What happens when I watch old Grey's Anatomy clips? This fic. Enjoy!
Thank you G for the beta work. :)
Waking up in someone's arms was more unusual for Stacie Conrad than people might expect. If she did decide to take someone to bed - and she had her fair share of fun - she usually left or kicked them out once the fun had been had. No, waking up with an arm wrapped around her waist, a head tucked just under her chin and legs tangled with her own really wasn't the norm at all.
Yet the woman fit against her like she was meant to slide effortlessly between her arms every night. This morning she wasn't feeling the usual plans to escape flood her mind. She felt a calm settle between the spaces of her ribs, soothing her on each breath.
She shifted slowly until she pulled back enough - ever careful not to disturb her partner - to really look at her.
Her eyes looked at the sharp features that were more relaxed than Stacie remembered seeing them before. Fair hair spread out on the pillow behind her, a bit tangled and far more disheveled than she had ever seen it before. She could feel a smile spread on her lips at the gift she knew she was being given at seeing the older woman like this. She looked so unguarded, unstressed, unbothered by the world around her.
Carefully - ever so carefully - she reached out to trace over a faint love mark on her bedmate's neck. She remembered nipping there the evening before. Both eggar to mark the other, eggar to remove walls and clothing and better judgement from the equation.
She closed her eyes and shifted to rest her head on her pillow as she thought about the evening before.
A drink at the end of a long week of classes.
Dancing to music with too much bass.
A kiss months in the making that was over too soon.
Stacie Conrad's green eyes shut as a second pair of green eyes opened. Looking around the room and then to the woman beside her in bed.
"Good morning."
Stacie's eyes opened at the sound of the thick voice next to her.
"Good morning."
Aubrey Posen fought against every survival instinct she had when she shifted closer to Stacie. Every bit of her told her to make an excuse to slide out of the bed and never look back.
But she couldn't.
Moreover she didn't want to.
"Last night was really wonderful." Aubrey's cheek was carefully rested against Stacie's shoulder as her arm wrapped around her middle to keep her close.
"It was." Stacie agreed, working her fingers through Aubrey's hair to get the tangles out. She went slow and tried not to tug as she went.
Neither spoke for a moment. Both gathering themselves to decide how they would go forward. Did they blame it on the whiskey they both drank or did they own up to a year of secret smiles and hips nudging the other as they walked side by side?
"As your captain I should reprimand you for being underage in a bar." Aubrey whispered.
"As my captain sure." Stacie let out a short laugh. "What about as the woman who watched me down a shot, took a second with me and bought me the third?"
"I shouldn't have done that." Aubrey turned her head to press a kiss to the shoulder that made the most wonderful pillow.
"Maybe. But you did. I drank them happily and we ended up dancing to music from a DJ that Beca would have rolled her eyes at the choices of all night. Then we kissed and then we more than kissed." Stacie's voice dropped down to a whisper. "And now we're lying in your bedroom and neither one of us is getting out of bed."
Aubrey's arm tightened around Stacie almost imperceptibly at the very thought of either of them getting out of bed.
"I've never done that before." Aubrey admitted.
"Sex, sex with a woman or sex with someone you sort of picked up in a bar?" Stacie questioned.
"I've had sex before you." Aubrey said. "I've just never enjoyed it all that much before last night." Her voice was barely audible. "It was something I did because my partner - and yes all men before last night - wanted to."
Stacie pressed a long kiss to Aubrey's forehead. "You made me feel so much pleasure, Aubrey." She knew how Aubrey was when it came to doing things well, she hoped her praise would make the older woman feel some sense of a job well done.
Aubrey blushed under the praise but she smiled - more unencumbered than she had felt in a long time.
"Do you watch Grey's Anatomy?"
"I have all the seasons on DVD, yeah." Stacie nodded.
"I feel like Erica lying in bed telling Callie that I see leaves on the trees instead of green blobs." Aubrey admitted, feeling herself tense in preparation for whatever Stacie's reply may be.
