Keep Going

He was out of shape. Not by most people's standards, he knew, but by his. Even during his and Liz's first marriage when he was posing as a lowly elementary school teacher, he'd kept up with his workout schedule better than he had in the past year or so. There always seemed to be something taking his time. Liz had been gone and he'd been a single dad, then their little girl had been taken, and then he'd been stay-at-home dad. Even when he'd taken the job with Halcyon he hadn't spent nearly as much time as he needed to to get back into shape. Sure, he was running around, but when he got back to the hotel each night he'd fallen into the bed, barely pulling up his tablet long enough to dial home and tell his wife and little girl he loved them before zonking out for the night.

Now he was home for a little while and he needed to find time. He needed to make it.

Agnes had just gone down for a nap and instead of going in and sitting down with the files that he did need to go over for a case with Halcyon, Tom changed his jeans for a pair of running shorts and moved the toys from the center of the room. He started with sit ups. Sit ups were easy enough. One, ten, twenty, thirty, forty. He breathed through, stopping at fifty for brief stretch, a drink of water, and then went back to it. Sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one-hundred. Repeat.

He had never unpacked his pull-up bar, but it was past time. He had connected it to the doorway of the bedroom and was up to fifty reps when the front door opened. Liz came in quietly, knowing what time it was and how neither of them wanted a cranky fifteen-month little girl awake and angry for it. Tom kept going, unwilling to throw a hitch into the rhythm he had in place, and his wife stopped in front of their bedroom and he could almost feel her eyes on him. He met her gaze at one point, immediately having to close his eyes not to laugh at the expression she wore. "Yeah?" he asked, the word riding out on a breath both due to the exercise and not wanting to disrupt their child in the next room over.

"Oh, nothing," she answered with a shrug as she turned, purposefully moving out of his line of vision. He hit one-hundred and dropped, running his hands through his hair and switching back to the living room for the set of pushups that he had next.

"You're home early," he managed, leaning down to scoop the water bottle off the coffee table.

"Yeah, we wrapped the case earlier than we expected. I see you've been productive."

"I've gotten out of shape."

"Is that what you call it?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

Tom rolled his eyes just a little. "Don't look at me like you don't know how hard it is to find time to take a run or get to gym," he tased and his wife grinned at him, rummaging through the fridge until she found a smoothie from that morning.

"So our living room is now the gym?"

"Why not?" He didn't see if she made a face at him because he'd already set the water bottle down and dropped to the floor, ready to do the first round of pushups. As soon as he finished he'd go to squats and then it all began again.

Liz started chatting as he moved up and down, his shoulders and back stretched with the movement. It was a nice distraction, hearing her voice steadily with the understanding that he couldn't answer for a bit longer. He counted and she talked about her day. The'd caught the guy they'd been after for a week now, arresting him in the most unlikely place. Red had helped, some of his new contact panning out better than any of them had expected. She'd put together a profile that had brought them closer to the man in question, eventually making the arrest, and on her way home she had called Scottie and finally set up that brunch that she'd been putting off. Yes, she knew she'd been putting it off. She wasn't above admitting that.

Tom found himself smiling as he dipped down, counting off sixty-three, and as he came back up he saw Liz moving a little closer. She was still chatting, but as he went down halfway through sixty-four and sixty-five, he felt an added pressure on his back and his arms almost faltered. "Liz!"

"What?" she asked as if nothing at all had happened. "You said you were out of shape. Keep going."

He was frozen where he was, arms extended and knees locked, Liz sitting on the small of his back. "Babe…."

"What?" she repeated and he could hear it in her voice. It could just as easily be a tease or she might have been insulted, but without seeing her expression he couldn't be completely positive.

Tom drew in a deep breath and kept going. Once she was satisfied, even if he was moving a bit slower than he had been before, she continued to chatter on about a birthday party for one of Agnes' little friends that they had been invited to. It was a week from that Saturday, so he needed to make sure he was in town. She'd promised Beth they'd both be there and she might have volunteered him to help with the cookout that Mike was doing for the parents.

He was slow but steady, up and down, again and again, listening to her speak. Her voice was soothing. She'd shifted completely out of work-talk and into what various parts of their life. The birthday party, what they were out of that needed to be picked up at the grocery store, and a restaurant that Aram and Samar had recommended for their next date night.

Finally he hit one hundred and Tom sank to the floor, feel Liz shift off of him and she stretched out next to him. She was just barely containing her smile, lips stretched thin and quirking at the edges and it reflected fully in her clear blue eyes. He found himself mesmerized, lost in those eyes of hers, and she leaned towards him so that her lips pressed against his.

Tom rolled, Liz moving with him, and they were locked together like that as he laid out on his back and she moved over him, neither willing to part. His long fingers were buried in her hair and hers wrapped around the back of his neck as she leaned into the kiss a little desperately. She laughed against him as a soft sound escaped him, pulling her around so that he flipped her over, on top and leaned over her. Finally they parted and he found her staring up at him, her expression soft and one hand around his neck, the other pressed against his collarbone. "I've missed you," she said a little breathlessly.

They had both been so busy, passing each other in the evenings as they struggled to get Agnes ready for bed, their own responsibilities in order, and finally fell onto the mattress, half asleep before their heads hit the pillow. There was no time for them.

Now was the time for them.

"So," Tom managed, his voice rough as it escaped, his lips moving near her ear as he risked another kiss along her jaw line and felt her hand tighten around the back of his neck, "what do you say we get cleaned up and-"

She pulled him back down into another kiss. "Or we could just stay here," he chuckled as she kissed him again, her hands moving down his neck and her nails sharp through his thin t-shirt. This was the best place they could be.

Notes: You can thank adamjensenofficial over on Tumblr's amazing moodboard that they posted for this fic and the general idea behind it. ;)