The One

Chapter 11

That night, Carrie simply couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about Billie and the possibility of losing her. She'd reassured herself she would win custody of Billie, but there was one pang of doubt, would they have to share joint custody?

But when she did fall asleep for a few minutes, she thrashed and kicked, obviously dreaming about her daughter. Harrison heard her mutter Billie's name again and kick at his leg. He grimaced this time as her foot hit his injured knee.

"Carrie, agh," he grimaced as she kicked him again.

"Carrie," he whispered, shaking her a little bit. "Carrie it's just a dream."

She thrashed again. By now he had his good leg wrapped around hers, holding her in place. His arm held down both of hers, holding her back from punching him. "Carrie!"

"Billie!? Billie where are you?" She jolted upright.

"Carrie it's me."

Her eyes adjusted to the dark room and his figure laying next to her with an arm draped around her waist and his leg over both of hers. "Why are you holding me down."

"You were having a nightmare," he answered. "You were kicking and thrashing."

Carrie took a deep breath, leaning on her hands pressed behind her back. She hung her head back, looking at the ceiling. "I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "No. I just can't stop seeing the scenario of losing her."

"We're not going to lose her." Sure he'd almost had the slip up earlier, but he wanted to let her know he would be there for her through this.

Carrie looked at him oddly, hearing 'we're.' "We're?"

"Yeah. I'm going to be here for you through this. I'm not leaving. I know that's probably hard to hear because I'm sure Bryan said that to you. Then he ended up leaving you. I'm not leaving you. Ever."

"You're going to fight this with me?"

"Yes," came his reply.

She slowly leaned back into the pillow, letting him pull her close to his own body. Within a few minutes, Carrie turned on her side to rest her head on his shoulder. She then rested her hand next to her face on his chest.

Carrie closed her eyes to the feeling of his strong fingers running through her hair and pushing it behind her ears. Once she'd fallen asleep, he put an arm around her back and kissed her forehead gently. "It's going to be okay Carrie. We'll get through this."

•••

Harrison doubted the claim when he was woken by what sounded like Billie's scream. "Mommy!" She screamed again. "Harrison!"

Carrie jumped off the bed and was on her way out the door before he could even sit up. There was a bang followed by another, "mommy!"

He was now on his feet, hobbling out the door as fast as his knee would carry him. When he turned the corner, he saw Carrie hit what looked like Bryan. His fingers fumbled for the hallway light, eventually finding it and flipping it on.

There was a quite a scene unfolding in front of him. Bryan was dragging Billie towards the stairs, an iron grip on her wrist while trying to avoid punches coming from his ex partner.

"Let her go!"

Bryan ended up placing his other hand on Billie's wrist. "Mommy it hurts!"