Sunlight breaking through gaps in the curtains, cast a delicate glow upon the sleeping figures in bed. The alarm had yet to pull them from their slumber and force them to start a new day of crime fighting. Slight movements of their chests indicating slow and deep breathing were the only markers that they were in fact alive as they had yet to move from the position they had fallen asleep in the night before, watching the latest movie release on DVD.
The change in breathing rate from one of the beds inhabitants, suggest that they would be the first of the pair to wake from the refreshing slumber. Shifting slightly she moved her head from where it had been resting, using his shoulder as a pillow, to survey the room and shake the last tendrils of sleep from which her brain was still clinging to. After checking the alarm clock to see just how long she had until her day began and she had to strap on a badge and gun to become a hardnosed Detective for another day of crime solving, devoid of emotions, as in her line of work emotions complicate and twist things until you can't see the truth and the truth is the one thing she searches for day in, day out.
Seeing that she had plenty of time she relaxed back into her original position, with her head on his chest and her arm slung across his abdomen, where she traced intricate little shapes baring no meaning, as the soothing beat of his heart under her ear lulled her into a dozing state, not quite asleep and not quite awake.
The light brush of her fingers on his bare skin slowly but surely brought him out of his sleep and into the new day, where anything could happen, to disrupt their little bubble of happiness. Tilting his head so he could look down into the eyes, that make him continuously fall in love with her all over again, especially in their shared mornings together, when it is just them, no expectations, no jobs just the calm security of being together in every sense of the word.
"Hey" He whispered, trying not to break the peaceful atmosphere surrounding their usual morning greetings.
"Mornin'" She replied as she leaned up to steal a kiss, just like every morning, not that she had to ever be bothered about stealing a kiss, as he would readily kiss her every second of every minute of every day, if he was given the chance. Saying what he feels but can't be translated by simple words, as words would be inadequate to express the depth them, so he lets his actions prove to her every single time, saying without words, things she already knows. She replies the same using her actions rather than words to explain and put a label on what they feel towards one another.
Parting due to the need for oxygen, a design fault that both of them were sure of. They retreated to their original position, not yet to be disturbed by the ringing of the alarm clock signalling the return back to a routine, which consisted of getting up, going to work, barely seeing each other all day, coming home, eating dinner and falling asleep preparing for the next day when they would repeat that with the end result of catching a killer.
Both slowly started to doze off, as it was still too early to get out of bed and to start getting ready for work. They let the warmth the covers created and the security of knowing the other was holding onto them and drifted off into the land of dreams once again.
Downstairs however was another matter as it would appear a certain blonde haired woman's mother had decided that she had not seen enough of her daughter and had driven from Louisiana to Miami to spend the weekend with her only daughter as her sons had had quite enough of her over the last month.
That's right Christina Duquesne had come to Miami and she was about to uncover just what her daughter had been hiding for the past year, what was so important that she had failed to come home for Christmas, even Kenwall had found the time to make the trip and they weren't even on speaking terms since the 3rd divorce.
Being sneaky, or as sneaky as you can be whilst entering a Police Officer's home, she entered the property to find that the place was still dark and that her daughter was nowhere to be found, when usually she was up at the crack of dawn, out running or having been called out early to go process a scene. After dumping her bags on the couch, she went off in search of the kitchen and good strong cup of coffee to shake off the last vestiges of sleep. Once finding the kitchen she set about at her task only to notice that the washing up had been left on the counter, waiting for someone to come, clean the plates, and side them away.
So whilst she waited for the coffee machine to finish brewing she filled the sink up with water and clean the plates, before returning them to cupboards. Hearing the beeping, which signalled the coffee, had been made and was ready to reenergize her. Christina hurried with the last few utensils, which she was drying; retrieving a mug from the cupboard above the machine, she filled it to the brim with steaming coffee. Taking the cup, she followed her original path through the house and seated herself on the couch after moving her bags to the floor besides her.
Settling herself in for the wait, as she knew her daughter would turn up eventually and not that she didn't want to check out the rest of the condo, it just didn't sit right with her to go and snoop through things that didn't belong to her. Instead, she swiped the TV remote and flipped through the channels, not bothered with how high the volume was as she figured that her daughter had gone out for her morning run.
Back in the bedroom, Eric sleepily wiped a hand over his face before looking down at the angel still asleep on his chest. Seconds later the alarm clock started to ring. Annoyed at the intrusion he slapped his hand down on top of it, to stop it from ripping into the silence of the room.
Checking to see that the alarm clock had not woken Calleigh he slipped out from underneath her and padded into the ensuite bathroom. Intending to wake Calleigh up once, he had finished in the shower.
