Kate was the first to wake the next morning before the alarm. Before she opened her eyes she had sensed an unusual warmth beside her that she was unused to sleeping alone. Opening her eyes, she discovered that during the night she had gravitated towards Steve and now they were sharing the same pillow.
He was still fast asleep and Kate took the time to study her friend. He looked peaceful and content, something that was missing from him whilst he was awake, she realised. After a few comments the previous evening, she was sure something was definitely troubling him. She hoped he would be able to tell her what it was sometime soon.
The alarm sounded, breaking Kate from her thoughts and she stretched and yawned as she moved back to her pillow and side of the bed. Steve just grunted at the noise and rolled over.
Raking her hand through her hair as she prepared to get up, Kate felt something catch in her hair. She pulled her hand back and saw the unfamiliar rings that had taken up residence on her finger. Despite it being early, the 'diamonds' still glistened in the low light as she moved her hand about. It had been a few years since she'd had something on that finger and it would take some time to get used to this new set.
"Steve?" Kate said, aware that Steve hadn't got out of bed yet. She got a grunt in response. "Time to get up," she informed her friend and was rewarded with another grunt. "I'll get your breakfast whilst you're in the shower," she offered trying to blackmail him in to getting out of bed.
"Five minutes," Steve promised through a big yawn. He wasn't a morning person.
Smiling to herself, Kate got up and used the bathroom. Steve was still dead to the world under the covers and showed no sign of emerging when she re-entered the bathroom. "Come on!" she encouraged, pulling the duvet back. This was a side to Steve she didn't know about.
"Alright," Steve said as he finally got out of bed.
Kate put her slippers on and padded down to the kitchen whilst Steve headed to the shower. Familiarising herself with the lay out of the room, she slowly made Steve his breakfast before turning her attention to herself.
By the time Steve arrived in the kitchen half dressed, his meal was waiting for him on the kitchen island in front of one of the bar stools that were along one side. Kate was on another stool already eating some cereal.
"What you gonna do today?" Steve asked.
"Phone the gaffer," Kate relied. "I'm sure he'll have some stuff to send me,".
Steve felt a pang of guilt. It would most likely be boring background searches and a waste of Kate's talent. "Sorry, mate,".
Kate shrugged her shoulders. There wasn't anything she could do now. "I'll have a go at making this place a bit more liveable," she announced, indicating the large number of boxes that still had to be unpacked. Steve might be able to live like that but she could not. She liked her home comforts. "And I'll get some washing done," she said. Her suitcase of holiday clothes had to be washed. "You need anything doing?".
"I can do my own washing," Steve replied. He didn't want Kate to have to do his laundry in this undercover.
"I might as well if I've only got a small load," Kate retorted.
"In the basket in the bathroom," Steve eventually said, knowing it was mainly underwear. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about Kate rummaging through his dirty briefs.
"You better get going," Kate said as she noticed the time.
"Shit!" said Steve as he too noticed time was ticking on. Finishing his coffee in one big gulp he was soon heading back upstairs to the bathroom. "Kate?" he hollered down the stairs after a few minutes. "You seen my car keys?".
Kate looked around. She spied the keys on the kitchen top. "Down here!" she hollered back as she got off her stool and started to load the dishwasher.
Hearing Steve descend the stairs, she picked up his keys and met him at the bottom of the staircase now fully dressed in his suit. "Cheers," Steve said gratefully as he took his keys from Kate.
"And remember what we discussed last night," Kate reminded him. "Just work hard and try and get in to Luckie's good books,".
"Will do," Steve said. "See you later," he continued as he leant forward and gave Kate a kiss to her cheek without thinking. He felt Kate go stiff before he realised what he'd just done. "Sorry, Kate," he apologised. "I'm still half asleep," he explained.
He quickly left the house before Kate could say anything. Once outside, Steve leaned back heavily against the front wall of the house. He closed his eyes in embarrassment as he relived what he had just done. Acting as Kate's husband was proving tricky. Fiction and real life were blurring together.
Meanwhile Kate smiled to herself as she touched her cheek where Steve's lips had just been. She could get used to that she thought as she trudged upstairs to the bathroom ready to start her day.
