In his t-shirt, shorts, and bare feet, Rick stood at the front door of his building, the subway station Kate would emerge from just a few blocks away. He'd slept late-10AM now seemed to roughly equate to the 1PM of his adolescence-carried his coffee in a travel cup into the shower with him, thrown on the first clothes he'd opened the drawer to, to ensure he'd make it downstairs in time for her planned arrival.
They'd talked on the phone until after midnight, the hell of his day left without mention by both, and the morning found him returning to himself, yet grateful Montgomery had insisted upon the hours away. There would be benefit gained from discussion and reflection he'd been told by his partner, as had been her past experience with events challenging though not equal, and he wasn't adverse to the recommendation, but all he wanted on that day, a mere twenty-four hours removed from it, was to be with Kate, and as a man, not a cop.
He hadn't collected his mail in three days, and as he sorted through it, weeded out the unwanted elements over the trash can beside his box, there came a tap at the glass, Kate's eyes, hidden behind her sunglasses, peeping at him through the door.
Rick tucked the remaining stack of envelopes into the front of his shorts and opened for her, kissed her in the otherwise-unoccupied lobby like they'd been apart for years, not hours. "Better than breakfast," he said when they broke, and his stomach growled, as if begging to differ.
Sliding a hand into the bag at her hip, she pulled out a small one, one he recognized well. "This doesn't mean I support your habit. As a first-time guest, I didn't want to come empty-handed. My mother taught me better than that." She presented it, and he practically jumped with excitement. "There's an Old Fashioned and a Blueberry. I hope that's okay."
He kissed her again, the second swift but soft. "It's exactly what I wanted, thank you. Come upstairs, I need another cup of coffee to enjoy these properly. Important things have important rules."
"My guess is you might need some shoes, too, if we're actually going to go anywhere," she said, finally taking full notice of his ensemble's oddities.
"Oh, we're absolutely going somewhere." He noted her prolonged scrutiny, gave himself a look. "How about the Zeppelin t-shirt? Can I keep that on, at least?"
"Well, since I'm not your mother, I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't wear, but I will say, as me, as a woman, the Zeppelin is pretty fuckin' hot."
Rick smiled, grabbed her hand. "Okay, then maybe we're going somewhere," he joked, and they headed up to the apartment.
xxxx
"Did you get any sleep?" she asked, around the direct question she still felt she shouldn't. He carried two mugs over to the small dining table he couldn't recall the last time he'd actually used, sat in the chair across from her. "I think I was out two minutes after we hung up."
Rick dug into her gifted bag and plated his doughnuts, dismissed the apple he'd placed in front of her with a twitch of his brow. "I was up and down, but mostly down, and the extra time this morning was something I could definitely get used to. Remind me to buy lottery tickets later." Kate took a bite of her Granny Smith and chewed it snobbishly. "I stole that from Shaw, by the way. She looked all over the place for it."
"A thief is better than a liar," she replied and washed down the tart fruit with a sip of coffee. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?"
Kate Beckett was sitting in his apartment, and it truly hit him only then. It'd been but a dream days ago-a last thought in the dark, a first thought in the light-and now she was close enough to touch, and what's more, he could and he had. He'd expected nothing and had been bestowed riches, and the disproportion in his favor of that transaction was something he intended to not take for granted.
"I'm looking at you like this because you're the most beautiful accessory-after-the-fact I've ever seen, and you're here with me right now, and I still don't have any idea how the hell that happened, but I know it feels good."
One hand found his knee beneath the table as she brought her mug to her lips with the other. "I don't either, but maybe that's okay. Maybe we're supposed to figure it out together." Grady had said that to her, and she'd been surprised to find the romance in his thesis more powerful than her mystification. "Whatever that means," she added with a shrug.
Rick finished off his Old Fashioned with a final dunk into his coffee, wiped his mouth of its remnants. "I try to believe there's a higher something out there, something that has answers to the whys, especially with the things I have to see every day, but…" He paused as the horrible images of the previous morning floated across his mind, and Kate intuited that. "But it isn't always easy." He set his hand on top of hers. "I like your idea."
