"They took it well...I think. I told them there had been a loss, they said to keep them updated on when I'd be back but to take all the time I needed." Moriarty was forced to look up from the computer as Katherine entered his office, unannounced. She was quite a fan of doing so since they'd arrived at the house yesterday. Walking wherever she wanted, when she wanted, no matter how many times he ordered her to rest and stay indoors.
It was like she'd woke up this morning and suddenly stopped caring about her wellbeing. When he asked how she was, she only shrugged. He had ordered five more men to cover her every movement subtly as a result, the last thing he needed was her to feel like she had nothing to live for.
"I didn't think the government offices would be so understanding." Jim joked, resting his elbows on his desk as she sauntered over, her arm on the side of the wound wrapped over her chest. She refused to wear a sling. 'It didn't go with her dress', although he would barely call it a dress. More of a baby blue silk slip with a cream cashmere cardigan over the top. Her bare legs seemed to never end and she almost looked angelic with her hair pulled up and barely any make up on.
Normally he would disapprove, but then again normally she loved playing dress up. With a worried frown, he pushed his chair back and sighed heavily, but it alarmed her.
"Come here." Katherine was practically cooing at him when she walked around to perch on the end of his desk. "What is worrying you? You've been quiet all day." If he admitted to her that it was she worrying him, he might never live it down with his own inner self. But she was. He had mounted her on a pedestal for all to see, for all to get to and it had back fired. Not only was he worried for her safety still, and the quality of her own mind, but he was stressed trying to work out a way to push her back up there. "Jim?" She pushed a hand through his hair and massaged behind his ear.
"Nothing. Busy." He took her wrist and kissed it before lowering it back to her side.
"Jim?"
Without thinking, he slammed his hands on the desk and snapped at her. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?" The sudden behaviour caused her to jump up from his desk, lightly jolting her shoulder but she didn't show it. Instead, Katherine simply turned in the direction to leave him.
"Fine. My apologies." She should have known better. Two nights of him holding her and crying with her didn't rewrite the past three years. That's why, when she felt his hand wrap around her wrist tight, she tried to throw him off. "Hey-" She tried to fight his casual abuse until his lips crushed hers and she was pushed until her lower back was bruised by his desk.
"Look at me. Look at me." With his hand wrapped around her neck, he forced her to meet his eyes. But all she saw in them was worry. No anger, no frustration. There was something anguishing about them and something she'd never seen before. "You're beautiful." Jim held her still until her felt her swallow hard, then his grip released and his hand melted down her chest. "You are...you are..."
Almost too suddenly, Katherine kissed him back with everything she had. Without thinking, her hands began pulling at his jacket and soon enough it was thrown on the floor and her hands were back in his hair. Jim's mouth moved to her neck and her thighs were parted enough for him to stand between, pushing the hem of her slip up by an inch so his fingers could wrap around her underwear.
"Stop." Katherine breathed, but couldn't help the moan from escaping when he hit down on her throat. "Jim stop, I can't." She took hold of his hands before he could remove anything and then went to touch his chest, but he was too quick and stepped back. "Not because...the doctor he..." She did want him...she did but it wasn't, approved.
Since when were they ones to listen to others? It was all so very ironic. But it was for the best. And when Jim looked at her and saw the passion in her eyes, she didn't feel unreachable but it was still disappointing.
"Go get cleaned up. I'll see you at dinner." Jim kept his distance and slapped her thigh gently. But she didn't move.
"Can I not stay a bit?" Katherine was biting her lip and pulling the end of her dress down, although it barely covered anymore of her. "It...they aren't good company out there." Sebastian was out on the hunt for her favourite shooter and the rest of the staff were scared of her. "I want someone to play with."
Unable to stop himself, Jim smirked and sat down in his chair and pointed to the seat facing his desk just a few feet away. "Sit."
She sat there for a good five minutes, silently. Jim knew it wouldn't last however, it never did. He'd give her three more minutes maximum and then he'd check her pulse for signs of life if she hadn't made a noise.
