Work Text:
They were two weeks into apartment hunting when Patrick dropped a bomb on Kimball.
“I want a house, not an apartment.”
Kimball didn’t know how to respond so he sipped his tea and nodded. “Okay.”
Patrick had smiled and dragged him back to the bedroom for before work sex. Kimball guessed he’d said the right thing.
That evening he’d almost shot Bosco and their team, and they were then assigned the same case, a kidnapping. Kimball wasn’t thrilled to have Pat work the case mostly with Bosco, as he didn’t trust the man much, not since he’d almost had Patrick serve a year in prison. However, he trusted Lisbon and she didn’t have a problem with the two of them working together.
The worst part of the case was hearing the call over the radio of Rigsby’s panicked voice calling for medics for an officer down. Kim immediately knew it was Van Pelt. His racing heart didn’t slow down until he saw Van Pelt was okay and that Rigsby, Lisbon and Patrick were all in one piece. The last thing he wanted was to lose one of their team, their family.
That night after the case was over, Kim held Patrick a little tighter as they fell asleep. The next morning he woke up to an empty bed and found Pat in the kitchen poring over the Red John case file, which he confessed Bosco gave him. So much for house hunting.
The next month, Patrick spent most of his free time working with Bosco’s team on the Red John case. Kimball pretty much only saw him when the man came home in the evening, and that only happened a few times a week. Kimball spent his time immersed in his work, only taking breaks when Pat promised to come home or when Rigsby dragged him out for drinks. He even went out to dinner once with Van Pelt while she was recovering from her broken ribs.
She apologized for her surprised reaction to finding out about him and Patrick and then kindly asked for details on their relationship. Kimball gave her a few, and finally brought up the house situation with her. He hadn’t wanted any teasing from Rigsby over them “settling down.” Van Pelt understood his reservations to getting a house, but also encouraged him to talk to Patrick about it - something he couldn’t really do at the moment since the man was wrapped up in Red John again. But he did tell Van Pelt that he’d try and talk to Patrick.
It was on an early morning, when Patrick and Kimball didn’t even try to hide that they got to their crime scene together, that they entered the office to find Bosco and his team brutally shot. They’d been headed to Bosco’s office because he had information for Patrick for the Red John case.
Kimball’s gun was out immediately as he scanned the room for a threat, he checked the pulse of two of the men while Bosco’s life fell in Lisbon’s hands. He hastily told Patrick to stay put then pulled out his cell to make a call as he searched the floor for the shooter. When he came up empty, he knew it was going to be a long day.
Kimball interviewed Rebecca while Lisbon and Patrick got cleaned up after saving Bosco’s life. His priority was to find out where Hicks, the missing member of Bosco’s team, was. Patrick eventually found him, and they all discovered that the shooting of Bosco’s team, their dead guy from that morning, and Hicks’ death were all connected to Red John. Patrick quickly pieced together that it was all because Red John was trying to cover a mistake he made in the past.
Kimball was thrilled to have a new lead, but Patrick? Patrick was over the moon, and Kimball once again worried about Patrick’s obsession with the serial killer.
Late that evening, after Rebecca confessed and was subsequently killed by Red John, and after Bosco died, Patrick found himself dragged away from the case files by a tired Kimball. He honestly didn’t want to go home with the man, he had too much on his mind. The main thing? Kimball had confessed weeks ago to telling Bosco about their relationship, that likely meant that Rebecca knew about it, meaning Red John now knew about them. This put Kimball at risk of being a target for the serial killer. Patrick wanted to push the man away, force Kim to break up with him, then maybe he’d be safe.
But honestly? Patrick liked having someone to go home to again, he liked falling asleep next to Kim and the sex. He loved the sex and he loved Kim. Something he realized, as they were wheeling Bosco away to the ambulance, he hadn’t said to Kim yet. Not in the exact words.
Red John had taken so much from him in the past and he had just proved to them that he could kill even cops. So shouldn’t that make Patrick want to keep Kim safe by ending things? Maybe, but Patrick didn’t want to lose what he had, not to Red John, and certainly not because of the possibility of Red John. Kim had told Patrick he could take care of himself, and Patrick was going to have to trust the man on that.
So when Kim dragged him from the office and his case files, Patrick let him. He wasn’t going to lose this without a fight. Patrick drove them home - he could clearly see Kim’s exhaustion - and helped the man into a shower and then to bed. And in the morning, he made them breakfast instead of poring over the case files again. He smiled when Kim had a look of surprise on his face when he walked into the kitchen.
Patrick handed Kim a mug of tea and kissed him deeply, but briefly, not wanting their breakfast to burn. They sat at the table, ate together, and chatted about anything but Red John. When they finished, Kim washed their dishes and Patrick sat on the counter and watched. “I love you.”
Patrick saw the brief shock at the sudden words pass over Kim’s face before he smiled. “I love you, too,” was his response. Then he added, “I’m off tomorrow, if you want to go look at some houses.”
Patrick smiled brightly. “Sounds good.” He hopped off the counter and pulled Kim into a tongue clashing kiss, not even bothered by the suds on Kim’s hands as he was pulled closer.
Yeah, he wasn’t going to lose this to Red John, not again.