Kate was roused from sleep by a dull ache radiating across her entire upper body. Groaning into her pillow, she squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to ward off the oncoming headache but she knew any attempt she made would be useless given her activities over the last few days.
'I'm pretty sure lawyers don't wake up feeling like they've gone ten rounds with Ali.'
She lay still for a few more moments before resigning herself to starting the day way before her alarm clock. Feeling profoundly cheated, she glanced over at her phone and noted the time.
4:13am.
She had been asleep for barely two hours. The team hadn't left the district until gone one in the morning and, by the time Kate had taken a shower and decompressed enough to try and sleep, it had been 2am. Ignoring the biting morning chill, she threw the sheets back and made her way into the bathroom, padding across the wood flooring with bare feet. After she'd finished her morning ablutions, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and winced at her reflection.
The entire right side of her face was now an unattractive shade of deep purple, her lip was a similar colour and twice its normal size.
'Bloody fucking hell.'
With a sigh, she set about getting ready for the day. Kate had been through enough therapy to know that she needed to keep her mind occupied and, rather than drift around aimlessly at home for a couple of hours, she decided to keep busy and get some paperwork done.
Running a comb through her hair, she pulled the wavy locks into a high ponytail before making a start on covering the worst of the bruising up with a bit of concealer, hoping that it would be enough to deflect the attention of her colleagues. Pulling on some faded denim jeans and a black, long-sleeve henley, she left her apartment with a thermos full of coffee and made her way to the precinct. As she was driving through the almost silent streets of Chicago, her mind wandered to her encounter with Voight the night before.
The way he looked at her. The way he touched her.
Kate didn't consider herself too much of a tactile person but when his hands made contact with the bare skin of her thighs, she found herself wondering what it would be like to feel his hands on other, more interesting, parts of her body. A thrill sizzled down her spine like an electric current at the prospect until she became cognizant of the direction of her thoughts and huffed out an irritated sigh.
'This is getting out of hand.'
The district was pretty much deserted when she arrived and, as expected, the Intelligence bullpen was shrouded in silent darkness. Switching on the light, Kate deposited her bag on the floor under her desk and shrugged out of her heavy coat, placing it over the back of her chair before taking a seat. She'd got in nearly three hours of solid paperwork before Erin arrived later in the morning, not bothering to hide her look of surprise at seeing Kate alone in the open plan office, already waist-deep in paperwork.
"Did you even go home last night?" She queried, dropping off her belongings before moving to stand in front of Kate's desk, arms crossed over her chest and calculating blue eyes scanning Kate's bruised face.
"For a few hours. Couldn't sleep."
Erin's only response was a "huh" of acknowledgment before she disappeared off into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of coffee. One by one the rest of the team made an appearance, mumbled 'good mornings' passing between them whilst they set about getting their morning caffeine fix.
Just as Kate was finishing her last report, her phone began to buzz from its place on her desk, her mom's picture flashing on the screen.
'Shit'
YOU ARE READING
Perfect Storm
Fanfiction[Book 1 of the Kate Meadows/ Hank Voight series] Chicago hadn't been an obvious choice but Kate knew getting away from New York was the right decision. What she hadn't counted on was the ghosts of her past following not too far behind her...oh, and...
