Disclaimer: The good people at Hallmark own t10K and Robert Louis Stevenson owns the poem "A Child's Thought." I am only borrowing them.

Summary: One-shot. Seven year-old Virginia Lewis can't help but eavesdrop on a conversation between her father and grandmother regarding her mother, two weeks after her disappearance. She talks to her bears to keep her mind off what is exchanged between the adults.

A/N: Hello, as you can tell this is a pre-t10K fanfic. I didn't know what Virginia's middle name was (if she had one), so I made one up. I also made up a name for her grandmother. If either of these names is something else I didn't know. By the way Haley means "heroine."

EDIT 2-19-2018: Edited for spelling, grammar, and flow.

When I Go to Bed

"A Child's Thought"

By Robert Louis Stevenson

At seven when I go to bed,

I find such pictures in my head:

Castles with dragons prowling round,

Gardens where magic fruits are found;

Fair ladies prisoned in a tower,

Or lost in some enchanted bower;

While gallant horsemen ride by streams

That border all this land of dreams;

I find so clearly in my head,

At seven when I go to bed.

Seven year-old Virginia Lewis was supposed to be in bed, asleep. It was a school night after all, but she wasn't sleepy. Not yet anyway. Her father, Tony, had gotten a call from the New York City Police Department and had called her grandmother, Judith, to come watch her until he came back. But that was hours ago, or at least it seemed like hours ago to the child.

Virginia was sitting at the end of the hall watching her grandmother watch TV. Judith didn't even notice her granddaughter was out of bed. The girl leaned back against one side of the hall and stretched her short legs so she could rest her slippered feet on the opposite wall. She soon became tired and quickly lost interest in the old lady in the living room. She didn't even notice her grandmother had gotten up from her seat until she was standing over her.

"Virginia Haley Lewis, what are you doing out of bed?" Judith asked sternly, staring down at her young granddaughter; her wrinkly hands resting on her hips.

"Uh-oh," Virginia said looking up.

"That's right, Virginia. Now get back to bed- this instant! Before your father gets home." Virginia continued to stare at her. Judith was getting flustered. "Come on, get up!" Virginia did so reluctantly; sulking back to her bedroom, but not before turning around to face her grandmother. "What do you want?" Judith snapped, though she hadn't meant to; she'd been drinking again when Tony had begged her not to, for Virginia's sake.

The child's lower lip began to quiver and a tear fell down one cheek. "I'm sor…sor…sorry, Grandmother," Virginia wept.

"Oh, don't cry. Please don't cry, Virginia," Judith said, biting her lower lip. "Please don't cry, I didn't mean to yell." Virginia ran up to her grandmother and hugged her legs. Judith stroked the top of her grandchild's head. Virginia stopped crying. "Now, why don't you go and get into your bed. I'll be there in a minute to tuck you in and read you a story."

"My choice?" Virginia asked eagerly.

"Of course. Now scoot!" Judith said. Virginia practically flew into her room to find a storybook and crawl into bed. Her grandmother came in a few minutes later as she had promised and pulled the sheets up to little Virginia's neck. "Where's the story you want me to read?" Judith asked.

"It's on the table, Grandmother," Virginia said from under her covers. Judith walked over to the small table near the window and found the book sitting there.

"This one, Virginia?" Judith asked, picking up a copy of 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

"Yes," Virginia smiled, pulling her arms out from under the covers and grabbing her teddy bears so they could 'hear' the story too. Her grandmother sat down on the edge of her bed and began reading.

"Once upon a time, there lived a little girl with a red riding hood..." she began. Virginia listened intently throughout the story. Grandmother finished with the traditional, "and they lived happily ever after," before kissing Virginia on the head and turning out the light.

"Thank you, Grandmother," Virginia said turning on her side, trying to get comfortable so she could go to sleep. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Virginia," Judith said, glancing at the corner of the child's bedroom where a lone stuffed bear sat. She let her eyes water, but dare not allow a single tear to roll down her cheek. After closing the door partially behind her, she finally went back into the living room to wait for her son-in-law to return home.

After only ten minutes of lying on her side, Virginia began tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable again, but nothing worked. She finally kicked off her covers and just lie there, staring up at the ceiling. A clock chimed from somewhere in the house; it was nine o'clock. Mindlessly, Virginia started humming lullabies to herself; she did this for twenty minutes, nearly falling asleep twice. She only stopped because she heard the front door open. "Daddy's home," she whispered to her bears. Her energy was renewed and she was ready to hear what Tony had to say about his visit to the NYPD.

Virginia silently got out of her bed, taking her bears with her, and sat down by the door so she could hear and see better. She was slightly disappointed when her grandmother spoke first.

"Was it Christine or not?" Judith asked brashly.

"I'm sorry, Mom. It wasn't her," Tony replied.

"I knew it wasn't," she said taking a small flask out of her purse. Virginia could see her father reaching to take it away from her, but Judith saw him and moved it out of his reach. Tony grunted and let her take a swig. Judith couldn't live without knowing where Christine was, so this is how she dealt. And Tony knew it. Judith put her flask away. "She'll come back. You know she'll come back as much as I do, Tony," she said stuffily.

"Well, I don't think Christine's coming back this time. Look, I've filled out a national missing persons report. That's the best I could do. For now," he added. Virginia saw her father run a hand through his thinning hair. There were a few minutes of silence before he said anything again. "Is Virginia asleep?" he asked, walking in the direction of his daughter's room.

