Katherine had heard the car before she heard the door open. She'd heard the loud thud as he dropped his bag onto the marble floor before Jim opened up his lungs, bellowing out his greeting.
"Honey! I'm home!" The mere volume could have shattered glass but it only brought her glee.
It had been so peaceful and quiet while he was gone. But it had lasted too long and she was relieved her was home. She'd missed him. She'd missed his warmth beside her in the middle of the night and his daily mood swings which kept her on edge but swooning. If it was up to her, he was never leaving for such a long period of time again.
With a wide smile, Katherine walked through from the kitchen, the spaghetti strap three quarter length dress hugging her waist. He was dressed, impeccably as always, in a dark blue Westwood suit and sunglasses still covering his eyes.
"Long time no see." Katherine tried to tame her smile as she approached him, slowing her paces until she stopped just less than a foot away.
He seemed to return her grin, but something was off. She noticed as he removed his glasses. He didn't speak and his eyes were burning, his pupils dilating. Jim had watched her intensely since she'd first appeared but she was stupid to think it had been out of lust or...anything at all positive. The smirk wasn't vacant from his mouth but it was scaring her and combined with his silence it was deadly.
Before she could open her mouth to ask what was wrong, Jim hummed low and chuckled under his breath. It made her blood run cold and her feet tingle with adrenaline which was already starting to pump through her, flight or fight was a normal occurrence living with him but it never got less frightening.
"Jim?" It was only after she'd spluttered out the whisper, that she realised all the normal staff were missing. There should have been many bodies around them, moving Jim's things and organising his return...but there was no one. Sebastian wasn't even by the door, awaiting orders after his boss's return. But for one, she wasn't grateful for the privacy for it meant something was serious...something big.
Jim huffed again and his head nodded quickly but minimally. After it looked like he would laugh, the glimmer of a grim sank into a grimace. His nose twitched and Katherine could see his tongue running over his teeth behind his closed lips. He was livid, at her. But why...she couldn't think. In an instant her head began to roll through the past two weeks but nothing jumped out. She'd gone to work, came home, sat and waited for his return. There was nothing she had done.
"You want to admit it...before I REALLY, loose it?" His tongue rolled as he growled. She could feel his breath on her face and fought to not close her eyes. "Hmm?"
She had nothing to say. How could she have anything to say when she had no idea what he was talking about? But his face was pure fury. Surely if she had done something that bad she would remember?
"Don't make me do something I don't want to do...Katherine." Lowering his chin so it almost pushed down into his sternum, he search her for something so she stared back at him. She opened her heart and everything else she possibly could without making a noise but it wouldn't do any good. She'd seen him a few times like this, decreasingly so over the years. But she'd witnessed it firsthand. Nothing could have prepared her for what was coming though.
"Come on." Suddenly, Moriarty's hand was around her wrist, twisting it until he held her hand behind her back and his chest was pressed against her back, steering her body forwards. At first she struggled, squirming in his grip but the more she moved the harder he dug his nails into her skin. So she stopped. "Cooome on." His pitch was high as he sung in her ear as he pushed her harshly towards the back of the house, closer to the garden.
"Ah, wha-" Katherine hissed and tried to find comfort. But no matter what way she turned, her shoulder became more pained.
"Shut it." That was enough to shut Katherine up.
For a moment she thought he was taking her to his office, but after a sharp turn she figured it was the garden. But just a second down the hallway, leading out to the pristine patio, Jim turned her body causing her back to jolt and kicked open the door to the pool.
The entire room was sculpted out of marble, shine, new, barely used. It was the largest out of any of their past residences and the water lay calm and undisturbed.
His harsh grip on her distracted her from even wondering why he had brought her to that precise location. All she could think of, or at least try to think of, was what had caused him to turn so harshly. But she still came up blank. However, she had still been deep in thought when Jim was harshly whispered something in her ear. She went to ask him to repeat it but then she noticed how he wasn't slowing his pace and the edge of the pool was coming closer and closer.
"Ji-" He cut her off by letting her go, but it was only so he could throw her into the pool.
Katherine hit the water with a large splash, the tepid water swallowing her up from Jim's view for just a second until it somewhat calmed.
She barely had a chance to take a breath before she hit the water. The lack of preparation caused her lungs to fill as soon as she was under the water. The chlorine stinging the sinuses in the bridge of her nose terrible as her eyes blurred and itched.
