"Hello?"
"Jeanie, sweetheart, how are you?"
"Mike! How are you? I was going to call you if I hadn't heard from you by tomorrow. I take it you guys are busy again, eh?"
Hearing his beloved daughter giggle on the other end made Mike smile, as he felt a heavy burden lifted off his soul, allowing his mind to drift to a happier and warmer place with every word she said.
"A little bit, yeah. How are things in Arizona? Are classes winding down slowly?"
"Not yet. We still have five more weeks to go. But the end is near, at least for the summer semester. I was thinking of coming over for a couple of days once classes are done, making sure you take good care of yourself and eat a decent meal every once in a while."
"I'd love that very much, Sweetheart.", Mike breathed, longing to see her again after way too many weeks apart.
"You sound tired.", shifting the receiver to the other ear, Jeanie cleared her throat before speaking up again, "That newest case keeping you awake again too many nights in a row?"
"Not me so much…", Mike chuckled and glanced over at the person passed out on his living room couch, "I just got back from taking a couple days off to go fishing. But Steve ended up reeling in a pretty disturbing case, and we're doing the preliminary research now. Hopefully we'll get some good leads tomorrow."
"Well, just be careful, please. I worry about you when you're out on the streets, chasing these…these lunatics."
Enjoying Jeanie's motherly doting late that evening, Mike slowly nodded, ready to change topics to get her mind off the fretting, when a knocking on the door signaled their food delivery.
"Listen, sweetheart, pizza is here, so I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow night, how does that sound?"
"It's a date!", Jeanie chuckled, "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Mike. Love you!"
"I love you too, sweetheart.", he said when a second knock signaled his delivery driver's impatience.
As he hung up the phone, Mike let his eyes drift back over to Steve, who had unceremoniously succumbed to the exhaustion, despite the extra strong coffee he'd brewed earlier to ensure a productive case discussion.
After he'd caught Steve nodding off repeatedly while looking at their file, he knew he was fighting a losing battle and decided to let the young Inspector doze off for a while. Surprised when the knocks on the door never even woke him up, Mike wondered if he'd end up having the entire pizza to himself.
Reaching for the exact change plus tip, he greeted and smiled at the stern-faced delivery driver who was soaking wet and less than happy having to work in this weather. As he brought in their food, closing the door again as quickly as possible to keep the miserable cold and damp draft out; Mike relished the aroma of freshly baked pizza, as he brought the carton into the kitchen and set it down on the counter, before reaching for a couple of cold beers from the fridge.
Opening the pizza box in hopes it would wake his partner from the dead, Mike cringed for a moment, realizing that the cook at Tony's had made a mistake and put anchovies on the whole pie, rather than just half.
With a guilt-laden heart, he made his way back into the living room, two bottles of beer in hand, and put them on the small TV table.
"Steve.", he said gently, careful not to startle the curled-up figure on the couch.
Nothing. Not even a grunt.
"Stephen.", he tried again, this time raising his voice a bit more.
Crouching down to find a head in the mess of blankets and arms, Mike couldn't hide a smile when he finally saw Steve's face, half buried in the crease of his elbow. Breathing away quietly, his long lashes never even flickered when Mike gently nudged his arm.
"Stephen."
When the young Inspector still didn't stir, he slowly got back up and reached for one of the beer bottles to treat himself to a big gulp, cherishing the fact of having his partner by his side, even if it was in a slightly less conscious state of mind.
Shaking his head in amusement, Mike resigned to the fact that the messed-up pizza wouldn't be such a big deal after all, especially since he'd be the only one to enjoy it.
