"It's okay sweetheart. I didn't want him to go either." Kiba said.
"I'm just so scared of losing him. He seems so infatuated with Tony that I feel like he's slipping through my grasp." Kate cried out.
Kiba held her as she cried for everything she was worth and he soothed her through it all allowing her to sit on his lap on the couch. Until she was done and leaning into him.
"It'll be okay babe. He's always going to need his mom."
She nodded.
"Let's get ready for dinner. Everyone really likes you and it'll keep your mind off of it." With that said he pushed her toward her room and left to go change in his own apartment.
He met her 30 minutes later and they rode together. As usual he wasn't planning on drinking so he offered to make sure she made it home safe. At dinner he occasionally put his arm around her and she saw Ino studying them. She wasn't sure he was aware he was doing it. She spent the whole meal leaning into his strength and when they went dancing they stayed together the whole time with him holding her hips and her swaying her body against his. He stole a few kisses as well.
"What's changed?" Ino asked when she caught Kate alone. "You fell for him didn't you?"
"No we're just friends." Kate replied quickly.
"Honey with the way he's been acting towards you and looking at you all night you better make sure he knows you're just friends." Ino said with a smile. "Kiba's different Kate. He swears he'll never settle down because of his father but I think he secretly wants someone to come home to. Please be gentle with him. He's the type to fall hard for a girl and by extension her kid. And when he does finally fall for someone he's gonna try to sabotage it because he feels like he's not worthy of their love. He'll let you break his heart because he feels like that's what he deserves. So just be sure you want him before you let him fall for you." She did want him. All of him. She was so in love with him she wanted to scream it from the roof tops but she knew how he felt about it so she kept her mouth shut.
Kiba watched Ino and Kate have their private conversation and he could read Kate's face that it was serious. He walked over to get Kate so they could leave and on the ride back he asked about it.
"Nothing," she said. "We were just talking about work."
He didn't believe her. "You sure because you looked concerned and serious. Ino's not really the type to talk shop outside of work."
"I'm worried about Oliver" she said so Kiba let it drop.
Kiba reached over and held her hand in his own. "Me too" he admitted.
He took her home and stayed the night.
On Sunday morning at two am his phone blared to life. He had been working light duty helping with the kidnapping case. They had made a break in the case when one of the ring leaders crashed his car pretty bad with two kids in it. The guy was on drugs. One of the kids was the little boy that had been recently kidnapped. As he was ending the call he heard frantic pounding on his door and jumped up expecting it to be one of the guys. He opened the door without thinking and met a panicked Kate.
"Oliver is in the hospital." She said quickly but she was shaking incredibly bad. "He's in critical condition. I can't drive."