"Lemme get this straight, Kelton was snoopin' around in your father's murder files over a decade ago?"
Kate didn't need to glance across the cab towards the passenger seat to know that Kevin's eyebrows had almost disappeared into his pristine hairline in surprise when she finally briefed him on what she had unearthed in New York. Upon her return to Chicago, Hank had suggested that it might be wise to keep Kelton's potential involvement in her dad's case quiet for the time being and, while Kate had readily agreed, the one exception to that agreement was her partner.
"Apparently so." She muttered, easing her Jeep out into the steady flow of traffic heading south on Halsted towards Bridgeport where Kate's CI was waiting with a potential lead on a recent homicide that was potentially linked to a Los Temidos gang member.
"You think that's why he's here?"
She had been asking herself the same question almost non-stop for the past forty-eight hours. It felt too significant to simply be a coincidence but there were so many missing pieces of the puzzle that Kate couldn't identify any other logical reason for Kelton's appearance in Chicago and his involvement in her father's case.
"I dunno Kev but the last thing I need is more fucking drama."
He released a low whistle through his teeth, shaking his head slightly in disbelief as he shifted in his seat to rest a well-muscled arm on the exposed plastic of the open window, palm tapping out the back beat to the old classic playing on the radio.
"You told Sarg?"
Over the years Kevin had seen first-hand just how protective their Sergeant could be when it came to his unit. He viewed each of them as his own family and there was very little he wouldn't do in order to keep them all safe but that fierce protectiveness was magnified ten-fold when it came to his wife.
"Oh yeah." Kate replied with a huff, recalling how her husband had paced the length of their living room like a raging bull, his eyes almost black with anger until Kate gently reminded him that they didn't have any firm proof of any wrongdoing so plotting their Commanding Officer's slow demise was probably a touch premature. "He reacted exactly as expected."
"Y'know maybe it's worth a sit down with Miller? Y'all are tight and if this guy's here with an agenda then-"
His very valid suggestion was interrupted by Kate's radio springing to life, her callsign in a familiar rough timbre cutting Kevin off and drowning out Otis crooning on the radio. Plucking her phone from the centre console, she bought the device to her mouth and hit transmit.
"Go for Meadows."
The moment her thumb left the button, a sea of red lights appeared out of nowhere as the stream of traffic came to an abrupt stop, forcing Kate to stomp hard on the brakes and swerve onto the sidewalk to avoid rear-ending the white Prius that was already billowing smoke from beneath the hood.
"Meadows? You copy? Kate!"
Hank's voice suddenly sounded distant and tinny but the urgent panic was enough to prompt her into action, scrabbling around in the footwell to retrieve her lost radio that had clattered to the floor while she barely avoided joining the collision. The dull ache that seared across her sternum was overpowered by the adrenaline surging through her veins as Kate gripped the thin device between shaking fingers, released the seatbelt and shoved the door to her Jeep open, stepping onto the hot asphalt and squinting into the midday sun.
The scene before her was utter carnage. At least half a dozen cars were now a single pile of mangled metal in the middle of the street, many of them emitting a noxious black smoke but it was the black SUV that had veered off of the street entirely and was now upside down in a pile of rubble and glass that immediately drew Kate's attention.
"Yeah, I'm here…we've got a 10-18 at the intersection of Halsted and Cermak, multiple casualties. We're gonna need as much help as you can get us Sarg."
She could vaguely hear him confirm that he had received her request before she shoved her radio into the back pocket of her jeans and took off at a sprint towards the SUV. The drivers side window was almost completely crushed but as Kate dropped to her knees to peer inside the cab, a pained whimper confirmed that, miraculously, the driver was still alive.
"H-help me, please."
The young woman inside was still strapped in the drivers seat, her long blonde locks soaked with blood partially obscuring her face she hung suspended in the air, the pool of crimson smearing the shattered glass beneath her growing steadily which each passing second.
