This Little Light of Mine, Shine Oh Shine

Chapter 4: Scary Dreams

Maggie wakes up and can't get back to sleep due to her bad dreams. She tries to stay awake but is exhausted to the point where she just slips off into dreamland. She is in for a very rude awakening.

This chapter was originally combined with another one but it was too long so you get the next one next week. So this chapter doesn't have much but it does have some fluff.

//TW//

This has references to abuse in it and vaguely detailed scenes of abuse.

Maggie's night doesn't leave her quite rested. She was fitful, being pulled in and out of slumber from the lingering anxiety. Her night was filled with night terrors that seem to paralyze her with fear. The little detective's head was filled with crime scene photos of the survivor, she was painted in purple and blue bruises, also with red ones that have not had a chance to heal. She can hear the tapes of her yelling for mercy, they mix with the tears she's seen her very own mother make.

Usually, Maggie is good at compartmentalization. It's in between the lines in the job description. To be a good cop, you have to know when to turn on and off these emotions, that's what she's been taught. Every now and then, everyone gets a case that hits too close to home.

With the rising misogyny due to the uptick in women reclaiming themselves outright and publicly, men seem to want to counteract these movements.

The detective has seen her fair share of domestic disputes and abuse cases. Even ones that have involved whole families. She has shut off the side of her brain that would make that kind of connection, but this time, it's different.

She doesn't know what it is, maybe it's the bruise pattern or the cries, but she can't turn her brain off this time. Not to this, it makes her remember, remember too much. She wishes she didn't, life would go by a lot smoother.

The Latina has had nightmares that vary in degree. Some she fend off alone, unbeknownst to her sleeping counterparts. Others, sometimes she wakes up screaming, sobbing, whimpering. Sometimes she wakes in a cold sweat, or they have to wake her up themselves because of her thrashing and reluctance to break out of the horror herself.

They always ask her if she wants to share what the dreams consist of. Maggie would sometimes lie and say it was a case, which wouldn't be totally a lie. Sometimes the cases do trigger it.

Other times, she is too upset with herself, she brushes off their concerns and says that it's nothing.

She knows they don't believe her but they stop pushing anyways.

Maybe one day she will have the courage to let them further into her head, but right now, if she can't face her demons, how could anyone else help?

The only thing Maggie has shared about her past without being prompted was her last exchange with her father when she was a teen. They know why he decided to kick her to the curb, and they all had some choice words at the end of that discussion. Of course, that was also paired with some red wine and sweet nothing for the rest of the night.

They don't know that the tiny detective at the tender age of six, had to start playing doctor and clean up the bloodied and bruised face of her mother. They don't know that she would hide butter knives under her bed at night, just to feel extra safe from her sheriff's father. They don't know that she had to help her mother hide her bruises. They don't know that she also had to hide some of her own. Long sleeves and turtlenecks in the middle of a summer heatwave gave her looks, but at least they weren't the looks of pity she would get if she decided to inch up the hem of her shirt.