"Why are you after me?" Kate demanded, willing her arm not to shake as she put her weight on her hand to keep her body from slipping sideways. She was tired, so tired, her body quivering with just the effort of sitting up, and she had no chance to make a getaway, but if she was going to die, she was going to die with answers.

"Like I told your friend, this is nothing personal on my end, sweetheart," the man replied, and she grit her teeth at the patronizing way he spoke down to her.

"Who hired you?" she growled and he took a step closer, staring at her with harsh blue eyes and a malicious grin spread taut across his mouth.

"Forget-"

"Tell me who," she repeated, her entire body vibrating with the anger, the ferocious need to know the truth, to have a name.

He smirked then, bent over her so that his face was only inches from hers.

"The same person who hired me to kill you and your mommy two years ago."

She tried to conceal the immediate shock rippling through her body, the feeling of ice drenching her gut and freezing in her veins, but by the gleam in her killer's eyes, she didn't believe she was doing too well of a job.

"It doesn't matter now though, does it?"

Fire burned the ice inside of her and she clenched her fists, wished more than ever that she could just fucking move-

"You should have stayed in the coma, Detective. Would have saved us both a lot of trouble."

He raised his gun, poised his finger over the trigger, and Kate closed her eyes.

But instead of a shot, she heard a grunt and the hard thud of a body hitting the floor. Her eyes flew open to see Rick standing over her mother's killer with a fire extinguisher in his grasp, poised and ready over the unconscious man's body. The gunman was out cold, his nose bleeding and his face slack, but Rick heaved the fire extinguisher up to strike him again, prepared to bash the shooter's skull in when Kate yelled his name.

The malice cleared almost immediately from his face as he lifted his eyes to find her, and he lowered his improvised weapon, abandoned her almost killer for her instead.

"You could have gotten yourself killed," she rasped as he knelt in front of her, but she moved to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't ever do that again."

"I'm sorry I left you," he whispered, holding her tightly and releasing a strangled breath against her neck before hoisting her into his arms once more. "So sorry, Kate, I-"

"Stop," she choked out. "Stop apologizing, you just saved my life and-" She fisted her hand in his shirt. "And you allowed me to learn the truth."

He sighed heavily, the rise of his chest nudging against her ribcage, his erratically beating heart slamming in unison with hers.

"It wasn't an accident."

"Someone ordered a hit on me and my mom," she breathed, still in disbelief, still so confused.

"I'm moving you out of the hospital," Rick stated suddenly as they started down the stairs and she glanced up at him puzzled.

"Why? And to where? I have nowhere to go right now, Rick. My dad-"

"You can stay with me, or anywhere you want, I'll take you anywhere, it's just too much of a risk here now," he explained hastily, a tinge of hysteria to his voice that she didn't like. "They sent some murderer here for you who didn't get the job done, and when they find out you're still alive, they'll just send another."

"Let them send as many as they want, one of them will eventually crack and tell me why-"

Rick stopped in the middle of the stairwell and looked at her, again, as if she was crazy.

"Beckett, I know you want answers, and we'll get them, but not at the expense of your life. You just got it back." His eyes had turned serious, a riot of panic and fear and concern storming his irises. "Don't throw it away now."

He eased her down from his arms until her feet were touching the floor, pressed her gently into the railing to keep her steady, and cupped her face in his palms. She reluctantly placed her hands on his waist, telling herself it was only for balance, but she curled her fingers in his shirt when he dropped his forehead to hers.

"We'll call the boys, fill them in and let them start the investigation. In the meantime, we'll get you better. You can't fight when you can barely stand, Kate."

She exhaled her frustration through her nose, letting the anger and agitation slip out with the breath of air. She hated this, hated her body for its disobedience and betrayal, hated him for reminding her of how incapable she was of defending herself, hated more than anything that he was right.

She swallowed hard and slid one hand to his chest, gripped the collar of his shirt and pressed her nose into his cheek. "When I can, will you stand with me?"

He brushed his thumb along the outline of her lips and she lifted her chin, giving him the consent he was silently seeking, and he replaced his thumb with his mouth.

The kiss was gentle, soft and too short, but she reveled in the pleasant feel of his lips caressing hers. She'd secretly been wondering what kissing Rick Rodgers would be like, even dreamt about it a couple of times, and she wasn't disappointed. There had always been a strong current of electricity between them, and she knew most of his visits were social these days, but she had remained unsure if getting into a relationship with her doctor after being dead to the world for two years was a good idea.

It definitely felt pretty damn amazing.

He broke the connection of their mouths for air, but returned to add a few chaste kisses to her lips - causing them to split into a smile - before he spoke.

"Always," he said, stroking his fingers through her hair and she allowed her body to tilt forward into his, and not because she needed the physical support.

"Let me get you down to the paramedics, put you on some fluids."

"I don't need fluids," she sighed, letting him hold her weight as he wrapped an arm around her waist and began guiding her down the last few steps.

"We'll see. Either way, you're getting in an ambulance for my peace of mind."

She grumbled her protests even as he walked her through the lobby, towards the side exit she assumed he had snuck in through, but still found her lips curling when he skated his lips over her temple before discretely leading her out to an ambulance on the nearby street.

Buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies waged a war in her stomach as he helped her into the medical van, the shock of learning she and her mother had been targeted by a hired killer and the girlish excitement of sharing a first kiss with Rick all in the same ten minutes effortlessly overwhelming her. But she made the time to ignore both dizzying sensations to inhale her first breath of cool, night air in two years.

