blonde seemed more and more anxious with every minute.
“You don’t understand, I’m Special Agent Whistler with the FBI and I-.”
“Sure, you can tell your little story during interrogation,” Lucy said, taking a step forward. Although the blonde’s wide eyes were silently pleading with her, she still followed Lucy’s orders, placing her hands behind her head and turning around.
“Suspect in custody,” Lucy announced into her earpiece, once she had cuffed the other woman. But instead of hearing a confirmation from the other side, the sounds of shots fired in the distance interrupted the quiet night. Lucy’s heart began to race.
“We gotta go.”
“I told you!” Kate hissed as she started stumbling forward. “There is a boat dock not far from here, my backup is supposed to be waiting there but I lost my coms in the fight so I can’t contact them.”
Lucy stopped in her tracks, thus making Kate stop too. “Why would I believe you?” she asked calmly but with determination in her voice. Only now she noticed how big their height difference actually was and she wondered if she would have been able to take Kate down if the other woman had put up a fight. She couldn’t help herself as her eyes flickered to Kate’s lips. They were slightly parted and her breathing was heavy and Lucy desperately hoped that she was telling the truth, otherwise she was just setting herself up for more pain.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of Jesse’s frantic voice in Lucy’s ear. “Lucy, where are you? We got ambushed.”
“Still in the boathouse. Dan Miller is dead, I got Kate Williams with me.”
“There are at least two guys headed your way, you need to get out of there now!” Jesse’s agitated voice came through the comms. He usually wasn’t very easily shaken up, always the stoic leader he liked to play when Tennant wasn’t there. So hearing his voice like that made Lucy’s heart pick up speed again. Frantically she looked around the room.
“There is a backdoor that leads down to the shore,” Kate said suddenly.
Lucy could hear in her voice that she was scared too. But it made sense, if the guys headed their way were here to clean up this mess then maybe the blonde was actually safer in custody.
They were quickly running out of time. Due to the lack of other options, Lucy chose to leave out the back like Kate had suggested. Together they stumbled through the chaos of old fishing nets and scrap metal until they arrived at the rusty door. Lucy went out first, making sure nobody could see them. The door led them down even rustier stairs. She was holding onto the railing with one hand and Kate with the other hand, knowing that if needed, she probably wouldn’t be able to draw her gun quickly enough. It was stupid, but she also couldn’t risk her suspect falling on top of her and taking them both down.
“You know we’d have a bigger chance of survival if you would take the cuffs off,” Kate hissed.
“You mean you would have a bigger chance of survival, I don’t know about me.”
“Oh please, as if I’m any danger to you. I want to get out of here just like you do.”
Kate huffed out an annoyed breath as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Behind them, a steep rock wall cut them off from the rest of the beach and in front of them there was nothing but water. Something about the darkness made the ocean appear a hundred times deadlier. Lucy swallowed her fear and took a deep breath before guiding Kate forward. They were lucky that the low tide left just enough room for them to crouch beneath the bottom of the house. It was dark and the wet sandy bottom made their feet sink in as they tried to navigate their way around the stilts of the house.
Suddenly, two voices seemed to be right above them. Lucy came to a halt and Kate bumped right into her. The blonde was about to let out a sound of protest, when Lucy slapped her hand over her mouth. It might have been dark, but Lucy could still make out the other woman’s silhouette. She could feel her hot breath on her hand, the way her body was shaking. They were unbearably close and Lucy felt like she was going to die for a multitude of reasons.
Slowly, she took her hand off of Kate’s mouth, trying to signal her to be quiet.
Above them, the voices were getting louder. The presumably two men were arguing in a language Lucy couldn’t place. It was hard to hear them properly over the sound of the incoming waves. After a few minutes spent hiding underneath the old house. Lucy began to feel the water seep into her boots.
“The tide is coming, we can’t wait. We need to get out of here asap.” The words were whispered into the general direction of Kate’s ear.
“You see the rock formation over there?” Kate whispered back and suddenly her lips were so close to Lucy’s ear that it sent shivers down her spine. She turned around and nodded when she spotted what Kate was talking about. “If we can just get around that, we can get to the docks and we’re out of sight until your backup arrives.”
