Don't Flinch

An NCIS: Hawai'i oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The NCIS: Hawai'i characters belong to Christopher Silber, Jan Nash, and Matt Bosack; and the NCIS: New Orleans characters belong to Gary Glasberg, not to me. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this smol cross-over idea for months, so I finally sat down and wrote it! :'D Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

"They're going to want a decision, Lucy. Soon."

Lucy blinked and finally raised her eyes from the folder in Tennant's hands. Her mouth popped open, in a small "o," but no sound came out. That made sense; she'd already blurted to her boss exactly why she'd applied for this agent afloat position what felt like a lifetime ago.

Tennant's expression softened. She gave Lucy a fleeting smile, and her shoulders sank a smidge as she set the assignment aside on her desk behind her. "There are a lot of things you'll have to do, before you go, if that's what you choose. I know you don't have a lot of time to decide."

Lucy bit her bottom lip.

"You do still want this, though, right?"

"I…" Good grief, Jesse was always teasing her for being a chatterbox—but where had her words gone today? Lucy took a breath and squinted at the older woman. "I need time to think," she admitted in all honesty. "I mean, what would you do, in my shoes?"

But Tennant shook her head, not falling for the bait. "You know I can't answer that. Around your age, I was CIA and married and a mother already. That's comparing apples to oranges and wouldn't help you at all."

Lucy ran an anxious hand through her hair but nodded. "Yeah…"

Yet, after an odd beat, Tennant had that creative twinkle in her eye, the one Lucy and the others usually saw either just before they closed a case or before they blew one right open. "Actually, you have a good point. You do need time to think, as well as some help with the pros and cons." But, at the same time, Tennant turned her junior field agent around and ushered her out of the SAC's office.

"Wait, huh? I'm confused," Lucy said. She glanced up at Tennant when the other woman directed Lucy back to her chair behind her own desk out in the bullpen. "You agree with me?"

Tennant grinned—though, coupled with that twinkle in her eye, it wasn't as reassuring as Tennant might've intended—and twirled Lucy's chair so Lucy faced her computer. "Look, just. Distract yourself with the case at hand. Or even some old paperwork. I've a call to make."

"To wh—"

But Tennant wasn't sticking around to answer. The second Lucy twisted around to ask, Tennant had disappeared already.

Lucy frowned. At a time like this, she partly yearned to be out in the field, canvassing with Kai or with Jesse…then again, Whistler had come into her own a lot and was meshing with the team really well as their FBI liaison lately, and Lucy didn't want to interfere with her girlfriend's place on the team. It was better that Whistler, not Lucy, was out with the guys right now.

At the thought of the blonde, Lucy's eyes flicked back to Tennant's office, through the glass walls and to the folder waiting on Tennant's desk. If only this position hadn't come up now… If only Lucy hadn't applied in a desperate attempt to get off the island months ago…

She shook her head and got to sorting through information on their current case as Tennant suggested. Nope, there was no point in crying over spilt milk. Tennant was right: Lucy had a lot to sort out before she made her decision.

…Lucy had a lot of people to tell, before she made her decision.

Her list wasn't a long one, but Whistler's smile kept popping up in front of her other thoughts whenever Lucy attempted to focus on the current evidence list. Ugh, casework wasn't going to happen while she dreaded bringing up an agent afloat position to Whistler just when they were not only happy but actually getting started. Practical though the FBI probie might be, Whistler's smile easily faded in Lucy's mind's eye as she imagined telling her about the hypothetical time away from Hawaii.

Lucy glanced at her watch. Tennant had been gone for barely twenty minutes. Maybe she'd be back soon with whatever miracle she'd implied?

When another fifteen minutes passed of Lucy mindlessly sifting through files and rereading witness statements without absorbing words, she yawned and knew she needed a change of pace. The guys hadn't returned yet, and her text history with Whistler left off with this morning's hearts and funny faces (cute, nothing new, but it did hit Lucy with a fresh wave of guilt). "Time to see what snacks Ernie's packing today," Lucy mumbled to herself as she pushed up from her chair.

"Lucy!" Tennant called from the stairs.

The petite agent jolted and glanced to where Tennant waited for her. "Yeah, Boss?"

Tennant merely beckoned with a nod and a curl of her fingers.

Lucy glanced around her, but the other agents in the office paid her no mind, so she scurried across the way and up the stairs after their SAC. But, upstairs with the big screen, Tennant wasn't alone.