Stacie shifted to how she was laying when she woke up, tucking Aubrey against her chest and wrapping both of her arms firmly around her waist. She felt the blonde tense up, she could almost feel her preparing to be laughed at or rejected.
"I'm your glasses."
Aubrey felt tears - hot and wet and free flowing - run down her cheeks as she managed to nod. She always felt differently than she knew she should. She thought a part of her was broken when the milestones she was striving for felt like they were just slanted one way or another when she reached them with her past boyfriends.
"You're my glasses."
Stacie stroked Aubrey's back as the pair laid in Aubrey's bed in her room that would only be hers for a few more weeks. Soon she'd be walking at her graduation and then - honestly Stacie's wasn't sure what came after. Aubrey had been focused and in turn focused all of them on the ICCA finals; she hadn't heard her plans for what came after.
"I want to be your glasses for more than a night, Bree." Stacie hadn't used the nickname before. She heard Chloe use it now and then, she thought about it in her head but feeling it roll around her mouth and drip off her tongue made a smile appear on her lips. "But I don't know what's next for you."
"I was accepted into Emory's law school." The pride in Aubrey's voice was clear even if the tone was a bit shy at her own accomplishment. "The problem I'm in will give me a JD and a MBA. So afterwards I'll be in the best position for a successful career."
Stacie beamed at the news Aubrey would be staying in the Atlanta area. She pressed a firm kiss to the top of Aubrey's head as she tightened her arms around her just a bit.
"I am so proud of you, Bree."
Aubrey tilted her head up, pressing their lips together for the first time that morning. When Stacie reciprocated without delay she felt herself melt into the kiss. There could be a full term class on kissing Stacie Conrad and Aubrey still wouldn't feel prepared for the wonder that it was.
"I don't do casual well." Aubrey admitted as she cautiously nuzzled Stacie's neck. "I've never been very good at sharing or dipping my toes in the water without jumping in up to my shoulders. If you want to be my glasses for more than last night, you should know that about me and if that's not what you want then I should know that about you."
Raw, naked, vulnerable honesty coming from Aubrey as she laid in her arms was what really got to Stacie. She was giving her a choice to accept something that was more serious than Stacie had allowed herself to be pulled into while still giving her the chance to back out if it was all too much.
"I can do monogamy. I chose not to before because I didn't have someone worth practicing self restraint for. But you're worth much more than just about anyone I know. I might be a natural flirt but if you and I do this thing it ends at flirting with anyone else." Stacie replied with as much honesty as she received.
Aubrey could accept that if it meant more nights of laying in bed with Stacie, feeling her lips on her neck and her hands everywhere else. It wasn't just the feeling of skin and lips and hands that drew Aubrey into Stacie's gravity. It was the smile, the hours sitting across the table from each other in the library during the last few months, the way Stacie's hand found her back when they huddled with the other Bellas or when she walked Stacie back to her dorm after a late night in the library.
"I can accept you as you are if you can put up with holding back my hair when I get over stressed and the type A person that I can become when I hold on to things too tightly." Aubrey pressed a kiss at the base of Stacie's throat.
"I will always hold your hair back and pull the stick out of your ass when it needs to be." Stacie promised, earning her a light playful smack on the backside from Aubrey. "But I'll also be the one bringing you coffee when you're in the middle of a case review or crash at your place for the weekend when we're both neck deep in writing papers but want to spend time together while we're working."
"Dating you is going to be different than my past relationships." Aubrey breathed in, her left hand trailing up and down Stacie's back.
"No argument there." Stacie let out a bark of laughter. "I'm goofy and I like to party and I am going to tug you - respectfully of course - out of your comfort zone. But I am going to try and be the place you can go when you need to recharge or reset or just have some peace away from the world."
Aubrey rubbed at her slightly red eyes as she wiped her tears away. "I am going to make a concerted effort to make sure I don't micromanage our relationship while still making sure that I put in the effort that will be required."