Lucy hated that idea, but it seemed like they didn't have any other choice. The tide was slowly washing up waves higher on their legs. Suddenly, something brushed past Lucy’s hand and she instantly jumped back, trying to keep herself from screaming out loud.
“It’s okay, it’s just seaweed.”
“This is my worst nightmare,” she muttered under her breath.
Trying to calm her racing heart she took a few deep breaths. She was alone with a potential criminal with two actual criminals on the hunt for them, she couldn’t cry about a piece of seaweed.
“It’s okay, we’re gonna get out of here.”
The calmness of Kate’s voice took Lucy aback but she didn’t have time to linger on it. The steps above them were moving back towards the front of the house just as a cloud pushed itself in front of the moon and the two women silently agreed to use the safety of the darkness to make a run for it. Said run was awkward and slower than they would’ve liked. Lucy not being used to navigate the uneven terrain, especially in the darkness and Kate with her hands still tied behind her back. Somehow, they still made it to the rock formation unseen. Quickly, Lucy navigated Kate around it, glancing back again and again to make sure they weren’t being followed.
“Guys, are you still there?” Lucy said into her earpiece, finally feeling comfortable to speak loudly again. “We made it out of the house, heading down to the docks now.
“Stand tight, Lucy, backup just arrived.”
Lucy let out a heavy breath of relief upon hearing Jane’s voice. They were going to be alright. The two women started walking towards the docks ahead of them. Kate had been awfully quiet the past couple of minutes. Lucy turned towards her but before she could say anything, a bright light flashed directly into her eyes. The blinding surprise almost made Lucy stumble and fall.
“FBI, hands where I can see them!” a deep masculine voice yelled out. There was more shouting in the distance. The sound of guns being drawn made Lucy flinch and oblige instantly.
Slowly trying to blink her eyes open again, she still couldn’t see the man who had just spoken. Around them, there were more people and more shouting.
“NCIS, drop the weapon!” Finally, a familiar voice. Lucy released a shaky breath at the familiar sound of Jesse behind her. She and Kate were still surrounded and it was hard to tell which of the people around her were her guys, but she knew she would be safe.
A man with graying hair and a mustache stepped forward. “Agent Tara, is it?” Lucy nodded as she dropped her hands back to her sides. “If you would be so nice and uncuff my agent.”
Lucy looked over at Kate. In her slightly bloody hoodie and her soaked pants, her hair messier than ever and wearing a smug grin on her face, the blonde simply shrugged.
“Told you I’m FBI.”
The fallout from this was about as chaotic as the entire case. Agent Curtis aka Kate’s FBI boss and Tennant had been fighting in her office for most of the morning and Lucy was quite literally drowning in paperwork.
“Agent Tennant, I told you repeatedly to stay out of this case!”
Agent Curtis was shouting so loudly that the entire office could hear him even through closed doors. Lucy looked up but she couldn’t make out what Tennant was saying to calm him down.
“The identity of my undercover agent was need to know!”
Lucy visibly cringed and tried to tune out of their conversation but it was hard with the way that Agent Curtis was shouting.
“Does anyone else think he’s overreacting a little bit?” Kai asked. “I mean, we got the bad guys and nobody got hurt.”
Jesse loudly cleared his throat, gesturing at the sling around his arm.
“Nobody got seriously injured,” Kai corrected. “You just pulled your shoulder because you’re getting old.”
Of course, Jesse didn’t take that comment lightly. On a normal day, Lucy would’ve loved their bickering. Joined Kai in mocking Jesse even, but she didn’t feel in the mood for it.
About two minutes later, Curtis stormed out of Tennant’s office. Everyone stayed quiet as he rushed past.
“Lucy?” Tennant called, making the agent look back. “In my office please.”
Her head held low, Lucy walked into Tennant’s office. The young agent decided to speak up before Tennant could even open her mouth.
“I just want to say that in my defense, I had no way of knowing that she was telling the truth. She had no credentials and-”
“Lucy, take a breath,” Tennant interrupted her gently. “You’re not in trouble.”
Lucy let out a sigh . “I’m not?”
