Day 18

The next morning Lena rolled into work a Venti Latte in hand. She wasn't at all sorry she'd only gotten four hours of sleep the night before – not that it was sustainable, because it definitely wasn't. But for now, it was totally worth it, and she was going to make the most of the next twelve days, sleep be damned.

Striding into her office, Lena settled into her morning routine, switching on her computer and pulling up her file of students who wanted transfers to accommodate complicated schedules and maximum Advanced Placement courses. Twenty minutes later, mired in the data, Lena drained the last of her coffee and sadly tossed it into the trash while stifling another yawn when a knock at her door interrupted.

"Come in," Lena called out and just avoided an audible sigh when Monte entered her office.

"Are you ready to discuss Timothy's enrollment plan?" Lena asked in full professional work mode.

"Chavez called," Monte shared.

"They did?" Lena asked, shocked. "What did they want? What did you say to them?"

"They loved you. Obviously." Monte said, "And I told them that they'd be lucky to have you."

Relieved, Lena fell back into her chair, "Thank you."

"Is this really what we've come to?" Monte asked. "We were friends."

"Were we?" Lena asked with a hint of bite.

"I can't help…"

"Yes, you could have. You are my boss. You should have helped it."

Monte looked like she wanted to argue further, but wilted under Lena's steady gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

That evening, Lena carried her groceries into the kitchen, set the bags on the island and immediately took out the bottle of champagne and stuck it in the fridge to chill. Then she pulled out the large, cut up chicken she'd purchased and set to work. Her plans were more elaborate than typical of a Monday dinner. She was making fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, Stef's favorite. She'd even bought a pie for dessert. Her conversation with Monte had left a sour taste in her mouth. What the hell had she been playing with? Lena couldn't honestly answer that question. Whatever it was, any desire she had to even speak with Monte outside of work had completely evaporated. Monte may have completely overstepped, but Lena finally realized that she'd given her power she never should have had.

Setting to work, Lena turned on the stove to heat up the iron skillet and began putting together the flour mix. She was just dropping the first piece into the sizzling skillet when Stef entered the kitchen, still in uniform. Stef caught sight of the chicken and grinned, walking up behind her wife and wrapping her arms around her from behind, nuzzling her neck, "You really do love me, don't you?"

Lena smiled softly and turned to meet Stef's eyes, "I really do." she said.

Stef's eyes warmed and they shared a brief kiss before she pulled back. "Let me go clean up."

Stef and Lena took the champagne bottle with them to their bedroom, and Stef slowly sipped from her glass as she waited for Lena to come out of the bathroom.

These past couple weeks had found them eschewing their standard flannel, more often than not in favor of simply naked. But this evening Stef had kept on her matching red bra and boy shorts, and Lena was changing into something slightly less comfortable from her lingerie collection.

The bathroom door finally opened and Lena stepped out in a white lace plunged neck teddy body suit that Stef most definitely didn't recall seeing before.

"You look beautiful." She declared as she threw back the sheets on Lena's side of the bed.

Lena slowly walked over and crawled onto the bed and over to her wife.

"You think so?" Lena teased.

"Me and everyone else on the planet," Stef joked as she leaned in for a kiss, but was thwarted by Lena's frown and sudden hand on her chest, holding her back.

"I don't care about anyone else." Lena said firmly. Because she truly didn't, the only person she wanted to see her as beautiful was her wife, but sometimes…

"Do you really still think I'm beautiful?" Lena asked.

Stef was flabbergasted. "Lena, everyone…"

"I'm not taking a poll," Lena replied. "Or maybe I am taking a poll. It's a poll of one. Stef, I know you love me. I do," Lena assured. "But if you didn't, if you saw me walking down the street…"

"In that? I might have to arrest you," Stef teased.

"Stef, I'm asking you, if you didn't know me. Would you still wanna…"

"What? Fuck you?" Stef asked.

