Better Than Pillows
The sun was streaming through the gauzy white curtains in their bedroom when Calleigh's eyes fluttered open, then closed tightly as the brightness momentarily blinded her. Groaning softly, she rolled over, grabbing a pillow to cover her head and blot out the sunlight as she sank further within the soft covers. Minutes later, feeling not quite comfortable, she turned the pillow under her head over and buried her face in the cool softness. And it was mere moments later when she turned again, still not comfortable enough to find sleep, sleep her body felt like it desperately needed. With a sigh of frustration, she slowly opened her eyes and squinted at the red numbers on the alarm clock.
Green eyes opened a little wider at the time, seven thirty-three. Cursing the fact that she had thin white curtains over her windows instead of sunlight-blocking darker and thicker curtains, she groaned and turned her head to look in the other direction... and discovered the reason she couldn't get comfortable. She was alone. More specifically, Eric wasn't in bed next to her.
Knowing that it was Sunday, that they didn't have to work and weren't on call, and didn't have anything pressing to do that day, she sighed heavily and rolled back over, fluffing her pillow before laying her head on it once again, intent on getting more sleep. Fatigue swamped her often these days, sending her to bed earlier than usual, and sometimes causing her to sleep later than she normally would. Much to even Eric's surprise, she'd fallen asleep on the couch before nine o'clock the night before. Of course, that might have been due to both of them having been called in the day before to work a particularly nasty home invasion that resulted in a triple homicide, and many, many spent casings. Well, Eric had been called to the scene, she'd been called into the Ballistics Lab.
After ten minutes of more tossing and turning, Calleigh finally decided to give up that ghost and wearily got out of bed, not even bothering with her robe as she went in search of her other half.
Eric looked up from the newspaper he was reading when he heard Calleigh's soft footfalls against the carpeted floor, smiling at the utterly adorable look of grumpy sleepiness on her face. "Good morning, Beautiful" he greeted her as he took in her sleep-tousled blonde hair, her lavender chemise that sat slightly askew across her chest, affording him a wonderful view of her recently enhanced cleavage, and the way her lips turned into a slight frown as she trudged across the room and plopped down unceremoniously next to him.
"G'morning," she mumbled, accent even deeper with sleep, as she laid her head on his thigh and brought her legs up onto the couch so she could curl up against him. He smiled down at her as he switched the newspaper he'd been reading into one hand and watched her re-position her head further back on his thigh, into the crook where thigh met hip, and nuzzle her face into his thigh before sighing deeply and closing her eyes.
"Couldn't sleep?" Eric questioned as he bent to press a kiss to her temple, then chuckled as Calleigh's soft snort of derision and a grumpy "no, you left" reached his ear. She was usually a morning person, up with the sun, and sometimes earning a snort of derision from him when he felt she was just a little too cheery a little too early in the morning. But lately, that morning person took a hike in favor of the middle-of-the-day-person that was just a little grumpy in the morning. It didn't bother him though, because he thought Grumpy Calleigh was just as adorable as Happy Calleigh, and he had the pleasure of turning the grumpy into happy, and all it usually took was...
Eric whispered an apology and dropped the newspaper in favor of drawing his fingers through her soft hair and allowing his other hand to caress across her shoulder, skipping over the thin strap to skim softly down her arm, briefly clasping her fingers before coasting over her hip and down her thigh until his fingers grazed bare skin, and then moving slowly back up her side to her ribs, and finally around the curve of her breast before his large palm settled warmly over her slightly rounded belly.
By now Calleigh's lips were curved into a smile, and the crease of unhappiness between her eyes was gone. She lifted her hand off his thigh to stifle a yawn just as Eric bent to brush his lips across her cheek. "Sleep, Babe," he implored her as he continued his affectionate ministrations. "When you wake up I'll make you pancakes."
The accent he loved so much drifted upward to his ears, a soft and sweet "With strawberries?" as he reached for the throw blanket on the back of the couch and tucked it around her gorgeous body, hand once again taking its rightful place over her four-months pregnant belly. Pancakes had been her chief craving for the past two months, and he took a certain delight in watching her eyes light up when he made them for her - which was several mornings a week these days.
"With strawberries," he confirmed as his fingers kept up their gentle strokes across her temple and into her hair. Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed once more in utter contentment before succumbing to sleep, the only sound in the room her soft rhythmic breathing. All she'd needed to sleep was his presence, and that was better than any pillow on her bed.