Dempsey followed Harry as she began to climb the stairs. This was turning out to be one of the strangest, yet most exhilarating nights of his entire life. As Harry opened her bedroom door, she walked across the bedroom and slipped under the duvet, lying on her back. Dempsey closed the door behind her and walked across to the foot of the bed. He saw Harry settling down and froze.
Harry plumped her pillows and caught sight of Dempsey looking at the bed rather awkwardly.
"You don't have a preferred side of the bed, do you?!"
He looked at her, his eyes widened. She smirked at him which put him at ease a little.
He smiled. "Er.... no...." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"James Dempsey, I do believe you're blushing."
He laughed uneasily. Harry enjoyed having the upper hand.
"Well you know Harry, I have imagined this more than once!"
"Have you? It's not the first time we've been forced to share a bed!"
"Yeah, but...."
"But what?!"
"But this is the first time we ain't pretendin' to be undercover!"
Harry smiled. "Well, if it makes you feel at ease, let's pretend!"
Dempsey made to start – but Harry continued.
"Even better, let's pretend we're a married couple who've had a row! I can sleep with my back to you and you won't even have to look at me!"
Dempsey raised his eyebrows. Harry's tone was a little harsh at the end.
"....If I bother you so much!"
"Hey, get off your high horse! You know I wanna be in here with you!"
Harry couldn't help an involuntarily smile, which didn't go unnoticed by Dempsey.
"Then, would you kindly stop standing over my bed! I'm not used to strange men ogling me in my night things!"
Dempsey smirked as he slipped in bedside her, his arms crossing behind his head. Harry turned the light off next to her. The next half hour passed with wriggling around from both of them, each of them consciously aware of the other body next to them. Neither of them were used to it. Harry hadn't shared her bed with anyone for a long time, and Dempsey had stopped picking up women when he realised his feelings for Harry for much deeper than he first anticipated. Harry had her back to Dempsey, but he knew she was no more asleep than he was.
"You awake, Harry?"
Harry shifted her head slightly. "Dempsey, how could I possibly be asleep with you thinking so loudly?"
Dempsey smirked and he felt Harry turn over to face him. He was lying on his back so turned his head to face her. The room was dark but he could just make out the outline of her face.
"So come on, what are you thinking about?"
"What am I not thinking about?!"
Harry sighed.
"Sorry, Harry, go to sleep."
"I can't until you go to sleep!"
Dempsey smiled and he knew Harry was smiling back.
"It's just, for weeks I was in that grotty bedsit when I was getting close to Myra...all the time, I was thinking of....dreaming of....." He tailed off.
"What?" Harry dared to hope.
"Do I need to say it?"
Harry smiled.
"You know I didn't sleep either for worrying about you. Wondering what you were doing. Who you were with..."
"You know nothing happened with Myra, don't you?"
"Do I?"
"Harry!" –
Harry paused. The thought of Dempsey with Myra made her feel sick to her stomach.
"You told me you didn't care anyways."
"That was then. I thought the point was that I told you I did care."
Dempsey stopped. Harry continued.
"I know it's going to take a while to for you to get back to normal, but I want you to know I'm always her for you to talk to. About anything."
Dempsey smiled, feeling the happiest he had in a long time. He leaned over towards her, his hand slowly caressed her face.
"I know," he whispered.
Harry reached up and put her hand on top of his. "You think you can get some sleep?"
"Yeah, Princess...Would I be pushin' it if I asked you to sidle on over here to sleep?!"
Harry smirked but instead of turning her back to him and telling to be "be quiet!" she found herself moving closer to him.
"Woah, I didn't expect you to agree!"
"I can move back if you want?!"
"No!" Dempsey reached to put his arm around her and she rested her head on his chest.
"Besides, I'm only doing this so you can't steal the covers from me!"
"Sure honey!" Harry tapped him on the chest affectionately. They both knew she was lying.
They didn't know what was going on between them, or what was going to happen between them in the future. But for now, they were settled, they were content, they were together again. And then sleep came.