Two posts in one day, there must be something wrong with me lol! This is a new one shot I started months ago and only managed to finish last night. It follows straight on from the last scene in the season 12 episode 'Tressed To Kill', so slight spoilers maybe if you haven't seen it. As always I own nothing.

Disconnecting the call with a slight movement of her thumb, she rose from the couch where she had settled somewhere near the beginning of their forty five minute conversation. While she hadn't been lying when she'd told Russell she was already awake, she was now desperate to get back to the warmth of her bed; as a lifelong Vegas girl Catherine Willows had been ill prepared for the freezing East Coast winter. Her bedroom attire had changed dramatically as a consequence; gone where the tank tops and thin pants or shorts, replaced instead by long sleeves and flannel. As her sock clad feet padded down the hallway towards the bedroom she mused over how much her life had changed in the three months since she'd left her job, her friends, her family in Vegas to move to Virginia to join the FBI.
Making such a drastic change at this point in her life must have seemed crazy to a lot of people; hell, she herself had admitted as much to Jim Brass over one last glass of scotch after she'd packed up her office.

The strawberry blonde smiled slightly as she shut the bedroom door; despite the reason behind it, the phone call from Russell had been something of a pleasant surprise. The way he'd told her about the case, about the girl he'd lost had made her feel, well, needed and still connected to her old life as well as the colleagues and friends she'd left behind. That combined with the calls she'd received from the entire Grave Shift team (Greg had made a point of calling pretty much on a weekly basis to fill her in on all the lab gossip), plus the Sherriff and, more surprisingly Ecklie, had helped her feel like she wouldn't be forgotten just yet.
Sliding into bed she rolled onto her side, placing her phone on the bedside table then snuggling further beneath the thick blankets. A few moments passed before she felt movement behind her and an arm snake around her waist, pulling her back until she was pressed against a warm, firm chest.
"I was wondering when you were coming back to bed," a voice thick with sleep mumbled into her ear, the sensation of hot breath hitting her neck making her shudder slightly.
"Sorry, Russell had a tough case and needed someone to talk to." Turning in his arms she pressed a kiss to his lips. As she started to move away he kissed her again, this time with more passion. After a few minutes they broke apart and Catherine regarded him with a questioning look.

"Well, that was very nice but what was it for?"
"I need to get as many of those as I can before tomorrow night. It'll be at least three months before I can get back out here."
"Lou." She spoke his name in a half-hearted reprimand, and rolled her eyes slightly when he pouted. "We agreed that it could take a while before we would be together permanently; you still need to tell Brass and the Sherriff about the transfer."
"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it," he replied, stealing another kiss. "I swear, as soon as those transfer papers are approved and come through from MPD I'll book a one way ticket on the first flight out here I can find."
Catherine let out a small laugh, but the serious look in his eyes made her check herself.
"I came so close to losing you forever Cath. I never want that to happen again." He punctuated his words by sliding his hand underneath the edge of her shirt, pressing the tips of his fingers to the smooth skin of the scars on her stomach, causing her to shiver slightly. Lou had been told about Catherine and Russell's body bag-aided escape by Greg and his account had made him glad he'd missed it; he'd straight from P.D. when the news had come in that she was safe and caught up with her in one of the autopsy bays. The sight of her lying on one of those cold metal tables while Doc Robbins had redressed her wounds had almost been too much for him – seeing her smiled as he'd walked in had been the only thing to keep him from walking straight back out.
Once the case had been wrapped up and Catherine had announced her decision to leave the lab and work for the FBI he'd gone to her house to see her. They'd talked the entire night and as the sun had started to rise he'd blurted out that he still loved her before kissing her; he'd been pleasantly surprised when instead of pushing him away she'd returned his kiss. In the days leading up to her departure they had talked more than they had in their entire relationship and both came to the inevitable conclusion; they wanted to be together and would make it work no matter what they had to do. And while they readily admitted that the long distance thing wasn't exactly ideal, it had proved far less difficult to cope with than either had first thought; despite missing the physical aspects of their relationship, they enjoyed the emotional closeness that had developed between them and continued to strengthen every day.

Lou was jolted back to the present by the sensation of Catherine's hand closing over his.
"I'll admit that was a pretty close call, but I'm fine. And it doesn't matter how long the MPD take to find a spot and get you transferred, I'll still be here. Besides, for the time being we still have phone calls and Skype."
"Although next time we have one of our 'special' Skype date I'll make sure Jake isn't going to be in town for another surprise visit," he replied with a smirk, causing her to flush slightly. He chuckled before leaning in to kiss her deeply, pulling her body close to his as her arms wrapped around his neck. When they broke apart he rolled them so that Catherine was pinned beneath him and pressed a kiss to her neck, smiling against her skin as he felt her long legs wrap around his waist.

"How about we make the most of the time we have left?" he queried, grinding his hips against hers, eliciting a moan from his strawberry blonde lover. The moan quickly morphed into a giggle as he pulled the blankets over their heads, enveloping them in their own blissful cocoon for the rest of the night

Hope ya'll enjoyed it :)
Lily
-x-