Catagory is...Exhausted parents kiss.
Miranda dropped herself onto the edge of the bed with a sigh, just in time for her alarm to start going off on the nightstand. With another sigh she rubbed her hand over her eyes before reaching out to turn it off, if only she had looked over The Book the previous night she could have gotten back into bed for another hour but spending time with her family had been so much more appealing and as always she prioritised her time with them over Runway.
"Hey," she felt the bed move behind her and then a warm body was curling around her back, strong arms wrapping around her stomach, "Where've you been?"
"Nathan got sick, he's only just gone back to sleep." Miranda twisted where she sat slightly to brush her hand over her wifes hair, "He's had some tylanol and he'll probably sleep a couple of hours."
"Why didn't you wake me?" Andrea pushed herself up in bed and pulled Miranda's body to her, kissing her cheek, "I could have sorted him while you got some sleep."
"You need as much sleep as you can get darling," As if to illustrate the point a wale pierced through the quiet, lighting up the baby monitor on Andrea's side of the bed, "See. You go and see to her while I shower then I'll make breakfast."
"Don't worry about breakfast, I know you have to look over The Book this morning. Cara will be here in an hour and we can eat with the girls." Andrea kissed her wife's cheek again before pushing herself out of bed and wandering off to the nursery. Miranda sat for a few moments longer and listened to her wife coo at their daughter, smiling before she headed for the shower hoping that if she kept the water on the cool side it might just wake her up.
Miranda was pleased that her staff would never dare question her work ethic of the length of her work day. It seemed she was getting far too old for sleepless nights and early mornings and by lunch time she was seriously flagging and by the time her one o'clock meeting was over she could barely keep her eyes open and so decided to call it a day.
In the car home she answered her the final emails in her inbox before shutting the device off altogether and burrying it in the bottom of her bag. Resting her head back against the seat she closed her eyes and sighed. Going home early didn't mean she would get any more sleep she knew, the pull of spending time with her family would prove too much. It had been a month since she had returned to work after the birth of Catherine and there hadn't been a day that went by that she hadn't wondered why she was still doing it. Andrea had been so ill after Catherine was born and their daughter so tiny. Catherine was making up for it and was developing the way she should be but Andrea still hadn't bounced back and Miranda hated that she wasn't around to help during the day, hated that even at night she brought work home with her.
Arriving home she followed the sound of the TV to the entertainment room, the picture that greeted her enough to make herstart writing her resignation in her head. Nathan was curled on the sofa, his head pressed into Andrea's thigh, thumb in his mouth and his blanky clutched tightly in his other hand, Andrea had Catherine cradled in one arm as she fed her, her other hand stroking over Nathan's sandy hair and the twins were sprawled on the floor with their homework. Her perfect family were more than worth the exhaustion. Andrea looked up when her shoes hit the floor and her face lit up in a beautiful if exhausted smile.
"Hey," the grin widened as Miranda moved towards her, "You're home early."
"I wasn't getting any work done." she said, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand before she bent to scoop up her son and reposition him on her knee,
"You really should have woken me up to deal with thsi guy," Andrea chastised gently, "I could have caught up on the sleep while they were down for their nap and you wouldn't have had to leave the office early."
"Well I didn't." Miranda smirked, "And I can call Roy and ask him to take me back to the office if you'd rather?"
"Oh no. No, you can stay," Andrea stifled her own yawn and rested her head on her wife's shoulder "Worth it though, isn't it?"
"Oh yes," Miranda murmured, tilting Andrea's face gently up to her own and pressing a long, lazy kiss to her mouth. All of the long days, sleepless night nd early mornings were all made perfectly acceptable, totally worth it when she sat down at the end of the day with this wonderful woman and the life they had built together.