Honestly, I haven't had a sleepwalking incident since I was, like, ten. - Evan Lorne; SGA: Doppelganger
Midnight in San Francisco Bay. All Mark and Nicki Lorne wanted to do was go to bed and stay there. Both of them had to work in the morning and today had been a long day. They kissed, said goodnight, and turned over to sleep.
It seemed like only five minutes later that Mark felt a push against his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked around for the source. Nicki was sitting up and staring at the door. "What?" Mark asked her groggily. "What's up?"
"Did we leave a light on?"
Mark glanced at the closed door; sure enough, there was light streaming in from underneath. He shook his head, trying to clear the sleep fuzz and remember. "No?"
"Go and see what it is," she prompted, pulling the covers up to her chin and hugging her knees to her chest. Mark sighed; Nicki was paranoid about people breaking into the house and taking the children. He patted her knee comfortingly and hauled himself out of bed. Better to just go and turn the light out than to argue with her at this hour of the night.
He shuffled out of their room and into the hallway. The light was coming from ten year old Evan's room. Mark peeked into the doorway and found his son busily dressing. "Ev? What are you doing?" the elder Lorne asked.
"Going to school. I'm gonna be late, Dad!" Evan flailed frantically at the alarm clock on his bedside table. The clock that said 12:15 AM.
Mark took a closer look at his son. The boy's eyes were open, but looked glassy. Mark rubbed a hand over his face. Okay, so it was one of ithose/i nights. Evan sleepwalked less these days, but when it did happen now that he was older, it was more likely that he'd actually get out of the house and go somewhere. Mark was just glad he'd caught him before Evan had bounded out the door on his way to school in the middle of the night.
He knew from experience that it was more trouble than it was worth to wake the boy up. Better to play along and guide him back to bed gently. Mark's brain was still waking up and it took him a few minutes to come up with a suitable excuse for Evan to go back to bed. "Um, Ev, we're... on Daylight Savings Time." His son stopped and stared at him quizzically. "Yeah, the time's changed. Guess we didn't get to your clock yet. You can go on back to bed for a little while, you're not late for school."
Evan stood still for a few minutes, so still that Mark started to think maybe he'd gone back to sleep standing up. But then he shrugged. "Okay. I guess you're right." Leaving his school clothes on, he climbed back into bed. "Wake me up at-" And just like that, he was asleep again.
Mark exhaled gratefully. Thank goodness it'd been that easy. In the past, Evan had refused all attempts to guide him back to bed and Mark and Nicki had just had to let him walk to his heart's content. He turned out Evan's light and pulled the door closed behind him as he left.
"What was it?" Nicki asked when Mark crawled back into their bed again.
"Nothing. Just Evan," Mark mumbled. "He's fine. Go back to sleep."