Unfinished
Disclaimer: DW and NBC own the characters.
A/N: Assuming Elliot and Alex had a relationship before "Loss". This takes place some time after Kathy and Elliot separate and Alex has returned for some period of time… This could, theoretically, be a lost scene from "Ghost" (given the presumption that Elliot and Alex were together before she ever went into the program). I haven't actually seen that episode yet, though, so I don't want to say that it is.

The fan in the window is broken. You keep telling me you're going to fix it. I wonder if that's actually true. I roll over and push the tip of my nose into the arm you have around me, into the middle of the Marine tattoo there. Your skin is sticky with sweat and yet I move closer to you. I can't stand the heat. The man I was seeing in Wisconsin found that strange, because I said Emily was from Tulsa. Emily hated heat and couldn't say "water" without it coming out more like "wouter." Sometimes I think he didn't trust Emily. Then again, it's hard to trust someone who doesn't really exist.

You tighten your hold on me. Before, we had just a month together. No one knew then and you were still with Kathy. A car alarm is going off outside. You shift and sigh into my hair. I love that sound. Car alarms. I'm pretty sure they don't exist in Kingston, Wisconsin. If they do, I never heard one. I could hear crickets there at night.

Have you ever seen fireflies? I hadn't. I mean, not in the number that you could actually catch in a jar. I'd see one or two, here or there, in the summer, at my parent's house. There, once, I saw what must have been fifty, twinkling in the darkness. For some reason, it made me feel like a kid again. It made me want to swing. I know that's weird.

You wake up, rather suddenly. "Hi," I whisper, softly, into the darkness.

"It's hot in here."

"You're soaked. You okay?" I flatten my hand across your stomach and I can feel the moisture pooling beneath my palm.

"The fan's not working."

"No." You were supposed to fix it. I don't say it. We're both tired. And happy. I don't care about the heat, not right now. I move my hand further down your abdomen, across to your hip.

"I'll fix it in the morning. Or get a new one."

"Okay."

"You can't sleep?"

"I haven't slept since I left." I pause. "Not for more than a few hours at a time."

"Do you still have nightmares?"

I nod. "Sometimes it's you that gets in the car. Sometimes, it's our car and you and Olivia… Everything's gone in a second. Other times, I never wake up in the hospital after the gunshot… we leave everything unfinished…"

"What's unfinished?" You ask, softly.

I want to tell you I love you, instead I whisper, "Well, the fan's still broken."

I can feel you smile against my cheek in the darkness, as if you know my secret. "I know."