I really appreciated all of your sweet reviews on my last chapter so much! I'm glad you liked it even though it was really heartbreaking and tough to read. Now I think we all need a little bit of Wisconsin winter fluff... ;-)
Chapter 26
The next morning, she truly felt reborn. Sighing contently as she felt his steady heartbeat in his chest that slowly rose and fell beneath her cheek and his strong arms still holding her close, she let her fingers run random circles on his biceps. She had been sleeping extremely well, no nightmares disturbing her at all. "Good morning", she mumbled against his skin when she felt a light kiss on the top of her head.
Gently caressing her back, he inhaled the sweet scent of her soft, wavy hair that tickled his face the way it always did when she had slept flush against him, which she did most of the time actually. He couldn't have been more relieved that she had slept through the night without even the smallest hint of a bad dream. "Good morning, Baby… how are you feeling?"
Slowly lifting her head, her hazel eyes met his crystal blue ones. "Good. Great actually. I feel like I've been sleeping 24 hours straight to recover from a marathon." Bringing her hand to his cheek, she stroked over it tenderly before lowering her lips onto his to kiss him softly. "I hope I haven't really slept for 24 hours though… I want you to show me what's so amazing about this place in winter."
Smiling against her lips, he whispered: "I'm planning to do just that. And it's actually a beautiful sunny winter day…" He kissed her again, allowing the tip of his tongue to greet hers playfully while grazing the back of her neck with his fingers. "How do bacon-'n-egg-sandwiches sound for breakfast?"
"Sounds great, best house-husband in the world", she grinned, squeaking when he started tickling her. "Hey, that was a compliment! Mercy, please!" After cuddling for a few more minutes, they got up to get ready and then headed down for breakfast. While he started to make their sandwiches, she decided she could at least take care of the coffee.
Once they sat down at the table, he looked at the picture Brooke had given them the day before, the drawing of them at their wedding. They had put it against the wall at the end of the table for the time they were at the cabin. "Brooke's really talented. That picture is amazing… I almost like it better than the actual photograph."
She nodded, a big smile on her lips. "Me too. And yes, she's really got a lot of talent. I can see why she was Taryn's favorite student." She took another bite of her sandwich. "I think it's so great that Taryn keeps in touch with her and even visits her up here regularly. She's such a sweet, kind-hearted person. And I'm glad Hailey felt comfortable bringing her along to our Thanksgiving Dinner. She's a great addition to our group."
"Yeah, she is. And I'm really happy for Hailey, too. Haven't seen her that happy and relaxed since she joined the unit." Chuckling to himself, he added: "It's too bad that Kev and Stephanie decided they were better off as just friends. Or well, maybe it isn't that bad after all. I mean, with Kim and Ruzek giving their relationship another try, poor Mouse would be the only single in between a bunch of couples if Kev and Stephanie had worked out. Now at least they have each other to complain to about the rest of us being sickeningly sweet and happy."
Her eyes almost bulged out of her head as she tried not to spit out her coffee from laughing. "Oh, yeah, those poor guys! I mean, both of them are great, why are they single anyways? We should find nice girlfriends for them."
He grinned. "Yeah… could be hard to find girls they actually consider good enough though."
Raising her eyebrows, she asked: "Why is that?"
"Well… they know you… which means the bar is set extremely high." He gave her a beaming, love-sick-puppy-like smile.
"That's so cheesy", she replied, rolling her eyes playfully before returning his smile. "But also really sweet." She reached over the table for his hand and squeezed it gently. "I love you."
He lifted her hand up to his lips and pressed a soft kiss on her knuckles. "I love you, too." They finished their breakfast talking some more about the Thanksgiving dinner they had held at their place and invited all their friends to. "Okay, so you better get some really warm clothes on. I'm planning for us to have some fun out there", he told her after they had taken care of the dishes.
While she felt like she was preparing for a polar expedition when she was still inside, she was glad she had followed his advice once they got outside. The sun was shining brightly, but it was close to zero degrees. He had told her to wait at the front porch as he went to the small barn in the back of the cabin looking for something. When he came back, she couldn't believe what she saw. "Wait… we're going sledding?"
