A/N: I'm aware that in the real world a patient would not be released into a doctor's personal care as I am portraying here, but for the sake of this story, let's just pretend.
Rick came trotting into Kate's room only to be greeted by the hard glare of Doctor Salazar, who appeared to be in the middle of what looked like a tense conversation with his patient. Rick had had the day before off due to his involvement with the shooting on Saturday, and when he had asked for Monday off as well, his boss hadn't hesitated, so he had intended to spend the day moving Kate into his loft. But it looked like Salazar was determined to change those plans.
"Ms. Beckett, I truly think you should reconsider this. You could still move to the rehabilitation facility instead," Salazar insisted, but Beckett didn't appear moved by the recommendation.
The man had been her neurologist for the near two years she was in the coma, running tests and checking her for signs of improvement every other week, and Rick respected him, as well as his opinions, but he had given Kate every option available to her and she had still agreed to choose his loft over the rehabilitation center in upstate New York.
Kate, who was proudly standing, crossed her arms resolutely and held Salazar's reasoning gaze. "I do understand your concerns, Doctor, but I've already chosen to spend the rest of my recovery under the care of Doctor Rodgers and I'm sticking with my decision."
Rick had a feeling Salazar knew there was no persuading a woman like her, so determined and headstrong, so he sighed in defeat and grudgingly nodded his consent before looking to Rick.
"May I speak to you in the hall for a moment?"
"Of course," Rick nodded, but he already knew what Salazar was going to say and felt the headache threatening to form at the base of his skull.
"You really find that appropriate?" the fellow physician questioned curtly once they were in the hallway, a few feet from the open doorway.
"It's no longer safe for her here and she's made it clear she doesn't want to go to the rehab facility. I'm offering her a temporary stay at my loft as her doctor until the situation improves. That's all."
"Is it, Doctor Rodgers? You do know taking advantage of a patient, in any way, could have the board taking some serious disciplinary actions against you, correct? And you wouldn't want to risk embarrassing yourself and the hospital by crossing those sorts of boundaries, would you?"
Rick's face darkened at the insinuation Salazar was presenting, and he took an intimidating step closer to the older man.
"There is nothing going on between my patient and I, surely not of that nature. I care only for her well being and the progress in her recovery."
Salazar eyed him skeptically, glancing back to Kate's room as if gauging the risk of what allowing her to be released to a fellow doctor may be.
Rick had to admit the arrangement straddled the cautionary line between business and personal matters. He knew it probably wasn't the best idea for his image as a professional, but he refused to leave her out in the open and vulnerable to more hired killers. He had good security in his building and - after tirelessly discussing the situation with Ryan and Esposito - had arranged for an unmarked police vehicle to remain parked outside day and night. Her safety was all he cared about and he would go to whatever lengths to keep her out of the crosshairs. If that meant having her reside in his loft for a few days, maybe weeks, he could live with that.
Happily.
"Fine, if you want the extra responsibility, Doctor, it's all yours," he announced sardonically, thrusting the stack of papers containing Kate's medical information into Rick's chest and striding down the hall, purposely bumping his shoulder as he left.
Rick huffed and cradled the hefty load in the crook of his elbow, walked back inside her room to see Kate curiously studying the shopping bags he had brought in before Salazar had escorted him out.
"I just grabbed you some clothes to wear for today," he said in explanation, lifting the bags from the floor and offering them up to her. Jim had brought her some items that he had kept in storage for her earlier, but in the last two years, Kate had lost a lot of weight and no longer fit into her regular size of clothing. So Rick had gone shopping.
She eyed both him and the two bags skeptically, but accepted when he nudged them against her fingers. He knew he was annoying her, eagerly watching while she pulled out each item as if he was witnessing a child unwrapping a Christmas present, but he'd put a lot of thought into the outfit he had picked out for her – probably too much thought if he was being honest – and he really hoped she would approve of his choices.
"Rick..." Her face was an expression he couldn't read, jaded yet surprised while she looked down at the coat, sweater, and pair of jeans carefully spread out on her neatly made hospital bed, and his heart sank a little.
"I can go back," he said hastily. "If you tell me what you'd prefer, I can-"
She huffed and shook her head at him. "I was going to say, I know I've been out for a while, but I still remember all of these brands and how expensive they are. Burberry," she uttered incredulously as she lifted the quilted leather trench coat that had made him think of her when he'd seen it in the shop window that morning.
He shrugged, because really? Money didn't matter much to him. Obviously, he appreciated having two incomes that allowed him to live comfortably, but he never splurged on anything. Why not splurge on her?
"Consider it a welcome home gift."
"A welcome to your home gift, you mean?" she retorted, but gently laid the coat back down.
"But…you like them?"
She turned her head, a tender smile blossoming as she studied him for a brief moment.
"I do," she nodded, stepping closer and making his heart accelerate – as silly as that was considering personal space hardly existed between them most days. She glanced over his shoulder, making sure the semi-open door gave her the privacy she needed to wrap her fingers around his bicep, circle her thumb over the muscle. "I'll pay you back for this, Rick. I have money, an account my dad kept for me-"
"No, you won't. Gift, remember?"
She wasn't pleased about it, but he reached over and retrieved the jeans and the sweater, draped them over one of her arms and nudged her towards the bathroom.
"Get dressed so we can go."
Her eyes lit up at that, flashed brightly with excitement. Ever since he had led her out of the hospital after narrowly avoiding her death 39 hours ago, she had been gushing over how amazing it had been to be outside the hospital walls, to taste fresh air – if it could really be considered 'fresh' in New York City – and asking him basic questions, trying to get a grasp on the world she was being thrust back into, trying to catch up on any substantial changes she may have missed. He didn't mind; he preferred showing her how the newer versions of iPhones worked rather than discussing her mother's death and the ordered hit on her life.
