Married to my suspect

The screams jarred me awake again few minutes to dawn. I jumped from the bed and hurriedly turned on the bedside lamp, staring at my squirming wife.

"Danielle." I called, not wanting to tap her awake. I didn't know what she was dreaming, but I didn't think touching her while in the throes of a nightmare when this was our first night together would help. Especially since she had calmed down the last three times I'd been awoken by her rather quickly. I would have preferred she didn't wake up after that last one though. She had scared even me.

She continued screaming and flailing around until she was wrapped in the duvet and all my attempts to calm her down wasn't working.

I gave up and stayed beside the bed waiting for her to wake up on her own. I'm sure she had a way she did it when she was on her own. It was either I tapped her and startle her awake or waited it out. Five minutes had already passed. Surely, it won't be that long.

************************************

I held her closer and started patting her back gently.

"Danielle." I called, this time in a louder and stronger tone of voice.

Her shakings worsened as she tried to avoid my hold.

I kept it up for the next few minutes, her fighting my hold and me using all the strength I had to keep holding her. Her screams eventually weakened and tears started running down her face. I could only hold her and watch her helplessly as she eventually dissolved into sobs.

"I killed him." She cried and my eyes widened. This was the first time she had said something about it.

"What?" I asked harshly, and she opened her eyes, finally coming out of it.

She blinked repeatedly and looked down at where my arms were around her and pushed herself away, breathing heavily.

DANIELLE'S POV

I blinked, trying to get myself back, and looked around, my heart threatening to stop beating as I saw Jonathan staring at me with a confused and curious expression on his face. Shoot, what did I just say?

"What happened?" I asked him, my forehead puckered, feigning confusion.

He narrowed my eyes, and I didn't know what was going through his head. I'd just had a nightmare. Hopefully, he will think it was just part of the delusions that could come from the nightmare. At least, that was the truth so whether he wanted to believe it or not, I didn't plan on mentioning it again.

"You had a nightmare. About three times." He explained and I nodded, shuddering. He looked wide awake and since I had intentionally waited for him to fall asleep before I'd managed to doze off, it was obvious I had woken him up.

"Are you okay? It looked pretty bad." He asked, and I forced myself to meet his eyes.

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry I woke you up."

He nodded, but he didn't take his eyes off me.

"How often does this occur?" He asked and since I was running low on energy, I didn't want him to add his anger to it, so I did the best thing I could. I grabbed my pillow and climbed down the bed.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to keep you up or ruin your sleeping schedule. I'm sure you need your sleep. I'd better go back to my room. I can get a reasonable excuse to give to Eleni so you don't have to worry about that." That was the bedrock of our problem anyway.

He grabbed my arm to keep my seated and collected the pillow. "I wasn't chasing you out. I was just asking. It looked pretty bad, what you were dreaming about."

I searched his face, wondering at his motive, but eventually dropped my eyes. I didn't know what to believe. I still wasn't in the right frame of mind. I was obviously sleep-deprived and from what I could see, it wasn't dawn yet but I couldn't risk going back to sleep. I would only end up being awoken from another nightmare.

"Frequently. It doesn't really happen often." I lied and he glanced at me. I looked away from him as I wasn't sure what he could see from my face, could he see how close I was to giving up and how heavy the burden I had was?

"Have you considered seeing a therapist? Maybe you'll be able to regulate your sleep? Or take some sleeping pills."

I didn't need a shrink to tell me my mind was slowly getting eaten up. Everytime I saw a happy family or couple, I got reminded of my dad. Whenever I spoke to my mom, or saw any male with a young daughter, I got reminded. Basically everything reminded me of him which caused the nightmares to become more regular. I wasn't sure why recently though but I was choosing to blame it on the fact that I was actively searching around and that was priquing my memory more than before.

I nodded, not intending to use either of the options. I'd used sleeping pills when I was younger as an advice from my therapist but she had been the same person that'd had to wean me off them when I got dependent on them. Now, I managed however hours I could find, keeping my eyes and trying to keep my mind closed when sleep didn't come and during the brief occassions that my body decided it really needed the rest, I tried my best to sleep.

"I'll think about it but I think I need to move back. It's not fair that I disturb your rest. Not every married couples stay in the same room, I'm sure she'll not see anything much to it."

Jonathan studied me. "Eleni will. She has some beliefs that aren't very logical but that's what she has been able to glean from her experiences. If you need a therapist, I can get you one."

I glanced at him. No wonder, he hadn't shied off the topic of my nightmare like someone like Lucas had done the first and only day he had experienced it. He must have had some experience with things like that.

I nodded. "Alright. But what will now happen?"

He stared at the wall with a brooding expression. "Does it occur every day? I don't mean to be insensitive to your pain, but Eleni is who I'm thinking about. She's arriving today. We'll probably have to make up something she can easily believe."

I nodded and grabbed my pillow again. "It's still early, and I can't go back to sleep. Let me get up now."

Without waiting for a response, I tied my robe snuggly round me and left the room. Our mornings usually had Jonathan coming out first, but I was usually up by this time. Even on days I blessedly didn't have nightmares, I still woke up early regardless, but now I couldn't simply lay on the bed until I felt ready for the day and doing my yoga exercises in the room felt every kind of weird. Thankfully, it looked like we were going to go back to our former sleeping arrangements. Perhaps, I should have told him outrightly yesterday, rather than subjecting us both to what had just happened.

**********************************************************************

I entered the elevator and pressed the button, trying to prepare myself. Jonathan had left the office an hour earlier to go and pick up Eleni from the hospital, and if I was being honest, I really didn't know what to prepare for or think. The fact that a man that cold could do sensitive things for this woman was making me very suspicious of their relationship. Thankfully, I wasn't in a real relationship with him and couldn't feel jealous or anything even remotely similar.

After leaving his room this morning, I'd gotten ready for work in my own room, trying hard to scrub the tiredness from my face. We'd eaten breakfast without a word, like every other day, and ridden together to work, like every other day as well. I'd thought, perhaps, I would have had an uneventful day at work, but it wasn't so. After several days of not meeting Julia, I'd bumped into her in my favorite café She hadn't been satisfied with making the cafeteria inaccessible to me, but she'd had to come to where I'd managed to find peace. Unfortunately for her, I wasn't going to leave the café for her this time around.

She'd thrown her remaining food away the moment she had seen me and walked out so dramatically that people had stared at her back, and I'd tried my best not to be bothered by it. She was allowed to feel whatever she wanted; plus, I'd had something else on my mind.

The elevator button dinged, and the door opened, and a body slammed against mine. There was a loud gasp that contained both pain and shock.