Her body leans against the back of the elevator, her head resting against the metal contraption as her eyes fall closed, a small sigh slipping from her lips.

When they'd gotten the lead earlier today, Kate really thought that, that would be the big break in the case; and for a while, it was. But no matter how hard they kept digging or what direction they went in, they always seemed to hit a dead end.

Her captain had told them they'd have till the end of the week to wrap this case up, and if they couldn't – then it'd be tucked away into the archives and gather dust with the rest of the unsolved cases.

Kate didn't want that, she needed this case to be solved. If not for herself and the so little justice she's received – then for the family of the victim. She'd spoken to the husband about the new leads and had seen how distraught and distressed he was; how his children cried for their mother and evidently it broke Kate's heart. She'd ended up sitting in her patrol car to take a minute or two to breathe, because she knew if she didn't then all the grief from her own loss would surface, and she needed to be levelled.

The elevator dings and Kate's eyes peel open as she glances down the hall of her floor, but as she exits and heads further down towards her place – a man is slouched beside her front door, his head dropped and fingertips busy with the device in his hands.

It doesn't take her long to realise who the man is and her brows quickly pull together.

"Rick?"

His head shoots up, blue irises meeting green, and the edges of his lips curve upwards as he quickly gets to his feet, tucking his phone into the pocket of his jacket.

"Kate, hey!"

"What are you doing outside my place?" She almost laughs as her head tilts to the side, brows pulling together tighter.

"Oh, well I…" He pauses, gaze dropping from her as his hand comes up to the back of his head, rubbing at it slightly.

For someone who'd been sitting outside Kate's door for the past fifteen minutes and had been thinking about seeing her again the entire day, he was short on coming up with an excuse. As a writer, he was appalled with himself for not being able to come up with something so quickly on the spot. This was his forte, and yet he was stumped. But he didn't want to blatantly come right out and ask her about the case – the one thing he knows she's not going to give up and talk to him about.

"You want to know about the case, don't you?"

He glances back up to see that her face has softened and the small smirk that's playing upon her lips.

He should've known she'd read him so easily.

The tension in his shoulder eases, a breath of air escaping through his nose as the edges of his lips curve up wide.

"That obvious?"

She nods, brows arching slightly before her eyes wander over him before settling on his face again.

"No Alexis?"

"Mother has her for the night."

She nods once more, lips shrewing to the side as she ponders for a moment.

It wasn't like her – to talk about her work ( on-going work for that matter ) to people she hardly knew, or to anyone that wasn't partaking in the cases she was working on. But Kate was desperate to close this case, and a fresh mind wouldn't hurt.

She could always threaten him with her gun if he dared to speak about the case to anyone else.

"Have you eaten yet?" Her pearly white teeth reveal themselves and capture the edge of her bottom lip, pulling it into her mouth as Rick shakes his head.

"I was actually going to order some Chinese from that place a few blocks away…"

"Oh! Alexis and I love that place. One time we ordered way too much food an–"

"Rick."

"Sorry, right, you were saying?" He laughs slightly and she shakes her head.

"You want to come in? Do a do-over for coffee getting ruined this morning?"

"I'd love to." He beams at her and she dips her head. "But, really. Coffee wasn't ruined this morning, if anything, the complete opposite. Definitely gave me some inspiration to write."

Kate's moved passed him already, her fingertips fishing through her bag for her keys.

"Your next Derrick Storm book?" Her brows raise as she grabs a hold of the key and glances over her shoulder.

"A fan, are we?" He smirks, as a twinkle appears in his eye and Kate almost groans, but instead rolls her eyes as she turns back to her task at hand and shoves her key into the keyhole.

"Don't flatter yourself." She murmurs. She'd never admit it to him, but she was very much a fan of his books. They'd been her mother's favourite, and after she'd passed; Kate had taken the small collection of books in her mother's study and read through them all – a way to feel closer to the woman who was now gone. Rick's books were the ones that stood out to her the most, the ones she reread over and over again. It seemed her mother had read them many times considering the edges of the books were starting to peel and the tops of the pages had creases from being folded many times.