Have you ever been in one of those moments, where something such a shock you don't know which way is up and you have no idea how to move? That was Katherine. No matter how much she kicked her legs she failed to touch the tiled floor of the pool or resurface. The only way she managed to take a breath of air was after Moriarty's hands grabbed her under the arms and pulled her up.
He had watched her, flailing under the water like some sort of injured jellyfish. He had smirked sickeningly and risked a chuckle as he pulled at the knot of his tie. Then, he had slowly removed his suit jacket holding all his valuables, but he never took his eyes of the blur that was his wife struggling under the water. She was so pathetic. Poor bitch couldn't even stand up in four foot of water. With a roll of his eyes, Jim moved towards the steps leading into the water and slowly descended them, paying little to no notice on the temperature or the sensation of his trousers sticking to his skin. Instead, all he focused on was Katherine as his hands reached into the water and pulled her up.
"You really are stupid, you know that?" Moriarty spat in her face before pushing her down in the water. But Katherine had still been too much in shock to act quick and missed another breath. Almost too quickly, her lungs started to fill with water again.
Thankfully, he pulled her up again. This time holding her there until she blinked away the water and she looked at him. Although he was a blur. Her eyes were stinging with the mild chemical burn and she was gasping loud and ugly.
"The Ukrainian contract...the one we spent seven months organising..." Once more, Katherine was submerged after just catching a clean breath of air.
Inside, Katherine willed herself to stay strong and calm. It would be over soon. Jim never carried his punishments on for long but then again they had never been this cruel. But the bubbles bursting against her face made it hard to stay calm, as did her excruciating lungs as she was forced to release her breath too soon.
The claustrophobia was unbelievable. It was a perfect summers day outside yet it was pitch black under the water. Her legs were starting to go weak leaving her unable to kick and fight. Katherine's whole body seemed to be failing her.
When she resurfaced for the third time, her eyes stayed closed so she didn't see his anger, but she heard it. She heard it in every syllable he pronounced. She also felt it as one of his hands moved from her arms and wrapped around her throat.
"One of the main reasons I had to skip across Eastern Europe for fourteen days..." Moriarty's words weren't even registering. They did penetrate past the fear and panic.
Jim restricting hold around her wind pipe made it impossible to breath. When she disappeared under the water again, an alarming burst of bubble broke the surface as all of the remaining oxygen was forced from her lungs. Had it have been possible to heave, Katherine would have been sick. Her head started to ring and her fingers which had been so desperately trying to pry Jim's hands off her, slipped away.
This time it took a while for Katherine to realise she was no longer under the water. It took her lungs longer to notice air was available and although Jim's had was still at her neck, it wasn't squeezing .
"Almost dropped out because of your fuck up..." That was when she finally listened, but it had no context. Dropped out? He must have been talking about a client...a contact? So,done he had went to see? And that was her fault? How? What had she done? Everything had been checked, double checked and triple checked my Jim himself...
"Speak...speak Katherine!"
Weak, Katherine breathed out an attempt to explain herself. But it was hard when you didn't have the faintest idea of what had happened and when your heart was still hammering inside your chest. "I...I..." James rolled his eyes, cheeks sucked in.
For a moment...his hands were so light on her skin that she thought he was about to let go. Her breathing was finally calming down the skin was rolling from her face, allowing her to see, though only just. He was finished. At least she thought he was.
"You're pathetic!" The mutter had come for under his breath, giving the further illusion that he was calming down. But then, only a second later, Jim gripped her throat again and pushed her under.
And he held her there...
Jim Moriarty held his wife under the water of their own pool for at least ninety seconds. For any other person it may have not been much of a threat, but for someone who was already short of breath and lightheaded it was dangerous. At 30 seconds, her time under the water started to feel like minutes. At 40, her chest started to burn. At 70, she made the mistake of breathing out and she started to choke on the water as her nails scratched Jim's wrist in pleading. At 90...she turned limp. Her eyes shut and her head slipped back.
At almost two minutes, Jim noticed the stillness of the water and the sudden increase of weight and slowly he pulled her up to the surface.
It didn't take long for the panic to set in, seeing what he had caused with his own hands. "Hey!..." I'm expected her to jump to life...but if anything she just sagged deeper into unconsciousness. Supporting her head with one of his hands, he moved a finger to her neck to feel for a pulse. But she wasn't easy to hold and every time, she slipped before he could trace anything. The only sound in the whole room was the water draining from her hair as Jim manoeuvred her into his arms, holding her like a baby and carrying her to the edge of the pool. "...Hey! Katherine..." He screamed the words as he pinned her body between himself and the tiled wall. But still...nothing.
