Kissing in Swimming Pools
a/n: and here is fic three! I don't know why I always feel like kissing in swimming pools is like the really slow dancing old-fashioned senior prom song.
jimmy palmer x fem!reader
Summary: You're leaving for L.A. soon, jet-set for a promotion and a new city to master, but a realisation leaves you with a final decision - do you really want to leave?
Word Count: 2.4k
TW: Panic attacks (mentioned) and some sad but fluffy moments.
You really didn't want to leave.
It had been coming for months, but you still didn't want to leave. Leave your home, your friends and most importantly Jimmy.
For months now, you had been on the brink of panic attacks at the thought of leaving a constant in your life, but your job needed you.
You, for years now had been working as a detective at one of the local PD's in Virginia and had recently got a promotion that had unfortunately was going to send you across the country to Los Angeles.
You didn't want to leave, but you wanted the promotion so badly and you weren't about to give up a pay rise and respect in the force down to the fact you wanted to be with your boyfriend back home.
As soon as you'd even gotten the job opportunity you told Jimmy. You felt as if you had a duty to and he couldn't find out through some of yours or his coworkers (*ehem* DiNozzo *ehem*).
Then, even though you explained to Jimmy that you would have to move across the country for your job, he still told you to take it. You were never really ever going to have a job opportunity like this again and he wanted the best for you. Even if that meant that you guys would have to go long distance.
So now, you were sat in the corner of the leaving party your own PD had done for you, no one noticing the fact that the person that the party was actually for, wasn't having fun.
The lights in the room were dim and it was almost as if you were expecting a discoball to descend from the roof and start to reflect glimmers of light around the room as the older-style music continued on, illuminating everyone around the office space while you sat in the shadows.
Sadly, because of a case, Jimmy was being forced to work late, leaving you all alone at a party you didn't really want to be at because of what you were leaving, and because it was a Friday, your coworkers had decided to get drunk and were now a bit too drunk to notice you depressed at the side of the room.
Walking over to your desk where you'd discarded your bag and jacket when you'd arrived, you plucked your phone out of your bag, opening it up to see a text from the wonderful human being you called home.
'just got off work, you still at the work party?'
You softly smiled at the message before typing out a reply.
'yeah. it's a bit depressing though. pick me up and can we go for a swim?'
You knew that yes, despite it being incredibly late, there was one pool still open; the swimming club's. It was the one pool where they were open 24/7 because it was also a hotel that let people use their pool at all hours - as long as someone was on the front desk.
Over the years, after stressful work days and close calls for both you and Jimmy, you had both taken to swimming to relieve stress. Just the feeling of the water gliding over you as you swept through the strokes relaxed you both and you'd found the pool together when your parents had come over and stayed in the exact hotel where the pool was.
It wasn't long after you'd fired off the message that Jimmy had replied with a thumbs up saying he'd grab both of your towels, spare clothes, your bathing suit and his trunks before driving over.
Placing your phone onto your desk, you pick your jacket up from your desk chair and slip your arms in through the sleeves of the jacket and settle it onto your shoulders so then it fit comfortably over your dress for the night.
You then grab both your bag and phone, placing your phone into your jacket pocket and swing your bag onto your left-hand shoulder before walking right out of the department building, dodging any of your colleagues that weren't at least half-drunk by that point of the night, and heading straight towards your car.
When you get in your car, you wait for a moment, breathing in the unused car smell that happened when you left it in the car park outside of your department building.
Tonight would be the last time that you would get that unused car smell for a while. The smell that you loved so much as it was a sign you got to go home. To go to your Jimmy.
You take a finally take a deep breath after a few minutes, clasping the wheel before driving off towards the pool, nodding towards the security guard that was standing just beside one of the back exits of the police building.
Multiple times on the drive over, you do think about just going home to bed, ditching your plans. You knew it was a bad idea, especially as it was one of your last couple days in Virginia before you made the massive move over to LA, but it was still there.
You pushed through the feeling though, eventually driving and parking up at the Superbloodmoon hotel, where you got out of your car with your bag and jacket.
For the longest time, across all your patrol days, even now stretching into your detective days, the hotel had looked slightly run-down. The greige exterior to the building, along with the constant flickering of the red moon light that was connected to the rest of the hotel's sign didn't help it's look. It also never had a full car park - which to be fair, was helped by the out of town location of the hotel.
The general rule that people had with it was only go near it if needed.
Scurrying into the lobby, you look around it for one last time for now, it's fake plastic trees and all, scattered across the number of corners throughout the building.
You nod to the receptionist - a woman named Lauren who had let you through a number of times before - who then smiled right back at you before you pushed through the door that led to the changing village that connected to the hotel's swimming pool.
Sweeping your gaze around the place you quickly spot Jimmy moving to sit up from a bench, looking like he had clocked you about the exact same second you had clocked him.
"Hey." You said quietly, feeling your body relax already at the fact you could see your boyfriend with your own two eyes.
Jimmy, sensing your stress, walked over and hugged you, bag of what looked to be all of the things you'd both need in his right hand.
"You seem tired." Jimmy whispered as he hugged, readjusting his head slightly to make sure you heard him.
Pulling back, you give Jimmy a tired smile before replying. "You have no idea."
Jimmy breathes out a laugh at your response, letting you go from the hug, but taking your right hand in his left and dragged you over to a couple of the cubicles, where it looked as if he'd already claimed one of the two.