"Can I help?" She asked lightly but already expecting him to say no as she fidgeted in her seat. As deep as she was in field work these days there was always those things he still kept hidden. The 'surprises' or the 'strictly confidential' notes that not even she saw unless it was on a strictly need to know basis.
Thankfully he worded his disapproval in a nicer way. "Do you know how to negotiate with a low key terrorist group from South America?" She smirked at first then gave a slow, playful shrug. "Come here." She was almost giddy when she slid onto his lap, swinging her long legs around so he could push them closer the the computer. His system was loaded up, the database spewing names and numbers and currencies...then at the bottom, a chat room. Katherine watched carefully as he selected a name, type in key details to the file and then opened up the chat room. It seemed a delightful conversation between M and Whiskey was going on.
"This is how we speak to the men who are too dangerous to know a voice, never mind a face." Jim explained quickly, fiddling with the keyboard and windows which were open on screen before passing her the controls. "Type something." She gave him a look which resembled that of a deer in headlights. With a gaping mouth, Katherine looked between Jim and the computer trying to deduct whether he was actually serious.
After his smile started to sag, replaced by impatience, she stopped waiting for the punch line and hovered her fingers above the keys. "Like what?"
"Anything."
"But they'll see it." For the first time since coming home, Katherine looked unplagued through his eyes. She was too busy thinking, working, to worry about anything else. She enjoyed his work an amusing amount, and she was good at it. Even if they weren't married he'd have kept her around for her work. "They'll read it as you." She pointed at the blinking curser on the screen and blinked at him.
"From anonymous." Jim trailed off. "What? You scared?" With her lips purse, Katherine tried not to smack him. Scared? She would not be scared. They were probably no more clever than the dirt on her shoes. "Katherine Moriarty, scared of a name on a computer screen?" Her hands were as steady as anything, no fear. Her brain was working at a mile a minute trying to think of something good and a second later she hit jackpot. "Attagirl." Her fingers typed slow but precise and every few moments she would stop, bite her lip, tilt her head and then continue. Once done, she awaited no approval and hit send before leaning back against his chest.
'Ready to play? Or have you got a better offer? - M
"Now what?" Before Jim could say anything, the small bubble started to dance as the recipient began typing.
'Name your price?' - Whiskey
"Well it got a response..." With a small smirk he poked her in the side and waved his arms for her to get back to work. "Now try to make them give me one million dollars."
"Only one million?" Katherine paused and frowned. That was pennies for them, he wasn't kidding when he said low key. All of a sudden she had a lot more confidence towards speaking to them. "I'll not hold out for a good Christmas present then."
She sat there for hours. It was dark outside by the time she left Jim's office, escorted by him so they could get something to eat. Not only had she done a good job but she had managed to go hours without even thinking of the events to take place the past week. All of a sudden there was no loss, there was no fear, there was no anything. She was having fun, laughing as she sent messages to these killers and demanded their money, money Jim's account would shortly receive all down to her.
It gave Jim an idea. If she was going to grow and become everything she once was, she was going to have to work for it, quite literally.
Days later had not improved her. Even a minute or two after awaking, when she realised the date, it still didn't not cheer her up...well maybe a bit. She was thankful that the news of her loss had taken away from the shooting. She barely ever found herself thinking about those moments, when she was laying conscious on that hospital bed. Don't get her wrong, the images sent a deep chilly shiver down her spine but as soon as she thought of the child it all melted away. Her own pain didn't matter, all that mattered was the innocent life lost. She didn't have nightmares of being shot at or strapped down. But she did occasionally wake with a phantom pain in her lower abdomen. It would melt away as soon as she opened her eyes but she swore it had been there, a small kick as Moriarty lay beside her. But there was nothing there, nothing at all.
The only time she seemed to be genuinely happy in the past few days was when she was working. After that day spent in Moriarty's office she'd had been stupid to think it would continue. The next day she'd knocked on his door but she'd been marched straight back out after being handed a laptop to work with in bed. He was giving her work but he valued his privacy. So for the past two days she'd been sat creating new identities for fraud cases and completing background checks on the seemingly innocent. She'd been involved, so much so she barely found herself thinking about...those sorts of things.
