Of Nightmares and Scary Movies.

Okay, so this a fun little Mac/Ella oneshot. It takes place between the final chapter and the epilogue (8 months later) of 'Second Chances'.

For those of you who haven't read any of my stuff with Mac and Ella: Ella Brody is Mac's ten year old goddaughter, the adopted daughter of a close friend of his from the Marines, Sam. Sam and his wife adopted Ella. Sam's wife and Ella's mom died some years ago of cancer, and Sam was killed in a car accident in 'Second Chances'. Sam and his wife had made Mac Ella's legal guardian in case of anything happening to them before she reached 18, and after Sam was killed, Mac took Ella in and eventually adopted her.

The timeline that I use (that makes Mac 11 going on 12 in 1973) is based on one created by my good friend and fellow Mac enthusiast, Jade Nolan, which has him born in November 1961.

Ella's scream awoke Mac instantly, and before he even fully registered what he was doing he was up and out of bed and running to her room. He pushed the door open to see her sitting up in bed, shaking. The light from the hall illuminated her wide, terrified eyes. Mac was across the room in seconds and had her in his arms. She clung to him, shaking.

Mac stroked her hair.

'It's okay, Ella, it's okay,' he soothed. This wasn't the first time she'd had a bad dream, though it wasn't often she woke up calling out or screaming. Usually, he'd hear her padding into the kitchen or bathroom, or she'd come into his room and snuggle up in bed with him.

Gradually her shaking subsided, and Mac switched the bedside lamp on. He grabbed tissues from a box on the bedside table and handed them to her. She took them, wiping her eyes, wiping the nightmare-sweat from her face, and suddenly she wouldn't meet his eyes.

'Ella, did you have a nightmare?'

She nodded, miserably.

'About your dad?' he asked gently. She'd had several nightmares about her father's death, and Mac knew all too well how awful such dreams could be, how gut-wrenchingly terrifying and painful.

The ten-year-old shook her head.

'No? Then what about?'

She muttered something.

Mac gently slid her fingers underneath her chin and tipped her face up so he could look into his eyes.

'It's okay, Ella. You can tell me.'

'It's stupid. And you'll be mad.'

'I don't think it's stupid if it scared you this much. And I promise I won't be mad.'

'You really promise?' she asked.

'I really promise,' he confirmed.

'Um, well...you know how you told me I couldn't watch 'The Blair Witch Project'?'

'Yes?'

'Wellllll, I maybe, kinda, sorta watched it at Stacie's house the other night when I went for a sleepover. I maybe persuaded her to, um, borrow it from her brother's room.'

'Oh, I see,' Mac said, rather relieved at the realization that this was a nightmare he could offer her some real comfort from, and despite himself, rather amused at her defiance of his rule about that movie instead of being angry about her disobeying it.

'Did you watch it all the way through?'

'Yes.' Ella shuddered.

Mac was impressed. She was only ten and she'd sat through a movie that a lot of adults found very scary.

'So what did you dream?'

Ella shuddered and snuggled closer to him.

'The Blair Witch was hiding in my closet and she was going to come and get me. And pull my teeth out like she did to that Josh guy in the movie.' She snuggled further into him.

'I see,' Mac said, 'That is scary. But you know it's not real, right? There's no Blair Witch.'

'But the movie said it's based on a true story.'

'Yeah, but they say that a lot about movies. And even if it *was* real, the witch is supposed to live in Maryland, so she's not going to come all the way to New York City, is she?'

'Wait, the movie people lied?'

'They elaborated the truth to make the movie seem scarier. That story is just a legend,'

'Oh. I guess that makes sense. And yeah, you're right, even if it was real, the witch wouldn't come all the way to New York. I mean, she's like a ghost-witch, right, and ghosts are supposed to stay where they died?'

'Right,' Mac said.

Ella nodded, still seeming a little uncertain.

'Want me to check the closet anyway?' Mac said. He remembered nightmares like this from when he was a kid and how he could never be too sure a bad dream was just that, a dream, until he saw that the closet or wherever really was empty of nasties.

He got up and went to Ella's closet, feeling her watching him warily. He knocked loudly on the door.

'Right, listen up. This is the NYPD. If any kind of witch or ghost or anything is in there, you better get out right now or I'll make you wish you could die all over again,' he said in his best threatening voice. He heard Ella giggle behind him. He opened the doors with a flourish, and stepped back so Ella could see, as he rifled through her clothes and jackets.

'Nope, empty.' he said.

Ella, still smiling, looked visibly relieved.

She hopped off her bed and came over, hugging him.

'Thanks, Mac.'

'No problem,' he smiled, hugging her back.

'Mac?'

'Yeah?'

'I'm really sorry I watched Blair Witch after you told me not to.'

'That's okay,' he said, kissing the top of her head.

'You won't tell anyone?'

'Well, maybe Jo.'

Ella considered.

'Yeah, you can tell Jo. But no one else, promise?'

Mac nodded.

'I promise. And I'll swear her to secrecy.'

'Pinky swear?'

Mac held up his pinky finger.

'Pinky swear,' he repeated, seriously.

'Okay, Hey, Mac?'

'Mmmm-hmmmm?'

'Can I have hot chocolate and a story?'

'Sure,' he said. 'What story do you want? Another chapter of your book?'

'No. One about you, when you were a kid. I like those.'

Mac smiled, feeling the familiar rush of pure, unconditional love for her, and the warm feeling he got whenever she expressed curiosity about his life before she'd come to be such a big part of it. They were still getting to know one another as more than simply godfather/goddaughter, and while that was tough at times as they worked out each other's boundaries and adjusted to living together full time, there were also moments like this where they simply discovered new things about each other. Ella genuinely seemed to love hearing stories about his past, particularly when he was around her age, and when he'd known her father in the Marines, and he loved sharing them with her.

'Okay,' he said as he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and led her out of the room.

'How about the time I watched a horror movie that my parents told me not to...'

Ella laughed.

'You did that too?'

'Oh yes. It was The Exorcist. I was 11 when it first came out. One of my buddies had an older brother who was an usher at this cinema in our neighborhood in Chicago. Three of us paid him five bucks each to sneak us into a showing. It gave me nightmares for *weeks*.'

Ella grinned.

'I want to know more, like what the scariest part was, and what your parents did when they found out, but we have to get hot chocolate first...'

The End.