"Ruz, you can't put it all the way up there man!"
Kate's gaze was drawn to the other side of the lawn where Adam was in the process of hiding a brightly decorated easter egg in the centre of Makayla's bird table, much to her partner's clear dismay.
The Intelligence Unit had gathered in the spacious backyard of Adam Ruzek's family home on Easter Sunday, the early spring sunshine only partially offsetting the chilly breeze but, nonetheless, they had all donned a light jacket to stand on the porch and watch Adam diligently prepare an Easter Egg hunt for Makayla and Alexis (the latter with Uncle Kevin's assistance).
Adam had turned startled brown eyes to Kevin's bemused face, jerking a shoulder up towards his ear as he nestled the egg in a large pile of bird seed.
"Why not?"
"You jus' think on that for a second." Kevin answered dryly, shifting a babbling Alexis in his arms so that her little legs were bouncing in front of him, a least five feet from the ground.
"Nobody briefed me on the rules, man." He grumbled, plucking the egg from it's current hiding spot to find a new, more height-appropriate home for it closer to the ground.
"Uncle Adam's just giving her a head start on her detective's exam, right Ruz?" Kate called from across the yard, tossing her head back with a roar of laughter when Adam jabbed an index finger in her direction, vehemently agreeing that he was indeed planning for the future.
"Not if I've got anything to do with it."
Kate rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her husband's dry statement, knowing full well that Alexis' future career choices were already keeping him awake at night. Having Erin decide to become a police officer had been bad enough, resulting in many a night laying awake watching the shadows dance across the ceiling wondering if she would make it home in one piece. But the thought of his baby being out on patrol with some of the city's most violent criminals filled him with utter terror.
"You know there's every chance she'll follow in our footsteps and become a cop, right?" Kate said with a raised eyebrow, lifting the chilled bottle of beer to her lips in an attempt to stifle her smirk of amusement. "What're you gonna do, follow her around when she's on patrol?"
From his pointed look she realised that, if Alexis did decide to become a cop in the future, that's exactly what her husband would do.
"Apparently around ten percent of children choose the same career path as their parents." Kim piped up, her huge doe eyes going wide when both Kate and Erin dissolved into peals of laughter while Hank groaned a quiet "Jesus" and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Don't worry, honey. You've got plenty of time to encourage her into something else." She chirruped brightly. "I heard pole dancing is quite a profitable vocation these days."
"I think that's probably a preferable choice for me right now." He grumbled, casting a sideways glance at Erin who was almost doubled over with laughter, tears streaming down her face at Kate's gentle needling.
"Who knew being a girl dad was this stressful, huh?" Kate muttered with a wink, bumping her shoulder against his as the rest of the unit darted down the porch steps to cheer on Makayla as she zipped around the garden at top speed in search of the well-hidden eggs with Kevin and Alexis hot on her heels.
"S'alright, her mom's a pretty good shot and her dad knows where to bury the bodies." Hank said with a casual hike of his shoulder, leaning forward to brace his forearms on the wooden railing, his mouth ticking upwards into a smile as he watched Alexis cheer and clap along with the others when Makayla finally found her Easter surprise.
"Just pretty good, huh?" Kate whispered into his ear, surreptitiously sliding a hand over his lower back until she could burrow her fingers beneath the hem of his well-worn leather jacket, fingertips tracing obscure patterns across the warm cotton beneath.
"I can think of a few things you're better at." He replied, inching forwards until he was close enough to touch his lips to hers. The contact was all too brief for Kate's liking but, despite her pout of displeasure, Hank drew away with a smirk and turned his attention back to the team where Kevin was cradling a giggling Alexis in his arms as Adam bobbed up and down behind a nearby hedge in what Kate could only describe as an oversized game of peekaboo.
"How did we get so lucky?"
Over the past decade, rarely had a day passed that Hank hadn't asked himself the very same question. While it hadn't always been easy, his team were a family and there was nothing on this earth that they wouldn't do for one another; a mentality that naturally extended to their own families. He'd lost count of the number of times over the past year that they had offered to rock his daughter to sleep or watch over Kate while she was recovering and, if he was honest, he had never been more grateful for them.