Stacie cupped Aubrey's cheek so she could tilt her head up so they could kiss again. "This is like a group project where both of us care about getting the best grade. No slackers here." She teased, going in for a second kiss.
Aubrey settled back against Stacie after the kiss broke. She had finals in front of her but right now she felt relaxed. Even more than the night after winning the ICCA final.
"Are you going back to Boston for the summer?" She asked, playing with Stacie's long fingers.
"I am. Mom and Pops want their favorite child home to make sure Cass has someone to keep her in line all summer." Stacie laughed. She had a 15 year old sister who was just as smart and just as willing to use her natural charm to get what she wanted. She just didn't have quite the same level of street smarts Stacie picked up early.
"I'll be back in Virginia for a few weeks before coming back here. I found an apartment I am going to move into before I head back there." Aubrey explained.
"I haven't bought my ticket yet." Stacie thought she heard a question in Aubrey's tone. "I could stay and help you move?" She offered with a hopeful smile.
Aubrey looked up at her, a wide smile forming. "You'd stay and help with packing and sorting and moving me across Atlanta?"
"That's what girlfriends do, isn't it?" Stacie asked with raised eyebrow. It was a challenge, a promise wrapped in a term both hadn't always had the best relationship to.
"Yeah." Aubrey looked into Stacie's eyes, meeting the challenge in her gaze. "It is what girlfriends do."
"Then I'll tell my parents I need some time before I go home. And I'll stay and we'll get you moved and break in your apartment in style." Stacie said.
"I think I'm really going to like this whole girlfriends thing." Aubrey answered as she settled back against Stacie. "Even more if you go make us some coffee?"
Stacie laughed softly before she shifted away to stand. "As you wish."
Stacie only grumbled slightly when she came to the realization that Aubrey's clothes wouldn't fit her - the sleep pants were too short and the tops too tight. She grabbed the top sheet from the bed to wrap around her, not wanting to put on the tight jeans and low cut top she wore the night before. Once she was covered she headed downstairs to put on the coffee.
"Morning?" Chloe said as she watched Stacie walk into the kitchen in a sheet she knew had been on Aubrey's bed.
"Morning." Stacie had the good sense to blush.
"I just put coffee on." Chloe said as she leaned back against the counter in a hoodie that Stacie was sure Beca was wearing the night before.
"Aubrey wanted some." Stacie explained, feeling like she was facing Aubrey's sister by the look Chloe was giving her. From her understanding of their relationship she was. Though. Chloe. Would be far and away the most touchy Posen ever.
"She hasn't had much luck when it comes to relationships." Chloe looked at Stacie.
"I really hope she and I don't need luck." Stacie moved around the island to grab a mug for herself, one for Aubrey and one for Chloe. "I care about her, Chloe. I know my reputation and it is true. But I was single, very single, and I never promised anything to anyone I was with." She turned, setting the mugs down next to the coffee maker. "I promised Aubrey things this morning and I plan on keeping my promises to her."
Chloe looked stern for a minute more before breaking into a grin and pulling Stacie into a tight hug at the idea that she and Aubrey were together enough for promises.
"I am so excited for the two of you!"
Stacie laughed at the change in behavior to something much closer to what she knew from Chloe. "I am going to take good care of her Chlo, scouts honor."
"I know you will." Chloe pulled back. "She did that to Beca when she caught Beca making coffee last month. I had to play the part too, ya know?"
"I do." Stacie poured the coffee when it was finished while Chloe went and got the cream for the two of them. "Speaking of the little DJ, she didn't spend the night?"
"No." Chloe made a face. "She had a group project last night and they didn't finish until nearly eleven so she went to her dorm to crash."
"You should have her come over for brunch." Stacie suggested. "And have her swing by my dorm to bring me clothes. She has a key."
"I will text her." Chloe loved the idea of the four of them sharing breakfast. "And then text you if she says yes so you can know if you have something to put on other than the sheet."
"Thanks Chloe." Stacie grabbed her coffee and Aubrey's to head back upstairs.
