Chapter 4
Nancy awoke to sunlight streaming through the windows, she didn't dream last night and she thanked god for that. She sat up and stretched, feeling rested and clear headed. She got dressed and made the bed, humming happily to herself.
"Well, you seem to be in a good mood this morning." She heard Neil's voice say from the doorway, she smiled as she smoothed the duvet, fluffed the decorative pillows and placed them on the bed.
"I slept really well last night, I didn't dream at all … it was nice, especially since I can't take hypnocil anymore." She replied as he walked around the bed to her and offered her a fresh cup of tea.
"No coffee?" She asked in playful disappointment.
"You're not supposed to have caffeine." He replied with a grin.
"The literature on how caffeine affects fetal development is very conflicting." She quipped.
"Yeah well … I'm erring on the side of caution." He replied as he handed her the cup of tea and motioned to the patio.
"So … this is the last day of our leave." She said as they sat, enjoying the quiet serenity of nature.
"I can't believe Simms gave us another week, especially after everything that's happened." Neil said, horror suddenly spread across Nancy's face.
"Oh god, Neil you didn't tell her …."
"No, of course not! You know Simms, she'd fire us both." He said with a laugh.
"That's something else we need to discuss, because obviously, I am not going to be able to hide this for long." Nancy said as she gestured to her stomach.
"Yeah … I don't have an answer for that, yet. How about … we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, as my mother used to say. But really, it's your private business, and you aren't entitled to give anyone an explanation." He replied.
Nancy sat back in her chair, he had a point, technically, what she did on her own time was her business.
"Alright, if no one asks, we won't tell." She agreed.
Nancy, Neil, I hate to swamp you both on your first day back, but we have been overloaded with patients here." Simms said as she fell into step with them and handed them each a stack of paperwork.
Nancy opened the file at the top of the stack.
"Candice Perkins fifteen, severe insomnia." She read to herself as she reached the elevators and mindlessly pressed the 'up' button without taking her eyes off the file.
Nancy entered room four twenty three and found he young girl huddled in the corner of her bed against the wall, clutching her knees to her chest.
"Hello there, Candice, I'm Doctor Thompson, but you can call me Nancy if you like." Nancy said as she slowly walked into the room, careful to keep her body language and tone non-threatening.
"May I sit?" She asked, when the girl didn't speak, she slowly sat in a chair by the bed, careful not to take her eyes off the unstable teen. Poor girl, she looked like she hadn't slept well in weeks, she had dark circles under her eyes, her skin had a pale, pasty look to it and she was also very thin.
"Would you like to tell me why you haven't been sleeping?" Nancy said as she dug a notepad out of her bag.
"I don't have to tell you shit!" Candice spat venomously.
"True, but if you don't talk to us we can't help you, and the longer you resist help, the longer you're going to have to stay here." Nancy replied in a casual tone, without looking up from her notepad.
"What makes you think I want your help? Do you think you're the first shrink I've seen? Do you think this is the first loony bin I have been to?" She retorted.
"Well, obviously something is going on if you keep ending up in places like this." Nancy replied gently.
"I keep ending up here because no one will listen to me! They think I'm nutso and maybe I am … but that doesn't mean what's happening to me isn't real!" Candice replied.
Nancy's interest was piqued, she had a terrible feeling she already knew what was wrong with this girl. "Okay … so what is happening to you?" She said.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Candice replied bitterly as she averted her eyes to the plain laminate floor.
"Try me." Nancy replied.
"Neil, all these kids who have been admitted are experiencing severe insomnia, vivid pattern nightmares, and night terrors." Nancy said as they looked over the patients' medical files in Neil's office over their lunches.
"You don't think it's … him again … do you?" Neil said.
"What else could it be?" Nancy replied.
"I thought we beat him?"
"He can never truly be beaten, he's the embodiment of pure evil, for lack of a better way to put it. I think how it works, is for good to exist, there must also be evil to balance everything out." Nancy explained.
"So if Freddy is in evil's corner, who's in ours?" Neil asked.
"That would be me." Nancy said with an air of pride.
"You can't be serious!" he replied.
"I am the dream master; it's my obligation to protect kids and their dreams, and to keep Freddy in check." Nancy said.
"You've got to be crazy! You're in no condition to be fighting anyone!" Neil exclaimed as Nancy looked at her watch and stood, gathering her papers.
It's not like I have any say in the matter, I was chosen by … whatever supreme deity might be up there I guess." She said as she glanced up at the ceiling.
"Besides honey, like I said before, I'm pregnant, it's not like I have a terminal disease or anything." She said as she smiled warmly at him.
"Yeah but … wait a minute … did you just call me … honey?" He said, Nancy couldn't help but giggle at his hilarious, disbelieving expression.
"Well … you are my honey … aren't you?" She purred as she stepped around his desk towards him.
Neil swallowed hard as he pulled at his tie and collar; his clothes suddenly felt tight and constricting as it suddenly felt like the temperature in his office had gone up twenty degrees.
"N- Nancy we shouldn't be doing this … we're … at work." He stuttered as she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck.
"True, but we're at lunch, and lunch is our time." She said as she pressed her lips to his.
He could feel it again, the animal that was his desire clawing at his insides, demanding that he give in.
