Kate was roused from sleep by a dull ache radiating across her entire upper body. Groaning into her pillow, she squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to ward off the oncoming headache but she knew any attempt she made would be useless given her activities over the last few days.

'I'm pretty sure lawyers don't wake up feeling like they've gone ten rounds with Ali.'

She lay still for a few more moments before resigning herself to starting the day way before her alarm clock. Feeling profoundly cheated, she glanced over at her phone and noted the time.

4:13am.

She had been asleep for barely two hours. The team hadn't left the district until gone one in the morning and, by the time Kate had taken a shower and decompressed enough to try and sleep, it had been 2am. Ignoring the biting morning chill, she threw the sheets back and made her way into the bathroom, padding across the wood flooring with bare feet. After she'd finished her morning ablutions, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and winced at her reflection.

The entire right side of her face was now an unattractive shade of deep purple, her lip was a similar colour and twice its normal size.

'Bloody fucking hell.'

With a sigh, she set about getting ready for the day. Kate had been through enough therapy to know that she needed to keep her mind occupied and, rather than drift around aimlessly at home for a couple of hours, she decided to keep busy and get some paperwork done.

Running a comb through her hair, she pulled the wavy locks into a high ponytail before making a start on covering the worst of the bruising up with a bit of concealer, hoping that it would be enough to deflect the attention of her colleagues. Pulling on some faded denim jeans and a black, long-sleeve henley, she left her apartment with a thermos full of coffee and made her way to the precinct. As she was driving through the almost silent streets of Chicago, her mind wandered to her encounter with Voight the night before.

The way he looked at her. The way he touched her.

Kate didn't consider herself too much of a tactile person but when his hands made contact with the bare skin of her thighs, she found herself wondering what it would be like to feel his hands on other, more interesting, parts of her body. A thrill sizzled down her spine like an electric current at the prospect until she became cognizant of the direction of her thoughts and huffed out an irritated sigh.

'This is getting out of hand.'

The district was pretty much deserted when she arrived and, as expected, the Intelligence bullpen was shrouded in silent darkness. Switching on the light, Kate deposited her bag on the floor under her desk and shrugged out of her heavy coat, placing it over the back of her chair before taking a seat. She'd got in nearly three hours of solid paperwork before Erin arrived later in the morning, not bothering to hide her look of surprise at seeing Kate alone in the open plan office, already waist-deep in paperwork.

"Did you even go home last night?" She queried, dropping off her belongings before moving to stand in front of Kate's desk, arms crossed over her chest and calculating blue eyes scanning Kate's bruised face.

"For a few hours. Couldn't sleep."

Erin's only response was a "huh" of acknowledgment before she disappeared off into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of coffee. One by one the rest of the team made an appearance, mumbled 'good mornings' passing between them whilst they set about getting their morning caffeine fix.

Just as Kate was finishing her last report, her phone began to buzz from its place on her desk, her mom's picture flashing on the screen.

'Shit'

With a sigh and a pre-emptive wince, she swiped the screen to the right and placed the phone to her ear.

"Hi Honey, Happy Thanksgiving!"

"Hey Mom, Happy Thanksgiving to you too."

Before Kate managed to get any more words out, her mother launched into a monologue about how she was spending Thanksgiving with Kate's Aunt in Stamford because neither of her children could be bothered to come home for the holidays.

"Mom, I'm a cop and Matt's a doctor…they don't do holidays in our line of work."

"But it's been almost a year since I've seen you and yet your brother saw you a couple of months ago!" The whine in her mom's tone set Kate's teeth on edge. Kate and Matt had a close bond formed in childhood and, despite taking different paths in life, that bond never wavered as they became adults.

When Kate got shot, Matthew Meadows never left his sister's bedside from the time she went into surgery to the minute she was deemed to be out of critical condition. She stayed at his apartment for a few weeks after she was discharged from the hospital so that he could help her recuperate, citing the fact that having a doctor around might be useful.

'Matt, you're a fucking neurosurgeon. I was shot in the chest.' Kate rolled her eyes as her brother wheeled her out to his car, parking her close to the passenger side door and helping her to her feet.

'Yeah, but we all did the same initial training Katie. What if you pop a stitch, huh?'

Matt wiggled his eyebrows comedically and Kate winced as she struggled to hold in a laugh at his antics, forever grateful that she had been blessed with such a wonderful human as a big brother.

