Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

Imogen Garnet Gallagher woke up suddenly. Her little breaths came out quickly as she sat up in her bed and looked around the room with a fearful expression on her face.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, but with her nightmare still fresh in her mind, she quickly pushed her sheets back. Scrambling off the bed, she kept her bunny gripped in her arm as she headed for the door. If Moe had been human, he would have been strangled in his owner's death grip.

Pushing her bedroom door open further, she crossed the hall and made for the second door on the left. The door wasn't shut and she pushed it open silently. Slipping into the room, she rubbed her chin into the fluffy toy's ears as she tried to ascertain in the dull light if there were two lumps in the bed, or just one.

How many people in the bed would make a different to who she woke up. And how.

Confident she'd figured it out, she made for the far side of the bed, skirting the large chest at the end she'd stubbed her toe countless times before. The memories of her dream still fresh in her mind, little Joey reached up and pushed the bare arm of her father.

Dean Gallagher startled awake instantly with the feeling that he was needed.

There was no light from the phone charging on the bedside table, so it wasn't work. It wasn't the woman sleeping in the bed with him – her steady, warm breath against his neck and arm thrown over his body giving that away – and so it could only be one other thing.

Finding her in the dull gloom, he stretched out his arm and placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Joey?"

There was silence, a sniffle, and then words. "I had a bad dream."

Pulling back the covers, Dean rose in the bed and threw his legs over the side, Lara's hand falling like deadweight into the newly vacated heat. Standing up, Dean swung Joey up into his arms before sparing a moment to pull the covers over his wife.

She didn't move.

With the warm body of his daughter buried into his chest, Dean rounded the large chest at the end of his bed and headed for the door. He and Lara had decided against letting their kid – or kids as it would be in five months time – getting into bed with them, but that didn't mean that he couldn't tuck Joey back in and stay by her side under she fell asleep.

Tugging the ninja doona cover back, he eased the little girl into bed. Tucking the ever present Moe in beside her, he pulled the covers up to her chin. He felt a flash of love as he looked down at his daughter. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her head. "Love you," he said softly.

"Love you too Daddy," said the three year old before she shuffled and got comfortable. Dean brushed the soft blonde hair from his daughter's face as she succumbed to slumber once again. He stayed there a few moments longer, looking down at the miraculous creation of his and Lara's love.

Returning to his bedroom, Dean yawned as he rubbed his stomach. Snorting as he approached his side of the bed, he saw that Lara hadn't moved from the position he'd last seen her in. Slipping back under the sheets, he adjusted his wife's body so they were both comfortable.

He knew when he told her in the morning that their daughter had come to them in the night after a nightmare, she would have no idea what he was talking about. She liked to blame it on the pregnancy, but the truth was Lara Gallagher did not like being woken up. Once she was down for the night, she was oblivious to the world.

Honestly, he didn't mind that Joey came to him in the night as he saw it as bonding time, but that didn't mean he couldn't take great pleasure in teasing his wife about it in the morning.

Finito.