Mornings Like This (Fanfiction)
She drifted in and to the surface of deep sleep, but never opened her eyes. Every once in awhile she roused, a wisp of thought or confusion marking her brow, and she adjusted herself, usually in the direction of snuggling in closer to the warm body next to her. Erica Hahn never woke up, not once, the entire night, a feat she had not accomplished since a sleeping-pill-induced heavy hibernation six months prior. Her subconscious was, in short, very okay with this.
Who was more than okay with it? The warm body next to Erica, generally known (by those who didn’t have the lovely opportunity to snuggle her) as Callie Torres.
“God, you’re beautiful,” Callie murmured quietly, sweeping a curly lock of hair from her bed partner’s peaceful, sunrise-lit face. She rested comfortably on one elbow, the object of her warm attention ensconced in the sheets and Callie’s body, just inside the crook of her right arm. Sure, her arm was going a little numb, but she couldn’t bring herself to shift the sleeping figure, dreaming quietly and carefully next to her. Erica’s eyes shifted beneath their soft lids for a moment, then stilled. Callie continued to stroke the soft curve of the side of Erica’s rounded face with the back of her hand, happy to not have to control the smile that pressed into the far corners of her face. She was sure that Erica would blush and turn aside, to see Callie looking at her like she was. It wasn’t a hungry look, like the one that had led them down the road to their current position, but a gentle…loving look. Could she really think around that four-letter word already?
“Pssh,” Callie huffed, shrugging her shoulders slightly to herself. After so many weeks, near months, leading up to this, one could hardly argue that they had acted in any sort of haste. To top it, they hadn’t even rounded all the bases, as promised - although Callie very well may have been guilty of stealing third, they hadn’t slid past home yet. And yet… Callie still felt like they’d hit one out of the park. She had the Babe Ruth of homeruns in her arms, she knew it, and it felt…so…right.
It wasn’t because Erica was a woman. It wasn’t just because they’d started as friends. It was because Erica was right for her. They fit, literally and figuratively. And Callie, so tired of being the freak, was intoxicated by the feeling of belonging that holding Erica gave her. She could hold Erica, and Erica would hold her. That pretty much encapsulated it, in Callie’s mind.
Suddenly the alarm sounded, but neither of them was jarred. Erica slid smoothly out of sleep to consciousness, eyes slowly and smoothly opening. Were they always that misty and blue? Callie marveled. Erica took a deep breath, closing away those blue diamonds for another moment, and her hand came up to rest over the one cupped on her cheek. When she opened her eyes she blushed warmly, quite on cue, at Callie’s revealing eyes and gentle smile. Callie reached over and turned off the alarm without disturbing their embrace.
“Mmm… been up long?” Erica asked in a voice even rustier than usual, covering her delighted embarrassment with a groggy little yawn, and curled in closer to Callie. Callie wrapped her, as she’d wanted to for the past hour, more completely in her arms and kissed the top of her head. Emboldened by the previous night, and the fact that Erica couldn’t see her face, she said:
“Only long enough to feel incredibly grateful for the disaster that was my personal life, because… it got me here. With you.”
Callie could feel the giddy smile spread across Erica’s lips against her neck.
“I can’t say my personal life has been a disaster,” Erica began, “But then I can’t really say it existed at all so… “ Her warm breath stuttered over Callie’s skin and Callie waited, her own breath caught in her throat. “So…” Erica started again, nervously, “Same here, Torres.”
To hell with the alarm. For their first morning together, Callie could deal with being a little late. And since Erica didn’t stir, Callie guessed she could deal with it too.
Both of them thought they could deal with a lot more mornings like this one. As they shimmied to a perfectly agreeable and comfortable integration of limbs, they were silently sure of it.
Maybe they could deal with mornings like this… forever.