A/N: A short story followup to the movie "Dreamscape".

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

"Jane, I'm really sorry!"

Alex Gardner was sincere, more than any time in his life. Always just a little aloof and cavalier, the fit young man's ever-present smile was gone as he followed his girlfriend into the kitchen.

"Alex, I'm not mad at you. I just feel so...I don't know what the word is. The first time you connected with me while I was dreaming was a shock and I didn't know what was going on. Then after you stopped Tommy Ray and Bob Blair we had a chance to settle down and experiment a little." Doctor Jane DeVries blushed after speaking the last part. She was a scientist working with Dr. Paul Novotny on the ability for some psychically gifted people to actively enter into other peoples' dreams when she first met Alex. Alex had shown aptitude in the necessary skills while hooked up to linking apparatus and soon proved them by entering into her dream just by sitting in a chair nearby and concentrating; Jane was conflicted between her feelings for Alex and how he now knew them as well. Alex had used his dream skill to stop an assassination attempt on the President of the United States ordered by Bob Blair who was employing the psychotiic Tommy Ray Glatman to enter into the president's dream.

Ultimately the untouchable Bob Blair was taken care of by Alex, who entered into his dream and killed him before he could awaken; it seemed there was a physical connection between a person's well-being in real life and that of their dream 'avatar', to coin a term. With that threat neutralized, Alex and Jane had traveled as they deepened their growing relationship.

That was almost a year ago. Jane had become somewhat used to Alex's skill and there was an understanding that if she didn't want to 'invite' her husband in, then the dream connection was off-limits. In the meantime, they had explored the dreamland and had experiences not only intimate but also fantastic, limited only by imagination.

But something new was happening. A few of the neighbors, in offhanded conversation, had mentioned having a weird dream where they saw Jane and Alex as plain as day flying down the street. The couple would laugh it off with the neighbor but their faces would change once they said their goodbyes.

It had been the dream they had just shared.

"I don't know what's going on" Alex continued as he poured himself a glass of orange juice. "Some of those neighbors live a couple of houses down from us. I don't think they're camping outside our door at night."

"Of course not. The only way I see it is your abilities are getting stronger."

"Stronger?"

"I think so. You started off having to be hooked up to a machine to get into someone's dreams, then you got to the point where you could do it just by sitting across from them."

"Ahem" Alex pretended to cough.

"Yeah, I was there - remember? Then you managed to do it by being in the next room. Maybe it's like a muscle; as you continue to practice using it your strength grows. Now you seem to be able to draw in people from a couple houses away."

"Is that so bad? Mrs. Dorcell didn't really see us flying down the street, she only dreamed we did it. Hey, at least we had clothes on."

"Yeah, the matching flight suits were a nice touch" Jane smiled, but quickly frowned again. "But what if something happened? What if you imagined a tree falling and it fell on her?"

"Then I'd just dream she was alive again. No problem."

"I don't think it works that way Alex. If they die in their dreams, they die in real life. You can't bring their minds back to dream them alive again."

"Oh. Yeah. I didn't think of that" Alex said slowly as he sat down, his glass raised half way for his next drink. He slowly lowered it before resting the juice on the table. "What do we do? You're the doctor."

Jane sat opposite him and put on her serious professional face. "If we consider it like a severe brain disorder, the first course of treatment would be drugs to suppress your abilities."

"A mental vegetable? No thanks."

"You wouldn't be a vegetable, but there are side effects for sure. But it beats surgery."

"A sliced vegetable. Some alternative" he said sourly. "There has to be another way."

Jane ticked off alternatives. "You can't just not sleep, you'll go crazy. You can't wear a tinfoil hat to block your brain."

"Might make a nice fashion statement next time we meet the President."

She gave him a cocked eyebrow and continued. "You could move to a deserted island, but I don't see you as the Robinson Crusoe type. I don't see you allowing yourself to be hypnotized either."

"When I clap my hands you will no longer enter people's dreams...and you will quack like a duck every time someone honks a car horn" Alex mimicked, waving his fingers in front of him.

