Chapter Text
Kate twirled her pen in her hand, she had been listening to the presentation from Donaldson for twenty minutes and he’d been bordering on waffle five minutes ago. Sliding a glance to Osgood she hid a smile as she watched the young woman fiddling with her inhaler. Taking a deeper breath she made herself tune back into the older man at the front of the room. Five minutes later she was about to point out his inability to get to the point when her phone suddenly vibrated on the table in front of her, causing her to jump in surprise before grabbing it in her hand. “Sorry” she blushed and gestured for Donaldson to continue. The phone vibrated again and she dropped her hand under the table, squinting to read the text message. “Sorry, I need to take this” she whispered to Osgood before standing and walking out of the room. She heard Osgood tell Donaldson to continue as she clicked the door shut behind her, hitting speed dial. “Liz, what’s wrong?”
Osgood told everyone to take a tea break ten minutes later. She knew that the next report was of interest to Kate and wanted to find out whether she’d be rejoining them. “Ma’am” she saw the blonde staring out of the window at the gardens across from the Tower. When Kate turned to look at her she saw tears in her eyes, although they were hastily wiped away and the phone dropped into her trouser pocket. “Sorry, is everything alright?” Osgood looked over her shoulder, making sure that nobody else could see them.
“Mmmm” Kate nodded before clearing her throat and sticking her hands in her pockets. “Sorry about that, did he finally finish or did you dig a tunnel to escape?”
Osgood smiled “I’ll have a word, he does seem to enjoy the sound of his own voice and he doesn’t get to present to the big boss very often”
“He won’t get me to listen any more often if he continues to use ten words where one will do” Kate swallowed and drew in a breath.
“I can reschedule the rest of the presentations for Friday if you’d rather not sit through anymore?” Osgood offered.
“I can’t make Friday, I’m afraid” Kate looked around and gestured for Osgood to follow her. “The phone call, I have a funeral to go to and some arrangements to make this afternoon so can we move the meeting out to next week?”
“Of course, sorry ma’am” Osgood nodded and frantically tried to figure out whether she should pat her arm or offer a hug, deciding on offering her handkerchief instead.
“Old age, we don’t get many deaths caused by that” Kate shrugged and dabbed her eyes with the clean cotton. “Thanks”
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Kate dumped her bag on the kitchen table and shrugged out of her raincoat. Taking the bottle of wine and ready-meal out of her reusable bag she switched the oven on and searched for the corkscrew. Once her dinner was in the oven and the wine was open and breathing she grabbed her phone from the table and wandered through to the living room, hitting redial. “Liz,” she said softly, sitting on the edge of the sofa cushion and resting her elbows on her knees.
“Kate” the achingly familiar voice sighed out her name.
“I spoke to the boys, they’re making arrangements to meet up and travel down together on Friday morning, said they’d phone you later” Kate sighed. “I’ll get the train down on Thursday afternoon”
“I’ll collect you at the station” the redhead settled back on her sofa, pulling the crocheted blanket across her legs. “Thank you for calling them, I’d run out of steam after the hospital”
“Of course” Kate sat back, rolling her neck to loosen muscles suddenly tight again. “How’s Phil?”
“He’s as well as can be expected, I suppose” Liz closed her eyes. “I offered to stay with him but you know what he’s like”
Kate smiled, “I should know, mine was just as bad” They caught up with each other until Kate’s dinner was ready. “I’ll phone you when I get to the station, just let me know if there’s anything else I can do before then?”