Chapter 3
“So.” Ernie says, still a bit confused. “You and Whistler are dating.”
“No. Whistler and I are not dating.” Lucy says, frustrated because she can tell Ernie isn’t fully listening to her. They are in Ernie’s lair and he is doing something on his computer, working on the case that Lucy is also supposed to be working on. It’s Wednesday. Grace and her fiancé just got to the island yesterday and needed a night to settle in. So tonight is the night. The first test of hopefully not many. Lucy has spent the entire beginning of the week thinking about tonight. Not able to shake the swirling thoughts about the evening and what could go wrong. “Fake dating. You know, like the Proposal?”
“Oh.” Ernie looks up from his computer and smirks at her. Lucy is used to his playfulness when it comes to her dating life. She usually reluctantly spills everything to Ernie after some coercion on his side. His dating life is also a mess, a surprise to no one, so they both take comfort in the fact that they can share this with each other. Except, this time is different. So very different. Kate is a coworker, technically speaking. And they aren’t dating. “So you’re going full romcom.”
“I mean I guess.” Lucy says reluctantly. “But, like without the falling in love at the end. That will not be happening. I mean me and Whistler, can you imagine?”
“Okay.” Ernie says, drawing it out and shrugging his shoulders. “If you say so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucy spits out, somewhat offended. In what world could her and Whistler dating make sense? Lucy is somewhat taken aback by Ernie’s unwillingness to believe her when she says they aren’t going on a real date.
“Well.” Ernie starts. “Why did you even say yes in the first place? It’s not like you’re even getting anything in return.”
Lucy thinks about this. Why did she say yes? Sure, in the moment she felt like she wanted to help Kate, take away that sad look in her eyes, but past that Lucy’s not really sure why.
Yes Lucy would consider herself a nice person and one who helps out her friends. But, Kate and her aren’t friends, not really. Besides that one night at the bar they have never really had a real conversation outside of work.
She purses her lips and makes eye contact with Ernie, who is already looking straight at her. He looks so casual about the situation and Lucy wishes she felt the same. Everything suddenly becoming much more complicated and they haven’t even gotten to the actual fake dating part.
“Mmm. I don’t know.” Lucy settles on, not wanting to divulge all of her inner thoughts to Ernie. “I’m just a nice person I guess.”
Ernie doesn’t answer, so Lucy assumes he accepts this statement. She awkwardly waits in front of Ernie’s desk while he types one last thing on his computer.
“Thanks.” Ernie says, looking up at her.
“For what?” Lucy has no idea why he is thanking her. Come to think of it, she should be thanking him.
“Talking. Rambling. Whatever you want to call it.” Ernie explains. “Calms me down, helped me figure out the link between Petty Officer Collins and the shipyard. You know the case we have been working on all day?”
“No, no.” Lucy says. “I knew that. That’s why I kept talking. You know to help ya out.”
“Right.” Ernie smirks. He gets up and Lucy feels a strong hand come to her shoulder. Ernie gives it a pat before heading for the door, on his way to inform Tennant and the rest of the team about his discovery.
_______
Lucy is packing up her things as she hears the door to the bullpen open. The bullpen is empty besides her, so the opening of the door makes a loud sound in the otherwise silent room. Everyone else has left already, but she was left to work on some paperwork. Have to do that after you catch the bad guys. And thankfully they did. So Lucy doesn’t mind the paperwork every once and awhile if that means a win for the good guys.
Hearing the footsteps get closer and closer, she decides to look up and her eyes are met with Kate’s. They’re softer than her normal look, most definitely usually staring Lucy down.
“You ready?” Kate asks, approaching Lucy’s desk. Kate fidgets with the loose pens on her desk while she puts her water bottle in the side pocket of her backpack.
“Yup.” Lucy replies. Still finding it weird that she and Kate are just sharing a casual moment together. “Sorry I didn’t have time to go home and change first.”
“Oh totally fine. You look great.” Kate says. Lucy flutters her eyes and feels heat rush to her cheeks as she watches Kate’s eyes comb the length of her body.
