"How does it feel to have solved the case that your ex-husband was responsible for screwing up?"
He looks on at the screen, the words not having as much of an effect on him as Tess' smug face does, and his own face turns into a grimace.
"It feels great, yeah. I'm just so glad that these families can now be at peace."
Daisy is suddenly in frame next to her mother, holding onto her waist and hugging her tightly, and then he was brought back to his own reality, back at the river Sandbrook, holding on to a soaking wet Pippa. Her weight against him doesn't feel as heavy as he remembered; the water on his skin doesn't feel as wet. He places her on the ground, shaking her to see if she would wake up, and then he was brought back (or forward, he can't really tell) to Daisy's bedroom, him shaking Daisy in her bed, Tess looking on, shouting at him, and he crumbles into himself.
He shifts position on his bed, on the threshold between his dream state and reality, and his eyelids flutter almost imperceptibly as he falls back in.
Only now, he was in the courtroom, awaiting the verdict for Joe Miller.
"Not guilty."
The courtroom erupts into chaos, but before he can process any of it, he hears glass shattering next to him, the dock containing Joe now exposed. He looks to the left as Joe falls forward into the glass shards, the back of his suit turning red with his blood. The two guards that stood with him were now replaced with two other figures with a significant height difference between them. As he gets a closer look, just before they disappear into the door behind them, he recognizes their faces. Jack Marshall and Danny Latimer.
He turns back around and sees Ellie curled into a ball, sobbing, Tom, Lucy, and Olly surrounding her. He moves to go to her when he feels his hand being grabbed and he is suddenly out of the courtroom. Claire is leading him away, down the stairs and out the doors to a seething Lee charging toward them. Lee lunges at him, but he doesn't feel the blow come. Instead, he sees Lee on the ground breathing heavily, the wind knocked out of him.
In his dreams he could always be this, a version of himself that was stronger than in real life. But in past dreams, it was always apparent that it wasn't real in those times. Now, he isn't so certain. With his new heart he feels invincible, both physically and mentally. The anger he feels is red-hot, boiling over at the seams, making his skin crawl, but he doesn't know the source of it. He thinks it's for everyone he has ever come into contact with in his entire life. With one exception.
He's now at the funfair behind his house holding candy floss in one hand and Fred's hand in the other as Ellie and Tom are crashing into each other on the bumper cars. He meets them at the exit of the arena, Ellie holding onto a stuffed lion, because apparently you can 'win' at bumper cars and all winners get a prize, and she hands it to him while she takes Fred's hand from his, Tom taking his candy from the other.
"For you, 'cause you're lionhearted." She walks away from him leaving him standing in his spot, holding onto the stuffed toy, until the scene around them changes and now they're on a safari, his stuffed lion now real, now walking at the same speed next to their vehicle.
He wakes up, but he knows it's still a dream. They're at Ellie's house on her sofa, the dim light from the tv the only thing illuminating the room. She is sprawled on the other end of the sofa, her head cushioned by a pillow, eyes closed. She doesn't look like she is breathing, and he goes to shake her before he catches himself, getting up to turn on the light instead. She stirs, and he goes back to sit on his end of the sofa, keeping his eyes on her.
She looks over at him and he feels his heart skip a beat, and he worries that his pacemaker is failing him. He feels lightheaded and dizzy, yet stronger than he's ever been before. The passion he feels is red-hot, simmering to the surface, making his skin feel warm, and he knows exactly the source.
He has never moved quicker in his life than when he went to kiss her. Their teeth clash and all of the years that he's been numbing himself come back full force and he feels; he feels like he's never felt anything before.
In an instant that feels like forever, she jerks herself away, and the fire that was engulfing his body was now extinguished, his skin cold.
"What are you doing?" She asks as she stands up and takes several steps away from him.
He was now being inundated with ice water, drowning under the intensity while trying to avoid being pulled under, but he fails. In the water, his flesh rots to the bone and he feels himself floating toward the other skeleton already there, a heart pendant clasped around the first two vertebrae.
...
He wakes up in his own bed with sunlight streaming through his window, and takes a moment to himself to process what's going on. Thankfully, most of his dream is forgotten.
He looks to his left and sees Tess and Ellie looking at paperwork, tea nearby.
"What's going on?" They both turn their eyes to look at him, and he notes the differences in their stares.
"Morning. Cup of tea?" Tess asks him and then struts away.
Ellie smiles at him, and that's all he needs.