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John slowed as he passed by Elizabeth's door, debating whether he could get away with spending the rest of the night in her room. But it was nearly 3am and he couldn't bring himself to disturb her sleep, so he continued towards the end of the hall and his own quarters.
Palming the door and bringing the lights up halfway, John made it about three steps into his room before he noticed the figure mostly buried under the sheets and blankets of his bed. With a raised eyebrow, he sat by her waist and brushed her curls off her face. Elizabeth scrunched her nose and furrowed her brow before blinking her eyes open and squinting up at him. "You're back early," she said, voice thick with sleep.
"And you're in the wrong bed."
Her eyes were already drifting closed. "Missed you." She sighed heavily, burrowing her face into the pillow, and John smiled even as he bit back the disappointment. Elizabeth never gave pieces of herself away that easily so he knew she'd never really woken up. He'd learned a couple months after they'd started sleeping together that she could carry on a perfectly coherent conversation without ever being fully awake; the next morning, she never remembered a thing. Tonight wouldn't be any different.
Rising, he tucked the blankets around Elizabeth and headed for the bathroom; five days off-world had left him in need of a very long, very hot shower.
After he'd showered and changed, he squeezed into the narrow bed beside Elizabeth. "Move over," he whispered, nudging her, and she snuffled and rolled half on top of him. Not exactly what he'd meant, John thought, but he'd take it. And even if she hadn't been awake when she'd told him she'd missed him, that didn't make it any less true. All in all, he mused as he wrapped his arms around her, not a bad homecoming.
--end--