A/N: I wanted to get this chapter up before I left for my aunt's house. There's been a lot of rushing going on with this story lately... 'tis the season, I guess. So anyway, not that this is a particularly good excuse, but I'm skipping my customary final edit so I can get this posted before a lot later tonight, so if there are any random errors/typos... it's probably a product of that.
Hope everyone had/is having an excellent Christmas! :)
"Obviously this was a brilliant idea," Alexis sighed under her breath as she skated into the wall of the rink to prevent herself from skating into the couple in front of her. She usually went skating with her friends about once a year, and she'd never exactly been good at it, but neither had her friends. Next to Kate, she was awful.
She'd said she hadn't been skating in a long time, but she didn't seem at all out of practice. She glided over the ice effortlessly, not slowed down by the bumps in the ice caused by the hundreds of other skaters before her. Meanwhile, Alexis stayed close to the wall, both because she'd have something to grab if she was about to fall and because skating into the wall was the only way she knew how to stop that was a hundred percent effective.
After lapping her for the third or fourth time, Beckett slowed down to skate beside Alexis, smiling, her cheeks a little pink from the cold and the exercise. "Hey," she said. "Guess it came back quicker than I thought."
"Yeah." Alexis forced a smile. "You look good out there."
"Thanks." Kate watched as Alexis broke away from the wall to pass an older lady who was worse than she was, but return to her security blanket as soon as she was able. "Correct me if I'm wrong," the detective observed, "but you don't look like you're having a great time."
"Oh." She forced another smile, this time trying to make it look more convincing. "No. This is fun."
But her efforts weren't enough. Kate wasn't buying it. She raised her eyebrows. "Really? Then do your rental skates have magnets in them that attract them to the wall? Because we can get you another pair."
Even in the cold air, she felt herself blush. "No, I just… I like it better over here."
"Okay, come on." She extended a gloved hand.
Alexis looked at it, confused. "What?"
"Come on. Take it. We'll skate for real."
She continued to stare at the detective's hand, weighing her options.
"It's not a trick, I promise," Kate laughed. "I won't let you fall."
Great. Now if she didn't go with Kate she was going to think it was because she didn't trust her. That wasn't it, it was just… she didn't know her that well. But she gave in and took the detective's hand, albeit a little nervously.
Kate held onto her hand firmly, but not too hard, and Alexis tried to do the same, not really wanting either of them to accidentally let go at the wrong moment. She wasn't sure if she was more afraid of actual pain or simply embarrassment, but she knew that she didn't want to fall.
It didn't take long until she was skating faster and closer to the center of the rink than she was comfortable. But when she got past her nervousness and looked around, saw the seven-year-olds that had been passing her being left behind, noticed the snow and the decorations, and the fact that the ice here, where fewer people were skating, was much smoother than the ice at the outer edges, she was able to relax a little and try to actually keep up with Kate so she wasn't pulling her along quite so much. She looked over at the detective, who was beaming.
She kept her hold on Kate's hand, and felt surprisingly safe. It wasn't really awkward, like she'd expected it to be. She didn't really feel like she was with her father's girlfriend. She felt more like she was with a friend, but a friend who would look out for her, and a friend that she could look up to. She'd never had a relationship similar to this one before, and she couldn't quite define it. But she thought she might like it.
She was skating past all kinds of people now, and she could feel the muscles in her legs burning from the exertion. Although holding Kate's hand tighter than ever, she was skating completely under her own power now, keeping up well. She liked the feeling of the cold air blowing through her hair, liked passing so many other skaters in her circle, even liked the feeling of the strain on her muscles, telling her that she was pushing herself harder than she usually did.
But after doing a few laps this way, her legs started to feel a little wobbly, and her skates stopped going where she aimed them quite as reliably. But she kept going, telling herself she'd finish at least another lap, maybe two, before taking a break. She didn't want to stop. She was having fun.