She looked peaceful. But she was the only peaceful being present. In his chest, Jim's heart was thumping as he studied her seemingly lifeless body, floating and unresponsive.
With one sudden burst of energy, Moriarty picked her up and placed her as gently as he could on the side of the pool. He made sure her head didn't smack against the hard marble floor and turned her onto her side. His chin rested on the hard surface just in front of her face, waiting to feel a breath. But there was nothing.
"No...no no no, don't be boring...Don't be boring!" Jim's fist slammed the surface of the water, sending droplets flying over both bodies. She couldn't just slip, she couldn't just go like that. So easily! She was stronger than that! She couldn't...
This was all her fault anyway. She'd caused this. She had brought this upon herself.
"Kat...kitty Kat?" Jim moved back to her, and touched her neck again. His other hand stroked down her chest to hover over her heart. It took a few seconds to locate, but eventually he was washed over with relief as a faint heartbeat thumped near her jugular. It was uneven, barely traceable and broken but it was there.
"Katherine..." For a second, Jim allowed his forehead to fall down onto his arm as he breathed a sigh of relief. But then he perked up and lifted himself out of the pool so he could lay beside her, his head held over her own so he could look down at her.
It was all her fault. All her stupid fault.
Why did she have to be so beautiful?
Whilst in Ukraine, his tenth night away from her and his second in the country itself, he had got...distracted for lack of a better term. His mind was elsewhere. The longer the trip dragged on for, the more tedious the days became to live through. Being alive was soooo boring. It had taken several days to realise however, that life when at home was never so painful. Because of her.
She made the less exciting moments worth living for and she made the more irritating of daily chores temporarily worthy of attention.
Katherine Moriarty was the best distraction he had ever found and he had been looking for them his whole life.
Since he'd excelled into the genius he was at a young age, his brain had fought from something, longed for anything, which would relieve the sweet longing for peace. Peace from the humming at the back of his head, the drumming to end it all. Sometimes it didn't seem worth it, the power and the wealth just came as a sweet accessory to the small distractions. But Katherine...she was it.
If it ever did end, James already knew it would be his greatest feat. Lucy Scott would go down in history as the only one which got to him. The only one who managed to anger the lion and live. The only one who made him fear that somewhere, deep deep inside, was a human heart worthy of feeling such ordinary emotions.
At first it was waking up to unwelcome silence. Then it had been eating alone without her endless nagging. Next, being able to hear himself think every waking hour of the day. Before long he'd become riled, dangerous to be around and oh so very changeable. His men had noticed obviously...and it was her fault.
Her face was so untouched. Almost every limb and body part was scarred or tainted in some way but not her face, he'd never allow that to be touched. Ever.
Taking her hand in his, he linked their fingers together and pursed his lips, anger dripping like venom from his words. "You make me hate you so much...I despise you, you make me sick..." Because of her, her and her ghosts distractions, he'd forgot about the meeting with their client. Her fault he'd sat in a coma like daydream. It was all her fault. All because she gave him everything he ever wanted. It may not have been love or children or happiness. But a distraction meant all the same to him.
"So why is it so hard to keep hating you, why does it HURT to even think about getting rid of you?" Admittedly he had panicked when she had lay limp in his arms. The feeling of lifelessness as he'd assumed it to be, sickened him.
Seeing her chest beginning to fall less and less noticeable as the the seconds past made him sit up, but Jim still stared at her face. Like porcelain, it was perfect. He would burn for that face, he would live, die and everything in between for her. "I missed you. There. You happy?" Sounding a faint, pathetic laugh, Moriarty shook his head slowly. "Shame you're weak, shame you passed out. You would have loved to have heard that."
Katherine had yet to stir so Jim nudged her, but it did hell of a good. All he did was nudge her with enough force for her to roll back, almost on to her stomach.
"Come on." He managed to whisper through a small chuckle and brushed her soaked hair out of her face. Moving her back onto her side, he began to rub small circles on her back, patting hard enough between her shoulder blades to rouse her from her rest. It took a few goes but finally, she spluttered to life. "There we go, hey..." Katherine made an awful squeal, coughing up excess water as her back arched. Once all of the liquid was rid from her lungs, she started to breath too deeply for her own good. She was going to fall into a panic attack.
