One-shot, but not set in the Hunted/DG universe. Written for Fi's birthday.

Kate shuts the loft door behind her and lets out a deep breath, glad to be home. She closes her eyes, realizes that she just called Rick's loft her home, and then opens them again.

She casts her gaze around the empty loft and allows herself to wallow in her loneliness. Rick is in Spain with Alexis, who is spending the summer taking classes in Madrid as part of her university's study abroad program. Rick flew over with her to help move her into her apartment, and though he and Alexis had wanted her to go, Kate couldn't justify taking the time off from work. She was in the middle of a messy double homicide when they'd been scheduled to leave, so she opted to stay in New York.

Rick moped for about an hour, and then brightened up when he suggested that Kate stay in the loft while he was gone instead of in her own apartment.

"There's nothing there to look after," she told him, smiling at him while she poured herself a cup of coffee in the break room. "You don't even have a fish."

That night she came home from work and found a goldfish in a bowl on the kitchen counter.

"His name's Ricardo," Rick had growled in her ear, trying his best to sound Spanish. "Sexy, don't you think?"

Kate had rolled her eyes. She's rolling them now too, as she makes her way toward the fishbowl and then drops some fish food in the top of the bowl.

"Hola, Ricardo," she says softly. Ricardo darts up toward the food eagerly, and Kate watches him for a second. "You eat your food like your dad eats Remy's cheeseburgers," she thinks out loud. The second it's out of her mouth she groans and puts her elbows on the counter, then buries her head in her hands.

Jesus. Dad? What did that make her, Mom? Mom to a goldfish named Ricardo that her boyfriend had bought so she'd stay in his loft while he took his college-aged daughter to Spain?

With her head in her hands she can smell the gunpowder residue and the sweat that's coating her skin. She shudders, remembering her day, and then straightens. She needs a shower.

Kate starts peeling off her clothes before she's halfway up the stairs, and by the time she gets to Rick's bathroom, she's naked. She turns the showerhead on and then steps under the spray, letting the hot water beat down on her face. She pushes her hair out of her eyes and lets out a deep breath, then washes her hair quickly.

When her body and her hair are clean she starts the water for Rick's tub, and while it runs she goes downstairs and pours herself a full glass of wine. She eyes several books on the shelves in his office, but settles on Heat Wave. The Nikki Heat series has a total of four books now, but Kate feels like indulging her sentimental side by reading the book that started it all.

The comfort of familiarity is really what she's looking for. The homicide she and the boys had closed today was a gruesome one, a repeated stabbing that was about as bloody and violent as murder could get. In the end, it was the woman's husband who'd done it. She had an affair, and he was furious. For some reason, Kate can't get the last part of his confession out of her brain.

I woke up one morning and realized that I didn't even know who she was. I never did. I never knew my wife.

Kate sinks into her warm bath and closes her eyes. Her wine tastes sweet, the book is light in her hands, but it's not what she wants. What she wants is what she's come to expect after hard days at work: Rick making her something warm and delicious for dinner, a glass of wine, and then time to unwind. Sometimes she settles against him on the couch, her back against his chest, and they read the same book. Sometimes they watch an old movie, usually something with Tracy and Hepburn. Sometimes they make love and then doze in each other's arms for the rest of the night.

Rick's not here to take care of her this time, but Kate isn't irritated that she feels like her bad day won't be over until he's home. She still has her moments when she needs to be alone, or when she panics at how serious their relationship has gotten without her even realizing it. Today's the perfect example. Rick's loft is home, even though she still pays rent on her place. Ricardo isn't a kid, he isn't even a dog, but he is something they take care of together, and that's a start. Rick makes her job easier, and he makes her life better. She knows that, even in those moments when she relapses for a second into her old self.

His plane lands tomorrow, late in the afternoon, and she's going to pick him up. Montgomery gave her and the boys the next few days off, because they've been running themselves ragged. She didn't tell Rick that when he called this afternoon; she figures it'll be a nice surprise.

X-X-X-X-X

Rick shuts the loft door behind him quietly and slips off his shoes. It's three in the morning, and he's home thirteen hours earlier than he's supposed to be. Something was off in Kate's voice when he spoke to her earlier. She sounded tired and upset, though she'd tried her best to mask it. He'd finally gotten it out of her that she had a bad day, though she wouldn't say why. When he'd hung up the phone, Alexis was smiling.

"Kate had a bad day?"

He nodded.

"Well why don't you go home early then? I'm all set here. I'll be fine."

He'd hesitated, but in the end he'd bought the first ticket he could get his hands on and hopped a plane home.

He's thrilled that he's coming home to his loft, probably to find Kate asleep in his bed. Their bed, really, but he guesses it won't technically be their bed until she stops paying rent on her place. He isn't sure she'll ever do that, but that's okay. She goes home with him every night, and though it's sometimes his place and sometimes her place, he doesn't mind; all he cares about is that she's going home with him.

He sees the fish food out next to Ricardo's bowl and heads toward the kitchen counter.

"Ricardo," he calls, trying and failing to roll his R. "Did you take care of your madre?"

Ricardo swims obliviously around the bowl, and Rick puts a dash of food on to the top of the water, even though he knows Kate probably already fed him. He likes to see Ricardo dart to the top to grab the flakes.

"I'm going to go see your Mom," Rick tells him softly. "She had a bad day. She needs to cuddle. Don't tell her I told you that. She'll shoot me."

