The midnight breeze funnelled through the open window, cooling the sweat that beaded at the nape of Kate's neck and at her temples. She had tied her hair into a pony tail but thick strands had fallen loose and clung to her skin, so the small reprieve was more than welcome.

"Air con's broke just this morning," the taxi driver said apologetically, having seen her wipe the back of her hand across her brow in his rear-view mirror. "Sorry, ma'am."

She smiled at his reflection. "No need to apologise. These things happen."

The record-high temperatures didn't help, though.

She thanked the driver as he pulled up to the curb, and passed him more than enough cash to cover her fare. She grabbed her overnight bag and slipped out of the cab.

From the curb, she had a clear view into the lobby of Rick's building. She smiled when she saw him by the door, waiting for her, and she had barely made it across the street before he had opened the building's main door for her.

As she approached, the cold air from inside swirled and mixed with the warm air outside before settling over her skin.

"Relief," she sighed, stepping inside the airconditioned building.

Rick chuckled. "Bit warm outside," he commented.

She dropped her bag by her feet and turned to face Rick.

"Couldn't wait an extra thirty seconds to meet me upstairs?" she teased.

Secretly - or not so secretly - she loved that he had greeted her at the door; pyjamas and all. She loved that he was so shamelessly excited to see her even though they had only been apart for a few days.

"Another thirty seconds may have actually killed me." He closed the space between them, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Her arms looped around his neck and she held him close. "It's truly pathetic how much I've missed you," he whispered into the curve of her neck.

His words wrapped themselves around her heart and filled her chest with warmth.

"Trust me," she whispered back to him. "You're not alone there."

Rick pulled back, just enough to look deep into her eyes. "I'm glad."

His voice was low, rough, and she felt the warmth that encased her heart trickle down and pool low in her belly.

He leaned over, picked up her overnight bag and then - without removing his hand from her waist or his eyes from hers - began to move her backward. She giggled as they picked up the pace and moved clumsily through the lobby until they came to a stop in front of the elevator. He pushed the button rapidly, as if the more times he pressed it, the quicker it would come.

"You really did miss me," she noted with a hint of smug satisfaction in her voice.

The elevator doors opened behind her and he pushed, guiding her back into the carriage.

"Thirty more seconds and I can show you exactly how much."

He dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers - not quite a kiss, just a teasing taste of what was to come - and when he pulled back, all too quick, she couldn't stop the sigh that escaped her.

He smiled, entirely too pleased with himself, and his grip on her waist tightened.

"Twenty-eight... twenty-seven... twenty-six..."

His countdown came to a sudden end the moment the door closed behind them. Between the sudden sensation of her mouth on his and the demanding slick of her tongue, he had completely lost his train of thought. Not that he minded. Not at all. He dropped her bag and his hands made their way up to cradle her head, to hold her close as he deepened their kiss and pushed her against the wall of the carriage.

She moaned against his mouth, fisted her hands in the material of his shirt when he pressed her back to the cool glass of the mirror.

Rick groaned. "I've been thinking about this all day," he admitted breathlessly before peppering kisses across her jaw and down her neck.

Kate moaned at the sensation of his teeth and tongue on her skin as he made his way to her collarbone. "Sounds productive," she said; a half-hearted jest.

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

He pulled back, framed her face with his hands and took a moment to just look at her. Big, brown eyes, so filled with desire; lips, so pink and plump from his kisses; her ponytail, slightly mussed from his touch. To him, she looked absolutely perfect.

"Thank you for coming over," he said with such earnest.

She smiled and shook her head ever so slightly. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Gravity shifted, pulling them from their trance and Rick took a slight step back before the doors opened up. On the off chance one of his neighbours happened to be headed out in the middle of the night, he figured they wouldn't appreciate interrupting what should be a private moment. He picked up Kate's bag and looped his arm, offering her his elbow.

"Shall we?"

She smiled, slipped her arm through his and allowed him to lead her toward the loft.

She took purposefully slow steps, inching her way toward the alleyway she was all too familiar with. She'd never managed to bring herself here in her waking hours but she visited regularly in her dreams.

