Turn Back Time

Chapter 10 - Meant To Be

Tranquil, unhurried mornings were somewhat of a rarity in the Voight household. If it wasn't Alexis' one-sided chatter rousing them from slumber, it was a cell phone buzzing incessantly on the nightstand drawing them away from the soft, sumptuous and ridiculously expensive Egyptian cotton that Kate insisted on purchasing.

Yet this morning she was awoken by thin strips of sunlight filtering through the gaps in the blind, bathing the room in a soothing golden glow. Her heavy, gritty eyes told her it was far too early to be awake but still she found herself unable to drift back off to sleep.

Shifting onto her side, her eyes settled on Hank's prone form, the corner of her mouth tugging upwards into a soft smile as she watched him sleep. As usual he was sprawled out on his stomach with his face almost completely obscured by the feather-down pillow, his body rising and falling slowly with each deep, even breath. Kate let her eyes roam over the broad expanse of his back, taking in the myriad of freckles, blemishes and scars that littered his tanned skin; a tapestry of stories from what felt like a lifetime ago. She often found herself wondering what her life would have been like if she had moved to Chicago sooner. Would they still have fallen in love? Would their paths have even crossed at all? Alvin had told her once that, until she came along, he wasn't sure if Hank would have ever moved on after Camille passed so perhaps the story was just the way it was always meant to be.

"Stop thinking so loud."

He looked like he was still asleep when she flicked her eyes back to his face, momentarily startled by his deep, gravelly request but he soon cracked open a bleary eye to cast her an accusatory glance.

"You can see through your eyelids now?" She asked with a grin, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth when his eyes fluttered closed and he rolled onto his back with a low groan, exposing his toned torso to her appreciative gaze.

"No. I could hear you thinking."

"You could not." She argued with a quiet laugh when he tugged the sheets back up over his body and shuffled towards her, hands blindly reaching to wrap around her waist beneath the sheets. "That's impossible."

Chuckling at his inaudible grumbled response, Kate allowed herself to be drawn into his arms, humming in blissful contentment as she nestled her face against the warm skin of his chest. For a few long minutes, Kate was lulled into a serene state of relaxation by the sound of his heart thrumming steadily in her ear but their few sacred moments of peace was abruptly halted by the sound of a cell phone vibrating against the wood of the bedside table.

Trying and failing to wriggle out of a disapproving Hank's embrace, she settled for turning in his arms to pluck her phone from the table, thumb swiping over the screen to connect the call just as he began to track a path of gentle kisses along the slope of her neck.

"Meadows."

"Kate, it's Elliot."

Hank's lips froze against her shoulder as he heard the muffled greeting from Elliot Stabler, his spine involuntarily stiffening at the increasingly familiar voice at the other end of the line. Seizing her opportunity to shift out of his arms, Kate propped herself up against the headboard, turning to meet Hank's eyes as he peered up at her now suddenly wide awake as he rolled onto his stomach, his weight balance on his elbows and forearms.

"Morning El. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, sorry it's so early. I, uh, couldn't sleep so I thought I'd dig around to see if I could find anything on your dad's case." He replied and Kate could faintly hear him shuffling some papers around on his desk, knowing they were likely stuck under a mug of cold coffee.

"Any joy?"

Pulling her phone away from her ear, she put the call on loudspeaker so that Hank could listen to whatever Elliot had managed to unearth in the NYPD archives.