"Mama?"

Jane had never– that she could recall– slept particularly well, but motherhood had made certain it was a skill she would never acquire. She awoke instantly, eyes flying open in the dark room, immediately locating Ava's small form standing beside her bed.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" she asked, voice still raspy with sleep.

"I had a bad dream," whispered the five year old.

Jane lifted the edge of the blanket so that Ava could climb in, and laboriously shifted her eight-months-pregnant frame toward the center of the bed to make room for her daughter.

She drew the covers up around Ava's thin shoulders and cuddled her close. "It was just a dream. It's not real."

"I know, Mama." But she didn't sound convinced.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"I was here, at home. But you and Daddy were gone, and you didn't come back, and I was all alone."

Jane gave her daughter a reassuring squeeze. "You know that we'd never go away and leave you alone."

She felt Ava nod beside her on the pillow. "But it was so real."

"Nightmares are like that." She pressed a kiss to the top of Ava's head.

"Do grown-ups have nightmares?"

Jane sighed. "Grown-ups have nightmares, too."

"Even you?"

"Even me." Especially me. They'd gotten less frequent over the years, but they still came from time and time and were every bit as horrifying as always.

She held her breath, but thankfully, Ava didn't ask what her nightmares were about.

"Even Daddy?"

"Even Daddy," confirmed a sleep-roughened voice behind Jane. A heavy arm curved across Jane to encompass Ava as well as Kurt snuggled into Jane's back. He pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder.

"What do grown-ups do when you have nightmares?"

"Umm… well, I remind myself that it's not real, and then I think of the things that are real, the things that make me feel happy and safe," Jane told Ava. "I think about you and your daddy and your new brother or sister."

"Mmmm." Ava shifted, and Jane could tell she was near sleep again. "Thass what Peter Pan said you needed to fly."

Jane frowned, trying to follow. "Peter Pan?"

"Think of the happiest things," mumbled Ava. "Iss th'same as having wings."

Jane wasn't sure who Peter Pan was, but she couldn't argue with his reasoning.

"You and Daddy are the happiest thoughts I've ever had," she whispered.

Ava, sleeping deeper into sleep, gave a small hum in reply.

"You're my happy thought," murmured Kurt, his voice little more than a sleepy rumble as he drew her closer.

And Jane drifted back to sleep, held securely between the two people she loved most in this world.

Nightmares didn't stand a chance that night.