They had no choice but to move the majority of the patients back into the hospital that same evening, switching rooms around and keeping the third floor clear even after officers made the arrest of the unconscious Dick Coonan mere minutes after Rick had gotten Kate into the ambulance. Ryan and Esposito arrived less than an hour later while she was being moved to a small room on the first floor, immediately grilling Rick for every detail until Beckett silenced them all. She was too drained to handle a debriefing and pressed for them to go home and return tomorrow morning instead.

Her dad came by when she was sleeping. She had opted for one of the more temporary stations they kept in the ER for overnight patients, insisting she no longer needed a fully functional room for her now shortened stay. Rick had remained by her side without question, pacing the area like a guard at his station until she eventually grew tired of watching him make rounds in the tiny patch of space and told him to settle down next to her before she had allowed herself to sleep.

Rick had been dozing on and off with his head tilted back against the wall when he heard, and then saw, Jim Beckett bustling through the doorway.

"I heard about the shooting, is she okay?" he asked immediately, striding inside even as an unhappy night nurse trailed behind him whispering about protocol and visiting hours. Rick shooed her away and motioned for Jim to pull the curtain around them.

He was an idiot for not calling her father instantly, for allowing the man to learn about the potential harm that had come to his daughter through the news. The neglect had not been intentional, but he had been so focused on moving her and then calming the boys before they maimed him and now he felt lucky that his brain was still functioning properly through all the stress the night had brought.

"She's fine," he assured Jim quickly, glancing down to the woman with her forehead pressed to his hip and her knees curled against his calf. He momentarily flushed with embarrassment for letting Jim witness the odd form of intimacy they tended to only share in private. He should have sat in the chair. "I'm so sorry I didn't call, things have been hectic the last couple of hours, but it won't happen-"

Jim waved him off and took a seat in the chair on the other side of Kate's bed, smiling softly with relief as his eyes settled on her sleeping form and reaching forward to tenderly smooth a hand over her tousled hair.

"She's looking better."

Rick nodded proudly, happy to let his mind drift away from the events of the last few hours for at least a moment and discuss her progress instead. "She started walking this week."

A hint of a smile flickered across her father's lips, but it quickly faded away.

"Was she hurt at all tonight?"

"No." Rick hesitated. "But I have to ask you something."

Jim straightened in his seat, his eyes instantly hardening, and it pained Rick to see how prepared this man had trained himself to be for bad news, how accustomed he must be to it.

"The shooter that got into the hospital tonight," he started carefully, although there was no way to put what he was about to say gently. "He was here for her. Specifically."

The color drained from her father's face and Rick worried he might need to get the man some water.

"Why?"

"I have no idea. But he said…he mentioned your wife, and the accident. He told Kate that he had been hired to get rid of the two of them and that she had only lived because she was no longer a threat while in the coma. They didn't think she would wake up."

Jim lifted a shaking hand to scrub at his slack jaw, dread and confusion engraved into his aging features. "You're telling me that the car crash wasn't an accident? That someone purposely killed my wife?"

"It's what the gunman told Kate – when he tried to get to her, sir," Rick replied solemnly, trying so hard not to say the wrong thing. Jim appeared much healthier since the last time he had seen him, but he feared the news might destroy all of the progress he had made in the past few weeks and neither Beckett could afford that setback.

"He was here to...finish the job?"

"Apparently." Rick sighed, his eyes intuitively darting back down to Kate, needing the reassurance that she was still there, that the job had been left undone yet again.

"But - but why?"

"I was hoping you might know," Rick confessed. "Kate told me Johanna was a defense lawyer, could that perhaps have earned her some enemies?"

Jim furrowed his brow contemplatively, but continued to wear an expression of exasperation.

"Of course she had enemies, every lawyer does, but I never knew of any who would have gone to such lengths to get back at her for a case. And same goes for Katie. They both had dangerous jobs, but I never imagined…"

"I'm moving her out of here," Rick stated quietly but catching his attention, hoping to steer the conversation away from the darkness carving itself so deeply into Jim's eyes. "There are a number of secure facilities I know of, but for now, I offered her my place. There's security there, and the boys from the precinct are coming back tomorrow to discuss the investigation they'll be starting and the best ways to protect her."

Jim bobbed his head, fisted his hands together on the top of the bed, his eyes resting heavily on the gold band he still wore on his left ring finger.

"Good," he said. "Do whatever you have to, just don't let me lose her again."

The weight on Rick's shoulders returned with a vengeance, pounds heavier and punching the breath out of him.

"I'll do everything in my power. You could stay at my place too, Jim, if you'd like. I could make room-"

But Jim was already shaking his head in response. "No, there's no need for me to be there."

"She needs you," Rick inclined his head to Kate. "I think it'd mean a lot to her if you were here when she wakes up."

"I will be. I'm going to head to the storage center tonight, gather up some of her things – clothes, shoes, stuff she had in her apartment that I saved – and I'll bring it by in the morning. Anything specific she might want?"

Rick thought for a second. "Shoes. No heels, but any flats she has, preferably some boots, would work. If it'd be easier, I could give you an extra key to my loft and you could drop the majority of her things there."

Jim progressively grew more relieved as they both discussed moving plans. It was something to do, something to keep their minds from going near the knowledge that someone was after Kate and there was only so much they could do to keep her safe.