Brand New Day

Chapter 23 - Sugar Daddy

"Detective Voight?"

Kate's eyes lifted from the stack of financial reports she had been reviewing to the top of the staircase where Trudy had escorted two well-dressed officials into the bullpen, one of them with a large, manilla envelope in hand.

"You mean Sergeant Voight?" Erin asked, her brow furrowed as she too eyed the strangers with an air of distrust. Ever since Agent North had turned up unannounced and upended life as they knew it, the unit were particularly suspicious of people who entered their domain without invitation.

"No. Says here Detective Katherine Grace Voight." One of the men said gruffly, lifting the envelope to reread the name stamped across the front with a huff.

To avoid the inevitable confusion of having two Voight's in the unit, Kate had opted to continue using her maiden name at work and she found herself grinning like an idiot at the sound of her new legal name being used in public. Lifting a hand into the air to draw their attention, Kate waited for the burly man with the envelope to come to a stop at the edge of her desk where he thrust the document out in front of him impatiently.

"You've been served."

She took the official-looking document and, with a curt nod, the man swiftly turned on his heel and left, taking his partner with him. It wasn't like it was the first time she had been summoned to court but, for the life of her, she couldn't think of a recent case that would warrant her being called as a witness.

Hank had been watching the exchange from the doorway of his office, his arms crossed over his chest, eyes tracking the strangers with apprehension. Kate's arm was suspended in midair for a few beats until she eventually leaned back in her chair and tugged the seal open. As she was pulling the documents free from the envelope, she flicked her eyes towards him with a wry grin.

"You wanna divorce me already?"

His mouth pulled into a smirk at her flippant remark, shaking his head slightly when Erin's mouthful of coffee almost ended up on the floor via her nose but he kept his eyes firmly on Kate as she quickly scanned the missive, the smile gradually fading from her face.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me?" She groused, eyes scanning over the last few lines again just to be sure that she'd read it correctly.

"What's up?" Hank asked, brows furrowed.

Kate lifted her chin, an incredulous expression on her face. "You remember that asshole we pinched for the diamond robberies a few months ago?"

"The one you tackled on the front lawn?" Kevin asked, the mere recollection of the memory bringing a wistful smile to his face.

"Yeah, he's claiming I used 'excessive force' to subdue him." Kate spat the two words as if they had personally offended her. "And now he's suing the city."

"That's utter bullshit!" Erin hissed, marching across the bullpen to pluck the papers from Kate's fingers, quickly scanning the letter for herself. "Ah well, at least you got that to look forward to." She said dryly, casually tossing the paperwork into the top tray at the edge of Kate's desk.

"Yeah, like I don't have enough shit going on right now."

A week or so after the wedding, Kate and Kevin had been chasing down a lead near Roscoe Village when she spotted a realtor on the front lawn of an adorable red-brick, three-storey house, tugging the 'sold' placard off of the 'for sale' sign with what could only be described as a look of utter defeat on his face. Tugging a reluctant Kevin from the car, Kate approached the realtor and asked if she could take a quick look around if the property was indeed still for sale and, the second Kate walked through the front door, she knew she had found what she'd spent the last six months looking for. Each of the oversized rooms were filled with a beautiful natural light and the decor was a perfect blend of Kate's modern apartment and Hank's more classic tastes.