A START, and he’s awake. there was an explosion. in the back of his head, in the back of his mind. a fiery blast of oranges and reds and HEAT -- shattered remains of a vertibird in his mind’s eyes pulling him suddenly to the surface with a deep, rattling noise in his lungs. it’s dark -- dark enough to almost pull himself back to the commonwealth dust with a smoldering, fallen brotherhood vessel beside him and the searing pain of missing limb and blood. he’s trembling, he realizes fleetingly. and he’s sweating -- locks of hair plastered against temples and flesh as he rolls over with a grunt, barely aware. barely conscious as it slowly and surely slips into his consciousness that he is not in danger. that he is not in pain ; despite the phantom ache that creeps up his synthetic arm and into his shoulder blade, causing him to tense.
he was never one to wake loudly from a dream -- even a nightmare. but the panicked look behind his dark eyes and the sweat on his brow was enough to give him away as his eyes finally open in the dark. he sees her -- and she’s awake as well. before he can speak, before he can apologize for likely waking her -- she’s moving faster than his eyes can track. there’s a hand around his throat and his shoulder is shoved into the mattress ; and the former paladin -- the former solider -- is helpless under her weight as she gives him a cruel smile in the dark, whites flashing as she tightens her grip -- and he gasps around her fingers, trying to force air flow around her unrelenting hold; one hand going by impulse to her wrist -- in an attempt to pry her grip off.
he bucks and tries to knee at her, but his fight is ebbing away -- darkness eating at the corners of his vision once more -- “ sar .. ah .. - “ he manages, voice barely a rasp ---
ANOTHER START -- this one louder, startled. a gasp so sharp that it felt like he swallowed ashes and he’s jerking to full awareness ; sitting up so quickly that his world spins. so quickly that he realizes sarah wasn’t actually on top of him. that the weight on his chest was actually a crippling anxiety that was trying to swallow him alive in his sleep. eyes flicker around the small room like a trapped and lost child, no immediate threat even if his body trembled as if there was a knife to his throat.
she wasn’t even awake yet, body pliant and quiet ; still, much less not at his throat. sarah wouldn’t, his sarah wouldn’t. he groans, shoving both fingers into his hair and squeezing his eyes shut. trying to fool himself into thinking he could tuck the nightmare aware and find the will inside of himself to go back to sleep.