She pushes open the door to her place, flicking on the light switch and letting Rick move past her before closing the door and locking it.

Rick takes in the places – it's much smaller than his, but it's definitely more filled and less modern.

There's a stairwell to the side, books running up along it and as he glances up he can see what appears to be a reading nook, a large window surrounding it that faces out to the city. It makes him smile, warms his heart.

He takes in the other surroundings as he watches Kate shrug off her jacket, tossing it on the edge of the couch and dropping her bag beside a large box with papers sticking out of it, which makes him tilt his head to the side and pull his brows together as curiosity washes over him.

Was it paperwork to do with former cases she'd worked, maybe on-going cases? Or, secret government conspiracy theories. Either way, her place is definitely one that has him wanting to know more and more about her.

She doesn't have a lot of pictures, which he was hoping she'd have – so he could see if she had any family, possibly a boyfriend or any pets. Instead knick-knacks were scattered throughout each shelf and open space.

Her place was cosy, but at the same time left you curious, and although he didn't know her that well; it seemed very much like her. He wanted to know the reasoning behind the paintings and where she got all the knick-knacks in her place. She was a very closed book, from the short time he'd known her, and he wanted to open that book and see the story hidden inside.

"You alright there, writer boy?"

Her laugh snaps him out of his trance and he blinks a few times to see her standing behind the kitchen counter and he's wondering when she moved from beside him to all the way over there.

"I like your place."

"Thank you."

"And, it's writer man."

She refrains from laughing, her teeth digging into the edge of her lip as she suppresses a smirk.

"Okay, writer boy. What are you in the mood for?"

He shoots her a look, though it's hard to take it seriously when a smirk is playing at his lips.


After the food has arrived, they settle on Kate's couch with at least a dozen boxes of Chinese food settled on her coffee table – mainly because Rick couldn't decide what he wanted, and Kate hadn't eaten all day, so she really could do with multiple choices and a stack of Chinese food.

She's chewing on some pork, her pulse beginning to thud beneath the cage of her ribs as she stabs at the food inside the box with her chopsticks.

"Hey, Rick… You write for a living."

"Indeed, I do." He chuckles slightly, his fork stopping in the box he's holding onto as he glances up at Kate.

"So, what do you do when you're at a loss? I mean, what would Derrick do if he kept hitting dead ends?"

"First name bases with my character, huh? And you say you're not a fan." He shakes his head and she shoots him a look as she shoves him lightly with her foot. "Well… I guess he'd start looking at it from a different angle, go back to the beginning and work over everything, see what he's missed."

"What if he's done all of that? What if each time he starts again or each angle he looks at he still keeps hitting a dead end?"

She watches him contemplate, sees him concentrating hard and the box in his grasp slowly lowers to rest in his lap as he leans back slightly.

"When you hit a dead end, you have to go back. It's like a maze. Each wall may look the same, but sooner or later they'll start looking different and you'll know which ends are going to take you to a dead one, and which one is going to take you the right way and get you out of there."

She chews on the inside of her lip, her brows pulled together and furrowed as she moves the pork around inside the box.

"I get the feeling we're not talking about Derrick Storm here."

Her gaze shifts, heat emerging across her cheeks as she stutters. "I-I'm–"

"No luck with the case?"

She sighs, leaning forwards to dump her box of food on the coffee table as she sits back and runs her fingers through her hair, a small groan eliciting her lips.

"You know I can't talk about that." But she wants to, she really needs help on this one, and she's ready to admit defeat.

"Well… what if you were to hypothetically talk about a case that wasn't going so well?"

That gets her attention, and she looks at him, ponders it for a moment.

"Okay… Hypothetically speaking then…"

She watches the pure joy wash across his face and how he follows her previous steps in placing his food down on the coffee table before he's sitting back and giving her his full undivided attention.

"Say there's this woman. A picture perfect one."

"There's no such thing as picture perfect."

"Hush." She lifts up her index finger and Rick closes his mouth, lifts up his hands in defence.