"So," she said after an interlude passed in his eyes, "are you going to tell me where we're going? I decided against the hat part of the disguise, but I did wear the sunglasses, even though it looked like it was going to pour on my way over here."
"It wouldn't dare, and, yeah, I was going to make fun of you when you first got here, actually, but I thought it might ruin my chances at that kiss, so I played it cool. I'd say my restraint definitely paid off."
Kate ogled him over her mug's rim. "For both of us," she said assuredly. "Expect a lot more reward."
"This day is so much better than the last one," he muttered. "Here's what we'll do. I'll finish my nutritious breakfast. You'll finish eating the evidence of my crime. I'll go change my clothes-not my t-shirt, though," he said with a wink, "and then I'll tell you where we're going. Mystery can be quite sexy, you know."
Kate surely agreed that morning.
xxxx
His place wasn't really large enough to explore, so he told her to make herself comfortable on the couch while he went to finish getting ready. They weren't on a particular schedule, didn't have to be anywhere at a specific time, but he'd checked the hourly weather on his phone, and the chance for rain by the afternoon was far greater than the zero percent he'd hoped for, so trying to get out while they could still enjoy their destination meant they were likely up against the clock.
He opted not to shave, and to brush his teeth for the second time, having pulled off his shirt to avoid the splatter of toothpaste that always seemed to accompany the aging electronic gadget he still used in spite of its years, and he laid a pair of jeans out on the bed to pull on in place of the ugly plaid shorts he'd removed and dropped straight into the bathroom trash can. He could think of no good reason at all as to why he still had them.
From the couch, Kate could hear the sound of Mick Jagger's voice playing over the stream of the water, unmistakable, though she couldn't recall the name of the song, and it pulled her to his bedroom like the Pied Piper's instrument. She leaned against the doorframe, gently hummed the ballad's sweet melody when its words didn't readily come, until Rick emerged from the bathroom and found her there.
Dressed now only in his boxers, he flinched with the surprise, finished dabbing the moisture from his mouth as she looked on. "Sorry, you scared me." He tossed the hand towel onto the bureau, but remained where he stood. "My second brush this morning," he shared almost proud. "I'm a sucker for doughnuts and oral hygiene."
Kate couldn't remember how many times he'd used the word beautiful in her honor, but it was equally applicable to him, and though she'd felt that the moment they'd met-and every moment since-nothing had prepared her for the extent of the evidence before her.
She labored for a response, and managed only a feeble "the Stones," despite her brain's persisting eruption of words, and felt her cheeks flush pink with embarrassment or desire, she wasn't sure which.
"Ever seen them live?" he asked like they were chatting over eggs, like he wasn't ruining her with his exposed angles and lines. "If not, you should go when they hit L.A. next. You won't believe they're still doing what they're still doing."
Los Angeles. That was where she lived, and in little more than a week, that was where she'd be returning. Rick didn't, though, and he wouldn't be, and from that shot of reality, there in that unanticipated encounter in his Friday-morning bedroom, came a vivid throb of sadness, one she couldn't possibly have foreseen just weeks before.
When he moved for the bed, Kate did likewise, without a second's reluctance. There had been no decision to be made. She hadn't wondered or wavered, she'd simply followed her body's impulse, and when they met, when she curled her fingers around his, she was certain it'd been the right one.
"I don't want to go yet," she told him. "Can we stay here for a little while?"
Rick stroked her cheek. "The only thing I wanted to do today was spend time with you. I've already gotten my wish. Let me put some half-normal clothes on and then we can do whatever you want."
It was her fault. She hadn't been clear. That wasn't it. "No, don't, that's not what I want."
He glanced over his shoulder toward the bathroom. "Well, I already threw away those awful shorts, so I can't-"
Kate stifled a smile. "Yes, they were awful, but, Rick, I don't care about the shorts. When I asked if we could stay here, I meant here." She eyed his bed, still rumpled from his sleep. "You won't need any clothes for that."
