A/N: I've been crafting this one out for a while, but with the sudden upheaval of 'Kate makes bad decisions' fics out there I thought now could be a good time to post. I have most of it done so the updates should be swift. This should be 1 of 3. Set after The Limey.

A/N 2: I've made this edit in the hope of respectfully saving all of us some headache. Please note that with this story it's my intention to present flawed human characters, and not to offend anyone. This first chapter is a prologue of sorts that discusses Kate having slept with Colin Hunt. If that is going to upset you please refrain from reading. I ask that if you do choose to continue reading and you completely hate everything about this story that you please refrain from using the word "slut" or any variations there of to describe any female character when commenting.

Hope that clears some stuff up. Though I'm probably just feeding the trolls. :D

Kate runs her hands along the forearm draped around her waist, gently scraping her nails against the coarse hair there. Her bare back is pressed against a firm sculpted chest, the sheets of the expensive airport hotel cooling her skin.

Typically such an athletic round would leave her spent and drifting off to sleep. The burning in her chest has subsided a little, the desperate need for human connection temporarily satisfied. But there's a hollowness there now instead.

"You know I think I might be a little offended," Detective Inspector Hunt husks into her ear.

"Hm?" She tilts her head back into his shoulder, and forces a soft smile on her lips. Whatever her feelings might be at the moment, none of this is his fault.

"I've never slept with a woman and had her thinking of some else after. My pride is a little wounded."

She sighs and rolls over to look at him.

"I'm sorry." She means it. During drinks Colin's phone had blipped with a text that his flight had been delayed another several hours. He had decided to get a room rather than wait at the bar and invited her back. She'd said yes.

It was an attempt to be spontaneous. Fun and uncomplicated. In the moment it was both. Now it was neither.

"For what?" Hunt scoffs. "Kate my flight leaves in-" he checks the clock on the mahogany end table, "three hours. I knew what this was."

"Still we shouldn't have-"

"Enjoyed each other's-" he leers at her in a playful way that reminds her of Castle, "company?" Her heart flies into her throat.

"This isn't me." It's true. No matter how thoroughly they had just enjoyed each other's company.

"I'm not really a one night stand sort of fellow either," he admits.

So they used each other? That actually made her feel better. A tiny bit.

Kate sits up, holding the sheet to her breastbone with one hand, marking sure to keep her scar covered. She's a single modern woman, free to do as she pleases. She absolutely shouldn't feel bad about this. Blood pumps a little faster through her chest- a clear indicator of the lie she's telling herself, telling everyone- and it's violent enough that it would have spiked a polygraph if she were hooked up.

She's not free.

"I feel like I've had an affair," she confesses. She cards a hand roughly through her hair and exhales a frustrated sigh.

To his credit Hunt doesn't look the least bit freaked. He sits up next to her and weaves his fingers into hers. "The writer?"

"The writer."

"You want to talk about it?"

"I think I just did," she says, the realization hitting hard. "He's running around with a stewardess and I feel like I've betrayed him for having fantastic sex with a hunk from Scotland Yard."

"That does balm my ego a little. Does he know you're in love with him?"

"Admittedly neither of us are great with our communication. Or timing."

She proceeds to give Colin the censored cliff notes of the past few years, suddenly keen to talk to a neutral party who isn't her therapist.

He lets out a long slow whistle as she finishes. "That sounds well and truly fucked, Love," he says.

She laughs at that. He's a good man. And isn't that just her MO. Using a good man she feels nothing for to protect her heart.

"I've never felt like this," she admits. "I spend half my day hoping he leaves forever, and the other half hoping he'll tell me he loves me again." She looks at Hunt and covers her face with her hands. "God, I'm sorry. This wasn't- I didn't," she sighs. "You don't want to hear about this."

She moves to stand, to find her clothes, and dresses quickly.

"Would it help if I said I think he's a fool?" Colin asks.

She offers him a lopsided smile in return as she finishes buttoning her blouse. She tosses him his pants. "Come on. Even for Detective Inspectors getting through customs is a bitch. I'll walk back over there with you."

The mirth shines in his eyes as he begins to get dressed too.

They walk quietly in step until they get to the security check-point. The silence between them is amiable and part of her hopes they can stay friends.

"Kate, thank you for everything. You infused some good into this otherwise bleak time."

"You're welcome. Have a safe trip back."

He leans in and gives her a half hug, "Can I give you my penny's worth before I go?"

"Okay."

"Stop waiting. Whatever you're afraid of ruining with him is already ruined. Telling him the truth, getting to the bottom of it all might save that you have or it might end it forever. You need one or the other. If I learned anything this past week it's the importance of closure."

She nods at him, "Thank you."

"Would it be too cheesy of me to say maybe in another time and another place?"

"Yes," she says, then bumps his shoulder as an endearment. "It's been a pleasure."

"It certainly has Detective." He gives her an exaggerated wink and a wave as he enters the weaving rope of the security line.

She watches him go, his advice still reverberating through her head.

A/N: That's part one. I hoped you liked it, and if you didn't I ask that you please be respectful in discussing why you hated it.