Rating: PG

Spoilers: Episdoe 6x02 "Last Night Gus"

Notes: The first in a series of stories written for older_not_dead promptathon 9 that take place over the course of season 6.

Prompt: ?. ?/?. Awakening

Disclaimer: This is a work of fictional parody in no way intended to infringe upon the rights of any individual or corporate entity. Any and all characters or celebrity personae belong to their rightful owners. Absolutely no money has or will be gained from this work. Please do not publicly link, repost or redistribute without letting me know first.

Written: 5/2012

She didn't say a word about it until she was driving Henry home, catching glances of him on the passenger side of the sedan with one damp towel wrapped around his drying shoulders and another around his waist – watching him look anywhere but at her.

"Do you remember anything about what happened last night?" She asked casually, looking back to the road.

He shook his head, his words coming out a low croak; "No. Not a damn thing after the bar until I woke up at the hotel." He couldn't believe how scared he'd been when thought he actually hired a call girl – which was not only illegal, but sleazy as hell. And sadly, it'd been his first thought… what did that say about him?

"No flashes of anything, maybe the donut place? Or did you check your phone and see if you made any calls?"

Even hung over and ready to crawl into bed with a big bottle of aspirin and an even bigger bottle of water, he got loud and clear what Karen was asking. "Battery's dead, guess I called you, huh?"

"Yeah," she replied; "a few times, actually. It was sort of a long message."

For a long moment, he didn't respond and when he did it was to ask; "How bad was it?"

Karen laughed under her breath; "Uh… well, I guess that depends." She shook her head and pulled into his driveway before retrieving her cell phone from her purse and queuing up her voicemail.

You have zero new messages. Four saved messages…

Of course she'd saved them. "Karen, I…"

"No, no – it's only fair you hear the evidence being presented against you."

Message one; twelve twenty-three am.

The recording clicked and they could hear loud noise in the background. "Karen… Karen…." Henry's voice slurred; "This is Henry. Uh, Henry Spencer. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. I jus' had a revelation!"

Several voices laughed on the recording and the heard Lassiter's voice in the background; "You tell her, Spencer! Tell her that you… you are a beautiful human being and if she doesn't leave that loser husband that's never around…"

In the car, Henry groaned audibly just as his own voice cut in; "Shut up, I'm talkin' to the lady I love here… Anyway, Karen. You make me feel…"

Shawn's voice in the background sang; "Like a nat-u-ral woman!"

"God damnit, shut up Shawn. I'm being serious here!"

End of message. Message two, twelve forty-six am.

"Sorry babe, I had to get away from those jokers… where was I? Crap… I don't remember. Anyway, what I was calling you to do is say that you are…" he hiccupped loudly and barely concealed a burp; "You are amazing and you make me feel like a million bucks and like I'm alive and waking up for the first time on a Sunday afternoon… Like a… like a… a ray of… uh, damn it. I don't know. You know what I mean."

As they listened, Henry sighed audibly; "God, Karen… I'm sorry I made an ass of myself."

"Oh, it gets better…" she replied.

The next message had started; "I love you… I honestly love you…" Henry sang drunkenly over the recording; "You don't have to answer… I can see it in your eyes…"

"Please make it stop." Henry reached for the phone only to have his hand batted away. Wisely, Karen skipped the remainder of the song to the next message.

Message four, two thirty-two am.

"Christ Karen, look… maybe I'm way too drunk to be calling right now… but I needed to say this. Maybe the scotch woke me up or I don't… Damn it, okay. I love you. G'night." And then a rusting sound was followed by silence until they could hear the shallow, raspy breaths of Henry's drunken sleep.

Karen ended the call and looked at him with an almost curious expression. "So, you were pretty inebriated there."

"Karen, I swear to you, that will never happen again." Henry couldn't even bring himself to look at her, a deep red blush coloring from his neck, up behind his ears across the top of his head. "I was drugged."

"Well, obviously you thought you had some sort of awakening… I mean, I never thought you were the kind of guy that would call singing Olivia Newton-John songs on my voicemail after midnight. This is the first time I've heard anything about this."

Henry groaned and attempted to open the door only to have Karen hit the safety locks. "Karen, I'm humiliated, okay? I don't want to talk about being an idiot."

"Fine, then don't. But I'm not opening the doors until you tell me what's going on."

Forcing himself to look at her, Henry replied; "What do you want from me, Karen? Last night's Henry apparently thought that he was having some mind blowing awakening and thought it would be a bright idea to call you and fill you in on it. Today's Henry thinks I'm an idiot."

She looked down at the console between them and after a moment's hesitation asked; "Is it true? Are you in love with me?"

A small, awkward and nearly frightened sound escaped his throat only to be quelled by a loud grunt. "Karen, I… look, I know what the situation is, okay? You're married, you've got a little kid and… you're my boss. I'm not allowed to even think about that sort of thing and it was way out of line for me to call you while I was drinking."

"You didn't answer my question, Henry. Do you… love… me?"

He sighed and looked back to the window, shifting uneasily in his towel. "We both know how I get when I drink. I say things that I've got no right saying."

"But you never lie." Karen tentatively reached across the console, letting her hand rest on the damp towel against his thigh.

"Yeah, well… for what it's worth."

"Would you just answer the damn question, Henry?"

"Fine," he shot back, turning toward her; "I guess… yeah. Yeah, I might. All right? I know it can't happen and I can deal with that so you don't need to put me through that whole 'let him down easy' speech. I get it."

Karen's fingers curled in the terrycloth and then, unexpectedly, she leaned forward and silenced him with kiss. For a moment, they were both frozen – lips pressed together as though waiting for the other to panic and call it off, and then Henry's tongue swept across her lower lip and it was all right. She opened to him, leaning closer with her elbow braced against the steering wheel as he unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed toward her. It could have been an hour in that simple moment, but they both broke when her arm slipped and caught the horn – emitting a tiny 'beep'.

"Oh boy," Henry sighed; "Look, Karen… I'm sorry…"

"I kissed you, Henry. You have nothing to be sorry about. I was just… I wanted to figure something out."

"Yeah?"

She nodded; "Yeah."

"Well, did you?" He sat back in the seat, red-faced and having difficulty looking her in the eyes.

Slowly, she nodded; "Maybe I did."

Another silent moment lingered between them and then she unlocked the doors. "I'll, uh… I'll see you in the morning, Henry. You should probably get some rest… you've had a hell of a day."

"Yeah, I have." He watched her, waiting for something more, and then leaned in to kiss her again, only to catch her cheek and a clump of blonde hair.

"Good night, Henry."