She Penned my Dreams

Finished

Spencer

"Thanks again, Derek," I said, hugging my friend tightly.

"No problem, man," he said, grinning as he pulled back "The place is all yours." He clapped the keys into my hand, squeezing with another smile. "Expect us for breakfast, though, if Katie's up for it," he asked, looking around me.

"That sounds great," Katie said before reaching forward and taking my hand, pulling me towards the door. "Don't be early. We'll be up late."

Derek gave me a disbelieving smile.

"There's condoms and lube in the master bathroom," he offered with a shit-eating grin.

"Don't need 'em, but thanks," Katie answered for me, as my jaw was hanging open in shock at my friend. Katie took the keys from my hand to open the door. Derek shook his head at me, grinning still, as if he couldn't imagine how I'd gotten so lucky. I couldn't either.

Katie got the door open and dragged me inside, calling a final goodbye and thank you over her shoulder.

"So Morgan just has houses around the city? Are you sure you're FBI and not CIA or something else equally sketchy?" Katie asked, dropping my hand to look around the ground floor of the row house.

"He restores a lot of houses, it's a hobby of his," I said, following after her, still feeling vaguely shell shocked. I couldn't believe she was here.

"Well it's nice," she said, stopping her tour of the living room to turn and look at me. We stared at each other for a couple moments, as if we were both trying to convince ourselves that it was real. That we'd made it out the other side of this. That we were still here, together.

"C'mere," she said, voice quiet. I crossed the room in four long strides, wrapping her into a crushing hug. She wrapped her arms around me in turn, and we sunk down onto the plush couch. It was quiet as we clutched at each other, breathing hard, absorbing all that had happened in the past day, taking strength from one another.

"Where's Edgar?" she asked, pulling back to look at me.

"Mrs. Patterson has him," I answered, running a long-fingered hand through her tangled hair.

"And we can't go back to our apartment why?" she asked again, pouting beautifully at me.

"It's a crime scene," I answered her, again, with an indulgent smile on my face.

"Ugh," she said, tipping forward again to bury her face in my chest. "I just want to be home." I rubbed a soothing hand up and down her back, pleased to have her, alive and breathing, under my hands again.

"Well, I don't know about you," I began. "But I am home now."

She looked at me, eyes shining in the dim light from the streetlights outside.

"God, I love you," she said, voice cracking with the intensity of it.

"I love you, too," I returned, joyful tears budding in my eyes. I cupped her head in my hands and pulled her into me, kissing her, hard and grateful and gentle and chaste and desperate.

"It feels like a lifetime since I kissed you this morning," she said with a stressed laugh brushing over my cheek.

"For me, too," I agreed. "I was so worried." She nodded her head, pulling me in to kiss her again. I did, slowly and carefully, before pulling away. "A lot happened to you today, it's gonna take a long time to fully process all of it." She nodded again, hands running through my hair. "I think we should both see someone, you know, to talk about this, professionally."