"I may have just seen Sergeant Hank Voight crack a smile. Now that's real police. The best of the best."
Kate was too busy carefully schooling her features into what she hoped was a neutral expression as Kelton continued to blather on about how the Chicago Police Department was single-handedly changing the trajectory of modern policing by refusing to coddle criminals. While the rest of the unit had been fortunate enough to dodge a night of borderline-painful obsequiousness, as the Intelligence Sergeant's plus one, Kate hadn't been so lucky and for the last two hours she had stood demurely at Hank's elbow as he charmed his way around the room.
"Real police, huh?" Kate muttered when they were finally alone, hiding a grin behind the rim of her glass of wine as Hank's lips tugged upwards into a coy smirk at her not-so-gentle ribbing.
"You weren't aware you married the best?" He growled into her ear, slipping a palm over the smooth silk of Kate's dress to settle at the base of her spine, just above the soft swell of her ass. When she had descended the stairs in the floor-length gold number merely hours before, Hank had found himself wondering why on earth he was even contemplating the thought of spending the evening anywhere but between his wife's thighs and yet, here he was, in a room full of bureaucratic assholes trying desperately to keep from tenting his trousers while said wife was doing everything in her power to tease him into surrender.
Seconds after he placed a surreptitious, featherlight kiss to the warm patch of skin behind her ear, they were joined by Trudy who had also been forced to attend Kelton's fundraiser at Chief Miller's request.
"You two look like you're having way too much fun." Trudy groused with a roll of her eyes when Kate simply edged closer to her husband's body, resting her free hand just above the first ornate gold button on his heavy wool jacket.
"Gotta entertain ourselves somehow." Kate said with a shrug. "Left up to this lot, we'd all die of boredom."
Kate jerked her head towards the small huddle of CPD brass, noting with a hint of amusement that even Sam appeared to be struggling to make herself look remotely interested in whatever Kelton was saying.
"Uh-huh…well, I've been unfortunate enough to witness the way you two entertain yourselves and I don't wanna have to bleach my retinas again."
Hank almost choked on his mouthful of whiskey at Trudy's typically dry sarcasm but he was saved from any further embarrassment when he was approached by two Lieutenants that Kate didn't recognise and shepherded somewhat reluctantly across the room towards Miller and Kelton.
"No Mouch?" Kate asked, her eyes immediately seeking out the strawberry blonde quiff of Trudy's significant other but, with a pout of disappointment, she came up empty.
She could recall the first Gala she'd ever attended as Hank's girlfriend, trying desperately to keep her eyes from filling with tears as people whispered amongst themselves, sending her reproachful looks while tutting disapprovingly. Later that night as Hank made love to her, she had clung to him as though her life depended on it, refusing to let him slide his sweaty, sated body back to the mattress just in case he caught sight of the tears that had escaped unbidden so, instead, he'd nuzzled his face against her throat, peppering soft kisses to the damp skin while he caught his breath.
Randall McHolland had been a source of great comfort for Kate when she first began attending CPD functions as the young detective who was deemed stupid enough to get knocked up by the notorious Hank Voight.
When others would cast her disapproving and oftentimes sympathetic looks for daring to shack up with the prickly Intelligence Sergeant, the Truck 81 veteran would always beckon her over and greet her with a warm smile while simultaneously staring down anyone who dare treat her with anything but the respect that he believed she deserved.
"He's been roped into a thing with Herrmann." Trudy replied with an exaggerated, albeit affectionate, eye-roll. "And, when it comes to those two, I've learned not to ask."
"Probably wise." Kate said with a chuckle, her gaze returning to Hank just as a pretty, petite brunette approached him with a broad smile and a dainty hand on his forearm. Being the son of a cop and then being on the job himself for over three decades, rarely did they attend a function where there was someone in attendance that he wasn't on a first name basis with. But despite his far-reaching connections, Hank seldom greeted anyone with more than a handshake and a half-smile so Kate's mild surprise swiftly morphed into full-blown shock when Hank wrapped an arm around the woman's waist and leaned in to press a genial kiss to her cheek.
