Adopted by Dan and Phil (editing in process)

8

DAN'S POV:
I woke up so quickly, it was like somebody had slapped me in the face.
I heard screaming and sat up.

Clara was sobbing and screaming bloody murder in her bed.
I jumped out of bed, just in my boxers, and ran to her.
Putting my arms around her struggling body as tears streamed down her nose and cheeks.
Her eyes were closed as she fought to get out of her nightmare. I kept talking to her, telling her it's ok.

Phil ran in two minutes later and turned on the light.
He stood glued to his spot on the floor, as I continued to soothe Clara and calm her.

It took five minutes until she opened her eyes, and five more minutes to calm her crying.
Phil left and came back with some warm milk before he went back to sleep and I was left hugging Clara.

She buried her face against my bare chest and I could feel her hot tears on her cheeks.
"I-I'm sorry." She whispered. Her lips tickled my skin and fresh tears stained her face, "I thought... I thought they were gone."
It was a little bit hard to understand her, but I knew what she was saying.

"You mean this happens often?" I said stupidly.
Wow, Dan, she's balling her eyes out and you go sounding like a psychiatrist, asking her to talk about it.

She just nodded.

I kept hugging her, not really knowing what to do.
"Do you want to sleep with me? I mean you know, just, it might help." Ugh. I sucked at this parenting thing.
She nodded into my shoulder and I went back to my bed.

I felt the heat of her body on my back as she crawled under the blankets and I knew she fell asleep right away, her little hand barely grazing my back.
She was so cute and so vulnerable. Phil and I got ourselves into something bigger than just a YouTube challenge, that's for sure.

>•<

PHIL'S POV:

I woke up before everyone else and went into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal. I wasn't feeling particular swell, from the lack of sleep.

I had woken up to screaming coming from Dan's room and rushed to see what had happened.
Dan was trying to calm a screaming, sobbing Clara. She was obviously having a nightmare, but it was so scary seeing her in that state, that all I did was stand there. I finally was able to move and went to get some warm milk, trying to help in some way.

I saw that Dan seemed to have things under control, so I went back to bed.

...

I took my bowl of cereal and my laptop and went back into my room and scrolled through Twitter. I could hear Dan getting up and going to the shower.

I looked up youtube videos of sign language tutorials and spent the next hour practicing how to sign, "How are you," "Do you like it?" and "Breakfast time."

by 11:00 am I had memorized about five common phrases and so many words I felt pretty accomplished. I closed my laptop and went to take a shower.

>•<

DAN'S POV:

I woke up and saw Clara by my side. She was still sleeping soundly. I grabbed my laptop and quickly reviewed some of the words that I had learned to sign the night before.

Then I got up and went to get ready. The cereal was out on the counter, so Phil must have gotten up already.

>•<