Savior

Chapter 46

-xx-

Cate glanced next to her to see Derek fast asleep in his airline seat. She could sense his hesitation to leave earlier that morning and made a call to push their flights back to the afternoon.

She knew she had plenty of work to catch up on in the office, but another day wouldn't be the end of the world. It was worth it to have a nice brunch with his mother on the way to the airport, instead of rushing out first thing in the morning to miss traffic.

She sighed contently as she went back to watching her movie on her tablet. As she got further into it, she lost track of time, and never noticed Derek waking up.

Due to the headphones in her ear, she bit her lip instead of making noise as he placed a hand on her forearm. Cate chuckled and pulled an ear bud from her ear. "Sorry, baby," he said as he sat up straight. "We should be landing soon."

The brunette nodded. "I don't know how you sleep on planes," she said softly as she tapped around on her iPad and shut the movie off. She stretched her legs out in front of her and let out another sigh.

"The same way most people do," he replied with a wink. "I could get used to first class."

The twinkle in his eye caused her to laugh. "Sorry. Your spoiled girlfriend only flies first class, my love."

He chuckled as he slid his neck pillow into his carry-on bag. "Ah, but you forget my team has a private jet."

Cate rolled her eyes. "That you take to and from morbid crime scenes. The food here is better, too."

"You're not a big fan of flying, huh?" he asked as he noticed her expression when the seatbelt sign flashed above them. "I have finally found a flaw."

She scoffed, "that's a flaw? No, I don't prefer to be hundreds of miles in the sky in an airplane. So when I do venture on one, I tend to fly first class." She lifted the glass on her drop down table with a grin. "And they have free drinks."

"Point taken," he said with a smirk. "But there's no reason to be afraid of flying."

Cate held up her hand. "I never said afraid of flying. It's just not high on my list of favorite things. I like having my feet planted on the ground." Derek laughed and went to open his mouth once more. "I swear to God, Derek Morgan, if you recite some statistic about flying and plane related deaths, I will kill you myself."

His smirk grew at her irritation. "Nah, that's why I keep Reid around. He likes to give all of the useless information." Derek let out a yawn as he stretched in his seat. "I guess that means there'll be no tropical vacation for our honeymoon, then."

Her eyebrow rose as she turned to face him. "Geez, one weekend away with your family and you're back to business." The wink she gave him as she began to organize what needed to go back into her carry-on made him smile.

Bringing her home to Chicago was a huge step for him, but after watching Cate with his family all weekend, he knew deep down that he was making the right decision. His mother kept telling him how impressed she was that he finally chose someone like Cate. Both of his sisters took to her very quickly, as she did to them, and it was great for him to watch.

-xx-

The brunette repositioned her carry on bag across her body as they made their way to her truck. Derek fought boldly to take both suitcases when they made their way to the baggage claim, but Cate kept a firm grip on hers.

I only made you take both of them in Chicago 'cause you led me to believe you weren't there. I can handle my own, Prince Charming.

Cate dug her keys out of her duffle bag and stretched her arm out to click the button to unlock her truck. Derek reached out at the same time, trying to take the keys from her. "Excuse me, mister, but you drove all weekend, and this is my truck."

"And we both know how you drive, so it's safer for every one else on the roads if I drove us home." She narrowed her eyes at him as she kept walking towards the vehicle. "Or we can both pretend I never said that."

"Sounds a little better," she said as he opened the truck to place their bags inside. "My driving is just fine."

Derek turned to her with an eyebrow raised. "You really believe that?" She placed her hands to her hips as if to ask him to continue. "I mean, you're not the worst I've seen, but as a federal agent, I really should warn you about your speeding."

Cate rolled her eyes. "Speed limits are just suggestions, babe."

He could only shake his head at his girlfriend. "They're the law, Cate."

She shrugged before walking to the driver's side door. "And if you touch my radio, you're walking home," she warned with a pointed finger as Derek slid into the passenger seat.

-xx-

Cate let Derek take both suitcases up the elevator to their apartment when she popped into the coffee shop next door to grab a coffee. She leant against the pick up counter waiting for her coffee and Derek's sandwich as she scrolled through her e-mails.

She gave herself credit; she barely looked into her e-mail folder while they were in Chicago. She had promised Derek she would try to spend most of her time either with him or his family and not worrying about work.

Large caffe mocha and a mozza wrap!

Cate turned to the voice and offered a smile as she took the bag and the coffee. "Thank you, Monte! I'll see you in the morning!"

"Anytime Miss Cate!" She waved to the woman behind the register as she turned to walk out of the coffee shop. Common Ground Coffee was slowly turning into her new favorite obsession, and she was quick to try any of Monte, the owner's recommendations. She was always intrigued by the coffee of the day selections.

Cate juggled slipping her cell phone into her joggers and stopped short of bumping into a woman on her way to the door.

"I know I said we should meet for coffee, but you don't need to run me over." A laugh followed.

Cate looked up and grinned. "Savannah, hi," she offered. "I'm so sorry."

Savannah laughed softly. "No worries." Cate shuffled the bag in her hand with her coffee cup. "I feel like I haven't seen you around lately."

The brunette shrugged. "Besides work keeping me busy, we just got home from a weekend in Chicago."

"Oh," Savannah answered with an eyebrow raised. "That sounds like fun!"

"It was definitely a nice change of scenery." Cate paused as her cell phone rang in her pocket. "I'm sorry," she began as she reached into the pocket. "I have a ton of work to catch up on after taking the weekend off."

Savannah smiled. "Don't worry about it. I need to be headed off to the hospital, too."

Savannah stepped into the line to order her coffee as Cate stepped out of the coffee shop.

-xx-