Kate had never considered herself a jealous person and yet, as she watched her husband greet an attractive woman with such familiarity, she found herself barely containing the urge to stomp across the room and wrench the woman away from him by her bouncy, shiny locks. But before she could act on the irrational need to 'mark her territory' as he'd once put it, a tap on her shoulder drew her attention back to the desk sergeant at her elbow.
"I said, have you spoken to Stabler yet?"
After her little heart to heart with Hank in the bathtub a few nights prior, Kate had indeed called Elliot to ask if he'd be willing to snoop around in the OCCB archives to see if they had anything pertaining to her father's case and, as anticipated, he had been more than happy to do whatever he could to help.
"I'm not expecting him to find much…if anything at all if I'm honest." Kate replied, forcing herself to keep her eyes on Trudy's face despite the fact she could hear Hank's rumbling chuckle followed by the woman's light, breathy laugh from the other side the room.
"Well, at least you'll know either way."
With a gentle pat on her forearm, Trudy ambled off to greet an acquaintance who had been trying to catch her eye for the last fifteen minutes leaving Kate to mull over the question she had been asking herself ever since Meredith dropped off the file.
Did she want to know?
Something about this whole thing felt a bit like cracking open Pandora's box and, given how turbulent the last couple of years had been, did she really have the emotional bandwidth to start slicing open old wounds?
If she was being brutally honest, the last thing she wanted to focus on right now was her past when she had such a beautiful future waiting ahead of her. But her father's murder was like a scab that she couldn't help but pick at, no matter how much the skin became red and tender.
She had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed that Hank had managed to free himself from his social obligations and silently step up behind her, his large palms finding purchase on her hips as he leaned in close to whisper in her ear.
"Surveillance skills are lacking detective."
The sensation of his warm breath ghosting over her skin had her instantly seeking more contact, leaning backwards against his strong chest for a beat before turning in his arms and lifting her chin to catch his gaze.
"Well, I guess everyone pales in comparison when you're the best." She teased with a grin, his lips tugging nto the amused smirk she knew and loved. But the moment of levity was short-lived when his phone began to vibrate in his pocket and, after only a few seconds of conversation, the hint of a smile that had been on his lips was swiftly replaced with a tense grimace.
"That was Adam, he caught a case down in Bridgeport." He said, discarding his half-empty glass of scotch on a nearby table as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket with a sigh.
Inside of thirty minutes, Kate was stood at Hank's elbow once again, only this time she was gazing down at the body of a young hispanic woman who had very clearly been beaten to death before being disposed of in a row of hedges behind a dingy bar near Palmisano Park.
"Alright, what do we know?" Hank asked gruffly, eyes flitting from face to face as the unit circled around the woman's prone form, standing elbow to elbow in an effort to ward off the early spring chill.
"Victim is Carmen Marquez, twenty six." Adam said, flipping through a few pages in his notepad to find the handful sentences he had scribbled down from his initial canvass of the crime scene. "Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head but there's also evidence of sexual assault."
Kate's eyes drifted to the poorly-lit alleyway where the crime was likely to have taken place, already starting to piece together a timeline of events that might have led to her standing over the body of a young woman who had met a particularly gristly end.
"We got any witnesses?" Hank asked, lifting his gaze to Kim who confirmed that the only lead they had was a sketchy description of a dark sedan speeding away from the scene a few hours before the body was discovered but the tip came from a less than reliable source who had also told paramedics that Teddy Roosevelt was still in the White House.
"But we did find her purse in the dumpster over there…drivers licence has got an address in Little Village." Adam supplied, tucking the notebook back into his jacket before meeting Hank's eyes expectantly.
"Alright, you know the drill, let's dig in. Halstead, Upton, see if you can get any POD footage on this sedan…let's see if our if the lead is credible or not. Rest of you, find out everything you can about this girl. Family, friends, boyfriends, financials, phone records, the works."
By the time the unit had reconvened back at the district, Kate had changed out of her dress and was deep into Carmen Marquez's phone records, a rapidly cooling cup of coffee at her elbow as she sifted through page after page of texts and phone calls but, when nothing significant popped, she made a start on scrubbing through the young woman's social media pages. At first glance, her Instagram posts were just as nondescript as her phone records but there was one square on the grid that appeared at least half a dozen times over as many years. The image was clearly a few years old and the arty filter had made the image slightly grainy but there was no mistaking Carmen who was beaming at the camera as a handsome young man pressed a tender kiss to her cheek. With a bit of searching, Kate found the original post that had been date stamped in July 2017 with a caption that read - 'Por siempre, mi amor.'