“Really?” She looks down at her own outfit, a pair of gray jeans and a somewhat nice orange and white patterned blouse before drawing her eyes up and down Kate's outfit. She’s wearing a fitted skirt and a nice work appropriate tank top that Lucy can’t help but notice suits her well.
“I mean uh, it makes sense that we both came straight from work and are uh still wearing our work clothes.” Kate struggles to come up with. Lucy laughs to herself, noticing the panic in Kate's eyes and secretly loving that she did that to her. “Okay, yeah so let’s get going. They are meeting us at the restaurant.”
They walk to Kate’s car in silence so she can drive them over to the restaurant. It’s a nice night. Not too hot nor too cool. Lucy wonders if they will be sitting outside tonight. She hopes they do. She works a lot so a nice night out at a restaurant is not a given, especially given her single status at the moment. So she'll take it.
Once they are in the car, Lucy nervously taps her fingers on her leg.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She isn’t sure what to expect. Kate said it would be lowkey, just a dinner, but she wasn’t sure what would happen after or even the remainder of the week that Grace and her fiancé will be here.
Lucy tries to remind herself that this will be just like an undercover assignment. Nothing more than practice for the real thing. The lying she will be okay with if this is how she looks at the situation. But the rest? She’s not sure how this will change things between her and Kate and if she even wants them to.
“So you ready?” Kate asks her, breaking the so far silent car ride to the restaurant.
“Yeah.” Lucy nods her head. “I think so.”
“Okay.” Kate pauses. “It will be good.”
“Yup.” By the look on Kate's face she’s not so sure Kate is quite convinced herself. Her eyes are still soft, but there’s a tightness in her face that Lucy can’t help but notice. Nerves. The same nerves Lucy is feeling at this very moment.
They fall silent for the rest of the ride, not wanting to waste the small talk they will have to surely do at the restaurant.
They arrive shortly after and Kate parks the car before they both head over to the patio.
“As I live and breathe. Kate Whistler.” Both their heads perk up at the sound of Kate's name. Lucy assumes that the voice belongs to Grace, Kate's friend.
Grace and her fiancé are sitting on the patio, occupying two of the chairs at a table for four. Grace is wearing a simple flowy white sundress, perfectly contrasting her light brown hair. Her fiancé is sporting a pair of tan khakis and a matching white shirt. They both look like typical tourists and Lucy has to hold in a giggle. From the looks of it, they both already got some of that crisp Hawaiian sun, further placing them into the tourist category. They’re a cute couple though, so far from her observations. Lucy sucks in a breath preparing to be her extraverted self.
They make their way up the stairs and onto the patio. Lucy feels Kate lightly place her hand on the small of her back, leading her up the steps. It’s light. Kate’s fingers just barely grazing her body, but Lucy feels chills travel through her. She tries to ignore them, focusing on the task ahead of them. Successfully proving to Kate’s friends that they are dating.
“Whistler.” Grace says, pulling Kate into a hug, and Lucy finds herself instantly missing the contact of Kate’s hand on her back. She watches them embrace and finds herself holding in a laugh. It’s funny to think that even Kate’s friends from college call her Whistler. “It’s good to see you. It’s been so long.”
“It’s good to see you too.” Kate wraps her arms around Grace and settles into the hug. Lucy finds this amusing, as she’s never seen Kate show much affection, let alone give someone a hug. She watches the exchange. Very interested in seeing this side of Whistler. Lucy wonders how much she really doesn’t know about Kate and how much she is going to discover.
“And Kate, you remember Luke.” Grace says as her fiancé Luke rises from his seat and pulls Kate into a hug.
“Kate.” Luke says as they embrace. “Long time no see.”
“No kidding.” Kate laughs. She seems relaxed, playful, happy even. Something so contrasting to the Whistler she knows at work. “I can’t believe you’re getting married to this frat boy, Grace.”
“Hey we’re all a long time away from that life.” Grave quips back, placing her hand onto Luke’s shoulder.