Her mother, on the other hand, had done nothing but try to convince her that she needed to rethink her life and career choices.

"It was a last minute thing Mom."

Playing it down seemed like the best option and, as expected, her mother's attention was diverted to planning Kate's trip home for Christmas.

"If you fly in the day before Christmas Eve, we can go to tea with Aunt Rose and Nanna June and…" Kate held the phone away from her ear as she waited for her mother to draw breath, eyes catching Kevin's across the room who was busy enjoying Kate's discomfort.

"I'll speak to Matt and see if we can work something out, alright?" Spotting her golden opportunity, Kate didn't draw breath before continuing. "Look Mom, I've got to go but I'll give you a call soon okay? Love you." With that, she killed the call and spent a few seconds staring at her phone, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"Your mom sounds like a dream." Sarcasm dripped from Kevin's every syllable and Kate watched his eyes sparkle with amusement at his partner's discomfort. Before she could let him know exactly what she thought about his comments with a well-placed insult, Jay called for their attention and set about tacking some pictures to the whiteboard. They had a new case.

"We got a hit on the robbery crew that's been targeting homes in affluent neighbourhoods, particularly Lincoln Park. Michael and Alex Wilcox. These two have been on the CPD's hit list for the past two years but they've never been able to get any evidence to the tie them to any crimes."

Jay spent the next thirty minutes getting the team up to speed on the history of the two brothers and their accomplices. Mike Wilcox was a career criminal, his first brush with the law being when he was fourteen years old and baby brother Alex was evidently following in his footsteps. The other two men in the crew were currently unknown but they knew that they were lookouts that drove the getaway vehicle.

"They usually hit properties that they know are empty which means they always case the joint in advance. My CI gave me a tip on the identity of the brothers and Alex was picked up on POD footage two days before the robbery in a blue Nissan Armada which was the same vehicle spotted fleeing the scene. We couldn't get enough on the driver for facial recognition."

Kate's eyes were scanning the pictures, maps and notes on the whiteboard, piecing together the information in her mind. The motive here seemed to be simple; it was all about cash. They would target homes that were most likely to have high-end goods and cash in abundance, the Wilcox brothers would rinse the place whilst their mystery partners would keep watch and provide the transportation.

"Any gang affiliations?"

Kate was so engrossed in her work that she didn't even notice Voight arrive. It wasn't until she heard his voice did she realise that he was even in the room.

'Some detective you are.'

"None as far as we know Sarg."

"So this is just about the Benjamin's, right?" Ruzek was reclined in his chair, eyes on their Sergeant as he spoke.

"It was until last night when robbery became a robbery-homicide."

Jay stepped forward and tacked a crime scene picture to the whiteboard and it took all of Kate's willpower not to look away at her stomach roiled. The picture showed a young woman who looked to be barely old enough to drive, sprawled out on the floor, her blonde hair matted with blood.

"One GSW to the back of the head, execution style." The temperature in the room dropped by a couple of degrees, the team steeling themselves for another tough case. Jay's tone was terse as he continued with the debrief.

"The victim is Charlotte Miller, 19 years old. Her father is Richard Miller, owner and CEO of MilTech and one of the wealthiest men in the country. Both Miller and his wife were out of state for the week, believing their daughter was remaining at Duke for the holidays. Looks like Charlotte was going to surprise her parents and interrupted the robbery."

Something about the case didn't sit right in Kate's mind and she voiced as much to the team when Jay had finished speaking.

"Why the step up from robbery to execution-style homicide? Something doesn't feel right."

All eyes settled on Kate and, for the first time since their 'moment' in the kitchen, she caught Hank's gaze across the room. His eyes were tracking over her face, taking note of the bruising and lacerations that she had attempted to hide with makeup earlier that morning. His face softened for a second before his usual mask was pulled back into place and he nodded in agreement, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he addressed the team once more.

"That's exactly what we need to figure out. What happened in that house last night for a young woman to wind up with a bullet in the back of her head? O, you and Ruzek get in touch with the parents and give them the news. I want to know if anyone had any beef with Miller, anyone who'd want to hurt him or his family in any way. Erin, Jay, we're going to have to loop RHD in on this so get down to the crime scene and find out what you can. The rest of you, I want you digging in to the Wilcox brothers. I want no stone left unturned when it comes to these pricks."

