Easy

Epilogue

Shayne's sleep that night is restless. He's usually a fairly calm sleeper: he doesn't toss and turn and move all over the place, he doesn't wake up every few hours - that was always Courtney, not him. This night, though, as much as he falls asleep with ease when they clamber into bed not long after he has proposed, his subconscious betrays him. He wakes every couple of hours tangled in his side of the sheet and breathing heavily, counting himself lucky that the first two times, Courtney seems undisturbed from her own sleep beside him. It is the third time he wakes in the middle of a stress dream into a panicked twist back to face the centre of his bed that he accidentally jostles her, heart sinking as he watches her stir and slowly blink her eyes open.

"What's wrong?" she mumbles, her voice laden with sleep.

"I just keep waking up, sorry," he whispers his response, trying to sound neutral. He immediately hears the hesitance in his own tone that betrays his discomfort.

"Why, Shania?" she asks, again, her voice much clearer and a little probing. It makes him sigh. He doesn't know what to do other than be honest.

"My brain is being stupid and I keep having nightmares that I'll wake up and you'll have left me again and my brain wakes me up to check you're still here," he answers, a little mumbled, eyes looking down at the bed and away from her. Courtney gasps sharply as he says it, and immediately, he feels her hands holding each side of his face and tilting it back up towards her.

"Shayne, honey, can you please look at me?" she almost sobs, and he lets his eyes nervously flick back up to her. He feels so small and vulnerable, but her gaze is teary and reassuring. She continues, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere and you're my everything forever. And I- how can I help? I want to hold you closer but I know touch is my love language not yours-"

"But I like when you touch me because I know it's how you show love," he whispers, almost fearfully. It doesn't surprise him that Courtney almost immediately shifts towards him, legs tangling with his and one arm wrapping around him to draw him into her chest. Her other hand drifts up into his hair, fingers gently stroking through his strands and pressing ever so lightly against his scalp as they do. He lets himself curl against her, eyes fluttering closed.

"I love you," she reminds him, her tone soft and gentle, "I love how curious and inquisitive you are. I love that you're sensitive and caring and I love the way you smile when you get shy about something. You make me laugh more than anyone else ever has and you make me feel like I can let my guard down and be completely vulnerable and safe at the same time. You are insanely hot and you're a massive nerd and you're everything I could ever dream of a person being. You're my favourite little teddy bear."

He huffs lightly - jokingly - at the designation of a 'little' teddy bear, but at the same time, he feels tension falling from his body and he tries to shuffle even closer to her. He feels her arms tighten around him in response, and he smiles softly as her embrace wraps him in a blanket of warmth and she continues to stroke softly through his hair.

"I'm sorry I woke you up," he murmurs, after a moment, muffled as he presses against her.

"No, baby, it's okay. I'm here for you. I know this is hard, but I'm right here and I promise you if I could physically be beside you forever I would be but I'm here right now and I'm not going anywhere. D'you think you can get back to sleep?" she pushes, her voice still gentle and melodic. It seeps warmly into the parts of his brain that keep waking him up, and when she presses a soft kiss against the top of his head in the quiet after she finishes, he feels himself smile against her.

"Yeah. If you- if you keep holding me?" he mumbles.

"Of course," she agrees, her hands tightening almost reassuringly against him. It's then that he lets himself fall back into the exhaustion he still feels from the weekend, willing his mind to remember she's right there beside him and holding him close.