Wasting no time, Jim tugged on her arm until she fell into his lap. Her arms automatically went around his waste as his went to her head, petting it calmly. "Shhhh. Shh, shh, shh...there we go."
She didn't know what to think. She didn't know if she could think. All that was running through her head was the sensation of being under water and darkness creeping over her, Moriarty feeling further and further out of reach even though her neck was glued to his hand. It had all been so messy and busy...it was nothing like getting shot. Nothing like feeling the peace rain over her. This had been terrifying and it had all been from him; the man she clung to for dear life.
"I'm-I'm s-sorry." Katherine started to stutter in a desperate attempt to make him stop. She wanted him to stay like this, she didn't want him to go back to how he was in the water. "I do-don't know w-what I-I di-d-d."
"Hush." His hand slowly stroked over her ice cold forehead. "Forget about it, I think you've learned your lesson." Katherine nodded, her head shifting against his thigh manically. She was crying, it was subtle, but when he looked down at her it was easily to notice that the shine in her eyes was not caused by the pool. However it was harder to distinguish the tears from the leftover droplets.
"I'm sorry." Katherine whispered again, become less breathless but staying almost silent.
Jim however was completely silent and he looked away from her, unable to look at what he had caused. It wasn't rare, they outbursts of his, but they were never this bad and seeing the state he'd put her into just because he couldn't stop thinking about her was stringing something deep within him.
It was the longest he'd been away for months, months even before her shooting. Before she started working for The Iceman she would accompany him. All those times he wished she'd stayed at home, but now he only wanted her by his side.
"Come on." He stopped himself from listening to his thoughts by beginning to stand, bringing Katherine with his after gathering her in his arms bridal style. "It's past your bedtime." Her arms automatically went around his neck, her head resting on his chest against heart.
They were both soaked, water dripped from them as Moriarty carried her through the house and up the main staircase towards their bedroom. It left a trail of moisture and footprints which would led to the scene.
He was careful of the stairs, but as soon as the bedroom door closed, Jim let out a deep sigh and walked even slower over to the bed. Laying Katherine down, he started to strip her after realising she didn't have the energy to do it herself. Removing her dress, he left her in her lace underwear and then pulled the covers over her. Wet hair wasn't a threat, so he'd let her rest.
Moving to hover over her face, Jim gave a gentle smile and touched her cheek. "Look at me..." Moriarty waited until her barely open eyes focused on his. "Good girl." She slumped instantly allowing him to step back from the bed and finally take notice of the three guards sat in a line at the end of their bed, eyes pointed and heads tilted. "Watch her." He ordered, a far too human command for a canine, you would think. But they understood and the runt jumped up to lie next to her on Jim's side of the bed.
"Guard." Already, growls sounded throughout the room making him grin wide. "Good boys."
He hated nothing more than having to like her. In the beginning, he hated needing to pretend to like her but somewhere along the way it had got easier until the ease became the more irritating part. He longer needed to, he wanted to. He wants to give her oceans and nebulas, he wanted make leaders burn and empires crumble just for her. And he despised it because there was no feeling more human than that.
Upon leaving her room, Jim was greeted my Sebastian at the bottom of the stairs. A large pile of boxes and shopping bags lay behind him, having just been unloaded from the car.
"Where do you want the things for Katherine put?" Each bag belonged to her, at least they did in the form of gifts. Dresses, jewellery, shoes, even her own custom made gun based on her weigh and measurements, straight from Italy. There was something from every city he's visited.
No one asked why, no one even looked twice each time he stopped to pick out something for her.
"Leave them in the living room. She's such a fan of Christmas, why not have it six months early?" That would be his little apology for when she woke up. Some nice gifts. They would make it so easy for her to forget his little...mishaps. "If she's not awake in a couple of hours, get someone to wake her. And I want someone checking up on her regularly." He didn't even wait for Sebastian to nod before he walked away, retreating to his office. He needed to work to clear his head.
Hello Lovlies! Merry Christmas - here is a little present from me :)
Just wanted to thank everyone who follows and favourited this story, I'm still surprised every time I get an alert saying theres a new reader or reveiw so please keep doing so!
Also, just an idea, would many people be interested in seeing 'What Kind Of Man' become an ebook? I've been looking it up and curious whether anyone would be interested :)