It was an odd thing, really, to know that you're dreaming, despite how real it all felt. The winter chill that rolled down her spine; the smell of exhaust fumes that assaulted her as she weaved her way through the traffic jam that forced her to park a block away from the scene; the cacophony of horns and shouts that told her she wasn't the only one irritated by the inconvenience of it all. It all felt so true, she almost had to remind herself it's not.

As she crossed the road, she took a moment to steady her racing heartbeat, to take a deep breath and prepare herself for what she knew was waiting for her: her mother, dead. She had to push past a small group of pedestrians that were doing a remarkable job of pretending there wasn't a body mere feet from where they stood - talking and laughing about the latest Blockbuster release - and once she pushed her way through, there was nothing left to focus on other than her mother's lifeless eyes staring up at her.

The air around her grew thin. Or maybe it was too thick. She was breathing, but her lungs didn't seem to be working. It was a new feeling. Usually, she was filled with blinding rage or unrelenting waves of pain. She's never usually... scared.

"You should be scared," a familiar voice said, and she turned to find Rick standing on the opposite side of the alley, leaning against the brick wall with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

He looked as casual as one would expect had he been meeting her there for a coffee, not crashing a crime-scene. He pushed off from the wall and took three powerful steps toward her, his eyes never leaving her mother, not even for a second.

"It could easily be you laying there." Finally, he looked at her. "Or me," he added ominously.

"I warned you," a voice she didn't recognise called from the shadows. A man. She couldn't see him but she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew who he was. "I told you to walk away before you got yourself killed, too!"

She turned back to Rick, determined to send him straight home with a warning to never return but before she could say anything, he fell into her arms. He tried to tell her something, but she couldn't hear him over the blood gargling in his mouth. They both fell; that was when she saw the man standing behind Rick with a bloodied knife in his hand and a menacing smile on his face. But the sun was in her eyes, the man was nothing more than a shadowy figure as he fled the scene.

She tried to call for help, tried to pull herself to her feet and follow the man, but she couldn't. She was frozen, unable to move or speak or do anything but wait.

Wait until she woke from this horrid nightmare.

It felt like an eternity had passed before the soft buzz of Kate's phone broke through her subconscious and pulled her from her dreamland. She silenced it before it had the chance to wake Rick up, too. They'd stayed up later than intended, catching up on everything: her case; his writing; Alexis and Lanie and the boys; anything and everything they could think of to keep the conversation flowing. They knew it was time to turn in for the night when they started talking about the weather but, even then, the prospect of sleep wasn't nearly as inviting as another round of immensely gratifying sex. She had hoped the physical and mental exhaustion would knock her out cold and keep the nightmares at bay but, evidently, she was wrong.

It was still dark out - the early signs of the rising sun still at least a half hour away - and she felt as though she hadn't slept a wink but, despite the overwhelming urge to send Ryan's call directly to voicemail, she begrudgingly slipped out of Rick's arms and tiptoed out of the bedroom before answering the call.

"Beckett," she grumbled.

Her best efforts to not sound irritated were apparently futile but Ryan didn't seem to mind. In fact, he barely even seemed to notice.

"Hey. So, that security footage came in last night," he informed her, speaking as though it weren't a ridiculous time to be calling someone. There was a puzzling vigour in the way he spoke; like he was one espresso away from a caffeine overdose. "I think I may have found something."

Kate frowned, her mind still too fixated on her lack of sleep to fully process his words. She pulled her phone away from her ear to double-check the time.

"Have you been up all night?" she asked him, slightly concerned.

"Nah, woke up to the neighbour's fighting again," he explained casually. "Couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I'd at least try to be productive. I've been watching these tapes for a little over an hour now and- sorry, I forgot how early it was. This can wait," he added, apologetically.

Kate looked over her shoulder, toward Rick's bedroom. It was all too tempting to crawl back into bed, curl up by his side and try to get another few hours of sleep. But she was awake now. And she didn't want to risk slipping back into that nightmare.

With a heavy sigh, she made her decision. "Just give me a chance to get some coffee?"