"I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? Just hang in there for me." Kate urged, pushing to her feet and clambering over the pile of debris that was once a popular dry cleaners towards the passenger side. The SUV window was still intact but, with the metal structure compromised, the glass gave easily with a few firm strikes of the sole of Kate's boot. Dropping to the floor, Kate wriggled through the window, trying to ignore the sharp pinch of broken glass embedding itself into her skin as she crawled into the cab alongside the injured driver.
The space was so cramped that Kate only just had just enough space to push to her knees, freeing her hands up to assess the young woman's injuries and, although bleeding profusely, the head lacerations appeared to be superficial. But Kate's relief was short lived when a barrage of heavy concrete rained down from overhead, the metal and glass rattling around them until eventually it became quiet, the sound of sirens sounding evermore distant now that the car was completely encased by rubble.
"I'm Kate, I'm a cop. What's your name?" She asked gently, years of training keeping her voice calm and steady despite the perilous situation she once again found herself in.
"A-Alison."
Forcing what she hoped was a reassuring smile onto her face, Kate's eyes tracked down Alison's blood-stained cheeks in search of other visible injuries but, it wasn't until she made it to the young woman's abdomen did she realise that they weren't the only ones trapped in the upturned SUV.
"How far along are you?"
"Thirty two weeks."
Shit.
An injured woman was something Kate could deal with but a pregnant injured woman was another matter entirely and, placing her hands on Alison's swollen stomach, Kate could feel the pressure that the seatbelt was putting against her pelvis.
Fuck!
"Almost time, huh?" Kate said mildly, desperately stamping down the panic that was beginning to bloom in her chest when she noticed the dark patch of denim in Alison's lap, hoping to God that it was her waters and not blood staining her jeans. "Any pain or discomfort…aside from the obvious?"
"Had a bit of cramping earlier today but I thought it was Braxton Hicks." She replied shakily and, if the situation weren't so critical, Kate might have laughed at how much Alison sounded like her when she was trying to convince Trudy she wasn't in labour. "I didn't want to worry my husband at work so I was on my way to my mom's-" She cut herself off with a sharp gasp, her stomach becoming rigid under Kate's palms as her body worked through an early labour contraction.
"Honey, I don't think that was Braxton Hicks."
"No, it's too early…he's too small." Alison squeaked, her watery blue eyes widening with fear.
While he would technically still be pre-term at thirty two weeks, Kate knew from her own experience that both mortality rates and the chances of long-term health complications were very low. While she had ultimately carried Alexis to full-term, after the shooting her doctors had solemnly advised her that there was a very real possibility that she could go into labour at any point so, with every passing week, both she and Hank would breathe a tentative sigh of relief as their daughter's chance of survival became greater.
"Hey, I need you to stay focused." Kate said firmly, grasping Alison's face gently between her palms. "The ambulance is on it's way and we're gonna get you to a hospital."
It could have been minutes or hours before they finally heard the rumble of approaching fire engines but a relieved breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding left her in a rush when she heard the familiar voice of the Squad Three Lieutenant echo around the hollow shell of the decimated building.
"Fire department, call out!"
When Kate returned his call, she could hear the sound of heavy boots follow her voice towards the upturned car, the temporary lull in movement giving way to the brusque order to begin shifting some of the loose rubble away from the broken windows. Soon enough, the fragments of brick and concrete blocking their escape was replaced by the handsome face of Kelly Severide, his crystal blue eyes peering into the cab to settle on the two women trapped inside.
"Never before have I been more pleased to see you." Kate breathed, the tight coil of panic in her chest loosening when Kelly's mouth pulled into a grin as he reached in and reassuringly patted her ankle.
"What've we got?" He asked, lowering himself down to his belly so that he could get a good look at the condition of the metal pillars that were already bowing dangerously, creaking and groaning under the weight of both the upturned vehicle and the loose rubble sitting atop it.
"This is Alison, few superficial head wounds but she's thirty two weeks pregnant. I think her waters have broken, the contractions are starting to come thick and fast."
His eyes snapped to her face before sliding to the prone woman, widening ever so slightly as he took in Alison's burgeoning bump. He jerked is chin into a nod before getting to his feet and Kate hear him talking to the team in hushed tones, the experienced firefighters no doubt concocting the best plan to get both Kate and Alison out unharmed. When Kelly reappeared, his face was etched with an uncharacteristic look of concern that had Kate's heart dropping into her stomach.
