A Nightmare of things to come?

Posted on Wednesday 24 March 2021 @ 18:57 by Civilian Sansa Draxx-Jones & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Hayley and Sansa's quarters
Timeline: MD 5 0300
1254 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Sansa was running down a corridor. She was trying to get to Hayley but she couldn't find her. She could hear her call her name. She rounded a corner and saw her lying on the floor. She ran up to her and knelt down by her side. She looked down at her hands..... They were covered in blood.

She screamed!

Sweat covered her body as she suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily. She had actually screamed out loud as she woke up. It took her a moment to realise where she was. In her quarters. It had all been so real. Her heart was racing and she was trembling, pale as a sheet. She called out "COMPUTER! LIGHTS!" The light in the room came on and She found she was lying next to Hayley, there was no blood on her hands but she could see the image in her head clear as crystal. She started to sob.

Having been awoken by the scream, Hayley's knee-jerk reaction had been to react as if there had been a threat. After all, that was what she was trained to do. She'd rolled off the bed and grabbed the phaser under the nightstand table and had come up to the crouch position holding a phaser at the ready. It only took her a moment to realise that there wasn't a threat and she tossed the weapon aside and scrabbled back up onto the bed and took hold of Sansa in a loving embrace, holding her head against her chest as she sobbed. "Shhh..." Hayley said. "It's okay... I'm right here..." She gently stroked her head. "What's the matter?"

Sansa clung onto Hayley like a life preserver, "I.... Saw....You.... Die....." She choked out between sobs, then descended back into uncontrolled sobbing for a moment. Having Hayley's arms around her was helping and she was slowly calming down. "It was so real, my hands were covered in blood." She looked at her hands, which were still trembling.

Taking her hands into her own, Hayley held them gently but with reassuring firmness. "It was just a nightmare, a horrible, horrible nightmare." She said, softly. "See? No blood... I'm fine... apart from being woken up at..." She peered at the chronometer. "...ugh...0300..." She sighed and chuckled. "Well, I'm up now, and I don't see you settling back down anytime soon."

Outside the bedroom door, the yapping and howling of a distressed puppy could now clearly be heard, along with the scrabbling noises of a small canine clawing at the door that separated her from her master who was in need of her. "Seems like Belle knows you're upset." Extracting herself carefully from Sansa, Hayley padded across the floor to the door and pressed the button to open it, which resulted in a little brown blurr shooting her way into the room, bouncing towards the bed, being far too little to make the jump and falling back onto the floor, wherein she began to whimper and paw at the bed as she tried to climb up. Hayley bent down and lifted up the little puppy, putting her on the bed, and had barely let go before the pooch had launched herself at Sansa and began to lick and nuzzle her master's face.

"I might be starting to get jealous of the dog..." Hayley said, giving Sansa a quirky look as she put her hands on her hips. "I'll go make some nice chamomile tea to help you relax..."

Sansa managed to let out a laugh as the tiny pup rushed to lick her face, in its own attempt to console her. "Tea sounds nice." She had managed to get her breathing under control now and started rubbing the fur on Belle's back. "I feel so stupid. I'm so sorry I woke you, but that dream I had was so real and when I saw what happened to you... " Her voice trailed off as she got a haunted look in her eyes. She paused petting Belle every now and then to look at her hands. "I can still see the blood that was on them, and the thought of losing you..."

Hayley arrived back in the room carrying two china cups with tea in them. "Computer, lights, twenty percent illumination." She said as she passed over one of the cups to Sansa before placing her own down on her bedside. She let out a deep sigh and sat with her back to Sansa for a moment. "I can't say I didn't see this coming, although I wish it hadn't and certainly not as horrific for you to experience." She said, softly.

Sansa took the tea gratefully and had a sip.

Hayley turned slightly so she could face Sansa. "It's your subconscious talking to you. Deep in the back of your mind as well as deep in the recesses of your heart, where you don't like to look or visit, you've known for a long time what a dangerous vocation I have. I am the chief of security and tactical aboard a Federation starship - one that seems to attract trouble like tribbles to grain. You try to ignore it, as we all do, but deep down you know that the people you love and care about are doing pretty dangerous things. We've never really talked about it... I just assumed being a Starfleet brat that you'd come to terms with it a long time ago growing up on starships with your mom and dad." She said, giving Sansa a soft smile. "But I guess having someone you're scared to loose really has affected you, huh?"

"Sweetie..." Sansa put the cup down and took both of Hayley's hands in hers. "My Mom was captured by the Borg. I've had nightmares before. This was different. I know your job, hell where we live isn't exactly the safest place but I just get the feeling that something's going to happen. Something bad. Just promise me you'll be careful."

Hayley gave her the cheesiest of grins. "I'm always careful!" She said, playfully. "Besides, we're on one of Starfleet's most advanced starships. I'm as safe as I'm going to be. Besides, when did you inherit prophetic skills? It was just a bad dream... don't let it bother you so much." She reached out and patted Sansa on the head. "Besides, you worried Belle." She looked down at the squirming brown wiggle.

Sansa picked up the little ball of fur "Did I worry you Sweetie? I'm sorry" she moved the pup closer to her face and rubbed her nose. She moved closer to Hayley and moulded her body into hers. "If you had seen what I saw, you'd be holding me right now and it would probably take a hundred Jem'Hadar to make you let go. Can you just hold me, please?"

Hayley smiled softly. "How can I say no to that face?" She asked, rhetorically, as she wrapped her arms around Sansa and the two flopped back onto the bed, embracing one another with a small brown puppy between them who looked as happy as a dog could, with a big grin. "I'll always be here to hold you. Don't you worry about that."

Sansa let out a sigh of contentment. "You better be Sweetie..." she muttered and started to drift off as she caressed Hayley's back. "You better be..."

OFF

○●● Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin


Sansa Draxx-Jones
Civilian
Npc Jones