The en-suite looked messy after Steve had had his shower. His damp towel lay in a heap on the floor which she picked up and put neatly back over the radiator to start drying. The toilet seat had been left up and for the third time since arriving at the house, Kate flipped it down with a roll of her eyes. Men were all the same despite numerous reminders.
Once showered, Kate made her way to the room that would be her work space and arranged it how she wanted before phoning the gaffer.
"Welcome back, Kate," Ted greeted once she had identified herself. "How is married life treating you?" He teased.
"Not too bad. He's very apologetic," Kate informed Ted.
"I should think so," Ted said.
"He probably did the right thing," Kate defended Steve. "At least I'm not totally excluded from this investigation,".
"Aye, there is that," Ted admitted. "You're involved, just not the way we would have wanted," Ted added. "I'll get some background on Matt Luckie sent over to you," he informed Kate. "I wanna know if this lucky streak he boasts about is a long term thing or not,".
"I'll be waiting," Kate replied before hanging up. She glanced at her watch. It could be a while before she received the information from AC-12. She would do some chores before checking her computer again.
Matt Luckie wasn't in the office when Steve arrived at work, so he sat at his desk and got to work on the case audit, working diligently and making a big dent in the work. In fact Luckie didn't make an appearance until VCU were in the canteen queue at lunch which Steve thought a bit strange. There were no active cases that VCU were on so where had he been? He would be mentioning this to Kate and the gaffer when they next spoke.
"Caught your hairdresser yet, Alan?" Matt asked, spying the uniformed Sergeant ahead of him in the queue that had mentioned investigating the attempted hair dressing of a corpse.
"No," Alan admitted. "He's just vanished,".
"Never mind, mate," Matt consoled.
"I appear to be continuing to be dealing with dead people though," Alan admitted. "Had a call to the local hospital morgue. Someone broke in but no damage,".
"Any cut and blow dries performed?" Matt teased.
"No," Alan replied with a smile. "Think he realised where he was and made a run for it,".
Alan disappeared to sit with uniformed colleagues whilst VCU found a spare table to eat their lunches. Matt decided to take a seat next to Steve.
"Did the flowers work?" Matt Luckie asked interestedly as Steve tucked into his meal.
"Err…yeah," Steve replied, thinking it best to flatter Matt. He seemed to respond to that he had noticed.
"So you had a nice 'welcome home' then," Matt continued with a grin, his meaning clear.
Steve paused. Luckie was obviously talking about sex and it felt a little weird to think of him and Kate like that, but…….fuck it, Steve thought. This fake marriage was going to be a happy fake marriage. "Yeah," Steve admitted with a grin before Matt gave him a congratulatory slap on the back.
"I'm just gonna go and make a phone call," Claire Wilton announced before she quietly got up and left the canteen.
"She alright?" Matt asked.
"Dunno," Steve replied. DC Wilton was proving to be a bit of an enigma. She was very private and kept herself to herself at work.
The rest of the lunch was had over teasing banter between the VCU boys before they headed back to their office. DC Wilton was on the phone as they entered the room although quickly hung up when her colleagues entered.
"I've been meaning to invite you both out for a meal," Matt said to his new recruits a little later that afternoon. "I do it for all new members to the team and tonight seems as good a time as any," he continued. "I think Steve's missus won't like me taking him away from her now she's just got back so why don't we invite other halves along as well?" he suggested. "How about the local Indian?".
Steve agreed quickly but he got the feeling Claire was a bit hesitant before she finally accepted Matt's invitation.
"I'll just phone Kate and tell her we're going out tonight," Steve said as he got his phone out and dialled Kate's number.
"Hey babe," he said as Kate answered his call fully aware that Matt was still in listening distance.
"Babe?" questioned Kate at his greeting. "Is Luckie around?".
"Yeah," Steve replied. "What're you up to?".
"Shopping," Kate replied as she looked at her trolley fully laden with food and snacks. Working from home was going to be difficult on her figure.
"Well my new boss has invited us out for dinner tonight," he informed Kate. "A welcome dinner. Me and Claire and our respective others and Detective Superintendent Luckie and his wife,".
"Things are better then between you two?".
"Yeah," Steve said, "I think so," he continued as he cast another look at his boss who was waiting for Steve's answer.
"It could be a test," Kate warned.
"So is that a yes?" Steve asked.
Kate paused. "Yes," she finally answered. "Let's do this,".