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Waking the first time was like swimming through cold water, emerging gasping into colder air.
"Griffin!" I reached into the void for his hand, knowing without doubt that he would be there.
And of course he was.
"Right here, darling," his hand grasped mine, bringing with it the warmth of the sun and all the good things that live in the daylight. "I'm here. Go back to sleep."
That seemed like a wonderful idea, and so I did just that.
-----
Waking again was somewhat less jarring. I had dreamed of the sea, which is not unusual, though it had of late become something that did not terrify me very much at all. It was beginning to become something of a comfort, because my mother was there, and my sister, all of the family I need other than Griffin and Christine. This dream, however, had taken a turn into something else.
None of it was distinct in my mind, only an impression of extreme cold that lingered even as I woke. Griffin was asleep in a chair beside my bed, still holding my hand. I tried to say his name, but instead was seized by a fit of coughing.
"Ival. How do you feel?" he asked. "Thirsty?"
Still coughing, I nodded, and though I did not want to let go of his hand I knew I must if I wished to be able to speak again.
Griffin squeezed my hand before releasing it and crossing the room to fill a glass from the pitcher. I saw he was shaking as he handed it to me, but I was unable to ask until I had slowly sipped most of it. "What happened?" I asked, my coughing finally under control.
"You don't remember?"
"I don't, though I feel that I should." From the look on his face, Griffin seemed less than enthusiastic about filling me in on recent events, and I gave in to my own shameless urge to allow us both to avoid what I assumed to be terrible details. "Tell me later. Right now, I would rather you just warm me up. I'm so very cold." I felt that whatever may have happened, I should be grateful simply to be alive, here at home with my husband.
Griffin raised both eyebrows at the naked desire in my tone. "You know I am always willing to warm you up."
"That's what I was hoping you would say." I moved to make room for him in the bed, lifting the blanket in invitation. The air that struck my bare skin made me shiver; I was not exaggerating about being cold. "I believe I have read somewhere that it's best to be naked, when fighting hypothermia."
Griffin laughed. "You are hardly at risk of hypothermia here in your bedroom, under the covers with a roaring fire just across the room." Despite his obvious amusement, he began to undress.
"You shouldn't laugh at me," I said, sniffing a little. "I might not remember all of the details just now, but I am fairly certain that I am deserving of your sympathy."
"Oh, you have that," he assured me, turning down the lamp before sliding into bed beside me. "Sympathy and anything else you may desire, my Ival."
He was extremely warm, and I pressed my body close to his to take full advantage of that fact. "I desire you," I said, unable to hide the truth of my words.
This time he didn't tease me, but simply kissed me. I could feel his heat defeating the chill that I had thought had begun to settle in my bones, first from his mouth and then his hands as they slowly wandered over my body. My shivers became something else, not cold but heat and love. "Please," I whimpered, not sure myself what I begged for but trusting that Griffin would know what I did not.
"Anything," he promised, and the heat of his hand on my member was more incredible than ever before in contrast to the lingering chill of my skin. "I will always keep you warm." He moved slowly, gently and sweetly, until I was panting against his shoulder, trying and failing to remain still under his insistent touch. "I want to make you fall apart, only to keep you together."
I had no words to respond to that, only a catching of my breath.
"Like that," he whispered, continuing the work of his hand and drawing another, far less dignified sound from my lips. "Do that again."
I complied happily, falling into the warmest and safest sort of ecstacy, coming to myself in Griffin's arms some time later.
"Are you warm enough now?" he whispered, kissing my brow.
I nodded, already drifting into a sleep far more peaceful than any other I had experienced recently. "Yes, thank you. Though I still can't recall what happened in the water."
Griffin chuckled. "Sleep now, my dear. Perhaps you will remember in the morning."
I let myself slip under the calm wave of sleepiness that enveloped me, there in Griffin's arms.