Before he could respond, Adam's radio that had lain forgotten on a nearby table sprung to life, the familiar static hiss drawing both Hank and Kate's attention.
"…units on the citywide, reports of an unattended bag at 201 East Randolph."
The two of them shared a knowing look, wondering how long it would take for the irritated gym-goer or the panicked mom to realise they'd left their duffle bag in the middle of the park.
"You know where Alexis' diaper bag is?" Hank asked with a wry smile, entirely unable to resist pointing out the fact that Kate had been leaving Alexis' bag of essentials all over the city ever since they left the hospital.
"Yes, thank you." Kate replied primly before she was hit with a surge of self-doubt and excused herself to slink back into the house and make sure she'd actually brought the damn thing with them. Sure enough, after she had tip-toed through Makayla's 'drama stage' and made her way into the front hallway, the striped grey bag was exactly where she thought she'd left it when they arrived a few hours' earlier.
Marching triumphantly towards the back of the house, she was already crowing in victory when she crossed the threshold to the porch but one look at Hank's face had her stopping dead in her tracks, the words dying on her tongue. He had his cell phone pressed to his ear and, even with the few inches of space between them, Kate could hear Kelton's usually soft tone was laced with a hint of panic as the smooth, well-practiced public speaker stumbled over every other word, rushing to brief his Intelligence Sergeant on whatever disaster was unfolding in the city.
Drawing in a deep breath, Hank calmly advised him that he was on his way before killing the call and finally meeting Kate's concerned hazel eyes.
"Somebody just detonated a bomb in Millennium Park."
Kate stood motionless for a few moments, an uncomfortable sensation of deja vu trickling down her spine and, almost as though he had a direct line to her innermost thoughts, Hank took a few steps towards and her and reached out a hand to grip her bicep in a firm but gentle hold.
"This isn't New York, Kate."
He was right but somehow this felt worse than New York. This was Chicago. The place where she worked, where she was raising a family. New York had been her home for far longer than Chicago had but she had quickly realised that your home wasn't a physical location; it was where your heart was. And right now her heart was right there in Adam Ruzek's back yard.
Her eyes darted from her husband's face to where Kevin had Alexis suspended high over his head, his handsome face pulled into a wide grin as her innocent laughter drifted through the breeze and it suddenly occurred to her that, irrespective of how much she tried, she was never going to be able to keep her baby entirely protected. She hadn't been safe in the womb and she wasn't safe now.
"She's not gonna be safe anywhere, is she?"
Slowly she let her eyes return to Hank's face, his brow furrowed and his mouth pulled in to a tight line as he gave a minute shake of his head.
"No, she's not."
Again, she didn't need to elaborate.
'We bought her into a world that can be cruel at the best of times. All we can do is try and shield her from the worst it has to offer.'
They'd had this conversation before and, as the months passed, the deep-seated anxiety that something bad was going to happen to them hadn't eased in the slightest. Kate's therapist had reassured her that it was entirely natural to feel the way she did after such a traumatic ordeal but, even still, it didn't make the reality of living on a proverbial knife-edge any easier to deal with.
"Take Makayla and Alexis back to the district, ask Trudy if she can spare somebody to keep an eye on them." Hank muttered quietly, running a comforting hand over Kate's bicep, his touch keeping her grounded. "It's the safest place they could be right now. Take Kev with you and then meet us downtown, alright?"
With a jerky nod, Kate descended the steps with Hank close behind her to loop in the unit and, within the hour, both Alexis and Makayla were in the capable hands of one of Trudy's most trusted officers and the Intelligence Unit were stood alongside the every tactical unit and major government agency in the city surveying the pile of rubble that was once Millennium Park.
