Lena's alarm rang at 6:30 the following morning, rousing Stef from her otherwise restful sleep. Stef rolled over and was surprised to find an empty, neatly made bed beside her, the sunlight streaming in through open curtains. Hitting the off button on the alarm, she noticed the time, and quelled the urge to shout.
"Lena?" She waited a beat and then, hearing no reply, rubbed her eyes and hauled herself out of bed. As she found her footing on the carpet, her bedroom door opened slowly. "Lena?" Her wife entered carrying a tray.
"Good morning sunshine," she said in a very uncharacteristic way, pushing the door closed behind her with her foot. "I've got coffee, eggs, and bacon for you here, and then it's time to get on the road." Stef, lost for words for the first time in her life, sat back down on the bed and accepted the offering.
"Why is it so early?" she finally managed in a cracking voice, quickly followed by a sip of coffee.
"The early bird gets the worm, you know," Lena informed her seriously.
"I'd rather stick to bacon," Stef wisecracked back, waving a piece of it.
"Just finish up and get dressed. I've got more coffee for in the car."
"Lena, where are we going? It's six am and I'm not up to games right now." She swallowed another gulp of coffee to prove it.
"It's a surprise, but I promise it'll be worth it, okay?" Lena leaned down and gave her a kiss, a slow, long, sweet kiss that was ready to build to something more right before she took her lips away. "I promise," she whispered, just inches from Stef's face. Stef shook her head, but she was powerless against her wife's charms.
Stef had dressed according to Lena's instructions in jeans ("the ones I love your butt in"), a flannel button-down, and walking boots. She climbed into the passenger seat of the car with no idea what was in store. Lena, meanwhile, was trying to verify that they had all the gear they needed before heading out. After her third time through the checklist in the trunk, she finally came up and put the key in the ignition.
"Hey," Stef said, catching her hand as she went to shift into reverse. "I love you."
"I love you too," Lena replied with a smile, turning to kiss her wife.
"So where are we going?" Stef asked with a sly grin.
"Hold your horses," Lena laughed, twisting around to check behind before she backed out of the driveway.
Out on the highway, she finally revealed the secret.
"Remember that pond you always went to with your dad? Outside the city in that little grove?"
Stef's eyes widened. "The fishing pond?" she clarified. "Lena, there's no way you're taking me there." She shook her head in amusement. Her partner was never one for fishing, as she saw it in the same line as hunting and anything else that hurt 'poor, defenseless animals.' Stef herself wasn't a hunter, but her father had taught her to fish and she loved the peaceful connection the sport provided them.
Lena shrugged. "You love to fish, and I love to make you happy," she said simply.
Stef felt a tear come to her eye at that. "You're a sap," she teased, but the squeeze and kiss she gave to Lena's hand was earnest.
Arrival at the pond was a bittersweet event, as Stef remembered pulling into this same dirt lot in her dad's rusty truck. Lena parked and they sat there for a moment in silence, holding hands, Lena holding space for Stef's grief. Eventually, though, Lena pulled away and climbed out of the car. She withdrew two fishing poles, a tackle box, and a yogurt container from the trunk and went around to Stef's side of the car.
"Honey, if you don't want to do this, we can go home. We could go somewhere else. We don't have to-" But Stef interrupted her.
"I can't believe you needed a checklist to remember three items." She winked, taking the yogurt container from under Lena's arm. "Is this bait?" She peeled the container open to see two dozen wiggling worms.
"I dug them up in the backyard this morning," Lena explained.
The two women walked down the path to the bridge where Stef and Frank had always fished from. Stef threaded a worm onto one of the hooks and handed the pole to Lena, who to her credit looked only faintly nauseated. She baited the second hook and cast, sighing with contentment at the gentle plop made when her bobber hit the water.
"Well?" she said, turning to Lena with one eyebrow raised. "You gonna cast or you gonna be a bump on a log?"
Raising her chin defiantly, Lena held up the pole. She screwed up her brow and flicked the pole over her shoulder and back again quickly, trying to imitate her partner's movements from moments before. The hook, however, caught the bridge rail behind her and all the tugging in the world wouldn't return it to her vision. Stef stifled her giggles as she reached over with one hand and freed the hook, guiding it back in front of them.
"I can do it," Lena said insistently. "That one was just a little... loose."
"Uh huh," Stef replied, biting her lip to quench her smile.
Lena tried again, this time flicking the hook so near to Stef's ear that she ducked in fear.
"Okay, honey, you never swing a sharp object around like that."
"I just lost control for a second," Lena protested, and this time she grabbed the hook in her hand and threw it bodily out into the water, where it landed with a splash. "There!" she said triumphantly, and Stef could only roll her eyes and chuckle.
They stood leaning against the wooden railing for several minutes, the sun hitting their faces gently, before anything happened. It was Lena's bobber that was flitting about in the water, and from the look of shock on her face, she was feeling the pull on the hook.
"Reel it in!" Stef said excitedly, but Lena did not heed this advice. Instead she opened her hands wide like a starfish and the pole slipped over the edge of the bridge, splashing in the water. With a gasp, Lena clapped her hands to her face.