A/N: I am going to start re-posting this story. I originally wrote it as a birthday gift for Racefh853629 but pulled it off of the site due to lack of reader interest. Meanwhile, since then I've been told that there was more interest than I thought. So, I'm giving it a second chance.

I hope you'll all enjoy it a second time around!

Please Review.

-LLK

May 5, 2005. 3:00 AM; EST

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Wake up.

Tess was squinting as she read her cell phone. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to force them to focus on the bright screen. After finally having managed to read the text, she couldn't help but grumble as she registered what it said. Glaring at the phone, she quickly folded it closed -- without even responding -- and shoved it under her pillow. She had followed its orders: she was awake. But she didn't plan to stay that way.

She laid there, her eyes now adjusted to the light, and glanced around her blackened room. A sigh escaped her mouth as she realized that she wasn't going to fall back asleep any time soon. Why did she have to be friends with such a total nut job? She could call him and tell him off for it, but she knew that he was probably still on shift. So she was forced to lay in silent protest, plotting a fitting revenge for a later time.

The phone sang out again from under her pillow, and, as she dug for it, she reminded herself that she should change his text tone. The song she'd chosen was far too boisterous and alarming. It was too hard to sleep through. Greg's tone should be something much quieter. Simpler. A jingle or chime. Nothing that could wake her up in the middle of the night.

Don't u want 2 b the first 1 2 say happy b-day 2 me?

He was using that infuriating text speak again! Was she allowed to want to kill him on his birthday? It was his thirtieth after all. There wasn't much to look forward to after that. It was all downhill from there. Tess was five years younger and always took the opportunity to rub it in his face. Especially in the few weeks leading up to his "special day," as he'd been a wreck about getting older.

She honestly didn't see why he was making such a big deal of it. So what if he was growing a bit older or advancing a bit in his years? He was still young and fit, and had a great job and friends to boot. As long as he was healthy and in shape, what did it matter what the calendar said his age was?

No. I think I'll wait until your birthday is almost over before I say anything.

She wasn't the type to spend a lot of time focused on coddling her friend into trying to make him feel better about his current life problems. Of course she was going to say "happy birthday" to him. He was her friend. But that didn't mean she'd make it easy for him to get it out of her. He had woken her up in the middle of the night after all. He couldn't just get his way, not even if it was his birthday. No, he was going to have to work for it.

U've been more excited about it than me. U know u wanna rub it in.

Before she had had enough time to formulate an actual response to him, she heard her phone begin to ring. Leave it to Greg to wake her up in the middle of the night and then call her to harass her about saying "happy birthday" in a timely fashion. Sometimes she didn't even know why she was friends with him in the first place.

"Gregory Hojem," she greeted him with a stern voice. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I used my birthday powers to get Nick and Warrick to do it for me," he explained to her. Then, with a chuckle, he admitted, "Well, birthday powers or, uh, the magic pee break powers. Take your pick on what to call them."

"So you called me on a pee break?" Tess chuckled sarcastically. "Believe it or not, but that's still not all that flattering."

"I can live with that," he told her flatly. "So what'd you get me?"

"I told you the package should be there tomorrow," she reminded him. "You'll just have to wait until then to see."

"Today, actually," he corrected her. "It's already the fifth. But I don't feel like waiting to see it, so why can't you just tell me? It IS my birthday after all."

"Whatever. I'm going back to sleep." Tess closed her phone and rolled over, pulling the comforter back up over her shoulders. She was settled in for a matter of seconds before the phone rang again. "What?"

"Don't sound so happy to hear from me," Greg admonished her. "Don't you have a few minutes to talk? I know when you get up you're gonna want to write all day."

"Fine," she agreed. She sat up a bit in bed and leaned over to turn on her bedside lamp. "You have ten minutes. Happy birthday."

"Thank you," he gloated into the phone. She wished she could reach through the phone and smack him. "So how are you?"

"Sleepy," she groggily answered.

"How's Jamie?"

"Lucky," she grumbled.

"Why exactly is she lucky?" Greg asked, teasing her.

"She's sleeping right now," she growled back at him, slumping back under the covers.

"Do you really want to go back to bed that badly?" he asked her, half teasing, half kindly. "Because, if you really do, I could let you off the hook for the last eight minutes of this call."

"I do." She fumbled up and turned off the light.

"Goodnight then," he said. "I'll call you when I get off of shift."

"Night." She closed her phone one last time and burrowed into her blanket.