What she didn't expect to see was a pair of milk crates stacked next to a towel-wrapped bundle outside their door, full of assorted insulated steel bottles and hot beverage pitchers. A note on the top proclaimed "BATHTIME" in a swooping large-font-size version of Allie's cursive, and when Sam inquisitively unwrapped the towel (aided/hampered by Rufus' curious sniffing), they found a familiar insulated pot labeled "DINNER". They all laughed lightly at the surprise, and Rebecca felt an emotional prequel to the warm physical comfort Allie had prepared for them spreading in her core as she unlocked their door for Patrick. As he bumped the door open and held it from inside with his foot, she stooped to pick up the two crates and Sam wrapped her arms around the towel-clad pot and rose.

Patrick set Rebecca's box of belongings down in a vacant space on their coffee table and began unslinging bags from his shoulders. "Where do you ladies want your stuff?"

"Oh, the dining table's fine, we probably won't even touch it tonight." Rebecca hefted the crates onto one of the counter stools so conveniently near waist height, and switched on a lantern on the counter. "Thank you again, you didn't have to carry everything... though we certainly appreciate it."

"Well you know us farm boys and our endurance." Patrick delivered the subtle dig with a perfectly straight face, but Sam could tell from Rebecca's sputter that there was a reference in there and arched her eyebrow at them from the kitchen as she unwrapped the pot again on the counter.

Rebecca gave her a little grin and shook her head. "Anyway. Goodnight, Patrick, Give Chrissie a hug for us."

"I will. I better get over there in case there's a surprise on our doorstep too." He exchanged nods with Sam on his way back to the front door and closed it behind him.

Sam unhooked her helmet from where she'd buckled it around her belt and set it down on the table next to their gear. Meanwhile, Rebecca left her helmet cradling her gloves on the counter and hung her armor over the back of the unoccupied chair stool. She looked over and saw a plaintive expression on Sam's face as she was unlatching her own armor, and stepped over to help lift it clear.

"Thank you... my arms are jello right now." When Rebecca turned back from laying the armor flat on the table, Sam moved closer and put her arms around Rebecca's waist. "It's nice to be able to hug you without the superhero suits on."

"Yeah. Hi there." Rebecca rubbed her cheek against Sam's hair and held her a moment, before fiddling with the zipper on the back of her wetsuit vest. Once that was open, she slid her hand under Sam's three-quarter-sleeve shirt and started scratching her back, over the skin she knew would have indentations from where the fabric had bunched up under the neoprene.

"Oh god." Sam arched her back like a cat and closed her eyes. "Have I mentioned I love you?"

"Not in the last hour or two." Rebecca finished a meandering circuit with her nails, tugged Sam's shirt back in order, and kissed her on the cheek. "So now we have a dilemma in front of us. Do we eat or clean up first?"

"Yeah... hard choice." Her stomach growled at the thought of whatever food Allison had prepared in that pot.

Rebecca smiled in gentle amusement. "I wish we had more bread... you know, we are grownups, we can do whatever we want. We could actually eat now AND later."

A grin spread on Sam's face. "That's my clever girl." She practically skipped back to the kitchen and cracked the seal on the insulated pot while Rebecca took down a pair of glasses and started filling them from the hanging "campsite" style water filter by the sink. It turns out dinner was a simple but savory lentils and rice dish which they each quickly devoured a small bowl of. Sam pulled her spoon clear of her lips with a smack as she finished her last bite and looked at Rebecca again. "Okay, but who goes first?"

"You go ahead." Rebecca set her bowl down on the counter and reached for Sam's. "I'll get a fire going, and I want to wash my hair first."

"'kay." Sam leaned up for a quick kiss and then headed down the short hallway connecting the living room to the bedroom and bathroom. She came back with a couple of towels and left them on the counter for Rebecca, who had busied herself kindling the fire stove and smiled over her shoulder in appreciation of the gesture. Then, Sam lugged one of the crates of insulated water bottles after her and Rebecca heard the click of the bathroom's lantern followed by the sounds of the tub faucet and clanking of bottles as Sam mixed them into the bath water.

Once the kindling was crackling away merrily and the larger chunks of wood were starting to blacken and char, Rebecca leaned into the bathroom with a scandalous wink and retrieved the lighter of her two robes, a simple cotton terry number and traded it with her grungy shirt. Taking a bottle of shampoo back to the kitchen, it was extremely pleasant to soak a washcloth and start wiping the grime away from her face and neck. She'd felt a little grungy ever since the firefight kicked all that dirt up around her, which mixed in with the gun smoke as she fired under the Humvee. Mmm, asphalt, brake and tire dust, and cordite. Not exactly what she wanted to rinse off into the rest of her limited bath water.

