Rick opened his eyes to the most beautiful morning: golden rays of sunshine streamed through his bedroom window and the sound of effervescent laughter floated in from the kitchen. He turned his head to Kate's side of the bed, unsurprised to find it empty, and smiled to himself.

He tossed the sheets back and pulled himself from the comforting embrace of his bed, then plod toward that joyous sound that had lured him from his slumber. As he walked through his office door, he smiled at the sight before him: Alexis at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of cereal, and Kate standing in the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, leaning back against the bench as she effortlessly conversed with his daughter. The interaction itself was nothing meaningful and yet, to him, it meant everything.

Sensing his presence, they both looked in his direction.

"Good morning, my braided beauties," he practically sung as he approached.

He dropped a kiss to the top of his daughter's head as he passed, then walked around the island counter headed toward where Kate stood. Then he stopped, just two feet away from her, frozen in his spot and suddenly so unsure of how to simply greet the woman. Did he kiss her? Hug her? Fist bump her?

Kate smiled an amused smiled, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip to try and keep some sort of control over the curve of her lips.

"Coffee?" she offered after what felt like the longest second of silence.

"Please."

Alexis rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself. "It's fine, guys."

Rick looked at Kate; Kate looked at Rick, then busied herself pouring a fresh cup of coffee.

"I'm not a little kid anymore, Dad. I think I can handle the fact that sometimes you-" She gasped theatrically. "Kiss people!" And then pretended to retch.

"I do no such thing!" Rick protested. Kate tried to hide a small laugh as she passed him his cup of coffee. "Thank you," he said to her before moving to the island bench and leaning on his elbows, across from his daughter. "I promised you pancakes."

Alexis swallowed down the mouthful of cereal she had been chewing. "Yeah, well, I wasn't sure if you planned on sleeping all day or not," she teased with a smirk.

Rick scoffed and checked his watch. "It's only 8:30!"

His daughter shrugged and ate another spoonful of cereal.

He turned to face Kate. "Would you like pancakes?" he asked.

"We have leftovers, remember?"

"Yeah," Rick said, nodding his head slowly. "Leftover pancakes."

"In that case, I would love some."

Rick began to move toward the fridge but after only two steps he was stopped by the sound of the door buzzer. He turned to Alexis, the question he didn't vocalise was written in his expression and the girl shrugged.

He turned to Kate. "Are you expecting a visitor?" he joked.

"Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you?" she replied sarcastically.

"Is Gram back?" Alexis asked.

"Not until next week sometime," Rick replied. "And since when does she knock?"

He placed his coffee on the bench and walked across to the entrance, all while running through a mental list of who might possibly be at his door first thing on a Monday morning.

When he opened the door, he wished he had made use of the peep hole. A white-hot rage surged through him as he stared at the red-head on the other side of the threshold; a million-dollar smile planted on her face, coffees and a bag marked with his favourite bakery's logo in her hands.

"Hey, Kitten," she greeted in a flirty, sing-song tone.

Rick couldn't form a complete thought, let alone voice one.

How dare she? came to mind, but seemed insufficient. A mere twelve hours ago their daughter had arrived home in tears, devastated after being shrugged off by her mother. And now Meredith had the nerve to show up as if nothing had happened?

He did consider just slamming the door in her face. As enticing as that seemed - can anyone say catharsis? - he knew that would only make a bad situation even worse.

"Mum?"

He heard Alexis's surprised voice from the kitchen and in his periphery he saw the girl slip from the counter stool and take a few cautious steps closer. He sighed, knowing that if he had been going to slam the door, he had missed the window of opportunity.

"What are you doing here?" Alexis asked.

"I came to see my favourite girl, of course!"

Rick stepped aside to let Meredith in; not that it seemed like she was going to wait for an invitation anyway. Feeling an overwhelming sense of defeat, he flicked his wrist and swung the door shut, waiting until it clicked shut before he turned to face the suddenly too-crowded kitchen.

Kate remained behind the safety of the island counter; a quiet presence, observing, staying out of the danger zone and desperately trying not to draw any attention to herself. He watched her, waited until he had caught her attention and then - when her eyes finally met his - he offered her a small, apologetic smile.

She smiled back. She understood. For Alexis.

"I brought you your favourite," Meredith told Alexis, holding the cardboard tray of takeaway cups on display. "Yours too," she added with a cursory glance over her shoulder to Rick.

