Work Text:
I.
The situation was quickly escalating. They were on their own, and they were pinned down by their attackers behind a bush, which honestly was not providing much protection or shelter.
“Come on out, there’s no need to hide” Their attackers dragged out the last syllable. Paired with loud cackles, they were the definition of evil maniacs.
Lucy closed her eyes and leaned back towards the bush, trying to catch her breath. She was still recovering from an injury from a different arrest two weeks ago. While this was not an arrest, it was still an all-hands-on-deck type of situation, and with Kate being on the field as well, she just could not say no. A warm hand encircled her right wrist. She opened her eyes and looked to her right. Kate’s eyes were filled with concern.
“I’m good, promise” Lucy flashed her girlfriend a hopefully reassuring smile.
Kate furrowed her brows and gave her wrist a gentle squeeze before letting go. She tried to peek around to reassess their situation, but as soon as her head poked out of the bush, their attackers released another wave of attack.
“Surrender now, Special Agent Whistler”
Lucy breathed out a chuckle. “You really pissed them off, didn’t you”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“You knew exactly what you did” A female voice rang out behind the bush, revealing her location in the field. Lucy took the opportunity to return fire. She quickly ducked back into the bush and reloaded her weapon when Kate swore under her breath.
“What’s wrong” Lucy subconsciously scooted closer to her girlfriend and took a second to take her in.
Kate looked frazzled but still absolutely gorgeous.
There was hair sticking out from her ponytail and plastered onto her forehead.
Her loose white button-down was soaked, revealing the black bra underneath. There were patches of dirt across her denim shorts that were way too short to be appropriate. Or maybe it was because Kate’s legs were ridiculously long. It did not really matter.
All Lucy wanted was to be anywhere else but here so she could do inappropriate things to and with her girlfriend.
“I’m empty” Kate made a show of her weapon.
That was not good. Definitely not good, Lucy thought.
Staying in the bush was not a viable option because they would just be sitting ducks with limited ammo. She could trade weapons with Kate and be bait herself. Or she could tell Kate to stay put and try to take down the two assailants herself. Maybe that would work, but either way, the outlook was not great for the two of them.
As if Kate could sense her negative thoughts, she reached out and put a hand on the brunette’s exposed thigh. It sure did distract Lucy from her somewhat negative and morose thoughts.
There must be something wrong with her brain today. She seemed to be very sensitive to Kate’s touch. Honestly, she might just blame Kate and her stupidly cute and sexy outfit. Every graze of her hand on her arms, back, or legs brought her thoughts to places that were most definitely inappropriate for any type of audience. Let alone a shootout.
Right. Shootout.
Lucy reigned her thoughts back to their situation. She scanned her surroundings and found no abandoned weapons that Kate could maybe pick up. Meanwhile, Kate seemed to have found something useful and motioned her chin towards something just behind Lucy’s shoulder.
They both shared a silent nod. This might work.
“Cover me?”
“Always”
Lucy took a deep breath and raised her weapon as she pivoted out from the bush.
“LET’S CHEW BUBBLEGUM AND KICK ASS!”
“Language!” Jane’s voice rang out from the balcony, and everybody froze for a brief period.
Alex and Julie, both being used to Jane’s yelling voice, recovered much quicker than Lucy and Kate and made a run for the two adults while unloading their water guns at them. In between squeals and laughter, the Tennant siblings were able to wrangle the winner status of this week’s water-gun fight at Tennant’s out of the adults.
II.
Lucy was not sure what to expect when she got a text from Jane saying, “Come pick up Kate” at almost midnight. Well, she was not expecting a text from Jane, at all. When Kate had told her that she was going to have dinner and drinks with Jane at her house, she assumed that she would be staying the night. She even told Kate not to rush and enjoy her time with her friend. So she was surprised, to say the least when Jane’s text came through while she was in the middle of her nighttime routine.
everything alright? She quickly wrote back.
Yeah. Kate just wants to go home.
okay omw
*
“Uh, hello”
“Out here” Lucy followed Jane’s voice out to the balcony.
Jane sat on a single-person rattan chair with her legs tucked underneath her and was nursing a glass of amber liquid, which Lucy presumed was tequila. Kate, on the other hand, was sprawled out on a long bench with a blanket draped around her shoulders. She had a blissed-out smile on her face. Lucy noticed the few empty bottles of wine on the table and lifted her eyebrows. Jane shrugged.
“Kate”
Kate opened her eyes and sat up quickly. Lucy had to hold her shoulders to keep her from swaying too much. “Lucy!”
