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James smirked as he slipped back into his jacket. Sometimes being Avenger adjacent really worked in his favor. Though he usually kept his metal arm as covered as he could, the metal detectors had nearly given the guards a heart attack when it started to scream with a shrill scream, and he had quickly removed his gloves and jacket to show them the cause.
As soon as the guard saw the arm, his eyes had shot to James’ face and he had grown pale. “Yo– You’re the Winter Soldier, aren’t you? Sergeant James Barnes?”
He braced himself for the fear he was sure was coming, silently lamenting that he hadn’t just let LJ handle things himself. He thought he was being so clever, coming to the office where his partner wouldn’t have a choice about introducing him to his team, even if the fact that they were partners was conveniently left out. If only he had trusted LJ when he said he could handle the interpersonal conflicts on his team…but it had been putting so much unnecessary stress on the man lately, and James couldn't stand to see that.
He thought he had a few ideas that might help, but he hadn’t met the people involved yet. Maybe it was just a personality clash. Besides, LJ hadn’t asked him for his help and he had been trying to stay out of it. The man was almost certainly not going to thank him for showing up unannounced, and now he was sending a civilian into a panic.
“...ndfather was a Howlie. I was raised on stories of you & Captain Rogers, sir. It’s such an honor to meet you!”
James snapped back to attention, grateful that his training would have kept the guard from realizing he hadn’t heard a word. “What’s your name, sir?”
“Oh, uh, Morita, sir. John Morita.” The guard practically saluted James, and he tried not to smile.
“Jim Morita. Good guy. He still around?” James pulled every bit of training he had to keep from shuffling his feet, and tried to remember all the manners his Ma had drilled into his head when he was a kid.
John apparently didn’t have the same training and started to shuffle his feet along the tile floor, his eyes tracking the movements. “He actually, uh–” John cut himself off and cleared his throat. “”He passed away about three years ago now. Not too long before his 100th birthday, actually.”
James cursed his social awkwardness, but reached out slowly with his flesh hand to rest it on John’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear that. He was a great guy. If the agent I’m here to see doesn’t end up murdering me, maybe I could come back sometime and share some stories.”
John surreptitiously wiped his eyes, and James looked away, pretending he didn’t see and giving the man a moment to compose himself.
When he looked back, John smiled. “So, what agent are you here to see today? I can escort you to where they work.”
“Oh, right, uh…Gibbs? Agent Gibbs with the MCRT. I can get to him if you just give me directions.” James shoved his metal hand into his pocket rather than try to wrestle the gloves back on.
John’s eyes shot away briefly and he made a gesture towards the other guard, then turned towards the elevators. “Sorry, Sergeant, but I’m not allowed to leave you unescorted. It’s nothing personal, but it could cost me my job.”
James fell into step beside him, keeping his hand firmly in his pocket and making sure the cuff of his henley was pulled down all the way so no metal was visible. He shortened his stride to match John’s, unwilling to let the man know he had memorized the blueprints of the building ages ago.
They remained quiet as they rode the elevator, though James didn’t feel uncomfortable. If anything, he was appreciative that the man didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with inane chatter.
When the doors opened again, James had to blink a few times. LJ had mentioned that the bullpen was orange, but he certainly hadn’t done the color justice. He felt a bit like he was inside a pumpkin.
John led him to four desks almost dead center in the room. What LJ called “the bullpen.” He glanced around, keeping his face blank. His eyes caught on a brunet man standing and buttoning his suit jacket. His smile was flirtatious but his eyes were not. James didn’t think many people would notice.
“John! You brought me a gift. How generous of you!” He stepped out from behind his desk, meeting a woman in the middle.
James’ mind automatically began to fill in what he knew about them. Anthony D. DiNozzo, Jr. Forty-two years old. A cop at three different precincts before LJ had recruited him for NCIS, the man had quickly worked his way up the ranks to become LJ’s Senior Field Agent, and the two had worked together since. Sometimes as a team of two, sometimes with others, but always together. LJ was stingy with his praise, but he was beyond impressed with this agent. James would not underestimate him.
The woman, Caitlin “Kate” Todd, was another story. Thirty-five years old, formerly Secret Service, and supposedly a profiler, LJ had hired her because he took the weight of the world on his own shoulders and felt it was his fault she had lost her place with the SS. James had been here for all of two seconds, and he already knew she wasn’t worth a damn at her job. She was currently looking at him as though he were a piece of prime rib in her favorite butcher’s case.