Smiling at her like an excited little kid, he nodded. "Yes, we are. Well, we're going for a nice walk in the snow, but we will also be going sledding." He took her hand and led her down a path to their left, pulling the sled behind him.
"I… I've never been sledding." His excitement warmed her heart and she was really looking forward to it, but at the same time, the thought of going down a hill at high speed without any protection scared her a little.
He stopped and stared at her incredulously. "You've never been sledding? Are you serious?" Looking into her big hazel eyes while she slowly shook her head, he realized once more what she had missed out on as a child. Actually, she had pretty much missed out on her childhood in general. Cupping her face with his gloved hands, he kissed her softly. "Believe me, it's so much fun! And I'll make sure you don't get hurt, okay?"
Kissing him again, she snuggled up to him and whispered: "Okay… I trust you." After about a minute, they pulled apart and continued walking down the trail, everything around them being covered in a thick layer of sparkling, fluffy snow. "It's so beautiful out here! I've never seen anything like this before." She took in the peaceful nature around them in awe, amazed by the difference between this perfect winter wonderland and the grey slush any freshly fallen snow turned into in Chicago in no time.
"It really is. I told you it's even more beautiful than in summer. Although I love swimming in the lake in summer. Right now, it's only good for ice skating. We can do that tomorrow if you want to?" He let go of her hand, only to wrap an arm around her to pull her closer into his side while strolling down the path he had chosen.
"I'd love to." She wrapped her arm around his waist, leaning her head against his shoulder. "And it reminds me of the night you proposed." Her heart skipped a beat at the beautiful memory of his unplanned, yet absolutely perfect proposal. Now, not even a year later, they were married and happier than ever. Some days when she woke up, she still wasn't sure if it was all just a dream, but as soon as her eyes met his for the first time in the morning, she knew it wasn't.
"That was one of the best nights in my life", he whispered before kissing her temple. They walked in silence for a while, just enjoying the beautiful surroundings and being close to each other. After a while, he stopped and pointed to the left. "Okay, we're going up there now. And then we can go all the way down on our sled."
Her eyes wandered up and down the hill he was pointing to. "We gotta climb all the way up there?"
Laughing, he nodded. "Well, if we want to go down, we have to get up there first. Come on, I promise you it'll be worth it."
Sighing, she let him take the lead and walked up the hill with him, in- and exhaling deeply once they had reached the top. "Okay, I really hope you're right and this is worth it. I'm already exhausted."
Wrapping his arms around her to kiss her, he whispered against her lips: "It is… you're going to love it." He put the sled in position and sat down on the front half. "I would usually sit in the back because I'm heavier than you, but like this, you can just hold onto me like on a motorbike, and you're safe even if we happen to fall of… which I don't think will happen."
She hesitantly took a seat behind him, pressing herself against his back and holding onto him tightly. She trusted him, but she still wasn't one-hundred percent convinced that this was a good idea. Despite her slight fear, she had to admit that the view down from the hill onto the snowy landscape with the frozen lake in the background was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Baby, relax", he tried to soothe her, stroking her hand that was clutching to the front of his coat. "You know I wouldn't risk you getting hurt! So, when you're ready, I'm gonna take off… and I really hope you'll enjoy it."
Taking a deep breath, she nodded slowly against his back. "Okay… okay, I'm ready…" She wasn't ready though. Well, she was ready for them to go down the hill, but she wasn't ready for this feeling that was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. The sled quickly picked up speed and she felt the ice-cold wind on her cheeks while they were going faster and faster down the slope. "Oh my God…", she squeaked, fastening her grip on him. "We're flyiiiiiing!"
He steered the sled so they would not bump into a tree or anything else, her excitement filling his heart with happiness. When they finally came to a halt at the foot of the hill, he turned around to her, a big smile on his face. "Did you like it?"