"Nancy … we shouldn't … someone might catch us." He said, barely holding onto his resolve as their kisses became more feverish.
Neil couldn't control the animal any longer, and before he knew what he was doing, he was pushing Nancy up against the front of his desk and ravaging her mouth with his.
A sudden knock at his office door broke them apart.
"We'll have to finish this later." Nancy whispered into his ear, thus causing Neil's breath to catch in his throat. She pulled back from him with a catlike grin; she loved the effect she had on him, because it felt so good to be wanted and to feel desirable again. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt like this with … or about a man.
Neil stood there with his eyes screwed shut for a moment, composing himself before walking over to the door. "You really know how to torture a guy, don't you?" He said, though his eyes held an amused glint in them, along with anticipation of what was to come later, when they were finally off the clock.
"Doctor Sims!" He croaked as he hastily cleared his throat, Nancy stifled a laugh.
"I am sorry to interrupt your lunch, but we have a problem." Simms said, taking a moment to give them both a shrewd once over before motioning them both to follow her.
Nancy and Neil heard the commotion as they got off the elevator, they entered the room after Simms to see three orderlies struggling to hold down one of the kids, it was Candice, the girl Nancy had spoken with before lunch.
"She was in the throes of a nightmare, Max found her on bed check, I still don't know how she managed to do this to herself. You both know the kids aren't allowed sharp objects of any kind." Simms said as she pointed to the deep slashes across the poor girl's arm.
"Oh my god!" Nancy said as she approached the struggling girl.
"Candice! It's Nancy! You're awake now, everything's fine, he's gone!" she shouted over the commotion as she took the girl's face in her hands.
"No! it's not fine! It'll never be fine! Every time I fall asleep he's waiting for me! This time, he almost killed me!" Candice sobbed as she collapsed against Nancy's shoulder.
"Doctor Simms, I would like to try the same treatment we did with the other kids, I think we saw some real progress." Neil said, except this time, his request had an authoritative air to it, and he looked Simms dead straight in the eye.
Simms considered him for a moment before deferring to him and Nancy's experience with kids with these kinds of issues.
"Very well then." She said as she turned on heel and left without another word.
"Damn! You go, Doc! If you keep going like that, soon you'll be runnin' this hospital!" Max exclaimed.
"Well … I wouldn't say that." Neil said with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Well … I happen to think that 'Doctor Neil Gordon, Administrator of Westin Hills' has quite a nice ring to it." Nancy said, it was meant as a casual compliment, but she was unable to keep the saucy undertone entirely out of her voice.
Their attraction to one another was like a living, breathing thing that couldn't be controlled, and although Max noticed, he didn't call them on it.
Nancy walked cautiously up to the still terrified girl.
"Candice, I know it doesn't seem that way now, but everything is going to get better." She said, careful not to use the phrase 'everything is going to be okay' , because she knew all too well that it may not be, and she wanted to be straight with the poor girl.
"How the fuck to you figure?!" Candice said through terrified tears as Max finished dressing and bandaging up her injured arm.
"Because, there is a way you can protect yourself, and we're going to show you how." Nancy replied.
"What a day!" Neil said, it was almost nine at night by the time they finally arrived home.
"Tell me about it, I just want to take a nice, hot shower and go to bed." Nancy said as they dropped their bags at the door.
"I However, recall a certain someone telling me earlier when we were so rudely interrupted, that we would finish what they started later." He mentioned casually.
Nancy stopped halfway to the bathroom and turned around to face him.
"Oh, is that right? And remind me again, what exactly did I start?" She quipped, smirking as she crossed her arms expectantly in front of her.
"Something I haven't been able to get out of my mind all day." He said as he slowly traversed the distance between them, Nancy held her ground, her arms still crossed in front of her.
"What about all that talk about how we should abstain because it might be harmful to the baby?" She countered in a playful challenge as she took a step backwards.
"Yeah … I asked the doctor at your last appointment about that, he said that everything was going normally, and there was no need to abstain any longer." He replied.
"You actually asked the doctor?!" Nancy replied with an amused laugh as she imagined that conversation going down.
"Well … I'm sure it's not the first time he's been asked that question, and I wanted to make sure it would be safe to … you know." Neil replied bashfully as his face reddened.
"You mean have sex?" Nancy replied bluntly, and had to bite back a laugh at Neil's expression as his face suddenly turned fire engine red.
"Uhhh … yeah." He replied, his face still red as could be.
"It's very intriguing to me that someone could be so bashful when they're talking about sex, but not bashful at all when it comes to the act itself." She said with a laugh.
"You are right about one thing …" he trailed off as he stepped close to her, leaving no distance between them. he cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs gently caressing the sensitive skin of her jaw, his gentle caress sent bolts of excitement to places she didn't even know were connected to her face and she shivered involuntarily.
"Now, what do you say we have that shower, together?" He whispered intimately.
"Sure … but not before I have a little fun with you, first." She said coyly as she began unbuttoning his shirt at an agonizingly slow pace.
"Oh Nancy … why must you torture me so?" He moaned.
"Because, it's more fun that way." She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck kissed him.
Notes: I know, I know, there is a lot of fluff, you were warned that there would be … LOL.