John smiled shyly, but didn’t hesitate to speak up. “Good morning, Agent DiNozzo. I’m escorting a visitor for Agent Gibbs. Is he around?”
Green eyes locked on his blue, and though the smile was still flirtatious, the eyes sharpened in their perusal. James stood still, not giving anything away.
DiNozzo turned to John and his smile turned more genuine. “Gibbs is up in MTAC, I think, or maybe he went down to the lab? The man is practically a ghost, who knows?”
Todd stepped forward, waving a dismissive hand in the man’s general direction. “We’ll take it from here, Jim. Thanks.” Her voice was technically polite, but the hand gesture combined with her using the wrong name showed just how beneath her she thought the guard was.
The reservations James had already had about her watching his life partner in the field multiplied. He turned his shoulder, subtly but effectively cutting her out of the conversation while allowing DiNozzo to see the genuineness in his eyes as he used his right hand to grab a business card from inside his jacket. He kept it palmed, not willing to make things quite that easy for DiNozzo. “John. I was serious. I don’t know if I’ll be welcome back here, but we could meet for coffee sometime. Probably better that I’m not distracting you while you’re on the job, anyway.” He held out his hand for a shake, making sure John got his card as he did so.
John smiled and nodded. “I’ll call on my next day off, I’d like to grab some coffee.” Without saying anything further, he gave DiNozzo a smile then turned and headed back to the elevator.
DiNozzo held his hand out, and James grabbed it gently, trying to be mindful of his strength. “I’m Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, Gibbs’ Senior Field Agent. What can we do for you today, sir?”
“James.” He left it there. DiNozzo could figure out if it was his first name or his last. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Agent DiNozzo. I’d like to see Agent Gibbs, please.”
DiNozzo gave him a quick onceover, and though his smile was still relaying flirtatious intentions, it was obvious that it wasn’t sexually driven. “Sure. Let me give him a quick shout.” DiNozzo picked up his phone and dialed a number from memory.
While DiNozzo was waiting for Gibbs to answer the phone, Todd approached and practically shoved her hand at him, fluttering her lashes and trying to look coy. “I’m Agent Caitlin Todd, but you can call me Kate if you’d like.”
James just stared, not giving an inch. Finally, he gripped her hand before immediately dropping it, raising a single eyebrow towards her. He gave the barest dip of his head that he could, murmuring a quiet, “Todd.”
Behind him, he heard LJ answer his phone. “Yeah. Gibbs.”
“Hey, boss, you have a visitor in the bullpen. You might wanna find your way back here.”
“What the hell, DiNozzo? People don’t just visit me at work! Is this a threat? Is someone threatening you?”
James held his smirk back. If he had known he was going to have this much fun, he would have visited LJ a long time ago.
DiNozzo was trying to keep his voice down, blissfully unaware that James could clearly hear both sides of the conversation. “Well, boss, he made it through security, so one has to assume he isn’t a threat.”
James smirked outwardly this time, catching the slight emphasis on the word ‘assume.’ He was well versed in LJ’s rules. Obviously DiNozzo was smart enough to recognize a threat, even if James would never actually hurt LJ. Such a shame their resident profiler hadn’t caught that threat, too busy eyeing him like a piece of candy.
His sharp ears caught LJ chewing Tony out for assuming anything, and James watched as Tony rolled his eyes good naturedly. “Well, yeah, boss. I know the rules. Just thought you might want to know.”
James hid his smirk as there was a brief pause, then he heard LJ curse. “Abs, stay in the lab. Do not come upstairs. Call Duck and tell him the same. There’s a potential threat in the bullpen. I’m gonna go handle it. DiNozzo, I’m on my way. Stall if you can, if you can’t, get as many agents out as you can.”
“You got it, boss.” DiNozzo hung the phone up gently, then turned back with a smile. He was less flirtatious, but no less genial, and James was impressed. If he hadn’t been able to hear both sides of the conversation, he would have no indication whatsoever that DiNozzo had clocked him as a threat.
James listened with half an ear as DiNozzo babbled on about a baseball game from the previous weekend, giving an occasional answer to keep the man going. He easily heard the stairwell door opening, quickly followed by the familiar beat of LJ’s heart.
