They met at nine in the morning of the day after. Rick was already there when she entered the classroom, head thrown back against his chair, earphones plugged in, a gentle melody, soft and calm, coming through them. Kate thought it sounded like something along the lines of classical music. There was a new scent in the air, he realized, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but something or someone was there. The thumping sound on the floor next to him - Kate's backpack - resonated on his chest, causing Rick to jump from his chair, yanking away the earphones with a fist in the process.
"Hey, didn't hear you coming," Rick said, tugging on the collar of his shirt with one hand, drumming the fingers of his other one on the table top.
"No glasses today?" Kate asked, her gaze slowly travelling from the table's surface to him.
"Um, no. I...," Rick said as he leaned down to grab something from his backpack, "I'll just put them on if you want."
She was merely stating a point, she felt like saying something as Rick opened his case and put the heavy black shades on, but decided to keep quiet, remembering all the mixed signals they had sent one another lately. Now, thinking about the past few days only made her more self-conscious and nervous around him. She wondered for a second if he had chosen to take them off on purpose after the effect they'd had caused on her the day before.
"So, um, how do you want to do this?" she asked, and left the question open for interpretation on purpose.
"So, I was thinking," Rick said and quickly moved aside to make space on the small desk, "maybe you can read the essays to me and I'll grade them? You can pin point things like organization, structure, punctuation, and small details I can't see. Does that sound okay?" He sounded a bit breathless, as if the simple task of moving papers from one place to another was the most tiring thing in the world.
"Uh, yeah, that's fine. Do you want to start with Thursday's essays?" she answered, suddenly as breathless as him.
The mere thought of just reading to him made her heart tighten; it ached a bit, but it was a good kind of ache. It made her feel glad for the billionth time that week that he couldn't see the giddiness in her face and the flush on her cheeks.
"Alright. Give me their names first so I can type them," he said and silently begged for the papers to have some substance to them.
The last thing Rick wanted was to be the laughing-stock of a class he was supposed to be teaching. A class she was part of... But he had to endure every difficulty; the thought that by the end of the year his book would be published made his stomach twist with anxiety.
"First essay is Lisa Huff. Essay topic is...Wait -"
"Yes?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you going to need my help during class? Because if so, how am I supposed to participate?"
"Well," Rick begun, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, , "I think I'll be fine during class. I can manage a presentation and if someone needs help, they can just read me the sentence or paragraph, right?"
"I guess," Kate said, fidgeting with the lining of her worn out jeans. "What about me, though? How will you know if I'm lying when I'm reading my own paper?"
A sharp tug of his lips made her reconsider her she said something wrong?
"Trust me, I can tell if you're lying." Rick smirked and leaned back on his chair, tapping the point of his pen against the keyboard, "But something tells me Kate Beckett knows how to please her professors."
Oh god. Was that flirting? What was she supposed to say? An awkward silence settled between them as Rick waited for an answer. She only wanted to keep the ball rolling, ignore whatever had just happened and focus on the work at hand. But his smile had developed into that Cheshire grin she had grown to like so much, making her insides turn upside down. The classroom walls seemed to have shrunk, crumpling them against one another, so Kate felt the need to speak before doing something she would regret later, like snatching those awful glasses away and kissing the hell out of his lips.
"So, um" She cleared her throat and carried on, "This is Lisa Huff. Untitled..." Kate uncrossed her legs and pressed her front to the desk, quickly forgetting about Rick and focusing on the task ahead.
Soon after, Rick picked up her pace, making annotations with every line she read and stopping her a few times among the paragraphs to ask grammar and structure related questions. They were, however, interrupted about a hour later when Kate's stomach made itself present with a loud, rumbling noise. She was about to apologize when Rick's hearty laugh echoed in the room, making her laugh as well.
"I'm so sorry," he said, carefully touching the watch on his wrist, "I lost track of time. It's been around an hour."
Kate's laughter hushed slowly as she said, "Don't worry. I was having fun, too."
"Oh. I just meant -"
"What?" She asked, daring him to lie and tell her he hadn't enjoyed that hour as much as she had. Possibly, the first hour of peace they've had since they met.
"Nothing," he said, "I just... I thought it was fun as well. Although, I gotta say your essay..."
"What about my essay?" she interrupted him, firming her arms on the table and leaning closer. He retracted.
"Well, it's just...," he said and pushed his glasses back with one finger, "I was expecting it to be a lot longer and..."
"And?" she insisted and furrowed her brow, leaning forward like a silent predator.
"It's just...," he winced, "The plot was a little all over the place. Kind of like a rant."
"What!?" her voice effortlessly climbed two octaves.
"I'm just saying," Rick said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them on the hem of his shirt, "You have a lot to learn this semester, which," he felt a puff of hair leave her mouth, " which, I'm happy to help you with."
