Turn Back Time

Chapter 4 - These Days

For as long as he could remember, Hank had been an early riser. Even as a teenager, he couldn't recall a time where his mother had to drag him kicking and screaming from beneath the comforter and hurry him off to school. By the time Justin was born, he was well-practised in functioning on little to no sleep, sometimes for weeks on end depending on his caseload but, for the last few weeks, his body appeared to have relaxed into a rhythm of rising well after the sun.

Yet this morning he found himself staring blankly at the dark ceiling while his wife slept soundly beside him, her back rising and falling softly with each slow, steady breath. Today should have been the day that they strolled into Fischer's office hand in hand and tossed their badges back with a beaming smile before riding off into the sunset but, instead, Hank had served out his suspension, Kate's furlough had come to an end and they were both due back on active duty at eight am sharp.

He had spent the best part of the last two months diligently preparing himself for the moment when 'Sergeant' Voight ceased to exist that the thought of clipping his badge into place felt strangely foreign.

Kate shifted beside him, her body naturally gravitating towards his even in slumber and, as she nestled her face against his shoulder, long, dark lashes sitting atop impossibly smooth cheeks, her palm slid up the inside of his forearm to clutch his bicep tight against her chest. He took a moment to watch her sleep, the tension that had been slowly filling his body dissipating almost immediately when her eyes fluttered open and she gazed up at him with an adorably sleepy smile.

"Mornin'." She hummed quietly, releasing her grip on his arm only to wriggle beneath it and bury her face against the crook of his neck, pressing a soft kiss to the warm flesh of his throat as she draped an arm across his torso.

They lay cuddled together in the serene quiet, watching the early morning sun begin to filter through the gaps in the blinds until Alexis began to stir, the familiar sound of her one-sided chatter signalling their day would be starting imminently.

"You think we've got enough time for a mom and dad shower before she's demanding breakfast?" Hank whispered, gliding the very tips of his fingers teasingly up and down the length of Kate's spine.

"Doubt it." Kate retorted with an amused snort, sliding a thigh between his parted legs. "She eats like her Uncle Adam."

Sure enough, inside of five minutes Kate was reluctantly leaving the warmth of their bed and padding towards Alexis' room while Hank took a quick shower and, when he surfaced fifteen minutes later, Alexis was busy shovelling handfuls of porridge into her mouth and there was a steaming mug of coffee waiting for him on the kitchen counter.

But it wasn't until they pulled into the familiar car park of Alexis' nursery did the reality of their last-minute change in plans truly sink in.

"I can't do it." Kate mumbled, eyes trained unblinkingly on the semi-opaque glass of the nursery. "I can't leave her."

Hank swallowed thickly as he cast a glance at his unusually-pale wife who was gripping the door handle in a white-knuckle hold. In the few days they had been on their honeymoon, Alexis hadn't left Erin's sight and this would be the first time since she was kidnapped that she wouldn't be in the care of someone trained to use a firearm. If some maniac with a grudge decided they wanted some payback, there was no way in hell Alexis' five foot-two, ninety pound caregiver was going to stop them.

'She wasn't safe here.'

The anxious knot continued to tighten in the centre of Kate's chest, her eyes burning with barely restrained tears as she listened to Alexis babble in the back seat.

"We're gonna have to leave her again at some point." Hank said gently, turning in his seat to grip her free hand in his, sliding his fingers between her own. "What're the chances of anything like that hap-"