Ryan and Esposito had come by yesterday and they'd all had a meeting around her hospital bed. After seeing how her team worked, and being reluctantly allowed to become a part of their immediate family, his rabbiting heart had eased into a steady rhythm. He hadn't left her side since the shooting, terrified that the moment he did, the moment she was alone, she would meet her undoing. Rick knew he couldn't protect her on his own, knew he wasn't the kind of protection she needed, but having a pair of trained detectives who loved her as much as he-
Whoa, slow down there, Rick.
-who cared about her life as much as he did lightened the load from his shoulders. With Ryan and Esposito restlessly interrogating Dick Coonan, the shooter from the night before, and doing everything they could to track down a lead, Rick actually had the hope that they could catch the person behind the orchestrated car crash.
And of course, once Kate Beckett was back at the Twelfth, he had no doubt in his mind they would get the guy.
He had to admit he enjoyed seeing her take charge, watching her entire body ignite with untouchable tenacity as she gave her boys a list of objectives to complete while she was healing. He finally saw why the two always called her 'boss'.
"What'd Salazar say?"
She was still in the bathroom, but Rick could see her reflection through the partially opened door while she worked her fingers through her hair.
"He's just not happy with your decision and my support of that decision."
"Will he try to put a stop to it?" she asked, a tinge of apprehension lurking in the corners of her eyes as she met his in the bathroom mirror.
"No, I think he knows it'd be a pointless battle."
"Yeah, because I'm not going to that rehabilitation center upstate," she muttered, more to herself than him, as she pushed the bathroom door open.
He couldn't help but stare. He liked Kate Beckett in a hospital gown and robe or sweatpants and t-shirts just fine, but he thought he might like her even better in the fashionable garments he'd purchased for her that morning. She looked more like the woman he had met two years ago.
Kate cleared her throat and he quickly snapped his wandering eyes back to her expectant ones, blurted the first logical question he could think of.
"Does everything fit?"
She smirked, crossed her arms over her chest as she looked back at him skeptically. "Surprisingly, which makes me wonder why you're so skilled at picking out women's clothing."
He chuckled, couldn't help the way his hand migrated to her jean-clad hipbone or how his eyes continued to rove over her figure. "I just took your measurements to the store with me, Kate."
"And how'd you know my favorite color?" she asked, plucking at the soft, royal purple fabric of her sweater.
"Lucky guess?"
"Mm, I'm pretty impressed."
"Mission accomplished then."
He was blatantly staring at her mouth and began to lean in when her fingers curled around his ear - only to jerk back at the sharp twist she delivered.
"Oww, apples, apples-"
"Apples?" she laughed, thankfully allowed her torturous fingers to fall away from his aching cartilage.
"Safe word," he grumbled, rubbing at his delicate skin while she moved past him to sit on the bed and slide on the boots her dad had brought yesterday morning. The rest of her wardrobe, along with all of her other possessions, had been dropped off at his loft the night before.
She was smirking as she lifted from the bed for the last time and slipped the coat on, but as she stood before him, a foreign shyness seemed to wash over her and she met his eyes hesitantly.
"Do I look okay?"
"You look beautiful."
"Not like I've been dead to the world for two years?"
He shook his head and rested his hands along her shoulders, his thumb branching out to brush over the pronounced ridge of her collarbone.
"You're going to be fine. And you don't have to do this alone, we're going out there together."
She stole one of his hands from her shoulders, trapped it in hers and squeezed.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "I don't think I've ever mentioned how grateful I am for everything you've done for me, everything you're still-"
"Shh," he quieted her, dusting his lips over her forehead out of habit. Bad habit. She had asked him to wait.
They'd had a lot of time to talk in the last two days, and they had come to the conclusion that there was something between them, something worth exploring, but Kate wanted time. Time to rediscover the world and her life and get her own world back in order. And he respected that, understood and encouraged it, but he could already tell that sharing a loft with her while they were 'waiting' was not going to be so easily done.
He nudged her forward. "Let's go before Salazar comes back or Lisa decides to stop by and wish you well."
Kate looped her arm in his and they quickly started for the door.
"So where are you leading me?" she quipped as they exited the hospital and he watched in something close to fascination as her eyes lit up in the sunlight and she inhaled her first hospital free breath of the day.
"SoHo," he replied, tearing his eyes away from her before she noticed his staring.
She made a noncommittal sound. "My place was in Tribeca."
"You wanna go there first?"
She contemplated it for a second before shaking her head.
"I doubt there would be a point, it's probably not mine anymore. Josh told me over the phone that the landlord got it back on the market within a few months."
"But your dad got all of your stuff, right?" He tightened his hold on her arm as they became free of the hospital's borders and propelled into the bustling streets of Manhattan.
"The important stuff," she answered, squeezing lightly where her fingers were tucked into the crook of his elbow, but her attention was on her surroundings.
She looked childlike, for once, he observed - her eyes wide and wonderstruck, gazing around the city as if she was seeing it for the very first time despite having grown up and lived there her entire life.
"Things haven't changed too terribly," she noted after a few moments, but that childlike innocence was receding, crumpling up under something dark in her eyes that he couldn't understand.
"Nah, just the typical advances in technology and increase in reality television mainly."
She nodded, moved closer against his side. He felt her shiver as the bitter chill of the late January air breezed past them minutes later, only a couple blocks from his place. "Are you warm enough?"
She nodded again, the action jerky this time, but when he glanced over to her, she was pale and her eyes were darting in every direction.
"Kate?"
She flinched, raised a hand to her face, but she still wasn't answering him and couldn't hide the hunted look from her eyes. The signs were subtle, but he had seen them enough to know what was happening.
She was having a panic attack.