"Alright, listen Rick," Kate said and took a deep breath, "You know how hard it was to sit in a classroom with my closest friend only to find out that the guy I wanted to sleep with the night before was our professor? You have any idea how hard it was for me to focus and not storm out of there like a hurt 13-year-old?"
"Oh, I'm..." he said, carefully placing the glasses on the table. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize..."
"Exactly," she said and tapped the table top with her finger to emphasize the word.
"You wanted to sleep with me?"
"What?"
"You just said you wanted to sleep with me."
"Oh, well," she said, leaning back on her chair and grouping all the papers into one pile, "I guess I asked you on a date, remember?"
"Yeah," Rick said after a sigh, his hands falling helplessly beside him, "I remember. I was just trying to give you an out."
"But by giving me an out you just pushed me away," Kate pointed out, voicing what had hurt her the most about the situation. "Is this how you make friends?"
He laughed but it sounded strangled, fake, "Not really, no."
"Rick," she sighed, "if you didn't want to be friends with me, you just had to say so."
It was his turn to sigh then, "It's not that. Kate, you know it's not."
"Then what is it?" She asked, exasperated by their back and forth game. In any other situation, she would have enjoyed it, even participated, but now it just seemed like it was delaying the inevitable.
"Please, don't be angry at me," he plead, his voice so tiny and his look so soft.
"I'm not angry at you, Rick." She exhaled, blamed his eyes and that soft look he gave her.
Did he know he was looking right at her, in this exact moment, their pupils almost parallel to one another?
He chuckled, "You must be not angry around me a lot."
"Yeah well," she said and shoved her pens back into her backpack, "I just wanted to get to know you. I liked you a lot and I thought it would have been fun."
"Simple as that?"
"Simple as that."
He heard the shift of her chair and smelled the sweet fragrance of her hair as she moved the long strands over one shoulder, "Where are you going?"
"I gotta go. Josh is meeting me outside to go for lunch," she said and pulled on the strands of her backpack.
"I see," he grabbed his glasses and put them on again, thinking he had sounded nonchalant, but he hadn't. At all...
"Not like that, Rick." Kate said, conflicted with the fact that she didn't owe him an explanation even though she wanted to give him one. "He just finished a class here and we are going to meet our friends."
As she turned on her heels, Rick's hand grabbed hers and pulled back with great power. They stood close; knees and lips almost touching as he held her between his arms. Kate shook herself from his embrace and stepped back, taking a moment to pull on the hem of her shirt. A moment to think. Once she looked up to Rick, a mix of confusion and fear adorned his face. Approaching her slowly, like one might approach a wild animal, he placed a hand on her waist, the other one cupping her jawbone as he crushed his lips against hers, letting his thumb trace his way to her lips. Kate ran her hands up his chest, tightening her grip on a handful of his shirt and pressing their bodies even closer. Soon after, they stumbled towards the wall, lips crashing against one another in a powerful, but rapid kiss. His hold on her waist lessened then, so she grabbed his head between her shaky hands and placed a soft kiss over his lips. And then another one, slow and sweet.
"Simple as that?" he asked.
"Simple as that."
He entered through the big wooden doors after hearing a rough voice giving him permission to enter. A cloud of smoke surrounded him unexpectedly, forcing him to cough and reach for the nearest chair.
"I take it you don't smoke," Gibbs said from afar.
"No sir," he coughed one last time before fixing his posture. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes. Yes." Gibbs said, "Get closer, Rodgers."
Focusing his mind for a moment, Rick was able to calculate the direction of his voice. If Gibbs was sitting on his desk, then the chairs should be in front of him. The tick-tock of a battery operated clock echoed in his head like bounces of a ping-pong ball. Immediately, Rick was able to grasp the room's layout. With two quick steps, and guided by his cane, Rick spotted the soft, velvety cover of the chair.
"Have you finished your lesson plan for this month?" Gibbs asked.
"I finished grading the essays and planning the first two weeks earlier today, sir," Rick said and suppressed the need to cough. "I plan to finish the rest tomorrow."
"Well, I expect those papers to be at my desk before Monday. Understood?" Gibbs asked, but Rick thought he must have put out the cigarette because his voice sounded clearer now, much lighter.
"Yes, sir." He said. "Is that all?"
"That'll be all. Thank you for coming, Mr. Rodgers."
As he stood, Rick heard the silent swish of a lighter as Professor Gibbs lighted another cigarette. Hoping to leave before another cloud of smoke could take the better of him, Rick moved across the room like an expert, avoiding the giant globe in the middle of the room and holding his cane up before it touched the red carpet. As he reached for the door and opened it, Rick forgot about the other pair of eyes in the room following his every skillful move.
Thank you once again to my Beta. This whole story wouldn't be possible without her help. You're the greatest Ana!