When Kate arrived at the district the next morning, Hank was already sequestered in his office with Alvin which had become the norm for them in the recent weeks.
With a brief greeting to Kevin, Kim and Adam, Kate headed into the kitchen to grab herself a mug of coffee before dropping down into the chair at her desk. She had barely touched the chair when Kevin passed her desk, dropping four files onto the corner.
"Just need to check and countersign those. They're the reports from the Jamal Brown shooting."
With a nod, Kate promised she'd get right on them but her eyes kept drifting towards Hank's office. In the last few days, had stopped coming home completely, leaving Kate to toss and turn in a half empty bed, her tears soaking his pillow.
"Meadows, you got somewhere you need to be?"
Kate looked up to see Trudy standing in front of her desk, arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows in her hairline. She rolled her eyes at the look of confusion on Kate's face.
"Self-defence class at the academy?"
"Oh fuck! That's today?"
"Uhh-huh."
Rubbing a hand across her forehead, Kate scooped up her belongings with a quick glance at her watch.
"On it Trudy, thanks."
Kate half-jogged into the locker room, catching Kim's eyes in the mirror as the officer washed her hands in one of the basins not the far wall.
"Hey, are you feeling okay? You look pale...like, Rooney Mara in the winter pale."
Kate darted to her locker, tugging out her gym bag and simultaneously kicking off her shoes, making a start on pulling her shirt over her head.
"I mean, you have Italian heritage so you should have that beautiful olive hue you normally get when just look at the sun-"
"I'm fine, Kim."
Kate cut her off, drawing her t-shirt down over her head, throwing her badge and weapon into her gym bag. With a shrug, Kim closed her locker and left with a light 'goodbye', leaving Kate alone. Dropping onto a bench between the lockers, Kate let out a long breath.
Truth was, she wasn't fine. She'd felt off colour for weeks now but, given everything that had been going on, she'd pushed it to the bottom of the priority list. Deciding to make an appointment with her physician for a check up later in the week, Kate pushed to her feet, slung her bag over her shoulder and jogged to her Jeep.
When she arrived at the academy, she threw her bag into a locker in the instructor changing room before jogging across the hall to one of the large yoga studios, greeting the self-defence instructor with a smile and a handshake, the two of them watching as the students funnelled into the room in dribs and drabs.
"Alright everyone, listen up. This is Detective Kate Meadows, CPD Intelligence. She's going to be running point on today's class." He nodded to Kate who moved into the centre of the room, eyes scanning the room of young officers in search of the perfect demonstration student. She found exactly what she was looking for on the far left of the room.
"Hey you." She pointed to him. "Front and centre."
The young man was well over six feet tall and had a frame similar to Kevin's. In other words, he was an absolute unit. When he came to stop in front of her, she shook his hand and asked him his name before giving him a simple command.
"Put me on the mat Gallagher."
His eyes went wide, eyeing Kate up and down. She was half his size.
"I'm sorry?"
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...