“You’re right about that.” Kate says, pulling away from the hug, turning toward Lucy. “This is my girlfriend Lucy. Lucy, Grace and Luke.” Kate says gesturing between the two. Lucy smiles and feels her body relax feeling more comfortable as they get past the introductory stage of the night.
“Nice to meet you both.” Lucy reaches out her hand to shake both of theirs, but instead finds herself being pulled into a hug by Grace. She laughs into the hug and pulls her own arms around Grace.
“Sorry I’m a hugger.” Grace says into the hug. Lucy is already starting to feel more comfortable. A good sign for the long night ahead of them.
Eventually they are all seated and find themselves with drinks in front of them. Grace took the honor of ordering them all a beach themed cocktail. It’s more fruity than Lucy usually prefers, but she will admit it’s pretty good.
The waiter comes around and takes their orders. Now they are free to catch up with minimal distractions until their food arrives. Lucy feels her stomach grubble. She got so caught up in the case today that she forgot to make time to eat lunch. Hopefully the food comes sooner rather than later because the drink on little food is already making her head a little fuzzy and she needs to stay focused.
She mainly listens as Grace, Luke, and Kate catch up on the years they haven’t seen each other. The conversation is simple, nothing too deep, just old friends catching up. They talk about grad school and work. Who from their sorority has gotten married or has had kids. Lucy chimes in every once and awhile to offer something about herself or reiterate how crazy it is that time has gone so fast since college life. They seem nice. Lucy likes them and clearly they both care about Kate.
They talk about Lucy’s work as an NCIS agent and Kate’s as a DIA officer. The couple is incredibly interested in what they both deal with on a day to day basis, nodding in awe as Lucy talks about the case she worked on today. Something so contrasting to Grace’s corporate marketing job and Luke’s work in software engineering.
“Wait Luke you did what?” Lucy joins back into the conversation. They are telling her about how Grace and Luke met in college. Apparently they were randomly set up as beer pong partners sophomore year. Grace got so competitive during the game that she started nagging at Luke so much that he took one of the red solo cups and dumped the whole cup of beer on Grace's head before walking away. “I can’t believe you did that and she still fell in love with you.”
“Me too. But, you should have seen the wild look in her eyes.” Grace slaps Luke in the arm lightly with a fake angry look on her face, but isn’t able to contain it before laughing. “I mean it took awhile for the falling in love part, but we got there.”
“Now I understand the competitiveness.” Lucy says out loud before thinking. Kate whips her head towards Lucy. She frantically tries to clarify what she meant, hoping Grace didn’t take anything strange away from her comment, maybe jeopardizing their cover. “I mean, Kate just mentioned that you and her were sort of competitive in college.”
“Yup, I guess we were.” Grace replies and Lucy lets out the breath she was holding, their cover safe. “Thankfully we both found people to balance us out.”
Grace leans over and sweetly kisses Luke on the cheek. Lucy watches them and finds herself secretly hoping for something like they have. There's something so endearing about still being able to make each other laugh and joke around after all of these years they have been together. The couple smiles at each other briefly before turning back towards Kate and Lucy.
“So.” Grace knowingly smiles at them. Her fingers pointing between Kate and Lucy. Lucy braces herself for the real act. She knows they are about to get drilled with questions. She sucks in a breath. “How did you two lovebirds fall in love?”
“Well, we, uh.” Kate stumbles over her words. She turns towards Lucy and Lucy lifts her head up to meet Kate’s eyes, offering her a smile, nodding for her to continue. Kate relaxes at this gesture and Lucy finds it a little bit odd that she was able to relax Kate. “Nothing special.”
Lucy puts her hand to her head. Is Kate trying to spoil this? If this is going to work, they need pizazz and romance. Not a boring old, ‘nothing special.’
Oh gosh, Lucy thinks. Kate is going to ruin the perfect ‘meet cute’ story of her creation and make it seem like some business deal.
Lucy eyes Kate subtly. She looks like she’s about to shit herself and that’s Lucy putting it nicely. Without causing too much suspicion, she shifts her gaze in the direction of Grace and Luke. They don’t seem like they aren’t buying it which is good, rather they seem like they are trying to listen to someone tell a really bad story, one that bounces all over the place and doesn’t seem to make sense. In reality, Lucy should have expected this from Kate, but she didn’t think it would be this bad.
