Chapter 47

Sleep Over

Sara was standing at the window, gazing out into the rain, she stood, her hands hugging a cup of tea, the rain playing patterns on her face, "When is this rain going to let up?" she asked. It had been an hour since she'd arrived, and she was still waiting for her clothes to dry.

Gil rinsed out his cup, he'd long since finished his tea. Exhaustion was beginning to weigh him down, his eyes were stinging with the effort of trying to keep them open. They'd spent the last forty-five minutes talking between themselves. They tried to keep the subjects as neutral as possible, not too much talk of work, and no talk of all about their argument.

Sara had made one admission before they fell into general conversation, and it had been that Greg had acted very innocent about Gil's turning up at the bar, despite it seemed very obvious that he'd expected it.

Gil decided he'd speak with Greg when next he had the chance about this, he made a mental note of it and said no more about it to Sara.

"This rain isn't going to let up," Sara sighed, "can you give me a ride home? I left my car at work because I knew I was going to be drinking," she turned to look at him. "I can get these clothes back to you tomorrow," she tugged absently at the front of the sweater.

Gil stood looking at her for a moment, "Listen…" he said softly, "lets, uh…"

Sara raised an eyebrow quizzically, and waited for him to complete the sentence.

"Uh…how do you feel…uh…about staying over?"

She was silent for a moment, not sure how to take this question, "Are you asking me to sleep with you?"

"Yes," Gil said, "but…not in the way that…might suggest any physical activity…" he added.

"But sleep in the same bed as you?" Sara asked.

"We've already slept on the same bed together – in Edinburgh," he pointed out, "and we're both tired…and…" he yawned, "by the time we wake up your clothes will be dry, and I can drive you to work."

"Ah…about my clothes," Sara said, "I can't go to work in the same clothes I wore yesterday," she put her cup down on a nearby end table, "you might have put them through the dryer, but they're still dirty…"

Gil shrugged, "so change at work, you keep a change of clothes for emergencies, use that."

Sara looked at him, "you sure you're okay with that?" she asked, "I mean I know you're a little…personal…about your space."

"It's fine," Gil assured.

"Can I sleep in these?" she asked, gesturing to her clothes.

"Yeah…" He nodded, "let me go, uh, find something for me to sleep in," he added. "I…uh…don't usually have anyone sleeping over so, uh…I don't usually bother with…uh…never mind."

Sara blinked, "excuse me?"

"Nothing," he responded, he wished he hadn't even brought it up in the first place.

"Wait, are you saying you go commando?" Sara said, and for the first time that morning, he saw her smirking, her eyes lighting up in that same way they usually did.

"What are you smirking at?" he raised an eyebrow, "you sleep with pajamas with cartoon penguins on them. That's worse than going 'commando'," he pointed out.

"What is the big deal with sleeping naked," Sara asked.

"You wear clothes, you wake up uncomfortable with the pants all twisted around the wrong way, the shirt up rides to your chin," he shrugged. "Give me five minutes."

"You know at some point I will see you naked," Sara commented as he was about to leave the room.

"All the lights will be going out when that time comes, Miss Sidle."

"At some point I will be naked too," Sara added.

"The lights will still be out," he assured with a firm nod and a slight smile, he headed for the door leading to the bedroom.

"You won't see my tattoo."

Gil stopped, "tattoo?"

Sara smirked, "I knew that'd get your attention."

"You don't have a tattoo," he made a face.

"Yes I do," Sara responded, "Just because you've never seen it before doesn't mean it's not there."

"I'll take your word for it, then," he responded, and left her standing in the living room alone with that last comment.

In his bed room, he picked up anything that might have been embarrassing for her to find and put it out of sight, and he quickly found something to wear, another pair of sweatpants, and a t-shirt, and he changed.

I can't believe she has a tattoo, how come she never mentioned that before? He thought absurdly, as he opened the door to his bedroom and peered out at her, "okay…you can come in now…"

"Have you hidden all your porn videos and Playboy magazines so I can't see and you can pretend like you're a saint?" Sara joked.

