Work Text:
It hit Kate then. If she was too late Jo would be dead somewhere. In a ditch. Beside a road. Her mind drifted through endless ever dark scenarios, all the while knowing that the more she allowed herself to indulge in those thoughts the more likely they became. So she steeled, settled her internal turmoil to match her constant outward appearance of calm.
Just as the helicopter lost the white van with Jo inside, AC-12’s cars closed in. Kate felt a twinge of hope. She could save Jo, could help her. Their cars closed in on the van, quickly surrounding it. The van halted sharply with no escape. She leapt out of the drivers seat and raced to open the van, with Steve closely behind. When they pulled open the doors, all the while yelling their status as armed police, a small terrified Jo and smirking prison officer were revealed. The plan was to arrest the officer, get Jo to safety, take over the van and trap the OCG in their assassination attempt. Kate knew that plan well and, as Steve attested the prison officer, she rushed into police mode unbuckling Jo’s chair and began to instruct her to move towards the other officers who had now surrounded the van.
But then their eyes met. Just briefly. All was visible in Jo’s dark tired eyes, her fear and her deep relief. In that moment, when Kate’s eyes met hers, she couldn’t resist. She pulled Jo into a firm embrace, painfully aware of the prying eyes of the other Ac-12 officers, including Steve, and whispered into her ear “I wasn’t pretending, I wouldn’t.”
Then she pushed the slight Jo, whose movements were stiff and slow, as one in complete shock of all they knew about the world, into the other AC-12 officers arms. Once they had bundled a confused Jo outside the van, and with Steve already having placed the prison officer into custody, Kate and Steve took up positions in the van and headed to the OCG. Kate let a faint smile draw across her lips, let the relief of allowing herself to express herself to wash over her, then rested her hand upon her gun. Readied herself for action as the van’s engine began to rumble.