ikissdhimbck | AU: Oakville, Texas; for Gene Hunt.

**NOTE: This is part of a plot arc that was meant to occur in Milliways over the Spring/Summer of 2011 in Bar Time. It has since become an AU, and should be treated as a standalone plot not associated with any game, and not fitting into Kate's continuity.**

It's still dark outside when Kate wakes. The room is bathed in warm lamplight from the oil that was left burning overnight, but through the window she can see the first hint of dawn.

It's not the first thing she sees. She finds herself pressed to a warm body, naked and masculine, and feels totally disoriented. For the briefest, cruelest second she believes she's with Doc, his scarred arms wrapped around her middle; and then the heat of the room registers, thick and heavy, and she's brought back to Texas.

Back to Gene.

She blinks slowly, butterfly kisses against his breast, watching the rise and fall of his chest. Her mind is trapped in a haze of sticky dreams and clutching memories, unable to shake them even as the wheels start going. She tips her head back, and watches him sleep.

It seems like hours later, but really it's only a matter of minutes when she shifts away from him. She's taking care not to wake him at first, but the moment she moves her legs — good god, is she sore.

How she manages to get out of bed without waking him is a mystery. How she manages to quietly get dressed when every inch of her feels like it's been crushed by a boulder is another honest mystery. At least he's a heavy sleeper, and by the time she's snuffed out the lamp and rid the room of every last trace of her, light is starting to turn yellow while he slumbers on.

She gets to her room without anybody noticing, but doesn't stay long. She's in desperate need of a long, hot bath. She changes clothes, uses the basin and a small chunk of soap to try and mask the smell of sex, tidies her hair and goes downstairs to see the innkeeper.

Threaded | Flat

He wakes about four hours later, when the room gets too hot to allow for comfortable sleep any more. He turns over, on to his back, the sheets sticking to his legs, and takes a brief inventory.

Alive? Yes. Breathing? Yes. Fag? No. ....yes. (That's better.) Arms, legs, head? Yes.

Right. Good.

Kate?

...no.

He's disappointed by the discovery. Or the lack of discovery, if he's going to be pedantic in his mind. There's nothing in the room that says she was here at all. If he didn't stink like a brothel, he'd wonder if it was all just a glorious wet dream.

But he does, and it wasn't. And he's awake now, so the thing is to clean up a bit, go and have a bath, and then find her. Knowing his luck, she'll have freaked out again, but she didn't seem like she was going to last night, so he'll hope for the best.

Same as her a few hours before, he does the best he can with the basin and soap, before heading downstairs. He doesn't get as far as the landlord though - Kate's there in the main room, and he's not about to ignore her, even if he does still feel a bit manky.

'Mornin'.'

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