"Say this woman is the picture perfect one, that she doesn't have a bad bone in her body. Has never gotten into trouble with the law and everyone only ever has nice things to say about her."

"Is she married? Have kids?"

Kate nods her head, tucking some loose curls behind her ear as she pulls her leg under her body more. "High-school sweethearts, and two young girls."

"Job?"

"Flower shop owner."

"Maybe she delivered the wrong flowers to someone and they got revenge?"

Kate shakes her head, although they'd thought about that possibility when they kept hitting a dead end. But the attack seemed far too personal for it to be a complete stranger upset over the wrong flower arrangement.

"Her clients raved about her, and there wasn't any rivalry between her business and other flower shops."

"What about that burner phone and the lady dressed like her earlier today?"

"Hypothetical, Rick!"

"Okay, okay! Hypothetically… if you found a lady who looked like her and a burner phone on her, wouldn't that lead you somewhere?"

Kate sighs, her elbow coming to rest atop of the couch as her fingertips slide into her hair, her head shaking in the slightest.

"You'd think, but no. Hypothetically… we couldn't find who the burner phone was in contact with and although we'd found messages on this woman's phone with her talking about the victim with someone else, we couldn't find out who it belonged to. The phones either off or been permanently damaged."

"What did this hypothetical woman who looked like your victim have to say?"

"Well, hypothetically – not much. Just the usual, 'oh I didn't know her', and all that. Except they both went to the same high-school and were in the same classes. But she claims to not remember her."

"Oh, she definitely remembers her, why else would they be dressed the same? That's totally weird."

"You're telling me."

Rick's brows pull together tightly as he thinks over the information he's gathered from Kate and soon something clicks in his head.

"If I were writing this… the woman who was dressed the same as your victim, that wouldn't be just a coincidence. It also wouldn't be the big reveal. That would be a small twist in the plot to keep people hooked and wanting more."

"Okay…" Kate trails off, her brow arching slightly as she glances at him sceptically.

"This unknown person she was in contact with… if they were talking about meeting up and making a deal… say they didn't know what your victim actually looked like. Say they only knew of the description and what she'd be wearing."

Kate thinks it over for a minute, gaze darting around her lap as her brows pull together tightly, the veins in her forehead starting to become prominent. Her head shifts from the position of it being held up by her hand and she glances at Rick.

"You only make a deal with someone if you're going to get something out of it."

"Exactly. But what if that person didn't want to make the deal anymore? Or whatever was going to be shared, they suddenly didn't want to share it anymore..." Rick trails off, his body leaned forwards slightly.

"Unless you dress up exactly like them and make the deal yourself." Kate says, her eyes widening slightly.

"But you wouldn't be able to make that deal yourself if the other person was still around and could ruin it all for you."

"Unless you murdered them." The edges of Kate's lips curl upwards, her body leaned in and lips gaping as she stares at Rick.

It dawns on her, lightbulbs going off in her head and she pretty much jumps off the couch – which only startles Rick and makes him jump as he sits back, his hand coming to his chest to tame his rapid heartbeat.

"You're a genius!" Kate shakes her head, hands clasping together and pressing against her lips.

"Well, I don't like to brag about it." He smirks, shoulders shrugging and Kate's too happy to even shoot him a look or roll her eyes.

"Rick, I hate to do this to you twice in one day… but can we reschedule? There's somewhere I need to be…" She chews on her bottom lip, glancing at him as he smiles up at her and nods.

She would continue to sit around and eat with him, but everything is so fresh inside of her and she's completely buzzing. She needs to get back to the precinct and use the new ideas she has and see if they'll take her somewhere. Which she hopes they will, and with the good feeling inside of her; she has a feeling she'll be closing this case now.

"You can take some of the food home with you if you'd like." She nods down to the boxes and Rick glances at the multiple boxes, a small laugh slipping through his lips.

"I think I'll take you up on that."

He rises to his feet, picking his jacket up off the floor and putting it on.

"I'm really sorry about this." She's got her own jacket on now and her keys with her by the time they reach the door to her apartment.