"I absolutely loved it", she gasped, still a little out of breath from the rush of adrenaline. "This was amazing! Can we do it again?"
"You really want to go all the way up there again?", he asked, grinning at her and wiggling his eyebrow.
"Well, like you said, it really is worth it!" She leaned in for a long, loving kiss before jumping off the sled and starting to walk back up the hill.
Chuckling, he followed her and took her hand again as soon as he had reached her. "I'm really glad you liked it that much." They ended up going up and down three more times until she let herself fall into his arms.
"Okay, as much as I love it, I'm done for today. If I walk up there one more time, I'm going to pass out." She wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him before sitting back down on the sled, blinking her eyes at him with her best puppy expression. "Can you pull me back home?"
His eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelieve, laughing as he did so. "You really are one of a kind, baby… climbing up that whole hill four times and then being too tired to walk home…"
Her lips formed a small pout. "Pretty please…? I promise I'll make it up to you once we're back", she rasped, looking deep into his eyes.
Despite the freezing cold temperatures outside, he felt a well-known heat rise up inside of him at her words, her look and the seductive sound of her voice. Kneeling down on the sled in front of her, he grabbed her face gently. "I'd have pulled you back home without you promising to make it up to me… which doesn't mean I'm opposed to making love to you in front of the fireplace for the rest of the day."
The hoarseness in his voice sent shivers down her spine. "I swear to God, if it were a little warmer, I'd beg you to take me right here and now."
Swallowing hard, he whispered: "Believe me, there's nothing I'd rather do right now… but I don't want you to freeze… so we better get home as quickly as possible." Kissing her longingly even though he knew it didn't make it any easier, he finally forced himself to get up again to start pulling the sled back down the path that led back to their cabin.
While she couldn't wait to get home, she still enjoyed the amazing feeling of her even more amazing husband being the sweetest guy in the world and actually pulling her all the way on a sled. Whenever he looked back at her, she offered him a bright, loving smile. Once they arrived at the cabin and he went to put the sled back into the barn, she thought about going inside and getting undressed right away for a moment, but then she decided it wouldn't hurt if they cooled down a bit before warming each other up for the next couple of hours.
When he got back from the barn and turned around the corner to the front of the cabin, he couldn't see her, so he guessed she had already gone inside. He realized he had been greatly mistaken though when all of the sudden, something hit him and he felt his face being covered in snow. Blinking his eyes rapidly to clear his vision, he stared in disbelieve into the direction out of which he had been attacked.
Still standing behind the stairs leading up to the porch, she couldn't help but giggle at his baffled expression, giving her position away as she did so.
"Youuuu… is that your definition of making it up to me? Attacking a defenseless, innocent man who pulled you all the way home?" He tried to sound stern, but failed greatly at it. Bending down to grab some snow and form a soft snowball, he grinned: "Oh well… you had it coming…" Since she was still halfway hiding behind the stairs, he didn't manage to hit her, but the snowball hit the handrail in front of her, equally covering her face with snow.
Now it was her turn to blink away the snow from her eyelashes. "Okay, the fight is on!" She gave up the safety of the stairs when he backed away too far for her to hit him with the next snowball from there. Soon, snowballs were flying back and forth, sometimes missing, but sometimes also finding their target perfectly.
After she had hit him particularly well again, he chased her down, wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground, throwing her over his shoulder. "Okay, enough of this, you naughty little girl. Time for a snow bath!" He ignored her squeaking and kicking, laughing at her trying to get free. Once he had reached an untouched area of fluffy snow that was a couple of feet deep, he let her drop into it gently. He hadn't expected her though to pull him with her, causing him to topple down with her.
Giggling when he fell into the soft snow with her, she wrapped her arms around him and smiled up at him, her cheeks flushed from the mix of the heat from the fight and the cold from the snow and the temperatures outside. The weight of his body pressing her deeper into the snow caused the familiar heat to rise up in her belly. Still breathing heavily, she pulled his face down to meet his lips with hers in a longing kiss.