“Hi”
“Hi,” Kate had a dreamy smile on her beautiful face. Lucy could not help herself but reciprocate the smile. “You’re here”
“I’m here” Lucy carefully combed her fingers through her girlfriend’s blonde hair. Kate seemed to enjoy the action very much. She wrapped her arms loosely behind Lucy’s legs, brought herself closer to the edge of the bench and nuzzled her head into Lucy’s abdomen. “You want to stay here for the night?”
“No,” Kate pressed even further as if she was trying to bury herself in Lucy’s midriff. “Home”
“Okay. Let’s take you home then”
“Okay” Kate lifted her head and rested her chin on Lucy’s chest. Lucy could have sworn that Kate’s smile got even dreamier and softer. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to her girlfriend’s nose, who then scrunched up her nose adorably and giggled. Jane shook her head and hid her smile behind her glass.
Lucy waved at Jane and thanked her, and her boss simply lifted her glass and told them to drive home safely. She managed to get Kate to put on her shoes and walk them to her SUV without much struggle. Before she could open the passenger door, Kate’s warm hand stopped her. She looked up at her girlfriend, and there was a sobering look in her dark brown eyes, a very different look compared to minutes ago when she said “You’re very pretty” while putting on her shoes.
“Love me?”
Lucy blinked at the loaded question. Did she mean Do you love me? Or was it Will you love me? Or was she asking Please love me? She was having trouble trying to decipher Kate’s intoxicated train of thought, but no matter what the question was, it would not change her answer—
“Always”
III.
Lucy had a good feeling about this raid.
Even though the situation was at a stalemate, with poor visibility in the mansion and no visuals on targets at all, not even the flesh wound on her left upper arm, or the two heavy kicks she took earlier, or the broken watch on her wrist could dampen her good feeling. Okay, maybe the watch hurt a little bit because that was Kate’s gift to her a year ago.
“Why are you in a good mood?” Jesse whispered from her left. Lucy just shrugged and checked her weapon.
A faint crackle over their comms gave Jesse the answer he wanted.
“Do you trust me?” Even Jesse, the most senior agent on the field at the moment, looked visibly relieved when the familiar voice of a certain FBI Special Agent came through.
Lucy flashed him a smirk. “Always”
“I have a plan”
The raid went by smoothly, and all suspects were apprehended. Lucy was at the back of the ambulance getting patched up by a paramedic when she found Kate in a crowd of agents and officers. She stood tall, shoulders tense and pulled back, and was speaking with Curtis. Once he seemed satisfied with the debrief, he gave Kate a curt nod and a pat on the shoulder and stepped away to another group of agents.
A sharp pain in her left arm made her look away from Kate and turn to the paramedic who was bandaging her wound. He mumbled an apology and left after briefly explaining wound care procedures. Lucy turned back to the scene and scanned for her very tall and devastatingly-gorgeous-in-work-attire girlfriend. It would seem like Kate was also looking for her because the moment they made eye contact, part of Whistler melted away, and more of Kate surfaced. They might still be navigating PDA, especially at work, but that did not stop Lucy from having a dreamy smile while watching Kate do a mini jog towards her.
“Hi” Kate stopped in front of Lucy, unsure what to do with her hands.
“Hi” Lucy flashed her a dazzling smile, patiently letting Kate guide their interaction in front of their colleagues.
The blonde settled with both her hands on her hips, and Lucy could not help herself but let out an appreciative hum.
“So, uh, are you okay?” Kate managed to choke out a full sentence under Lucy’s teasing smirk.
“Bruises here and there and a flesh wound. Nothing major,” Lucy frowned and brought her left wrist up between them. “My watch is broken though”
Kate caught her wrist and her thumb gently caressing the pulse point. “I’m just glad you’re okay”
“I will always trust you and your plan, but I still can’t believe you asked me to jump off the balcony”
“I believe in your cheerleading skills”
Lucy stood up from the back of the ambulance and dusted off her jeans. She leaned into Kate’s personal space and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“If you want to see me in the outfit, all you have to do is ask”
IV.
Lucy was jostled awake at three in the morning on a random Tuesday. She sat up, reflexively reached for her right hip, and blinked quickly, willing herself to get used to the darkness. With her heightened senses, she could hear erratic heavy breathing and quiet sobs coming from her left. She took a couple of deep breaths trying to calm her own rapidly beating heart. She mentally went over the calendar and did not recognize any specific dates.
Kate did not get nightmares often. They usually happen around his birthday or the date written on his death certificate. There was a brief period after she returned from Venezuela when she had them almost every night, but they came and went.
Lucy felt a clammy hand reaching for her own, so she turned her hand over and gave her fiancée’s hand a gentle squeeze. A sound between a sigh and a louder sob made her hold on a little harder.
