Author's Note: I got the idea to do this from Artemis Rayne and NeoNails of the Covert Affairs fandom (if you watch the show, you should definitely be reading their stories). They use the Word of the Day to write unrelated one shots. I thought I'd give it a try. I will not be doing it every day. Mine will also be a day behind (this entry is for the July 14th word). I plan to bounce between M&M and Mayan. Whichever couple comes to mind when I read the word will be the focus of the story. I won't have them under the same story, though. So this set will contain M&M and I'll create another for Mayan.

In case you're wondering, the title is just because I've always thought they could/do have a deeper relationship than we get to see.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or the show. Things would be quite different if I was the sheriff over there.

July 14: usufruct (noun): the right to use the property of another as long as it isn't damaged.

There was no particular sound or movement that awakened Maxie. On the rare occasion that she got the perfect amount of sleep (nine hours and twenty minutes), she managed to wake up on her own. It seemed this was one of those few treasured mornings.

She stretched as much as she could without displacing the comforting weight of the arm around her. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined enjoying the simple feel of him as much as she did. Idly, she stroked her fingers down his arm and thought of the previous night's activities. A shiver went down her spine as she remembered it. The night before had been… earth shattering. Lately, her life had been stressful, to say the absolute least. Being taken hostage, shot at, and watching someone dear to her almost die…

It was a terrible set of events to have sitting on her mind and, frankly, she didn't understand how everyone else seemed to be handling it so well. Her only recourse had been to insert herself into the lives of her friends. As much as she truly believed Sam and Jason should get married, getting them to come to terms with that was almost equally important for the distracting qualities of the challenge. If she focused on them, she could avoid dealing with her own crap.

But Matt didn't let that go on for long. Following the results of the hospital investigation and subsequent changes at the medical institution, he sought her out. She'd come back from a picking up samples to find him waiting for her at her desk with her favorite chocolates. Somehow, he'd also managed to convince Kate to give her the rest of the night off and took her home with him. Maxie thought he would try to make her to talk about it, despite her prior denial that anything was wrong and insistence that she was fine. Instead, he merely asked - not forced, not demanded - her to open up to him. And she caved, letting out everything she'd been feeling. The lovemaking that followed was sweetly intense, almost bringing tears to her eyes. Round two, however…

Maxie felt Matt stir behind her, the reflexive tightening of his grip. She grinned while leaning over the edge of the bed, grabbing a discarded item from round two.

"Hey, you," Matt said, reaching to pull her back. "What are you doing?"

Turning in his embrace to face him, Maxie held the item up between them. "I just wanted to make sure I returned this in the condition it was loaned to me."

Matt opened his eyes to look at it and mirrored her grin, memories of the night before flashing in his mind as he took his stethoscope from her. Maxie leaned forward, kissing him with all the energy her full night's rest had restored. "Thanks for letting me be the doctor last night."

"Mm, anytime."

She promptly grabbed the instrument back from him. "In that case…"