"Yes," Lena said simply. No one had ever loved her the way Stef did. No one had made her feel so safe and seen, truly seen, and loved. But at the same time, there were occasions where she felt invisible in a way that maybe shouldn't matter after so many years together, and yet sometimes, it most definitely did.

For some reason all Stef could hear was Jenna, clear as day, teasing her that Stef having the most gorgeous woman on the planet was a complete waste. It wasn't like Stef was blind. She knew Lena was beautiful. But she was so much more than a body. Even before she'd kissed her that very first time, she'd felt protective. She'd heard the comments from some of the PTA parents for god's sake. And as she'd struggled with her own feelings, if anything Lena's looks had been a distraction. She'd fallen in love with Lena because she was kind and smart and funny not because she was hot…even if that'd been the first thing out of her mother's and just about everyone's mouths.

Stef's ongoing silence made Lena uncomfortable, and so she smiled slightly and tried to deflect, "I'm clearly being an idiot."

"You're not an idiot," Stef said with a mild snort. Which meant that the only idiot here was herself.

So she looked at Lena, not as her wife, the mother of her children, the person she knew better than anyone on the planet, but simply as the beautiful woman she so clearly was. She felt desire begin to pool, and then she laughed.

"Hey!" Lena objected.

"Love, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at me. I was tongue-tied enough the first day we met when I was still desperately pretending to be straight. If I were meeting you now? You'd probably end up dumping your drink in my lap to cool me off."

Lena's tension drained away and she smiled at the thought, "And if I did?"

"I'd order you another one to pour over my head. Who am I to deny you the chance to taste it off of my body?" Stef exaggerated the punch line with an elevated brow and Lena sputtered before breaking into full-throated laughter.

God, she loved her wife. Stef's humor had always done it for her. Although, she thought as took in her wife in her red bra and boy shorts, her rocking body sure didn't hurt.

Stef took a sip of her champagne while Lena looked on thoughtfully, and before thinking better of it Lena grabbed her own glass and slowly poured its contents down Stef's chest to pool in her stomach.

"Lena!"

Lena ignored Stef's mild outrage and leaned over and kissed her soundly, tasting the champagne from Stef's lips and then followed the path down her neck and chest to lap the juices off of Stef's tight abs. Stef arched her back and when that didn't direct her wife lower, she grabbed her own glass and spilled the last bit decidedly lower which did the trick nicely.

Day 19

The next morning Stef purposely jumped into Lena's shower and gave her wife a slow once over. Lena smiled back, but held up her hand in warning, "Stef, you know I love you and always want you, but I've got exactly 20 minutes before I have to be out the door so I can sign my new contract."

Stef accepted this with good grace as she grabbed the soap and began washing up, "I just thought I'd enjoy the view," she said cheekily, and smiled as Lena flushed at the unexpected compliment.

Lena felt her nipples tighten in reaction to Stef's heated gaze. It was almost enough to make her reckless as her eyes consumed her wife's tight body. Then she caught sight of Stef's stitches without their bandage, and her stomach bottomed out.

"Love, are you okay?" Stef asked.

"What? Yes, it's fine. I was just admiring my own view," Lena said, trying to get back the sexy banter.

"Glad to know my arm is doing it for you," Stef said dryly.

"Does it still hurt?" Lena asked.

Stef shook her head even as she re-soaped her washcloth and motioned for Lena to turn around so Stef could wash her back.

"It's fine, love. Speaking of, I'm going to be late tonight. One of the guys asked me to cover his shift."

"What?" Lena asked, her eyes popping open in the midst of Stef's ministrations and turned her head to meet her wife's eyes. "Stef, we agreed a long time ago…"

"That I wouldn't do overtime on weekdays," Stef acknowledged as she slowly moved the washcloth down Lena's body, soaping up her rear end and the backs of Lena's thighs.

Stef squatted down to continue down Lena's legs, "You know, I almost never take it, but Steve has covered for me a few times, and he got tickets to the Dodgers' playoff game in LA. It's one night."

"What if I'm asleep when you get home? We've still got eleven more days," Lena reminded her.

