Opening her eyes, she had to blink several times as her vision blurred through watery eyes. Her head throbbed. It was way too bright in her room. Sensing she was awake, Watson sat up, pushing his upper body away from her and began washing his face. Turning her head away from him, Ellie saw exactly what she expected to see - exactly what she didn’t want to see. Michael’s sleeping face, here in her bed, in her space...

Despite her head aching, she could still tell from the lack of other aches and pains - not to mention all the clothes on her body - that they hadn’t had sex. He’d just slept beside her. The way a real boyfriend might do.

What did it mean?

What would he expect it to mean?

What would he expect to change from now on?

Panic welled up, bubbling as something must have woken him up and he stretched and then opened his eyes, his sleep-muddled hazel gaze meeting hers. Ellie just stared at him. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, how to act... Part of her liked that he was here, another part of her wanted to scream at him and ask what the hell he was doing here. The last part of her just wanted to close her eyes and pretend to be asleep so he would leave and she wouldn’t have to deal with him at all. The last would have been her preferred option, but it was way too late to dissemble now.

“Whoops,” he smiled sheepishly, propping himself up on one hand as he raked his fingers through his messy hair. “I must have fallen asleep, I didn’t mean to.”

Hurt pinged at the feeling of rejection, which didn’t make sense since she wasn’t even sure she wanted him there - in fact, given the choice between waking up to finding him there and waking up to just her and Watson in bed, she would definitely choose just her and Watson - but reason didn’t stop the emotion. Just like reason didn’t stop her sudden rush of anger that he had fallen asleep in her bed, invading her space, even if it had been an accident.

“You shouldn’t have,” she said shortly, her voice clipped, as she grabbed Watson so she could flip the covers up and quickly get out of the bed, holding her protesting cat who was annoyed at the interruption to his morning wash. “You should have left.”