Sammy and Ilna, i'm running out of ways to thank you for being such incredible friends and for your generosity and wonderfulness. Love you both!

REALMcRollers, love and undying gratitude for the great feedback. We appreciate every word and we love hearing your thoughts. I can't tell you how delighted we are that you love Angie!

Cop's Kid

A difference in Steve's normal movement pattern woke Catherine and she sucked in a deep breath. Her heart clenched when he thrashed his head from left to right and back. She knew his sleep patterns; the head tossing was a way of waking himself.

His low groan had her sitting up. When she glanced at their peacefully sleeping daughter and saw Cammie was already relocated to Steve's side of the bed, she turned the dial to brighten the bedside lamp a bit and waited for her husband to fight his way out of whatever hell his nightmare had pulled him into.

It wouldn't be long, she knew from experience, just as she knew it was best to let him wake on his own. Her hand on his shoulder had him shifting toward her and a moment later he grunted her name and his eyes opened. Unseeing at first, then searching for her.

"Hey. I'm here, I've got you," she whispered while running her fingers through his sweat-soaked hair. "Steve? You back?"

When he nodded and sat up, scrubbing his face, his eyes were sharp and fully alert. "I've gotta …" his legs were over the side of the mattress when Catherine said, "Wait," and moved to her left.

Seconds later, she handed him their daughter, who stirred slightly but remained sleeping peacefully. Angie's lips were making sucking motions as Steve cradled her and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Thanks, I … just needed to hold her."

She wrapped her right arm over his shoulders and her other hand joined his on the baby's tummy. "First nightmare since she's here," she whispered. "I thought it would be me, with the hormone levels changing. I've had a couple of dreams, but …" she trailed off. They well knew the difference between a dream, even a very bad one, and the nightmares that occasionally gripped them both. They also knew the most effective ways to ground each other and lessen that grip. "How bad?"

Steve kissed the baby once more and passed her back to Catherine.

"Six. Seven, maybe."

They'd began using a one to ten scale years before. Looking to his right, he saw Cammie lying next to the bed. "Thanks, Cammie, I'm okay. Good girl."

The dog huffed and nuzzled the hand he'd reached out before stretching and returning to her bed to settle, head on paws, until she closed her eyes.

Catherine rarely woke the baby to feed her, but when she checked the time, she ran two fingers down the soft cheek until her daughter's eyes opened and slowly focused on her face.

"Hello there, you. You're at three and a half hours, sweetie. Wanna eat?"

Dropping the nursing panel on her tank top and smiling when Angie latched on hungrily, she turned to Steve, who was watching them with an expression of absolute love.

"I'm soaked, I'm gonna shower." He bent to kiss her gently so as not disturb the baby and moved to the bathroom. "Be right back."

Minutes later he returned, pulled on a fresh pair of boxers and crawled back in bed to watch his wife quietly murmur to their contentedly nursing baby girl.

The incredible similarity of the two profiles - one he'd loved forever, the other since the second he'd seen positive results on a stick while holding his breath in anticipation - caused a surge of emotion and he leaned in to kiss Catherine's temple before he slid an arm around her.

She snuggled against him, offering the physical support and comfort they'd always shared without words and smiled gently at him.

They stayed in that position until Catherine moved to gently place Angie back in the bassinet and gave him her full attention.

She scooted under his outstretched arm. "Talk it out?"

Her hair had worked loose from a ponytail and Steve pushed back the section over her left shoulder, his hand lingering on her skin as he kissed her. "You need to sleep, Cath."

"So do you, and I'm fine. I got three and a half hours." She met his eyes. "Wanna tell me?"

He blew out a breath. "We need an action plan."

That was the last thing she expected him to say, but she didn't interrupt.

"I'm good with the plans we have for pretty much every scenario, but …" he ran a hand over his eyes. "The dream … we need a plan in case we're ever in a hot situation and Angie's with us."

"Then we'll make one." She pushed up to see his face. "Was that the dream?"

"We were together," he began, "in a narrow space … alley maybe. First it was here. Waianae probably, then we were in what I think was South Bogota." He shook his head. "Two guys were coming at me, one had a box cutter. I was good, though, had it under control. You'd just said, 'number two tango down' I knew you had my back, so when and a third guy showed just as I took the first one out I focused on him. Then…"

Catherine watched his face. "Then …?" She squeezed his hand gently.

"I heard Angie." His eyes were stormy. "I heard her say, 'Daddy!' and I didn't know …" He took a deep breath and let it out. "I didn't know where she was. I mean she was obviously older in the dream, but I took my eyes off the guy and you were looking at me and I knew. I knew you didn't know where she was either and you needed to find her … keep her safe while I … then I heard her call, 'Mommy!' and I realized she'd seen us under attack and I'd have to kill the third guy before I could help you look …" He stopped. "That's all. I realized at that point it was a nightmare. Probably when she was calling for us and my conscious mind was grappling with her being a baby I started trying to wake up but it took a while."

"Steve…" Catherine's heart was pounding hard against her ribs and she blinked back tears at how she knew he'd felt.

"I'm okay." He pulled her close and kissed her forehead, then lips. "But we need a plan, like the fire, tsunami, and lockdown ones we revised to include her. If there's ever a scenario …"

"We'll have one. First thing tomorrow." Her eyes held his. "Unless you want to start now."

He shifted to make them both more comfortable. "Tomorrow's good. Sleep." He kissed the top of her head as she wrapped herself around him. "I love you, Cath. Thanks."

"I … we love you. And we're right here. And we'll keep her safe."

"Always." He nodded. "I'm gonna ask Danny about his plan for Gracie. I mean the one he had when she was little. She's got the current one down. Startle, run, hide. Call me. Or you." He took a breath. "I'm glad Angie has her. Gracie will get it like no one else does."

"Exactly. And she always will."

He glanced between the photo of himself and his dad at his second birthday party and one of their little family Grace had taken days after Angie's birth. "Yeah."

Catherine nodded. "Because nobody's gonna get being a cop's kid like …"

Steve's eyes fell on the bassinet that held their sleeping baby girl, and he nodded. "Like a cop's kid."

# End thanks for reading

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