What Dreams May Come?
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Still not mine. Rating: K Time: Mid to late Season Six.
Kate had always been a light sleeper, the more so tonight with Rick still stuck in New Orleans and Alexis suffering from a series of odd dreams. She awoke at the first sound of bare feet on the stairs. She slid out of bed, grabbed a robe and peeked out of the bedroom door. There was a light on in Rick's office. She checked the clock, 3:30 AM.
She walked softly to the office. As she suspected, it was Alexis. "The same dream?"
Alexis nodded, while busily working with a pad of paper and a pencil. "Exactly the same. I'm on the back of a tank in Africa with a bunch of wounded African soldiers and two Caucasians. None of it makes any sense."
"Was there anything different this time?" Kate asked, coming over to sit by Alexis.
"No, but before I went to sleep, I tried to make myself remember to look around more carefully. I mean, how can you remember to pay attention to a dream? But it worked, sort of."
"How? Are you drawing something you saw?"
"Let me start from the beginning. I remembered to look at the soldier on the stretcher on the other side of me. He was young, mid-teens at the most, and had a bandage over his chest. He had a rosary in his hands and was saying a Hail Mary."
Kate nodded. "There are lots of Catholics in Africa, I suppose."
Alexis smiled. She was glad Kate was taking this seriously. "I got two more bits of information. The man who was on the radio, the one whose talk was all numbers and military code words. I caught one thing he said, "Dust off is twelve minutes out." I'm sure he was talking to me."
Kate thought for a moment. "I've heard the term dust off before and I'm sure it's military, but I can't remember what it means."
Alexis held the piece of paper she'd been drawing on out for Kate to see. "On his shoulder was this patch, as best as I can remember it." The drawing was of a winged circle with the number eleven inside it."
"I don't recognize it." Kate said.
"Could I go to work with you? I'd like to ask Esposito about this, since he was in the Army and all."
"What about your classes?"
Alexis giggled. "My first class today isn't until the afternoon. I'm going to have to start calling you mom, Kate."
Kate smiled proudly. "You do that."
Javier Esposito looked at the drawing that Alexis had given him. "Four identical dreams on four successive nights? That is weird."
"Tell me about it. Can you help me?"
"Help us?" Kate added from over Alexis' shoulder.
"Sure. Dust off is a military term for a helicopter that evacuates wounded soldiers. If you had a bunch of wounded on the back of that tank, somebody would be calling for a dust off."
"What about the drawing?" Alexis asked.
"I'm pretty sure…Just let me check something." Espo turned to his computer and went online. "Thought so." He turned the screen around. There was a picture much like the one she'd drawn.
"What is it?" Kate asked.
"The insignia of the 11th Airborne Division. It was a World War Two airborne division. It was re-raised in the early 60s to test the air mobility concept. Using helicopters to move people and equipment around. There hasn't been an 11th Airborne since 1965 according to Wikipedia." Esposito thought for a second. "Alexis, where was this patch on this guy."
"On his right shoulder. Why?"
"It's a combat patch then."
"What's a combat patch?" Kate and Alexis asked in unison.
"You wear the insignia of your current unit on the left shoulder. If you were in combat with a unit, you wear their patch on the right shoulder. The last time there was anyone who could wear an 11th Airborne combat patch was in 1945. How old was this guy in your dream? Pushing ninety?"
Alexis shook her head. "He was faced away from me, but he wasn't that old. For some reason I thought he was about my age."
"If Alexis is remembering a movie she saw when she was a child, that she has no conscious memory of now, the movie people might not have worried much about accuracy, would they?" Kate asked.
Espo shrugged. "It's as good an explanation as any other."
"There's a professor who studies dreams at Columbia who has a redheaded daughter about my age." Alexis said. "He's always been very sweet to me. I'll try to see him today."
"Okay, back to work. No more detours to the twilight zone." Kate said.