"I think I got something." Kate called, drawing the attention of Hank, Kevin and Erin who promptly circled her desk to get a look at her computer screen. "Carmen reposted this image with the same caption on the same date every year."
"Boyfriend, maybe?" Erin supplied with a shrug, folding her arms across her chest.
"Looks like it but why the same picture?" Kate asked, jerking her finger at the screen. "Surely they'd've taken new ones by now and this guy stops appearing on her account around the same time she posted the first time. Unless…"
Kate tapered off, coming to the realisation that the only reason why somebody would post the same picture with such precise regularity was because the date was significant in some way. Scrolling a little further back on Carmen's account, she found a clearer picture of the young man's face and ran it through CPIC, a deceased identity file popping up almost instantly.
"Miguel Avalos. Got pinched for armed robbery in 2017 and was shanked in prison in six months later. According to this, he was hooked in deep with Los Temidos."
Los Temidos was a name each of them recognised given that the brutal Latino drug gang had been on the CPD's radar for decades. They were renowned for keeping their circle small and, as a result, they were almost impossible to infiltrate.
"What else do we know about him?" Hank asked, bracing his palms on the edge of Kate's desk to get a better look at Miguel's file as Kate reeled off his familial connections to Los Temidos.
"Dad's inside, never going to see the light of day again. Mom dealt for Los Temidos when the kids were young, died when Miguel was twenty. His little sister followed in the family business but got scooped up in 2018, did a year at Menard before gettin' out."
As she spoke, she pulled up the file of Anna Avalos, placing the siblings' pictures side by side on the screen. Aside from the details of her arrest and subsequent incarceration, the only additional note on her file was that she had been hospitalised the same year that her brother had been killed but she had self-discharged before the doctors could examine her.
"We got an LKA on the sister?" Hank asked, straightening back up and folding his arms across his chest.
"Lives in Little Village with her five year old son."
"Alright, bring her in. Quietly. Last thing we need is Los Temidos getting wind we're sniffing around."
Kate had breathed a sigh of relief she hadn't been aware she was holding when Avalos answered the door to a tiny apartment in Little Village minus her son who was thankfully at a friend's house for the night. Having a terrified child plead with you not to take their mommy or daddy away was a situation Kate had had been in before and, if possible, she wanted to avoid a repeat performance where she could. Anna remained resolutely silent as Kevin asked her to accompany them to the district, her dark brown eyes surveying them cooly as she slipped her feet into a pair of bright white sneakers before pulling on a plaid shirt over her bare arms and following Kevin out to the car, her spine ramrod straight and her chin jutted out in defiance.
Her arrogant attitude never once faltered as Hank took a seat opposite her in the dimly lit interrogation room, the two of them sitting in silence for a few long moments until Hank eventually slid a handful of crime scene photos across the table towards her one by one.
"You recognise this woman?"
Kate watched on from the viewing room as Anna's eyes flicked between the pictures before returning to Hank's face.
"What's it to you?"
Leaning back in his chair, Hank casually crossed his arms over his chest, his face carefully blank.
"She was killed earlier tonight. Somebody pulled her in to a dark alley, brutally raped her and then caved her skull in."
Kate had been studying Anna's face as Hank relayed the horrific details of the young woman's murder and, for the first time since she knocked on the young woman's door, Kate saw something other than arrogance flicker in her deep chocolate pools. Whether it was fear or something else, Kate wasn't sure. But it was something. Apparently Hank had noticed it too because he leaned forwards, bracing is elbows on the metal surface between them before continuing.
"I wanna find the men responsible for murdering the woman who was in love with your brother."
At the realisation that they knew Carmen's connection to her brother, Anna released a long, slightly shaky breath, her entire upper body sagging forwards slightly. After another few long moments of silence, Anna finally spoke.
"You know what the initiation is for Los Temidos?"