“No,” Tennant smiled and sat back down on her desk. “You handled the situation appropriately. We might have pissed off some people but nothing I can’t handle.”
Lucy smiled back at Tennant. Her heart instantly felt a lot lighter.
“I wanted you to know that. Now, Special Agent Whistler requested-”
They got interrupted by the sound of stilettos walking towards them and when Lucy turned around, she had to force her chin not to drop open. There was Kate, or Special Agent Whistler apparently, dressed in a navy pantsuit and heels that make her tower over Lucy even more.
“Speaking of which,” Jane said. “Special Agent Whistler, thank you for coming.”
Lucy didn’t fully register what Jane was telling them. She was too distracted by not drooling over herself. It wasn’t like she hadn’t already seen Kate in a swimsuit but this was different. This was powerful. This honestly turned her on a little-”
“Lucy?”
“What?”
Tennant nodded her head towards the blonde agent.
“I just wanted to say that unlike my boss I don’t hold a grudge against you or your team,” Kate said. “And I hope that NCIS and FBI can optimize their work alongside each other in the future so we can avoid this situation happening again.
The blonde held her hand out towards Lucy, which the smaller agent shook after a second of deliberation.
“Uhm, yeah. Agreed.”
Still rattled by the entire situation, Lucy left Tennant’s office. Sitting back at her desk to stare a hole through her screen. The guys were giving her shit again but she was barely listening.
A couple minutes later, Lucy watched the blonde agent leave Tennant’s office and walk towards the elevator. When passing the team, she gave a curt nod, but didn’t stop. Lucy struggled with herself for a second, but she simply couldn’t let Kate leave like that. The guys were watching her cautiously, waiting for a reaction and then started snickering when she got up. It took all of her energy to seem calm as she walked over to Kate.
“So Whistler, can I buy you a drink?” she asked, hoping to sound as casual as possible. “You know, to apologize for arresting you.”
“You don’t have to do that. Like I said, no hard feelings.”
“I know, I know,” Lucy rushed to say “but I want to.”
The blonde raised an eyebrow and Lucy would never ever publicly admit what that did to her. The elevator doors opened but neither of them walked inside.
“A drink sounds nice,” Kate responded after a moment. “Throw in some food and you got yourself a deal.”
“That sounds an awful lot like a date,” Lucy found herself saying. But before she had time to regret it, a smile was already spreading on Kate’s face. Lucy realized that this was probably the first real genuine smile the blonde had directed at her and it made her chest feel warm.
“What a coincidence.”
The elevator doors started to close again but Kate stopped them with her hand and got inside. She looked at Lucy expectantly.
“Give me one second!” Lucy exclaimed, already running back to her desk to grab her keys. The guys, who didn’t even have the audacity to hide that they had been watching the two women, were already throwing comments her way, but Lucy wasn’t listening. She grabbed the stack of paperwork from her desk and dropped it right into Kai’s hands. He barely had time to issue a “What?” before Lucy turned around.
“I’m taking my lunch break now, don’t wait up,” she yelled, already on her way back to the elevator. Kai looked after her, seemingly confused about what was going on and Jesse couldn’t hold back his laugh any longer.
“Is that how you usually treat your colleagues?” Kate asked with a smirk.
“Only when I have something really important going on,” Lucy grinned. “And besides, Kai owes me for the shit I had to take all week.”
“Care to share?” Kate asked with an amused grin.
“That depends on how well this date is gonna go.”
“Well, then I better be on my best behavior.”
They smiled at each other and it made Lucy’s heart skip a beat. She couldn’t wait to meet the real Kate. The elevator doors closed and they were finally on their way.
To Kai’s dismay, Lucy didn’t return to the office that day.
Many hours later, when they kissed under the stars in the parking lot, Lucy smiled to herself.
“I’m really glad you’re not a murderer.”
“Oh yeah? That would’ve been a dealbreaker for you?” Kate asked with a smirk.
“I mean, you’re really hot so I might’ve made an exception.”
The blonde laughed and Lucy pulled her down to taste her smile. It tasted like sunshine and salt and Lucy wasn’t sure if her heart would ever stop racing again.