Disclaimer: BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon and NCIS LA to someone who definitely isn't yours truly.

Written for Day 01 of the 2020 August-Fic-A-Day.

It was exactly six months since her old school friend had issued a kind of ultimatum; contact her within six months or the number Kensi had for her would no longer work. The phone in her hand mocked her, all bright lights and nearly instant communication through text or direct contact through the phone line.

The name 'Buffy Summers (IDC)' was written in black with a tiny picture of the woman at 15 above it. It was one of the few pictures she had of her. It was part of a group picture with herself and three other girls, but she had cropped it so only Buffy's head was visible.

Back then they had been quasi-aquaintances when Buffy had identified more as a rich cheerleader and Kensi had been the tomboy/military brat transfer student. Then Kensi's father had been killed and all thoughts of the spoiled airhead and her friends had fled her mind and she had dropped out of school and lost her way for a while.

Years later she had become a federal agent working for NCIS, and the former airhead was some kind of security expert working for some mysterious organization simply known as the IDC. Most information about it was classified, the files of the people involved were at least partially redacted, and no one was willing to share any information about who they were and what they specialized in. The second-to-last time she'd seen Buffy, the woman had handed her a cease-and-desist to make NCIS stop trying to dig up information.

That in itself was informative. It meant the organization had power or were connected to powerful people, but other than forcing NCIS OSP to stop looking for information they hadn't done anything. There were some vague rumors about them, mainly about them being merciless, dominant and influential in their field, but the word had been that it was under new, much fairer management now.

Buffy hadn't done anything other than try to reconnect with her, and she'd been the unfortunate messenger of the C&D, but her team had reacted with suspicion even before that. Deeks in particular had taken offense. Given what they did it was a natural response, but maybe it had been too harsh.

Her boys had tried to intimidate the petite woman when they last met and they had failed. Truthfully, she had seemed amused by it, at least initially, but there had to have been something going on in her life that caused her to just give up on her attempt to reconnect. As if it took much more effort than she was willing to put into it. She had risen abruptly, said a few parting words, and left. Her ability to just melt into the crowd was enviable.

Her team's latest case had involved a secret group within the military known as the Patton Group. They were a group that wanted to end all Muslims by launching nuclear missiles against cities like Mecca and Tehran. They had almost succeeded, too. Kensi looked at the name in her phone's address book again, from what little she knew or suspected about the IDC it meant Buffy had seen terrible things. Maybe she'd even been involved in some way.

Cat, Mindy, Mandy, Tiffany, and Tiffany were her best friends outside of the team, but they couldn't relate to her work. There was a chance Buffy might be able to do that. Maybe. But Kensi's work was classified and Buffy's work appeared to be even more so, so any conversations would have to be vague and short on details.

For some reason, she couldn't explain, she had made alarms on her phone to remind her about Buffy and what she'd said. It had caused her phone to beep at her once a month and ask her if she wanted to contact Buffy. Up until today, the answer had been 'no'.

Making up her mind, she touched the small speak bubble and began typing a short message.

Text or call me next time you're in L.A. Let's see if we can give this one more attempt, just you and me.

It was inadequate, but what did you tell someone in a situation like theirs? Either they managed to work it out or they didn't. She would go alone this time, to see if there was something for them to build a friendship on.