Kate did not like to be crowded in situations like these, so Lucy kept a firm hold on her hand and waited. She wanted to move towards the headboard so she could be more comfortable but a tight grip on her hand stopped her.
“I am not going anywhere,” Lucy kept her voice low and calm. “I’m just going to scoot back up a bit. Is that okay?” She did not start moving until she felt the grip loosened.
Lucy was not sure how long they had been sitting in bed in silence. Kate’s breathing had evened out some time ago, but she kept her distance. So Lucy stayed where she was with a thumb gently caressing her knuckles back and forth.
“Lucy”
“Hmm?”
There were some rustling noises and movements from Kate’s side of the bed but Lucy could not make out what she was doing in the dark. When she did not continue the conversation, she gently tugged on Kate’s hand. Kate fell into her arms easily, and she clung on tightly.
“I got you”
If she felt her shirt by her left shoulder was getting damp, she did not comment. They would talk about the nightmares another time. Now she just needed to hold on tightly to the woman with whom she was ready to spend the rest of her life and build a future.
“I’m right here with you. Always”
V.
It was chaos from the beginning.
Lucy did not even know where to start.
All she could feel was that everything hurt.
Judging from the odd sticky sensation from her hairline dripping into her right eye, her head and face were probably bleeding. She could barely hold her head up without feeling nauseous, let alone move.
She could hardly breathe without any pain. She was pretty sure she broke at least three ribs, and there were definitely shrapnels embedded in her side.
She could not hear anything apart from a constant ringing after a stun grenade went off close to her a while ago. Her vision was blurry and still flashing because of it.
Her right ankle was most definitely broken. Every time she tried to put weight on that leg to stand up, she fell right back on her butt. The last time she tried and failed nearly sent her unconscious because of the pain generated from all the jostling.
On top of it all, she was tired.
She just wanted to close her eyes and rest.
But she knew that she could not, not just yet. Nicole, one of Kate’s teammates, was still lying behind her, barely conscious. Lucy firmly gripped onto her shirt and bulletproof vest. She had not had a chance to assess her injuries yet. All she was focused on was staying close to Nicole and keeping her safe from any more injuries.
She could not rest yet, not until she could get her back to Kate and her team.
“Hey, keep your eyes open, ” Lucy tried. She felt some movements under the vest. “Kate will be pissed at me if you don’t go home alive”
Her ears kept ringing.
Maybe if she could just close her eyes for a little bit…
All of sudden, she saw shadows out of the corner of her eye. Then the next thing she felt was Nicole’s body being pulled away from her. She tightened the grip on her vest and raised her other arm attempting to shoot at whoever it was. She clearly was not quick enough because a soft but firm hand held the gun in her hand and pushed it down, and another was holding her hand on Nicole’s vest. Lucy could not make out what the person was saying or what she looked like. But she managed to catch a whiff of a familiar perfume mixed in with sweat and gunpowder.
“…Kate” Lucy relaxed and let go.
Let go of Nicole’s vest.
Let go of her gun.
Let go of the pain and the ringing.
And just let herself fall forward to that familiar scent.
“Stay with me, Special Agent Tara”
“…always”
That was the last thing she remembered before darkness took over.
+1
A full body CT scan, a total of twenty-five stitches, an ankle surgery, a leg cast and many bandages later, Lucy was finally allowed visitors. The guys had been by with snacks. Ernie brought her a tablet so they could communicate because her hearing had not fully recovered yet. Jane had also stopped by with an update. They managed to arrest everybody involved, recovered lost weapons and closed the case with FBI. Just like that. It seemed all very anticlimactic given the extent of injuries Lucy and Nicole sustained.
It was another twenty-four hours before Kate appeared at the hospital. She arrived just as the nurse was leaving after changing Lucy’s dressings. The blonde stayed by the door even after the nurse had left. Lucy looked at her curiously.
“Are you going to stand there all day?” Kate winced at the loud volume, and Lucy immediately shot her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, it’s still kinda muffled”
Kate slowly walked towards her left side and gently sat down next to her leg.
“Can you hear me?”
“Hmm”
They fell into silence. Kate was staring a hole into the bedsheet by Lucy’s elbow while mindlessly playing with the silicone ring on her left ring finger, and Lucy was staring at her, unsure what to say.
I’m fine Kate? The stitches and the cast clearly stated otherwise. Nothing about this was fine.
They were together, officially counting from that night in Tennant’s backyard, for four years, and married for two. They both were able to avoid any massive injuries in the field for that whole duration. Sure, there were some bruises and maybe broken bones, but never to this extent where one found the other unconscious, not since Medina. So Lucy let Kate sit by her side in silence and let her process what must have been a scary experience.
