Living a Blue American Dream

Nightmare

Tuesday in November.

Eddie hadn't gotten home until close to midnight, her and Rachel had gotten sucked into a stand off/hostage situation right at the end of their tour that lasted 3 hours. So until they had apprehended all the suspects and hostages, got them through the system, filled out the paperwork it was late. It was all part of the job, she did it everyday but this situation was taking a little bit of a toll on her. It involved small children and having two of her own back at home always makes her view the situation a little more personal. She'd never forget the face of the one man who held the one little girl at gun point, it made her nauseous thinking that could've been Emmalyn or Scarlett.

She got home and stripped out of her clothes throwing them onto the floor and climbing into bed, she was exhausted, she hadn't worked a 17 hour shift in a very long time. Luckily she was off tomorrow. Jamie woke up slightly to her getting into bed, he glanced at the clock.

"Woah." He said shocked at the time she was getting in. She had texted him earlier in the evening to let him know she was gonna be late.

"Yeah I know..." she said laying down at last. Jamie sat up a little.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked her.

"Um no goodnight." She said half asleep already. Jamie laughed and kiss her forehead saying goodnight.

At 3:45 Scarlett made herself known over the baby monitor by crying. Usually if one of them is off for the day that person takes night shift with the kids but Jamie knew Eddie had just worked a double and was going to be up early to be with the kids all day, so he took it upon himself to get Scarlett.

"What's the matter peanut?" He said picking her up and trying to sooth her, he took her out to the kitchen to warm a bottle up. She was still crying at him, hungry.

"Okayyy shhh, it's coming, I know." He said bouncing her up and down while he waited for the bottle warmer to be done.

He popped the bottle in her mouth and walked back to their bedroom to feed her. Eddie was still asleep he sat down in bed gently trying not to wake her, but she started moving around mumbling something. Jamie couldn't understand what, then she started breathing heavily still asleep.

"Eddie? Hey. Eddie, wake up. Hey." He said rubbing her arm. She jumped up, practically scaring Jamie she was out of breathe.

"Oh my god..." she said.

"What's wrong?!" Jamie said concerned.

"I just had an awful dream..." she said looking at Jamie and Scarlett peacefully eating in his arms.

"Okay well it was just a dream it's okay." He told her.

"No Jamie that was so real, they had the girls hostage at gun point..." she started to say and realized it was referring to the stand off she had been through just a few hours ago. It was the scariest thing she's ever seen.

"Babe the girls are fine I promise, look, Scarletts right here. Everything's okay." Jamie reassured her rubbing Eddies back. She needed a second to get into real life, the dream was too familiar it sketched her out.

"You wanna talk about your night?" He asked thinking maybe it would help. She shook her head no and laid back down. Jamie covered her up.

"No I'm sweating." She said flipping them back off her.

"Oh sorry. Well just go back to sleep, the girls are fine." Jamie told her, she dozed back off. Jamie finished with Scarlett, changed her diaper and put her back to bed.

"Be good for your momma today Scar." He said kissing her head and leaving to go back to bed. He had to be up in 40 minutes to start work at 5.

———

Eddie was woken up from a deep sleep at 7:45am when Emmalyn stood next to her bed staring at her.

"Mommy." She said scaring the crap out of Eddie.

"What Em?" She said looking at the clock and getting out of bed quickly realizing she had school today and they had to leave in an hour.

"I'm hungry, and I don't know where daddy is." She said.

"Daddy's working today, we have to eat and then we gotta get ready for school." Eddie said putting on clothes, and then following Emmalyn out to the kitchen.

"What do you want?" Eddie asked Emmalyn as she sat down at the table.

"Umm I want a waffle with chocolate chips and syrup...and chocolate milk!" Emmalyn said enthusiastically. Eddie opened the freezer to get the waffles out.

"Okay only one chocolate. Either chocolate on the waffle or chocolate milk. Which one?" Eddie asked, just then Scarlett started crying from her room.

"I want both..." Emmalyn told her. Eddie pushed the waffles into the toaster.

"No pick one or you get none." Eddie said going off to get Scarlett.

"Ah good morning sweet girl! You slept so good!" Eddie said in a baby voice to her. She scooped her up and laid her down to get changed before she ate her breakfast.

When she got back out to the kitchen she asked Emmalyn if she decided what she wanted as she put Scarlett in the high chair.

"Yes I want chocolate milk." She told her as the waffles popped up.

"Alrighty" Eddie said. She put the waffles on a plate with syrup and a fork and set it infront of Emmalyn. Then she went to make her a cup of chocolate milk quickly because Scarlett was fussing.

"I'm coming Scar, one second..." she said stirring the chocolate into the milk.

"Mommy can I give Scarlett some of my waffle?" Emmalyn asked her.

"Um no. I'm going to give her banana. You just eat so we can get to school on time." Eddie said giving her the chocolate milk. Scarlett was still crying and basically yelling at Eddie.

"Oh my word, I am going as fast as I can baby" Eddie said to Scarlett as she peeled a banana and put it in a bowl, mashing it up with a spoon as quick as she could. She sat down to feed her and she stopped fussing as soon as she put it in her mouth.

"Someone was hungry huh?" She said.

"Ya!" Emmalyn said even though Eddie wasn't talking to her, she laughed anyway.

When Scarlett was done she took her out, cleaned her up and put her on the floor to roll around and play.

"Alright Em hurry up we gotta leave in 15 minutes" she said going to her room to pick out her outfit to wear. Emmalyn washed her hands and brushed her teeth before she got dressed.

10 minutes later they were on their way to school, Eddie was already tired and it wasn't even 9am yet.