"Kate, you're gonna have to deliver that baby."
"What!?" Kate croaked, her eyes wide and her throat suddenly bone dry.
"The structure of the building has been compromised. I can't cut you out while it's unstable."
He was careful with his words but the one thing Kate knew about Kelly Severide was that he rarely questioned his own judgement when it came to the job. And the fact that he was behaving so cautiously had Kate's blood-pressure hitting a dangerous level.
"If the structure's been compromised, surely you just need to get us out of here before it fucking collapses!?"
"Cruz and Capp are working on it." He assured her, reaching through the small opening once again to take her ankle in a firm grip. "Kate, I need you to stay calm. We've got you."
"Jesus Christ." She whispered, her eyes slipping closed as she drew in a handful of slow, deep breaths and, despite the grit in her throat and her ribs twinging in protest, the brief reprieve did just enough to allow Kate to pull herself together.
Letting her eyes drift open, Kate returned her focus to Alison who had been unnervingly quiet throughout the firefighter and the detective's exchange but her breathing had become sharp and shallow, her body instinctively bracing for the next contraction to hit. One glance at Alison's petrified face transported her back to the brisk spring afternoon when none other than Trudy Platt had coached her through early labour, muttering quiet words of reassurance in between barbed curses aimed at her absent fiancé. Realising in that moment that she had become Alison's Trudy, Kate shuffled to her knees as best she could in the confined space so that she could meet Alison's gaze.
"We're gonna do this together, alright?"
No sooner had Alison replied with a jerky nod did another contraction hit, her face scrunching with a whine of discomfort before she sucked in a sharp breath, ignorant to Kate's encouragement to breathe through the pain. Just as Alison began to turn a worrying shade of grey, she finally released the breath she had been holding in favour of forcing much needed oxygen back in to her aching lungs.
"Hey, if you want to get out of this thing conscious, you're gonna need to breathe." Kate suggested mildly but, before Alison could respond, there was a very quiet voice calling out Kate's name as though from the other side of an expansive parking garage. Although it was distant and almost inaudible, aside from her husband, it was the only voice Kate wanted to hear at that very moment.
Through the ever-diminishing gap to the outside world, Sylvie Brett appeared complete with an oversized turnout coat that swamped her petite frame and an Engine 51 helmet that wobbled precariously on her head.
"How're you ladies doing in there?"
Just as Kelly had done before her, Sylvie's bright blue eyes scanned the inside of the cab, the experienced paramedic quickly assessing the severity of the situation.
"Sylvie, I'm concerned about this seatbelt." Kate muttered, briefly glancing back towards Alison who didn't appear to be focusing on anything but her own steady breathing.
Sylvie disappeared momentarily and, in her place, a black duffle bag that Kate recognised as an ambulance maternity pack filled the small gap along with a standard issue collar used to stabilise a patient's head and neck.
"Put the collar on and find somewhere safe to move her."
Yanking the bag into the cab, Kate's eyes darted around the wreckage until she found a blanket in the back and, spreading it out as best she could over the crushed windshield, she set about securing Alison's c-spine with the rigid collar. Sending a silent thanks to her partner for forcing her into the gym every morning, taking the full weight of a heavily pregnant woman wasn't an impossible task and, with Alison now laying parallel to the dashboard, Kate waited for her next instruction.
"Okay, I need you to check how far dilated she is."
Glancing at Alison from across the grimy cab, Kate paused for a moment, silently asking for permission that Alison granted with a shaky nod. Unzipping the bag, Kate fished around for a pair of gloves, tugging the latex over her sweaty palms before locating scissors, towels and anything else she thought she might need, laying them all out on a sterile sheet near Alison's feet. It wasn't even close to ideal but, given her limited options, it was as good as she was going to get so, with one final apologetic look, Kate began to cut the denim away from Alison's body, the fabric giving way easily under the sharp steel.
"Guess what they say is true about leaving your dignity at the door when you have a baby."