Rick laughs at himself for talking to his fish, and then heads upstairs quietly. He gets to his bedroom and pushes the door open gently. The room is dark, and it's not until he enters the bedroom and stands next to the bed that his eyes adjust and he sees Kate.

She's sleeping on his side of the bed. That makes him smile, but so does the way she looks so peaceful when she sleeps. There's an empty wine glass on the bedside table, sitting on top of a copy of Heat Wave. She's clutching one of his pillows close to her body, her arm slung over it the way it's usually slung over him. Rick lets himself watch her for a second, and then he reaches forward and runs his fingers over her cheek.

"Kate," he calls.

She stirs, but doesn't wake up. Rick smiles and leans forward, places a kiss on her temple.

"Katie."

This time she does wake up, and the frown that creases her forehead is adorable.

"Rick?" she asks sleepily.

"Expecting someone else?" he says, laughing quietly.

She glances at the clock. "Three in the morning," she mumbles.

"Yes. Mind if I join you?"

She rubs her eyes, but her response clues him in that she's suddenly awake.

"You can't stay all night, my boyfriend comes home tomorrow."

Rick grins and starts to strip down to his boxers. "Your boyfriend the jealous type?"

"Very," she answers, stifling a yawn.

Rick pulls the pillow out of her grasp and slides into the space himself. "Can't blame him. You're quite a catch, Detective. Maybe he'll even come home early because he missed you so much."

Kate settles in next to him, her head on his chest and her arm resting on his stomach. "How's Alexis?"

"She's fine. Misses you, says to tell you hi. But she'll be fine."

Rick traces his hand over her back, then puts his nose into her hair and inhales. She nuzzles closer to him in response. Silence reigns for a little while, and at first Rick thinks that she's fallen asleep again. He's perfectly okay with that, because when she falls asleep on him it reminds him how much she trusts him. The words I trust you rarely come out of her mouth, but they don't have to. She communicates in a different way than most people, but he knows how to read her signals.

"Rick?" Kate asks quietly, making him realize she's still awake.

"Yeah?"

"You know how you bought Ricardo after I told you I wouldn't stay here because there's nothing to look after?"

He laughs. "One of my finer moments. What about it?"

She runs her fingers over his chest. "It didn't surprise me that you did it."

Rick glances down at her, but he can't see her face; just the top of her head. "Okay…"

"I mean it surprised me, because I wasn't expecting to see a fish when I came home, but it didn't surprise me."

Now he knows something's up, and he wonders if it has to do with the way her voice sounded so strained over the phone today.

"Kate, honey, how much wine did you drink?"

"I'm trying to tell you something."

"I know. I'm just a little dense at three in the morning."

"Only at three in the morning?"

He pokes her in the side and she arches her back and squeaks because she's ticklish. Rick wraps his arms around her an instant later and buries his head in her hair again.

"What're you trying to tell me?"

She's trailing her fingers over his chest again. "It didn't surprise me you bought Ricardo. I know that you like to have waffles every Sunday morning and then stay in bed and read the paper. You like hot mustard on your hot dogs. Your middle name embarrassed you when you were a kid."

Rick smiles. "You know me well."

"Do I though?"

That catches him off guard, and he pauses for a moment before he answers.

"What's this about, Kate?"

She sighs and then moves, propping herself up on her elbows. "That case I was working."

"The woman who was stabbed?"

Kate nods. "It was her husband. She was cheating on him, so he killed her."

Rick smiles and traces his index finger across her lips, over her jawline, and down her neck. "You cheating on me, Katie?"

"No."

"You afraid I'm going to kill you?"

"No."

He raises his eyebrows in question and she sighs again. She looks down at her hands instead of his eyes. "He said he didn't know her. They were married for twenty years, and he didn't even know her. And I just keep thinking…do you ever really know anyone? Can you ever really know somebody?"

He thinks before he answers. "Well, I think there's always some level of surprise in a relationship. And I like to think that means we still have some surprises ahead of us." She glances up at him. He smiles and twirls a strand of her hair between his fingers. "Your question is if it's possible for one person to really know another person, inside and out?"

She nods. He thinks before he answers again.

"I think yes. Because I know you inside and out. I know you'd rather have eggs and bacon on Sunday mornings but you let me make waffles because it's what Alexis and I used to do. I know you like to stay in bed and read the paper as much as I do, mostly because you like when I read you the Garfield and Peanuts comics out loud, even though you pretend you'd rather be reading whatever the headlines are. I know you like stadium mustard better than hot mustard, and I know you like your middle name."

She's smiling now, which thrills him, so he keeps going.

"I don't know, Kate, maybe I don't know you as well as I could. But isn't that what a relationship is for, anyway? Aren't you supposed to spend the rest of your life learning about the other person? I mean when you know everything there is to know…where's the fun in that?"

"So what happens when you know everything about me? You have to find another muse so you can still have fun?"

Rick smiles. "Well, you're a pretty complicated woman. So if I ever actually learn all there is to know, it probably won't be until I'm very, very old. At which point I'll have a bad memory and you'll have to start from the beginning again." He lets go of her hair and traces his fingers over her cheek. "You think that would be okay?"

She smiles in return. "I think that would be more than okay."

She leans forward and kisses him, and when she pulls away she settles back down on his chest. There's a long silence, and then she whispers, almost inaudibly, "When you're not here, the bed is cold."

Rick holds her closer and kisses the top of her head. "I missed you too, Kate."