He found it amusing when Todd tried to slip away, clearly thinking she was being sneaky and he was unaware of where she was. She waylaid LJ and dragged him around the corner. James barely caught a glimpse of the man, and he wasn’t sure that LJ had seen him at all. He made a random comment that he was sure would get DiNozzo riled up, then tuned him out to concentrate on what LJ and Todd were saying.
“Report, Agent Todd.” LJ was practically barking, though he kept his voice quiet enough that James doubted anyone other than himself and Todd could hear it.
“Gibbs, this man was escorted up by Jim from the front desk. I’ve been profiling him since he walked in. He clearly has antisocial personality disorder, which means he could be a psychopath or a sociopath. We need to take him down quickly and quietly.”
James had to work to keep the smirk off his face at that. Once, he might have agreed with her, but years of therapy had shown him how wrong that was. He didn’t have antisocial personality disorder, he just didn’t like stupid people. He was interested to see what he had done that made her think he could be a psychopath, though.
“That’s a serious accusation, Kate. What makes you think that? We can’t exactly go around shooting civilians with no cause, especially in the bullpen. Anyway, how could he get through security and get escorted up here if he’s showing signs of being a threat?” LJ sounded like he was about at the end of his rope with his agent. Good. That might make James’ new plan go a little smoother.
“Well, obviously he isn’t carrying weapons if he got through security, Gibbs. But Tony–” she spit his name out with such derision that James nearly lost control of his facial features, “and I both showed interest. He shut me down without even a ‘how do you do’ and wasn’t much friendlier to DiNozzo.”
James could practically see LJ’s eyebrow go up in one of his most condescending looks.
“You tried to hit on this man, he didn’t respond to you, so you’ve labeled him as having antisocial personality disorder? That’s what you call profiling, Agent Todd? And DiNozzo decided to warn me about a threat because someone actually didn’t fall for him for once?”
Todd sputtered for a minute, clearly trying to find another reason for her diagnosis, before LJ cut her off again. “What does he want, Agent Todd? Did you guys at least bother to find that out before pulling me up here?”
The sulkiness was clear in Todd’s voice, and Bucky again had to fight not to snort. “He wouldn’t tell us anything except one name and that he wanted to see you. We don’t even know if it’s his first or last name.”
There was a pause, and James knew that wouldn’t go well for the agent. LJ wasn’t a patient man on his best days.
“Well? What was the name he gave?”
“James.” Todd was almost quiet enough to give even James trouble hearing her. Pouting wouldn’t go over very well with LJ, either. How this woman had lasted this long on his team was beyond James’ understanding.
This time he heard LJ huff out a laugh, though to anyone who didn’t know him well, it probably sounded more like an angry snort.
“So a man came in to see me, didn’t want to tell you two what it was about, and didn’t fall for either of your charms, so you two dimwits decided he is a threat. Unbelievable.” He heard LJ take a deep breath. “Describe him, Agent Todd.”
“He’s cold, angry, unfriendly…”
“Describe him physically, Agent Todd.”
“Right, Gibbs. He’s 6’, maybe 180 to 190 lbs, but not overweight. Attractive. Long brunet hair, blue eyes, appears to be pretty built but he’s wearing a leather jacket, so it’s hard to tell for sure. He doesn’t have a full beard but he definitely hasn’t shaved in a few days.”
James heard LJ huff out another laugh before he muttered, “Damnit, JB, what the hell?”
James wasn’t sure how he felt about that one. ‘JB’ was a nickname generally reserved for the bedroom or when they were alone and LJ was in a playful mood. In public, LJ always called him James.
“Agent Todd, did it ever occur to you that James is stopping by to see a friend? And maybe, just maybe, he didn’t respond to your advances because he is in a happy, committed, monogamous relationship?”
Before the agent could even think to form an answer, LJ’s footsteps started their way. DiNozzo immediately stopped rambling and moved behind his desk, closer to where his gun was stored if James remembered LJ’s comments correctly.
LJ came around the corner and immediately zeroed in on James. “JB, what the hell are you doing here, convincing my agents you’re a threat?”
James plastered a sheepish grin across his face, the one that got him out of trouble every time with Steve. LJ wouldn’t be fooled, but his agents would be. He layered his Brooklyn accent into his voice. “Aw, shucks, LJ, I didn’t threaten nobody. I just wanted to stop by and say hi, meet your team. That’s all.”
DiNozzo stepped away from his desk again, his eyes going from James to LJ and back. “Gibbs? You know him?”
