Night Terrors

"What are you doing up this early?" Dean asked the next morning, walking out of his bedroom where he saw AJ sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee. He was on his way back to work and he didn't expect to see either Punk or AJ up at the crack of dawn.

"I uh… I couldn't sleep." AJ told him as he nodded, wandering over and taking a seat on the couch to tie his laces.

"Phil still sleeping?" Dean asked her.

"Yeah. I think he fell asleep a few hours after we woke him. I heard him moving around a lot." She said as he nodded.

"Worried?" Dean looked across at her as she nodded.

"A little." AJ said, "He uh… I've never saw him like that before. It was like he couldn't breathe. And I just froze." She shook her head.

"Uh… he… he got them he was a kid." Dean said.

"Got them?" AJ shook her head.

"Night terrors." Dean nodded, "When he was like six or seven. He went through a really bad phase. Mom always told us it was nightmares but when we got older we found out that it was because he… Phil saw our mom and dad arguing one night. Dad was drunk. He hit her. There was a fight." Dean said, "Terrified him." He said, "So… a few weeks after that, once mom got the restraining order on dad, Phil started having these nightmares… but they weren't like just bad dreams or anything. He would wake up screaming, or he'd stop breathing. We shared a room so… I remember it pretty well. Sometimes he'd even go sleep walking." Dean nodded.

"Why hasn't he told me about that?" AJ shook her head.

"I don't know, I guess… I guess it's something he doesn't like remembering." Dean said, "But they were really bad."

"So you think that's what it was last night?" AJ asked him.

"It looked like it." Dean said, "The short breath, the screaming, you see how when he woke up he tried to back away from us?" He asked, "He done that as a kid too. In fact, he punched me a few times." He shook his head, "Given what he's been through these past few months… I wouldn't say it's abnormal for him to be having them again." He said.

"Is there something we can do?" AJ asked. She wanted to help in any way she could. He'd been through enough without having to suffer after it all too.

"Well, it's Phil, so he's not gonna take sleeping pills or anything… mom used to make him drink this stuff before bed. Like menthol stuff." Dean said, "I'll see if I can recognise something on my way home from work." He told her as AJ nodded, "Other than that, they will pass… I mean, I'm sure we'd feel the same if we were put on death row and made to wait for our death." He said as AJ nodded.

"It scared me." AJ admitted.

"Yeah, it used to scare me too." Dean nodded, "It's just gonna take a bit of time to actually get over this. At least he's at home, and I know he values you in this recovery process. You make a big difference." He said as AJ smiled to him.

"I just don't want it to effect his life anymore than it already has." AJ sighed, watching as Dean stood up and grabbed his jacket from the back of the couch.

"He'll get through it. We all will." Dean nodded, leaning forward and kissing her cheek as she smiled. She always knew Dean's way of getting through things was powering through. He was a very strong individual just like Punk, and that made her a stronger person too.

"You have a good day at work." AJ nodded to him.

"Yeah, ok. Don't rub it in." Dean smiled, "See you later." He said, leaving the apartment. He wasn't worried about his brother, he knew that something like this was bound to happen. They had to remember what Phil had actually been through these past few months, sitting for twenty three hours in a lonely, dark cell, awaiting for nothing but death. It was enough to drive the strongest and stable people crazy, but he also knew that he had a history with night terrors, so maybe this wasn't much of a shock to him.

"Mom." Five year old Dean nudged his mother's shoulder as she lay asleep in her room, "Mom." Dean whispered again, nudging her harder as Vanessa opened up her eyes quickly and looked at Dean with worry, sitting up quickly. The boys never woke her up. They were good sleepers and most often than not, they slept all the way through until morning.

"What? What is it?" Vanessa said softly.

"I think Phil is upset." Dean said quietly as Vanessa shook her head, suddenly hearing noises from their bedroom down the hall.

She got out of bed and ran down the hallway, walking into their bedroom and looking over at her eldest son in his bed. He was shaking, crying and at times, she thought he wasn't breathing.

"Oh my God." Vanessa shook her head, her instinct reaction was to wake him up, "Phil!" She said, dashing to the bedside and shaking him a little, "Phil! Wake up for me, baby." She encouraged as Dean sat up on his bed across from Phil's, crossing his legs in a basket as he watched worriedly, "Phil, wake up. C'mon." Vanessa started to panic, shaking him a little harder than she wanted to, eventually managing to wake him up as his little green eyes opened up and he slid up the bed trying to get away from her, his terror still fresh in his mind, and still a reality for him.

