Is It A Dream?

Dinner Conversation

"Wait. So I still don't understand." Sean looked to his Mom. "How?"
Linda sighed as she drank a sip of wine. "I never went on the helicopter. On the way up to the roof, I was pulled away into the staircase." She pointed to the beans, "pass the beans." Retrieving them from Erin, she continued, "I tried to get away, but the drugged me with something.... salt, please." She sprinkled salt into the potatoes. "Mm, lumpy. Anyways, when I woke up, I was in a Where house somewhere. Apparently New Jersey." She took a bite of the roast. "This is really good. The kidnappers didn't let me see them, but I know I recognized that voice! I just can't figure it out."
"Then Dad found you?"
"Mmhmm." Linda talked with her hands, "oh! It feels so good to have real food! Can I have another roll?"
"You don't seem fazed by this at all." Erin mused.
"It'll come." Danny placed a roll on Linda's plate. "In the middle of the night. But it'll come."
"So where did you stay? When did Dad find you?" Jack was still equally as confused as everyone else.
"I found her on Friday— Saturday. No, it was Friday." Danny nodded, honestly forgetting when he found her. He was still just so completely ecstatic she was alive! "We spent a night at the Jersey hospital. Then at Baez's. And now we're here."
"What's for dessert?" Linda wondered, making her confused family laugh.
************
Danny had been right- that night, Linda would wake up, crying and hyperventilating. She would realize what had happened to her. She was kidnapped for six months, raped, practically starved....
The second she had started crying in her sleep, Danny tried to wake her up. "Linda. Linda, come on, baby. It's just a dream."
The now brunette (her blonde hair had grown out, and the perps had cut her hair the way she used to wear it- around mid-neck length) yelled when she woke up. She put her hands on her face, not being able to get full breaths in between the sobs.
"Linda," Danny rubbed her back, her whole body shaking. "Linda, baby, look at me." He heard her mumble some unintelligible words. "Come on, baby. Breathe first, then we'll talk." She shook her head, "Linda, honey. Come on." He shifted so he was pretty much sitting in front of her. He took her hand and placed it on his heart. Repeating the breathing exercises the therapist had taught him how to do, he finally got Linda to regulate her breathing. "Now, come on, baby. Talk to me." Danny pushed her hair behind her ear. Truthfully, he liked her as a brunette- but he knew she'd go back to blonde.
"You don't want me." Linda answered quietly.
"What?"
"You don't want me. I'm old and ugly and disgusting. And you do t want me."
"Linda, that's not true. I do want you—"
"Not after what they did to me." She hugged herself, biting her lip. "They raped me, Danny. For six months. You could never want me now."
"I'll always want you." He took her hands in his. "No matter what." He hugged her and carefully moved them to lie down. He held her close as she cried, babbling about him not wanting her. He continued to pledge his love and devotion for her, until she had worn herself out crying so hard.