Beca did agree to both grab Stacie some clothes from her dorm room and to come over for brunch. Once Stacie had something to put on that wasn't what she wore out to the bar the night before she and Aubrey came down from the captain's bedroom.
"I haven't seen you smile this much outside of torturing us with cardio." Beca said from the table. She sat at the table with a coffee in front of her, glasses on instead of her usual contacts and a face free of make up - even eyeliner.
"Stacie has a positive effect on me." Aubrey smiled, turning her head to press a soft kiss to Stacie's jaw.
"Bree." Stacie blushed a bit at the affection.
Chloe moved to the chair. Next to Beca as she watched the pair. She had never seen Aubrey look so relaxed around someone she was seeing. Maybe it helped that Stacie was a Bella, maybe it was she was a woman, maybe it was just the Stacie Conrad effect.
"Alright, let's see if my grandmother would still be proud of me." Stacie opened the fridge to pull out what she could find that would work in a frittata.
"What can I do to help?" Aubrey offered.
"Sit at the table with Beca and Chloe and look cute." Stacie looked over her shoulder with a wink. "I can handle breakfast."
Aubrey wasn't usually one for turning over the kitchen to someone else but for once she decided it couldn't hurt. She sat down, sipping her coffee as Beca and Chloe shared a look.
"What's for breakfast?" Beca asked.
"A spinach, sausage and parmesan frittata." Stacie said as she sat everything on the counter and started digging around for a large enough pan.
"Bottom left." Aubrey directed her to where she needed to look.
"Where did you learn to cook?" Chloe asked, wrapping her arms around Beca as she sat sideways in her chair.
"I went to my grandmother's every day after school while my parents worked. So taught me how to cook all the stuff she grew up with back in Italy plus some American things she picked up." Stacie explained as she started cooking the sausage.
"Can you make pasta?" Beca's eyes lit up a bit at the idea of fresh pasta.
"Duh." Stacie laughed. "That's like Italian 101. Pretty sure I could make it at like seven."
"Did she teach you any Italian?" Aubrey wondered.
"Parlerò italiano per te in qualsiasi momento, mia cara." Stacie looked over her shoulder at Aubrey after offering to speak Italian for her anytime she wanted.
"Si vous me parlez italien, je vous parlerai français." Aubrey smirked.
Stacie grinned as she walked over to Aubrey and kissed up her arm dramatically. "Tish! I just love it when you speak French!" She said in her best Gomez Addams impression.
Beca snorted at the display while Chloe swooned. When Beca felt Chloe's arms tighter around her she shifted back against her.
"I can learn another language to say sweet things to you if you want." Beca offered.
"You already do that with music and it's super romantic." Chloe promised, turning her head to kiss her girlfriend.
"Speaking of music. Why isn't there?" Stacie asked before going back to cooking the sausage before working on wilting all of the spinach.
"Totally can fix that." Beca grabbed her phone and hooked into the speaker in the kitchen. She put on one of her playlists so they could all sing along to the music while Stacie worked.
After brunch had been eaten - all four finishing it off easily - Beca and Chloe had to head out to have coffee with Beca's father. The two Mitchells trying to make more of an effort around each other over the last month or so. Both father and daughter understand how much they missed being in each other's lives.
"What do you want to do today?" Aubrey asked, drying the dishes and putting them away as Stacie washed.
"You." Stacie said honestly.
"Stacie." Aubrey blushed.
"It's true." Stacie bumped her hip against Aubrey's. "But how about we watch a few episodes of something?"
Aubrey took the last plate, drying it slowly. "Grey's Anatomy?"
Stacie took the cloth from her to dry her hands. She leaned against the sink and looked over Aubrey from head to toe and back up again.
"Season five?" Stacie asked.
Aubrey turned so the pair was facing each other. "Yes, even if we end up not watching it very closely while it plays. That might be nice too." She admitted.
"Come on." Stacie bent her head down to press a kiss to Aubrey's cheek. "Let's go up to your room." She laced their fingers together before tugging Aubrey behind her.