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“The parking is atrocious over here,” Kate said as she slipped inside Lucy’s apartment. She was a little surprised to not have Lucy at the door waiting on her. In fact, she was very surprised as she checked the time on the wall clock that she knew was hanging to her right and mentally made the calculation of the approximate time they needed to walk out the door. “Luce?” she called out. “Babe?”
“Yes, I know,” Lucy responded from the bathroom deeper in the apartment, hoping to cut off Kate’s often-bemoaned parking dilemma in the surrounding area of Lucy’s condo. “You know, if you’d just move in, then you’d have a parking garage pass. Then you wouldn’t have to park on the street and dodge traffic and then go on and on and on about it.”
“We’ve had this discussion. What’s the point in me moving in just to move out in six months?” Kate reasoned as she shed her suit jacket and laid it neatly across the back of a bar stool. She checked her makeup in the mirror and when satisfied asked, “What’s your ETA?”
“Minutes,” Lucy said, not sounding entirely confident.
Lucy’s tone made Kate suspicious, so she made her way to the bathroom and peeked inside. Lucy was definitely not mere minutes away from being ready. She was standing in front of her bathroom mirror applying mascara in a white v-neck t-shirt so threadbare that it was nearly see-through and her boyshorts. Her very slight movement was making her ass sway just enough to make Kate swallow hard before she remembered that they had to get going.
“There’s a pretty good solution to that argument. Just don’t move. Right? Easy breezy. No muss, no fuss,” Lucy continued until she noticed that Kate had appeared in the mirror. Lucy gave her a lecherous onceover before saying, “Damn, baby, you look hot.”
Kate arched her eyebrow, not because she didn’t appreciate the compliment, but because she knew it was supposed to serve as a distraction to the fact that Lucy was definitely not ready.
“Luce?” Kate let her tone do all the implying.
“Yes?” Lucy said through non-moving lips as she flicked the wrist with the wand in her hand. “Can I help you?”
“This is not just minutes,” Kate said as she pointed accusingly. “This is fifty minutes, maybe an hour.”
“You are underestimating me, Whistler.”
“I’m realistic, Tara,” Kate said, crossing her arms. “Your hair isn’t even in the secondary curl stage.”
“I regret telling you my beauty regime secrets when you throw it in my face like this,” Lucy told her. “It’s fine.”
“I’ve spent plenty of time clocking your regimes for myself.” Kate checked her watch and sighed. “Honey, we’re going to be late.”
Lucy shook her head. “I got this, but you can help by going to pick out my suit.”
“Lucy!” Kate’s jaw clenched in frustration. “You haven’t even picked out clothes?”
“Katherine,” she glared at Kate in the mirror. “I just got home.”
“We left at the same time!”
“No,” Lucy corrected. “You said you were leaving the office and I said, ‘okay, babe, me too,’ which means I left approximately thirty minutes after.”
“What were you doing?”
“Working!” Lucy said. “I had to finish up some paperwork and file a request and Tennant asked about an interview.”
Kate looked at her unimpressed. “Tennant?”
“You know her, you’ve met her,” Lucy said. “Work, work, work.”
“She’s the one that told me to make sure you got there on time.”
“Then grab my most commendable suit,” Lucy said, tapping the spot where her watch normally resided.
“Okay,” Kate huffed. “Anything in particular?”
“You know what looks good on me,” Lucy said with a wink. “Whatever you’re planning to take off later.”
Kate stood in the doorway a moment longer just looking, appreciating the view really. She sighed deeply, but then stepped behind Lucy. She brushed her hair back and placed a kiss on her neck. “We agreed about the living situation. Something new for both of us. Even footing. Fresh start.”
Lucy nodded. “I know.”
“We’ve looked at a dozen places,” Kate reminded her. “It could be any one of those places.”
“I know.”
“So...?” The question hung in the air, when there was no immediate reply, Kate said, “Lucy, also, and you know this, your condo is ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously beautiful!” Lucy argued as she bumped Kate with her butt.
“And ridiculously expensive.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Lucy said, briefly catching Kate’s eye. “It’s really not an issue.”
“No,” Kate responded. “Not a chance.”
“Let me be your sugar momma,” Lucy offered. “I’d be great at it.”
Kate smiled at her. “That’s a solid offer, but, no.”
Lucy frowned and looked up through batted eyelashes. “I just really don’t want to move. I have no desire to pack and heft all that shit around. Does that count as a decent excuse?”
Kate gave Lucy’s right bicep a quick squeeze. “But, you’d look sooo good doing it.”
“Darlin’, I didn’t say I wouldn’t...” Lucy drawled.
Kate kissed her neck again and whispered, “I’ll figure out a way to talk you into it.”
