She was on that edge of consciousness, teetering between reality and not when she felt the bed shift. There was a chill in the air and she felt cold hands through the fabric of her nightgown. They were now on her neck, and she couldn't breathe as they were getting tighter and tighter…then his face appeared from view, those blue eyes piercing into her like glass. She struggled to speak, to breathe; she tried so hard to open her eyes, tried to force herself to wake up and succeeded for a moment, seeing a flash of warm, brown, but snapped right back into her dream, this nightmare, the life escaping her body as his grip tightened, and she could hear her name being called in the distance.

Ellie…

Another set of hands as the other set faded: warm, protective, soothing, familiar.

"Ellie, it's me, I'm here, it's okay."

Brown eyes. Warm, brown, comforting eyes holding her, imploringly. Eyes glistening in the soft moonlight as she felt the moisture around her own. She inhaled a large breath in, savoring the feeling of her lungs being full, and exhaled just the same until she calmed down. Eyes and hands still holding her, wiping her tears away. She raised her hands up to grab at his shirt before noticing that it wasn't a suit.

"Ah, so you do have other clothes." she chuckled as she buried her face and pulled him closer to her, needing the contact. He stiffened for the briefest of moments before responding with just as much, or even more fervor, breathing her in like he was recovering from being strangled as well.

They breathed together as the seconds ticked by, and maintained contact with their hands after they pulled away.

"You could hear me all the way from the other room?" She asked, wiping her tears away with one hand as he held on to the other.

"No, I- I ca- I, um…" He looked like a lost puppy before he hung his head down and she felt him caressing her hand. He looked up again, a tear trail gleaming in the starlight. "We were driving, ended up at a service station. We got out of the car and you smiled, then you were gone. Lying on the ground in your own blood…I watched you as you took your last breath." She squeezed his hand. "I came in to check on you, to make sure that it was just a nightmare."

He stared at her like he was waiting for something, for her to share why she seemed to have trouble with regulating her breathing, but she was hesitant. A few moments later and finally she spoke up.

"Joe was strangling me." She whispered as softly as she could, like speaking his name would somehow release him from prison and summon him there. She looked back into his eyes, and felt a strange smile inhabit her face as she let out a chuckle. "Sometimes…most times, actually, I wonder why he didn't just take me instead. It would have been easier to solve the case; he'd be the first suspect."

Even after all this time, she still wasn't used to his eyes. So inviting, so understanding, so caring, almost too much, and she didn't know how to handle the intensity. She didn't know if she ever would, and she hoped that she never did. She hoped that every time she looked at him she would be taken in and enveloped with smooth, indulgent, dark chocolate brown, such a contrast to the cold and empty blue eyes she grew used to.

"Where would your kids be without you?" He never broke eye contact, never blinked.

She sighed. "I suppose you're right. I just don't und-"

"Stop trying to understand, El."

There was a long pause before she let herself fall back into the pillow, their hands disconnecting at last.

"Why are we having bad dreams? Do you think it's the house?" He shifted position to sit upright at the head of the bed next to her.

"It was probably the wine." They shared a good laugh, and when they settled down and the silence was growing louder, she felt the bed shift again. "I should probably go back, let you get some rest."

"You don't have to leave if you don't want. I mean, you're not making me uncomfortable or anything. And at the risk of sounding cliché, the bed's big enough."

"I'll keep that in mind." She could see the outline of his smile in the darkness. "See you in the morning." He walked out the door and she settled back under the covers, drifting off once again.

When she awoke that morning, he was sleeping right next to her.