So I felt super bad about ending That Light That's Still Inside You so abruptly and I finally finished a few little snippets of moments within the six month time jump between chapters 14 and 15. I hope you enjoy them. Thanks guys!
Love,
HJ
– Finally –
The sunlight falling in through the window woke Sara, and her immediate reflex was to stretch. If the soreness in all of her limbs hadn't served as a welcomed reminder of her perfect night, the warm body curled into her chest surely would have. When Sara's eyes opened, she was sure that she must have died and gone to heaven, because the first thing she saw was an angel sleeping peacefully beside her. Sara's heart felt like it was going to explode with all the love and happiness she felt; it had been so long since her heart had been bursting at the seams in order to accommodate anything but pain and fear. Her fingers brushed gently across Felicity's naked back and shoulders, and that was when she felt them.
They had been hidden by the darkness last night, and Sara had been otherwise preoccupied with ensuring her first time making love with Felicity was perfect, but with the morning sun now flooding the room with light, Sara could see them clear as day. The scars. The faint pink, raised scar tissue where there had been deep punctures and lacerations, burns that had been healed too quickly by the healing serum months ago and left shiny red skin as reminders, the hole from the very first bullet Felicity had ever taken for her which the Canary had stitched up herself. Sara felt a pang in her heart for all the risks Felicity had taken, all the pain she had gone through, and all the scars she had sustained for the sake of the heroes she thought of as her family; but seeing Felicity's peaceful face and the faint smile that glowed on her lips, even as she slept, Sara slowly realized that Felicity did not dwell on the sacrifices she had made– did not even really think of the things she had done as sacrifices at all. Felicity took the good with the bad, and she never looked back. Felicity had no regrets for the things she had done in the name of her loved ones, and, for that, Sara admired her even more, if that were even humanly possible.
As much as she hated to end the moment she found herself basking in, Sara knew instinctually that Felicity had probably forgotten to set the timer on their coffee pot to brew for this morning and that she would regret it when she woke up later if Sara didn't do it now. She kissed the corner of Felicity's mouth and lingered there for a moment, wondering in Felicity's warmth and wonderful scent, before she pushed herself up and got out of bed. Sara picked up the oversized MIT t-shirt that Felicity kept on the coat hanger on the back of the bedroom door and pulled it on over her head as she stepped out into the livingroom and padded softly into the kitchen.
. . .
Felicity woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and the chill of a warm breeze as it blew in through the open window and brushed against her bare skin. She felt impossibly happy as images of the night before played across her mind, and she felt her whole body heat up again as she thought about Sara and the new amazing things they had done together. The fact that their new nightly activities involved a lot less bloodshed and much more pleasurable cries was in and of itself enough to make her beam.
She breathed in deeply with her eyelids still closed from heaviness and turned to reach her arm across the bed to feel for her new . . . well, whatever Sara had become to her last night. She didn't want to assume that she was free to call Sara her girlfriend now, just because they had feelings for each other and had shared a particularly amazing night together; but the word 'lover' made it sound as if the feelings they had for one another were strictly sexual, and that wasn't the case. At least, it wasn't the case for Felicity. She would have to discuss it with Sara, but it seemed like Sara was on the same page with her.
The expanse of cool sheets that met her fingers instead of Sara's warm body caused Felicity's eyes to snap open and she sat up quickly. Her head swiveled around the room, searching for the woman she loved, but finding no sign of her. Just to be sure, Felicity lifted the sheet that was around her and . . . yup, she was definitely naked, and the lovebite on the right side of her breast was clear evidence that it hadn't just been a wishful dream (that was definitely not something she could have done to herself; she was so not even close to being that flexible. . . yet).
"Sara?" she called out hopefully.
Relief flooded through her when Sara appeared in the bedroom doorway not a minute later, wearing Felicity's favorite comfy t-shirt, and carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. The blonde scowled in a wonderfully endearing manner. In spite of her frown, Sara still looked dead sexy in Felicity's honest opinion; all long, bare legs and sex-mussed hair and tired, twinkling green eyes and morning-after glow.
