Eve Lockhart strode purposefully into the Cold Case Headquarters, a tall cardboard container of coffee in one hand and several files in the other. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, savouring the calm and quiet of the main meeting room before the inevitable storms of the day could begin. Eve had grown to love the office at six thirty in the morning – its dark stillness and tranquillity were mixed with an almost eerie expectancy as the building awaited its daytime occupants. She smiled, sipping her coffee and turning to head towards her lab before registering the light filtering through the blinds of Grace's office, to her left. Frowning, she stepped towards it, unease pricking the edges of her consciousness as she noted that the door was slightly ajar.
"Grace?" She called softly, pushing the door open. "What are you doing here…?"
The words faded in her throat as she took in the sight before her. Boyd was sitting on the couch, his head lolling back in sleep, his breathing regular with the slow rise and fall of his chest. Grace was lying stretched out against him, one of his arms cradling her as she rested against his shoulder. She stirred briefly as Eve watched, mesmerised, from the doorway.
"Oh my God…" Eve breathed, warmth spreading through her chest and a grin forming on her face as she shook her head in disbelief.
As if sensing the presence of another person in the room, Grace's eyelids fluttered open and she blinked rapidly, rousing herself to consciousness, her face flushing instantly as she registered the form of her friend smiling broadly from the doorway.
"Hi, Grace." Eve said jovially, leaning against the frame of the door and folding her arms, her chestnut eyes twinkling. "Do I even want to know...?"
The older woman took a breath to speak, struggling to sit up against her sleeping companion as his arm squeezed her closer to his body.
"You should be grateful we put our clothes back on." Boyd's deep baritone emanated forth unexpectedly and he opened one eye, a lopsided grin spreading slowly across his face.
Grace's eyes widened and she sat up fully, forcing his arm from about herself. "Boyd!"
Eve chuckled throatily. "Curiouser and curiouser...I never had you two pegged as the type to get down and dirty in the office."
Grace dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, God." She groaned, embarrassment consuming her whole body as Boyd and Eve laughed loudly. "Don't pay any attention to him. Please."
"Relax, Grace." The pathologist said once she had regained control of her mirth. "I've learnt to take most things he says with a very large pinch of salt."
Grace's hands slid slowly from her rose-hued cheeks and she smiled, despite Boyd's noises of protest, as the younger woman continued. "Have you been here all night, then?"
"Yeah..." She replied, her eyes flickering to Boyd. "Suppose we must have dozed off."
He yawned. "Like a couple of old farts. Can't take the pace anymore."
Eve grinned. "Well, I wasn't going to say that."
Boyd paused before speaking again and he stood up slowly, pulling Grace gently to her feet with him, his expression sobering as he did so. "Eve..." He began hesitantly, deliberately.
Eve shook her dark head to pre-empt his words and held up her hands. "You don't have to say anything, Boyd. My lips are sealed."
"We're just not ready to..."
"No, I know. I understand."
Grace smiled at her friend. "Thanks. I...we appreciate it, Eve."
She returned the smile warmly, genuinely thrilled by the happy glow radiating from the couple in front of her. "Well," She said, "I'd better get on. I've got my latest results from the body farm to process so..."
Boyd grimaced. "At six thirty in the morning?"
Eve shrugged. "It's as good a time as any."
"If you say so."
She smiled broadly, her eyes shining as she turned to walk away. "I'll see you two later."
Boyd slipped an arm about Grace's waist, dropping a kiss to the top of her head as Eve's face reappeared at the doorway once more.
"Can I just say something?" She asked, almost hesitantly. "Before I promise to drop the subject forever?"
Grace frowned slightly, the expression marring her delicate features and she felt Boyd's body stiffen infinitesimally at her side. "What?"
"Well...if you don't mind me saying so..."
Boyd sighed at her apparent reticence. "Come on, Eve, just spit it out. If you've got something to say, some problem with this, then just..."
A broad smile broke suddenly across Eve's face, her eyes sparkling with happiness as she stopped her boss mid-flow. "I was just going to say...It's about bloody time."
Grace felt relief flood her body at her friend's statement of support and she began to laugh, her shoulders shaking, joy releasing itself unbounded from her soul. Momentarily, Boyd's reaction began to match hers and he pulled her closer to his body, enveloping her completely in his arms as Eve slipped away, her deep laughter reverberating around the walls of the main meeting room as she moved towards her lab.
Slowly, their laughter began to subside and Grace placed her palms flat on his chest as she spoke.
"Want to head home, then? I could do with a shower before facing the day."
Boyd raised his eyebrows. "One each or...?"
She shrugged, stretching up to kiss him slowly, suggestively, on the lips. "Not necessarily."
He grinned widely. "That's the best idea you've had all night."
"You'd better keep up, then, Boyd." She said, her sapphire eyes shining as she began to move out of the office. "I think you'll find I'm full of them."
He laughed joyously, his heart light, his future suddenly fantastically full of promise as he picked up his jacket and followed her out of the building and into the crisp, still morning air.
