Ages just for reference :)
Katie - 33
Ned - 37
Just like the beginning, the end of Ned's stay in jail was shrouded in guilt.
He's quiet as he's out-processed. He stood for one final mug shot, then changed into the jeans, T-shirt, and flannel that Katie had brought for him. He laced up his shoes. A stern LeTrai gave him the required information on how he needed to meet with his delegate before being able to come back to work. As he stood there listening, sure that any second his boss going to tell him he was fired, but then LeTrai was done with his spiel and turned toward him.
"This is your last chance, Banks," LeTrai muttered. "I understand why you did what you did, and you're lucky you weren't on duty. This is the only time I save your ass. Next time, I'm firing you."
"I understand, sir." He swallowed hard and could feel his blood pressure rising as he thought more and more about what had occurred the night before. "It was not my finest moment, but I stand by my actions."
"I thought you'd say that after your partner gave his statement about what happened," LeTrai said, glancing up from the paper. "Katie and Mackenzie backed up your statement as well, but you still threw the first punch. You're on restricted duty until further notice. Dr. Jennings is stalling you going back out in the field with his friends in the city council, but I'll try my best to cut the red tape."
Ned can practically taste freedom as LeTrai began to list his personal items as he pulled out his personal effects and laid them on the table: One dress shirt, white; one tie, blue; one pair of jeans; one wallet, leather, containing ID, $30 in cash, a credit card and photographs; one cellphone and lastly, one wedding band, gold. He grabs his ring greedily, almost sliding it on his finger and then getting an idea and tucking it in his front pocket instead. He put his wallet in his back pocket and loaded the rest of his clothes in the canvas duffle Katie had brought his clothes in.
"You're free to go," LeTrai said. "Katie's by your desk. Good luck."
Katie was waiting for him, like LeTrai said. She was standing by his desk, legs crossed tightly at her ankles and her hands clasped together, her eyes locked on the door he came out of. The second he saw her, his face split into a helpless smile, just like always. As soon as he cleared the chain-link gate of the holding cell, she's running toward him, somewhere between smiling and crying. He dropped his bag and caught her up in his arms. It feels just like the moment he walked into the house, fresh out of basic training from the Navy, and she threw herself at him. She clung to him, digging her fingers into the plaid at his back.
"Ned," she sobbed into his shoulder. "I missed you so much, even if you were only gone for twelve hours. Are you okay? Should we go get you something to eat?"
He tightened her arms around her waist and tucked his face closer to her neck. The shape of her against him had him so overwhelmed he can't speak. The smell of her hair. The way her shaky breath felt against his neck.
They don't move for several moments. She finally drew away just enough to kiss him. They're so emotional that it's not the most artful about it they've ever been, but god, her lips against his were so, so good. She cupped his face in her hands. If she's bothered by his facial hair she gave no sign of it.
The sound of the holding cell opening just around the corner reminded them they're still standing in the precinct. Katie pulled back, sniffling, and smoothed her fingers over the short hair at the back of his head and nape of his neck.
"The kids missed you at bedtime," she whispered. "I just told them you were at work."
"Not really a lie then, right?" He joked as he licks his lips to get the last taste of her. Able to think a little more clearly, he realized he's not crying. He's too giddy to cry. He wiped the tears from her cheeks. God, he's had to do that far too often, even just since they were married. "I missed you," he said, and that set off a fresh round of tears from her. "No, no," he objected, kissing the apples of her cheeks. "No, don't cry. It's okay. I still have my job and everything's going to be fine."
"I know that," she said, wiping under her nose. "I just hate that everyone probably just thinks it was a bar brawl. You were standing up for my sister... and I will never forget that."
"Thank you, Katie," he said, smiling. It reminded him of the ring in his pocket. "Oh!" he said and stepped back from her so he can retrieve it.
He gave it to her and then held out his left hand. She started chuckling wetly and slid it to its rightful place. He can't believe how much he missed wearing it, even though it was only for one night.