It was only when she waltzed over to the counter to empty her hands that she even took note of Kate's presence.

"Goodness, Katt, I didn't see you there!" Meredith remained outwardly cheerful, but there was a bite to her tone. "What on Earth has happened to you?"

Kate smiled politely. "It's a long, boring story. I'm okay, though."

"That's the main thing, right?" Meredith turned to Rick. "If I knew you had guests I would have brought breakfast for them," she said pointedly.

To which he returned, "If I knew you were coming I would have told you." Meredith humphed and he added a very quiet, "not to bother coming at all."

That earned him a glare from his daughter.

"I appreciate the thought, Meredith," Kate said with a warm smile.

Rick appreciated her peacemaking efforts, the neutrality she was bringing to a fraught situation, but he wondered how Kate had managed let the accidentally-on-purpose mix up of her name slide without so much as a split-second glower. The night in the club, Kate had gone head-to-head with Meredith in a battle of who can be more passive-aggressive? She had the passive down pat... but where was the aggressive when he needed it?

Then, he saw a flicker of something in her eyes and the subtle twitch at the corner of her mouth.

"I'm not all that hungry, to be honest. In fact, I might just go get changed while you guys enjoy your breakfast."

Kate smiled and placed her almost-empty coffee mug in the sink, then made her way across the loft toward Rick's bedroom.

And there it was.

One simple, unassuming act that spoke volumes.

And Meredith heard the words that had remained unspoken. She always had been very good at reading between the lines. Two nights ago, when she had turned up unannounced, Rick had turned her away.

And then, he invited Kate to come and stay. He chose her, and not for the first time.

"I'm not sure how comfortable I am with you having overnight guests while our daughter is here," Meredith said through gritted teeth, watching Rick with dagger-slinging eyes as he made his way to the kitchen.

He picked up the coffee mug he had left in favour of answering the door - regret - and took a long, slow sip in order to hold back the are you fucking kidding me?! that sat so bitterly on the tip of his tongue.

Alexis, on the other hand, felt no such need to hold back.

"Well, I wasn't here," she reminded her mother. "Wasn't supposed to be, anyway."

But guilt was not something Meredith was capable of feeling.

"That's right: he kicked us out so that he could have his little sleepover," she argued. "Maybe he should have sent his little friend home instead of prioritising getting la-"

"You want to talk about prioritising?" Rick interrupted, his voice raised just enough to let his ex-wife know that he wasn't playing.

But his daughter stepped up to her mother's side and looked at him with pleading eyes.

Once again, he set his frustrations aside, but he wouldn't apologise.

Silence settled over the loft as they all took a breath and tried to settle their emotions. After just a few seconds, Meredith turned to Alexis and took the girl's hand in hers.

"I wanted to take you out today," she told her daughter. "You know, to try and make up for last night."

It took every ounce of self control he had not to scoff or make a snide remark.

Alexis seemed hesitant; torn between wanting to spend more time with her mother and not wanting to be let down again. Eventually, she nodded.

"Both of you," Meredith added once her daughter was onboard with the plan. She turned to Rick, that million-dollar smile back in place. "I thought we could all do something, just like old times."

"I have plans," Rick said with a shrug.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "She can't give us one day? Come on, it's a family day," she insisted. When Rick didn't budge, she changed tactics. "For Alexis."

And in an instant, that rage was back in full force. For Alexis... as if he hadn't lived every single day of the past seventeen years for Alexis. The fact that she would even try to so blatantly manipulate him like that, try to make him feel selfish-

His daughter's voice stopped that thought. "Oh, uh. I was kind of hoping we could still just have some girl time," Alexis said so meekly it broke Rick's heart.

He hated that his daughter had to play the role of buffer. He sighed and moved closer to them, lowering his voice and forcing any signs of frustration from it.

"If you want a family day, we'll have a family day," he conceded. Meredith smiled, so he continued. "Just not today." He turned his attention to his daughter and addressed her directly. "That okay with you, Pumpkin?"

Alexis smiled gratefully and nodded.

Resentfully, Meredith relented. "Go get dressed, Sweetheart," she said to Alexis.

Kate sat cross-legged on Rick's bed, staring absent-mindedly at the mighty lion portrait that hung on the wall. She hated it. It made her uneasy. But being in here, staring at the hungry eyes of this lion seemed significantly less uncomfortable than being... out there.