The light-hearted complaint had Kate chuckling in amusement, her appreciation for Alison magnifying ten-fold as she shuffled forwards between Alison's bare legs, easing her thin, pale limbs into the correct position.
"My husband looked like his favourite bar was being burned down when our daughter was crowning." She admitted, her mouth tugging into a smirk as she recalled Hank's expression on the single occasion that he looked below the waist while she was delivering Alexis. "Alright, take a deep breath for me."
Given her chosen profession, there were very few things that Kate found truly shocking. She often wondered if it was normal to feel such a distinct lack of surprise in certain situations but, as she gently slipped her fingers into the young woman laying prone before her, she realised that this was one scenario that she would have never envisaged herself in.
"Y-you got kids?" Alison asked with a hint of relief, suddenly feeling slightly less vulnerable despite the fact that her cervix was being examined by a perfect stranger.
"Just one." Kate replied, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the dusty, torn leather of the back seat as she tried to gauge just how dilated Alison was simply from her own unexperienced touch alone.
"You want more?"
Kate waited until she had completely withdrawn before allowing her eyes to drift to Alison's face.
"If my husband had his way, we'd have a baseball team." She commented wryly, a sharp pang of disappointment hitting her squarely in the chest because despite their frequent (though admittedly incredibly satisfying) attempts to expand their family, her cycle had been irritatingly regular ever since her late period a couple of months prior. She supposed she should be grateful that her body hadn't tortured her with any more false hope but she also couldn't forget Hank's tangible excitement at the prospect of finally falling pregnant.
But before Kate could let Sylvie know that, at her best guess, Alison was probably eight or nine centimetres dilated, another contraction tore through her body, a low, keening cry vibrating in her throat as her entire abdomen went rigid.
"You know the drill, Kate." Sylvie called, her sweet, melodic tone barely audible over the wail of sirens and whirring of heavy machinery. "A few more contractions and then she can start pushing."
It was as though time was moving in slow motion and in fast forward at the same time with every contraction seeming to last for hours while the reprieve in between was merely seconds. It wasn't long before Kate's eyes widened in awe when a tuft of jet black hair slowly emerged from Alison's body.
"I can see his head!"
It was arguably one of the most incredible things Kate had ever seen and, in that moment, she could recall with perfect clarity how her own body had just instinctively known how to bring her baby safely into the world. But when Sylvie had called out a command for Alison to stop pushing, she became acutely aware of how reliant she had been on Hank gentle encouragement and the doctor's clear direction to help guide her through the unknown.
"Why, what's wrong!?" Alison squeaked, her sweaty brow furrowing as her eyes darted between Kate and her protruding stomach, trying to catch a glimpse between her own thighs.
"Absolutely nothing, you're doing beautifully." Kate reassured with a pat on her bare knee. "Pushing during crowning increases your risk of tearing so just breathe with me alright?"
Drawing in a lungful of air through her nose before releasing it slowly through her parted lips, Kate thanked whatever deity that was looking down on her when Alison instantly mirrored her movements, her bright blue eyes never leaving Kate's face as her chest rose and fell with slow, deep breaths. With each contraction the baby worked its way through the birth canal until finally his puffy little face came in to view, tiny pink lips pursed and still yet to draw his first breath.
"Sylvie, his head's out."
"When Alison pushes you're going to need to ease his shoulders out one at a time." Sylvie instructed. "Support his head and gently move him up and down."
Reaching forward Kate cupped his head between her gloves palms, trying desperately to keep her hands from shaking as she glanced up Alison's body, the two women locking eyes.
"Ready? Three, two, one…"
With one final push the baby slipped from Alison's body and in to Kate's waiting arms, his tiny body an odd shade of blue despite being covered in blood and vernix. Holding him against her chest, Kate waited with bated breath for that first cry every new mother waited for but, after a few long seconds of silence, she called out the paramedic's name with a hint of panic colouring her tone.
"Give him a few firm rubs over the chest, Kate."
Yanking a towel from the bag at her side, she did exactly as instructed, swiftly passing the pristine white terrycloth across his chest and face, desperately hoping that the motion would shock his body into drawing a much-needed lungful of air.
