A\N: This one is much fluffier than His saviour, her secret.
In this Tiny Pretty Things oneshot, Caleb is having nightmares. Monique is worried about him, when he's not talking about them. Enjoy, Angels.
Caleb Wick wakes up with a scream, bolting up in the bed he's sharing with his lover, Monique DuBois. Sweat is pouring off him. God, he thinks to himself, looking over his shoulder to see if his scream has woken up Monique. It hadn't, she's still sleeping on her side, facing the window, it seemed so real. It's the third nightmare he's had in a row, luckily he's not woken Monique up with his screams. Yet. He wipes his face free of the sweat and sighs, leaning back against the headboard. He knows he has to get a handle on the nightmares before Monique becomes concerned for him, more than she already is. The last time he had a nightmare in her bed, it took her twenty minutes to calm him down and he didn't stay in her bed for a week until he had another nightmare and he needed her. This is his third nightmare in three nights and each one grows worse and worse until he's struggling to define what's reality and what's not.
Movement from beside him brings him out of his thoughts and he looks at where Monique is stirring. "Caleb?" She asks sleepily. Caleb gives her a small fake smile. "It's okay Monique, go back to sleep." He says, bending down to kiss her hair and slipping out from underneath the sheets. He feels sticky and gross after his recent nightmare so he walks over to the drawers, grabs a pair of sweatpants and goes into the en-suite bathroom to shower the remnants of the nightmare off him.
Monique DuBois isn't stupid, nor does she pretend to be. She wouldn't have been offered the position of Director of ASB if people thought she was stupid.
She's aware that her lover is having nightmares again and hasn't told her yet. She's aware of what his nightmares can do to him. It happened the last time he had a nightmare: instead of talking to her about them, he shut her out for a week and she hated it. She didn't see him for a week, not until he had another one. She's worried about him. He's already pulling away from her and she can't do anything. She sighs as she gets out of bed, pulling a sheet over her body and pads over to the closed bathroom door where the shower is running. She knocks on the door. "Caleb, you okay? She asks through the door, over the sound of the running water. Caleb doesn't answer her, and she leans against the door, closing her blue eyes. Knowing it's fruitless to try and speak to him, Monique walks back to bed and lies down, facing the bathroom door so Caleb will look at her when he finally comes out.
Her eyes stay open for another five minutes before they start to close and sleep starts to overtake but before she's fully asleep, she feels the covers being lifted higher up her body, a pair of soft lips planting a kiss to her forehead and the whispered words "I love you, I'm sorry for doing this again" before cracking open an eyes just in time for her to see Caleb closing her bedroom door with a soft click. Her eyes open again, now wide awake. There's no way she'll be able to sleep now.
God, The former blonde dancer thinks to herself. I wish he would just talk to me.
Caleb feels bad for leaving Monique asleep in bed at 4 in the morning unaware that he's left until she wakes up but the latest nightmare still has him shaking so he thought it was best if he left her bedroom so she didn't ask questions about the nightmares.
He walks to the student lounge and sits down on one of the couches, burying his face in his hands. His mind is a minefield of questions that he doesn't know the answers to.
Why have the nightmares begun again? What do they mean? Why did they involve his father and Monique dying in front of him? What were they telling him?
When it comes clear that the questions aren't going to get answered, Caleb lifts his head and looks out the window. It's still pitch black outside, considering it's only ten minutes past four in the morning. He shakes his head, trying to rid it of the images of his dad and Monique laying dead in the street in Iraq. pulling out his phone from the pocket of his sweatpants, the young dancer unlocks it and stares at his lockscreen:
It's a photo of a sleeping Monique. In the photo she's facing him, her head on her pillow, the sun that's shining through her bedroom windows creating a halo of early morning light around her, she's got a smile on her face. It's a candid photo of her, one that only he's seen. He knows he has to keep her a secret from everyone for obvious reasons but he likes that only the two of them have a secret that only they know about.
He knows that his older lover is worried about him, he can see it in her blue oceanic eyes when she looks at him. When she asks if he's okay, he lies to her and it kills him, but he doesn't want her worrying about him when she has a ton of other stuff to worry about. She shouldn't be worrying about him too.
A\N: This will be a two shot, maybe a three shot. Enjoy this first chapter, Angels.