That Blue Gibson: Another Round

twenty-one

"Liz..."

She frowned at being woken up but dutifully rolled over in bed so Taylor could strap her to the monitor. Her arm ached from the daily repetitive crush of the cuff as she untangled it from the sheets and covered her eyes with her free hand to try and preserve even just an ounce of sleep hidden behind her eyelids. The familiar sounds of air compression had almost lulled her back to sleep when Taylor gently shook her shoulder.

"Come on," he laughed softly, "The kids are gonna be up soon anyway."

"I hate you," she grumbled, letting him pull her up to sitting. 

"Nah, you love me. I'm gonna go finish the laundry from last night and then we can start breakfast... unless you wanna go out?"

Liz glared at him from under her mess of bedhead and gestured to her almost impossibly huge belly. "You really want to be seen out in public with this mess right now?"

"I'll take you to the Pig n' Pancake," he offered, barely hiding his laugh, "They have those wide booths so you can fit."

"How dare you?" Liz shot back with a giggle and launched one of her many pillows at his face. "I'm gestating your children right now!"

Taylor easily deflected her throw and darted toward the door. "Fine! Goddamnit, woman! All you had to say was no!"

"Make me coffee!" she called after him, waiting until she heard his footsteps far enough away before checking her phone. 

Her heart sunk when she found her notification bar blank but suddenly remembered the phone call she had made in the dead of the night while half asleep with her will power at it's weakest.

"Hello?"

She had to squeeze her eyes shut and hold her breath to keep from bursting into tears, she didn't realize just how desperately she had missed him until she heard his voice. 

"... hello?" he repeated, sounding worried now. "Taylor?"

"Dave?" she managed to squeak out and was met with a sharp gasp in return. There was some scuffling and swearing on his end and then a door closing.

"Liz? Are you okay? What's wrong? Do you-"

She interrupted before he could go completely off the rails with panic, "Nothing, no- everything's fine. Sorry, it's so late, I just... I miss you."

His heavy sigh made her body curl into itself. "I miss you, too. ... so fucking much, Elizabeth. I have to keep reminding myself that you're real and not some year-long fever dream."

She smiled and played with the hem of his shirt, the same one he had left there over a year ago, "How are the kitties?"

"Mom sent me a picture of all four of them asleep on your pillow this morning."

"Oh, great. I can't wait to get home and wake up with a face full of cat hair," she smiled and used the tip of her ring finger to trace the stitching on the blanket in her lap. "...So are you not at home?"

His pause had answered her question before he could, the unspoken words between them were practically a scream. That pervasive, penetrating dread of suspicion on both of their parts, no longer able to just trust what the other was saying. Those horrible tendrils of doubt reaching into every dark corner of their lives together.

She raked her hair up and off her face, tying it into a messy knot as she left her bedroom with those thoughts swirling in her mind. Climbing the steps, she could hear Taylor already working on breakfast and hoped he'd saved at least some coffee for her.