"Okay, say it again..." Teddy whispered to Allison.
Allison stared deeply into Teddys peridot eyes with her chesnut ones, leaning closer into her.
"I love you more," she repeated and kissed Teddys shoulder, "I love you more..."
Allison continued whispering these words as she placed kisses on Teddys neck, to her chest, to her belly, to her right thigh, farther and farther down...until she was there again.
Teddy let out a sigh of pleasure as she became aroused once more, feeling Allison's fingers inside of her again and tongue kissing and licking her most sensitive areas.
"I love you so much..." Teddy whispered breathlessly as her orgasm started to build.
The two made love several times again before they both finally fell into a peaceful sleep around 3a.m. However their moments of peace weren't going to last long, both women had to work early. Their alarms were set for 5:45am and 7:00am, respectively.
However, Teddy nor Allison remembered to set their alarms that night. They were so caught up in eachother, and in their plan to finally tell Claire the truth about their love, they were completely distracted from their normal routine.
Teddy was supposed to be at Columbia for her 7a.m shift, and Allison to her office by 8:30 at the latest.
But this morning was different, this morning both women's lives would be changed forever, not only because of their truths, but because the whole world was about to be turned upside down, and New York City was to be forever changed.
The sounds of blaring sirens echoed the walls of the apartment where Teddy and Allison slept peacefully, wrapped in each others arms.
Allison stirred from the sound, only to jolt out of her dreams as her Nokia rang off the hook and she realized she overslept.
She stumbled across the room to grab it, Teddy began to wake up herself from the various sounds around her and was confused herself by all of the sudden commotion. She panicked when she realized she had overslept as well.
"Shit!" Teddy hissed as Allison answered her phone.
"Hello? Hey yeah I'm sorry I-what, I'm fine...why are you? What?!" Allison dropped her phone to the floor in shock, her hands were shaking.
Teddy immediately jumped out of bed and ran over to her, scared out of her mind by Allisons behavior.
"Allison, what is it? You're scaring me, what happened? Talk to me!" Teddy shouted.
All Allison could do was maintain her shocked facial expression and slowly made her way to the bedroom window, cracking it open just enough and peering out as her eyes welled up with tears.
The sirens, Teddy thought...what the hell happened? She slowly approached the window to join Allison, terrified of what she was going to see.
"Holy mother of god..." Teddy let out, nearly breathless. She too was shocked herself.
Off in the distance one of Manhattans landmarks, the two buildings that represented so much pride, beauty and power were engulfed in flames and black smoke climbing to the skies second by second. People were falling...jumping from the towers. In the streets, people were screaming. The second tower, the south tower, Allisons tower...it looked like the flames were rising between the floors, the floors right below Allisons. If Allison had been at work, she would have been trapped...no way out...dead.
Suddenly the silence, or at least the silence of their voices in the room was broken.
"Two planes, Teddy. Two planes hit the twin towers..." Allison said, choking back tears and squeezing Teddy's hand.
'I know..." Teddy whimpered, rubbing Allisons back.
They both just shook their heads in disbelief.
"Was it...an accident?" Teddy asked, even though she felt she already knew the terrifying answer to that question.
Allison squeezed her eyes shut, as if she couldn't even speak the truth of the situation.
"No, no Teddy. It wasn't an accident."
Teddy just nodded painfully and continued to stare out at the disaster with her love. But then she had a thought...
"Oh my god, have you talked to Claire? Does she know you're not at work, does she know what's going on?" Teddy asked.
"I haven't heard a thing from her," Allison answered softly, "she's probably still in surgery."
Teddy nodded, with an unbelievably uneasy knot in her stomach.
"Well you should probably try to call her or leave her a message at least with the hospital so, whenever she finds out whats happened she can know you're okay."
"What's the point?" Allison snapped, "she'll wish I was dead anyway after she finds out about us..."
Teddy stepped back, slightly shocked.
"Allison, how can you say that? With everything thats happening, no matter the circumstances, Claire would NEVER wish death on someone, not ever!"
"I just don't know how we're supposed to tell her now..." Allison said meekly, staring down at the floor and playing with her hands.
Teddys heart sank.
"So...what are you saying?" Teddy asked, "do you not want to go forward with this?"
Allison spun around and walked over to Teddy, placing both hands on the sides of her face.
"God no! That's not what I'm saying! Teddy, I LOVE you. If this morning has taught me anything, its that life is precious and unpredictable, and that we should seize every moment and not let our lives go to waste. I want to be with you, I want a life with you. Its just...this is clearly going to shake up our city, it already has and I'm so afraid of the added heartache we're going to put on Claire."
Teddy nodded understandably with tears flowing down her cheeks. Allison smiled sweetly, wiping away the tears and kissed her deeply.
"But we're going to figure out a way, I promise." She whispered.
"Okay," Teddy sobbed as they tightly embraced.
10 years later
"I can't believe its the 10th anniversary already..." Allison said softly as she, Teddy and their 5-year-old twin boys walked through the brand new 9/11 Memorial in New York.
Teddy nodded with a soft smile, admiring the beauty that had come from such a disaster, as she rubbed her bulging belly where their daughter stirred softly.
The Memorial was beautiful yet heartbreaking to see at the same time. Especially with the gaping holes where the towers once stood firmly to the ground, now replaced by waterfalls and thousands of names of people lost engraved in the square shells.
Shortly after 9/11, Allison and Teddy left the city. They just couldn't take being there anymore, not after breaking their news to Claire who actually took it surprisingly well. She admitted that she suspected for months that the two were an item, but she didn't want to believe it. The exchange went as peacefully as it could have, Claire had her stuff moved out within days, but it was still uncomfortable with all of their memories together. The two women felt incredibly guilty for hurting Claire.
Not to mention, New York was never the same. Even when Teddy and Allison went back for the one year anniversary, there was STILL cleanup being done at Ground Zero. It was gut wrenching. But as the years went on, things somehow got easier, because life didn't stop.
Spring of 2002, was when the couple left the city and relocated to L.A., where Teddy landed a Chief of Cardio spot at one of the top hospitals in the area. Allison found a position similar to the one she had at the Trade Center, but for a smaller company, which is what she wanted.
In 2005, the couple got married in Kansas , as it was one of the few states at the time who had legalized gay marriage. One year later the couple decided it was time for kids and went forward with the IVF process. Both women were healthy enough to become pregnant, so they decided by a coin toss who would be the one to carry their first child. Allison chose tails and Teddy, heads. Tails it was.
Their best friend in L.A., Donovan, offered to be their sperm donor, so their baby's father could be around and be a loving presence in its life. Teddy and Allison were over the moon by the idea.
After just one round, Allison became pregnant with their TWINS. The pregnancy was fairly easy with some complications during the birth of the babies which led to an emergency c-section for baby B. But in the end, all were healthy and safe. They named their boys Alexander, after Teddys dad and Anthony, after Allisons.
The couple was immensely happy and now 10 years after that horrific, bittersweet time in their lives, they were together. In love, happy and expecting their third child together, a little girl who they planned on naming Allison Theodora.
Fate had truly come in their favor, at last.