“We, uh, met at this bar near Lucy’s place.” Kate struggles. “It was right before I started work, so we hadn’t met yet. And I looked over and uh saw this cute woman and we talked, and… and we didn’t want to date. We thought it might look bad, so we uh, didn’t. But, we couldn’t help it, so here we are.”
Oh my.
Kate is really not good at this. Worse than that she’s terrible. Who would have thought the DIA officer who protects secrets for a living can’t lie about a fake relationship to save her life. Lucy catches herself just as she is about to let out a laugh. She covers her mouth to not reveal the impending smile that threatens to escape her lips.
Kate looks down at her, fear in her eyes. She tries to shake it off with a smile, but this makes Lucy want to laugh even more, so she breaks her gaze and turns towards Grace and Luke.
Before Kate can ruin this anymore, Lucy swoops in.
“And this is why I usually tell the story, babe.” Lucy leaps right into it with a laugh, like a comedy bit they planned all along. She sees Grace and Luke take the bait, laughing naturally. Lucy feels Kate’s shoulders relax beside her as she lets out a relieved breath.
“She always tells it so serious, like we didn’t go back to my place and…” fuck. Nope not that. Lucy’s pulse quickens at the thought of Kate in her bed. Her blonde hair— nope. Lucy chooses her words carefully, “...not sleep for an entire night.”
She throws her arm around Kate for good measure and leans her head onto Kate’s shoulder for a moment. Grace and Luke carefully study them, watching their interaction before smiling at them and Lucy is pleased with herself. Lucy looks over at Kate and her face is bright red, but there is also something else there that Lucy can’t quite put a finger on.
“And you know there are perks of living in Hawaii.” Grace’s eyes dance in wonder of what Lucy is going to say next. She can’t help but admit she is loving this. She feels like she is putting on a show. And Lucy guesses that is exactly what she is doing. “You get to say I love you for the first time somewhere incredibly beautiful. Almost as beautiful as my Kate over here.”
Lucy has them by the tail, begging for more information. Especially given how Kate’s previous story was, well, lackluster, to put it nicely. However, she can feel Kate's gaze burning a hole against her cheek after Lucy’s prior remark and it takes all she has not to look back at her because she thinks she would melt on the spot. Fake dating be gone.
“We were finally official, as the kids say these days, and after months of secret dating and less than work appropriate conversations and activities, we went out on a date in public. Something romantic that didn’t involve being inside because we spent way too much time cooped up inside, hiding away from the rest of the world. So we agreed on a romantic hike to Waimano Falls. Except of course it didn’t go as planned.”
Lucy is rewarded with a round of laughs from the table and she smiles to herself in victory. “So, after a tougher and muddier hike than we expected, we were almost to the waterfall and of course my clumsy self fell flat on my ass in the mud. Covered. Literally head to toe. And Kate here reaches down to help me up and I pull her down with me.”
Lucy can still feel Kate staring at her and she needs to stop. Lucy can only see her face from the side of her eye, but she knows it is intense enough to make her fall to her knees. The alcohol that is in her system is not helping either. Focus Lucy. “So there we are, covered in mud in front of a beautiful waterfall and then it just happens. I don’t know who said it first, I think we said it at the same time to be honest, but yeah.”
“And then they lived happily ever after.” Lucy added jokingly. This earns playful claps from Grace and Luke. But, Lucy isn’t focused on that anymore. She’s focused on the fact that Kate hasn’t taken her eyes off of her.
She feels Kate begin to close the space between them. Her lips coming to a halt on Lucy’s cheek and placing a light kiss. Lucy feels her body heat rise and focuses all of her attention on Grace and Luke, rather than Kate.
Kate’s lips leave Lucy’s cheek and the spot burns where her lips were just a second ago. Kate moves her hand and places it on top of Lucy’s on the table before moving her lips to Lucy’s ear, a whisper escaping her lips. “You read the note cards.”