When Hank failed to respond, Anna provided the answer.
"Rape." Hank never broke eye contact despite the fire raging in Anna's dark orbs. "And what better way to keep somebody under the thumb than by recording them raping a woman with so much ketamine in her system she can barely keep her eyes open."
Her tone was light and casual, completely at odds with the harrowing words tumbling from her lips but, with Hank's silent encouragement, she pressed on.
"The guy you're lookin' for is Paco Chavez. He orchestrates all new initiations into Los Temidos."
A rustle of clothing and soft footfalls told Kate that Erin and Kevin were already on their way back to the bullpen to brief the rest of the unit but Kate remained rooted to the spot, her heart clenching in her chest as Hank quietly thanked Anna for her help but the protective wall had already been wrenched back into place and she merely huffed in response, her eyes rolling to the ceiling.
By the time Kate and Hank rejoined the rest of the unit, they had already pulled Paco's colourful rap sheet and tacked his latest mugshot to the centre of their whiteboard but it soon became clear that tracking down the Los Temidos recruiter wasn't going to be that easy.
"No known address, never stays at the same residence more than a few nights in a row." Hailey said with a shake of her head. "The guy's a blur."
All eyes turned to Hank, waiting for some direction on their next move. If they rushed this and moved too quickly, Paco would be in the wind so fast their heads would spin. It wasn't his most favourite tactic in the world but, sometimes, slow and steady garnered the best results.
"Everybody go home. Get some rest. Let's come back tomorrow with fresh eyes and figure out a way to nail this prick."
With a quiet chorus of "yes Sarg", the unit slowly dispersed until only Hank and Kate were remaining, both of them staring intently at the whiteboard.
"She must've been terrified." Kate said quietly, eyes drifting from the gruesome image of Carmen lying on the damp concrete to her husband's face, noting that he too was wearing a slightly nauseous expression. She knew how much crimes against women affected him but sexual crimes against women made him wild with rage. He had told her once about a case he'd worked a few years before she joined the unit where a guy was teaching seminars on how men should ignore the concept of consent and simply take what's rightfully theirs. While he had given that particular asshole a chance to get himself out of town, she knew he wouldn't have thought twice about burying the prick if he hadn't heeded the warning.
After a moment, he jerked his head towards his office with an offer of a glass of his secret scotch before they headed home and, with a acquiescing nod, Kate following him across the threshold and dropped herself down onto the sofa with a groan.
"All things considered, I think I'd rather have put up with Kelton for a few more hours than take this case."
Hank's grumble of agreement was muffled by the clinking of glassware as he placed two crystal tumblers on the desk with a quiet thud, promptly pouring a hefty measure into both glasses.
"If only we could pick and choose." He muttered, passing one glass off to Kate before resting his weight against the edge of his desk.
They had barely finished their first sip of fiery amber liquid when there was a tap at the door and Kate found herself biting back a groan of despair when Anna Valdez appeared in the doorway, still clad in her finery from Kelton's fundraiser.
"Heard you got a lead on Los Temidos." She said in lieu of a greeting, her eyes trained on Hank's form as she studiously avoided Kate's presence.
"It's still early. We're runnin' a few names-"
"Coy really isn't your colour, Hank."
Kate eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline when the feisty AUSA abruptly interrupted her husband, folding her arms across her chest with an air of irritation. Hank levelled Anna with an expression that was slightly amused, slightly insulted at the thinly-veiled insult.
"You don't think I'd call if I had something solid?" He asked in a deep, gruff tone and Kate was horrified to watch Valdez shift slightly on the spot, instantly recognising the subtle way the Assistant US Attorney ground her thighs together despite the way her spine straightened at the challenge.
"Funny, I thought you had an aversion to making phone calls."
The room fell completely silent at Valdez's sharp accusation, Kate's eyes darting backwards and forwards between the two as a thick haze of tension settled in the air. Both Hank and Valdez stared one another down, neither prepared to bend but eventually Valdez broke the deadlock with a huff.
"Paco Chavez has been our radar for two years. Two years, Hank!"
Lifting his palms in surrender, Hank calmly placated the visibly irate Attorney with a promise to call as soon as they had enough to make a case and, after taking a few moments to consider his offer, Valdez jerked her chin in agreement and turned to leave.