“Oh? You will, huh?” Lucy smirked. “Will it be the same way you talked me into it before? ‘Cause if I remember correctly, you were naked for that.”
“Hm mm,” Kate replied as she let her fingertips trail under Lucy’s shirt and tap against her abdomen. “Good memory.”
“Hm.”
“I’m pretty confident in my abilities.”
“Confidence is so sexy,” Lucy replied as she turned around to face Kate. “I’m not entirely sure I can be swayed, though. What else might you offer?”
“In addition to the aforementioned confidence?” Kate asked as she pulled Lucy tighter against her body. “You’re putting me on the spot.”
“That’s what I do,” Lucy said as reached up to tuck Kate’s hair behind her ear.
The sparkling diamond on Lucy’s left hand caught Kate’s eye and she felt the same rush of excitement she had when she had put the ring there four months before. “Wow,” she said admirably. “How did I get so lucky?”
“I keep asking myself the same thing,” Lucy asked. She grinned mischievously, “How did you get so lucky?”
“I don’t know,” Kate shrugged. “This amazing woman picked me up in a bar-”
“Picked you up?” Lucy scoffed. “Hardly. Stumbled awkwardly through an introduction.”
“-and then absolutely rocked my world-”
“Yes,” Lucy nodded. “That part is one hundred percent true.”
“-and then gave me two years to figure my shit out-”
“Such a long time,” Lucy playfully complained. “Looo-ooong.”
“-then by some miracle agreed to marry me,” Kate finished with a kiss.
“It was the sexy confidence thing,” Lucy said.
“That's it?” Kate wondered aloud.
“And the smart, charming, insanely gorgeous thing,” Lucy teased. “Probably.”
“Oh, oh, okay,” Kate said. “I do have something going for me.”
“Kinda brilliant. Good job. Strong swimmer.”
“Strong swimmer?” Kate asked. “Is that box I needed to check?”
“Baby, that was at the top of the list,” Lucy said seriously. “If I’m ever caught in an undertow, you’d better be fishing me out. That’s the deal. I’m including it in our vows.”
“Luce, the chances of you being anywhere near an undertow is slim, but I promise I will save you if that happens.”
“Good!” Lucy said with a sigh of relief. “I might also be, maybe, at least a little bit in love with you. I’m still up in the air about just how much.”
“I’ll keep working at it,” Kate said with a hearty laugh. “Diligently.”
“You’ve got a while.”
Kate leaned down to peck at Lucy’s lips again. “Forever?”
“Definitely,” Lucy answered, deepening the kiss.
Kate pulled back. “No, no, no. Can’t be late...and that will make us late.”
“That only makes straight girls late,” Lucy replied. “Take a biology class, smarty pants.”
“Ha, no,” Kate said, turning Lucy back toward the mirror. “You do this, I’ll do that.”
Twenty minutes later, Lucy appeared in her own bedroom doorway sans her t-shirt which made Kate glare at her in warning. “What is this?”
“What is what?” Lucy asked innocently.
Kate quickly handed her a shirt and gave her a swirling motion with her finger to get going. She watched Lucy pull the shirt over her shoulders and begin buttoning before leaving the room. When she came back two minutes later after downing half a bottle of water to satisfy her thirst, she was perplexed that she was greeted by a shirtless Lucy...again.
“What happened?” Kate squealed. “How are you losing clothes? Put your shirt back on!”
Lucy nearly giggled, “What a drastic change from last night. Is the magic gone already? We aren’t even married yet.”
“Lucy Tara!”
“Keep saying it,” Lucy said, hand on her hip. “You’ve only got six more months before I also get to be Whistler.”
That made Kate stop and stare at her in stunned silence.
“Lucy Whistler,” Lucy said, widening her eyes with a sense of awe. “Sounds pretty good, actually.”
“Wait, are you- are you being serious?” Kate asked, failing spectacularly at holding back a beaming smile.
“I’ve thought about it,” Lucy said. “I know you said my identity is mine and yours is yours and there's no pressure to do any type of heteronormative thing and I agree with you, I do, but, also...I like the idea of being Whistler, too. T-o-o, not the number. Not second banana. Same banana level.”
Kate crossed the distance between them and swept Lucy off her feet with a hug of whimsical proportions.
“Damn, Kate,” Lucy shrieked while they spun in a full circle. “I knew you’d probably be cool with it, but...”
“I’m so cool with it,” Kate said as she placed Lucy back on the ground and searched her eyes for any doubt. “Are you sure? You don’t have to decide now. I don’t want you to feel like you’re giving something up for me.”