"I was just about to head out for some caffeine, myself." Not that he needed it, she thought. "I know there's a decent place just a few blocks from your apartment that does a killer almond croissant. I can swing by and pick you up, if you'd like? Have your coffee order ready for you?"

Even better...

"How do you feel about the coffee in SoHo?" she asked.

"Text me the address and I can be there in thirty minutes?"

"Perfect. Thanks, Ryan."

When she ended the call, she exhaled heavily and allowed herself a short moment to wallow in her tiredness. Usually, now would be when she'd head for the shower to help wash away that lingering fatigue - a quick burst of freezing cold water always did the trick, if all else failed - but she didn't want to risk waking anyone. For today, coffee alone would have to suffice.

"Kate?"

She startled at the soft voice behind her, and turned to find the source.

Alexis was standing at the bottom of the staircase, watching. It was dark - nothing but the moonlight illuminated the loft - but Kate could clearly see that the girl had been crying.

"What are you doing here?" the teen asked as she took a few cautious steps toward the kitchen.

She flipped on one of the overhead lights and they both had to blink at the harsh change while their eyes adjusted. In the light, Kate was suddenly very aware that, in her haste, she had grabbed Rick's clothes instead of her own.

"I'm just-" Kate looked toward Rick's bedroom and then back to his daughter, who began to rummage through the refrigerator. "growing alarmingly dependant on your father's company, apparently," she confessed quietly.

Alexis closed the fridge door and smiled half-heartedly as she poured herself a glass of orange juice. If she was at all bothered by the fact that Kate was only partially dressed - and in the shirt her father had worn to bed hours earlier - she didn't show it.

"Sorry if I woke you," Kate quickly added.

The girl shook her head. "You didn't. Just couldn't sleep."

"Everything okay?"

Alexis looked up from her glass and, for a second, Kate was so sure she was going to tell her something. Instead, Alexis nodded and hummed her affirmation.

"I know it's probably a bit- I don't know- weird but if you ever need someone to talk to-"

"I'm okay," Alexis insisted with a force smile. "Thank you, though. I appreciate you offering."

"Well, the offer is always on the table if you need," Kate told her. "But I won't push it," she added with an encouraging smile.

As Alexis sipped from her juice, seemingly lost in thought, Kate began to head back toward the bedroom but stopped after just a few steps, when Alexis called her name.

"Hey, Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever just feel-" Alexis inhaled deeply. "lost?" she finished, with a heavy sigh.

Kate considered, for a short moment, that she was out of her depth with this one. Alexis was emotional, vulnerable, and Kate didn't know the girl anywhere near well enough to be offering any sort of advice. But when Alexis looked up at her expectantly, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears, Kate knew she couldn't leave the question unanswered. It would have been all too easy to offer the girl a generic "you'll figure it out" and call it a day but it went against every fibre of her being to ignore an outcry for help. Especially one that came from someone she cared about.

"More often than I care to admit," she confessed quietly.

There was a short-lived shimmer of relief in Alexis's eyes. It cascaded down her cheek in the form of a single tear before being wiped away completely.

"How do you know you're heading in the right direction? I feel like the next step I take is crucial, like it will dictate which path I go down, but I-" She took a breath, stopped herself from going down the rabbit hole she'd more than likely spent the night circling. "I just don't want to make the wrong decision."

"The wrong decision about Ashley?" Kate asked before she realised she probably shouldn't even know about the Ashley situation.

That was all but confirmed when Alexis's expression morphed into a look of surprise. "Dad told you about that?"

"He was concerned," Kate defended.

She planned on telling Alexis that he didn't go into much detail, that he simply needed an unbiased opinion on the situation to know what his next step should be, but when the girl rolled her eyes Kate knew none of that mattered.

"He thinks I'm making a mistake," Alexis complained. When Kate didn't say anything, Alexis continued. "You agree with him?"

"It's not my place to have an opinion on your relationships, Alexis."

"But if it was, would you agree with my dad?"

Kate shrugged. "Not necessarily." Alexis tilted her head, obviously displeased with the vagueness of that answer. "I think it's easy to say what the right or wrong decision is when you're not emotionally involved. I think a lot of things would be easier if we all just ignored the emotional factors but that's not how life works. In the end, you're the only person who knows if you're making the right decision for you."