"You were supposed to still be asleep," Sara pouted as she padded into the room to be closer to Felicity. "I was going to kiss you awake and hand you your coffee and you were going to think that I'm awesome."
Feeling all her anxiety from before leaving her body, Felicity laughed softly. She held her hands out and Sara, thinking that Felicity was asking for her coffee, handed her her favorite mug. Shaking her head, the tech turned and set the coffee on the table beside the bed and turned back to hold her hands out to Sara again. Sara gave her a perplexed look.
"You are awesome," Felicity told her, "and the coffee can wait. I want my kiss first." The answering grin that overtook Sara's face felt like a gift to Felicity.
The Canary was all too happy to oblige. She set her coffee aside and put one knee on the edge of the bed to lean forward and press her lips to Felicity's with an appreciative hum of approval. "Good morning," Felicity greeted her sweetly.
Sara's thumb caressed the girl's cheek with soft brushes as aqua eyes met peridot. "Good morning, baby," she replied, leaning in for another lingering kiss. "How did you sleep?" Sara asked when their lips parted once more. When she saw the stunned look that had come over Felicity's face, she became worried again. "What? What's wrong, baby?"
Felicity blinked, pulling herself from her astonishment. "You called me 'baby'," she pointed out obviously.
Sara looked stricken with realization and dread. "I'm sorry. I didn't even realize–" she began.
"No," Felicity rushed, her hand finding Sara's on the comforter, "it's not a bad thing." She bit her lip for a moment in sudden shyness. "I kind of love it, actually. I just . . ." Felicity trailed off, feeling like she would have been happier if she had just left well enough alone and waited for a better moment to have this discussion with Sara. Maybe it was too soon to talk about this. What if Felicity pushed and scared Sara away from her?
"Hey," Sara called to her through her reverie. She squeezed their joined hands and Felicity's eyes snapped back to hers. "It's okay to talk to me, Fliss. 'You just-' what? What were you going to say?" she prompted gently.
Felicity thought carefully about how best to phrase what was on her mind. "You say your heart is mine . . . and I'm more sure that my heart belongs to you than I've ever been about anything before in my life, Sara," Felicity said slowly, "so . . . where does that put us?"
Comprehension settled over Sara as she realized what Felicity was trying to ask her. "Well, I hope," Sara began, squeezing Felicity's hand in her own, "that it puts us together."
"So, if I were to . . . say . . call you my . . . girlfriend . . ?" Felicity stammered out.
"You would be making me the happiest that I've ever been," Sara told her.
"Really?" Felicity asked, as if she barely dared to believe it.
Sara smiled gently as she nodded, and pulled Felicity to lay down with her again. They looked at each other as Sara's fingers traced mindless patterns up and down Felicity's neck. "You know what I realized this morning as I was making coffee?" Sara prompted, catching Felicity's gaze and her attention. "We've been kind of like a couple for awhile now. We worry about each other, we put each other before ourselves, we do things for each other that we probably wouldn't do for anybody else, we trust each other completely, we take care of each other, we live with each other. You save a plate of food for me in the refrigerator because you know I won't eat otherwise and I make you coffee in the mornings because I know you can't function without it. I hold your hair back when you make the horrible mistake of drinking a little too much and you hold me all night when my past catches up to me in my nightmares. The only difference is that now we can do this" – Sara leaned into Felicity and captured her lips in a kiss that stole the breath from Felicity's lungs and left her feeling dizzy and senseless –"whenever we want to. We've been what we were meant to be – together – all along, and we didn't even realize it."
Felicity raised an eyebrow. "Coffee made you realize this?" she asked. The tech reached over and reclaimed her cup, taking a sip and sending Sara a tiny smirk over the brim. "See, I told you coffee makes you smarter."
"Which is why you're a genius," Sara joked back to her, "since you basically mainline caffeine."
"Essentially," Felicity agreed. After a moment she prompted, "So we're kind of a couple, huh?"
"No," Sara told her, causing Felicity's heart to drop for a moment before Sara finished, "We're definitely a couple. I'm yours and you're mine, and there's no 'kind of' about it."