"Happy to do a favor for our sister office on the other ocean," said a much older man onscreen. His hair was mostly silver and a bit blond and white in places, and he had large, dark, drooping eyebrows over dark, drooping eyes that, coupled with his smile, reminded Lucy of a friendly neighborhood dog. He tore his eyes from Tennant for a moment when Lucy entered the room, and he tipped his head to her. "Well, now, you must be Special Agent Tara. Dwayne Pride."

"My counterpart out of New Orleans," Tennant supplied, "the Southeast SAC."

At that, Pride shook his head, though his smile never dimmed. "I tried tellin' the director that we did this dance before and didn't like it, but…after everything…Director Vance is willin' to give this another shot. So long as I get to supervise from the field, that is."

He smiled while Tennant smirked. "I prefer to call it a 'hands-on approach,'" she supplied.

Lucy glanced between them both before finally sliding in her own greeting. "It's—It's very nice to meet you. And to hear a somewhat familiar accent," she tacked on, chuckling and letting a little of her Texan drawl leak in for his reference.

"Much obliged. If you don't mind me not beatin' around the bush—Tennant tells me you've got a mighty fine opportunity in front of ya, but you've gotta make a decision by tomorra?"

"I, uh, yeah." Lucy swallowed a lump that formed in her throat in spite of the pleasant atmosphere.

Pride nodded. "Yep, not easy, makin' choices this big at the last minute. But I have an old associate on the line, waitin' to speak with ya. Thought she might—help clarify things." His smile lessened for a brief moment, his lips a tight line and his eyes narrow. Lucy would've asked if something were the matter if he hadn't nodded to Tennant instead.

Tennant, in turn, touched Lucy's shoulder. "You can have the room, as long as you need."

Lucy furrowed her brow and watched Tennant go. Still bewildered, she faced the screen in time for Pride's feed to cut over, and a new face replaced his.

This time, a woman maybe Tennant's age or a little younger greeted Lucy. Whereas Pride's backdrop had been the New Orleans office—his backdrop reminded Lucy a little of the main office's MTAC in D.C.—it was hard to make out this woman's whereabouts, since everything behind her was too dark and not well defined, all gray and black. With her dark hair, too, she would've blended in to her surroundings, if not for the way her computer screen lit up her pale skin in that ethereal, electronic manner; she might even be paler than Whistler, Lucy guessed. But her eyes—her eyes were bright, sharp, and piercing when they landed on Lucy.

Lucy licked her lips. "Special Agent Lucy Tara," she introduced herself.

The woman onscreen smiled briefly, but it felt…less friendly, perhaps pitying? Lucy mused. "Meredith Brody," she said.

Lucy's eyes widened. Brody… Brody. Brody. The name tickled the back of her brain, especially today of all todays, with this job offer a hot topic— "OH!" Lucy couldn't help but gape and gesture at Brody. "You—! You're Brody! That Brody! You were the youngest agent afloat assigned to duty!" She grinned and nearly laughed in amazement. "Holy crap. I just—I can't believe Tennant managed to set this up and." She paused for breath and stared. "Oh. Oh, God. I hope I'm not imposing? I know there's, like, five hours between here and New Orleans—"

Brody actually chuckled, which brightened Lucy's impression of her, and the other woman held up a hand to calm the junior field agent down. "Tara, Tara, don't worry about it. I'm not in New Orleans, but the hour isn't a problem. Plus, Dwayne Pride did a lot for me, back in my NCIS days. It's the least I could do."

That splashed cold water on her excitement, and Lucy's cheeks reddened. "Oh, you're—you're not NCIS anymore?"

Brody shook her head. She hesitated before saying, "No, I… I needed a fresh setting, so I took a personal contact's offer to work for DARPA, helping to manage security and assess threats. I see fewer people than I did in my old job, but I still get to flex my investigative skills." She shrugged.

Brody played it off as though it were nothing, but Lucy's eyebrows hovered high. Mentioning DARPA so smoothly? She had been impressed to meet the youngest agent afloat before; now Brody was somehow topping that.

"So, you have a chance to be agent afloat yourself."

"Yes, I do. I'd applied months ago, actually." Lucy dropped her eyes to her hands, which she kept clasped in front of her, to prevent her from twiddling her thumbs. "…to be quite honest, I applied when my head was in a different space and I thought I had a million-to-one chance of landing this, especially being a junior field agent."

Brody nodded. "No, it's not something they usually give to probies."

Lucy tensed.

"But everyone has to earn their experience somehow, and someone saw something in you. That's a good thing."