Plumes of dust swirled overhead like a lugubrious cloud as firefighters diligently waded through the chaos, hopeful that there were still survivors amongst the wreckage while the Chicago PD Counter Terrorism Unit swarmed the makeshift command-centre tent that had been erected beneath the steel beams of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Kelton's order.
Kate stood between Kevin and Hank, lifting her trembling hands to the front of her vest, fisting the velcro straps in a white-knuckle grip as Kelton introduced the CTU Chief who was front and centre, is voice gruff and face hard.
"Current death count is fifty two, ten of those were seven and eight year old kids on a field trip."
"Jesus Christ." Kate whispered, thankful that she was wedged between her husband and her partner, both of whom seemed to edge a little closer as her body sagged against them.
Chief Monroe moved through the motions of briefing them on the intel they had gathered so far, eventually beckoning a tall, broad-shouldered man with cropped sandy hair to the front of the crowd with a jerk of his head. The CTU Division Commander, who Kate recognised from a handful of social engagements as Jeremy Matthews, dragged his steely grey eyes from face to face as he held an A4 mugshot up at chest-height for the rest of them to see.
"The lab pulled a print off of a piece of plastic they think was part of the device. Came back to Wade Travis, twenty five. LKA is 4246 South Wells."
"I know that kid." Kevin blurted, drawing every pair of eyes in the tent towards him as he jabbed an index finger towards the picture. "He's the guy that spat in my face in the interrogation room a few years back."
"The kid you put in the hospital?" Hank asked, lifting an eyebrow as he angled his body towards Kate with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Oh c'mon, I hardly touched him!" She scoffed, shooting Hank a pointed look to keep his mouth shut when she felt Kelton's narrowed his eyes on the side of her head. The last thing she needed was him to dredge up the beatdown she'd given Wade Travis after he had taken it upon himself to lean across the interrogation table and spit in her partner's face.
"Kate, you broke his nose and fractured his eye socket." Hank reminded her with a reproachful look but, even still, he found himself reluctant to even attempt to rein in her fiery, protective instincts.
"Like I said, hardly touched him." She said tartly, turning her attention back to Kelton and Matthews who had been watching their exchange with raised eyebrows of their own. "We scooped him up on a public disturbance charge at a Black Lives Matter protest and, when he proceeded to tell Officer Atwater just how much his skin colour offended him, we tacked on a racial assault charge to go with it."
"Well perhaps you should've kept your hands to yourself, Detective." The Matthews said with a hint of hostility, casting a somewhat disdainful look at her from across the tent. "He was later released without charge and a hefty pay day courtesy of the CPD. Since then he's been affiliated with a number of white supremacist groups who are particularly vocal in some pretty nasty neo-Nazi forums."
His prickly tone had Kate's spine stiffening with mild irritation which soon morphed into enflamed indignation at the realisation that the racist prick who dared spit in the face of the man who was, for all intents and purposes her brother, had gotten off scot-free.
"Who paid this asshole off?" She hissed, narrowed eyes flicking between the picture he was still holding aloft and the Agent's arrogant smirk.
"Commander at the time felt the negative press of a Detective beating the living hell out of a suspect in an interrogation room wouldn't sit well with the brass." He said casually with a hike of his shoulder, seeming to enjoy the fact that he had thrown a curve-ball at one of Chicago's most elite.
"Fucking Fischer." Kate groused under her breath wondering, not for the first time, how on earth Fischer had managed to earn that star on his collar given his sheer incompetence and idiocy.
While Kate had been considering the multitude of ways in which she could make Fischer's life a misery wherever he had scarpered off to, Kelton had asked Hank to run point on apprehending Wade Travis but, just as the unit turned to vacant the tent, he spoke again.
"Oh, Sergeant? Take Commander Matthews with you." He jerked his head towards the other man who was still wearing the smug smirk that sent a ripple of unease down Kate's spine. "You can never have enough hands, right?"
Sensing that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter, Hank paused for a beat before reluctantly gesturing for Matthews to follow them as they made their way across town to the tiny, rundown property in Fuller Park, all nine of them pairing off to surround the perimeter with Matthews following close on Kevin's heels.