Letting go of your hand, you look down slightly to see Jimmy rummaging through the bag before he produces your swimming costume, towel, goggles and extra tidbits you liked to take when you went swimming, like a small bag for your jewelry.
"Thank you." You say to him, turning slightly and kissing his cheek as he hands you the objects and leave him to go into the left of the two cubicles.
Locking the door behind you after you enter, you place your swimming stuff down before you quickly slip in to your swimming costume and sort your hair out before you grab your goggles and leave the cubicle.
Once you'd passed by the rest of the cubicles in the changing unit, you finally saw what you'd gone to the hotel for; the pool, in all of its greeny-blue glory.
Walking over, you sat down, dipping your toes and calves in as you sat at the side of the pool, readjusting your goggles as you heard a changing room lock click behind you, signalling that Jimmy was changed as well.
"Hey." You whisper, not turning an inch, just facing the rippling of the surface of the water.
"Hi." Jimmy whispers back and in your peripherals see him do the same action as you moments ago. Dunking his feet and the bottom half of his legs in the pool, he sat beside you.
You finally look around at him, noticing his always messy hair near tidy for once.
"How about we go for a swim and you tell me what's up with you after?" Jimmy says, in the most questionably Jimmy way - a statement hidden within a question.
You nod and as you both fully sink into the water, starting to each do separate laps of the pool, you start to think over the decision you'd made to leave.
You had decided within yourself that, yes, you didn't want to leave, but now that it was so close to you leaving? You weren't sure if you were actually in the right place to do that to Jimmy. Or yourself for that matter.
You started to loose counts of the laps of the pool you'd done, not really realising just how tired your muscles were until you'd slowed to take a break from the lengthy front crawl you were doing.
Stopping at the edge of the pool, it was only a couple of moments before Jimmy raised his head above the water enough to notice you back on the wall, swimming over to you when he did.
You let him catch his breath for a moment, knowing what would come soon after, so you take the seconds breath to clear your head for this conversation, getting your thoughts in order.
"Why don't we sit up on the side for a bit?" Jimmy says as he hoists himself up out of the water enough to sit himself at the edge of the pool.
Doing the same, it's only seconds later that you two are back sitting on the edge of the pool, like you were probably less than half and hour before.
"I don't know what to do." You eventually whisper out, the sentence barely heard over the washing over the water over the filter grates at the side of the pool.
Looking over, you see Jimmy looking directly at you, a worried look on his face as he thinks over what you'd just said.
"What do you mean?" He asks, prompting you to go more in depth with your internal fight.
"I don't know if I actually want to leave or not. I love the job I'm getting, but I love my position now and I don't want to leave you." You tell Jimmy, watching as his face drops with the realisation that you'd been struggling with the decision you'd made.
"How long have you felt like this?" Jimmy asked, prodding your brain for more answers once again.
"At least a month. Maybe two or three?" You admit, looking away from him once again and back at the waves of the water, knowing for a long period of time you felt a bit like a train wreck.
You get silence from Jimmy, no response for what feels like an eternity before you eventually look back at him once again and see the sadness in his eyes.
Sadness at how long you'd been holding up those thoughts about leaving.
"So all those panic attacks and phone calls from when you were crying during work that you just put down to stress was because you weren't sure what to do with your life?" Jimmy asked softly, gently taking your hand in one smooth motion.
You nod, not meeting his eyes, deciding to gaze down at your interlocked hands in between the two of you.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Jimmy then asks, whispering now, shuffling slightly closer to you now.
"Because you have so much at work and I thought I would just get over it as it got loser to when I left. We said we'd be fine doing long distance, right?" You say, finally meeting Jimmy's gaze, tears in your eyes.
"Darling, baby, sweetheart, y/n. I would move across the world for you. I would walk out on Gibbs telling us something for you. I would cut off Doctor Mallard on one of his tangents if you called me." Jimmy says, removing his hand from yours, using it to pull you in for a momentary kiss before pulling back and continuing.
"If we were both happy I would do anything for you y/n/n." He whispers and that's when you realise just how much you were in love with him.
It didn't matter whether or not you two were living together or not, you would still love each other. You would still be there for each other, and if it was really important, you would even quit your job, running right back to your boyfriend's arms.
"Thank you." You whisper, wiping your tears and kissing Jimmy once again, pulling him against you with your hands.
"For what?" Jimmy mumbles from against your lips and you break the kiss.
"For being here for me. I don't want to leave but I know I'll still have you here waiting for me. Waiting till I can be here doing what I really want to do." You say, knowing that as soon as a seat opened up in a Virginia PD's higher ups, someone at NCIS would call you and you'd be applying.
Jimmy smiles, leaving the nice warm sentiment in the air, not wanting to complicate it with extra words as the light from the pool lights bathed you both in a blue glow.
And you two sat, you just thought about how nice it was to be alone with Jimmy, basking in the blue lights and pool water that you were sure probably broke about 5 health codes.
But really, you couldn't care.
Because you knew that Jimmy would be there; whether it be on the other end of a phone line or in the next room, he was there. Waiting.
Waiting to love you in a way that only you two understood.
a/n: Exams are KILLING me, but by the time you lot are reading this, you wouldn't know this because - hiatus!!!!
Read this to find out who else I write for, and requests are open!
