Kate should be happy. She should be peaceful, fulfilled, proud, justified. And she is, she is all of those things but mostly she's empty.

Until William Bracken was sentenced to life without possibility of parole yesterday, her life had a purpose, a driving need to find justice for the way that her mother's life was cut short. And now she has it and there is a gaping hole in her existence that she hadn't anticipated.

Months ago when Bracken was arrested, Rick had asked her "what now?" and at the time, she thought the possibilities were endless but now? Now she has no idea how to answer that question.

He is so nervous; this is a huge risk, a big leap and a hell of an assumption. What if she hates it? What if she thinks he's crazy? What if she refuses?

He's pacing back and forth in front of the desk in the Oval when there's a soft knock on the door, Kate's head poking through a moment later and he breaks out in a grin at the sight of her.

Everything's going to be fine as long as he can see that face every morning.

"You wanted to see me?" she asks as she closes the door behind her and walks across the room. She's confused, he's never done this before.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask your opinion on something, you have a minute?"

She rolls her eyes and huffs a sarcastic laugh as she crosses her arms over her chest. "You know I have nothing but minutes."

He reaches out and frees one of her hands, traps it between both of his. "I know, let me see if I can help with that."

Her brow furrows at him, adorable confusion washing over her face and he kisses her forehead, pulling away and tugging her towards one of side doors, takes her past the Rose Garden and into the main building of the White House. They walk straight through the Center Hall towards the East Wing and when they pass the elevator and both sets of stairs without ascending, he feels her pause.

"Seriously, where are you taking me?" She says it with a laugh so he knows she's not annoyed.

"We're almost there," he assures her. Which isn't really true, they need to get to the complete other side of the building before they're really there. "Trust me?"

"Always."

He has to pause for that, swoop in and kiss her briefly before pushing through the door to the East Colonnade and escorting her through to the East Wing. Staff make way for them as they pass, nodding with a low "Sir" intoned but no one seems shocked to see him. Good, everyone was informed that they'd be coming. Which means they should have privacy for this next part.

He takes her upstairs and through the center corridor to the large office at the end of the hall, pausing outside the door and turning to her.

Her eyebrows are raised, practically in her hair line as she stares at him. "That's…" she trails off, waving an arm at the door.

"An unused office," he shrugs. "A lot of these are actually, since they're associated with this one." He swings the door open and waves a hand to indicate she should enter. She does, slowly, tentatively.

He closes the door behind her, lets her get her bearings and take in the room. There are file folders on the desk, file boxes stacked on a table against one wall and she turns to take it all in.

"Okay, what is going on?"

"I know you've been restless lately and you need something to do, so I came up with something." He wanders over to the table, runs a finger along one of the boxes. "There's a lot of cold cases out there, some involving cover ups, some involving lazy cops but all of them involving families that don't have justice." He turns to her, sees the understanding start to shine in her eyes. "And this office is just sitting here, unused. So, if you wanted to put it to use to form a task force to take on these cases…" He nods towards the boxes.

"I could do that?" she asks, breathless.

"Absolutely. I've already cleared a lot of hoops for you and there are some people that have offered their services but I told them that final decisions would be up to you. The folders on the desk there are personnel files; look through them and see if you'd like to interview anyone. And if none of them look right, you can start fresh. It'd be your team, your decision."

She starts toward him and he pushes off the table to meet her halfway. She kisses him fiercely, her arms wrapping around his neck as his arms encircle her waist.

"Thank you," she mumbles against his lips, shaking her head at herself and pulling back. "That's not right, not enough, not the right words, but thank you."

"There's a catch, though." He hates himself for the disappointment that swirls in her eyes and he quickly continues. "It's the First Lady's office and so," he reaches into his pocket, "it would help if you were the First Lady," he finishes, dropping to a knee and opening the jewelry box toward her. "Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?" She's staring at him, mouth agape and quiet a second too long. "You don't have to, you can have office either way, I just-"

"Stop," she cuts him off. "Yes. Yes to all of it. To this, to you, just…yes." She grips his biceps to pull him up to her, capturing his mouth with hers before he's even upright. He wraps his arms around her, pours everything he feels for her through the press of his lips, the work of his tongue.

She breaks off suddenly, choking back a sob and he cradles her to his chest to let her cry. It really wasn't fair of him to throw this many things at her at once. But she collects herself quickly, pushing off his chest to swipe at her eyes.

"Can I have my ring?"

"Oh my god, yes." He scrambles to pull it from the velvet bed of the box, slides it onto her waiting finger, raises her knuckles to his mouth to brush a kiss against them, and meets her eyes. "So, are you ready to be First Lady?"

"Honestly, I don't think so. But I'm ready to be your wife."

He swoops in and kisses her, the promise of forever in the press of his lips.

twitter: BerkieLynn

tumblr: berkielynn

A/N: My eternal and never ending gratitude to Lou for pushing me to be better and create better as I tackled this story. Thanks also to Bean and the squad for listening to me moan and complain when I got stuck. And thank you to all of you for all of your wonderful reviews and messages.