Lucy lifted her left hand up and all she found was a faint tan line along the base of the ring finger. That action had apparently caught Kate’s attention.
“Your silicone one was broken when I found you”
“Oh” Lucy then tried to reach for her neck around the collar of the hospital gown.
“They took it off before they took you into the scanner”
With that, Lucy clasped both her hands on her lap. She felt…unsettled. She always had her ring on. When she was on the field, she would swap it for a silicone ring, and wear her wedding band on a silver chain that Kate got shortly after the wedding. The ring grounded her and served as a reminder that she had somebody to go home to. Now she did not have any of her rings. There must be some kind of symbolism somewhere in this, but she was too battered and bruised to analyze it.
“How’s Nicole?”
Kate blinked at the sudden change of topic.
“She’s doing well, relatively. A quite bad head injury and some bruises, but they’re looking at discharge in the next 24 hours”
“Good, good”
“Thank you for staying by her”
“You’d do the same for our guys”
Silence, again. Lucy continued to rub the space where her ring once sat in a twisting motion. A warm hand stopped her mindless movements. She looked up from her hands and Kate flashed her a tentative smile. If she noticed a familiar silver chain and a ring around Kate’s neck, she did not comment.
“I have it”
“What?”
Kate held onto Lucy’s hands with her left hand. Her other hand reached into her blazer’s inner pocket and pulled out her chain with her ring. Lucy looked visibly relieved.
“I thought I’d lost it”
“Jane came in with you. They gave it to her, and she gave it to me” Kate toyed with it in her palm. “...Can I?”
“Yes, please”
Kate carefully unclasped the necklace and took the ring off it. She held the ring in her hand for a brief moment, then she picked up Lucy’s left hand and gently slid the ring onto the fourth finger. The wedding band was a simple two-toned gold ring with a thick band of brushed platinum. The inside of the ring was engraved with a word of each other’s choosing. Kate has chosen the word “Home” for Lucy’s ring. She had said during her proposal that Lucy had changed how Hawai’i was for her, how she had found a family, and how she had found her home in Lucy. She had then expressed similar feelings in her wedding vows. Lucy had reassured her that the feeling was mutual, but it was not until now that she understood the extent of that feeling. The moment the ring was back on her finger, she felt a sense of familiarity, like returning from a four-month-long assignment floating in a boat in the middle of the ocean to her then-girlfriend-now-wife’s embrace, like coming home.
Kate leaned forward, mindful of Lucy’s injuries, and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.
“Thank you, for coming home to me”
Lucy caught herself before blurting out her response, so she placed her forehead against Kate’s instead. She knew that Kate understood what she would have said if it was almost any other scenario. She could not promise her wife something that she herself was not absolutely sure that she could deliver. It would not be fair to either of them. The old Whistler might have been able to deal with the fallout from a failed promise, but the woman sitting in front of her was her wife. Not FBI Special Agent Whistler. Not FBI-NCIS liaison Kate. Not Katie with the feds. She might be dressed in her best pantsuit in a hospital, but she was just Kate, her wife.
Kate pulled away from their shared space with unshed tears in her eyes. She reached behind her neck and unclasped her silver chain. She let the ring roll onto her right palm. Lucy watched her caress the inside of her ring with an indecipherable expression. Her thumb passed back and forth across the six-letter word that Lucy chose.
“...Will you?” Kate offered her ring, and Lucy silently plucked the ring out of her fingers.
Lucy wondered briefly if she should still make some form of a promise, but she quickly abandoned the idea because it would not be genuine. She would be saying it for the sake of saying it, and she knew Kate would see right through it. She signed up for every training opportunity Jane sent her to improve her skills on the field. She participated in joint interagency simulations whenever she could. She even signed up for swimming lessons, even though she had only been twice, but she has been working on it. She made sure to double-check her weapon and equipment, and to always wait for backup. She did not need a promise to do her best to come home. She did it because she wanted to.
Lucy slid the silicone ring off of her wife’s finger and exchanged it for the wedding band. She brought the hand towards her lips and pressed a gentle kiss to the ring.
“I love you, Kate Whistler”
Kate let out a watery laugh and responded with a big squeeze of Lucy’s hand. Their rings somehow ended up clanging together.
“I love you too, Lucy Tara”
+2
“Do you think this is going to scar?” Lucy pointed towards the two stitches across her right eyebrow.
“Why?” Kate peeled open a small tub of red jelly that she had taken from Lucy’s tray table.
“Because it might give me an eyebrow slit, and you know that it’s a big hit with the ladies”
“So what, you can charm the nurses?”
“How else do you think I get an extra jelly?” Lucy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and Kate laughed heartily.
“Shut up and eat your food”