"I don't own any Playboy magazines," Gil assured, he watched her enter his room, she looked around with a critical eye. His bedroom was as plain as the rest of the apartment. One wall was lined with black metal shelving unites, filled with his various insect displays, pet insect terrariums. He had jars with strange petrified creatures in them, fossils with various prehistoric insects.

"Wow…I just stepped into your office…and there's a bed!" Sara looked around, "I knew you had to have more of this weird stuff somewhere," she picked up one of the fossils from a shelf, "Where do you get this stuff anyway?"

"Ebay, you can buy almost anything on there. I saw one guy selling his soul on Ebay…I think he sold it for five thousand dollars," Gil smirked. "One time, there was even this guy on Ebay selling his ex-wife's wedding dress, and he was modeling it on a photograph – he actually had the dress on. Got a lot of attention online," he admitted.

Sara gave a soft laugh, "so…uh…what side of the bed do you sleep on usually anyway?"

"It usually starts off on the right…" he confessed, "But by the time I wake up…" he trailed off.

"You're all over the left?"

He shrugged, "I noticed you sleep in the middle of your bed…the time I stayed overnight at your place during the blackout I came in to leave you a note to say I had to go…" he explained. He stood there looking her up and down, he was trying to decide where on her body she had the tattoo hidden. There were many places a tattoo could be on a body. As a young coroner, he'd see tattoos in the oddest and most unlikely of places. Her comment about her tattoo now had him wondering.

"Okay, so how about, I take the right side, you take the left and if you try to hog more of the left, you'll end up on the floor and I can stretch out in the middle when you finally fall off?" Sara asked with a slight smile.

"That sounds unfair, it's my bed."

"You're supposed to accommodate the guest," Sara shot playfully.

"Fine, take the right. If I wake up on the floor in a bad mood, I won't be held responsible though," he turned the covers down.

Sara stood there for a moment, "this is so weird…" she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Sorry…It's just every other time I've seen you turn the covers over on a bed, you've had a UV light in your hand looking for body fluids," Sara pointed out.

Gil raised an eyebrow, "would you like me to get my UV light from my car just to prove to you my bed sheets are clean?" he teased.

Sara gave a nervous laugh, "no. I'd rather not," she pulled the covers back at the right side of the bed and sat down slowly, almost unsurely.

Gil climbed into the bed, it felt very strange. He supposed if he and Sara had made love by now, this might have felt less awkward, "can I ask you something?" he asked very casually as he pulled the covers over himself and settled down against the pillows.

"Hmm?" she asked she slowly lay on her left side facing him, not pulling the covers over herself yet.

"The tattoo…" Gil turned towards her, resting his elbow in the pillow and propping his head up on his hand, "sorry…I just…I'm curious," he admitted.

"You'll see it one day…" Sara assured, she smirked.

"What if, uh…I wanted to see it now?" he asked.

"Why do you want to see it now?" Sara asked quizzically.

"I don't know…I'm fascinated. I never knew you had a tattoo. Where is it?" he asked, "What is it of? How long have you had it?"

"I got it a few years ago," Sara said, "It's not a big deal," she said, "you won't even think it's worth seeing."

"I just want to see it…"

"Fine," she rolled onto her back she raised the hem of the sweater up her stomach a little, and pushed down the left side of the sweatpants a little to reveal low on her hip a miniscule tattoo of a lilac butterfly. "Satisfied?"

"Incredibly," he leaned a little closer to inspect the tattoo, "why a butterfly?" he asked, he raised his head up so that he was leaning over her, looking down on her face.

She paused, smirked and looked at him confidently, "Because I wanted to be in the collection on your living room wall," she joked.

"You'd look spectacular pinned against my living room wall," he murmured, he pecked her lips, then gave a yawn, "well…I really need to get some sleep…and so do you."

And yet another very blah chapter, but whatever, I just thought this would be slightly amusing for so many reasons.

Reviewers, I love you and I'll mention you in 48:)