Hallie Regan couldn't stay awake.

She tried.

She fought the medications the doctor had ordered to be given to her. She fought the I.V. drip in her arm. She fought the overwhelming onslaught of memories and sensations that over-stimulated her brain when she slept. She fought. Hard.

But, all it did was tire her out more. She simply couldn't stay awake.

And, she certainly didn't want to sleep.

In sleep, there were dreams.

Some were pleasant. The smells of her childhood home mixed with the present joys of the ranch she shared with her husband and children. She rode horseback with Trixie, then Bill, then Dan, then Daniel…the scenes changed location and season without warning; without logic. There were faces and songs and moments of bliss. She heard her brothers' laughter, tasted her mother's cooking, and could feel the warmth of her husband's touch.

No, that was not a dream. He was there. Bill. His large hands taking her small one into their folds.

Bill! Help me! She tried to scream out to him. She couldn't.

She couldn't wake.

Bill!

"Shhh. Darling. Everything is alright."

Had she cried out? Had he heard her silent plea? It was his voice. She would know it anywhere.

But, he hadn't called her "Babe." She was confused.

Wait! Her fuzzy brain struggled to find balance. That was what Dan had always called her, not Regan.

She couldn't stay awake.

She didn't want to dream.

Some dreams were pleasant.

Some were not.

"Mom, I love you."

It was Daniel's voice.

She could feel his comforting presence. She couldn't open her eyes, but she could almost see the tears in his. Bill was no longer there. She knew it.

How long have I been asleep?

She tried to touch her son. She couldn't move. His presence was suddenly replaced by the overwhelming memory of his father's.

"Don't fight it, Babe." She heard him say. The voice was Dan's, but the evil, sneering face that suddenly accompanied the words belonged to Luke. The very smell of him invaded her senses. His image formed starkly before her and pressed her pounding head back with a violent kiss.

Instantly, Luke's face melted over hers as the terrifying nightmare jolted the woman back into consciousness, causing her to sit up violently on her hospital bed.

In the aftermath of the retreating vision, the pounding of her heart sent several monitors into an electric frenzy of lights and sound; nurses, medical technicians, and family members scrambled into and out of the room in a panic.

"Hallie!" She could hear Bill, but she couldn't see him.

"Mr. Regan, please wait outside," a nurse instructed from somewhere by the door.

"Bill!" Hallie croaked.

Her eyes flew to the viewing window of her hospital room where she could see the horrified faces of her three children staring at her from the hallway. Fiona was clinging to Will, and Daniel, as she had already somehow sensed, was crying silent streams of tears down his face.

"I'm alright," she managed, for their sake.

But she still could not see her husband. She needed him.

"Please, I'm alright. Where's Bill?" Her own voice sounded odd to her. Rusty. Old. Unused.

"I'm here!" From behind the mass of hospital staff, he appeared beside her.

"Mrs. Regan, you must lie back," the nurse demanded firmly. "You have been experiencing some abnormal heart rhythms and you shouldn't exert yourself."

"I just fainted. Nothing more. Please, let my children in."

With knowing glances back and forth between them, the throng of medical personnel continued to do the things they were doing. Checking wires, punching buttons, pulling data sheets, and poking and prodding her. They were reluctant to comply with her request.

What is going on? Hallie grew nervous.

As if he'd read her mind, her husband answered her thoughts.

"Darling, they think you may have been having some heart palpitations when you passed out," Regan began slowly. "You've been really out of it for almost two days. They've kept you here to monitor you…and… we were just sitting here beside you… when… all of these machines started going off."

Two days? What?

She couldn't believe this. She was as healthy as ever before. She ate well, walked several miles every day, and she'd never had high cholesterol or elevated blood pressure. This was a mistake.

"No. It…it can't be my heart. I just fainted."

She knew the diagnosis was wrong. Or was it?

"Shhh. Darling. Everything is alright." Regan repeated the same phrase she recalled hearing him say in her dream.

Or had it been a dream at all?

Suddenly, she couldn't be sure of anything. Hallie shivered as she contemplated that any part of her recent imaginings might be real. She was confused. She was afraid. She didn't want to go back to sleep.

"Bill, please…please tell them. I'm fine. I want to leave." She quickly pushed away the tech who was about to inject something into her I.V. line. "Please…no more drugs. I don't… I don't want to sleep.

She sought her husband's gaze and saw concern in his deep green eyes.

"Hallie, you need to rest."

"Stay with me."

"I'm here."

The young man with the syringe stepped toward her again, and she gripped her husband's large forearm with haste.

"Please. I'll sleep on my own…I promise. Just, no more…no more drugs," she pleaded. She noticed Will had pulled Fiona and Daniel away from the window and was trying to lead them down the hall.

In response to her words, the medical technician sighed and stepped back from the older couple with a shake of his head.

"I don't think Dr. Brewer will like this very much…but…" He put the syringe down on a rolling tray and looked down at the patient with a serious glare. "You know you must rest, Mrs. Regan."

"I will. I will…please…just…no more drugs." Hallie immediately felt drained and could no longer keep her head lifted above the pillow. She let it slip back down and slowly exhaled a breath of relief. She hated medicine. She never responded well to it. Several of the painkillers she had been prescribed after her C-section surgery at Fiona's birth had made her deathly ill for days. A new thought popped into her brain.

"What did they give me on the ambulance?" She murmured sluggishly. She assumed by her presence in the hospital that Di and Will had panicked and called emergency services when she'd fainted at home.

"I don't think they gave you anything," Regan said quietly.

"Actually," a young nurse interrupted, looking down at Hallie's chart, "they gave you..."

"Check the meds…" Hallie blurted out quickly before she felt herself slipping into darkness. She could feel the pressure of Bill's hand clasping hers, but she could not make her body keep up with what was transpiring around her.

Why doesn't he say something? What's happening?

Hallie's semi-conscious mind could no longer contemplate anything beyond the warmth of sleep rapidly overtaking her or the comforting feeling of a well traced scar on her husband's forearm being slowly and familiarly massaged beneath her heavy fingers.

She knew the feel of the old injury well.

The jagged line on his skin served as a reminder of the day she knew she could not live without him. The day her family also came to realize how deep her love actually was for Dan's uncle.