Kissing her deeply, he let his tongue slip through her lips to start playing with hers while cradling her head with his hand to shield her from the snow. "Baby…", he panted against her mouth, "… we really should continue this inside." Sighing as he pulled away from her, he stood up and helped her get up as well.
Following him inside on wobbly legs, she tried to gain control over her breath again. She was surprised when he didn't pick up on where they had left off outside as soon as the door had closed, but walked into the kitchen instead.
It took him a lot of energy to not start ripping her clothes off her right away, but he didn't want their planned extended round of love-making to end too soon. He handed her a glass of water before filling one for himself. "Baby… if we don't intend to get up again any time soon, we should drink something… and heat up the fireplace."
Trembling at the thought of what they were going to do for the rest of the day, she took the glass of water and began to drink. She really didn't want to wait any longer, but he was right. Putting down the empty glass, she followed him into the living room area where he was already starting a fire. After taking off her boots and coat, she was about to pull her sweater over her head when she heard him say: "Stop!" Confused, she froze in her movement. "Uhm… what?"
Not even turning around to her, he grinned. "Stop undressing yourself. That's my job!" When the first flames started dancing inside of the fireplace, he turned to face her, looking at her with pure love and desire. Slowly coming closer, he whispered: "I like to unwrap my presents myself. Especially the big ones."
The look in his eyes and his husky voice caused her heart to almost jump out of her chest. "The big presents aren't always the best ones", she rasped, holding her breath as he started to lift up her sweater.
"True… but in this case, the biggest present I ever got and the best present I ever got are the same…" He pulled the sweater over her head, leaving her in a slim fit tank top. "You are the most precious, beautiful gift life ever gave to me", he whispered, embracing her and kissing her deeply, but slowly this time.
Pressing against him, she let her hands slide under his sweater, feeling his bare skin that was always radiating heat. "I love you so much." She continued to let her lips caress his, only pulling away for a split second to rid him of the unnecessary piece of fabric covering the upper part of his body. Their jeans followed soon, and when they were both left in their underwear, she guided him back towards the couch, straddling him as soon as he sat down.
He continued to caress every inch of her upper body, finally breaking their kiss to look at his beautiful wife. "I'm so incredibly lucky", he whispered, tenderly stroking over her cheek with his fingers. Sealing her lips with his again, he brought his hands to her back to open the clasp of her bra, freeing her breasts that now pressed against his bare chest. In a swift motion, he turned to the side with her to gently lay her down on her back, coming to lie on top of her, his boxers and her slip being the only barrier between them.
Pushing his underwear down as far as her arms reached, she lifted her hips to help him do the same with hers. Even though they had a very healthy love life, she still trembled in anticipation of their bodies becoming one soon. She would never get used to the way he made her feel, to how her body reacted to his touch. And no matter how many thousand times he had told her how beautiful she was, the way he looked at her like she was the most stunning sight in the universe still brought tears to her eyes sometimes.
Looking deep into her brightly shining hazel eyes, he slid into her gently, giving her a tender kiss once they were fully joined. He took his time loving her with slow, deep thrusts, holding up his weight with one hand so the other one was free to fondle her hair, caress her skin that was beautifully illuminated by the flames of the fireplace, and touch her where their bodies connected to make her feel even better.
She didn't know how long they had been making love, it seemed like a wonderful eternity. Pulling him close because she loved to feel the weight of his body on hers, she buried her face in the crook of his neck, his heavy breaths tickling her ear. Their love-making was far from being wild, but so intense that when they finally came together, she felt like their joined orgasm spread through every inch of her body, leaving her trembling slightly in his arms even after her breath and heartrate had reached a normal level again. "Wow… that was… magical…", she whispered once she trusted her voice again.
"Yeah… it was…" Still holding her tightly, he softly kissed the tender spot right beneath her earlobe. "I love how this just never gets old. It actually seems to get better every time." Feeling that she seemed to get a little sleepy, he carefully rolled over to the side with her so she was tucked in safely between his body and the back of the couch. He felt her melt against him immediately. Pulling a blanket over them, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Let's take a nap before we continue this."
