Emily yawned, shuffled into the kitchen. "Morning," she mumbled. She hadn't planned on spending the night at Alex's place, but after they'd gotten coffee, it had started pouring rain and they'd darted to Alex's car, soaked and laughing. Then, in the heat of the moment, breathing heavily and staring into each other's eyes, they'd both surged forward at once and kissed fiercely.

Alex glanced up from the paper with a little smirk that exposed just a hint of fang. "Good morning," she replied, crossing the room to kiss her, making Emily whimper. "Sleep well?"

Emily quirked a brow. "Well, my neck hurts..." she said with a grin. For emphasis, she rolled her head back and forth, her neck popping and cracking with the movement. She didn't need to comment further for Alex to understand what she was referring to.

Alex laughed, shook her head with a fond smile. "You're incorrigible, you know that, right?"

"That's not what you were saying last night," she murmured against her lips, unable to resist an opportunity to be mischievous.

Rolling her eyes, she pulled back from the kiss, still smiling. "I'm afraid we'll need to go out for breakfast if you're hungry – I wasn't exactly expecting company..."

"Are you sure you want to be seen with me?" Emily asked, suddenly uncertain. "After...well, you know?" She wasn't sure why she didn't want to say the actual words – whether she didn't want to relive the experience or didn't want Alex to feel bad for inadvertently causing it...or maybe just fearing a Beetleguise effect – either way, she left the sentence awkwardly hanging there, unfinished.

Alex's face became a stony mask and, for a moment, Emily was afraid she was the target. "I'm not letting my ex-husband dictate how I live my life – he already did that when he turned me, but that stops now." A beat, during which her expression softened, became almost shy. "Unless you don't want..."

Emily rushed to interrupt, "I do want!" Her face flushed with embarrassment almost immediately at her urgency. "I mean... I still want to try...if you do." Internally, she cursed the way she seemed to lose all eloquence at Alex's proximity. (She'd always heard love made you stupid and, apparently, she was living proof of that.)

"Let's go away this weekend," Alex said abruptly.

Cocking her head, Emily said dumbly, "Like...together?"

"Is that crazy? I mean, I know it's too soon, but I think we could reconnect," she babbled.

"Won't that just piss him off further?" Emily asked.

Alex crossed the short distance between them to ghost her lips over Emily's. "The question, I think...is do you care?"

With a little laugh, Emily closed the distance between them.


"Going somewhere?" Clara asked, flopping down on Emily's bed, sending the piles of clothes she'd spent the last twenty minutes painstakingly organizing off-kilter. And, undoubtedly, transferring cat hair onto all of her clothes in the process.

Emily tossed a sweater at Clara's face with a frustrated huff. "Would you?" she retorted. "I have to finish packing."

"Because you're going away for a romantic weekend with a woman you're 'not' dating?" Clara asked with a knowing smirk. She absolutely loved to use Emily's own words against her – she had an almost supernatural ability to remember things Emily had said and file them away to fire back at the least opportune moments. (If she didn't know for a fact Clara was a witch, she might've thought her an android from her encyclopedic memory alone.)

Rolling her eyes, Emily sing-songed, "None of your business."

Clara continued, "And you also spent the night with this women you aren't dating..."

"I don't recall asking for you to stick your witchy nose in my sex life," Emily muttered, then realized her slip. Her cheeks flushed bright red "Not that there's a sex life..." she mumbled.

Clara just smirked triumphantly. "So, where are you going on this little sex-cation?" she inquired.

She huffed. "Not that it's any of your business...but we're going to Virginia Beach."

Clara barked out a laugh.

"What?"

"You're taking a vampire to the beach?" she asked. "Won't there be a lot of spontaneous combustion involved?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Alex likes the ocean at night."

"I meant you," Clara replied, completely straight-faced.

Emily just glared.


Emily dropped her suitcase by the door, quickly shutting it after her to block out the light of the setting sun. She hadn't timed things quite as well as she'd hoped, so there was still a hint of sun when they arrived; Alex had been prepared for that, though, which explained the ridiculously oversized sunhat she currently wore.

Emily was doing her best not to laugh at Alex's rather comical appearance and, apparently, Alex knew it... "If you laugh, you absolutely will not be getting any this weekend," she threatened.

Holding her hands up in self-defence, Emily vowed, "I would never."

Alex just rolled her eyes.

Pulling Alex into her chest (and, in the process, pulling off her hat and tossing it aside), Emily stole a kiss, all the while smirking mischievously. "What do you say we order room service and wait for the sun to set..." she suggested, with a little waggle of her brows.

"You really do have a one-track mind, don't you?" Alex asked, but she said so with fondness shining in her eyes.

Emily just shrugged. "Can you blame me? When you look like that, it's hard to think of anything else."

Rolling her eyes playfully, Alex just leaned in to kiss her again. When she pulled away, she said, "Thank you..."

Emily raised a brow. "For what?"

"Agreeing to do this. Come here, with me..." She shrugged. "To try again, in spite of everything."

"I have often been accused of being stubborn to the point of foolishness," she said. "Though, I prefer to think of it as tenacious."

Alex pretended to think for a moment, then remarked, "I think, perhaps, it's a little of both..."

Pouting, Emily said, "Gee, thanks." But she said it with a smile.