"C'mon little guy." She pleaded quietly, cradling his limp form in her arms.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
He was supposed to be kicking and squalling, releasing a piercing cry that let his mother know that he had finally arrived safe and sound. Looking down at his angelic face, Kate was just about to call out to Sylvie for further guidance when he suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, Kate's shoulders slumping in relief when his skin almost instantly turned a healthy pink hue now that the oxygen flow had been restored.
Quickly swaddling him in the towel, she lifted him up to give Alison a glimpse of her baby boy with a wide smile as she watched tears of pure, unbridled happiness stream down the new mother's face.
"Well done mommy."
With the cord cut, Kate wasted little time in carefully passing the baby out of the wreckage and into the safe hands of Sylvie who swiftly whisked him away to the rig waiting nearby. Kate and Alison weren't left alone for long before Kelly Severide reappeared, this time with much better news that the structure had been secured and his team were on their way with the tools to cut them free.
Given that her jeans were in ruins, Kate draped a fresh towel over Alison's exposed thighs in an effort to preserve her modesty, using her own body to shield her from sparks as the team worked to separate the bottom of the car from the top until finally the murky darkness gave way to warm beams of sunlight.
Violet and a paramedic that Kate didn't recognise descended on them as soon as Kelly had finished cutting, working to manoeuvre Alison onto a backboard and slide her free from the mangled remains of her SUV.
"There anything you can't do Meadows?" Kelly asked with a bright grin, reaching over to help Kate to her feet. "Catchin' bad guys, savings lives, delivering babies."
"Why? Squad Three in need of a new and improved Lieutenant?" Kate replied with a snort of amusement that morphed into a pained groan when her bruised ribs twinged in protest as she stepped over the mounds of metal, glass and rubble.
Squinting in to the sun, she caught sight of Hank marching towards them with Trudy and Kevin hot on his heels.
"I might be in search of a new job soon anyway." She muttered, instantly recognising the furious expression on her Sergeant's face.
"Don't worry, I told him that it was my call to keep you in there."
Kate briefly cast a glance at the firefighter still holding her elbow, wondering how on earth he was still on two feet given that he had stood in front of her husband and told him that he had purposely kept her in a dangerous situation.
"Huh…how did that go for you?" Kate asked, quirking an eyebrow when the Squad Three Lieutenant simply shrugged casually in response.
"Well he didn't break my nose so that's something."
Before Kate could make a snarky comment about how thankful his wife should be for the Intelligence Sergeant's rare show of restraint, the man in question came to a screeching halt in front of her, the muscles in his jaw twitching as his eyes scanned her form for any signs of injury.
"You okay?" He asked gruffly, his fingers twitching as though fighting the urge to touch her but, given the myriad of emotions swirling in his eyes, Kate wasn't sure if it was to provide comfort or throttle her.
"Ribs took a battering from the seatbelt but I'm fine."
He took pause for a beat, his deep brown eyes momentarily leaving her face to sweep over her chest as if he could see through the fabric of her t-shirt to assess the bruised flesh underneath.
"Hospital. Now."
Not in the least bit surprised by his curt order, Kate nodded with a quiet "yes Sarg" before watching his retreating back return to his SUV that was parked half on the kerb with the driver's side door still wide open, clearly having been abandoned in his haste to get to the scene of the accident.
As expected, the emergency room at Chicago Med was filled to breaking point with injuries from the pile up but, before she was even able to check herself in, Kate was shepherded to a vacant bay on the far side of the room by Maggie who informed her that her husband had already called ahead to let them know she was coming and instructed them not to let her leave until he got there.
"I'm fine." Kate protested with a sigh but one stern look from the fierce Charge Nurse had her falling still and silent, allowing Maggie to tug her shirt over her head to prod at her tender sternum. Inside of twenty minutes, Kate's initial assessment had been confirmed and she was released with a script for pain relief should she need it and strict orders to rest for the next few days.
