Snapshots | ✓

Forty Six: Hayes

Saturday, May 21st, 2016

Hayes woke up to a hand brushing her hair off of her face. She didn't remember falling asleep but the room was dark so she must have been sleeping for a few hours.

"Hey," Micah whispered, hovering above her. "Are you—"

His words were cut off as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tighter than she'd ever hugged anyone before. He tentatively returned the hug. She buried her face in his shoulder and screwed her eyes shut. "You're never allowed to leave the apartment again."

"I can't promise that, but I have been given next week off as they organize a temporary new office for us," he replied, finally giving in and sitting next to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Once she had convinced herself he was real she drew back and inspected him. He had a scrape on his forehead above his right eye and a cut on his right cheek, but she couldn't see anything else wrong with him. He was still in his suit, although it was significantly more rumpled than it had been when she'd last seen him.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"Why would you think I'm not fine?"

"You're watching the news," he pointed out.

"I've been waiting for updates on what happened. I can turn it off now if you'd like," she offered, already reaching for the remote. He didn't stop her so she pressed the off button and returned the remote to the table. The room was dark and quiet without the drone of the television, Micah's face illuminated only by the light coming in through the window. It gave the scene a dreamlike quality that Hayes found herself praying would go away. "What happened to your face?"

"Falling debris while I was helping search for people. It looks worse than it feels," he replied, relaxing into the couch.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry about me."

"Of course I worry about you."

"Worried about how you'd pay rent this last month without me?" he teased. When she didn't reply with her own joke he opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at her. "Hayes?"

She closed the small gap between them and gently pressed her lips to his, innocent and shy and unsure. He froze for a moment then softened, pushing back the tiniest amount. Before it could go any further she broke the kiss, rocking back to her seat and meeting his confused and cautious eyes. "I was worried about you because I care about you."

Emotions flickered across his face too fast for her to register them before settling on understanding, then shifting to something warmer. He murmured her name and leaned forward to kiss her again. His mouth moved against hers with an urgency she didn't know he possessed and she was struck by how close she'd been to losing him—how close he'd been to dying.

With that knowledge fuelling her intensity she pushed herself up and threw one leg across him so she was straddling him. Her hands skimmed down his chest to grip the lapels of his jacket and she pulled herself against him, pinning him between her and the back of the couch. Her breath hitched as his fingers gently settled on the backs of her bare thighs, sending a sharp jolt of wanting through her every fibre. She moved back for a moment, meeting his eyes to ensure they were on the same page, then crashed back into him. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders and then went to work on his tie as he got it off completely and tossed it away. With expert fingers she undid the knot without looking at it, casting it aside and starting on his shirt buttons.

Her phone buzzed at the other end of the couch. Shit. Hayes shifted her mouth away from his, trailing her lips across his jaw line and down his neck until her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Wait, wait, hold on. I promised your family I would make you call them as soon as you got home," she said.

"It's the middle of the night."

"They won't mind being woken up. Believe me."

He nodded. "Can I borrow your phone, then? Mine died."

She stretched across the couch to grab it from where it had been charging and passed it to him, then nestled back into his neck. There was nothing in the world she would have moved for in that moment.