Chapter Text
It had been 3 long months since their kiss and as much as Kai wanted to take things further, they wanted to work this all out at Amelia's pace. There were so many moving parts, so many obstacles, they needed her to be sure just as much as she herself needed to feel it. But now, after months of late-night facetime calls and text between surgeries she was ready. She wanted them. She wanted to be WITH them, whatever it takes.
The only issue that came now was how to convey this to them in a way that didn't leave her having to bare her entire heart to them. She wanted this but she still wanted to take it one step at a time. Baby steps. So after a long and busy day in the lab, she decided that the next morning would be her moment. Regardless of the outcome, she was going to take the leap.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The next morning by some miracle Amelia had managed to beat them into the lab and was typing away on her laptop when they snuck up behind her.
“Morning Shepherd” they spoke directly into her ear in that low flirtatious voice that hit her directly in the lungs and made her breathing stutter.
“Hey you” she smiled turning to look at them in their full handsome glory “I was hoping id see you at some point this morning” she looked down to her watch to emphasize her point that they were later than her.
“Oh, you got jokes huh? guess you won't be wanting this then” they laughed as they waved a coffee and a pastry in front of the neurosurgeon's face, to which amelia gasped out a “how very dare you” and glared at them playfully whilst accepting the proffered treats.
“Thank you” she smiled at them as they sat themself on the opposite side of the desk “but genuinely I was hoping to catch you this morning I had something I wanted to talk to you about” Kai could sense the tension rolling off of her in waves which instantly put them on edge.
“Ok… is this an ‘i've had a groundbreaking scientific epiphany and i want to talk to you about it’ or is this a US talk? Because I'm sensing it's the second'' They asked as calmly as they could with their heart beating faster than they thought it ever had. Amelia looked down at her coffee and took a deep breath “the second one”. Kai nodded to her to continue then changed their mind and stood up “in which case let's take this to the roof terrace, walk with me?” Knowing that Kai processed and listened better while moving spurred Amelia on to follow them to the elevator.
They rode to the roof terrace in comfortable silence and when they reached the top kai instantly went to go grab some chips from the vending machine. Amelia grabbed them by the elbow and shook her head “you won’t need them” she smiled at the look of confusion on their face as they both began to walk along the terrace.
“Ok so i feel like the best way for me to go about this is full-out 100% honesty about my feelings and emotions but i have a track record of not being the best with all of that so just.. I don't know.. just bare with me i guess” Kais’ only response was to nod in encouragement which somehow seemed to be the perfect response to spur her on. “I am not someone who comes to decisions easily or at a whim anymore so before i say anything i need you to know that i am 100% sure of everything i'm about to say to you, i'm not trying to play with your feelings or mess you about.” she took a breath before continuing “before i met you, before this whole project and Minnesota and you and your stupidly charming face” kai laughed at this “before all of that i was in a really weird place, id just split up with the father of my child but we were still in a weird purgatory of ‘will they wont they’ and i wasnt sure where i stood with a lot of things in my life. You know i don't drink and i won't go into details right now but there is a truck load of trauma there and i'm still working through it even now. But meeting you, being around you has been like this breath of fresh air” she looked up to their eyes to see if they were following and saw their eyes full of nothing but sheer love and adoration which gave her the strength she really needed to continue “it was like my head was SO far underwater and there you were to pull me straight back up to the surface”
“Poor choice of words” They quipped causing her to laugh.
They successfully stopped her rambling and only now did she realise that they had both completely stopped walking, she very carefully took hold of their hand and looked into their eyes. “What i'm trying to say is that i really like you Kai, like hop on a flight a week early just to hang out with you in the lab like you, and i don't really know where we go from here but i guess i just need you to know that i am in this if you are, i want us to try.”
Finally stopping her speech she focused back on their eyes to see a thin sheen of tears starting to appear, one making its way slowly down their cheeks. Hoping that they were tears of happiness she brought her hand up to their face to wipe it away with her thumb, leaving her hand cupping their jaw as they began to speak.
“You dont know how desperately i wanted to hear you say all of that” they smiled and leaned into her touch “screw trying, this is going to work. No ands ifs or buts. I am SO very much in this too, for as long as you'll have me” Wiping away one last tear Amelia pulled them into a brief soft kiss. Pulling away ever so slightly kai looked into her eyes and continued “And as for ‘where we go from here’ how about i take you out tonight, we can grab some dinner go for a walk, whatever that beautiful heart of yours desires?”
“That sounds perfect, Bartley,” they smiled at her returning to the use of their nickname.
“Ok then, we can figure it all out at the end of the day but right now there are a bunch of unsupervised lab techs hanging out with my wife so i think we should get back in there” Amelia let out a genuine laugh at this and took kais hand as they walked together back into the building
-----------------------------------