Part Six: "Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream…"

Rated: T

Nightmares. He could always tell when he was dreaming; something about the scenarios or the people's behaviors tipped him off. Or the world would be too perfect and, then as soon as he resolved to let himself enjoy the miraculous occurrence of a good dream, it all went to hell. His unique brand of hell.

This were the dreams that would make him sit bolt-right in bed, crying, sweating, his muscles twitching and jerking and his heart going faster than the speed of sound. This were the dreams that would almost make him swear off sleeping and he thanked his good luck that, as he had alien blood flowing through him, he didn't have to sleep as much as a mortal. Only two nights a week he had to suffer. Eight nights a month and only ninety-six nights a year.

Those ninety-six nights nearly destroyed him. He was haunted by what he had done, what he had been and what he could still do if he ever went back to that dark state of mind.

He could destroy everything he had if he wasn't careful enough. His dreams proved that. He could break her neck, her back. Even with alien medical knowledge there was no way she could completely recover from those types of injuries.

And what about Devlin, when he was born? He could crush his own son by pure accident; he could drop him or get angry and lose his patience.

And what if he couldn't keep them safe? Him and Gwen already lived a high-risk life; she would be pretty vulnerable soon, she already couldn't use her powers, and Devlin would be a sitting duck for the first few years of his life unless he speed grew like Kenny did.

And then there were the things he couldn't control. What if Devlin mutated like he did? What if psycho-sociopathic tendencies ran in Levin blood? What if one of his former business partners sought revenge by using Devlin somehow? Gwen would never forgive him.

"Nightmares?" her soft voice asked and he looked to see her staring up at him.

"Yeah, nothing for you to worry about though…"

She sighed, rolling her eyes, sitting up. Her legs folded off to the side, "What happened in this one?"

"Nothing."

"Kev…"

"Seriously, nothing."

"Everything will be alright Kev; nothing will go wrong; you won't hurt us…" she kept up this mantra of reassurances until she had fallen back to sleep, her head on his shoulder.

He could only hope she was right.