Variations of "Yes, Sarg" and "You got it Boss" came from the team as they all sprang into action, Olinsky and Ruzek grabbing their coats whilst the rest of the team returned to their desks to begin the process of putting together a timeline for the murder and unearthing everything they could about the suspects.

After a couple of hours of research, Kate, Kevin and Antonio had a skeleton timeline on the whiteboard and all were part-way through identifying all of the Wilcox brothers' known associates, including everyone that Michael had been in contact with during his time at Stateville.

Kate's desk was covered in sheets of paper and her sleep-deprived eyes were beginning to burn. Blinking hard a handful of times to try and clear the fog, Kate pushed away from her desk and got to her feet, grabbing her coffee mug as she went.

"You guys want a fresh cup?"

All three of her colleagues nodded and mumbled their thanks as she swiped their cups from their desks and made her way into the kitchen. Placing the mugs on the counter and hitting the brew button on the coffee machine, she stepped back out into the bullpen and knocked on the wooden doorframe to Hank's office to get his attention.

"Hey Sarge, want a coffee?"

His eyes settled on her from across the room and the now-familiar fluttering in her chest bloomed when he looked at her.

"Sure, thanks."

Kate nodded and was just about to return to the kitchen when he stopped her.

"Hey, come in here a second. Close the door."

She obeyed his order, pushing her weight away from the doorjamb and crossing the threshold into his office, closing the door with a quiet click. He motioned for her to take a seat but instead of dropping into the chair opposite his desk, she opted for the black leather couch that sat underneath the large window that allowed him visibility of the bullpen. Crossing one leg over the other, she reclined into the soft cushions with a groan, eyes falling shut as the muscles in her neck and back relaxed for a few blissful seconds.

"How're you feeling?"

Kate opened her eyes once more and levelled Hank with a look from across the room, wondering briefly if he would broach the topic of last night.

"Sore. Tired. But focused on nailing the asshole of the day…or assholes in this case."

An amused grin slid onto Hank's face at her response.

"Good to know you've still got your head on straight. It's been a…trying couple of days."

He leaned forward towards his desk, weight braced on his elbows and fingers interlaced. It hadn't escaped Kate's notice that he had returned to his usual wardrobe of a button down shirt and well-fitting jeans, this time the shirt was a deep burgundy paired with dark wash denim. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled back to mid-forearm, allowing Kate's eyes to roam over the tanned flesh appreciatively.

Drawing her mind away from her in-depth mental assessment of her superior's physique, Kate shrugged before responding.

"You do this job long enough and realise that 90% of your days are going to be absolute hell. But, more often than not, the results make it worthwhile."

He hummed in the back of his throat, leaning back into his chair and placing his interlocked fingers over his stomach.

"I forget you've been on the job, what, ten years now?"

Kate nodded.

"Enrolled in the academy right after I graduated from Harvard. Spent six months on patrol before being bumped up to Narcotics."

She considered him carefully for a moment, watching his face closely.

"But you already knew that…I'm sure you've got my file somewhere in one of those cabinets."

Kate dipped her head towards the metal filing cabinets behind Hank and, once again, he let a smirk ghost across his face as the two engaged in a stare down, not unlike the one they shared the first day she stepped foot into the 21st.

"Why don't you just ask me what you want to know Sarg."

The challenge in her voice was clear as she put the ball firmly back in his side of the court, waiting to see what he was going to say next.

"Why'd you throw away a promising legal career to become a cop?"

Kate let the corner of her mouth lift with a smile. It wasn't the first time her career choice had been questioned and she was sure it wouldn't be the last. Her mom, her brother, her friends, her superiors.

Before Kate had the chance to reply, they were interrupted by a breathless Antonio who simultaneously knocked and opened the door as he skidded to a halt in the doorway, obviously in a hurry.

"We got a hit on the Nissan. It's registered to an Oliver Dowden, younger brother of Christopher Dowden who was Michael's cellmate at Stateville."

"Alright, let's hit it."

Antonio left with a nod, jogging back into the bullpen to grab Kevin before the two headed down to the basement to gear up. Kate got to her feet, Hank mirroring her movements and, as they looked at one another from across the room, something unspoken passed between them. There was no denying it anymore. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife but, despite the very obvious attraction they felt towards one another, the decision to act on that attraction was a different matter entirely.