At least until her skate found a dent in the ice that her eyes hadn't. Reflexively, she tightened her grip on Kate's hand, but it was too late. Her skate had gone sideways, her knees had buckled, and she was already on the way down, pulling Kate with her.
It all happened so fast that it took her a second, lying there on the cold ice, to figure out exactly what it was that had happened. She was flat out on her side. Kate had managed to let go of her hand before falling the whole way, apparently, and was kneeling beside her.
As soon as she got her bearings, the first thing she could think to do was to get up, and now. There were people skating all around her, and it was only a matter of time before someone would be skating too fast or not paying attention and run into her, not to mention that lying on the ice wasn't exactly the most flattering position. "You okay?" she was vaguely aware of Kate asking. She nodded and got up as quickly as she could, and skated to the wall, ignoring the sharp pain in her ankle.
Kate met her there, all the carefree joy that had been on her face just minutes ago replaced by a frown. "You okay?" she asked again.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just… I think I need a break from skating. You can keep going though. I'll watch."
She shook her head. "No, it's fine. I've had enough anyway. Let's go." She nodded toward the gates. They'd still have to skate around about half of the rink to get there.
Alexis nodded and started to skate back, but as soon as she put enough weight on her right ankle to push off of the ice she felt a stab of pain and winced visibly. The distance to the gates suddenly looked considerably farther.
"Ankle?" Kate asked, having apparently noticed.
"Yeah."
She nodded. "I figured, the way you fell. Here, hold onto the wall," she directed. Alexis did. "Try to put most of your weight on the other leg." She held out her arm so that it was easily reachable. "You can hold onto me too if you need to. But just try to keep moving and we'll get to the gate before you know it."
She made her way around the rink slowly, trying to push off of the wall and occasionally Kate rather than the ice to avoid putting weight on her bad ankle. Every time she looked at Kate, she gave her a sheepish but encouraging smile. Although it seemed to take an eternity, eventually she did make it back to the gate, and hobbled with Kate's assistance onto less slippery ground, and finally to a bench inside the rental building.
"Give me your skates and I'll go get our shoes back," Kate suggested, unlacing her own.
Alexis unlaced both of her skates and took the left one off and set it on the floor, but her feet had fit snugly into her skates, and the amount of pulling she had to do to get her right skate off hurt. A lot. "I can't—"
"Here." Kate sat down next to her and took hold of her skate. She wiggled it gently until it started to come loose, and then eased it off. "Okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Good. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "I don't have shoes. Where am I gonna go?"
"Good point. Okay, be right back."
Alexis watched Kate disappear into the crowd, going in the direction of the rental desk. She felt a little bad for cutting their day short, not that it had been intentional. She had actually been having a good time, and she knew that Kate had as well.
It didn't take her long to get back, carrying Alexis's boots and already wearing her own. "Okay, let me see your ankle," she said. "Put it up on the bench." She complied and rolled up her jeans so that Kate could see. She frowned. "Well, it might be a little bit swollen, but it's not too bad." She pressed gently with her fingers. "That hurt?"
"Yeah, a little."
She nodded and felt around a little more. "Okay, I don't think anything's broken. You might've sprained it, but you probably just twisted it. I know it hurts, but I think it'll be okay in a day or two. I'll see if I can find you some ice, and then we'll go."
"Thanks." She smiled sheepishly, still feeling guilty.
Kate left, and returned a few minutes later with a bag of ice from the refreshment window. "Here," she said, handing it to her. "Keep this on it so it doesn't swell any more. Or, I guess when we get to the car. Can you get your boot on?"
She nodded. She'd been wearing Ugg boots, which weren't exactly restrictive. "I'm sure I can." She pulled it on carefully, but without difficulty. "Okay, let's go."
A/N: Thanks for reading, and Merry Christmas! Hope you enjoyed the (rather rushed, but hopefully still good) chapter. Apparently I landed with making the skating scene its own chapter... it just kind of worked out that way. :)