“I’m not giving anything up, baby,” Lucy grinned. “I’m absolutely sure. I love you. I can’t imagine my life without you and I don’t want to, ever. I want to share everything with you. Same address wherever that might be. Same name. Same...bed.” Lucy gave a nod over to hers just to shoot her shot.
“I love you,” Kate said sincerely. She took Lucy’s face in her hands and brushed her lips against the other woman’s. She let herself enjoy the slightest dip of her tongue into Lucy’s mouth and then pulled away. Kate let her forehead rest on Lucy’s for a brief second before snapping into boss mode, “You still have to get dressed.”
“Shit,” Lucy groaned.
“I’m pretty bummed about you getting dressed right now, too,” Kate admitted. “But, I reserve the right to double back to this and show you exactly how happy it makes me.”
“I can’t wait.”
Kate bit her lip and shook herself out of the burning desire to say fuck the event tonight and just fuck Lucy. But, she’s Kate Whistler, so instead she said, “So, what was wrong with the shirt?”
“I don’t like that one,” Lucy said as she picked up two identical button down shirts in each of her hands and studied them.
“You love that one,” Kate argued. “That’s why I picked that one.”
“Eh,” Lucy heehawed. She held one up slightly higher. “This one.”
“Okay,” Kate agreed. “Yep, that’s the one.”
Lucy turned to her, “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed as she gave Kate a good look. “Should we coordinate? You’re already wearing black. Should I also be wearing black?”
“Babe, I think you should wear whatever gets you out the door sooner,” Kate said, subtly looking over Lucy’s shoulder at the clock on her nightstand.
Lucy slid the new shirt over her shoulders and again started to button...slowly.
“Do you not want to go to this thing?” Kate asked as she watched Lucy’s bra disappear behind the cloth.
“Of course, I do.”
“You don’t act like you do.”
Lucy shrugged as she pulled her pants up over her legs and secured the button. “Much ado about nothing.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed. “Lucy, you can’t be serious.”
“I barely did anything,” Lucy said humbly as she affixed her American flag pin to the lapel of the jacket that Kate had laid out. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Kate continued to look at her in disbelief. “You saved thirteen senior citizens while off-duty on a random hunch.”
“Saved is a strong word,” Lucy contested.
“It’s the appropriate word,” Kate replied. “It’s exactly the right word.”
“I just stopped a bad guy,” Lucy said. “Doing the job and whatnot...even when off the job. Same thing.”
“Uh,” Kate almost laughed at this simplistic presentation of events. “By jumping onto the bumper of a moving tour bus?”
“Converted school bus,” Lucy corrected.
“You climbed through the window!”
“There was no glass, it was super easy,” Lucy said breezily. “Anybody could have done it.”
“You defused a bomb while driving the bus then gave an elderly woman CPR while restraining the perp with your own shoe strings.”
Lucy put one arm through the sleeve of her jacket, then the other. “Thank Timberland for quality shoe strings.”
“You’re this generation’s Keanu Reeves,” Kate said.
“Keanu Reeves is this generation’s Keanu Reeves,” Lucy rebutted. "He's a national treasure."
“Why are you brushing this off?” Kate asked. “You were incredible and the city is honoring you.”
Lucy waived off the praise. “I don’t know. It was just instinct. And I was fucking terrified. They keep talking about bravery and...Kate, after I was on that bus, I said to myself probably a hundred times that it was the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve done some dumb shit.”
“I’ve seen some of it,” Kate said, reaching for Lucy’s hand. “But you did it anyway.”
“We had just gotten engaged,” Lucy recalled, her voice with an uncharacteristic tremble . “And I just knew that that I had fucked everything up.”
“You didn’t.”
“But, I could have.”
“But, you didn’t,” Kate reassured her. “And it was probably a really, really, really good thing that I heard the story from you immediately after it happened. The alternative would have been super dramatic and made for great TV, but one hostage situation and done is good for me. For life.”
“Is it fair that I’m going to get recognized for something that I’d probably never do again?”
Kate leveled a look at her. “I’ll believe it when I see it. You’ve never not jumped into action, Luce.”
“True, true,” Lucy admitted. She blew out a breath and stood up straighter. “Alright. I’m ready.”
Kate brushed off Lucy’s shoulders and straightened her jacket. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
“That’s my line,” Lucy said, resting her hands on Kate’s hips.
“And you are so fucking beautiful,” Kate told her.
“Okay, okay, quick fawning all over me and let’s do this,” Lucy replied as she pulled Kate by the hand.
Kate grabbed her own jacket before opening the door and gestured for Lucy to cross the threshold. “After you, Special Agent.”
Lucy took a few steps then stopped, reached up to trail a finger over Kate’s cheek, and said, “What would I do without you?”
Kate smiled, bright and happy and loving, and said, “You’d be late.”