Kate walked into the loft, closing and locking the door quietly behind her. It was late, well past her four-year-old son, Luke's, seven o'clock bedtime. But, like most nights she had a late shift, she found the little boy asleep on the couch with Rick, wearing his Spiderman pajamas. She smiled as she walked over to the couch, watching as the toddler gradually rose and fell with Rick's breathing, curled up on his sleeping father's chest.
She picked the remote up off the coffee table and clicked the TV off before picking Luke up. "Mama?" he murmured, opening one bright blue eye to look at Kate as he rested his head against her shoulder.
"Yeah, baby," she whispered, kissing the side of his head softly as she ran her fingers through his dark curly hair. "Let's go to bed, hmm?"
"Did you catch a bad guy?" he asked sleepily as she walked up the stairs with him.
"I sure did. He was big too."
"Even bigger than Daddy?"
"Yeah, even bigger than Daddy." She took him into his bedroom, laying him down on the bed. "And me and Uncle Javi and Uncle Kevin had to chase him all around the city, with the lights and the sirens on. Then we cornered him in a big building and Uncle Javi tackled him and he confessed to everything."
"Wow," Luke muttered against his pillow, sleep taking over him again. Kate smiled, kissing his head before she tucked him in and turned the lights off as she left the room.
In the hallway, Rick stood against the wall grinning as she closed the door. "What really happened today?"
She smiled, putting an arm around his waist as they walked to their bedroom. "We did catch him. A nineteen year old who wet himself when Espo cuffed him."
"Doesn't sound like much of a cold-hearted murderer."
"Crime of passion. Good old fashioned jealous boyfriend killing the lover."
"Boring," Rick mumbled. "Was he at least a big guy?"
Kate smiled, shaking her head. "5 foot 4, around 135 soaking wet."
"So where did that story you told Luke come from?"
"He thinks I'm a superhero. If I come home and tell him stories about doing paperwork until two in the morning, he's gonna get bored with me."
"You are impossible to get bored with. Even watching you do paperwork is fascinating."
"Yeah, but he's four. If it doesn't make noise or light up or explode, he loses interest. Kind of like you."
"He did inherit some of my finer qualities," he said proudly.
She nodded. "Mhmm. We'll see when he gets older just how many of your fine qualities he got."
"If he's lucky, all of them. If we're lucky, none."