"On my count…three…two…one."
On Hank's order, Kate could hear Jay barrelling down the front door just as Kevin put his boot through the flimsy wood at the rear, the two of them crossing the threshold and moving swiftly into dimly-lit kitchen.
"Clear." Kate called, edging towards the stairs with her Glock trained on the upper lever but, before her boot hit the first step, a flash of movement in her peripheral vision had her spinning on the spot just as Wade Travis lifted his own weapon in the direction of an oblivious Jeremy Matthews who had holstered his gun in favour of rifling through some discarded papers on a nearby table.
"MATTHEWS GET DOWN!"
The Division Commander's grey eyes widened in surprise as Kate lunged towards him, using the momentum from her short sprint to knock him to the ground as a flurry of bullets ricocheted overhead, showering them in a blanket of dust and debris. The only sound Kate could hear was that of her own frantic heartbeat as she returned fire at Travis, the first round skimming the flesh of his bicep and the second finding its mark in his right shoulder before he toppled to the floor with a yelp of pain.
Within a matter of seconds, Kevin and Kim were stood over her forming a protective barrier while Jay and Adam wrestled a squirming Travis into cuffs, but a firm shove in the centre of her back had Kate shifting into a seated position while Matthews scrabbled to his feet, leaving her on the grimy, dusty floor without so much as a thank you.
"Y'alright?" Kevin asked, reaching out a large paw to help her to feet, his dark chocolate eyes giving her a once-over when she was upright in search of blood or bullet holes but thankfully coming up empty.
"Yeah…bit close for my liking though." She muttered, glaring at the back of Matthews' head as he brushed the dirt from his black pants, picking up the scattered papers that had gone flying when Kate pushed him to the floor. "You find anything worth taking a bullet for?"
Matthews' mouth pulled into an arrogant smirk as he rounded on Kate, his steely gaze cold as he took a few steps closer "You think I'm stupid enough to get myself shot?" He snarled, the implication that Kate was stupid enough to find herself on the wrong end of a speeding bullet all too plain.
Kate was acutely aware that many people felt getting critically wounded wasn't a valid reason to be awarded not one but two prestigious awards for outstanding bravery and, from the outward display of hostility, Jeremy Matthews was clearly one of those people.
"You almost got yourself killed, you almost got me killed!" Kate argued, refusing to be intimated by a man who was foolish enough to enter a known felon's house and holster his weapon before the property had been fully cleared.
"Don't flatter yourself, Meadows." He scoffed, entirely oblivious to the fact that the entire Intelligence Unit were watching on with a mixture of anger and surprise as he went toe to toe with one of their own. "Last I heard, you were more than capable of almost getting killed on your own."
Matthews was well over six feet and he looked like he could easily bench press Kate's entire bodyweight as a warmup exercise but still Kate continued to glare up at him, squaring her shoulders when Matthews continued to advance on her.
"What the hell is your problem?"
Kevin shifted uncomfortably at Kate's elbow, instantly recognising the lethal fury colouring her tone and wondering if he should step in before somebody, most likely Matthews, got hurt. He glanced briefly across the room towards Hank who had both fists tucked into the arms of his vest but, despite the casualness of his stance, he too was wearing a dark expression as the Division Commander converged on his wife.
"My problem is that I don't like people who's success comes in the form of getting on their knees for the boss." Matthews spat, his cheeks becoming flushed with rage as he jabbed an accusatory finger in Kate's face.
Kate reared back as though he had slapped her, momentarily stunned to silence before her eyes narrowed dangerously and she closed the remaining few inches so that her nose was almost touching Matthews' chest.
"What did you just say to me?" She seethed, her hands clenching into tight fists at her side and, spotting the early warning signs, Kevin stepped forward to band an arm around Kate's entire upper body, securing her to his chest so that her own arms were pinned tightly at her side.
"Hey, hey, hey, easy partner." He mumbled, shooting a cold look at Matthews' who was being inched backwards by Jay who had placed a firm hand on his chest in an effort to create some space between the two.
