A/N

So, saw the trailer for Edge of Tomorrow recently and...is it just me, or is there deja vu going on? Tom Cruise playing a commander/colonel who sees a female he shouldn't see in both films in his dream/time loop?

...yeah, stretching that similarity a bit, but sparked this idea regardless.

Girls of My Dreams

The dream was different this time.

Somewhere in Jack's subconsciousness, he could sense something wrong with that sentence. The sentence itself was fine, but the context - "the dream." One dream. One constantly recurring dream that he'd had as long as he could remember. Not a particularly long period of time considering the whole memory wipe thing, but…

But nothing.

He knew it was ridiculous. The Empire State Building (and the rest of the world for that matter) was destroyed before he was even born. If he'd ever met a black haired, shyly smiling, admittedly not unattractive woman before he'd been stationed on Earth, it was an event that couldn't have happened on Earth itself. And as another part of his mind reminded him, didn't he already have the girl of his dreams sleeping right next to him?

Yep.

It was a strange feeling, being aware of one's physical form while dreaming, and of what felt like a hand on what felt like his crotch in the waking world. Strange while he continued to dream, as if caught between two worlds. Two dreams. Two memories.

Except this dream was even less likely to be a memory.

For starters, his name was Jack Harper. Not Bill Cage, not a colonel (though the term "commander" felt familiar for some reason), and not taking part in some kind of battle against an enemy that weren't Scavs. He'd seen Scavs. Fought Scavs. Perhaps even killed Scavs when he'd fired his rifle at them, he couldn't be sure. But through all those times, he'd never seen Scavs like these. Black tentacle demon creatures that were killing human soldiers all over this battlefield. A battlefield that he was trudging across in some kind of powered armour.

This isn't the Scav invasion.

Not that he could remember it, but the Scavs had fought their war from orbit. This was a ground fight. In front of him he could see hovercraft, above he could see VTOLs. Two types of vehicles that he recognised from a military hardware book he'd retrieved on one of his runs that he knew existed back when the aliens attacked. But power armour certainly hadn't. And even if it had, it certainly hadn't been used like this.

And then he fell down. He hadn't been shot, indeed, the aliens were making it clear as they tore through the ranks that they didn't need weapons, nor did they seem to care when weapons were used against them. But Jack was human. He did care. And he cared quite a bit, perhaps more than he should have, when he saw the woman standing there. He stared at her. She stared back.

"Um…"

He couldn't say anymore. What was one meant to say in a dream anyway? "I don't belong here?" "Help me?" "The VTOL that's behind you is on fire and could detonate at any moment?" His mind wanted him to say the third thing, that soldier girl was indeed standing in front of a VTOL that had crashed, was on fire, and assuming the dream held true to history of humanity using fossil fuels back in the day, was at risk of detonating.

"Um…"

But he couldn't get it out. The woman kept looking at him. So, unable to speak, he kept looking at her.

"Um…"

Still no words. But a picture was worth a thousand words (according to a book he'd picked up at least) and the dream girl's face said it all. She wasn't the woman he'd met on the Empire State Building in previous dreams. In a way, she reminded him of Victoria – similar hair, similar face,

"Come find me when you wake up."

And a similar accent as well.

Then again, Victoria had never worn armour like this (as far as Jack knew at least). They'd never met until the drone mission. And…and then the VTOL detonated. And springing up straight in the bed of the waking world, Jack woke up.

"Shit!"

The sun was rising, its fire pleasantly different from that of the dream. Looking down at his side, he could see that Vikka was awake as well. And the whole crotch thing…he started reciting multiplication tables in his head. Best not to talk about that.

"Hey Jack," Vikka whispered, stroking his arm. "Sweet dreams?"

Jack remained silent. The dreams with the black haired girl on the ESB had the benefit of not ending in fiery death. But at least the girl in the dream he just had borne some resemblance to someone real. Someone beside him. Someone who most definitely wouldn't be blown up, or torn apart, or shot to pieces. Letting the thought consume him, he flopped back down on the bed.

"Jack?" Vikka asked, looking down at him. "You alright?"

He remained silent. Dreams about girls every night, only getting one about someone in the flesh and blood. Maybe the memory wipe had set him back mentally into adolescence.

"Jack?"

"Fine, now that you're here," he lied. He stroked her hair. "After all, you're the girl of my dreams."