Stef brought the washcloth around the front of her wife's body and slowly rubbed it up her left leg until she reached her sensitive inner thigh, then she took it back down and moved to Lena's right leg and repeated the process as she slowly stood up and dragged the cloth along Lena's sensitive stomach and across her tight nipples for good measure.

"You really going to fall asleep?" Stef asked softly.

"I might be able to stay awake," Lena acknowledged breathlessly. "But what if you're too tired?"

Stef brought her body flush to her wife's, her own arousal evident, "I don't think that'll be a problem."

That night as Lena pepped dinner for herself and the kids, she texted Stef the image of her freshly signed contract with the bitmoji Mariana had created for her behind a desk marked Principal. A few minutes later Stef replied back with her own bitmoji character wearing a schoolgirl uniform…and things got progressively, hilariously dirtier from there.

Over dinner with the kids, Lena tried to maintain her concentration on their stories, but the beeping of her phone was too much for her and she had to check.

"Ah, ah ah, you know the rules," Mariana said teasingly to her Mama with an outstretched hand for Lena's phone.

"You're right, and I will put it away," Lena promised, getting up to tuck her phone into her purse, but her kids rebelled.

"Come on Mama, fair's fair," Callie said.

"It's not like you haven't done it to all of us a dozen times," Brandon added.

True. Lena could easily argue that those were the breaks since she and Stef paid for everyone's phones. But she liked their no cell phone rule at the dinner table. And it wasn't like they read through their kids' messages. So she nodded her head and handed her phone over to Mariana…just as a new text from Stef popped up on the home screen and Mariana almost dropped it. Then her eyes went wide and she showed it to Callie.

"Oh God, I didn't need to see that," Callie said covering her eyes.

"You asked for it," Lena told them calmly.

"What is it?" Jesus asked.

Mariana and Callie exchanged an amused glance before they shoved the phone right into their brother's face.

"What even is that?" Jesus asked, horrified.

"That's Mom and that's Mama and they are…"

"I know what they're doing!" Jesus declared.

"They're just cartoons," Jude said as he continued to eat his dinner unperturbed.

"Exactly," Lena replied. "Safe and fun for everyone."

"Except us." Brandon muttered.

That night, instead of heading up to bed, Lena grabbed a book and sat in the nook by the front door to wait up for Stef, who finally arrived home shortly before midnight.

"Hey honey," Lena called out softly.

"Lena? What are you doing downstairs?"

"Waiting for you."

"Oh?" Stef asked as she sauntered over to the bench and sat down, immediately rested her head in her wife's lap.

Lena stroked her hands down Stef's head and back. "I thought you said you wouldn't be tired?"

"I believe I said that I wouldn't be too tired," Stef corrected, glancing up at Lena, who somehow managed to look radiant no matter the time or how tired she was.

"I need a shower," Stef said, and Lena nodded, getting up and following her wife up the stairs and to their bathroom.

They both stripped mindlessly, exhausted, but suddenly desperate to finish what had been teased hours and hours earlier.

Stepping into the stall they let the water cascade over them as they kissed and explored wet bodies. Shower sex was a challenge, and always sexier in look than in practice, but Stef was strong and Lena nimble. Lena wrapped one leg around Stef, who shoved her carefully against the wall for balance, laved Lena's turgid nipple with lips, tongue and delicate teeth, and finally, blessedly entered her wife with two and then three fingers and fucked her hard and fast. Lena clung desperately to Stef, letting the pleasure soak through every nerve until it was finally too much and her orgasm exploded, sending shivers down to her toes.

"Oh God honey, that was incredible."

"Worth the wait?" Stef asked, pleased and exhausted.

"Definitely," Lena replied. And recognizing that Stef was just about done in, she gathered herself, grabbed Stef's shampoo and proceeded to carefully massage it into her wife's scalp, let her rinse and followed it up with conditioner. A few minutes later they tumbled naked into bed, hair still wet, and wrapped in each other's arms fell into a deep sleep.