I'm So Glad I Found You : Quintis Fic

My Worst Enemy Is My Memory

"Toby! Toby! Toby!" Ralph shook Toby’s shoulder violently, attempting to wake the exhausted psychiatrist.

"Not now Ralph, go back to bed," he grunted, turning over onto his other side with a big groan.

"No! It's Sage, something’s wrong," Ralph says, continuing to shake Toby, but now with a bit more added force. His shaking ended up waking Happy, and Happy didn’t even hesitate to kick Toby off the bed and onto the floor. He landed with a loud grunt and of course a complaint.

“Ow, my kidney,” he whines, rolling to his side to lift himself up off the floor. When he’s able to stand on two feet the sound of Sage’s faint whimpers became more clear.

He yawned and grabbed a shirt, then sprinted out the door with Ralph trailing behind him. As he got closer to her door he could hear her pleads and cries getting louder. He opened the door a crack and peered in. He could see a small ball protruding from underneath the covers in the center of the mattress, the source of the quiet cries for help.

"No! Please, don't!" She pleaded.

Toby rushed over to the side of her bed and peeled back the sheets. He uncurled her and sat her up so she was leaning against the headboard, and rubbing both her arms to calm her down and wake her up from the nightmare.

"Hey, it's okay. It's just a dream," he whispered to her after Sage woke up, the streaks formed by her salty tears were still visible running down her cheeks. Sage looked up at him with her knees pressed tightly to her chest. She was still shaking and she had trouble catching her breath, but she was eventually able to calm herself down to an extent. Then she saw Ralph watching her at the doorway of the room, biting his lip.

"You had nightmares on Wednesday and Thursday, do you want to tell me what’s going on?" Toby soothed, lowering his voice to a calm whisper. Sage latched onto him, wrapping her tiny arms around his waist and grabbing handfuls of his shirt. She pressed her face into his chest and let out a few shaky breaths. She doesn't know what her dreams are about, or why they were so scary. As soon as she wakes up the thought of them and what was happening was gone. All she could feel was the fear, sweat, and tears that followed suit.

"I-I can never remember what they're about," she mumbled into his shirt, just loud enough so Toby could understand.

Toby shoed Ralph out of the room, then tried his best to comfort her. He sat up against the headboard beside her, and wrapped his arm around her small shoulders. She still had her face pressed into his chest by the time Happy joined them a little while later. She saw Toby petting her hair gently like he usually did for her when she was upset about something. He was talking about some random nonsense as Sage nodded along almost out of habit.

"What's going on?" Happy asks. Toby looked up and gave a half smile.

"She had another nightmare," he said, combing a hand through her soft hair again and brushing the tips of his fingers against her cheek..

"Again?" she asked, raising a brow in surprise..

Sage was wide awake, too scared to go back to sleep. The thought of that pitted feeling in her stomach and the fear overtaking her entire being was not something she wanted to experience again anytime soon. These dreams are a nightly occurrence, she doesn't know why. Some are worse than others, she could be screaming bloody murder, or just a few whimpers,but each time, she wakes up with the same dosage of fear and isolation.

Both Toby and Happy stayed right by her side until she fell into a deep sleep. They both knew what it was like to be scared and not have anyone there to comfort them. Waking up with the fear of being entirely alone and then being hit with the realization that it wasn’t just a dream.