Ohhh, two updates in one night…. :D

Disclaimer: I think you should know by now .

Third toward Fang POV

Fang sat behind the glass in the viewing room, with his nose practically pressed up against the glass. He promised her that nothing would happen to her while she slept, and he would keep that promise. She didn't deserve what was happening to her. Fang had decided that he was going to help her fix this problem, no matter what it was. "Please be okay Max" He whispered more to himself than the Doc.

"You two must be pretty close," the Doc said as he started up the computer that was hooked up to Max's machines on the other side of the glass. "To come this far for someone and not be… well I've never seen that before. So, what are you to her? Boyfriend? Husband?"

Fang sighed. "I don't know what I am to her, but it's not one of those. I do know what she is to me, though. She's the best thing that could have happened to me and I let her slip by. I'm stuck in the friend zone, Doc." Fang watched Max as she tried to settle into the bed, around all the wires attached to her body. The steady beep of her heart monitor filled the room as Doc turned up the audio on the computer monitor, but she wasn't falling asleep, she kept tossing and turning.

"Hey Doc," Max said, her voice muffled by the glass, "Can Fang- I mean Nick- come and sit with me until I fall asleep?" The Doc hit a button on a microphone stand and then spoke.

"I'm sorry Max, your test is for your natural sleep patterns. So, you must be isolated."

"Oh," was all she said in reply. Then the Doc looked towards Fang.

"Why don't you try talking to her, she can't see us behind this glass, but maybe hearing your voice might help. She seems a little frightened by this place." Doc pushed the microphone towards Fang and pointed out the button he would have to push for her to be able to hear what he was saying.

"Hey Max, I'm right here. And I will be all night, but you have to get to sleep for this test to work." Max's face relaxed at the sound of his voice, he was here for her. "Go to sleep Max, if anything happens, I will be right next to you in a matter of seconds." And with that she started to relax and fall asleep. All that was left to do was wait. As the seconds turned into minutes and the minutes turned to hours, Fang found his eye-lids start to droop. His head as leaned against a spare pillow which was then leaning against the glass that separated him and Max. Then he heard an odd sounding beep and he jolted awake, dropping his pillow on the floor. The Doc laughed.

"She is just falling into her REM state of sleep, nothing to worry about. But this is where dreams naturally start to form. So be on the lookout for any movement or sounds that she usually makes during these… 'horrendous nightmares' you called them." Fang gave a nod to the Doc and then went back to leaning against the glass, but this time he was wide awake and had his eye trained on Max, who was now resting peacefully on her stomach in her blue pajamas. But he knew it wouldn't last for two long. He knew how these things worked. She would sleep for three or four hours, five or six if she was luck, and then start screaming bloody murder. It scared the crap out of him and the first night she started the screaming, he thought she was dying. Now, almost every night he would rush over and unlock her door with his spare key, then to get her to quiet down he would –depending on how bad the dream was- either wake her up or crawl into her bed with her.

"Fang…" It was Max, from the other side of the glass.

"Doc," Fang said anxiously, "I think the nightmare is starting." He had never heard this part of her nightmares before- just the screaming bloody murder part- so he couldn't say exactly. The Doc nodded and started recording the waves that her brain was outputting. Fang was now completely pressed up to the glass, his sleep and pillow seeming a distant forgotten memory.

"I don't want to run, I can leave you!" They listened to her voice from behind the glass and to the beeps of the monitors, which were gaining speed at an alarming rate.

"Doc, I have to do something. I can't stand to hear this again." Fang pleaded again and again with Doctor Cabell, but every time he received the same answer. The test was to go on, uninterrupted. At least until she started screaming bloody murder. Only then was the test going to be stopped. Max flipped over and her breathing started to excel at a rapid pace. Fang had to look at the screen to check her readings. He didn't know exactly what they meant, but by the look of the jagged lines and Doc's face, he knew it wasn't good.

"FANG HELP," Max screamed. Then came the garbled screams that he knew too well, ones that didn't even form words. They were just sounds of unbearable pain.

"I have to get in there, stop the test, and wake her up!" Fang yelled at Doctor Cabell, practically running out of the viewing room and into the room where Max lay, screaming and crying all at the same time.

"FANG," Max cried out, at the top of her lungs.

"I'm here, I'm here." Fang rushed to her side and cradled in his arms as if she were a child. "I'm here Max, you're safe. I'm here." * Max cried out again, but more of a sob than a scream and then her eyes flew open.

"Fang," she said, her sobs encasing the rest of the words that she wanted to, but didn't have to say.

"I know, I know." He replied as he lifted her from the bed into his lap. He buried his face into her hair. "Let's just hope that the Doc. got something out of this."

They lay like that for some time: His face in her hair and her face nestled into his neck. Bracing themselves for what might come next.

*[Little author's note here: I was listening to They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light by This Will Destroy You when I wrote this, it just seemed to describe this moment perfectly, even without words]