"Alex, please. I'm trying to help."

"I'm sorry."

"I just don't know. I need to make a few calls, see if I can get any help from some specialists. Don't worry, I won't mention your problem specifically; but some of my colleagues might have an idea to help a problem like this if I generalize it." She reached out and took his hands. "I don't want anyone hurt, and I don't want to lose you either."

Alex jumped up and crossed the room to grab his saxophone where it sat on its stand. Wetting the reed, he starting playing "It's a Small World After All" for a few bars before stopping with a hopeful look on his face.

"Maybe if I got a horrible song stuck in my head?" he suggested.

...

The flock of geese honked among themselves as the V formation flew by overhead, although the front porch roof of the cabin blocked the view of the birds. Alex and Jane sat side by side on the wicker bench, watching the sunset and taking in the mountainous surroundings.

"Are you scared?" Jane asked her husband.

"Me? Nah. It's been two months since I've been using Dr. Sandhu's mental imagery exercises to wall my mind away when I dream; good thing I already knew how to actively manipulate my surrounds in dreamland. I figure either I won't be able to link up with you when we sleep, or my ability will be so weak again I'll need a machine to do it. Worst case is I still have the same strength, but with no one around for miles we're as safe as it's going to be with no unexpected guests." Alex pretended to scout the horizon for hikers. "Want to make an early night of it?"

"Do I?" she smiled as she stood and reached for his hand.

A short time later in the bedroom Alex sprawled on the bed and fluffed his pillow as he waited for Jane to come to bed. The faucet in the bathroom shut off and the door opened as Jane made her way to the bed. "If we have kids, do you think they would get your ability?" she wondered out loud.

"Kids? I don't care if they play saxophone or not" he said slyly.

She picked up a throw pillow and tried out its name with Alex as a target. As she reached over to turn out the lamp beside the bed, Alex appreciated the gossamer material of her gown. She smiled, gave a short "See you in dreamland" and flicked the switch before lying down beside her husband. They held hands and lay on their backs until their breathing slowed and both fell asleep.

Alex dreamed they were back in their home. He was sitting in the kitchen sax in hand as he blew out a low riff on the instrument. He stopped mid-chorus of a blues number when Jane walked demurely into the kitchen, wearing the same gown she had worn to bed. She smiled and Alex smiled back. He noticed she was holding something behind her back, and when he flicked his head to ask "What?" she brought the item around in front of her. It was a little toy sax that she put to her lips and pretended to play.

Alex grinned and started to tell her to save it for a kid when he noticed her gown flutter in front. As he watched , the flutter changed to a bump and grew into a rounded belly pushing out the transparent material to form a womb that must have been in the last trimester. Alex's face changed to shock as the sudden threat of fatherhood took him completely by surprise. He opened his mouth to yell and woke up to find himself lying in bed.

"Me, a father?" he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and listened to Jane's steady breathing. That was scarier than anything he had faced yet, even Tommy Ray as Snakeman. At the thought of his former foe he forced himself to calm down and open his eyes to look around the moonlit room; no signs of his former foe. His eyes drifted over to his wife, still asleep. He looked for her reassuring breathing and was puzzled. It took a moment, but he finally determined what was causing the confusion; his lovely wife beside him was now quite pregnant, just as in his dream. He rubbed his eyes but the image remained.

"Uh, Jane dear?" he asked quietly.

She stirred somewhat and murmured.

"Jane?"

"What?" she managed to get out, not wanting to fully wake up, her eyes still closed.

"Dear, don't be alarmed but there's someone in bed with us."

"Someone? Alex, what are you..." she said as she rolled toward him. Her protruding belly continued the roll even after her shoulders and hips stopped.

Her eyes snapped open wide in shock.

The End

A/N: I always wondered about what happened after the movie - surely Alex's ability didn't just stop after getting the bad guy. Would it change at all over time? And if there was a link between death in dreams and death in real life, perhaps other links would develop as well ala "Lathe of Heaven"...