Quietly, trying not to disturb her sleeping girlfriend, she rolled over so she was facing Liz's back. She lifted her head off the pillow to see the clock on the other side of the bed. It read 6:28, so she had two more minutes. She let her head fall back on the pillow, letting her eyes fall closed. She could hear her lover's breathing, so soft, almost silent. A kind of peace settled over her as she thought of the last few months, and how things had changed for her.
Her eyes, half open, lingered on her partner's mane of blonde hair, the curve of her neck, and her strong shoulders. She felt a warmth build up inside her as she let her mind draw the rest of her lover's body which was hidden under the sheets: every angle, every gently sloping curve, all the perfections and imperfections she now knew by heart and by touch.
Casey ran her tongue over her lips as she thought of waking Elizabeth herself, with butterfly kisses and gentle, feathery touches but lost track of time and heard the alarm clock beep. Quickly, but carefully, she reached over her sleeping lover and pressed the snooze button, kissing her neck as she leaned back into her pillow.
Elizabeth groaned and turned around, facing Casey who was unsuccessfully resisting the urge to fall back asleep.
Casey couldn't help but smile a sleepy grin before leaning in for a good morning kiss. As their lips came together, Casey searched her mind for any reason at all she could use to stay in bed a bit longer. But she had to go to work, and she knew Liz wouldn't be staying either. Both women loved their work.
After her suspension, Casey thought she'd never love a job again, but she found work helping battered women and it became a true passion for her. It was also this job that reintroduced the two women. When she ran into Elizabeth Donnelly at a fund-raiser for the shelter, the awkwardness evaporated quickly into the comfort of their old friendship. Casey didn't see it happen, but before the evening was over, Casey had invited Liz to a softball game. Or had Liz invited herself? Casey found things around Liz became blurry.
The softball game was ...interesting.
The night ended with the two women tangled in each others limbs, and several other evenings ended the same over the next few months. They found in each other a peace, a sense belonging that neither had really felt before. It was physical, visceral but sweet and real at the same time.
Their relationship was not without its struggles; still something about the pair just worked. And while Liz was unable to commit to a monogamous relationship, Casey found that it wasn't as big of a deal as she had once imagined: that in practice, her lover's dalliances were few and far between. Casey also knew that Liz also worried about public perception of her non-monogamy, and while it seemed fine while she was ostensibly single, she worried that in a relationship, she would be expected, even if not by Casey, to be monogamous... which she couldn't, or wouldn't be.
But Casey felt instinctively that love was simple.
Stepping out of the shower, Casey gazed at her lover who was looking so serious, reading at her desk. She walked up and wrapped her wet arms around Liz, dropping kisses on her neck, egged on by a small moan that escaped those so-serious lips.
When she heard someone at the door, she hopped up and answered it. She could taste his shock. Like biting into an onion and finding it sweet: not unpleasant but disconcerting nonetheless. She smiled at her old colleague, and invited him in. It hadn't occured to her that no one knew about them. Casey had been staying regularly for the last six months; Now she was living there full time.
Elliot's reaction told her that nobody knew. She didn't know that but trusted that Liz had her reasons. When Casey apologized, Liz didn't seem upset, still winking cheekily as she descended the stairs to speak to her early-morning caller.
Casey Novak went back to the bedroom to get dressed. She had a busy day ahead, and happily, when she went home, she'd be here again, with Liz.
She was smiling as she skipped lightly down the stairs, wondering what she could cook up for Liz's breakfast.
She stopped suddenly when she saw Elizabeth leaning with her back to the door. Light flooded in the windows around the door and made the older woman appear as a shadow, her head down and shoulders slumped, arms crossed tightly around her chest.
Casey thought then that maybe love was only simple in a vacuum.
