Emily wasn't used to sounds around her house once she had gone to bed. Whenever she had a woman over, she never let them stay the night, kicking them out before they could fall asleep. On the couple of occasions that JJ had stayed, Emily not wanting to kick her out, she had woken up with the blonde in her arms or draped across her, another thing the two hadn't yet acknowledged.
That's why, when Emily woke up to screaming and realised that it was coming from elsewhere in the house, she immediately panicked. The first thought that crossed her mind was to grab her gun. The blood curdling scream pierced through the cloud of sleep that surrounded her brain and the memories of the day before came rushing back. She knew that scream. She had heard it before. Carrie.
Quickly throwing off the covers, Emily jumped out of the bed and stumbled to her door, her legs not quite caught up to her brain and refusing to support her weight so soon. She made a quick stop by the walk in closet to grab her spare gun from the overhead shelf, not having the time to open the safe for her service weapon.
Moving towards the teens room, the screams got louder and clearer, the panic evident in Carrie's voice. Whatever it was, something was clearly very wrong.
Her gun extended in front of her, she cleared the landing and took a quick look in the bathroom before placing one hand on Carrie's door handle, pausing for a split second to take a deep breath. Not even a minute had passed since she had been woken up and her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest, her pulse pounding uncomfortably in her neck.
Slowly easing the door open, Emily inched her way into the room, clicking the safety off on her gun. Once her eyes adjusted to the room, the scene in front of her broke her heart. The teen was lying in the middle of the double bed, the comforter kicked off the end and the sheet wrapped around her waist. Carrie was thrashing in the bed, her arms flailing and her hair stuck to her face and neck with the sweat, tears racing down her face. The young brunette was obviously in the middle of a night terror. The screams tearing out of her chest and her back arched off the bed.
Pausing only long enough to put the safety back on her gun and place it on the dresser inside the door, Emily rushed to the bed and sat on the edge, all of a sudden not knowing exactly what to do. She knew that you weren't supposed to wake a person in the middle of a nightmare but this seemed like a whole new level, this was a night terror.
Not wanting Carrie's demons to haunt her any longer than necessary, she reached out and put her hand on the teens shoulders, trying to cease the flailing. Giving the youngster a slight shake she tried calling her name "Carrie. Carrie wake up. Wake up, it's just a dream." Speaking softly seemed to have no effect on the severity of the dream and Carrie was straining against her hand. "Carrie, it's Emily, wake up! You're okay, nobody is trying to hurt you, you're safe here. Carrie you have to wake up." It seemed as if the older brunette was eventually getting through to the teen.
All of a sudden the young girls eyes flew open, her terror evident on her face, eyes searching the room for whatever threat had been in her nightmare.
"Carrie, it's Emily, do you know where you are?"
"Emily?" The young girl was confused, still half in the dream.
"Yes, we're in DC, do you remember?"
Clarity started to cross Carrie's features "It wasn't a dream was it? They're really dead aren't they?"
Wanting to be honest, but not hurt her Emily slowly nodded "Yes they are, I'm so sorry. But you're safe here, we caught the men who did it and they can't get to you here, they can't hurt you." She wanted to comfort the young girl but didn't know if physical contact would help or hinder in this situation.
Seeing a fresh round of tears on the teen's face and sobs starting to rack her body made up Emily's mind for her. She opened her arms to Carrie, offering the teen a hug. What surprised her was when the young brunette crawled into her lap and wrapped her arms around her neck, burying her face into the profilers t-shirt.
Emily didn't know how long she held the sobbing girl but she felt the wet patch on her shoulder grow as she rubbed comforting circles on Carrie's back and whispered messages of safety in the young girls ear. Eventually the sobs turned to crying which turned into sniffles.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Emily said after what she guessed was a half an hour.
"It was just so real. They came back for me. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. You can go back to bed if you want." She replied, dropping her head, not making eye contact with her new guardian.