“Mmm hmm.” Lucy is able to get out. “Of course I did.”
Holy shit. That was intense.
Kate moves back into her own space and Lucy is thankful that the waiter arrives with their food. She lets out a staggered breath. Who knew that studying up on some little notecards would turn Kate into that.
Lucy focuses on her food, a willing distraction, to whatever just happened between her and Kate. Thankfully, between bites of food, the rest of the dinner is mostly spent on small talk and other nonchalant things, and not their fake relationship.
“So how about you guy’s come spend the weekend at the resort with us?” Kate and Lucy both freeze. They are parting ways with the couple for the night, when Grace’s proposition stops them in their tracks.
“You guys have the weekend off right?” Grace must have noticed their aversion to the question. “We have a whole villa to ourselves. It has an extra bedroom and it’s too beautiful not to share.”
“We do. But, I mean I’ll miss my Saturday morning surf.” Kate offers. Lucy tries to hide her surprise. She’s supposed to know this stuff, so she can’t be going around being surprised that Kate can surf. Or more importantly surfs every Saturday. She makes a mental note to ask Kate about it later. She should really know more about Kate anyways, especially given the fact that she already knows a lot more about Lucy. “And don’t you guys want to have the place for yourself? It’s your vacation.”
“Come on Kate.” Grace places both her arms on Kate’s shoulders and shakes them playfully. “Please. We’ll have enough alone time during the week. It will be fun anyways.”
“Um.” Kate considers. Lucy isn’t really sure what she wants Kate to say, but it’s too late because Kate is already agreeing. “Sure. Okay fine, we’re in.”
_______
There’s a high tide tonight, so Lucy walks on Kate’s left, furthest away from the ocean, struggling not to cringe every time the water brushes over her toes. Apart from that, it is a gorgeous night. Not too cool that the slight breeze in the air feels nice. They opted for a short walk across the beach near the restaurant to debrief, before Kate drives Lucy back to her car so they can both part ways for the night. They briefly chat about how the night went and how to prepare for the weekend with Grace and Luke while at the same time avoiding the fact that they will be sharing a bedroom all weekend. Just the thought of it makes Lucy’s pulse quicken.
“You were amazing.” Kate beams. They both agree it went better than expected, given the rocky start. But the idea of spending a whole weekend with them, a little absurd if you ask Lucy. But, in the moment Kate panicked and said yes, so Lucy finds herself needing to prepare for a whole weekend away with the couple. She thinks it will be fun though, despite the idea of having to lie for a whole weekend, not so fun. There’s also the whole thing that happened between her and Kate at dinner, but Lucy can’t think about that right now. Not with Kate standing inches from her. “I mean the way you just jumped in and started telling the stories like they actually happened.”
“Well someone had to.” Lucy glances over at Kate, searching her eyes for a reaction. Lucy gets one as Kate’s eyes go wide before she shyly looks off towards the ocean. “Kate, you were terrible. I thought discretion was your jam.”
“I… Well, work stuff is different.” Kate pauses and makes eye contact with Lucy. “That’s easy. It’s what I’m good at.”
A large wave comes crashing into shore and Lucy flinches, interrupting their conversation.
“Wait, are you…” Kate uses her right hand to brush away a wisp of her blond hair, clearly noticing Lucy’s aversion to the big body of water they are currently walking next to. “...afraid of the ocean?”
“I was trying to make it less obvious.” Lucy says in defeat. “But, yes I am.”
“So that’s what the scrappy NCIS agent is afraid of.” Kate smiles, pleased with herself. “You, who works for the Navy and lives on an island surrounded by water, is afraid of the ocean?”
“Yes.” Lucy mumbles, looking up at Kate, who is already looking down at her. She gets this question far too often and rightfully so, given her current situation. “I know it’s stupid.”
“Why are you?” Kate questions, bumping her side against Lucy’s small frame playfully. “Afraid I mean. If you don’t mind me asking?”