She closed the door behind her with a quiet click, the blinds rattling softly against the glass before finally falling still and, for a few long beats, the only sound was the faint clack of heels on the bullpen floor until they too eventually faded out into silence.
After a few moments, Kate's gaze drifted to Hank who had yet to move from his desk, his mouth pulled in to a thin line and his arms folded tightly across his chest clearly deep in thought.
"You fucked her, didn't you?"
She hadn't meant to sound so crass but she had spent the best part of the last few minutes wondering if the reason that the pretty brunette had been casting heated looks towards her husband all night was because she knew exactly what he was hiding beneath the button-up and well-fitting denim. It was one thing to know your significant other had been with other women but to actually be faced with one of the notches on his bedpost was a totally different ball game.
His eyes snapped to hers, brows lifted and yet furrowed at the same time as he took a second to process her direct, if somewhat accusatory, question. Although he was well aware that it had been him who opened the can of worms by asking for the details of her relationship with Stabler, he didn't want this to become a thing for them. It was called the past for a reason and he had no intention of letting it become yet another self-imposed hurdle for them to clamber over.
"It was a long time ago, Kate." He replied casually, keeping his tone measured and even.
"God, I knew it." She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger in an attempt the ease the pressure building behind her eyes. "And you didn't think it might be a good idea to give me a heads up?"
"How the hell was I supposed to know that our suspect would be on the AUSA's shit list?" Hank asked with a huff of bemused laughter as he gestured towards the closed door with an open palm. "And how is this any different to being ambushed by two of your exes in the same day, hmm?"
Kate levelled him with a look that clearly told him he was entering dangerous territory but, as was the norm for both stubborn Voights, neither of them showed any signs of backing down.
"You weren't ambushed, asshole. Besides, this is not the same thing."
"Yes it is and you know it." He said calmly, his eyes twinkling with something akin to amusement as the realisation slowly dawned on her that Hank meeting Jake and Elliot within hours of one another was exactly the same as her having to spend a few hours with Valdez…if not a little worse!
Silence stretched between them for a few long beats until Kate eventually spoke. "I just fucking hate the thought of another woman putting her hands on you." She mumbled, peering over at him with a pout.
"You jealous sweetheart?"
She was. Ridiculously so. And it really didn't help that he was very obviously struggling to contain a smug smirk at her discomfort. But then her eyes dropped to where his arms were still firmly folded across his chest, the platinum band on his finger glinting in the dim light, and she realised it really didn't matter who he'd slept with before he met her. Because he married her. He chose her.
Kate could feel his eyes on her as she pushed to her feet and slowly closed the space between them, stopping only once she had planted one foot either side of his crossed ankles and her chest brushed against the outside of his forearms.
"I don't like them touching what's mine."
"What's yours?" He queried with a quirked eyebrow and that same cocky smirk that sent a spike of lust directly to Kate's core. Leaning in close, she pushed a soft kiss to his chin, allowing her lips to tug upwards into a wry grin when he swiftly unfolded his arms and planted his palms on her hips, drawing her body close to his own. Sliding her hands along the firm planes of his chest, she slipped the top button of his shirt through the corresponding hole to reveal a sliver of tanned flesh, giving her just enough space to press a heated kiss to the base of his throat. Tracing her lips along the sharp line of his jaw, Kate smoothed her hands down the length of his torso, slipping the very tips of her fingers beneath the leather utility belt at his waist just as she brushed her lips against his ear and whispered seductively.
"Mine."
Her quiet declaration was like pouring gasoline over an open flame, Hank's eyes becoming almost black with lust as he devoured her lips in a fierce kiss, securing her mouth to his with a fistful of wild curls. It had been a while since the last time he had kissed her with such raw, untamed passion, and Kate instantly found herself succumbing to his urgent, frenetic ministrations.
"We should probably wait 'til we get home." Kate mumbled in-between lusty kisses, her head falling backwards with a tight groan when Hank's lips tracked down the column of her throat to graze his teeth along the sensitive flesh of her collarbones.
