TITLE: Morning Ritual
AUTHOR: Cutieqtpie
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, so if you don't call your attorney, I won't call mine.
He awoke to the harsh shrill of the beeping alarm clock and noticed that the normally occupied space beside him was already empty. As he reached to hit the off button, he noticed the time. 5:26 am. She didn't usually wake up before the alarm, much less get out of bed before it, so her absence caused a slight wave of panic to shoot through his body. Pulling himself into an upright position, he ran his hand through his hair and caught sight of himself in the mirror on the other side of the room. What he saw surprised him. Instead of the worn down, withdrawn habitant of the universe he had appeared to be only weeks before, now instead was a more relaxed, normal looking John Carter.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw her robe thrown haphazardly across the stool adjacent to the bathroom. In fact, when the ringing in his ears from the alarm stopped, he could even make out the shower running in the distance. He walked toward the sound and made out her form under the steam of the shower head. As he got closer, he saw that she was dressed in nothing except for the simple gold chain necklace that he had gotten her for her birthday last year that had her initials inscribed in it. She was beautiful.
"You're up early." He opened the shower door and leaned against the edge. "I thought you're on at 7 with me."
"I am." She replied, turning when she heard him and giving him a quick peck on the lips. "I just wanted to beat you to the shower."
"You know, we could conserve water if we just did it together." He got an eye roll from her, which he took to mean she was in a good mood this morning.
"I needed to shave my legs. I wanted to do it before you woke up because it's one of those horrible things that women do that they aren't supposed to admit to." She confessed and continued using the loufa in her hands to rub the bath soap into the skin on each of her arms.
"Don't worry, my opinion of you isn't changed by the discovery that you shave your legs." He laughed and she gave a small smile back. He finally took his eyes off of her and walked towards the sink on the other side of the small bathroom. That was when he noticed the box sitting on the counter.
"Did you take it yet?" He called back to her.
"Yeah."
"And?" When she didn't reply, he walked back around to the still open shower door and saw her standing with her back to him, hands playing with the object in her hands. He watched as she finally turned around to face him, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry." She said and turned back around and stuck her head under the jet stream again.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything, just a false alarm. It's not your fault." He responded when she re-emerged.
"I know." She hit the knob, shutting off the water and grabbed the towel that had been resting over the shower door. She wrapped it around herself and moved around him to get out.
"Do you want to talk about this?" He followed her back towards the bedroom and into the closet.
"There's nothing to talk about. My period was late and I thought I might be pregnant, it turns out that it's just my body telling me I'm about to be 40 and there's nothing I can do about it."
"You're four years away from being 40."
"Thank you Billy Crystal."
"Come on, I'm serious."
"And so am I. Listen, I'm sorry I made you go through all this. I shouldn't have even told you until I knew for sure."
"No, I don't want this to happen again. We told each other it would be different this time."
"But we're still the same people Carter, just two years older."
"Is that how you see it?" He watched as she gave a dejected nod. "I love you. I don't care if there's a ring on your finger to prove it or a baby crawling around to show it. That doesn't matter to me. I just want to be with you."
"What time is it?" She questioned after a moment of silence later. He looked at his watch.
"5:45."
"You better get dressed."
"Is this conversation over?"
"Yes." She nodded. He grabbed a few items off of their hangers, and sauntered back into the bathroom. She heard the faucet turn on and soon the sounds of him brushing his teeth. She put her own clothes on and waited for him to emerge.
"Ready?" He asked fifteen minutes later, as they met back in the kitchen of his apartment.
"Yep." Her reply was muttered as she reached across the counter for her keys. As he shut the door behind them, she quietly snaked her hand into his and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"I love you John." She whispered.
"I love you too Abby."
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