Unfortunately, for Eric when he had moved from the bed, the slight movements and the shifting of the mattress woke Calleigh up, from a rather nice dream about her and Eric on a beach with no one else around for miles. Sighing to herself, Calleigh stayed in bed for the next 5 minutes going through the events of the night before, when she heard the television playing in the living room and after going through her memories of the night before she remembered quite clearly that Eric turned off the television before he joined her in bed.
After deciding to investigate, she slipped from the warmth of the bed, shivering as the cool morning air hit her bare skin she grabbed for one of Eric's dress shirts laying on the floor closest to the bed.
Slipping it on, she exited the bedroom, walked quietly and cautiously so if there were someone in the house intending on robbing her, they would be shocked when she entered the room. Moving swiftly towards the draw where she kept her off duty firearm, cocking it and closing the draw she moved through the lowers levels of the house with the gun firmly trained in front of her, ready for anything that appear before her.
Meanwhile in the lounge Christina had heard the shower running upstairs so she had turned off the TV and had retraced her steps back into the kitchen intent on pouring herself another cup of coffee. With her back turned away from the kitchen door she failed to see Calleigh walk in with her gun drawn, pointing straight at her. Finishing with the coffee machine, she turned around, came face to face with the barrel of Calleigh's gun, and let out an almighty scream.
"ARGH" Causing Calleigh to jump, the person in front of her and the one she thought was trying to rob her, turned out to be her Mother, who couldn't have picked a more awkward time to turn up on her doorstep at 7am, on a Wednesday morning.
Dropping the gun and placing it on the side Calleigh leaned against the worktop and started laughing at the absurdity of the situation.
It would seem however that Christina didn't find the funny side of the predicament she had gotten herself into. Leaning down she picked up the pieces of the mug she had broken just seconds earlier.
"Mother what are you doing here?" Calleigh asked once she had gotten her laughing under control.
"Well I came to visit my daughter, who I haven't seen in over a year, but look what I was greeted with, instead if a good old fashioned hello, I get a gun in my face and my daughter laughing at me." Christina ranted as she got the dustpan and brush to sweep up the remaining broken pieces of mug, before she got a cloth and wiped up the spilt liquid.
"Sorry Mother, but what do you expect when I wake up and the TV playing to itself, when I know for a fact it got turned off last night." Calleigh said as she hopped into the worktop to avoid the broken mug and coffee on the floor.
"Well excuse me for wanting to know what you are up to when I haven't spoken to you in 2 months and haven't seen you in 15." Christina replied as she went back to her task of pouring another cup of coffee one for her and one for Calleigh.
"I told you work's been busy, it's hard to get away at the moment, the public seem to think it's killing season, which makes my job even tougher to do, especially when I have to process a scene with multiple fatalities and make sure I have all the ballistic evidence processed for all outstanding cases not just my own." She bit back not quite liking where her Mother was going with her little dramatic act.
Leaning back against the worktop Christina handed Calleigh her cup of coffee before taking a sip of her own, all the while taking in her appearance, noting that she was wearing a man's dress shirt instead of her usual silk dressing gown.
"So, what's his name?" She asked knowing that if she didn't now Calleigh would clam up and it would take ages for her to even get some kind of answer on the subject.
"Who?" She said trying to act innocent, not knowing what she was on about, but if the look on her face was anything to go by then she knew that there was new man was in her daughter's life; however, what she didn't know is that this man was the forever kind of man, the kind that you take home to meet your family and start your own family with, the kind of man that would do everything so you wouldn't have, the kind of man that makes it easy to fall in love and stay in love for years to come.
"Don't you 'Who' me young lady. Whom does that shirt belong to and don't give me that 'I don't know what you are talking about' look. I know that there is someone here because the shower is still running and you are down here, so it can't be you in there can it." Christina said with a smug look on her face, quite proud that she had managed to outsmart her daughter, on this matter anyway.
What they didn't know was that Eric had heard the scream coming from downstairs and he had leapt from the shower, leaving it still running, hoping that that would give him the element of surprise against whoever had managed to break into his and Calleigh's home. Quickly he dried himself off and slipped on a pair of boxers and jeans, before retrieving his service pistol from the nightstand on his side of the bed.
Taking a direct route towards the kitchen where he suspected the scream had come from, stepping quietly and quickly using the advantage he gained from going bare foot on the hardwood flooring. Entering the kitchen he wasn't prepared for the site that greeted him; Calleigh sat on the worktop, cup of coffee in hand, wearing the shirt he'd been wearing the day before talking to an older woman who looked exactly like Calleigh but at least 20 years older.
What he failed to notice as his eyes had yet to leave Calleigh, was the look of appreciation that crossed Christina's face when he walk in the shirtless and in the very same fashion as Calleigh, gun drawn. Giving Christina the impression that he was also a Police Officer, more to the point though she had found the answer to her question of whom did the shirt belong to and why Calleigh was sporting a rather large, fresh hickey, on her right collarbone.
"So you're what she's been hiding away."