-----
Waking up to a pounding at the front door was something I have never felt a need to grow accustomed to. It is rarely a harbinger of good news, after all. And it is usually Christine, usually far nearer to dawn than I like to see. Griffin stifled a groan against my chest, but did not linger too long, lest the neighbors be disturbed by the pounding that I'm sure would have awakened all of Widdershins should it be allowed to continue much longer.
While Griffin quickly dressed, Saul leapt lightly up on the the bed beside me, and I scratched his ears and let him comfort me into a light drowse with his purr. I would have been happy to remain there all day, but Christine's persistent tones would not allow any such thing.
"Whyborne! Don't tell me you're still lazing about?" she demanded, striding into my bedroom with Griffin, seemingly helpless to stop her, trailing along behind her.
"Christine!" I pulled the quilt up to my chin, scandalized at her presence in my bedroom. "I am hardly 'lazing', in my own bed at this hour. What on earth are you doing here?"
Uninvited, she sat on the edge of the bed and scratched Saul behind the ears, causing the volume of the traitor cat's purr to increase to house-shaking levels. "I have news," she said. "It can't wait all day for you to join the living."
"Can't it wait until I am properly dressed?" I cast a pleading glance at Griffin, but he was lounging in the doorway and looking far too amused to be any help at all.
"No." Christine was both unrepentant and smug, an unattractive combination for anyone. "Kander and I have decided to marry. Furthermore, we have decided to actually have a wedding, and if we're going to do that, we might as well be traditional. I will require someone to accompany me on my walk down the aisle. Will you?"
I opened my mouth in astonishment, but it was a very long moment before I could actually form words. Even then, it was only, "Oh, God!", not in response to Christine's request but to the recently lost memories that came suddenly flooding in.
Not that Christine knew that.
"Of course, I'm not asking you to 'give me away'. The very concept is degrading to us both! I'm only asking you to walk with me, as a friend-"
I don't know what my face must have looked like to make Christine, of all people, stop talking, but she went silent very suddenly. Griffin left his post at the doorway and stopped short of sitting on the bed beside me only because I regained control of myself enough to stop him. I really could not take any more impropriety that just having Christine, even had I been fully dressed under the covers.
"I remember!" I gasped. "Last night! I was at a wedding."
"Yes, you were," Griffin confirmed reluctantly. "Is that all you recall?"
I started to raise my hands to clutch at my head, but the quilt began to slip and I managed to refrain. "It was... underwater?" Recollection returned to me slowly. "Persephone!"
Christine was looking at me as if I were even more insane than she usually insisted I was. "You don't remember your sister's wedding?" She snickered, and I felt my face burn with embarrassment. "How much did you drink?"
"I... I don't remember that, either." I looked to Griffin for assistance. "How did I get home?"
"Your new brother-in-law brought you." Griffin had not been able to attend the ceremony as I, somewhat reluctantly, given it was in fact under the sea, had, but when one's long lost twin sister invites one to her wedding, one does not refuse simply because of location.
"Stone Biter?" Even as I said his name, I regained a hazy recollection of being slung over his shoulder and hauled ignomiously through the fog-shrouded streets. At least it was unlikely that we had been seen by anyone other than Griffin. "He thought it was all terribly funny."
The corner's of Griffin's mouth were twitching suspiciously. "Yes. He did."
Christine didn't even attempt to hide her amusement. "You got drunk at your sister's wedding and had to be carried home by her sea monster husband?"
"He isn't a monster," I corrected automatically. "He's family."
"Indeed," murmured Griffin, and Christine laughed again.
It was more than I could bear. I slid under the quilt and pulled a pillow over my head.
"Oh, my dear. It isn't as bad as all that."
Christine snorted again at Griffin's attempt at reassurance. "Good gad, Whyborne. Don't be so melodramatic."
"Don't worry." My voice was muffled by the pillow. "I won't ruin your wedding."
"Of course you won't. If you start to do anything stupid, I'll haul you through the streets myself. And you know I am far worse than any sea monster, family or no."
I believed her, and vowed not to touch a single drop of alcohol if only she would leave me in peace to get dressed.