"Let's get out of here and go home," he said, bending to pick up his bag.
She nodded. "Do you want to…?" She gave a vague nod. "Get something to eat?"
He shakes his head and takes her hand. "Nah. I want to stay with you. I like your cooking best anyways, and you can always make me something to eat."
"I get that," she said with a grin as they turn toward the exit and walk out together. "I don't want to let you out of my sight ever again."
"Okay," he agreed easily.
Separating from Katie's side for the 10 seconds it took to throw his bag in the back and slide into the passenger's seat was excruciating.
She backed the car up and then turned around. He watched in the side-view mirror as the precinct grew smaller and smaller behind them. They took a left and then he can't even see the square anymore.
"Where are the kiddos?" He asked.
"My mom is watching them for a few hours. We're going over there for dinner, so we'll get them then," she said, turning the radio up to fill the silence between them then.
Ned turned to look at his wife instead; he could look at her forever and he was deprived of his night off with her. Her hair was falling in soft waves across one side of her face. She's wearing a gold blouse that ties in a pretty bow at the hollow of her throat. Her profile was stunning: the way her brow curves to her impeccably groomed eyebrows, the darkness of her lashes above her pretty brown eyes, her high cheekbones, the line of her nose, sharp Clancy job and her cute little chin.
His gaze gets stuck on her full lips, which he swore to himself are his kryptonite. Those lips could entice him to do anything. Of course that brought him down a whole other path of thought, one that involves those lips on various parts of his body.
He's so caught up in his study of her that he doesn't notice she's turned off the main road and into a roadside park until they're on a two-tracked service road. The pothole in the road brought him back to himself and he realized she's pulling them into a wooded area not visible from the road. He glanced back at her eyes and found something there he knows well, so he doesn't even ask what she was doing.
He had his seat belt unbuckled before she put the car in park and was working on hers by the time she turned the keys in the ignition to off. The second she turned her body toward his, shaking free of the belt, he was helping her over the center console and into his lap.
Her black pencil skirt was restricting, but it's got a convenient zipper all the way down the front and he's got it off her it two seconds flat. She wiggled over him and then settled with her knees on either side of him. She lowered her mouth to his. Where the kiss in the precinct had been graceless, this one was outright messy.
He heard her head hit the roof of the car and she mumbled an ouch, but she didn't pull away from him, instead just getting her tongue against his. He groped down at his side until he felt the lever and pulled it. As the seat tilted back suddenly, Katie let out a squeak and their teeth clack together a little painfully. The back doesn't go all the way, but it goes far enough.
Ned scrambled for the bow at her neck, moving his mouth to the line of her neck. Her hands go to the button of his pants. She got them undone enough to get her hand inside his boxers and pull him free, and then she's very gently running his tip along the smooth inside of her thigh.
"Jesus- Katie," he choked against her neck.
He dragged her underwear aside and the next second she was guiding him inside her.
"Ned," she breathed as she settled atop him.
His head fell away to the headrest and his eyes rolled back at the feel of her, warm and wet and snug around him. It's been less than a day. It still felt like forever.
She held her hips still for several moments, the fingers of one hand digging into his neck and the others into his shoulder. He forced himself to meet her eyes again. Only then does she start to ride him, rocking and grinding in that way she liked. Her gaze was intent, her mouth slightly open, her every breath deep.
"Katie," he said again.
He had his right hand up her blouse, running along with the bumps of her spine and long muscles of her back. The left was still occupied between them, half with keeping her panties out of the way and half with starting to rub her. She made a little twist with her hips that had him pulling her closer, his own rhythm stuttering. Still, he kept his eyes on hers.
"Soon," he warned her tightly.
She just picked up her pace. Her hands shifted to cup his face and she leaned down to kiss him again. It put her chest flush with his, rubbing with every rock. His right-hand slid down to grasp her ass, pushing and pulling, and even smacking the plumpness just once to enjoy the feel against his hand.