Rather than crowd an already overburdened emergency room, Kate wandered around the familiar winding halls in search of the one coffee machine in the entire hospital that didn't taste like acrid carbon. She hadn't been paying a huge amount of attention to where she was heading until she found herself in a room full of tiny glass incubators, each of them attached to a startling number of wires, tubes and beeping machines.
"Detective, can I help you?"
She wasn't sure how long she had been rooted to the spot, her eyes transfixed on the unbearably fragile babies inside, but clearly it had been long enough for Doctor Asher to notice her presence.
"Hey, uh, how's the baby boy that came in following the RTA doing?" Kate asked, tearing her attention away from the row of incubators to meet the bright blue eyes of the emergency OB/GYN physician who had just replaced a standard-issue clipboard back on the side of the trolley before approaching her.
"I heard about your good work." She replied with a smile. "Why don't you see for yourself?"
She jerked her head towards the incubator closest to her, beckoning Kate closer until she was able to see the tiny infant she had watched enter the world nestled amongst the blankets. His face was no longer puffy and Kate couldn't help but watch in awe as his dark blue eyes gazed curiously around the room.
"Wanna hold him?"
She knew she shouldn't.
There was a very valid reason why first responders were advised not to get too attached to patients and victims but, once again, her relatively new-found maternal instincts were overriding the instincts that came from spending years on the job. So instead of politely declining as she knew she should, she found herself slowly nodding in response.
That was how Hank and the rest of the unit found her thirty minutes later, curled up in an oversized chair next to the window with the tiny infant swaddled securely in her arms.
"You really delivered a baby?" Adam asked loudly, almost clambering over Hailey to get a glimpse of the newborn that the entire fire department had been talking about.
"Don't think they heard you in the east wing Ruz." Kate muttered with a roll of her eyes when the baby startled at Adam's booming voice.
"Detective Kate Meadows…the giver of life." Jay whispered with a wink and a disbelieving shake of his head. Never before had he worked with anybody who got into as many unfortunate situations as Katherine Meadows. She'd been with the department less than three years and he would bet his apartment the she already had more incident reports in her jacket than the rest of the unit combined - her husband excluded.
"Mom did all the hard work. I was just there to catch him." She replied with a shrug, letting her eyes drift back to the slumbering baby in her arms as he wriggled into a stretch, his tiny mouth stretching into a wide yawn before once again falling still.
She could vaguely hear Hank quietly order the rest of the unit back to the district but her attention was still very much on the adorable bundle in her arms when he sidled up next to her, placing a hand on the back of the chair as he peered over her shoulder.
"Look at him. Isn't he beautiful?" She muttered, lifting her chin when Hank hummed in agreement but, unlike Kate, his eyes hadn't been on the newborn.
"I like this look on you." He admitted softly, the hard expression he had been wearing the last time she had seen him on the asphalt a distant memory as he gazed down at her with a longing that made her own chest ache.
Me too.
Later that evening as Kate stood under the soothing spray of a warm shower, she found herself wondering if Hank would be open to alternative methods of expanding their family should she be unable to conceive a second time. Obviously he and Camille had adopted Erin when she was a teenager so she guessed he wouldn't be entirely averse to the idea but she wasn't even sure how she felt about adoption. Then there was the option of surrogacy but, as unconventional as her pregnancy with Alexis had been, she had loved every single second of growing her daughter inside of her and, as much as she wanted another baby, the thought of somebody else carrying her child - Hank's child - had her throat tightening with emotion. She guessed that IVF could be their next course of action but, before she could give it any more thought, the frosted glass of the shower door slid open, a burst of cool air filling the cubicle causing gooseflesh to burst across her damp skin.
"Hi." She greeted quietly, closing her eyes and leaning backwards as Hank stepped up behind her, pressing his bare chest against the length of her spine while his palms instantly found their place on the gentle curve of her waist. "Thought you'd gotten lost."
"Your daughter is needy." He grumbled, taking advantage of the intricate bun she had wrangled her honeyed waves into and pressing a soft kiss to the patch of skin behind her ear while his hands wandered over the slick flesh of her thighs. "Takes after her mother."