"Who the hell do you think you are!?" Kate roared indignantly, her body trembling with barely contained rage.
"Not fucking my superior officer, that's who I am!"
His barbed jibe was the final nail in the coffin for Hank who strode forwards into the space between the two warring officers before Kate could wriggle free of Kevin's grip and launch herself at the pompous prick whom she'd just risked her life to save.
"That's enough!" Hank barked sharply, noting with a hint of satisfaction that Matthews' took an involuntary step backwards as he approached but the brief ego boost almost instantly disappeared when he turned towards Kate and watched her eyes fill with tears.
"Meadows, back to the district. Now." His tone was quiet and measured but, when he didn't get any kind acknowledgement from his wife, he lifted his eyes meet the gaze of her partner, the silent request for him to steer her out of the house received loud and clear when Kevin gently eased her towards now non-existent front door.
One by one, he watched the retreating backs of his unit disappear out onto the sidewalk, each of them casting disgusted looked in Matthews' direction as they went until the two men were left alone in Wade Travis' grimy kitchen.
"And you." He growled, turning his attention to the Division Commander with a thunderous expression, inching closer and closer until Matthews was caged between the kitchen counter and Hank's body.
"You know who I am…what I'm capable of."
Matthews swallowed thickly, his breath becoming sharp and shallow as he stared into fiery brown eyes of a man who he knew wouldn't have a problem ending his life right there and then. Later on, when he was back in the safety of his apartment, Matthews knew he'd be mortified by the undignified squeak of fear that escaped unbidden when Hank's fingers darted out to grasp him firmly around the throat, slowly increasing the pressure until his lungs began to burn due to lack of oxygen.
"If I ever hear a single malicious word about a member of my unit come outta your mouth again, we're gonna have a problem. You understand?"
In his head, Matthews had screamed his acquiescence and frantically nodded in response to the Intelligence Sergeant's growled threat but, once again, he found himself frozen to the spot, just as he had when Travis had levelled the barrel of his gun at his face before Meadows had knocked him to the ground.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"
"Y-yes, yes." Matthews choked with a nod, almost crumbling to the floor when Hank finally released the grip on his neck and he was able to suck in a much needed lungful of air.
Hank didn't once look back as he strode out to his car, leaving Matthews alone and gasping for breath and, as he made his way back to the district, he found himself wondering if Kelton had chosen Matthews to ride with them because he knew the Division Commander wouldn't have a problem voicing his blatant disapproval of Kate's choice in husband.
Clearing the last step to the Intelligence bullpen, Hank's heart plummeted into his stomach when his eyes landed on Kate's vacant desk but at Kevin's silent head-nod towards his office, he could just make out her silhouette between the partially closed blinds as she sat on the black leather couch beneath the window.
Kate was seated in the corner of the two-seater sofa with a slumbering Alexis cradled against her chest, her chin resting softly amongst the toddler's wild chocolate curls. Without a word, Hank shrugged out of his jacket, hanging the heavy leather on the coat stand before he dropped down into one of the vacant chairs opposite her with a heavy exhale.
"You okay?" He asked after a few long moments of silence.
"Travis has already lawyered up." She mumbled quietly, tracing a light palm over Alexis' back, her eyes firmly fixed a few inches to the left of where Hank was seated. "Kim's dragging her heels but you won't have long to question him."
Where distance was his go-to tactic when something was bothering him, he had learned the hard way that his wife's coping mechanism, more often that not, was avoidance. Particularly when her own feelings and emotions were involved.
"Kate, it's alright to-"
"You really think that's the first time somebody's accused me of sleeping my way to a Valour award?" She interrupted brusquely, her eyes flashing with a combination of hurt and irritation. "Every gala, every visit to the Ivory Tower, every time I work with somebody outside of this unit, there's always someone with something to say about the decorated detective who gets on her knees for Hank Voight."