"Katie, baby," he mumbled against her mouth, the last vestiges of his composure shredding and his hips rolling mindlessly. He doesn't realize it, but his fingertips have started vibrating, pushing her closer to the edge, too.
"Oh, god," she replied desperately, and that's it. "Yes... yes, Ned."
He came with a low groan, inside her as she kept moving, with her lips brushing his, breathing her breath.
In the moments after he returned to himself, he could tell she's only a hair's breadth behind him. He amped up the vibration of his fingertips, shifted them just so, pushed back as she ground one more time, and there. She came, too, shaking over him, burying her face against his neck.
When she went still, he pulls his hand from her and rested it on the outside of her thigh. The other one returned to massaging her back.
Katie keeps her face against his neck for several moments as their breathing slows, eventually nuzzling up toward his ear. One of her hands was wrapped loosely against his bicep and the other resting over his heart.
"I missed you," she whispered softly. "Plus, I never thought I'd have to pick you up from the precinct because you sent the night in jail."
Amped up on a whole mess of hormones in his brain, his heart swimming in relief and love, Ned just started laughing. It's infectious, and she joined him. Their giggles die out when she lifts up to kiss him again, softly this time, more the way they're usually wont to go about it. She inhaled and exhaled and relaxed against him. He liked the lazy weight of her on top of him. He always had.
"I thought about that," he told her, stroking her hand over his heart. "It was like a bad joke."
It's a few long moments before she replied, speaking softly. "I know. Even if things had gone differently, I would have stood by you."
He kept stroking her back. Up and down. Up and down. Her skin was so soft.
"I love you," he said, "So much."
She snuggled even closer against him. They clutch at one another and don't speak for several minutes.
"I'll tell you, though," he finally said, "This wasn't how I thought our first time back together would be."
"Oh?" she questioned with a grin.
"Yeah. I thought I'd get you in a bed and put my mouth on every inch of you," he told her, voice getting a little husky and nudging at the top of her head with his nose.
She twisted to look up at him. "You can do that for round two... after we go home. I promise."
"Okay," he told her, smiling. "Good."
She kissed him again, softly still, but this time with promise.
Sometime later, she pulled away and reached for her skirt in the driver's seat. "Everybody's waiting for us at my mom and dad's," she said when he grumbled a protest. "Plus the kids miss you... they need to see your face, okay?"
He nodded and kissed her briefly again. Skirt mostly back on her body, she climbed out of the car to get her blouse and seamed arranged and aligned properly. He sat up slowly. When he glances down, he noticed that these jeans aren't going to be an option for company.
"Katie," he started, and gestured vaguely when she looked over at him.
She blushed just a bit. He found it adorably modest for a woman who had pulled over to ride him in the front seat of his car. He kept the thought to himself because he's certainly not complaining.
"There should still be that pair of your pants from last night," she said.
In a second, he had changed into a tidy pair of black slacks and came to a halt next to her. He reached to carefully retie the bow at her neck. He kissed her nose and forehead when he's done, and she grasped his chin to urge him down for another one on her mouth.
She returned to the driver's seat and took a few minutes to fix her makeup from the kit she kept in her purse. He watched, always intrigued by the process. A few touchups with a powder puff, smudging a bit of white shimmer on her cheeks with her fingertips, a reapplication of lipstick. She used a little wipe to clean her fingers and any weird smears and then passed it to him so he could wipe away the streaks of foundation and lipstick their activities left on his face and neck.
When Ned finished, he looked back at Katie and that amazing profile. The sunlight filtered through the trees and threw a dappled pattern across her face and neck. She was, as always, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.
As she started the car back up, he said, "Hey." She looked over at him. "I love you," he told her, utterly earnest, "so much."
She looked teary-eyed again, but happy, too. "I love you, too," she replied. Sometimes he could see she was still blown away when he said those words to her. Like she was fourteen and all of her dreams had come true. She blinked away those star-struck eyes and smiled warmly, "Now let's go eat dinner with our family."