“No, yeah. I don’t mind.” Lucy frees her gaze from Kate’s and looks ahead at the beach while they continue walking. Normally she would just laugh it off or make up something about being scared of it as a kid, but something makes her want to be more honest with Kate. “It’s kind of hard to explain. I think it has more to do with the immensity of it than anything else. Of course I’m still afraid of all the normal things like the creatures in the deep depths of the ocean, but the idea that it’s so large and we haven’t even discovered most of it scares me.”
“I don’t know.” Lucy laughs. “Maybe a therapist would say there’s something more to that, but I don’t know.”
Lucy turns towards a nodding Kate. She doesn’t say anything else though, rather just taking in what Lucy said. Her eyes staring ahead focused. It’s funny seeing this side of Kate. Totally different than the Whistler at work. She’s more relaxed, softer. Someone that Lucy is comfortable enough to open up to about her greatest fear. Her idea that there is something more to Kate Whistler than meets the eye is proving to be true thus far.
Lucy’s thoughts from before about how things will change after this rings in her ears, but she ignores it. She likes this side of Kate and wants to stay present in this moment on the beach with her. Not coworkers. Not fake girlfriends. Just the real Lucy and Kate.
“What are you afraid of?” Lucy asks, looking up at Kate and being met by a pair of brown eyes. She watches Kate's eyes dart around and she takes a breath before answering.
“If you want me to be honest…”
“Please.” Lucy offers a small smile. Kate smiles back before hiding it.
“I guess I’m afraid of being close to someone again.” Kate says shyly, not able to look Lucy in the eyes. “Something happened a while ago and I kind of shut myself off.”
“It wasn’t on purpose at first.” Kate continues. “But, eventually it just became my new normal. Like I couldn’t stop. And now I’m not really sure I even know how to anymore.”
Kate finishes and lets out a staggered breath. Lucy’s heart breaks. She is thankful Kate felt comfortable enough to open up her own fears. Yes, things have definitely changed. Lucy is sure of it now. It’s one thing to interact with someone and not know why they are the way they are because everyone is going through their own shit. But, once you know that shit, well that changes your relationship.
Now all Lucy wants to do is hug Kate and tell her she’s sorry for whatever shitty thing she may have said in the past about her being uptight or a robot or not human.
From what she can piece together she thinks she knows what happened in Kate’s life to make her feel this way, but she doesn’t push. Kate will tell her when she’s ready.
They both stop walking and Lucy turns so she is facing Kate. She reaches out her hand and grabs ahold of Kate’s. She takes a moment to study the feel of Kate’s hand. It’s softer than her own Lucy discovers, while tracing circles with her thumb. She decides at this moment that she likes the feel of Kate’s hand in hers. Likes how it makes her feel safe. Makes her feel warm. Kate looks up at her unexpectedly before shifting her eyes back down and studying her feet in the sand.
“Kate. I…” Lucy hesitates. “I’m sorry.”
Kate lifts her chin up and gives Lucy a soft smile. They stand like that for a moment, Lucy’s hand in Kate’s, looking into each other's eyes. Lucy isn’t sure who leans in first, nor does she care, but someone leans in and Lucy’s lips are inches from Kate’s.
She feels her heart beating in her chest and hopes Kate can’t hear it. Can’t sense how nervous she is. Just before their lips meet, Kate’s phone goes off. They jolt their heads away from each other quickly. Awkwardly looking around at anything but each other.
“Grace said thanks for a good night and that she can’t wait to see us on Friday at the resort.” Kate says, pulling out her phone and reading the text aloud. Very serious, almost professional. Any sign of the Kate from a minute ago is gone, almost like Lucy imagined the whole thing.
“So we should probably head back. Get some good sleep this week before getting back to the undercover mission.” Kate says, using air quotes around ‘undercover mission.’
“Yes. Sounds like a plan.” Lucy says with little emotion and is not quite able to meet Kate's eyes.
Lucy tries to keep in mind everything they just talked about and why Kate is the way that she is, but she is instead annoyed at her complete need to stay so strict.
And just like that they are the scrappy NCIS agent and the annoying woman from DIA, not just two people on a beach who almost just kissed.
Great. This weekend is going to be fun, Lucy thinks.