"Carrie listen to me. I don't care if you wake me up at any time of the night, every night. If I can be here to comfort you then I will be. After everything you went through I'd be surprised if you didn't get nightmares, all of us on the team get them, they're perfectly normal. I want you to feel like you can come to me, anytime. Do you want me to stay until you fall back asleep?"
Carrie had gotten very quiet, the sniffs stopping, as she got out of Emily's lap and looked at her hands in her own lap, feeling very awkward after her outburst. She felt like she had disturbed the older womans quiet life and felt very guilty for waking her up. "No, I'm okay thanks, you can go back to bed."
Feeling like the teen wanted her there but was too proud to ask her to stay, she just patted the teens leg awkwardly before adding "Okay, you know where I am if you need anything. I'll see you in the morning." With that, Emily stood up and left, picking up her gun on the way out.
Once the door clicked shut, Carrie rolled onto her side and silently cried herself back to sleep.
It was seven am. when Emily woke up, her body too used to routine to let her sleep in, despite what had happened in the middle of the night. Upon seeing the time, Emily got up and into the shower, not bothering to try and go back to sleep.
The profiler was tidying around the house and catching up on laundry all morning and it was after ten by the time Carrie padded down the stairs, still in her pyjamas and socks, and sat at the kitchen island. The events of the night were showing clearly on her face, dark rings evident against the skin around her eyes and worry lines carved into her forehead.
"Good morning, what would you like for breakfast? I made a quick run to the store down the street, got a few bits." Asked Emily, hoping the teen would open up to her about the night before.
"What cereal do you have?" Carrie was avoiding eye contact with the brunette now.
"Want some Lucky Charms?"
"Sure." Emily poured two bowls and leaned on the other side of the island. Their breakfast was eaten in relative silence, all attempts Emily made at conversation were shot down by the youngster.
The minute the two had finished eating Carrie spoke up "Is it okay if I go upstairs? I want to talk to my friends."
"Yeah, sure, okay. I may go to the store in a little bit, I need to get more groceries, is there anything you want for dinner?"
"Whatever, I don't mind, there's not much I don't eat."
"Okay, I won't leave without telling you. You can come if you want."
"Sure." With that, the young brunette turned and climbed the stairs silently, leaving Emily wondering if she'd done something wrong.
Eventually a worried Emily picked up her phone and text the only person she knew could help.
Are you busy? If you are it's nothing important, if not can you give me a call?
She didn't even have time to place her phone back on the counter before it rang.
"JJ, thank god." she answered in lieu of a traditional greeting.
"Hey Em, is everything okay?" concern evident in JJ's tone.
"I don't know. I think I messed up but I don't know what I did."
"Okay, tell me what you do know. What's happened since I left."
"After you left I showed her around, we got to know each other a little better, had some pizza and went to bed. Things seemed okay when we were turning in for the night. Then she had a very loud nightmare in the middle of the night. I thought someone had broken in with the screaming. I had to shake her awake and then I held her while she cried for nearly half an hour. Once she calmed down she wouldn't let me stay with her until she fell asleep and she's hardly spoken to me since. She came downstairs, ate breakfast and went back to her room. I'm really worried."
"Oh Emily. She's probably embarrassed. Imagine if that was you. Moving half way across the country with someone you've only just met, you start to get on with them and then you have a screaming nightmare. She probably feels like she was bothering you, disturbing you life. You just need to give her time to adjust and let her know you're there for her, that's all you can do. You did nothing wrong."
"Thank you Jayj. Are you sure?" Emily still wasn't sure she hadn't done anything wrong.
"I'm sure, time is the main thing here. Do you still want me to come over later? I can give it a skip, give you two more time to adjust."
"No, I want you here, I think Carrie likes you. It'll be good to have you around."
"Okay, I should be out of here around six, I'll see you around half past. I have to get back, you going to be okay?" Emily could hear worry in the blonde's voice.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I'll see you then." Once Emily heard the dial tone, it started to dawn on her what a challenge the next few weeks were going to be.
A/N: Thank you so much for the positive response, I hope I'm living up to expectations taking on this story.