Kate and Rick had started spending more time together; they'd often go out for drinks after work. Sometimes Javi and Ryan joined them and sometimes it was just the two of them. In a weird way, dinner with Martha had brought them closer. And as glad they were that they were getting to know each other better, they wanted to forget about dinner and all its awkwardness but Martha never let them.

"You should invite Katherine over again, but just her this time." Martha said, over breakfast that morning.

"Yeah, I barely got to talk to her." Alexis said, taking a bite of her serial.

"She was just over, let's give her some time to recover." Rick said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Recover from what? I'm sure she had a perfectly nice time." Martha said.

"Seriously, mother? You can't think of any reason why maybe she wouldn't want to come by again?" Rick asked, appalled at how far his mother could go when she wanted to prove her point.

"No, Richard. I cannot." Martha said.

"Why do you want her around anyway? I get why Alexis wants to get to know her but why are you so interested?" Rick asked.

"Because, I liked her at the hospital. But more than that, out of all of the weird and stupid mistakes you've made, a lot of which are quite regrettable, marrying her was not one of them." Martha said.

"How can you say that? You barely know her." Rick said.

"She showed up. She could've said no and no one would've blamed her. She wouldn't have done that if she didn't care about you, genuinely care. And I don't think that's a quality either of your ex-wives had." Martha said.

"Yeah but.." Rick began but he didn't really know what to say. He wanted to argue with his mother, almost wanting to ask her not to raise her own hopes or his.

"She's real and I know that's scary but it doesn't have to be." Martha said.

"Hey, I can do real." Rick said, almost offended.

"Then what are you so afraid of?" Martha asked.

"I'm only afraid of her filling a restraining order against us, after all the harassment you put her through." Rick said.

"I don't get why you have to make everything so complicated, Richard. You like her, she likes you. It doesn't have to mean anything more than that, if you don't want it to but don't run away from it." Martha said.

"I'm not running away from anything." Rick said.

Before Martha could say anything, Rick's phone began to ring. It was Kate and she had no idea what she had saved Rick from but he was grateful.

"I have to go." Rick said, after he was done talking to Kate.

"This is literally running away, Richard." Martha said.

"Can't hear you, bye you guys!" Rick said, walking out the door.

Rick pushed away thoughts of his conversation with his mother, as he walked into the precinct. "What does she know about any of this?" He thought. Sure, he knew he might have feelings for Kate but he didn't want to think about a future with her, when there was no real indication that she wanted one with him. Rick had gotten good at getting over relationships but he knew this one would hurt, even if it never became a real relationship – just the thought of losing what could've been would be enough to kill him.

"Hey, you okay?" Kate asked. She could tell Rick was worried about something. Over, the past few months, they had begun to pick up different cues that the other gave.

"Yeah, just had a conversation with my mother which is making me contemplate my entire existence. You know, the usual." Rick said, handing Kate her coffee.

"Hahah, wow." Kate said, with a chuckle.

"What have we got?" Rick asked, wanting to start focusing on the case.

"A 30-year-old man was found murdered in his apartment. All we know is, he was supposed to attend a ball tomorrow night." Kate said.

"We have our work cut out for us then." Rick said, starting to read the murder board.

The rest of the day was spent trying to work the case. Even though, it had taken a while, the team was able to find the primary suspect. He was supposed to be at the ball tomorrow and Kate and Rick were going to attend it undercover.

As planned, Rick went to pick Kate up from her apartment. She opened the door in a long, strapless black dress. She had her hair tied up in a bun. Looking at her, it took Rick a second to catch his breath.

"You look… beautiful." Rick said.

"You don't look so bad yourself, Rick." Kate said, eyeing him in his black tuxedo.

Neither of them really wanted to go to the ball. If it were left up to them, they would spend the night talking and admiring each other but there was work to be done; so they snapped out of it and tried to get their heads straight.

Once at the ball, they tried to get their eyes on the suspect. He was a tall, Caucasian man with blonde hair. After looking around a while, they finally found him dancing.

"Can I have this dance?" Rick asked, extending his hand.

"You may." Kate said with a smile as she took his hand.

As they danced, they tried to keep their eyes on the suspect.

"Can you still see him?" Rick asked, after a while.

"Yeah, but he's leaving. It'll be too suspicious if we follow him out." Kate said.

"So, what should we do?" Rick asked.

"He's heading toward Espo and Ryan's direction, I'll let them know." Kate said, pulling away from Rick a bit.

"He guys, he's coming your way." Kate said, into her ear piece.

"Copy that." Espo said.

Rick and Kate left the dance floor within minutes of the suspect to ensure he was caught. By the time they reached there, they found him handcuffed and in Javi and Ryan's custody. There was a bit of commotion at the event and Kate had make sure it was controlled.

"Wow, that was really something, huh?" Rick asked, once everything was done.

"Yeah, thank god we caught him." Kate said,

"Yeah." Rick said, with a smile.

Kate smiled back at him and began leaving the venue.

"Hey Kate, do you have somewhere to be right now?" Rick asked.

"No, why?" Kate asked.

"Aah, I know this is going to sound really stupid but that was our first dance. We never really had one at our 'wedding' and I was just wondering if you'd like to complete it." Rick said, extending his hand.

"I would love to." Kate said, flashing her widest smile.

She loved how sweet he could be. He was so good at capturing moments like these. It was what she had loved about his writing too; his ability to make you feel every second. And right now, all Kate could feel was her heart beating out of her chest, somehow in the best way possible. And as for Rick, he was trying to not be so scared. He had always avoided, real because it was always complicated and it hurt but with Kate, Rick was more scared of never trying at all. And he had a feeling, she was going to be worth the pain.