LJ smirked. “Stand down, DiNozzo. He isn’t a threat.” He paused, then raised an eyebrow. “Well, he isn’t a threat to you. He’s always a threat.”
James smiled and his entire face lit up. “Aw, LJ, you say the sweetest things!”
Todd scoffed, and James let the smile drop from his face, his eyes going cold and the stare he used as the Winter Soldier coming out. He heard her gulp, then dismissed her. She wasn’t a threat, but now that she knew he was, she would recognize the dismissal for the insult it was.
LJ rolled his eyes towards James, clearly done with the attitude of his newest agent. “Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Agent Caitlin Todd, this is James Barnes.”
James gave Todd a dismissive nod, then turned to DiNozzo and held a hand out. “Pleasure to meet you, Agent DiNozzo. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
DiNozzo shook his hand, the gears clearly working in his brain. “James Barnes. Sergeant James Barnes? Howling Commandos? That’s how you know John! You served with his grandfather. Maybe his great-grandfather? Can’t quite remember the family tree that clearly.”
James’ smile was small but genuine. “I just met him downstairs, actually. He recognized me when I set off the metal detector and we got to talking.”
Todd’s annoying voice piped up again, and James’ face went blank. “Why would they let you in if you set off the metal detector? You must be hiding weapons. Gibbs, you need to let me arrest him. He walked into a federal building with concealed weapons!”
He shot a wink at DiNozzo, then pulled his left hand out of his pocket for the first time since he had been escorted to the bullpen. “Well, Todd, I’m pretty much always a weapon, but I can’t exactly leave my arm behind in the car, now can I? You are, without a doubt, the–”
“James.”
Oops. He may have pushed a little far. That was LJ’s ‘quit fucking around’ voice.
DiNozzo immediately stepped up to lighten the atmosphere. From what LJ had told him, that was a pretty typical move from the man. “Sergeant Barnes, it’s an honor to meet you. I’ve heard lots of stories, most of them probably lies.” His smile showed that he was laughing at himself and inviting James to laugh with him.
James gave him a genuine smile, reaching out to shake his hand. “It’s James, Agent DiNozzo. Ain’t been Sergeant for a lotta years.”
DiNozzo’s smile turned brighter. “Tony. Call me Tony. So how do you and the boss know each other?”
James looked to LJ, perfectly content with whatever answer he chose to give, but not willing to out him to his team if his partner wasn’t ready.
LJ stared back for a moment, then with a curse under his breath, he strode forward and wrapped a calloused hand around James’ neck. Pulling him closer, he whispered, “Hey, JB.”
James smiled wide, the smile that Stark used to tease him about, saying he could compete with the sun. Or with Peter, but that was basically the same thing in Stark’s eyes. “Hey, LJ. We doin’ this?”
Rather than respond verbally, LJ pulled him into one of the filthiest kisses they had ever shared, leaving no room for his agents to doubt exactly what kind of relationship they had.
He didn’t let up until James gave in to an involuntary moan, then he slowed the kiss and pulled away. They both looked to Tony, who merely smiled and waggled his eyebrows. LJ smiled at the man, and James dropped a wink in his direction.
They then turned to the other agent. LJ raised a brow, his hand still holding James’ neck. “Any further questions, Agent Todd?”
She started to stammer, and James bit back a laugh. He may be an asshole, but he wasn't the type of asshole that made fun of people for speech impediments.
“N– No, G– Gibbs. I understand perfectly now.”
LJ watched her squirm for a few minutes before he gave a sharp nod and turned back to James. “I think I finally understand what you’ve been trying to tell me, James. I should have listened to you from the beginning.”
Knowing that was about as close to an apology as LJ ever got, James smiled widely and leaned in for a much more chaste kiss. “Now let’s go home and figure out how to deal with it, LJ. After you pay for that kiss, anyway.”
LJ laughed freely, a sound that startled both of his agents, and grabbed James’ hand. “Take the rest of the day if you want, or work on cold cases. Be back here at 0800.” He leered at James. “I have some making up to do.”
James laughed loudly as Tony pumped a fist and Todd scowled. He didn’t care to commit the brain power to figuring out what that was about. He had a partner to make happy and that came before everything else.
As LJ pulled him towards the elevator, James waved his metal hand behind him and said, “We’ll grab a beer soon, Tony. We can exchange stories.” Without waiting for an answer, he adjusted the grip LJ had on his hand and took over pulling them both along.
Yeah, today had been a good day.