While living with four growing girls has made Owen a rather light sleeper, sharing a bed with Gwen has also taught him to not pay much attention when the covers shift in the middle of the night or the warm body under his arm disappears or reappears, whichever. Sometimes they keep very different hours. They had to learn not to disturb each other, but they managed.

Still, it says a hell of a lot about how exhausted he is that he doesn't wake up when she rises from the couch.

Eventually the absence wakes him, however, and although he experiences a moment of instinctive alarm -- did something happen, is she with Blue, why didn't she wake him -- he groans and rubs his eyes and snaps himself out of it. God. Okay. Today, maybe, they can get Blue out of the hospital, if only to relocate her into Gwen's mother's house. (And what a hell of a way to meet the girlfriend's parent for the first time.)

Blinking around the room finds Gwen over by the door, with a cup of coffee in her hand and a look on her face that suggests she doesn't feel particularly well-rested, either. Owen pushes himself up and joins her, working a stiff muscle out of his shoulder.

"Did you get any sleep?"