Madam Secretary Prompt: It's too hot for anything but a sheet when Elizabeth goes to bed, but it cools substantially over the night, and that makes Henry's warm embrace that much more welcome. (Or vice versa). (lilacmermaid Tumblr prompt)
"God, it is so hot in this house!" Elizabeth said to Henry as she climbed into bed. She was so over this week. Having finished brushing his teeth, Henry walked out of the bathroom to join his wife in bed.
The perils of home ownership. They had only been in their new house for a month when they discovered the air conditioning had broken. Elizabeth had walked into a stifling hot house yesterday. This week had been particularly trying at work and had not been in the mood to deal with a major appliance breaking. At seven months pregnant, Elizabeth was completely miserable. They had left the windows open in their room and the ceiling fans were going, but it was not helping. The late August air was still incredibly oppressive, even at ten at night. She lifted her head to fix her pillows. With a heavy sigh she repositioned her head on her pillow, placing her arms underneath it.
"This is pointless. I'm never going to get comfortable," she thought to herself as she kicked her covers off after a few minutes of trying to sleep. The baby and the heat were making it virtually impossible, even though she was absolutely drained from work and the broken air conditioning.
"Babe? You ok?" Henry could hear his wife trying to get comfortable. He was having trouble sleeping in the heat; he couldn't imagine how uncomfortable she must feel. He hoped a rainstorm would cool them down during the night, and was so grateful that a repairman was coming tomorrow to look at the air conditioning unit.
"It's so hot" Elizabeth's voice was filled with frustration. She paused. "I'm sorry. I know complaining isn't going to magically fix the air conditioner"
Henry turned over in bed to face his wife. "No, and I'm sorry. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow." He placed a kiss on her shoulder.
Elizabeth reached up and removed Henry's hand from her upper arm. "It's too hot, Henry." She sighed.
"Good night babe," Henry said as he turned around and closed his eyes, trying not to be hurt at her rejection. He knew it was the heat talking, and he hoped it would cool off soon.
Elizabeth was spent and finally succumbed to sleep, despite the temperature of their bedroom. While they were sleeping, a mid-night rain shower came through and Elizabeth subconsciously grabbed more blankets to cover herself. The rain was cooling everything down in the darkness of the early morning hours.
Henry shivered as he stepped back into the bedroom after using the bathroom. He smelled the rain in the air as it wafted in from the windows. Walking over to the window near Elizabeth's side of the bed to partly close the window, he took a second to look at his wife. The moonlight streaming in from the open window onto her face. She might not have felt beautiful at 7 months pregnant, but she definitely was. He realized she was struggling subconsciously to pull the blanket over her to stay warm. Henry grabbed the blanket and pulled it up over her. Walking back over to his side of the bed, he pulled the blanket over himself and nestled up to Elizabeth, wrapping his arm around her middle. He smiled as Elizabeth sighed in her sleep and pulled his arm tighter around her as he fell back asleep.
Elizabeth's alarm blared a few hours later. As she slowly awoke, it took her a minute to realize she now had a blanket on her and Henry curled up to her, slowly stirring himself.
Elizabeth turned her head to see Henry's face pressed against her shoulder. After reaching over to turn off her alarm, she sunk back into Henry's arms and turned her head to place a kiss on his hair. "Good morning handsome," she said as she placed her hands on Henry's to extricate herself from him. She carefully pulled herself up to a sitting position on the bed. "I gotta get in the shower, Henry. Thank you for keeping me warm" She said as she made her way to the bathroom to get ready for the day, thankful for the early-morning thunderstorm that had allowed her to sleep.