Chapter Text
Safe and Sound:
She’s running and running and running, but it’s not the fun kind of running. There is no joy to this, her hands are empty and there is terror clawing in her throat. Something is chasing her. She dodges and weaves but she just can’t get away. She turns left at the end of a long line of storage containers and is suddenly in the middle of a thick, cold forest. Branches like hands with claws reach out and scratch her, hurt her, make her bleed. But that thing is still chasing her; that thing with the changing face and the changing voice. And she’s all alone and she’s cold and she’s scared. She trips on an exposed root and falls, hitting hard onto a concrete floor. The sound of heavy boots are behind her, dark laughter fills the air. There are walls, walls on every side, it’s a dead end. She can’t get out.
“We’re right here, darlin’,” words whispered in her ear, soft and with a comforting drawl. “Come on out of it now. Hardison, get your ass over here.”
“Man, she kicked me! I’m’a have, like, a bruise.”
It’s the simple exasperation in the voice that finally brings her back. She’s on their bed, wrapped tightly in Eliot’s strong arms. She opens her eyes and sees Alec standing at the side of the bed, rubbing hard at his thigh.
“You back?” Eliot asks.
She just nods, she doesn’t trust her voice yet.
Alec seems to relax. He picks up a water bottle from the bedside table and hands it to her as he sits carefully. “You wanna talk about it?”
“It was just a nightmare,” she says, her voice a cracking whisper. She takes a small sip of the water and forces some of the tension out of her body.
Eliot’s grip relaxes from restraining to comforting. “You’re awake now, darlin’. Safe and sound.”
“I was being chased,” she volunteers. “I was alone and it was dark and it was cold. I was scared.”
Alec lies down and opens his arms to both of them. Together Eliot and Alec sandwich her between them, holding her securely. “You ain’t alone, baby girl. You got your boys here with you.”
“Ain’t never gonna be alone,” Eliot says, kissing her shoulder gently. “And as for cold, damn darlin’, we got a human radiator over on that side.”
She feels herself smile as she feels the last of the fear leave her. She lets the warmth and the safety flow through her and she starts to drift back to sleep.
“She’s going to sleep,” Alec says in half a whisper.
“I noticed,” Eliot agrees.
“But… not even any make-me-feel-better sex?”
“Damn it Hardison, we were having a moment.”
“I know that. Don’t act like I don’t know that. I’m just sayin’, sex makes me feel better after a nightmare.”
Eliot laughs silently. “Go the hell to sleep.”