Kate hiked her shoulders into a little shrug, a wry smile playing at the corner of her mouth as she jerked her head towards the doorway.

"Rain check?"

Hank pulled his coat from the rack in the corner of the room and slid it onto his shoulders before coming to a stop just in front of Kate, leaning in close enough that his nose brushed lightly against the shell of her ear.

"You bet."

When he pulled away from her, Kate's eyes dipped down to his lips for a split second before returning to meet his burning gaze, the memory of how his mouth felt under hers when she kissed him at the the club last night floating to the forefront of her mind. It was one thing to imagine what someone's lips felt and tasted like but it was another thing entirely to know from experience.

Hank smirked in amusement as he watched Kate's eyes reluctantly dart away from his lips and he knew in that moment that his own rule was in serious jeopardy. What surprised him the most was that he wasn't mad about it at all!

Gesturing for her to precede him out of the room, she gave him a little wink that drew a chuckle from his chest and the two of them followed Kevin and Antonio out towards the back exit. By the time the team arrived at the location of the blue Nissan they were tracking, it had been abandoned in an old quarry and torched. The flames were still licking at the white hot metal when they radioed the CFD for assistance, the four of them visibly frustrated at yet another dead end.

When they arrived back at the precinct, the Unit once again began tracking down leads and talking to CIs to try and catch a break on the case. With the POD footage of the car, they had enough probable cause to bring Oliver Dowden in for questioning, Antonio and Alvin running point on the interrogation with Hank, Erin and Kate all watching through the one-way glass from the adjoining room.

"Where were you last night?"

Antonio had both hands placed on the cool metal table, dark eyes boring into the stormy grey of Oliver Dowden. He sat with his hands clasped together in front of him, handcuffs preventing him from separating them too far apart as he stared unblinking at the detective in front of him, completely silent.

When Antonio realised he wasn't going to get an answer, he gripped the back of the free chair and sat himself down with a huff. Flipping through the file in front of him, he slid a handful of pictures across the table, evenly spaced so that Dowden could clearly view the evidence.

"You see, we've got you on camera at the crime scene in the same vehicle that a witness saw fleeing the scene."

The uncomfortable silence stretched for a few more moments before Antonio spoke again.

"If you take the ride for this, you're looking at life without parole. We're talking first degree murder here Oliver. Never seeing your wife and son on the outside again."

Both detectives watched as the seriousness of the situation began to dawn on Dowden's face. He bowed his head and let out a shuddering breath in defeat. Alvin leaned forwards and braced his elbows on the table.

"Look kid, if you talk to us, we can help."

Oliver raised his chin to meet Alvin's gaze, eyes now shining with unshed tears. He knew is options were dwindling by the second.

"They just asked me to drive the car. No-one was meant to get hurt." His voice was cracked and hoarse, as though he'd been screaming for hours on end.

"Who did?" Alvin kept his tone measured, careful not to spook Dowden back into the shell they had patiently coaxed him from.

"Mikey Wilcox and…" He broke off, seemly torn between telling the truth and finishing his sentence.

Antonio matched Alvin's posture, leaning his forearms against the table and interlacing his fingers.

"And who Oliver?"

"M…My brother."

And there is was.

Kate shared a look with Erin, the two women nodding to each other as they listened to Oliver tell his story. Mikey Wilcox had approached his brother Chris with an opportunity to cash in on a big payday - all they had to do was case the location of the robberies and drive the car. It seemed easy. Until yesterday when the daughter had come home to find them ransacking her parents home. According to Oliver, it had been Mikey who pulled the trigger, screaming something about not being able to leave any loose ends. Chris had been trying to go straight since he got out of prison but he'd struggled to find work and the bills were piling up.

"It's amazing what people will do for money."

Erin's muttered comment had Kate thinking. Was is really the prospect of money that drove people to commit crimes or the desperation tied to not having enough of it to survive?

Kate was pulled from her thoughts by Alvin and Antonio getting from their chairs to book Oliver Dowden downstairs. They would put in a good word for him with the DA but he knew he was facing some serious time. When they returned from the holding cells, the rest of the team were gearing up to take the Wilcox brothers and Chris Dowden into custody.

"Jay, Erin, you two head over to Dowden's LKA and pick him up. He's got a violent past so he'll probably be armed. Approach him with caution. The rest of you, you're with me."

