Temperance X Jimmy

Man makes plans and God laughs. - Anonymous

"You work with my sister, don't you?"

Jimmy Palmer looks up from his coffee cup, into which he had been staring for the last couple of minutes. He had been appalled to see the wounds and welts on Joy's body, and seeing the vital blood slowly pooling under the agent as the EMTs frantically tried to save her life had forced him to realize how human life was fragile.

He looks at the stranger who is speaking, and sees that it is the youngest Buchanan sister. He can't remember her name.

"Yes, I do, but I'm not really that close to her," she sits by his side at the table in the hospital cafeteria, "as she usually interacts more with Dr. Mallard than with me."

She nods, "she thinks the world of you guys, the first time she called me after she moved to DC, maybe one month after she left home, she spent at least fifteen minutes describing each one of the team." She smiles, remembering her sister's enthusiasm, "I was glad to hear her excited about something again."

"Yeah," he says, looking at the good looking woman by his side. He stretches his hand, "I'm James Palmer, but everybody calls me Jimmy."

"Oh gosh," she blushes prettily, embarrassed at her own faux pas, and takes his hand and shakes it firmly, "I'm Temperance Buchanan, but everybody calls me Temp."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

They stay in silence after letting go of each other's hands, each one glancing at the other briefly and back to the table.

"Did you have the chance to see her?" Temp asks softly, and Jimmy looks at her heartbroken, "I mean, when they brought her in. I have the impression you were in the helicopter that flew her here. So…" Jimmy looks sadly at her, and she sighs, "please tell me the truth, how badly hurt was she?"

"Ah…" he frowns his forehead, thinking fast. How could he describe the gruesome pattern of bruises on Agent Buchanan's body to her little sister? He looks at her again, and her violet eyes are begging him to tell the truth. "She looked bad. Really bad. I initially thought that she was dead, but the continuous bleeding indicated that her heart was at least beating, I just wasn't sure for how long."

Temp lowers her head to her chest, and Jimmy feels like an ogre.

"I shouldn't have said that, listen I'm sure she will get better…"he says, but Temp interrupts him.

"Sometimes I wonder if I can handle all this." He stops, and Temperance looks at him heartbroken, "I joined the FBI training but my heart isn't really into it. I'm proud of my sisters' achievements, Faith is a Section Chief, Hope is one their greatest gadget inventors, and Grace works in the Missing Persons unit in Utah, but…" she shakes her head, "I really don't know if I will fit in, if I can handle the dangers and the price they pay for what they do."

She looks at this gentle stranger, and sees only compassion behind his wire rimmed eyes.

"Joy has always been different from us. It was almost as she was… on a quest. Since she was a teenager, everything she's ever studied, everything she's ever done was with the purpose of becoming an FBI agent. She always knew she would become a profiler."

She looks down and stares at her own pale hands, "I don't have that same conviction."

Jimmy looks at the young lady sitting by his side, pouring her heart out to him, a perfect stranger, connected only by the feeble existence of the agent currently in the ICU.

He covers her twisting hands with one of his, stilling their anxious movements. She looks at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sure that your sisters, at some point of their journey, had the same doubts you are having now. But they didn't give up, they kept pushing through and became great agents. I don't know about the others, but I can affirm that Agent Buchanan, I mean, Joy, is one of the finest agents I ever had the pleasure to work with. She always treated me kindly, and never belittled me if I said something wrong or improper, which I tend to do a lot," that brings a faint smile to Temp's face, "but… what I'm trying to say is, that one day, you will see that your doubts were nothing, and that whatever price you have to pay is worthwhile because it is a meaningful job, because you can save lives," he gulps, and releases her hand, "or at the very least, bring justice to those who had lost theirs."

She studies his face, and notices for the first time what a good looking man is before her. His face is framed by black curls, and the glasses just added personality to his fine face. His eyes were full of compassion, and he wasn't that hard to look at. She smiles at him, a sincere smile, and Jimmy gulps as he feels the full impact of the Buchanan charm on him.

"You are a good man, Jimmy," she says sincerely, "thanks for talking with me, and I apologize for dumping all that on you," she blushes prettily again, and Jimmy is charmed.

"No problem and no need to apologize," he says,"I was glad to help."

"What do you do in NCIS?"

"Ah, I…" he looks at her and he's initially afraid that his activity will put her off, but he decides to say the truth, "I'm an M.E. assistant."

"Oh, so you work in the morgue with the Doctor with a funny name?" she says smiling at him, not grossed out at all.

"Yes, I work with Dr. Mallard, but everybody just calls him Ducky."

She laughs a little, remembering her sister's confusion, "at first, Joy thought it was a prank, after all, what kind of self-respecting doctor would accept being named Ducky?" she smiles at the memory, "later on she told me that it was just a term of endearment."

"Yes," he studies her placid face, and he's happy she didn't cringe at his profession, "what about you? What are you planning to do in the FBI?"

"I have a minor in criminal forensics, but my first love is chemistry in all its glorious forms, so basically I will probably end up working on the Science Labs really."

"That's great, just like Abby."

"Abby?" Temp is confused, as she hadn't been introduced to this person yet.

"Yes, she is our Lab forensic tech back in DC, you would like her, she's very nice."

Temp frowns for a moment, trying to remember what her sister told her about this person, and her face opens in a big smile, "the happy goth?"

"Yes, that's her, she's always in gothic style but she's one of the most caring and compassionate persons I've ever met."

She nods, but her smiles dims a little, and Jimmy is curious why.

"What?"

"Joy thinks that Abby doesn't like her, just because she's dating Timothy."

"Ah, but that's not true, she…" Jimmy stops trying to defend Abby, as he remembers several instances that Abby acted un-abby like around Joy. He looks at Temp, and she nods at him, "you don't think…" he pauses for a moment.

"Joy tried several instances to raise a white flag, but she simply gave up, the next step must be from her side."

"oh," Jimmy is uncomfortable about his friend's actions, but there's nothing he can do about it.

Temp studies his face for a moment, and surprises him with a question out of the left field.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Oh, me?" Jimmy says in a strangled voice, and blushes, "Oh, I… you know I … It's been a while, no… I mean," he looks at her, and sees that she's staring at him with those intense violet eyes, and he blushes even deeper, "no, I don't."

"Ok," she says, "would you like to meet up to get a cup of coffee? One of these days, when you are free, and I'm in DC from Quantico. " she blushes faintly, and Jimmy is a goner, hook, line and sinker.

"Sure, why not?"

They glance at each other, and look away, and they look again at each other and grin.

"Good."

"It would be nice."

"Yeah."

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