Thanks to those of you that are still reading. Life in the Atwood household are about to change. R/R Thanks

Nightmares

When Emily was finally asleep, Ryan and Marissa made their way into their bedroom. Ryan closed the door and locked it. He had to fiddle with the lock for a minute because he realised that it had never been used before and it was stiff.

"Do you think you should do that?" Marissa asked. "What happens if she needs us? Maybe you should leave the door open so we can hear her. She might be scared?" she added.

"If I left the door open, she might be scarred for life if she walks in on us when we're …" Ryan didn't finish, he just looked at Marissa, the lust evident in his eyes.

Marissa couldn't help but smile, wanting him just as much as he wanted her but torn between that and her concern for Emily. "Maybe we could be quick and then we will open the door." She suggested.

"No need." Ryan replied as he walked over to the intercom control on the wall. "I knew I put this in for a reason. Now I just need to make sure I know how to use it." He said.

"Use what?" Marissa asked. "What is it?"

"It's the master control for the security and intercom system and it has a monitor function. All I need to do is set it up so that we can hear her but she can't hear us and we're free and clear." He said as he pressed the final button and turned to her.

Marissa smiled slowly, realising they no longer needed to be in a hurry. "Do you think we could hear that in the bathroom?" she asked hopefully.

"Maybe not over the noise of the shower." Ryan admitted reluctantly.

"Well …" Marissa smiled. "I felt like a bath anyhow." she said as she slowly stripped off her clothes. Knowing that Ryan was watching her every move she moved slower than usual. When she was completely naked she moved towards the bathroom and stopped at the door and turned back to him. "Care to join me?"

Ryan took a deep gulp. "I think a bath is just what I need." he replied.

---

It was still pitch black and Ryan was sound asleep when something disturbed him from his slumber. He listened again but heard nothing and so he moved closer to Marissa spooning around her naked body and wondering if rather than going back to sleep, perhaps she wouldn't mind if he was to wake her up for another round. He was just about to try when he heard the noise again and realised it sounded like a whimper and it was coming from … his fuzzy sleep addled brain tried to think and then it came to him … the monitor. As realization set in, he quickly jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of boxers and made his way to Emily's room.

She was crying softly in to her pillow and Ryan turned on the small lamp beside the bed and picked her up and pulled her in to his arms. "Hey. What's the matter here?" he asked.

Emily continued to sob but put her one good arm around his neck and snuggled in to his bare chest.

"Em. Come on. Tell me what's wrong. I can't fix it if you don't tell me."

Emily sniffled some more. "I had a bad dream." She said.

"Well, that's all it was a dream. You're here with us and everything's all right. Nothing can hurt you."

"But … but …" she sniffled some more.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"I keep fremembering the crash." She said. "And Grace …" she sniffled some more. "she … I couldn't help her."

Ryan thought his heart would break. Why did life have to be so unfair? He wanted to change the subject but he knew that Charlotte had said that Emily needed to be able to talk about it. Apparently up until now, Charlotte hadn't been able to get Emily to talk about the accident at all. But she had warned them that when Emily did start that they needed to listen and just try to answer truthfully but reassure her at the same time. It had sounded easy when Charlotte had said it but now Ryan was wondering just what he should say. He knew it was good that she was finally starting to open up. It meant that she was feeling comfortable with them, but it still didn't help him to know what the right thing to say was.

"There was nothing that you could have done." He said holding her to him. "It was just a terrible accident." Ryan assured her.

"It hurts so much when I think about her and Daddy." Emily said still holding tightly on to Ryan. "I don't want to think about them cause it hurts but I keep fremembering anyhow." She looked at Ryan, her eyes huge in the dim light.

"I know. But you know what I think the best thing to do is? Every time you think about them, instead of thinking about the accident, what you need to do is think about a good time that you spent with them. Try to think of a happy memory. It might be hard at first but each time you do it, it will get a little easier." He suggested.

Emily looked at him trying to understand.

"What's something that you liked to do with Daddy and Grace?" Ryan asked.

Emily thought for a minute and then replied "Go to the swings in the park." Emily said sadly, thinking to herself that it would never happen again.

"And did you have a good time when you did that?" Ryan asked.

Emily nodded.

"Well what you need to do is try to remember those times, when you were happy. I hope you don't ever forget your Daddy or Grace. They were special people and they loved you very much. But what you need to do is try to concentrate on the happy times you spent with them. It will be hard at first, but it will get easier and easier, I promise." Ryan assured her.

"We used to have fun at Christmas" Emily said "and I freemember one day in summer we went and had a picnic at the beach and Daddy built me a big sandcastle and Grace crawled over the top of it and Daddy tickled her and he had to start my sandcastle all over again. And then Mommy poured a bucket of water on him and he got all sandy." Emily told Ryan a smile slowly emerging on her face as she remembered happier times with her family.

He returned her smile. "See … it doesn't hurt so much to think about them, if you're remembering happy times, does it?" Ryan asked.

Grace nodded.

"Do you think you could go back to sleep now? Just think about those happy times and see how you go." Ryan suggested. "I'll be just down the hall."

"Can I sleep with you?" Emily asked, her eyes like orbs in the dim light.

Ryan thought about his bed with a naked Marissa in it and wondered how he could possibly explain that to Emily when from the door Marissa spoke softly. "I think that would be okay just this once."

Ryan looked up to see Marissa standing there. He didn't know how long she had been standing there but she must have heard them and come to see what was going on. She had thrown on one of his t-shirts and as she stood there in the soft glow of the lamp with her bed hair and long tanned legs he re-thought the idea of having a small child in his bed.

Marissa watched as Ryan looked her over. She loved the way he could undress her with his eyes. The naked desire in them so obvious she felt herself blush. "I can't blame her for wanting to sleep with you. I do." She smiled. "It seems your attraction works on females of all ages." She said, thinking back to Edna in Miami who had also made it blatantly obvious just how attractive she found Ryan.

Ryan smiled knowing that he had lost this one. "Okay Missy." He picked up Emily in his arms. "Just for tonight. But we're not going to make a habit out of this." He said as he moved to the door. Marissa turned off the lamp and followed down the hall looping her thumb in the waistband of Ryan's boxers as they made their way back to their bedroom.