Rufus had fled the stray water drops as she scrubbed her hair, but returned as she sat on the couch to wait for Sam to finish. Stroking the short but surprisingly soft brindled fur on the top of his head as he lay his chin on her knee added to the feeling of coziness and domestic safety separated from the world outside. Eventually, she heard the tub draining, and a brief burst of water again as Sam gave it a courtesy rinse with cold tap water, presaging her return to the front room wrapped in her own fluffy robe over her PJs.

Sam sat on the couch next to Rebecca, pulling a folded blanket down from the back and spreading it over her lap. Her hand touched Rebecca's on Rufus's head and caressed both of them lightly. "Your turn, sugar."

Now that they were both passably clean enough, Rebecca leaned over and nuzzled Sam's cheek, kissing her properly for a second or two. "Thanks for helping me get through today."

"Of course. Shoo and finish getting clean if you don't want to sleep on the couch, Rufus can always fill in for a night as bedwarmer."

"Exiling your poor kitchen strumpet when she's too grubby for you. Harsh." Rebecca patted Rufus one last time, gliding her fingertips over the back of Sam's as she departed, despite their mutual teasing.

She felt much better after draining the rest of Allie's preheated bottles and mixing the tub to just slightly above a comfortable temperature — since it would only get cooler. There wasn't quite enough for a pleasant soaking, but the thoughtful surprise sure let the both of them get clean a lot faster than if they'd had to heat their own bath water on a fire they didn't even start until they got home. Allie really was a saint as far as Rebecca was concerned. (Granted, Leonard probably helped a lot too...)

Thinking about the upcoming baby gave Rebecca an effective combination of a topic that was both pleasant to think about and something still generally positive for her lingering anxiety to be distracted with... occupying her mind as she finished up and got dressed in her own comfy house-clothes. She'd be excited anyway, but especially after today. The kid might not get to see much beyond their little compound for a long time, but she'd be damned if anyone was going to get in and hurt it, and she sure as hell was going to keep trying to chip away at the madness outside. She tugged the collar of the robe forward with a determined glower as she exited the bathroom, but her expression softened when she saw a refilled bowl of lentils and rice waiting for her on the coffee table, covered by a cloth napkin. She looked up from it to Sam with an appreciative smile and tossed a pillow on the floor to sit across the table from her — and a little closer to the fire as her hair dried.

She made quick work of the second helping, watching Sam flip through her notebook in her lap and poke at the wrist PDA sitting on the couch next to her. When Rebecca had finished, she traded her spoon for her brush and started working it through her hair. "I see numbers getting crunched over there again. Penny?"

"Appropriate conversation prompt indeed, conductive metals and all." Sam looked up at her with a little grin, tapping her pen on the edge of the notebook. "So... assuming we don't lose too many panels to breakage, and I don't totally fuck up trying to hook them back up again... we're going to have WAY more power than we know what to do with during peak hours. It'll simply be coming in faster than I can put it into our existing storage."

"I mean, unless that's going to be dangerous, it sounds like a good problem to have, right? Ow..." Rebecca winced at a particularly troublesome tangle but grit her teeth and worked it loose.

"Oh, yeah, I can connect things safely, our grid isn't going to burst into flames if the sun is too bright. The fact the panels all have their own little micro inverter will help too, we can set up smaller distributed uses like a charging station or greenhouse lights much more easily. But things that were frivolous luxuries before... well, it suddenly makes sense to use power that would otherwise go to waste. We could run slow cookers, or water heaters or a TV, local wifi... interior lights, radio broadcasts... even refrigeration, if only for part of the day. Or a pump and some centralized drinking water treatment! Even some UV sterilizers... for the water, or for decon checkpoints..."

Rebecca was entertained by Sam's infectious enthusiasm. "I had no idea there was so much potential right there the whole time. I wish I'd noticed, or remembered noticing them, a long time ago — talk about quality of life improvements." Rebecca rose from the pillow and took both of their bowls to the sink as she processed the news. "It'll be nice to be able to charge up my car in a few hours instead of a couple of days. Maybe we could get electric heaters in the daytime, for the baby? So they don't have to grow up in the respiratory equivalent of a log cabin..."

Sam scooted over invitingly to make more room on the couch for Rebecca when she returned. "Maybe. We could do something like the stoves, warm up some big heat mass and let it radiate into the evening. That would be cool. I mean, you know." She waved her hand in mild irritation at the contradictory figure of speech.

With a chuckle, Rebecca settled next to her. "Yes, Rosie. I do know." She reached over and tucked a strand of Sam's hair behind her ear, and smiled a little to herself at Sam's reaction to her touch.