Erin woke up to the feeling of someone pressing their lips to her forehead. Blinking slowly, she tried to get up, only to have a heavy weight around her waist holding her down. Frowning, she looked into Spencer's face, seeing that he was giving her a bemused smile. "Spencer?"
"Yeah, Alex is still asleep, which is why you're stuck. I made us reservations at a local restaurant, and you and Alex have about an hour to get ready. I laid out a fresh blouse for you."
"Thanks," she said before squeezing Alex's hand tightly, trying to get her to wake up. Alex groaned in her ear before tightening her hold, and she let out a soft sigh as she turned over so that she could look into the woman's face. "Lex, you need to wake up. We have to get ready for supper now." There was no response, and Erin rolled her eyes, listening to Spencer chuckle. "Give me a little leeway, Spencer."
He nodded, and she leaned in and kissed Alex's cheeks softly in turn, seeing her eyelids flutter open. The expression on her face was so open, and Erin couldn't help but smile and sigh a little. "What time is it?"
"Time for us to get up and get freshened up for supper." Alex nodded as she stretched into Erin before slipping out of bed and cracking her back. "If you want to use the bathroom first, I'll change my blouse and brush my hair."
"All right."
Erin watched as she disappeared behind the bathroom door, waiting until it was closed before she got out of the bed as well, crossing to Spencer's side and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "Is everything good between you now?"
"It's not perfect, but it is a start. Thank you for giving us the space to work on things between us. And for letting us sleep so long. Though I don't know if I'll be able to get back to sleep once we're back here, since it was a two hour nap."
"I thought that it wouldn't be good to wake you, since you still had tear tracks on your cheeks, both of you." She nodded against his chest. "Our flight will take off early the day after tomorrow, and we'll be back in Tangier shortly after breakfast. So, we'll have to make the most of our day tomorrow."
"I don't want to go shopping, unless Alex does. I think that we'd rather do a tour, like we did yesterday, Spencer. If you could find a day long tour, that would be perfect?"
She stepped away from him and slipped out of her blouse and dropped it onto the dresser before picking up the one Spencer had picked out, quickly pulling it over her head and smoothing it down her torso before taking a look at her reflection in the mirror, using her fingers to card through her hair and get it back in place. "Private tour again, or with others?"
"I think that I might like spending time with other tourists for a day, Spencer. There will be time to be alone in the morning and when we return afterwards. I think that I'll just need that small buffer between us. I'm sorry."
"There's nothing to be sorry for, Erin. I understand. There are patterns of trauma that have been imprinted on your heart, and Alex's, and they need time to heal. So you can be together while being apart."
"How well you know me already, Spencer." She turned and went to his side, wrapping an arm around his waist as he kissed the top of her head delicately. Erin breathed in deeply, drawing in the scent of his cologne. "I had forgotten just how much I adore being held. By the end of my marriage, Alan had moved past physical contact, and David, well, the only times we could be tender was after fucking, and even then it was not natural. I think that we burned too brightly for tenderness." She rested her cheek against his chest, letting the steady thumping of his heart worm its way into her heart as she tried to slow her breathing into some semblance of normality.
"The bathroom's free, Erin," Alex said as she touched her shoulder lightly, and she pulled away from her partner's chest to see that there was a tender, open, look on her face, that little quirk of her lips in a ghost of a smile that she had loved to see when they were working together. "And I agree about holding her, Spence. She always one to crave tender touches."
Erin blushed as she wriggled herself free from Spencer's arms. "Don't tell him any more of my secrets, Alex. Please?" She nodded, and Erin gave her a small smile before she moved into the bathroom, closing the door and letting out a long breath as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Things were getting too close, and she was certain that she would lose this precious bubble of happiness that she had found herself in thus far. Crying a little, she quickly peed before washing her hands and face, trying to plaster on a normal smile as she reapplied a light layer of mascara and a fresh layer of lipstick. Then she smiled at her reflection until she almost believed the look on her face and rejoined the pair waiting for her.
"I managed to weasel out a few tidbits from Alex while you were in there, Erin. Mainly that you snuggle like a koala when you're overly tired, which explains the last half of our train trip here."
It was easier to smile at that truth, and she nodded as she took hold of his outstretched hand. "And Alex swears like a sailor when she gets hungry, though you might have noticed that while out on a case with her."
"Hey, I've gotten better over the years, Erin!" She couldn't help but notice that Alex was looking at her carefully, as if she knew exactly what was going on in her brain, and for once, Erin hated being a trained profiler, because she could read Alex as well as she was reading her. "Spence, why don't you head down first and grab us a table? I need a few more moments with Erin. Don't worry, I'll give her back to you soon."
He nodded before leaning down and kissing her softly, and Erin sighed when he stepped away from her. "I'll expect you downstairs in ten minutes. All right?"
"All right," Alex replied before shooing him towards the door. Spencer gave her one last look of love before leaving, and she smiled in return, touching her chest with her hand. "Erin, I am not trying to make you unhappy. I know that we've fought, bitterly, in the past, but here, I don't want that. I want us to be just Erin and Lexie, like we used to be, but maybe with less kissing, since your heart is Spencer's."
She let out a nervous little laugh as she nodded. "I've just found myself in a happy little bubble for the last few days, and I'm worried that the outside world will look at the gap in our age, and judge me to be an old, washed up, cougar. I thought that by making inroads with you, some of these underlying anxieties would disappear. If anything, they're worse. I'm sorry. But what if I'm not good enough for him? What if, when we get home and I tell him what I did to you, he decides that all the tender moments we had here don't matter? I'll be on my own again, and the demons in my head might win. I've fought for a whole year to stay sober, and sometimes I am so tired."
Erin wanted to cry, but knew that she would have to wash her face again if she did so, so she looked up at the ceiling and blinked as hard as she could in order to stave them off as Alex closed the distance between them. "You know that I'm not the touchy feely type, Erin. That was only with you and James." She nodded, and then welcomed Alex's embrace. "I promise you, Spence is one of the most faithful men you'll have in your life. And I will do anything in my power to make certain that you don't lose him when you tell him the truth of what happened." Erin nodded as Alex kissed her cheek softly. "And if you tell anyone that I just did that, I will disavow any knowledge, since we're not on the best of terms to the team yet."
"Yes, L-lexie," she stuttered as she pulled away from her to look into her eyes. "Now, before Spencer grows anxious, we should probably join him." Alex nodded and they left the room arm in arm to head for the elevators. "Promise me you won't laugh if I tell you a secret?"
"I promise."
"We're not using protection, and I really hope that, by some miracle of God, we start a family. I know that it will take months and months of trying, and maybe some medical intervention on my side of things, but he deserves to have a child of his own to raise. He'd be so good with children, don't you think?"
As they stepped into the elevator, Alex nodded, squeezing her arm a little as she pressed the button for the lobby. "I do, and it would be nice to be Aunt Lexie, in time." Erin nodded, feeling a bright blossom of hope bloom in her chest as they rode down to the lobby together.