Virginia heard him coming and quickly, but quietly scrambled back into bed, pretending to be asleep. Tony stood in the doorway for a second or two and, seeing Virginia's eyes were closed, went back into the living room to talk to Judith some more.

Once Virginia thought it was safe again, she slipped out of bed and sat down by her door to eavesdrop some more. It was silent for a few minutes. Then Tony spoke.

"What time did she go to bed?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know," Judith answered with boredom, "eight-thirty; sometime around then."

"And she ate her dinner and took a…a bath?" Tony added. Judith only nodded. "Good, I'm still a little worried about…She did her homework?"

"Yes, yes. You shouldn't worry about her so much, Tony," Judith said harshly. "She was playing with her bears tonight; and I've said it before, so now I'm going to say it again, she's coping fine. She didn't even ask about Christine tonight."

"They're talking about me," Virginia whispered to herself. She then went back to listening closely to what her elders were saying about her.

"She didn't?" she heard her father ask, and watched as a stern expression appeared on his face. She could tell Tony was upset. The fact was Virginia hadn't stopped talking about Christine since she'd left and now, all of a sudden, nothing. It made no sense to Tony.

"Why should she, Tony?" Judith retorted. "Virginia knows her mother is going to come back eventually."

"That's just it, Mom," Tony started, his temper flaring. He knew Judith was putting on an act, even if it was alcohol-induced. "Nobody knows if Christine is ever coming back! Not you, not me, and certainly not Virginia."

"May I remind you that my daughter disappeared for an entire month before you two got married? Hmm? You didn't even know where she was and she came back," Judith rebutted.

"True, but you did. You just wouldn't tell me." Judith was silent for a few minutes. And she'd never admit it, but her son-in-law was right. So she just stuck her nose in the air and answered with as much confidence as she could muster.

"Christine will come back. She always does. And if you don't believe that, it just proves what little faith you have."

"No, I don't have a lot of faith right now! It's been two weeks already and not even a sign of her. She hasn't even contacted any of her friends. Believe me, I've checked," Tony said angrily. Virginia was ready to cry, but she pulled her bears close and kept listening. "I'm giving her six more weeks to come home. That's it; that's a total of eight weeks altogether. It's two whole months."

"I can add, Tony," Judith snipped. "And is that all the time you're giving her?"

"Yes. In a month and a half is my family reunion in Cleveland, and if Christine isn't home by then…" he paused seeming to forget what he was going to say, but he was thinking.

"Well, what is it, Tony? Spit it out," Judith said impatiently.

"If Christine's not home before Virginia and I go on our trip, it's reason to believe she's never coming back. We have to move on; we can't keep dwelling on it. It's not good for you, it's not good for me, and it's especially not good for Virginia!" Tony growled.

Judith stood there, stunned for a moment, and then slowly sat down in Tony's armchair. "Very well," she mumbled after a few minutes. "If you just want to forget about Christine, that's fine by me. She never should have married you in the first place," she hissed, grabbing her purse and heading toward the door. "Goodbye."

Virginia, who was still sitting in her bedroom doorway pulled her teddy bears even closer and let herself cry. "Mommy's never coming home, is she? And Daddy just wants to forget about her," she cried into her bears' fur, muffling the noise. She heard her dad trying to reason with her grandmother, but with no luck. The front door slammed signaling that Judith had left. She heard Tony mumble something under his breath before heading down the hallway, so she scurried back to bed, still clutching her bears, and pretended to be asleep again when her dad checked in on her.

"You always were a sound sleeper," Tony whispered before going to bed, too.

Once Virginia was sure her father wasn't watching her anymore, she opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. "That was close," she said to her bears. She glanced at the one in the corner and thought about picking it up, but decided against it. "You can stay there," she whispered across the room.

Virginia yawned widely and paused as though she were listening to her bears. "I'm not sleepy," she insisted, but the truth was she was exhausted. So she laid her head on her pillow and situated her teddies so she could see their faces and talk to them.

"Could you…" she stopped to yawn, "tell me the story of Snow White?"

Silence.

"But I don't want to go to sleep. I'm not…" Virginia yawned again, "sleepy." She really didn't want to go to bed. She'd been having nightmares every night since her mother ran out. They weren't just average nightmares either. They were like fairy stories in which the only way out was to get to the end…and they all ended the same; with Christine always just out of reach, just out of time to be saved from the grasp of an evil queen.

Virginia began whispering (as though her bears were talking), telling herself the story she'd requested. She dozed off in the middle though and became lost once more in the Land of Dreams, ever searching for her mother.

The dream began where it always did—in a small cottage in the middle of Central Park nonetheless, where Christine was reading to Virginia. The only thing that ever changed was the story. Tonight it was Snow White. Virginia knew what came next. About half-way through the dream, the evil queen would come and take Christine away, leaving Virginia alone, crying. Then a girl would come and tell Virginia where to find her mother. And after that Virginia would go on a long journey, eventually winding up at a castle and standing within an arm's length of her mother. That's when she would wake up, usually crying.

Virginia usually woke up before her father did, so he never knew about the dreams. And she would never tell him either. She thought that maybe if she kept her dreams a secret, then one day, she'd find her mother and be able to save her. One day. But until that one day she'd just have to hope she didn't wake up...

END