She had already put Alexis to bed once but their stubborn toddler had been steadfast in her refusal to succumb to the very same exhaustion that had her standing inside her crib howling for her father. The separation anxiety phase their paediatrician had told them was completely normal seemed to be a never-ending cycle of tears, cuddles and bedtime stories but, as always, Alexis was infinitely more agreeable to sleep when it was Hank in charge of the nighttime routine.
Her lips quirked upwards into a wry smile as she turned to face him, looping her arms around his neck to pull him in for a heart-stopping kiss, the sheer intensity of it forcing him to walk her backwards until he could brace a hand on the cool tiles to steady himself.
"Hospital said no strenuous activities." He reminded her in between long, lusty kisses, reluctantly stilling her rolling hips with his strong palms despite his own aching need pulsing between them. His eyes drifted from her face to the purple bruise decorating the expanse of tanned flesh between her breasts, lifting a hand to trace his index finger gently along the blemish.
Closing the space between them, Kate sucked his lower lip into the warm cavern of her mouth and nipped teasingly at the soft flesh, barely containing a grin when his hips jerked forwards almost of their own accord in response to the brief zing of pain.
"Since when do I do as I'm told?" She whispered against his mouth, watching his eyes darken with arousal to the point that it was almost impossible to differentiate between the iris and the pupil but his expression of unrestrained desire was unmistakeable.
The next time he seized her mouth in a passionate kiss it was all tongue.
Hot. Messy. Sinful.
Yet there was an underlying tenderness in his touch that had Kate reaching out to cup his face in her hands with a throaty moan, desperate to feel the heat of his body against hers. Hands explored with wanton abandon, their movements aided by the water raining down on them from overhead but, as Kate shifted to slide down to her knees before him, Hank stopped her with a firm but gentle grip on her waist.
"Let me love you."
She loved being able to render him speechless with the barest of touches. Loved listening to his sharp intake of breath as she pressed a gentle kiss to the smooth flesh beneath his navel before tracing her tongue along the prominent veins criss-crossing beneath the velvet skin of his hard length. But she knew how days like today affected him. How, after a day of unknowns, he simply needed to bury himself in the familiar comfort of her body.
And she could never deny him a damn thing.
So instead she looped her arms back around his neck and pressed her lips to his in a silent response to his whispered plea, her own gasp of pleasure muted by his mouth when he hiked her thigh up and over his hip, sliding a forearm beneath her to hold her steady. Kate didn't waste any time in slipping a hand between their slick bodies, lining the wide crest of him up with her entrance and, with one firm stroke, he was inside of her.
The world faded into the haze of the steam swirling around them as he rocked against her, the motion more of a deep, purposeful grind than a thrust as though he was unwilling to draw his body away from hers any more than necessary. Their harsh, staccato breaths and quiet groans of pleasure were barely audible over the steady stream of water pounding against the tiles and, all too soon, Kate was trembling in his arms as she tumbled over the edge, her inner walls clutching him in a vice-like grip as he pulsed inside of her with a low grunt of relief.
He remained pressed against her for a few long moments while their heart rates evened out, trading slow, languid kisses until the water began to cool and he eventually, albeit reluctantly, slipped from her body and eased her back onto slightly shaky legs, keeping her steady with a firm grip on her waist. Reaching around her to the small alcove at the end of the shower, Hank plucked an expensive-looking bottle from the shelf and, with a lusty grin, flicked open the cap and drizzled an ample amount of the fragrant gel across her chest. When he was satisfied with his abstract patterns, he replaced the bottle and set about lathering the gel into a white foam, watching the suds slip through the valley between her breasts and along her taut stomach in thick rivulets.
"If this is the reaction I get, maybe I should walk around with babies more often." Kate murmured idly, watching him trace a soapy line up and down the length of her sternum with the tip of her finger.
He remained quiet for a few long beats, placing a warm palm over her stomach with an almost wistful expression etched on his face but, instead of responding to her teasing statement, he simply buried his face against the curve of her neck and drew her into his strong arms and, without any words at all, he reassured her that he didn't need anything more than what he was holding right at that very moment.