Ch. 83 - When in Marley

                                    

                                          
Weeks Later:
I rolled over in bed, letting out a low groan when I realized the bed was empty besides me. He said he'd come to bed in "just a few minutes". 
Well, I'd fallen asleep, so it was safe to say it'd been a little longer than that. With another groan, I heaved myself up to a sitting position and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
"I'll come to bed soon, my ass," I mumbled as I lifted the blanket up and slipped out of the bed. On near-silent feet I padded through the bedroom and to the door. The only light in the house right now was that coming from the office. As I passed through the kitchen, I glanced out the windows at the moonless night. It was pitch black outside, and still the dead of night.
Emi was asleep, but even if she awoke, we were well past the point of needing to get up to soothe her. She was sleeping through the night relatively well now and had been for many months. But it'd been a bit of a struggle getting to this point because of how often we traveled with her, so perhaps she was behind on that, but she was doing wonderfully now.
It was tough at first, for both of us, more than a year ago now, having to deal with not running to her in the dead of night. It was especially tough in the barracks when we were living in such close quarters with everyone on the coast. But we were here, now. The normalcy had gotten her back on track, and thankfully very quickly at that.
It seemed I still had one baby that needed to learn how to sleep through the night. Once I reached the office, I hesitated on knocking because the door was already ajar. Instead of knocking, I nudged the door open slowly and quietly stepped into the room.
On the desk several files were stacked up, and Levi was focused intently on the one sitting in front of him. There was a lantern by the corner of the desk that was lit, but there were no other sources of light in the room, and it was rather chilly because of the window he'd opened.
Levi was sitting, straight and stiff as a board, in his chair. There was a pen in his hand, but he didn't seem to be signing off on anything. No, it looked more like he was reading through whatever documents he had out. 
Due to the sudden chill, my arms crossed over my chest to preserve the warmth I still held from being under the covers. My husband didn't seem to notice me until I was just on the other side of the desk from him. He finally managed to tear his eyes from the documents to meet my own waiting pair. 
"What are you still doing up?"
"I should be asking you that," I said softly. All was quiet in the house and in the room; even speaking as I was, just louder than a whisper seemed too loud, somehow, as if it would smash the serenity of the hour. "I woke up and you still weren't in bed."
"I got distracted."
"I can see that." Then, a pause. "I got worried," I added softly. Come to bed, baby."
"Can't sleep," he mumbled, returning his attention to the documents in front of him.
"Strange, that," I said with a smile, "considering you didn't even try." 
I uncrossed my arms as I stepped around the desk and came to a stop behind his chair. He turned his head slightly, as if wondering what the hell I was up to, but his eyes closed, and he let out a content sigh as I ran my fingers gently through his hair. 
"Oh, would you look at that? I think you might be a little stressed, and in need of some sleep, love."
He huffed a little when my fingers left his scalp, and I stepped to the side of his chair so I could lean over to look over what he was comfortably. "Just go back to bed, Amaya. I'll be right in."