Katherine wrapped a floor length silk robe around herself and tied the knot at her waist as she left the master bedroom and descended the broad staircase. He was already in the dining room when she enter, sat in his usual place with every paper, from most countries, piled up in front of him. It was the same, every morning, and the date hadn't changed his morning routine.
"Merry Christmas." She stood in the threshold of the dining room door for a couple of seconds and watched him. Some French paper lay open at the minute, god knows what he'd been doing to end up related to a story in there.
He seemed to be ignoring her, until his brow rose and he looked up at her. "Are we really going to do this?"
Katherine chuckled and joined him at the table. "Would it kill you to humour me, just one year?"
It really did pain him. Every year was the same. He started out winning but as each year went by she pushed harder and harder and he was slowly beginning to realise the day went by a lot easier if her just repeated the words.
"Merry Christmas, sweetheart." Only Jim Moriarty could make it sound like a threat.
"Thank you." She gave a smug grin, which he ignored and stole one of his papers. The headline read 'Housing Market Won't Recover Until 2014'. Ah the credit crunch, she pitied the thousands that were going through such hard times. What must it be like to have such pointless worries? She barely remembered...the time between worrying about bills and worrying about assassins was a blur now. It was all so obsolete.
She grew bored of the article and the silence after only a couple of sentences, so she returned the paper to the pile and quirked an eyebrow at Jim. "So, what's on the itinerary for today?"
"Same as every other day." He heard her huff as well as seeing it in the corner of his eye. "We've talked about this."
"No we haven't. You talked about it, I sat there pretending to listen but not agreeing."
Jim dropped the paper just enough to be able to look at her head on. "Can I expect you to be this stubborn all day?"
"For the remainder of the festive period, yes." Katherine poured her own cup of tea and threw her spoon down in time to make her point. It was childish, yes, but it was also Christmas.
He gave a long sigh and sat up straight, ignoring her hard stare. Every year...every year she was the same and the harder he tried to ignore her the more stubborn the woman was. Normally it got noon and he would give in but not this time. He didn't care if she was having a hard time or if they were both struggling to get out of the rut they were in, he wouldn't loose this year.
"Then what would you have me do, hmm? Dress up in a red suit and and have the dogs dress as rudolf and drag you around on a sleigh?"
"Yes." Katherine had to fight her grin hard but it broke out in the end and she stood, walking to stand behind him as her arms wrapped around his neck. "Besides, you've been very bad all year Mr Moriarty. You deserve a break." Her chin rested on his shoulder while he involuntarily caressed her arm. "Please?" With a kiss planted on his neck, Jim rolled his eyes. She wouldn't win.
"You still haven't told me what you want to do."
"Anything! Go for a walk-"
"You're resting." So maybe walking wasn't her strongest skill at the moment...
"Bake a pudding-"
"You can't cook." So maybe baking wasn't even her best talent...
"Watch a god awful film that has a Christmas song in the title." Jim didn't interrupt this time and she giggled. "Come on. Watch a cheesy film with me darling." Rubbing his shoulders with just the right amount of pressure, he was close to admitting defeat. But he had work to do, and she had to start learning that she wasn't always going to get her way after she'd been spoilt over the past couple of days...even if it was Christmas.
"If I give you a present, will you leave me alone?" He may not have believed in Christmas, or at least the glee of it all, but he did have a present for her. Mind from the amount of presents she got, every week might as well have been Christmas.
Katherine hummed in his ear and played with the knot of his tie. When he was just about ready to hit her, she smiled. "...Maybe."
"Well tough, you have to wait until tonight." He had a real gift but to go with it he also had a special project, a big one. Call it the gift that would keep on giving, for many years to come if she did well. He needed the day alone to finish setting it up, working out the paths she could take and the ones he would make her take. He was actually excited for it.
"James-"
"If you let me work." He took her hand and detached it from him. After pulling her down for a single kiss, he tapped her behind to send her back to her seat.
"Fine...but it better be worth it!"
6pm on Christmas Day evening and she was lying in bed, alone, in the dark watching Home Alone. She'd done it all. Watched the Queens Speech, the TV specials, sang along to carols on song of praise. Alone. He hadn't even come up to check on her once. Actually, the only person to pop their head into the room was a maid telling her lunch was ready and dinner would be served late upon Mr Moriarty's request.
