Homecoming (Complete)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kate was in the hospital for a week while they monitored her punctured lung, and by the time she was to be released into Alex's care she was in a foul mood, and had been sniping at Alex non-stop since Alex had arrived at the hospital to pack up the few things Kate had accumulated during the week. Alex gently reminded her of the last time they had fought—when Alex had been stir crazy at the end of a week of being housebound. Kate glared at her and refused to say another word for the rest of the morning. The silence was getting heavy by the time, just after lunch, that Dinah and Babs showed up with Babs's van to pick them up.

"Hey! Ready to blow this joint?" Dinah called cheerfully as she entered the room. Kate just glared at her. "O-kay...," Dinah drawled. "I'm missing something I think. What's up?"

"Nothing that a little fresh air, sunshine, and a change of venue won't cure," Alex said with a grimace.

"Well I can help with the fresh air and change of venue, but the sunshine will have to wait," Dinah made a face. "It's clouding over in a big way. I think we're in for a storm tonight. Babs is outside in the van. We all ready to go?"

Once they were all loaded in the van and headed to Alex's place, Kate leaned over and whispered to Alex, "I'm sorry. Thank you for letting me chew on it for a while. I wasn't ready to let go of my frustration. Sorry I took it out on you."

"It's all good, love. Been there, remember?" Alex whispered back with a smile. "I'm just glad you accepted my offer to stay at my place. We'll be able to get you down to the pool and into the gym so you can start working out some of your frustration. It's probably going to be another four or five weeks before your broken ribs are healed and you can really work out, but the doctor said that your arm is healing amazingly fast. We should be able to get you out of that cast and into a more user friendly, removable splint in a week or so." She hugged Kate. "It's not going to happen as fast as you want, I know, but at least we can start working on things. Your legs are intact so as long as we don't get you breathing hard enough to make your ribs hurt we can keep your fitness up and help keep your," Alex grinned, "somewhat formidable temper in check."

"Huh," Kate chewed on her bottom lip.

"What?" Alex asked with concern.

"No heavy breathing? At all?" Kate waggled her eyebrow at Alex and smirked.

"There's my Kate!" Alex burst out laughing.

"What's going on back there?" Babs called. "Are we missing out on a joke? Dinah I think we're missing out on a joke!"

* * *

They swung by Kate's place to pick up clothes, and whatever personal items Kate wanted, before heading to Alex's. It turned out to be multiple trips to the van (with Babs and Dinah doing all the lifting and carrying) because Alex had a large quantity of things there that needed to go too. By the time they got everything up to Alex's apartment everyone was soaked to the bone (Dinah had been right about the big storm brewing). Babs had been muttering things like "I swear they both hurt themselves on purpose so they wouldn't have to do any of the work" and "why the hell haven't they moved in together before now" and "really? Half their shit in one place and half in the other? Does this make sense to anyone else?" under her breath since about halfway through loading the van at Kate's. Alex was biting her lip and trying not to laugh as the muttering Babs set the last box of stuff down in the living room.

"What?" Babs snapped when she caught the look on Alex's face.

"I'm not sure if you're aware, love," Dinah said gently, trying hard not to laugh, "but you've been muttering non-stop for about an hour." Babs glared at her.

"Babs...," Kate started.

"What?" Babs snapped.

"I was just going to say thank you," Kate hid her grin by looking down and fidgeting with the cast on her left arm.