Yelling
'Person 1 falls asleep on the floor beside Person 2's bed when 1 thought 2 was having a nightmare, and didn't want to leave them alone.'
Katherine knows she's dreaming.
She has always prided herself on maintaining absolute control over those unruly entities buzzing around the average head that one might call emotions, and she has never allowed sleep to be the exception to that rule.
At least, that had been the case up until around seven months ago.
So theoretically, right now Dr Calvin should be able to look her dream self sternly in the eye and tell her to snap out of it, to wake up.
But however logically she chooses to glare at it, logic doesn't stop her legs from quivering and her throat from croaking itself dry and her brain feeling absolute, pure, primal fear as Mary Douglas takes another step closer to her, smiling that terrible smile. The one that said that she's won.
"Goodbye, Katherine," is all she says.
And then her world dissolves around her and there's blinding brightness ringing in her ears, and Katherine wakes up in a clinically cream chamber, staring up at the emotionless ceiling tiles and knowing, just knowing, that there's no way out of this one.
And then the doctor and all the nurses wear Mary's face, leering down at her, and Katherine bolts upright in bed with a cry of alarm.
Except it isn't her bed, she isn't awake, she's staggering against a wall, pain exploding in her arm, in a corridor that seems to be getting longer by the seconds, no-one there to watch her die.
And then she's in her office and she's pinioned to a leather sofa, her robot adversary stepping ever closer, staring right at her with that same smile over a boy's crumpled body.
"I want what's keeping you alive."
And Mary brandishes some mysterious device, and Katherine's backing away but she can't move, she's paralysed, and her nanobots are dying and she's dying and she's so scared, she's so, so scared.
Nick walks into view and Katherine turns dully, her dream state clouded, except it isn't right. Nick's smiling too, Mary's smile, his eyes narrowed in spite and hatred that didn't belong on her friend's face.
"Nick, please," she dimly hears herself say, her voice not her own. "Please help me."
He just smiles and said nothing.
And now he's holding the device, and Mary is striding closer, and Katherine closes her eyes tight.
"Goodbye, Katherine."
It's Nick's voice.
"Katherine!"
It's Nick's voice.
She wakes up abruptly from her dream, screaming out loud into her empty apartment.
A dream.
It was just a dream.
It's only when she finds it in herself to calm down that she realises her apartment isn't so empty after all.
She's sweating and she has tears in her eyes and she's tangled up in a knot of crumpled bedsheets, which she kicks out at in an attempt at escape. She looks up, and the first thing she registers was Nick standing over her bed, concern in his hazel eyes.
"Nick?" Her voice is nothing. Hoarse, like she's been yelling for a solid six hours. She coughs, tries again. "Nick? What – what are you doing here?"
He blinks blearily. "You – you were screaming in your sleep."
Great. Now even Nick knows I'm a nutjob. Katherine tries her best at a reassuring smile, although her heart is still hammering in her ribcage and her vision is blurred with tears. "Nightmare," she explains shortly. "I mean… what are you doing here? In my apartment? At –" She twists her head, checks the digital clock on the opposite wall. "4am?"
Nick looks a little bewildered by the whole exchange, perhaps understandably so. "I was staying the night – you know, just to check you were okay being back in your apartment on your own."
"Oh." Katherine tries to shake herself from her stupor, get some memory back on board this crash course train. Yes, she remembers now. Mary's cure may have worked in safely removing all nanobots from her system, but she still isn't a hundred percent in terms of health, with traces of the burns she sustained seven months ago still decorating her skin, and snatches of exhaustion and pain frequent. It's still a start, as she had said when first agreeing to the treatment. Not by any means a perfect solution, but – a start.
She checks her arm now, still in a light layer of bandage. It seems okay. She confirms this much to Nick, who nods, still looking unsure. "What was your nightmare about? he asks hesitantly.
It tumbles out before Katherine can remind herself otherwise. "Mary," she blurts, the word sounding more like a sob than anything else. "Mary. She was – you were –" She drops her chin heavily to her chest, familiar panic leaping back into her throat.
She flinches, then relaxes as she realises it's Nick who sits down beside her, it's his arm that creeps around her shoulders, a comforting gesture. "Hey. Hey, it's all right. It's okay. Mary's dead, remember?"
"I know." Ashamed of the tears that brims over her eyelids, Katherine shakes her head, glares at her lap. "I know. It's just…"
"I know," replies Nick, seemingly understanding instantly. He has always had a habit of that. "Mary tried to blow you up – twice. It's natural to have nightmares. Just part of recovery."
Katherine tries vaguely to sort out her tangle of covers, curls her knees into her chest. Nick's arm is warm around her back. "Do you want to come back to stay at mine again for a while?" Nick asks softly after a minute of silence, once Katherine feels she can breathe slightly more steadily again.
She considers her reply. Considers saying yes, going back to Nick's companionable home and his at least supportive family and not having to feel quite so alone. "It's fine," she lies instead. "I'm fine."
Nick gives her a very unconvinced look.
Katherine, abashed for once in her proud existence, drops her gaze. "You should get some sleep, Nick," she mutters.
"Yes," he agrees unexpectedly.
She blinks at him, surprised by his readiness. "…Yes?"
He suddenly smiles at her, this time a real Nick smile. The one Katherine has only ever seen him reserve for concern over Eve or his family.
Family.
"Yes. Back in a minute."
Nick is already jumping up surprisingly nimbly from her bedside as she questions his actions, throwing her another slight smile then leaving the room. It was only a few seconds until he reappears, this time dragging what Katherine recognises as a pillow and duvet from her spare room where she dimly recalls setting her impromptu guest up a bed for the night. "No, Nick!" she reprimands, half getting up from her curled position in what really was a very messy bed, but her co-worker just laughs and shrugs as he rolls out the duvet on the floor right beside her bed.
"If you're going to scream and wake me up, at least let me comfort you from the comfort of my own bed."
Katherine can't help but giggle, the sound slightly less than halfway to a sob now. "Fine."
"Fine," Nick mimics, as they so often do in their many bickering sessions, while lying down on the rug and bringing the duvet right up to his chin, Katherine throwing him down an extra couple of cushions that dot her own bed. "Night, Katherine."
"What's left of it," she counters, but it's without venom, rather gratitude that anyone would choose to do this for her, over just a couple of nightmares. "Night, Nick."