He blinked hard, because in the immediate wake of her suggestion, his eyelids were the only part of him that would move. "I'm awake, right? I'm sorry, you do look incredibly real to me right now, but I have to ask." Instead of words, she used her lips, her tongue, in deliberate and persuasive form, and with her answer, he was left with no lingering doubt. "That was definitely a persuasive answer."
"So…?" she said, her fingers in his hair, their mouths painfully close.
Rick jerked away suddenly, threw himself onto the bed, and pushed back against the pillows. "So, I'm going to be wearing that Zeppelin shirt under my clothes at work all week next week. Get in here."
xxxx
He crawled his way down the length of her body, sprinkled a trail of delicate kisses from her breast to the only piece of clothing that remained between them and hooked his fingers around its fabric at her hips. "Your skin does taste like vanilla," he whispered, like it was intended to be a secret. "I wondered if it would."
In his rush to meet her arrival, he hadn't pulled the window's blinds, but with the bedroom door open to the rest of the apartment, Kate could see him without strain, see his expression of satisfaction with the confirmation.
"Did you really think about that?" He tickled the satin down her legs and freed her bare as she spoke, smiled a wicked smile. She didn't have to tell him. She didn't have to ask. It was like he already knew what her body craved when his thumb found her and set her nerves afire with its taunting circles, its touch like a feather. "Fuck. Rick." The words escaped her in a sigh, her swirl of intoxication rendering them barely coherent, which only served to escalate his arousal.
"More than I should have." He recollected both Shaw's and Montgomery's comments with a smirk. "Poker is not the game for me, it seems." Needing more of her, he halted his delicate exploration, wriggled his body flat between her thighs so his tongue could play, too. "Maybe I should just stick to this," he said, and after one slow sweep, her fingers fisted his hair in silent plea, and he ardently obliged.
When Kate's muscles could no longer contain their suppressed energy, her hips began to move with his stroke, commanding speed, requisitioning pressure, and receiving his gift of both, she could no longer communicate with anything but the sounds his tongue induced, yet when she granted herself surrender to the ecstasy seconds later, his name filled the silence of the room around them.
Immediately, Rick came for her mouth. "I could do that all day." She reached between them and took him in hand and he nearly bit her lip. His sampling of her had made him achingly hard, and he longed to feel her heat around him. He kissed her once more, deep and thorough. "Okay, fuck, give me one…I need to…" Pawing at the nightstand's drawer, he finally managed it open and reached inside. "I told you. With Chuckles it's safety first." Pushing up onto his knees, he bit at the condom's wrapper, tore the top off. "Impressed?" he said humorously and spit the tiny piece aside.
She assured him she was, but it wasn't his teeth that'd won her admiration. "I want to do it," she said, and he relinquished it without argument, her fingers gliding it over his length without their eyes ever breaking contact.
He hovered over her, one hand firm in hers above the pillows, the other tracing a serpentine path across her nipple while she prepared to take him in. "You're so beautiful, sometimes I can hardly breathe when I'm around you." All at once he felt warmth, and the most exquisite throb. "So beautiful," he echoed, the hum in his throat and her gasp colliding, sparking a desperation for motion.
He dove into her again and again and she arched into each thrust, her legs locked around his hips, allowing him deep, and when she sensed he'd neared the apex of his climb, she put her fingers to work and helped herself ready for a shared descent back to Earth.
"Look at me," she urged him from the edge, "I want to see you," and when their eyes met, they both let go, as though that was all they'd been waiting for.
Rick fell into the empty space beside her and rolled onto his back, let an expletive befitting his pleasure trickle from his lips. "That was incredible. Wait," he perched himself on his elbow. "Was that incredible? You don't need to grade my paper or anything, I just want to make sure-"
Kate angled up and stole a kiss. "I thought it would've been pretty easy to tell, but next time I'll try to make it more obvious, so you don't have to ask."
"I stopped hearing words at 'next time.' I'll be honest with you." She giggled and he curled his arm around her belly, settled his head above her heart. For a brief time, as they floated toward calm, neither spoke at all, but when he finally did, his acknowledgment wasn't easy for either of them. "You're leaving in a week."
Her eyes drifted closed. "I know."
