Nightmares were unfortunately a common occurrence in their house. The two of them had been plagued with them for years, tormented by all the terrible events that had happened in their youth. They had grown used to them by now and knew how to comfort the other when they woke up with that panic look in their eyes.
What they didn't know how to do was help their daughter. No one knew what caused the little girl to have such violent dreams. They did their best to protect her from the big bad world, but still things got through the cracks. She felt every little pain and it all stuck with her.
They woke up to her shrieking and he was the first to react jumping out of bed and running to her room. She was sitting up in bed when he turned on the lights. Her eyes were wide and filled with too much fear for a five year old. As soon as she saw that her dad was in the room she burst into tears.
"It's okay Charlotte it's only a dream." he said in a soothing tone quickly closing the gap between them and taking his daughter into his arms. "I've got you."
She clung to him as her little body shook from the sobs. He easily picked her up out of bed and carried her out of the bedroom. He ran a hand up and down her back as he continued to kiss her sweaty brow whispering you're okay over and over again.
He walked them into his bedroom where her mother was waiting with a cool rag ready to wipe away the sweat and tears. In the presence of both of her parents she finally began to calm down.
He laid down in bed, never breaking his hold on his little girl as he draped her over his chest. His wife laid down next to the pair and took over rubbing their daughter's back. The violent sobs that had plagued her body before became regular tears and hiccups until finally she drifted off to sleep again.
She let out a sigh of relief, "Thank G-d tonight was an easy night."
There had been one too many nights where they hadn't been able to calm down the child. For hours she would cry and cling to her parents, nothing they did would soothe her. Those were the nights they hated. The felt terrible and useless unable to comfort their daughter from whatever had scared her.
"I wish we knew what her dreams were about maybe then we could help her." he said looking over at his wife.
"Me too. We need to get them to stop Logan. I can't take seeing her in pain anymore, I want to take it away."
"We're going to figure this out Veronica. Somehow we're going to make them stop even if she has to sleep with us every night."
She let out a snort, "Oh yeah I'm sure that would go over well when she's a teenager."
"At least James doesn't suffer from these night terrors or wake up from her screaming. That kid sleeps like a log." he added.
It was something they were both grateful for, they didn't know what they would do if they had two children plagued by nightmares.
"For now be thankful that tonight we got her back to sleep easily."
"Tomorrow I'm going to start research on how to help her." she said rolling onto her side so she was pressed up next to him and wrapped an arm around her daughter's back.
He stayed awake a little longer as he watched over both his girls. He hated seeing his family in pain and would do anything to get rid of it. For now all three members were peacefully asleep, which meant he got to rest. He closed his eyes and allowed the sounds of his wife and daughter's breathing to lull him back to sleep.