A/N: Guess who's still around? I know it's been a bit. Honestly, I've been completely uninspired. Not sure what's going on. This is actually an old fic that I've been messing around with forever. I really do love it and I've been trying to get it right. I think it's finally there. Enjoy!

He's watching her sleep again.

It's something he does often. More often than she knows, because the nightmares come more often than he lets on. And when they do, watching her until her peacefulness absorbs into his own body is the only thing that sends him back to sleep.

She's caught him once or twice. If she wakes up now she'll punch him and tell him to stop being creepy and that she can't sleep while he watches.

But tonight, blessedly, she doesn't stir, completely serene in the moonlight that slips in through the curtains. And he's grateful, because this nightmare was particularly bad and he needs her gentle presence here beside him.

In the days before her, he spent a lot of nights lying awake with nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat roaring in his ears for hours on end. The night terrors had started when he was a child. The fear of his father that he kept firmly in check during the day came for him in the dark. Growing older made them worse, as his father's threats and anger reached a boiling point and ultimately sent him to a point of no return.

The night he'd shot his father was the first night he'd slept without dreams in years. The sheer weight of the man's violent presence lifting from the house had been enough to give him peace for one night. But it hadn't lasted. The fear was too old, too deep seated to be kept at bay for long. And once he'd killed Boyle he'd just accepted that sleep wasn't something he deserved anymore.

He'd tried some therapy, but it hadn't lasted. Medication hadn't worked either. Instead it seemed to infuriate his subconscious, infusing his dreams with a new strength that regularly reduced him to a trembling, sweaty mess. Insomnia had gripped him deeply, leaving him edgy and exhausted all day long.

But then she'd come into his life and it had changed everything. Thank god, it had changed everything. Now when the fury of a nightmare overtakes him, ripping him from slumber, her presence is there to ground him. To remind him that they are safe and happy. That the nightmares aren't real anymore.

The steady rise and fall of her chest soothes the rapid beating of his heart. He can just make out her hair on the pillow, the soft skin of her shoulder, the gentle curve of her hip. He loves how beautiful she is, outside and in. She makes him feel safe and wanted. She makes him believe he's a good person. It's what he needs to get through the night.

He lies down again, wrapping his arm around her waist. She sighs and curls into his chest. He closes his eyes. He breathes. And he sleeps.