"Probably." He murmured against her skin, dropping a hand to grip the back of her thigh and draw her knee up and over his hip, growling deeply when her denim-clad centre pressed flush against the firm bulge that was gradually tenting his own jeans.
Contrary to what her husband believed, his office was actually pretty low on Kate's list of favourite locations to get busy. While the danger of being caught was certainly a salacious thrill, by its very nature it was often far too rushed for her liking. And there was nothing Kate loved more than being able to take her time with him. Yet as he slipped his tongue into her mouth with a deep, guttural groan, Kate decided that not even the appearance of Kelton himself would stop her from sliding down the length of his body to settle on her knees between his slightly parted legs.
Making short work of his belt and button fly, Kate kept her eyes trained on his face as she eased his rigid length from the confines his jeans, peering up at him coyly through thick lashes while she blew a stream of cool air over his flushed, leaking tip. His dark, smouldering eyes never left her face as she slipped the wide crest of him between her plump lips, his breath hitching in his throat at the incredible sensation of her tongue tracking each vein with practiced precision.
Hank's sharp, staccato breaths and gritty moans accompanied the telltale sound of Kate working him over, her lips and tongue moving in perfect sync with her slick palm until he was throbbing and aching for release. But as much as she loved watching him come undone, she wasn't going to give it up that easy. Sliding him from the molten cavern of her mouth, she stroked him softly from base to tip, gazing up at him with an arrogant smirk of her own.
"Who d'you belong to?"
The corner of his mouth ticked upwards in amusement as he released the white-knuckle grip he had on the edge of his desk to gently cup Kate's face, the pad of his thumb brushing tenderly over the smooth skin of her cheek.
Jealousy and possessiveness weren't traits usually associated with strong, healthy relationships and yet, by their own admission, both Hank and Kate were somewhat territorial and had the tendency to suffer from occasional outbursts that almost always seemed to culminate in a bout of hot sex.
If he had to point to a reason why their relationship hadn't been fraught with obscene amounts of tension, he would say it was because of the fact that, although they were territorial assholes, they also had a tremendous amount of love and respect for one another.
Hingeing at the waist, Hank sealed his mouth over Kate's in soft, yet tongue-filled kiss, groaning at the taste of their combined flavour.
"I belong to my wife." He husked, easing away slightly to drag his thumb along her damp lower lip, a surge of arousal lancing down his spine as she gazed up at him with hooded eyes and flushed cheeks.
Sliding a palm up and under the hem of his shirt to caress the warm skin of his belly, Kate mumbled a quiet "damn right" before guiding his length back to her waiting mouth, restarting her ministrations with renewed vigour with the aim of driving him over the edge into euphoria.
"Christ Kate." He groaned, his eyes drifting closed as he tipped his head back towards the ceiling, his heart jackhammering against his ribs and his hips canting forwards as her talented tongue fluttered against the underside of his sensitive head on every withdrawal.
All too soon her intimate knowledge of his anatomy had him throbbing against her tongue, spilling ropes of white-hot release into her waiting mouth with a barely constrained moan of relief, hips jerking sporadically as he chased the last remnants of pleasure. When his heart rate finally returned to a normal rhythm, Hank finally let his eyes drift back to where Kate was still crouched between his knees, tenderly tucking him back into his boxers while he took a few more moments to gather himself. He was still drawing in slow, measured breaths when he helped Kate back to her feet, immediately pulling her flush to his body so he could claim her mouth with his own, only this time with far less fervour than before. Together they traded slow, lazy kisses and, for a few long moments, the only sound was of their lips meeting and parting along with the occasional soft sigh and quiet moan.
When the need to breathe became pressing, Hank leaned in to press one final kiss to Kate's forehead, a noise of contentment rumbling deep in his chest when she nuzzled her face against his throat, tucking her head comfortably beneath his chin. They stood wrapped in one another's embrace for what could have been minutes or hours, neither of them in any rush to burst the serene post-coital bubble despite the fact that Hank's open jeans and Kate's disheveled hair would be a huge giveaway if anyone happened to stumble on them.
"I'm sorry."
The almost inaudible apology whispered into his neck caught Hank off guard, his brows pinching in confusion as he eased her back by the shoulders to catch her eyes.
