“Good evening, Kate.” It was Detective McCraig with several crime scene technicians behind him wearing matching windbreakers and carrying cases and boxes of supplies. Kate felt her entire face fall and practically hit the floor, she couldn’t possibly have looked more disappointed to see him. McCraig wrinkled his eyebrows at her furtively, wondering why she looked so startled to see him.
She didn’t say hello back but instead just stepped to the side and motioned everyone into her apartment. She grabbed her jacket hanging near the door and pulled it on and stepped into some tennis shoes, getting ready to leave. She didn’t want to be here while they were making her apartment look like a crime scene again. She just stood there, dejectedly, and waited for the last person to walk in the door so that she could leave.
“Kate?” Someone called her and she looked up to see the last crime scene technician walk past her, but behind him was a friendly face. Derrick stood in the doorway, almost blocking the entire entrance with his large, muscular frame.
“You beckoned, beautiful?” He grinned at her, knowing that she needed a hint of normalcy right now. Kate burst into a smile and rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face into his smooth, soft skin. He caught her with his arms around her waist and on her back, her feet dangling off the ground as he supported her.
“Take me away from here.” Kate whispered to him.
“You’re with me now and everything else doesn’t matter. Just you and me. This is all that matters. Let’s forget about everything else for tonight?” Derrick touched her chin, gently pulling her to face him. She nodded in agreement, eager to have him take over and just care for her. She was too worn out to keep pretending everything was fine. Everything was not fine. There was a psychotic killer hunting her. That’s really the very definition of not fine.
Seeing Derrick here pushed all of those thoughts away. The way he expanded to take over the room and envelope her in his arms was mesmerizing. She glanced up at him, her arms still wrapped around his waist and he head leaning against his shoulder. His lips were only inches from hers. Her eyes were searching his, looking for any signs of doubt, any signs that he might betray her again. She wanted to push that fear away, she couldn’t keep holding onto this much fear. She loved Derrick and she knew he wasn’t the same man he had been before.
“And I’m never going to leave you again.” He whispered, reading the fear in her gaze and stifling it immediately. He wished he had never made the mistake to abandon her in her time of need and he knew he would happily spend every day for the rest of his life reassuring her that he would never be that man again.
The corners of her mouth lifted into a smile and she looked down at his lips and then back up at his deep, gentle eyes. He wasn’t going to deny her another moment and so he leaned down and kissed her gently. He squeezed her tighter against him as he did and then he smiled at her in the midst of their kiss and lowered her back down so her feet were on the ground. With one quick motion, he reached down and one of his arms swept up behind her knees lifting her straight up into his arms. She squeaked in surprise but didn’t try to fight him.
“Let’s go home.” Derrick said to her, as he carried her down the hallway and she curled up in his large arms. Home sounded nice, this place didn’t feel that way anymore. Derrick felt like home and that’s where she wanted to be. Kate giggled, surprised that he was even able to pull the smallest bit of happiness out of her, as she leaned up to kiss him.
“That sounds perfect. Let me just go throw some clothes into a bag.” She twisted her way out of his arms and he put her feet back down on the ground. She began to walk towards the bedroom but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back swiftly. She looked up at him, questioning, with her big, brown eyes still slightly misty from the events of the last hour.
He smiled at her and kissed her so softly, it was barely a kiss yet the electricity that passed between them almost brought her to her knees. When he pulled away, she attempted to regain control of her breathing and then gave him a knowing look and grin as she headed back to the bedroom to pack.
As she left his sight, Derrick quickly went in search of Detective Snow. He found her in the kitchen, ordering around technicians and scribbling things in a small, leather bound notebook. She glanced up and smiled at Derrick when he walked into the kitchen, then immediately furrowed her brow when she saw the look on his face.
“Detective, I need to talk to you.” He said in a low voice, trying to keep his volume down so that only she would hear him.
“Yeah, of course, what’s going on?” She asked him quizzically, motioning him to join her in the corner of the kitchen near the window where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
“This isn’t the first time.” Derrick says, wringing his hands and looking guilty.
“First time for what?” She shot back.
“He has been watching her, I think. Or been in here before, I don’t know. That’s why you guys are here, right?” Derrick asked.