In his mind, they were few things more sacred to him than being intimate with his wife and yet, at her vulgar reference to something so deeply personal, he found himself physically recoiling in his chair and Kate instantly knew that her frank admission had left him reeling. He'd always known that it was inevitable that people would have a problem with their relationship but, now that they were married, he'd assumed that the idle gossip had fizzled out. But while that may have been the case for him, he was coming to the very sobering realising that it wasn't the same for her.
"I've had people looking at me just like Matthews did almost every day since we went public." She finished quietly, pressing her lips softly to the crown of Alexis' head.
As horrified as he was to hear that people had been whispering about her, about them, he was even more troubled by the fact that she had neglected to loop him in on the problem in the first place.
"Kate, why the hell haven't you told me?" He eventually asked, halfway between a blurt and a whisper.
"Firstly, because it didn't matter. It's not like I'd've stopped seeing you just because somebody said something spiteful." She replied with a slight hike of her shoulder, careful not to jostle the sleeping baby awake. "And, secondly, I didn't want to cause a scene. Last thing you needed was everyone commenting on how out of control your baby mama is."
Hank lifted both eyebrows almost to hairline. "Since when have I cared about what other people had to say?"
"Maybe not but I care." She implored, her bright hazel eyes pleading with him silently. "I may not like people questioning my abilities but having them question your integrity just isn't acceptable."
If the day hadn't been such a colossal clusterfuck, he might have managed a chuckle at how typically her she sounded. If Matthew's hadn't almost gotten them both killed, he was almost certain she wouldn't have risen to his childish jibes about their personal life but, combined with his less than graceful behaviour after her quick thinking had kept him out of a bodybag, her tolerance for dealing with assholes had significantly diminished. While he didn't think she'd readily admit to being bothered by the things people said about her, he knew just how tender the heart beneath the steel wall she wrapped around herself really was.
Pushing to his feet, he closed the distance between them and lowered himself down into the seat next to her, his arm naturally coming to rest along the back of the couch, fingertips brushing along the nape of her neck softly.
"I don't think my questionable integrity has anything to do with you, honey." He murmured, lifting a hand to twirl one of the dark ringlets at the base of Alexis' skull around his finger. "Miller's probably got an entire filing cabinet full of my CRs in her office, most of which from before you joined the unit."
As a matter of fact, Kate knew for certain that Sam had at least one filing cabinet for all of the complaints and investigations he'd been subject to over the years because she could remember the new Chief complaining about not having any more space in her office for yet another cabinet to house his transgressions.
"I won't have you being harassed for having a questionable choice in men. I wouldn't let it happen to Upton, Burgess or Lindsay and I won't let it slide with you. Besides, everyone knows you'd be doing just fine without me…probably better, even." He added with a wry smile and, for a few long moments, they simply stared at one another, Hank's fingertips still drawing gentle patterns on the back of her neck.
"I don't wanna find out how I'd be doing without you." She whispered, reaching out to grasp his free hand in hers, giving his fingers a firm squeeze. "Everything is better with you. I'm better with you."
For those on the outside, their relationship was unorthodox at best. Yet, for Hank and Kate, it couldn't be more simple.
Interlacing her fingers with his, Kate leaned forwards to brush her lips against his, the gentle contact grounding her just as his touch always did.
"I might have a questionable choice in men but I have impeccable taste when it comes to husbands." She muttered with a wink, her eyes crinkling with amusement when Hank conceded with a shrug and a wry smile of his own.
"Right, c'mon…" He said, pushing to his feet before hingeing at the waist to scoop Alexis into his arms, shushing quietly when she stirred at the loss of contact as he transferred her onto the soft mattress of the travel cot pressing against the side of his desk.
With that mission completed, he turned towards Kate with an extended hand, gently tugging her to her feet when she slipped her smaller palm in his.
"If you want another crack at Travis, you gotta promise me you'll keep your hands to yourself." He warned, his eyes flashing with desire when she furtively dropped a hand to land a firm smack against his jean-clad backside in response.
"You got it, Sarg."