"For what?"
"For being a jealous bitch." She mumbled sheepishly, her eyes flicking from his to his still-damp lips and back again. "You're right, it's not like I don't have a past-"
Hank cut her off with a quiet shush, skating a palm up over her shoulder to cup her jaw, fingers splaying on the side of her neck while his thumb tucked just beneath her chin, the faint fluttering of her anxious heartbeat thrumming against his fingers.
Ever since the argument that had preceded her being snatched by Pulpo's violent henchmen, Kate had been utterly terrified at the prospect of engaging in any kind of war of words just incase they were the last words she ever said to him.
'Hank! Wait!'
He rolled down the tinted window of his SUV, fighting against a shiver as he watched Kate jog down the icy steps at top speed in nothing more than a pair of cotton sleep shorts, one of his grey CPD sweatshirts and her favourite moccasins. The door had been left ajar in her haste to catch him before he left for the grocery store and the warm glow emanating from their rapidly cooling hallway almost looked like the gateway home from Narnia but, despite the subzero temperatures, she appeared to be completely oblivious to the bitter chill whipping around them as she skidded to a stop alongside him.
'Kate, you'll catch your death out here-'
'I love you.'
He paused for a beat, his mouth slightly agape as he watched his trembling wife grip the window frame before leaning in to push her chilly lips to his in a quick kiss. With a sharp shake of his head, he returned the sentiment and shooed her back into the warmth of the house, making a mental note to check in with her when he got back and, sure enough, when he had finished unpacking the last of the groceries and he gently asked if there was anything she wanted to talk about, she had instantly dropped her chin to her chest and mumbled something about 'just being stupid'.
Despite every instinct as a husband telling him to envelope her in his arms and hold her tight, he purposefully kept his distance, choosing instead to catch her fingers with his and gently intertwine their fingers.
'Honey, you're everything but stupid.' He said quietly but firmly, giving her fingers a soft squeeze.
After a few moments of silence, Kate lifted her chin to meet his eyes and Hank's heart plummeted when he noticed tears gathering along her lower lashes.
'It's just…when I was lying on the floor of that basement and he was…on top of me.' Hank forced himself to take a few slow, deep breaths as a spike of wild rage sizzled down his spine.
'All I could think about was that the last thing I ever said to you was to go fuck yourself and that I was never going to get the chance to make it right.'
The untamed fury abated somewhat when he watched her throat constrict with emotion, clearly struggling to the find the right words to describe her ordeal.
'And now all I can think about is what happens if your car gets run off the road or you slip on some ice and crack your skull open and I never told you that I loved you before you left?'
Her voice broke with emotion as she finished talking and Hank found himself closing the remaining space between them and scooping her up into his arms, his eyes fluttering closed as she buried her damp cheeks against his throat, hands bunching the front of his shirt in tight fists as though he might vanish if she let him go.
Given everything she had been through, he wasn't surprised in the slightest that her anxiety levels had ratcheted up a few notches but, even still, it pained him to think of her silently torturing herself over things that, in his mind, really didn't matter.
"Let me let you in on a little secret." He said quietly, sliding his hands back down the length of her body where he interlaced his fingers at the base of her spine. "You're sexy as hell when you're possessive."
Kate's brow furrowed in confusion as she searched his face.
"I am?"
He simply hummed in response, pulling back just far enough so that he could drop a featherlight kiss to the tip of her nose, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards when she scrunched her nose up in the exact same way Alexis did when he peppered his daughter's face with tiny butterfly kisses.
"Valdez was a one time thing." He said with a sigh. "I was an asshole. I said I'd call…I didn't."
Kate considered him for a few moments, idly wondering if she should be relieved that there was clearly zero interest on his part or surprised that her affectionate, loving husband had, at least once in his life, been the type of guy that they would encourage their own daughter to steer clear of. Choosing to put the conversation to bed for now, Kate nuzzled her face against his chest once more, inhaling deeply as she listened to the steady thrum of his heart beat beneath her cheek.
After a few moments of comfortable silence, Kate quietly mumbled his name into the space where his shoulder met his neck, and his response came in the form of a vibration against her cheek.
"Take me home?"