She had tried to waste as much time as she could: she dressed herself with no sense of urgency at all; took her time undoing the braids in her hair. She even had plenty of time to comb her fingers through the wild kinks and style them into something she deemed to be acceptable. All this completed to the backing track of dysfunctional family bickering that bled through the walls and made Kate wish she was anywhere but here.

After ten minutes, there was nothing left for her to do. And so, she waited.

Eventually the bickering stopped - or, at least, quietened down - and just minutes later Rick came looking for her. The knock on the bedroom door pulled her eyes away from Linus. She looked over to see Rick poking his head through.

"Hey there," he said softly.

Kate smiled. "Hey there."

He pushed on the door and stepped through, made his way over to his bed.

"Alexis has gone with Meredith," he informed her as he sat on the edge of the bed. "They're going to have a girl's day, apparently."

"Sounds nice."

Kate reached out and placed her hand over his knee and he instantly covered her hand with his.

"I'm sorry," he said with a sigh.

"Don't be."

"She knows your name isn't Katt," he grumbled.

Kate laughed. "I know. I also know that she probably wasn't expecting to come here to find me and Alexis together in matching braids."

Rick smiled, seemingly pleased by the thought.

"She needed to get it out," Kate continued.

"You're not a punching bag."

"I don't care what she calls me, Rick."

Rick smiled at her.

"Is this going to be a problem for her?" Kate asked hesitantly and Rick's smile faded, morphed into a look of confusion. "A family day?" She repeated Meredith's words, letting Rick know that she had overheard at least part of their conversation. "She doesn't seem to like the thought of us spending time together. I mean, is she going to keep coming up with ways to try and interrupt our time together?"

"She won't," he assured her.

"If I've done something to offend her-"

"You haven't."

"I know we got off on the wrong foot-"

"Kate!" he cut her off again. "She's annoyed at me, not you."

"Why? I mean, you guys separated years ago. You've dated since then. You've been married since then. Why is she acting like I'm some homewrecker?"

Rick sighed. He knew this conversation would come up sooner or later - but he was hoping it would be later.

"Meredith has, uh-" He hesitated, considered the many ways he could be avoiding this but he had decided from the very beginning - given Kate's history and the complexities of his relationship with Meredith - that honesty was going to be the best way to defuse this bomb. "She's never been very good at sharing her toys."

Her toy. It was cliche but it was concise; accurate.

He searched Kate's face for any hint of emotion but it remained expressionless. He waited.

One.

Two.

Three seconds of agonising silence.

"You're one of her toys?" she asked.

"I have been, on occasion."

Kate dropped her eyes and focused on her hands, fidgeting in her lap. She nodded slowly, almost imperceptibly, as her mind connected all the little breadcrumbs of information she had collected over the weeks.

Her toy.

On occasion.

"That night in the club?"

"No," he rushed to answer.

Kate looked up, met Rick's eyes. "You were there with her."

He knew the words weren't meant as an accusation. Still, he felt a wave of defensiveness rush through him. "I ran into her, it wasn't planned."

But then again, it never usually was.

"And since then?"

"Definitely not."

He didn't say anything else, just sat in silence as she processed this new information.

What else could he say?

Nothing that would help his case, of that he was sure.

The indiscretions of his past were exactly that: his past. He harboured no feelings of love toward Meredith - he hadn't for years - and while he understood why Kate might have trouble trusting that, he knew that any mistrust was something deep-seated within her and no amount of begging and pleading for her to believe him would make a difference.

But silence was never something he was entirely comfortable with.

"Kate."

She exhaled deeply, offered the closest thing to a smile that she could muster as she uncrossed her legs and pulled herself up off his bed.

"I'm starving," she announced before walking out of the room.

Rick stood and followed her into the kitchen.

He could take a hint: this conversation was over - for now - but he knew better than to think this would be the last they'd be discussing his bad choices.

At this point, he just hoped that he could salvage the rest of the day. He moved closer and placed his hand on Kate's waist.

"I'll make you a fresh coffee."

He gently squeezed her hip, placed a kiss to her shoulder and took the fact that she didn't try to pull away from him as a good sign.

A/N: I know, I know! I'm sorry... but, yes, I'm leaving you there! I'm just laying some groundwork, okay? Forgive me.