It was boring. Creating profiles and fake passports had become boring. Her day had dragged. It never used to drag, and it probably would have never dragged again if she had a child to entertain. They could go out walking, build up an appetite. Open all of the presents which had been left by Santa and watch for hours as they played with each one. She could sign and dance with them, curl up by the fire and watch films with them for hours.
She had never wanted any of that, but ever since it was stolen from her it was ass she wanted. That's what she should have had, not what they could have.
"You rang." Katherine jumped in her place on the bed and gave a small yelp at his sudden presence in the door. She had called for him...an hour ago. God bless the maid she'd asked to summon him.
"I'm bored!" She was met with a vacant stare. "There's...nothing to do. Nowhere to go." Her voice mellowed out but his steps into the room were even boring. Slow and considered. He was trying to irritate her, she was sure of it.
"People who have been shot are normally quite stationary."
"Yes well, my minds asking me to keep it busy." One more day. One more day he'd allow her to play that card and then he was putting his foot down. Yes, she was upset, they both were. She'd also been through a traumatic event and was scared but most of his men had suffered the same fate, yet they were out there hunting down the man who brought down their queen.
She had to leant that there was still things to do. The world didn't simply come to a stop because She fell into a bullet and a child without yet a conscious died. The world kept spinning, and she had to keep on turning with it. No more moping after today, no more sloppiness and crying over spilt milk.
Thankfully, for his sanity and her safety, he had the perfect thing. She would be able to spend hours on it in the house without getting too bored, hopefully, and it was just the right amount of sinister for her to enjoy herself.
"You want a job?" Moriarty asked, taking his hands from his pockets and sitting on the end of the bed. Katherine nodded and shuffled closer, wrapping her arms around her knees. It was a good job she was cute, because god was she irritating him. "It's a biggy. I'll be expecting a lot from you."
"I'm hoping for a lot." She muttered lowly under her breath, chin resting on her upper arm.
"It might be dangerous." All she did was simply raise a brow as if it didn't bother her. Good. "And...well it's a 24 hour job."
"I'm married to you. I'm used to 24 hour jobs."
There she was. There was that killers smile, white pearly teeth ready to bite the balls off the big boys. He just had to keep tempting out that wit.
"Ow, feisty." Jim's hand started at her ankle, but for the nth time that week, soon ended up on her hip. He pushed her back onto the bed and situated himself over her, between her thighs. There was something about her strength sometimes that drove him to need her. "You're distracting me again."
"I didn't do anything." Katherine smiled and pulled him down just enough to be able to kiss him. "You just can't wait to fuck me."
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"Hardly, you forbid me from contacting her." Her confidence had increased over the past couple of days so much she was almost reckless. Her tongue had venom and it was potent enough to kill sometimes. He'd noticed it here and there, sometimes wondering whether it was a strength or weakness of her recovery.
The verdict on that could wait. Right now, it would be useful.
"Stop begging for a punishment." Moriarty laughed and pulled her up from the bed, moving her so she straddled his knee, all the while trying not to pull her shoulder. "I know you're bored, but you don't have to misbehave."
"I want my present. It's Christmas." Finally admitting defeat, Jim leant over and removed the small, wrapped gift from the draw of the bedside cabinet on his side of the bed. Her eyes were already studying it as he raised it to hover in front of her face.
"Merry Christmas." He quickly kissed her cheek and dropped it into her hands.
It was light and...hard. It resembled something so held every day and also something of his which she loathed when trying to have a decent conversation, but why would he have got her that. With a raised brow, Katherine's exchanged looks between Jim and the present as her fingers tore at the paper.
It didn't take long to reveal what it was, and when she did she was...speechless. Definitely speechless.
"It's a phone."
"That's right." Katherine continued to stare at him blankly, waiting for an explanation to come, but it never did. So she tossed the iPhone in her hand a couple of times. It was new, space grey wrapped in a gold case.
"It's a...a...a phone." She tried again. "I have a phone."
