One of Hank's age-old mantras, 'Criminals never take a day off' rang true Christmas Eve. On the 23rd, Intelligence caught a major case from a string of recent robbery homicides that the appropriate department had yet to foil. As always, the Ivory Tower delegated the task to their best and also least favorite unit, adding insult to injury by requiring them to work through the holiday until the job was finished.
After an all-nighter from 'Christmas Adam' as Ruzek referred to it, into Christmas Eve, the unit was spent. They were closing in on the offenders but could not seem to pinpoint their exact location. Jay had fallen asleep at his desk and Atwater in the breakroom, using Mr. Shark as a pillow. Hank, as the boss, excused himself and Kate at two in the morning to retreat to his house for a bed. While Erin and Jay had been extremely skeptical, the little girl made it through the short night in Erin's old bedroom without a single nightmare, surprising all three adults.
Kate spent Christmas Eve with Sergeant Platt, doing last minute shopping for Mouch and making sure the district was in working order before many of the officers would be on furlough. The holidays tended to bring in a whole bunch of crazy, so Platt commandeered Ruzek to watch the little girl while she manned the front desk for a while. After finally warming up to Adam over the summer, Kate found the young officer incredibly hilarious and loved getting him to read stories in funny voices. She liked to remind him on a regular basis that 'Off-cer Kim' was way too nice to be with someone like him, constantly earning snickers from Atwater, Olinksy and Burgess.
The unit was short-staffed, as Burgess had taken the week to visit her sister and Atwater was taking care of his family, so Erin and Jay were barely able to sit down. The case was finally reassigned to Robbery-Homicide at 11PM Christmas Eve, Intelligence having done all the legwork and apprehended six of the key players. After passing off their files, Hank finally dismissed the team for the next two days.
"What are you still doing awake?" Jay asked, poking his head into the breakroom to find his little girl wide awake, reading a book that appeared to be about how things worked.
"Daddy!" Kate exclaimed, jumping up from her seat at the table and springing into his tired arms, "You done?"
"We're done." Jay sighed, burying his face in her hair and inhaling deeply, "And tomorrow is Christmas so we can spend all day together, how does that sound?"
"Good." Kate nodded, resting her head on his shoulder, "I'm a little sleepy. But guess what. My tummy doesn't hurt that bad!"
"That's great news, kiddo. But I bet you're tired because it's really late." Jay carefully placed the books she was reading into a bag and hoisted it onto his opposite shoulder, "What were you reading about?"
Kate smiled, "I'm reading a book about science," she informed him, "Cause science is very important and is everywhere."
"You are so smart." Jay grinned, heading into the bullpen. "Ready, Er?"
"Mommy!" Kate grinned at her mother, who was switching off her computer, still clad in her vest from a raid earlier, "We going home?"
"Yes we are, baby." Erin smiled tiredly at her little girl, running a hand over her tiny facial features, "We're going to bed soon, too."
"Tired?" Jay asked Kate, waving to Olinsky on his way out. She nodded, placing her head back on her father's shoulder.
Lindsay yawned. "I'm exhausted," she mumbled as they headed for the locker room. Jay carefully set Kate on the bench and shed his vest, helping his tired girlfriend take hers off too.
"Ready for bed?" He asked knowingly, undoing the Velcro straps on her vest after he had already changed.
"Uh huh," she nodded and yawned again, "Let's just go home."