She tentatively raised her head, trying to muster a smile at the encouragement. "Yeah… Yeah, I guess."

Brody had to be sitting at a desk or table on her end, because she leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand while she studied Lucy closer, as though leaning in to the camera would give her better access. Brody narrowed her eyes, somewhat squinting, while she smiled. "Might be the right job but not the right time?" she surmised.

Lucy frowned.

Brody nodded again, but it was a small notion, mostly for herself. "I get it, having your reasons. Probably ones you might share and others you might not, for not jumping on the offer."

"Was it the same for you?" Lucy asked. "Did you ever feel butterflies or—or dread before accepting your agent afloat position?"

Brody paused before answering. "Not at first. Although the usual warnings you get, about 'finding your sea legs,' don't do being on an actual ship justice, so I can vouch for investing in decent seasickness meds if you opt to go."

Ah, right. There was being on the water twenty-four–seven that Lucy would also have to overcome… She twisted her lips around, waiting for Brody's next piece of advice.

But the older woman's humor mellowed. Her posture on the other end of the video call went somehow both tense and slack—Lucy read her body language as…apprehensive, yes, that was it—and Brody's eyes lost their focus or turned to something in the distance before she continued. "It's one thing once you get the hang of being an entire NCIS investigative team on your own, aboard a ship…" She paused for so long that Lucy thought the feed had frozen, when Brody resumed, "It's another if you're ever faced with a situation you simply can't prepare for." There, even with her eyes not quite on Lucy, Brody's expression darkened.

Lucy waited a beat before asking, "Then…we just prep as best we can, right?" She timidly smiled, too, craning her neck a bit in an effort to catch Brody's attention, half wondering if this call really had been a good idea if it'd sent Brody down some dark trip on Memory Lane.

Brody attempted to return the polite smile, at least. But she didn't expound on her previous thought.

"…hey. Brody, did—did that happen? To you?"

She paused, waiting for Brody to respond, but the dark look on Brody's face was clue enough: Brody expected Lucy either would've read up on more than just Brody's history-making assignment or she would do so after they disconnected today. So Lucy switched tactics.

"What I mean is: What's your advice, in the event that…I encounter something unexpected?"

Those same bright, sharp, piercing eyes that had first landed on her minutes ago bored holes into her now. "It's simple: Don't flinch."

That plain response, said so steadily and without blinking, chilled Lucy. But it also oddly settled her nerves. About telling Whistler, telling her friends, even imagining being aboard that ship—these things didn't seem so scary anymore. Not that Lucy wanted her own unexpected moment, but Brody was proof that you could go in, face anything, and still emerge on the other side.

Lucy couldn't see why she wouldn't take this job now.

This time, when her mouth popped open, she wasn't speechless. "Thank you," Lucy said, her voice steady for the first time in hours.

The darkness mostly vanished from her expression, leaving a haunted impression of Brody to Lucy, but Brody nodded and tried to smile, tired though the gesture was. "I wish you luck, Agent Tara." A second later, the screen faded to black.

The second after, Lucy turned heel, exiting the room and making for the stairs, calling out, "Hey, Boss…!"

- ^-^3

Done for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge as well as the If You Dare Challenge (for prompt #150: tick tock goes the clock) in the HPFC forum on FFN. As some of my pals know, I've actually had a smol 4-way xover planned for a while, but I need the time to sit down and write that (idc that the shows managed to do the 3-way xover…I miss NOLA…!), and then this idea cropped up, so this got written first. XD Funnily enough, Lucy and Brody aren't even my fav charries in their respective series (that'd be Kai & Pike, and LaSalle & Gregorio & Jimmy Boyd, respectively ;3), but when Lucy's temporary transfer cropped up during s2, I did get to thinking about both Brody's infamous time aboard the USS Moultrie and Tony's time as agent afloat when Vance briefly split up the MCRT. I went with some embellishes here for Brody, but it felt fitting that Lucy might focus on the positive instead of the negative… I also like the Pride cameo, as well as some hcs for where both he and Brody are at this point in the NCIS canon. :3c (I actually have sooo many NOLA ideas, which—yet again—some of my pals know, but I deeply crave the time to write them all. XD) This rly is just some Hawai'i and NOLA fluff, but I think it fits nicely with Lucy's predicament. And woohoo! My first Hawai'i fic! :D (And here's my plug for NOLA: If you still haven't watched it yet, I highly rec it! -w-)

Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other NCIS fics if you liked this. And, as with my other NCIS fics, show your support via tumblr with a reblog~

-mew-tsubaki -w-