And those mornings come up where you're not necessarily in love with that thing next to you, you know. - Téa Leoni
Elizabeth slowly opened her eyes to find the room still in complete darkness. Her eyes tried to adjust, the only light given by the moon in the clouded night sky. She lay completely still for a couple of minutes remembering the events of last night and trying to find out if her husband was sleeping in bed next to her without having to turn. She looked at the clock and a groan slipped her mouth. She still had one hour of sleep before she had to get up and make herself look presentable for work. After five minutes of starring art the ceiling she finally turned to face Henry's side of the bed, but he had his back turned to her. "Of course, he had." She thought to herself. "You basically screamed at him and told him to man up. I would be mad at me too." Elizabeth could tell he was awake as well by the tension of his body and the sound of his breathing. She slowly scooted closer to him and rested her hand lightly on his back but he didn't show any reaction. Elizabeth waited for a moment before she decided she was better off with returning to her side of the bed. She pulled her hand away but before she could turn to lie on her back, Henry moved to finally face her and took her hand in his. They both looked at each other in silence, the unspoken words between them.
Elizabeth shut the door to the freezer and turned to Henry in disbelief.
"Are you seriously accusing me here?" She yelled at Henry.
"No, I just suggested..." Elizabeth interrupted him.
"It's not my fault there was a situation with a terrorist group and I sure as hell didn't like it, but it is my job to be there."
"Babe, I know that. But it would be nice to have you here from time to time. Not just for me but the kids." Henry tried to sound reasonable to her.
"Don't babe me! Don't you think I miss my babies? Of course I do, but we had to make a choice and you said you were fine with doing the house chores. So please stop complaining!"
"I'm not complaining!" Henry raised his voice. "I just said it would be nice to have you home for dinner so we can spend some time together as a family."
"Well, it's not really my choice, is it? I can't just leave work whenever I want!"
"But you could make an effort to make it home for dinner instead of throwing yourself into work. I know you're good at what you do, but I'm asking you to cut back a little. Would that be so bad?" Henry looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Of course it would be wonderful to be here for dinner with all of you, but this is not how it works. If I don't throw myself into work and make sure that our intelligence knows about every possible danger you won't have the perks of carelessly enjoying dinner with the kids anymore."
"That is not fair!"
"No it isn't. The world is not fair. So please, man up and get over out!" She yelled at him before leaving to go to their bedroom, clashing the door loudly behind her. She quickly showered and got ready for bed, hoping that she would fall asleep before Henry went to bed.
Elizabeth finally broke the silence feeling horrible the way she acted.
"I'm so sorry for what I said. I know that working and taking care of the kids is just as hard as my job. And I..." She got interrupted.
"It's fine. You were stressed out and so was I and we should have discussed it some other time. I know how important your work is but I just miss you. I miss us. We barely spend time together except from sleeping in the same room. The kids constantly ask about you and I don't know what to say. I love you and I love that you're good at what you do but I love having you here with me even more." He gave her a wary smile and squeezed her hand.
"I love you too. And you are absolutely right. I should be home more often, at least for dinner. Yesterday was just a crazy and exhausting day and I couldn't deal with any discussions anymore. I'm sorry I took that out on you. I promise you from now on I'll make an effort to show up for you and the kids. Even if that means I have to ditch the CIA." She grinned at him and he returned it. Moving closer together, they kissed slowly and Elizabeth knew that the silence between them was broken.
"So what are we going to do now? We still have..." She looked at her alarm clock on the nightstand. "Forty minutes until I have to get ready."
"Well, I have an idea..." Henry smirked and rolled them so he lay on top of her, pressing his body against her.
" Have you?" She imitated his flirty tone and caressed his cheek.
"Well, yeah, I'm working on it." He leaned down to kiss her again, but this time it was full of passion and love showing her exactly what he had in mind. Elizabeth was more than happy with that and slowly began undressing him, wanting to touch his skin and feel him as close as possible.
"Admit it, you only want me home earlier so we actually have enough energy to have sex more often." Elizabeth joked while he was nibbling her ear.
"That might be one of the reasons..." He responded before moving down her body. Elizabeth knew she really had to make an effort and show up for him, but for now she couldn't concentrate on anything else but his touch on her.