Somewhat appeased, Alexis nodded. "It doesn't matter, though. It's not even about Ashley anymore; it's about me. I'm about to start my senior year of high school and I have no idea what I want to do with my life."

"Have you talked to your dad about this?"

Alexis's posture stiffened, her mouth opened slightly as if she had just realised something.

"I'm so sorry," she apologised. "I'm sure the last thing you want to deal with right now is the meltdown of a spoilt little girl," she added with a self-deprecating huff of laughter.

"That's not what I meant," Kate began to assure her, but Alexis cut her off with the wave of her hand.

"It's fine," she insisted. "I'll be fine. I'm just going to get myself a snack and then I'll go back to my room and watch cheesy movies or something."

"Alexis-"

"Seriously." Alexis smiled at Kate and then walked over to the pantry. "Thank you for letting me whine for a bit. I feel much better."

And then she buried her head in the cupboard, searching for snacks while very pointedly ignoring Kate's presence.

With a heavy sigh, Kate resigned herself to the fact that she might have just royally screwed up by inadvertently making Alexis feel like she was being brushed off again, and headed back to the bedroom to start getting ready for work.

Against her better judgement, she crawled back into Rick's bed and curled up against his side.

She was fully dressed, ready to meet Ryan the moment he messaged her to let her know he was outside, but she couldn't resist one last hug.

"Thought you left," Rick mumbled sleepily as his arms snaked around her body and held her close.

She cupped his face and pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose.

"I'm leaving now," she whispered, then smiled at the instant frown that formed on his face. "Gotta go to work."

"Quit," he said without thought. "I hear the stay at home wife thing is making a comeback."

Kate couldn't help but smile and shake her head at his unfiltered mumbling. "Is that what you want for me? To stay home all day cooking and cleaning for you?"

For me to be your wife... she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Along with the question of why that hadn't filled her with the ice-cold fear any sign of commitment usually filled her with.

Rick opened just one eye to glare at her. "First of all, I do my own cooking. Secondly, cleaning is definitely not what I had in mind. In fact, the images in my mind involve getting very, very dirty."

He took her by surprise when he rolled her onto her back and closed his mouth over hers, swallowing her gasp as soon as it left her mouth.

"You're gonna get me all crumpled," she complained half-heartedly as his kisses roamed down the column of her throat.

"Sorry." Rick wrapped his hand around the back of her thigh and then rolled onto his back, pulling her with him so that she was left straddling him. "Better?"

Her body melted against his. "Much."

And then she leaned down to kiss him.

"I have to go," she said against his mouth.

But even after the words came out, she made no attempt to leave. She deepened their kiss and rocked her hips against his when he moaned.

Right on cue, her phone beeped, alerting her of an incoming text message.

She placed her hands on his chest and forced herself upright. "That'll be Ryan."

"Come back tonight?"

"What about Alexis?"

"I'm sure she won't mind." Rick held Kate's waist to keep her steady as he shifted to sit upright. "She likes you. And that's a high honour because teenagers don't like anyone except for other teenagers and movie heart-throbs," he joked.

Kate forced a small laugh, but she couldn't erase the images of Alexis's sadness from her mind. Do you ever feel... lost?

Unfortunately, Rick misread her silence.

"If you don't want to-"

"No." She shook her head and pressed her palm to his cheek, traced his bottom lip with her thumb. "I want to. I just- she might not want me hanging around too much at the moment. I don't want to force my presence on her."

"I already know she's probably prefer to spend her Friday night with someone other than her dad."

He probably wasn't wrong. Still, she didn't want to push it.

"Just talk to her and make sure she's okay with it, yeah? If she would rather be alone, I get it." She pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "We can do something low key. Another movie night, maybe?"

Rick nodded enthusiastically.

"But only if she wants," she warned.

Rick smiled. "Yes, Boss."

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head, but her smile beamed bright. "Talk later," she said as she climbed out of his lap.

"Love you," he called after her.

As she left, she blew him a kiss.