New team

34.Open eyes

The nights were hard. The nightmares continued to plague him, and no matter how much he tried to get enough sleep to function during the day, it was still almost impossible. He felt as if shadows were flocking to his room, entering through open windows and open doors. Each time he woke up from his nightmares with a scream that he tried to stifle, and with only one thought running through his mind. Why did Penny take the bullet aimed at him? She must have realized that it was dangerous. The look in her eyes when they met for the last time said she was fully aware of it. But seeing it every night pained Sam as he realized that if the bullet had hit its target, which was him, it would have put nothing on the line. He had nothing to lose. The team would get a new station officer and Pontypandy would somehow cope as well. Sarah and James had grow up and Sam would be grateful that he could at least experience this. But Penny was losing much more, she had something to live for. She had a son and they had each other. What was more important than family?

When Sam woke up, he sensed that Andy wasn't sleeping very well either, often waking up in the middle of the night and crying silently. However, due to the rather thin walls of the guest room adjacent to Sam's, the boy's sobs were easy to hear in the silence of the night. It hurt his heart and every night like that, he wanted to go and comfort Andy somehow, but something held him back.

Ever since their visit to the hospital together, just the thought of going to sleep made Sam tremble with fear. Now, during one nightmare, he was haunted by both the vision of the incident in the warehouse itself and the moment from the hospital and the sight of Penny the next day. She lay even paler than before and her hand was even colder. It terrified Sam how much damage one wound could do.

However, a few nights after their joint visit to the hospital, he woke up again, panting heavily. He struggled to control his breathing as the image from the nightmare slowly left his mind. It was then that he heard a timid knock on the door. At first he thought he had misheard, but when the sound came again he turned towards the door.

"Come in" he said into the silence.

He looked up and saw Andy standing in the darkness, a teddy bear dangling in one of his hands, as he hesitantly entered the room and closed the door behind him. Sam pushed himself up into a sitting position to look at Andy. And with the lights off, he could see that the boy was clearly upset about something, scared, and maybe even seemed shaky...

"Are you okay, buddy?" Sam asked protectively.

"I can't sleep," Andy complained, cuddling his teddy bear. "Can I sit with you?" He added after a moment, lifting his eyes hopefully to look at Sam.

Sam simply patted the bed next to him in response as he sat down. Andy immediately climbed onto it and sat comfortably, placing the teddy bear on his lap.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Sam asked carefully.

"Yes," Andy admitted quietly.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Sam gently punched his shoulder. "Everyone has bad dreams sometimes."

"I always liked sitting like this with Mom," Andy finally broke the silence that had fallen. "I miss it so much," he confessed, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"We can miss it together," Sam offered comfortingly.

"How do you know my mother anyway?" Andy asked after a long moment of silence.

"I asked you not to call me sir. It makes me feel older than I am," Sam complained. His joke worked because Andy laughed softly. "Your mother used to live in Pontypandy. And I was lucky enough to work with her," Sam explained, gently tickling Andy.

"Mum never told me about Pontypandy. She always promised me that she would take me there one day and tell me everything," Andy said sadly.

"But then how do you know so much about this place?" Sam asked with open curiosity.