Everything

Kate Beckett loves him.

Oh, she hasn't said it yet but he knows it. He feels it. It hums through his veins, an energy he's never felt before.

Kate Beckett loves him.

It's written in the way she smiles at him, open and brilliant.

Shines brightly in her eyes as she gazes at him in the glow of the early morning light, her body covered only by the soft white sheet strewn across his bed.

Burns dark and entrancing in her sighs as he trails kisses up her thigh.

Wraps around him, exhilarating as she pays back the debt she owes him in multiples.

Teases and taunts as she leans over him to grab her coffee cup from the desk, because she knows exactly what she's doing as she allows their bodies to nearly align.

Fills him with pride as she grants him silent permissions to say the silly things he's always wanted to say.

Envelops him in warmth as she laughs at one of his stupid jokes.

It's in the way she returns his kiss, runs her fingers through his hair, pulls him infinitely closer, and folds into his embrace.

Electrifying in the way her body cants toward his when they build theory, when a simple touch could set them aflame.

Softens everything inside him as she brings him coffee so regularly now.

It's constantly swelling within, an undercurrent to his every day, cresting in the rise of her body over his as they join together to fall down, down, down.

Kate Beckett loves him.

And when she says it…when she finally says the words, it's neither a surprise nor a shock. But it fills him with a completeness that he's never known before.

He's longed for this moment for years. Since before he said the words himself. Hoped and prayed for a day when she'd let him love her. Could barely even dream that she'd love him back.

But here in this moment he realizes that it means every bit as much to her.

He catches her smile with a kiss, causing her eyes to slip closed. A moan escaping her lips as she sinks into his arms.

He pulls back for a moment, in awe, tracing the line of her jaw with his fingers, as she leans into his touch.

She beams up at him, eyes wide and luminous. It radiates off of her. Her love for him.

She loves him.

It's not one thing. It's everything.