#theyre so close to being canon i can taste it

A written-in-one-sitting drabble because I’m FEELING SO MANY THINGS.

Written as a tag to 4x05.

Phil could feelher eyeroll–despite the fact that he was staring at the back of her head. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail as she changed Tai Chi positions. Phil found himself thinking about how much he liked her hair at this longer length before he was able to shove down his admiration and focus on the reason he was there.

“Is there even the slightest chance you’re going to let it go?” Melinda sounded dry and tired, and yet…hesitant? An unusual tone for his partner.

“Nope.” Phil kept his voice light as he clicked the door to her room shut and leaned against it. She knew he was the only one at base who would dare enter her room without waiting for a response to the knock, and she knew why he sought her out. He wanted to know more.

Melinda took in a deep breath and smoothly switched positions, turning to the side so Phil had a view of her profile. Watching Melinda do Tai Chi always relaxed him, ever since the Academy. Her graceful movements and serene expression eased away his tension, and she radiated in a way that made it difficult for him to look away.

“You said I was there, but you didn’t say what happened. Was it a dream?” Phil mused aloud, watching as her body grew more tense the more he spoke. “A nightmare?  A memory? Something…else?”

Melinda finally dropped her hands to her sides and threw him a look of exasperation, and he raised his eyebrows innocently at her in response. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready to go out on another mission?” Melinda gestured to his suit and tie.

“I’ve still got time,” Phil answered easily. Melinda shook her head and strode over to grab her water bottle from her desk, which stood right by the door.

“Well? I’m just wondering what could have happened, because you’re deliberately not telling me, which makes me think it must not have been good.”

Melinda’s water bottle barely touched her lips before she put it down, not taking a single sip. She just looked at him instead, her eyes intense with emotion Phil couldn’t decipher.

“I mean, were you seeing me in the infected zombie form?” Phil continued, hoping she would get fed up with him and tell him before the curiosity ate him alive. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the way Melinda was acting made him suspicious. His heart was beating faster for reasons he didn’t stop to think about, and he felt like he needed to know what she saw. It was important somehow. A piece of a larger puzzle that he needed in order to solve it. “Was it–”

Suddenly, Melinda’s hand yanked at his tie and Phil stumbled into her. Her lips pressed against his in the most captivatingway. He barely had a chance to touch his hands to her waist before she pulled away. 

“That,” Melinda’s voice was slightly breathless, making her impossibly more attractive as she looked up at him with dark, imploring eyes. “That’s what I saw.”

Phil just stared at her in disbelief, trying to process what this meant. For him. For them. He could see the uncertainty in Melinda’s eyes, and knew he had to assure her quickly before the curtains were drawn over her emotions and she withdrew from him.

“Well,” Phil said slowly. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

Melinda’s eyebrows drew together and she opened her mouth to respond before Phil stepped back into her space and smiled softly, one arm circling around her waist and drawing her closer to himself. His other hand slid around her neck. “It would have been nice to know that I could have done this earlier.”

He bent his head and caught a glimpse of her smile right before he kissed her.