Rachel sat bolt upright, her heart pounding in her chest as if she'd run a marathon. Quickly she put on her bedside lamp and turned to gaze at the man sleeping next to her. A huge sigh of relief escaped her lungs at the sight that met her eyes. To reassure herself further she slipped out of their ornate king-sized bed and padded over to the display case in the adjoining library/office room. Flicking on the display lights, Rachel noted that her Grammy, Jesse's Oscar, and their pair of Tonys, along with their awards from their show choir competitions were safe and intact. Content with her findings, Rachel returned to the bed. As she burrowed under the bedcovers once more, she turned on her side and began running her fingers lightly through Jesse's curls. Even if it had only been a nightmare she needed to discuss it or she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
Jesse slowly opened his eyes and a frown of concern formed on his brow. "What's the matter Rachel?" he mumbled sleepily.
"Jesse! I had the most horrible nightmare!"
Jesse knew he wouldn't get any more sleep unless Rachel could unload her anxieties, so he reached over and stroked her hip comfortingly. "What was it about?"
"I dreamed that in my sophomore year, instead of transferring to Carmel to be with you and to get to know Mom better like I did, we broke up and I stayed at McKinley. After that I made one stupid decision after another." She paused, and decided to omit the part where, in the dream, she'd given up her virginity to Finn to make him feel better about himself. That obviously hadn't happened as Jesse would be the first to attest to, but still there was no need to reveal that her dream self had so little self esteem that she'd done something that ridiculous, not to mention disappointing.
Rachel cleared her throat and continued "In my senior year I also got suspended for stuffing a ballot box so that Hummel would win a student election. Because of the suspension I wasn't allowed to compete at Sectionals. I only applied to one college, some weird place called NYADA, and then I choked on my audition for it! But the worst part of the nightmare was when I nearly married Finn right after Regionals. I even told him that maybe his dreams were bigger than mine. I cannot believe I'd be so insane as to be willing to give up my goal of Broadway for him!" Rachel shuddered as she recollected parts of the crazy nightmare. It was positively traumatizing.
"Well, that definitely qualifies as a nightmare." Jesse agreed as he moved closer and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
"I don't know if I can even go back to sleep. I think I'm going to need therapy." Rachel looked back at Jesse with a hopeful expression.
A small smirk played on Jesse's lips. "Therapy? Well, I'm not trained to deal in nightmares, but my gorgeous, talented, sexy wife tells me I'm rather good at physical therapy."
"And your wife is always right." Rachel managed to gasp out as Jesse had already commenced using his lips and hands in all the best therapeutic ways. Although, with such a bad nightmare, Rachel was pretty certain she'd need more therapy in the morning, and likely after lunch too...