A flurry of activity followed as they moved on Hank's orders, Antonio and Alvin jumping into Hank's truck leaving Kate, Kevin and Adam to take Kate's Jeep. When they arrived at the rundown apartment in Pilsen, the six of them paired off and approached the house silently. Kevin and Kate were approaching the back door when they heard Hank's voice over the two-way.

"Meadows, Atwater, let us know when you're in position."

"Copy that Sarg." Kevin was a step behind Kate and both had their weapons drawn. When Kate was situated at the bottom of the steps leading to the back of the house, she nodded to Kevin who advised the others that were ready.

"We breach on three…1…2…"

Kate slammed the heel of her heavy boot into the door, the wood splintering off the hinges at the sheer force of her entry. The two brothers were sat at the kitchen table but immediately began to scatter at their sudden arrival.

"Hey, HEY! Chicago PD, don't move!"

Kate's words fell on deaf ears as the brothers ran but neither of them got too far given that Alvin, Hank, Antonio and Adam had breached from the front.

"Chicago PD, let me see your hands." Adam shouted and the two finally came to a stop, begrudgingly raising their hands in surrender. Once they were under arrest, the team tossed the house from top to bottom, finding the remainder of the stolen goods from previous robberies and the weapon used to kill Charlotte Miller.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Kate donned some latex gloves and retrieved the gun from a shoebox in the back of the closet. Moving back into the living room where the brothers were still facedown on the hardwood floor, Kate crouched down near the older brother's head and waved the gun in front of him almost teasingly.

"What kind of idiot keeps hold of the murder weapon, hmm?"

"Fuck you, you whore." He spat, eyes burning with hatred.

Kate let out a light, tinkering laugh in response, getting back into a standing position as she locked eyes with Hank across the room. He was stood against the far wall, hands tucked into the front of his vest and a half-smile on his face as he watched her work.

She tagged and bagged the gun as evidence while the rest of the unit began to finish up their search of the property. When they were through, they escorted the offenders back to the precinct where they were processed and placed in a cell to await trial.

The team returned to the intelligence bullpen and were mid-way through a well-deserved coffee when Hank spoke up from the doorway of his office.

"Alright, who wants to let the family know?"

Both Erin and Kate offered to take the trip to Lincoln Park and let the parents know that they had caught the people who had killed their daughter. The drive over was filled with general chit-chat between the two women who were rarely paired together on cases. The only time they really had to catch up was at Molly's when the two of them would stop by for a drink after work every now and then.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, Kate humming quietly to the radio as they moved through the early evening traffic.

"You know, I've known Hank a long time and I like to think I know him pretty well." She let the statement hang in the air between them for a beat before continuing. "He acts differently around you."

Kate kept her eyes on the road despite knowing that Erin was watching intently for her reaction. Keeping her tone light, she let out a huffed laugh and smoothly turned the car down the street the Miller's lived on.

"Yeah, probably because I'm still the Intelligence Intruder. You know as well as I do that he wasn't best pleased about my arrival."

Erin smirked at the nickname Kate had given herself but shook her head lightly as the car came to a stop.

"You know that's not what I meant."

Kate turned off the engine and shifted slightly in her seat, a raised eyebrow the only indication that she had heard what Erin had said.

"He looks at you in a way that I haven't seen him look at anyone since Camille."

"Who's Camille?"

"Hank's wife. She…passed away ten years ago. Cancer."

Kate sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She'd never seen a ring on Hank's finger so she assumed he was either divorced or married to the job. It never occurred to her that he might be a widow.

"Jesus Erin, I'm sorry."

She knew that Hank had taken Erin in when she was a teenager and assumed that his wife must have been a maternal figure of sorts given the small tidbits of information Erin had given her about her childhood.

"What I'm trying to say is that, since then, he's never let anyone get close. Then when he lost Justin…" Again at Kate's blank face, Erin elaborated. "His son Justin was murdered five years ago."

Kate was stunned into silence, her mind spinning with the new information. How could a man who had lost so much continue to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other in the morning?

"He's the closest thing I've ever had to a father…closest thing I've ever had to a parent for that matter. And the one thing I know about Hank Voight is that he doesn't do anything half way. If he's in, he's a both feet in the deep end kinda guy."

The unspoken message was received loud and clear.

'If he lets you in, don't break his heart.'