Rick's got a bag of half the boxes and he turns to face her. "No, it's okay. I understand. Plus, I had a lot of fun. Even got more writing ideas."

"Those writing ideas better not include what we talked about. I have a gun you know."

"Ooh, that's hot." She shoots him a look but he only laughs and shakes his head. "No, no. I wouldn't talk about our hypothetical case with anyone. It's safe with me."

She rolls her eyes, running her top lip over her bottom as she shakes her own head.

"Call me tomorrow, tell me how things are going?"

He looks so hopeful and Kate nods as she opens the door for him, lets him go out before her.

"I'll update you." She grins at him, switching off the lights in her apartment and closing the door behind her and locking it.

The least she could do with his fresh thoughts in her mind is tell him whether or not he was helpful and if it helped her close the 'hypothetical' case she's working on.


She works all night, calling in her partners in the early hours of the morning, deciding that they should at least get to sleep and come in with fresh heads. When they do arrive, they dive deeper into Kate's theory.

It's not long before new information is arising, and come lunch time Kate's making an arrest.

She gets to tell the victim's family they found the killer, hears them tell her thank you over and over with tears in their eyes.

She tells them that despite the loss, they'll continue to get through it. Something she tells each victim's family, but at the same time she's also saying it to herself.

She gets to head home afterwards, her Captain thanking her for her excellent work and telling her to go catch up on some sleep. She doesn't oblige, knows her lids are starting to get heavy and that she'll end up falling asleep at her desk with paperwork a mountain high if she doesn't go home. Which wouldn't help her rep around the precinct.

It doesn't take her long to get home, and as she enters the elevator she's reminded of the man who helped steer her in the right direction and a smile begins to form across her face as she pulls out her phone and dials his number.

"Kate, hi!" She hears from the other line.

"Hey, Rick."

"How's everything going?"

She can already hear the eagerness in his voice, and decides that she's far too tired to string him along.

"Good. Very good. I made a very interesting arrest today." She grins, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. "A hypothetical one of course." She quickly adds in, hears the small chuckle from the other line.

"You did? Oh my god, that's great! Hypothetically of course."

"Yeah it is. I just wanted to say thank you, Rick. You really helped."

"So, this is what it feels like to solve your first case, huh?"

"You didn't solve any case. It was just hypothetical, remember?" She muses, the elevator dinging and she heads out and down the hall towards her place.

"Alright, alright. But I'm glad I could be of assistance, and if you ever need help again–"

"I won't."

"Uh huh. But if you do, you know where to find me."

She uses her free hand to pull out her key before entering her apartment.

"Hey, we should celebrate!"

"We?" Kate's brows pull together as she closes the door behind her and starts shrugging off her coat.

"Yes! You, me and Alexis! Why don't you come over for dinner tonight?"

"Oh, Rick, I don't know…"

"Come on! It'll be fun. Alexis and I are making lasagna and we always make far too much. Plus, you owe me for bailing on me twice. And I think I deserve to know how this hypothetical case got resolved."

She rolls her eyes, a small huff escaping her lips. "You don't make it easy to say no to you, do you?"

"Nope. So is that a yes?"

She plays with the hem of her shirt, staring at the hardwood floor of her apartment before a sigh escapes her lips. "Fine."

"Success! Why don't you come over say… around six?"

"Okay, six it is then."

"See you then, Kate! Oh, Alexis is gonna be so excited to see you! She keeps asking about the pretty lady in the elevator we met."

Kate shakes her head, slight head washing across her cheeks as a smile spreads across her lips. "She's too adorable. I can't wait to see her either. Bye, Rick." The slightest smirk twitches at her lips as she hangs up the phone, taping her index finger at it monetarily while she stares off into space. He was definitely something, and someone she was already finding it hard to say no to. Plus, his little girl was adorable and the first time they'd met she was filled with pure joy it couldn't help but radiate off of her, and Kate needed that.

She shakes her head, her smirk growing slightly wider as she heads towards her bedroom. She definitely needs to get a few hours of rest before she becomes a walking zombie. She wants to be fully awake when having dinner with Rick and Alexis.