"Hey, baby… it's ok." Vanessa nodded, "It's ok. It's mom. And Dean." She nodded as Dean waved to his brother from across the bed, "You're alright, sweetheart. You just had a really bad dream." She said. But she knew they'd had bad dreams before, never to this extent, and with her nurse expertise, it seemed he was having some sort of panic attack along with it.

He looked confused and frightened, and she hated to see her son that way, so she tried to bring him around to full consciousness very slowly and carefully, without frightening him anymore.

"Phil, you were crying." Dean said in a squeaky voice whilst Punk looked over at him, "Did you have a bad dream?" He asked cutely as Punk looked back to his mom.

"You're ok." She nodded, rubbing his little hand as he sighed exhaustedly, "Do you feel ok?" She asked him, brushing her hand through his messy bed hair as he nodded.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, wiping his face, not recalling much about what he was actually thinking about, just knowing that it was scary. They'd eventually find out later as the weeks gone by that it was his own father who was sparking up his night terrors.

"Ok, I'm gonna make you a warm drink before you go back to bed." She said.

"Umm." Dean smiled over to her and waved, "Can I have some?" He smiled as she smiled and nodded.

"Yeah." Vanessa nodded, "Yeah, of course." She said, "You keep an eye on your brother, ok?" She told Dean who nodded, "And if you both need the toilet then go just now." She said. If they ever woke through the night, she always encouraged them to go to the toilet, "I'll be back in a minute." She sighed, kissing Punk's head and leaving the bedroom. Until she spoke to someone at her work in the hospital, she was assuming it was just a very bad nightmare, and hoped it was just a one-time thing.

"Morning." Punk nodded, getting out of the bedroom and heading over to the couch where AJ had been sat all morning.

"Morning." AJ smiled to him, "Did you get some sleep?" She asked him, watching as he sat down beside her slowly.

"Yeah, a little." Punk nodded, "Is Dean away to work?" He asked her as she nodded.

"Yeah, he left at 6." AJ said.

"You've been up since then?" He shook his head.

"I couldn't sleep." She shook her head, "I was worried about you." She told him as he looked at her, "That nightmare you had." She said as he nodded.

"You don't have to be afraid. It won't do anything to me." She assured her.

"It looked like you couldn't breathe." AJ said, "And I didn't even know what to do to help you." She said, feeling helpless, wanting desperately to know what she could do to help him, "Dean told me about… the night terrors you got as a kid." She said.

"He did?" Punk asked as she nodded.

"You told me you'd never saw your dad before." She said quietly as he looked across at her.

"Yeah, well… that was the one and only time I did. I pretend that moment doesn't exist." He told her.

"Dean said your mom would give you some sort of drink before bed… he's gonna look for it at the store." She said as he laughed a little.

"I'm not six." Punk shook his head, "I'm alright. It was just a little nightmare." He waved his hand as she looked at him with an unimpressed facial expression, "What?" He laughed.

"C'mon, Phil. It's me. You don't have to be all macho with me." She said, "You're allowed to feel the effects of all of this. You've been through a hell of a lot." She reminded him.

"Yeah, I know, but I don't want to sit and think about it all day." Punk said.

"I'm not saying you have to." She said, standing up and sitting over closer to him, "But I'm just saying, I'm here for you." She said, placing her hand on his arm and rubbing it softly, "And we'll get through this together, and it'll all be in the past soon." She nodded, kissing his shoulder through his t-shirt as he wrapped his arm around her.

"Don't you worry about me." He told her, "Yeah, it's still on my mind. Sitting in a cell every day, waiting for each second to drag by, waiting on… dying." He said, "It's not something you imagine yourself dealing with." He said, "And it was scary." He said, "And… the night terrors. They're just a fancy word for a bad nightmare." He scoffed, "Mom would call them that because she was a nurse and she liked official terms." He said as she smiled up at him, "We all have bad dreams." He nodded to her.

"Yeah, and I want to be there for you when you do." She said, "Talk to me about them." She nodded, "I wanna help you." She said as he nodded.

"Ok." Punk nodded, "I'm sure you'll get a chance to." He said. He did have terrible nightmares as a child, but they bypassed and only lasted for a short amount of time. He was sure that all the trauma he'd been through were the reason they had come back, but he wasn't scared like he used to be. He knew everything was ok, and he got to wake up beside AJ, which was a calming sight in itself.

"Do you want to go for breakfast?" He asked, "Get some fresh air." He said as she nodded and smiled up at him. Just like Dean, his strong nature to carry on and power through was something that gave her strength too.

"Yeah." She smiled, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss on his lips. She promised to be here for him throughout whatever pain and suffering he had to go through to put all of this in the past. For good.

A/N: Let me know what you think!