Ties Between Freedom and Love

✦34✦ - Things Change

Chapter Thirty-Four
Things Change

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The Doctor and Jack sat in the console room tinkering with the panels that still needed some patching up after what the rift and the extrapolator did. They worked in comfortable silence until they heard a scream echo the TARDIS.

"Again?" Jack asked.

The Doctor sighed, "You stay here," he pointed at Jack as he set his sonic down. "Fix."

"Yes, sir," he mocked, watching the Doctor leave the room.

He turned a few corners in the hallway before coming up to Emma's room, he knocked on the door, and immediately it opened. She looked exhausted and frustrated, dark circles rimmed her eyes, and her hair was down and slightly frizzy.

"I'm fine," Emma said, she went to close the door but the Doctor held it in place with his hand.

"No, you're not."

She didn't bother arguing and instead walked back to her bed, she sat down, and soon he followed.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he cautiously asked, watching her expression for even the smallest hint of anything really.

Emma shook her head. "No, it was just nightmares. Nothing to worry about."

"Em. . ." she looked at him and her stubbornness faltered. "Those weren't nightmares, were they?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head again.

"They're getting louder, aren't they?" he asked.

"I can handle it."

"But you shouldn't have to, Em," the Doctor sighed.

"I can-" she cut herself off, closing her eyes. "I don't want to argue, I've already got enough going on in my head." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I need to get some sleep. . ." The Doctor nodded and made a move to get up and leave, but Emma quickly caught his arm. "Can you. . . can you stay with me for a while?" she asked. "Just till I fall asleep."

He rubbed her arm in comfort as he nodded again. "Of course, now come on into bed," he smiled. "In! In!"

Emma laughed as she got ushered into bed, and then tucked in. The Doctor kissed her temple as he sat down next to her, and patiently waited for her to fall asleep.

Minutes passed until her breathing evened out indicating she was asleep, he slowly shifted on the bed, trying to get up without waking up her. But then she started moaning in her sleep, her hands balling into fists between the bedsheets.

She was having a nightmare.

If it wasn't voices, it was nightmares. She just never won when trying to get something as simple as sleep.

The Doctor sighed helplessly as he gently ran his fingers down her cheeks, gradually she stopped rocking in her sleep. Her breathing slowed down, and her fists gently unclenched, releasing the blankets from her death grip. He smiled at her and before he could comprehend what was happening, Emma shifted closer to him, snuggling into his side, still fast asleep.

The Doctor quickly raised his arms, not sure what to do. He stared down at her for a good awkward minute before hesitantly bringing his arms back down and gently dropping them around her.

"Oh, Emma Winchester," he sighed. "You are something else entirely, aren't you?"

Emma didn't know it then, and she probably wouldn't know it when she woke up either, but she'd unknowingly found a dreamcatcher. And he wasn't about to leave her side anytime soon, not when she needed him.