A/N: Wow I am so terribly sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter out. It's been a crazy few weeks, but I'm happy to end the suspense that I left you in. Enjoy!

Chapter 6: The Dream

"He was hurting Mommy," Mikey added.

"Oh, baby," Sara said kissing the top of his head. "I know that was probably really scary, but I'm okay. I'm not hurt."

"That wasn't even the scariest part," Mikey said, squeezing her and trying to get even closer to his mom.

"Well what was the scariest part?" Michael asked.

Mikey released his grip on Sara's neck and pulled away, meeting the eyes of his mother and father.

"He had weird hands. One was normal, but the other was weird. It was all rubbery and fake."

Michael's blood ran cold at his son's admission. He and Sara looked at each other. They only knew one person with a hand that was 'all rubbery and fake.'

"Can you tell us a little bit more about this dream?" Sara asked her son, rocking him back and forth in her lap, trying to keep her voice from shaking. One of them needed to remain calm, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Michael.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Mikey said, re-nuzzling himself against Sara's chest when neither of his parents responded. Sara brought a hand to the back of his head and stood to take Mikey back to his room.

"Why don't I read you another story and tuck you back in?" Sara asked, moving Mikey to her hip.

"No," Mikey cried, clinging to Sara ever tighter. "Don't leave me, Mama. Don't go!" Mikey said as he began to cry.

"Okay, baby. How about I take you back upstairs and read you another story, and then, I can stay with you in your bed? How does that sound?" Sara asked, gently rubbing his back soothingly.

"Okay," Mikey mumbled against her hair.

"Okay," Sara started, "I'm gonna put you down now so you can go tell Daddy goodnight."

Sara bent down to set her son on the ground. Mikey ran to Michael and grabbed onto his legs.

"Night, Daddy," he said.

Michael bent down to pick his son up.

"Goodnight, big man," he walked over to Sara. "I hope Mommy can help keep your nightmares away. I know she helps with mine."

"You get bad dreams too?" Mikey asked with curious eyes.

"Bad dreams? All the time. But no one is better at calming me down than your mommy."

"I love you, Daddy," Mikey said giving his dad one final squeeze.

"I love you too, buddy," Michael said hugging him back just as fiercely before handing him back to Sara.

Mikey rested his head on Sara's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed to her husband who smiled sadly in response.

"I love you guys," Michael told them, leaning in to kiss Sara goodnight.

"We love you, too, Daddy," Mikey said.

"Sweet dreams," Michael added as Sara headed toward the staircase.

Four stories and forty minutes later, Mikey was sound asleep in his bed, safely tucked against Sara's side.

Sara carefully unlatched Mikey's fingers from her shirt and slid out of his bed. As much as she wanted to stay with her baby, she needed to check on her husband more. She knew how much this would affect him, even if the dream was just by random chance and completely unrelated to what both of them feared.

She kissed his forehead and left the room silently, peeking in Jake's room to check on him too before heading downstairs.

Sara walked into her and Michael's room only to find him staring blankly out of the window.

She slowly walked up beside him and placed a hand on is arm.

He tensed under her touch briefly before relaxing and pulling her into a hug. They wrapped their arms around each other. She sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head against his chest while he rested his chin atop her head.

"It doesn't mean anything," Sara said, pulling away slightly to look into Michael's eyes.

"I wish I could believe you," Michael said with a humorless laugh. "But you and I both know that that isn't true. It is way to specific to not mean anything. I mean, how many five-year-old boys dream of monsters with one hand hurting their mommies. Sounds pretty familiar if you ask me."

"Hey," she said, breaking his rant. "Look at me."

He refused to meet her eyes.

"Michael," she said again, reaching up to grab the sides of his face and pull his eyes to hers.

"It doesn't mean anything if you don't let it," she said, pleading for him to let it go. "For all we know, it was a random dream. We can't jump to conclusions. This is not a sign; this is not some sort of message as a warning from a higher power. He is in jail, and that is where he is going to stay."

Michael remained silent.

"Okay?" Sara asked.

Silence.

"Okay?" she said a little bit louder. She knew she sounded desperate and sad, but she couldn't help it. She was terrified about what this was doing to her husband. She needed him.

Because no matter how much she tried to convince her husband that the dream meant nothing, she couldn't deny that she was scared too. She shuddered as she remembered the hell that he put them through—the hell that he put everyone through. She and Michael were partners, and they had been ever since he showed up in the infirmary with a fake diagnosis of diabetes.

"Okay," Michael said finally, breaking Sara from her thoughts.

Sara let out a breath she didn't know that she was holding. She was afraid she would have to brave this storm alone. Symbolic or not, that dream had brought up old memories and opened old wounds that neither of them liked to talk about.

Sara took his hands in hers and kissed his knuckles.

"Remember: it doesn't mean anything, if—"

"We don't let it," Michael said finishing Sara's thought.

"Exactly. And I'm choosing to not let it mean anything," Sara said.

Michael sighed, pulling Sara to his chest for what felt like the thousandth time that night.

"I just can't stand the thought of losing you. I did it for almost a year, and it's not something I want to relive any time soon," Michael murmured into her hair.

"And you won't have to," she said into his chest before tilting her head up to look at her husband. "I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me," she said reaching up to kiss him. "Gandhi fetishes and all," she added with a cheeky grin, earning her another kiss.

"I love you," he said shakily, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "And your Gandhi fetish."

She laughed. Laugh or cry, right? Those were the only two choices in life.

"So," Michael started, releasing Sara from his grip, "what was this you were saying earlier? Something about thanking me for rocking it as Mr. Mom for the past two days?"

"Now that is definitely something that I can do," Sara said, pulling him down by his t-shirt for a searing kiss. She put every emotion she was feeling—love, fear, happiness, angst, passion—into that kiss. Every uncertainty melted away once she felt his arms circle around her waist and reach for the hem of her shirt.

"What time do you have to be awake in the morning?" Michael muttered against her lips, pulling Sara's shirt over her head.

"Lucky for you, I don't have to go in until noon. Overtime will do that for you. And tomorrow is Sunday, so I know you don't have to go in," she said, working on undoing the buttons on his shirt.

"I love our jobs," Sara said gruffly, walking backwards until the backs of her legs met the bed.

"I do too," he said, rolling on top of her. "Almost, as much as I love you."

"You're so cheesy, you know that?" Sara asked him wrinkling her nose.

"All joking aside…don't ever leave me, okay?" Michael asked, worry etching his features.

Sara brought her fingers to his forehead, attempting to smooth the crease in his eyebrows.

"Promise," she said.

And with that, they forgot all of their worries and all of the things that potentially existed that could threaten to tear their family apart. And just for that night, they were able to heal each other in the best way possible.

A/N: So there ya have it folks. I hope you enjoyed chapter 6, and that it was (almost) worth the two week wait. You guys are the bomb for hanging in there with me, and I can't wait to hear what you think of the chapter! XOXO