Alex leaned on the doorframe, catching Emily's eyes in the vanity mirror and offering her the softest smile. Emily paused in her work of brushing the knots from her hair to glance over her shoulder at Alex, meeting her gaze properly and returning the smile, before turning back to the mirror.

She'd never quite felt worthy of being looked at like that – like she was being worshipped. Alex's love had always felt like something too good, too pure for this world. Emily knew she could live a hundred lifetimes and still never deserve Alex.

She could feel Alex's gaze still on her and when she once again locked eyes in the mirror, she watched, awestruck, as Alex's tongue flicked out over her bottom lip languidly. Emily let out a shuddering breath at the simple action, warmth flooding through her.

As if she knew exactly what she was doing to her, Alex proceeded to slowly unbutton her blouse to expose her naked breasts.

"Don't start something you can't finish..." Emily managed to choke out a coherent sentence in spite of the way her brain seemed to be stalling like an old car.

Alex raised a brow, grinning silkily. "Who says I can't finish it?" she retorted. She twisted a lock of hair around one finger as she silently dared Emily to come and take what she was offering... When Emily made no such move, Alex approached behind her, wrapping her arms around her to work on unbuttoning her blouse as well.

"Alex..." she rasped, swallowing thickly as delicate fingers found the skin of her stomach and began tracing delicate patterns on it.

Lips pressing tender kisses along the back of her neck, Alex remained steadfast in her mission, ministrations delicate yet demanding. Emily, of course, wasn't made of stone...and she easily relinquished her self-control and turned in Alex's embrace, backing her into the bathroom wall as she sealed her lips in a hungry kiss.

Alex whimpered into the kiss, wrapping an arm around Emily's neck to anchor herself when she was no longer sure she trusted her legs to keep her upright. Her other hand sought out Emily's interlacing their fingers and letting the tender gesture keep her grounded in the moment.

Emily watched Alex sip her wine, lips stained red from the liquor, and all she wanted to do was kiss her again and taste the sweet alcohol on her tongue. Instead, though, she asked, "Can you answer something for me?

"Okay...?" Alex said slowly, brow raised as she set aside her wine glass so she could properly fix Emily with her full attention.

"That horse of yours – Strawberry..."

"Strawberry?" Alex laughed brightly, her eyes absolutely lighting up at the mention of the appaloosa mare she'd owned since her parents had given her the foal as a sweet sixteen present. "I loved that horse..." She paused, still smiling with fondness at the deluge of memories flooding her chest until she could scarcely breathe. "What brought that up?"

"Seeing you ride again," Emily explained. In truth, she thought of it often, but it had been the free and easy smile upon Alex's face as she rode John Blackwolf's nameless mare that truly reminded her more than anything else. Alex hummed a note, nodded for her to continued. "Something I always wondered about... When we had to put her down, you whispered to her, like you were telling secrets. Do you remember?" When she nodded, Emily asked, "What was it you told her?"

Alex cocked her head to the side slightly, her smile becoming slightly sad. She spent a few moments trying to phrase her answer before she murmured, "I reminded her of things. How she liked to gallop through the first snow every year. I reminded her of this one time, I was in high school and it was some October...we were heading home and the full moon was just coming up and she stopped and stared like she cared about the moonrise as much as me. And when we put Ethan on her back for the very first time she stood so still, like she knew she had to take care of him..." She paused, struggling to hold back tears. "I wanted to send her on her way with happy memories."

Emily watched her wife fight back her sadness, eyes lifting to the ceiling as she blinked back the threatening onslaught of tears. "I'm sorry..." she whispered at length.

"Sorry?" she asked, confused. "Why?"

Reaching across the table to wipe away an errant tear that had managed to escape, Emily said, "I made you sad. That's not what I wanted..."

"You didn't make me sad, Em." If there was one thing her wife could never ever do, it was make her sad.

She wasn't sure she believed that, but she didn't say as much. "What I wanted is to tell you what sticks with me. Strawberry and you...this woman I married, but can't figure out. Who doesn't believe there's any world besides this one, but still believes a horse has got a soul somehow." She smiled, shook her head fondly. "That's the woman for me."

It had been a long time – longer than she could really remember – since Alex had felt quite as close to her wife as she did in that restaurant, her hand resting on Emily's wrist, stroking figure-eights on her pulse point with her finger. Emily's gaze was on her, lips quirked up in a loving smile, and she could almost feel the blush creeping up her cheeks, feeling like she was the only thing that existed in the world in that moment.

And, in spite of the looming two AM deadline, she could almost almost forget about everything that had happened, was still happening... She could almost remember what it felt like to just be whole and at peace and happy.

Almost.

Because she knew that Finley was so close to being safe in their arms, but was still so very very far from being safe and theirs.