"And I got you another one." The silence resumed. She was ready to punch him due to her impatience.
"Aww...no...nope I don't get it." Looking at Jim, she ignored his smirk and asked. "What's it for?"
"I couldn't have you using your own phone for such a job. This is strictly for one thing." The pause was painful, but if she had known what he was going to say, she would have wished him to be silent longer. "You're going to contact Sherlock Holmes."
At first, Katherine's shoulders shrugged in amusement. "Ha...haha, that's funny." Crawling off Jim's knee, she walked half way across the room before spinning around and chucking the phone at him. "Okay, you got me! What's my real present?" She knew it was a long shot and his silence confirmed that it wasn't a joke. "No...no...I'm not, no I refuse."
"You refuse?!" Jim's eyes were wide in amusement.
"Yes, I refuse. Were you listening to me when I told you about him? He's rude, he is ignorant, more so than his brother and that's saying something. And anyway, much to your disappointment, I don't think he's much of a talker." There was no way. There was field work and then there was mundane chores no one else wanted to do. This could gratefully added to that long list.
She would not be the one to contact that...android of a human.
"I only want you to text him." He retrieved the phone from where it had landed at the head of the bed and unlocked it, double checking everything was there. The GPS was untraceable, it only held one contact which was Sherlock and everything else was empty. No personal information, no photos, no anything. Just one number and a signal.
"What for?" Katherine approached Jim and stood, knees touching, with her arms crossed and her eyes glaring down at him. "Tell me what for and I'll consider it."
"It's time." Moriarty explained, looking up at her through his lashes with an opened mouth. His hands were entertained by the phone, flipping it and fondling it. "I need you. You are my ace Katherine. You're the only one I can trust."
All those meetings, all that training had led to this. In Jim's mind, he had planned for a much calmer run up. But the recent turbulence had provided a good opportunity. She needed the distraction and what was a better distraction then trying to get a rise out of a detective through text?
"Well that's true..." Sarcasm laced her words. "But still...isn't is risky? I already have enough people out to get me."
"He isn't like that. That's what I've been looking into for the past few months." Sherlock Holmes was a man who liked nothing more than to solve murders, not cause them. That much was evident. "He won't kill, he won't hire to kill, he might try to find out who you are but that's what we want."
"You want him to find me?" Katherine raised her eyebrow and scoffed.
"I want him to want to find you. But he won't be able to and it will just drive him to respond more." She was going to drive him wild. Katherine, his little minx, was going to inject herself in their lives even deeper than some receptionist and bring Sherlock into the limelight.
"You think he'll reply?"
"I know he will." He'd be too curious not too. "Get a rise out of him. Make him need you."
She wasn't sure...she, what would she possibly say? Oh hey, how's it hanging? It was a daft idea, but it couldn't have been because it was Jim's idea. "For how long?"
"The foreseeable future." As long as he needed her too, he was sure Sherlock wouldn't let her go easily, not until he caught her and he never would. Just like he'd promised her, he wouldn't touch her. Upon hearing it wasn't a one hour job, she pouted and avoided his eyes. "Just texting...you never know. You may grow to like him and end up running away together in a romantic affair."
"Hmm, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Katherine hummed and disregarded his sneer, she wasn't in the mood. This was not something she fancied doing, she definitely didn't accept Sherlock as her Christmas present, but she knew the task was inevitable. "Just promise me something? If this gets dangerous, if it gets difficult or quite frankly he just becomes a pain in my arse. You'll let me stop." He nodded his head 'yes' but then he broke out in a grin and changed it to 'no'.
When Katherine's face fell, he laughed and pulled her down onto his knee again. "I'll consider it." He started on her neck first, then moved her her collar bone, nipping at it gently.
"What do you want me to say first?" She tried not to moan as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Anything. This is all yours." He picked her up and turned her so that her back was against the mattress and he was once again on top of her. "Just tell me if anything fun happens, you know I like games."
"Hmm. You want to play a game with me?" Her hand tugged on the hair at the nape of his neck and he started removing his shirt. She didn't want to discuss it anymore so she'd distract him. "It's called Jim gets his Christmas present."