"Sounds great", she mumbled, sighing contently as she snuggled up against his chest. The intensity of what they had just shared having exhausted her in the most pleasant way possible, she really appreciated his suggestion. She still felt a warm tingling in her lower belly when her breath evened out and she fell asleep with a blissful smile on her face.
There were three days left until the beginning of a new year. They had spent Christmas like the year before, enjoying a cozy Christmas Eve just the two of them and celebrating Christmas Day with Hank, Will, Olive and Daniel. On New Year's Eve, they were going to meet with all their friends and colleague's at Molly's. Work had been surprisingly quiet for almost two weeks now, so they had had time to catch up on paperwork.
"Guys! I might finally have a lead in the Brooke case!", Mouse suddenly announced, his voice causing everyone to look up from their desks or come back into the bullpen from the break room. "Brooke's information that they might have been filmed… she was right." He looked quite disturbed, indicating that what he found was horrific to watch. "There are no videos of Brooke or Katie, but of the others. They are offering them to other pedophile bastards."
She was thankful for her husband wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her close. Even though they had suspected this all along, hearing that they were right made her sick to her core. Clenching her eyes shut for a second, she tightly gripped his hand that lay on the side of her stomach. "Do we know their location?", she pressed out through her gritted teeth.
"I hope so, yes. I hacked into their conversations with their clients and the majority of the messages are sent from two mobile phones. I tracked down the motion profile and frequent locations of the phones and there is one location where both phones are logged in on an almost daily basis. Here's the address." He handed Hank Voight a piece of paper.
"Great job, Gerwitz!" The sergeant nodded at him before addressing the rest of the team. "Okay, so chances are high that the missing girls are in that location. Most importantly, we want to get them out there alive. But we also want to track down those bastards so they will never get to see daylight again! So, we'll go there, observe the place and when we see anyone move in or out of the house, we access. Understood?"
Everyone nodded, and they quickly gathered their equipment to head out in teams of two. The grim expression on his face softened for a second when she secured his vest before letting him help her put on hers. For others, there was nothing special about it, it was what partners did before a bust, but this had always been their thing. Adjusting the straps of her vest, he placed a soft kiss to the part of her neck that was exposed by her holding her hair out of the way. "Be careful, baby!", he whispered into her ear.
Turning around to flash him a quick smile, she nodded. "You watch out too, please! I love you!" Her chaste peck on his lips was followed by him returning her words before they headed out to their car. They were silent on the way to the said location, both of them hoping that the bust was going to be a success. They had been working on this case for more than three months now, and the whole team couldn't wait to finally lock up those bastards.
They had been watching the house for about an hour now, knowing their colleagues were doing the same from different positions. "There!", he suddenly exclaimed, seeing a man with a black parka stop in front of the house, typing something into his cell phone before walking up the stairs. "Someone's entering the house!", he heard his father-in-law's voice over the radio. "Yes, we saw him, too. Do we access?"
Her heart was beating up to her chest, everything in her wanting to shoot the guy on the spot. But that wasn't how it worked. After the sergeant had told the pairs to get to their assigned positions at all possible entrances of the house, they got out of their car, weapons in their hands.
His wife and himself were supposed to access through the front door with Hank and Al. "Chicago PD!", their boss mumbled rather than shouting it before breaking the door and storming the house. The two older men took off to check the ground level while they headed up the stairs to clear the first floor. Staying close to each other, the found the first two rooms empty. They were about to enter the third room when he noticed a movement from the corner of his eye, causing him to swirl around with his gun raised.
She didn't even have time to react to her husband's sudden movement when the sound of two shots that were fired almost simultaneously ripped through the air. Her eyes widened in shock and a scream got stuck in her throat when she felt like the air that was supposed to fill her lungs was suddenly pressed out of her chest, the force of the bullet that had hit her causing her to fall backwards. "Erin!" His terrified voice was the last thing she heard before her head hit the ground.
