Stand In The Rain

Forty Two

JJ and Emily fell asleep quickly that night, worn out from the events of New York.

All was well until just after one.

JJ woke abruptly and sat with a start, much to the dismay of her children, who had both been sound asleep. At first, after JJ turned on the light, she was confused about why she'd woken up, but after a few moments of orienting herself and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she saw the reason.

Emily was beside her, tossing and turning, muttering in her sleep. She was having a nightmare.

"No! Please don't hurt me!"

Cautiously, because she'd never seen her girlfriend like this, JJ leaned over and spoke to her.

"Emelia, it's okay! You're safe!"

Emily continued tossing and turning. "Take me, not him!"

JJ tried again. "You're having a nightmare! Wake up!"

Emily did wake up, although in a way that neither she nor JJ had been expecting.

WHACK!

"OW!"

Emily had accidentally hit JJ in her sleep, square in the nose.

Emily woke up at the sound of JJ's cry, her chest heaving as she came down from the adrenaline rush, her nightmare had given her, but when she saw JJ beside her, sitting up with her head tilted back and her nose pinched, her eyes filled with tears.

"I'm sorry, Jayje! I didn't mean to do that! Are you bleeding?"

"Yeth." she answered in a nasally tone. "Dode worry, Ebby. I'be dot ubzet."

Roughly two had elapsed between Emily waking up and JJ promising that she was fine. Down the hallway in their own bedroom, Elizabeth and Maximo woke almost immediately, made themselves decent, and headed over to the other occupied bedroom.

When they saw Emily crying and JJ going through the procedures of staunching a bloody nose, they chose to conquer and divide with Maximo sitting on the bed with Emily while Elizabeth went to JJ.

"Come on, sweetheart." Elizabeth pulled the blanket back and helped her up. "I'll take care of you."

JJ breathed a sigh of relief and let Elizabeth guide her to the bathroom in the hallway. Once there, Elizabeth closed the toilet lid and sat JJ down on it and began fussing over her.

"Tilt your head back again." Elizabeth instructed. "Good girl."

"I'be zeeig ztarz, 'Lizbeth." JJ mumbled. "I doe id waz ad agzident, bud she hitz hard."

"Oh, that's a lot of blood," Elizabeth sighed as she replaced JJ's hands with a warm damp washcloth, taking a turn at staunching the blood. "But yes, Emelia hits hard because she's always been like that. Try not to talk for a few moments."

JJ conveyed her understanding by giving Elizabeth a thumbs up and quieted.

They waited together for about ten minutes, and when Elizabeth checked on JJ again, she saw that the blood had stopped, so she worked on cleaning everything up. She sat on the edge of the bathtub when she was done.

"Well, at least it isn't broken. But if it was, I'd be able to set it for you."

JJ arched an eyebrow and spoke, relieved that she could finally speak in a normal tone. "Excuse me?"