Later that night.
Chris wanted to alleviate the tension between him and Clara after their row earlier on when he got back from work.
They shared a large takeout between themselves and they settled down and watched a few films whilst huddled up against each other on the sofa, until she felt so tired that she fell asleep on him.

He peered down at her as he became aware of how heavy she'd suddenly gotten, and he carefully folded a loose dark strand of hair behind her ear. He felt warm at her arm slackly wrapped around his waist, hugging them close together, and he knew that he had to get her to bed. He lifted her into his arms and laid her down onto her bed.

Clara's eyelids fluttered a few times as Chris made to cover her up with the blankets. She stirred awake and hazily peered up at him. "What happened?"

"You dropped off." He smirked playfully.

"Oh." She sounded crestfallen. "Did I miss much of the film?"

"No," his bright blue eyes fixed onto hers softly, "it wasn't far off from ending, so I shouldn't worry."

"I'm sorry."

He raised an eyebrow at her apology, and he took his place next to her on the bed. "What are you sorry about, sweetheart?" He tenderly preened another few wayward strands of hair with an index finger.

"For what I said earlier." She placed a hand on his other hand, which had placed itself on the bed. "I didn't mean what I said, but…"

"It's ok now." He kept the preening at her hair going. "I know you didn't mean it. You're just going through a lot of emotions still, that's all."

She nodded slowly, knowing that there was something she'd been meaning to tell him for some time. "I get bad dreams sometimes."

Chris found nothing unusual to have come out of what she just said. "Well that's pretty much normal. Everyone gets bad dreams at any age."

"Not the ones I get."

He frowned in slight concern, sitting closer to her and then moved the touch from the slight wave in her hair that he'd created, to her cheek. "For how long have you been getting them?"

Clara shrugged dimly. "Probably since staying here with you." She watched his expression become more worried. "And they're always of the same thing. Over and over again…"

"It won't happen again. I'm here for you now, remember?"

"It's like a movie that won't stop playing. As if it's stuck on replay…why won't it go away, dad?"

"Ssh…it's ok, I can make this better for you. It's ok."

She shakily sat up, tears shimmering in her eyes.

Chris took her into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her and rubbing her down her back. He didn't know what else to do to get her to relax.
He laid her back down in bed, softly rearranging her shiny dark hair so it scattered nicely over the pillow.
"I love you," he planted a soft kiss on the top of her head, "and no one is going to hurt you anymore."

She swiftly placed her hand on his, pulling him back to her. "I don't want them to come back."

"They wont," he covered her up in the blankets, "not when I'm here." He cupped her face and skimmed his thumb over her cheekbone.

Clara felt sleepy from how affectionate and tender he was being with her. She'd never had anyone feel for her the way he did and she found it surreal. She felt lucky that he was the dad she never knew she had.

He made to leave her, peering back over at her as she lay quite comfortably in amongst the thick blankets. "You want me to leave the light on?" He only switched on her bedside lamp, as he wanted to let her relax as much as he could, but if she needed to sleep, it was better for her if the room was kept dark.

She nodded hazily. "Love you, dad."

"Love you too." His bright blue orbs sparkled reassuringly. "Close your eyes and go to sleep now."

Chris found it impossible to sleep.
What Clara had said to him worried him somewhat.
If she had such bad dreams since living with him, why not tell him sooner?
Unless maybe she thought that as soon as he took her in and looked after her as well as he had done, they would somehow go away. After all, that was a realistic assumption to make.

"They're always of the same thing."

He frowned a little at that. If she'd been dreaming of the same thing, in the literal sense, that possibly meant she was suffering from some form of flashback.

A wave of exhaustion came over him. First of all Karen had been affected by concussion, which she was still trying to recover from, and secondly Clara – his own daughter – had problems sleeping.

He was pulled out of his thought process when he became aware of a small disturbance from her room.
It was just as well that he hadn't yet gone to bed himself.
He leant against her doorway, noticing that the blankets were thrashing about quite wildly.
It was something he couldn't ignore, especially when he heard a few dim protests come from underneath the bedclothes.

"I-I won't do it. I won't…" She sounded as though she was stuck in some sort of dream. She twisted her body about into quite uncomfortable positions, almost as if she was dreaming.

Dreaming…

That was it.
Chris came into the room, and positioned himself next to her on top of the bed. He pulled the blankets away from her and placed his hands around her wrists, as the struggling continued.

Clara frowned instinctively at the restrictive contact, and tried to pull herself free from his grip. Her panic only set in all the more when she found that he wasn't going to let her go. The struggling grew more frantic. "I don't wanna do it…leave me alone."

He didn't know for how long it could last. She wasn't overly tired to start with, so it could well have gone on into the early hours of the morning.
Not only that, but he was worried about her trying anything else to get him to let go.

The way she was reacting to the dream, particularly a flashback if that was what it was, was normal. She could be re-enacting the order in which the whole event happened, or she was behaving in the way she would've done so at the time. Either way, it wasn't good if she ended up hurting him.

Maybe some gentle coaxing on his part would get her to relax back to sleep, but he decided to wait till her struggling had lessened.
That wouldn't take long as it was bound to tire her out, and soon enough she lay, heavily panting, in amongst the pulled away blankets.

"Clara…it's ok now." He didn't know much about night terrors or flashbacks that were experienced during sleep, so he had no idea if she could even hear him.
However, she might respond through touch. She certainly responded when he kept her down against the bed.

Clara shivered involuntarily when the young male softly swept a hand over her forehead. The dream itself wasn't particularly pleasant, and so it was normal for her to not accept it at first.
"Don't touch me," was her response.

"It's ok," Chris caressed her under her jaw with his index finger, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She twisted about uncomfortably as she grew more accustomed to the dreamily unknown touch. She relaxed as he took her into his arms and held her close to his body. Just to get her to feel his warmth was a foolproof way to get her to go back to sleep.
She breathed heavily against him when he wrapped his arms around her. She was still trying to fight the unfamiliar contact, but it was helping her.

"Good girl," he laid her back down, softly twirling the dark wavy strands reassuringly, "sweet dreams now."

Clara elicited a blissfully relaxed sigh, nestling into a more relaxed position onto her back when he carefully pulled the blankets over her and pressed his lips to her forehead.

Chris stood next to the nightstand, observing her sleeping form in the softly dim light. He felt happy to leave her to rest, placing his hand on the lamp's switch and flooding the room in darkness before closing the door.

The next morning.
He got up, surprised to find that he felt as revitalised as he did, even after going to bed much later the previous night.
He got himself dressed, going straight to Clara's room and seeing her still deeply asleep in amongst the blankets.
He smiled softly at her peaceful appearance, leaning against the room's doorway. He felt so relieved that she'd gotten back to sleep.

She mumbled drowsily when he swept a hand over her forehead.

"Sleep well, my angel." He whispered softly, kissing her there after he moved a few stray dark strands from her face. "I love you."