Log: Dani & Laurie

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Who: Dani, Laurie
When: Backdated to Wednesday 24th May 2006 Time: 10pm
What Happens: Laurie wakes up from a bad nightmare and Dani talks to her till she can sleep again.




The clock beside Laurie's bed clicked over to 10:00pm, the digits casting a red glow across the floor in front of Laurie's bed. Laurie murmured softly and turned fitfully in her sleep, her fingers curling around the pillow as she pressed herself deeper into the bed.

***

Laurie was running, only she wasn't entirely sure what she was running from, or where she was running to. She was however aware of the fact that she appeared to be screaming for her mother.

There was something up ahead, a shadow of some sort, two shadows. One smaller and feminine, the other, masculine in some way. They appeared to be waiting for her and Laurie was positive that she really didn't want to know what they wanted with her. She slowed, hesitant and afraid as she went forward now at a creeping, cringing gate. She did not want to see this, she really did not.

"What are you doing hiding out there? Come over here, I have someone for you to meet." Gail said, her hand gripping Laurie's wrist.

Her mother's smile was bright, and she appeared wholly unconcerned about the shadowy, insubstantial world about her. Laurie shook her head and dug in her heels, completely sure that she did not _want_ to meet this person, whoever he was.

But it would seem she didn't have a choice, and her eyes widened as he stepped forward, turning from a shadowy figure into someone she'd only seen a photo of.

"Laurie? Don't you have anything to say to your Dad? He's come to take us home."

***

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Laurie screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed and looking around wildly.

"Laurie?" Dani asked worriedly, coming in from where she'd been watching TV in the suite common room. "What happened?" she asked, hovering worriedly but not touching the girl. Her control was improving, but not so much to risk scaring an already terrified girl in the middle of the night.

"N-nothing." Laurie replied, her mind still reeling from the dream as slight shivers wracking her body. She pulled her legs up and curled her arms around them to stop the shaking in her hands. "J-just a bad dream."

Dani ran through several possible questions before settling on, "Do you dream a lot?" she asked, while getting another blanket to cover Laurie with. Even though it was warming up outside, it was still reasonably cold at night.

Laurie shook her head, pulling the blanket tightly around herself as she tried to remember the dream. It was only images now, although the uneasy feeling was like a stone in the center of her stomach. "N-n-n..."

She paused for a second, forehead scrunching in frustration as she tried to get the word out. She always did this when she was nervous, started stuttering over the simpliest of words. It was incredibly annoying and she was positive it made her sound like an idiot. "S-sorry. I h-hope I didn't disturb you."

"Hey now," now that Laurie was safely ensconced within the blanket, Dani scooted closer and put her arms around the younger girl. "Ain't nothing to apologize for. I was already up because of my dreams anyways. Was thinking about making some tea, you want some?" She was very carefully not asking what Laurie had been dreaming about, sometimes you were better off not knowing.

Laurie let out a breath as she tried to relax, leaning into Dani's hug, taking comfort in the contact. The dream seemed far away now, and she'd call her Mom in the morning just to make sure nothing strange was up. "I'd love some tea. What kind were you thinking of making?"

"Chamomile with oranges and a touch of valerian root," Dani replied, making sure that Laurie would be alright while she set the tea pot on to boil and rummaging around the small kitchen area for what she would need, "I usually mix my own leaves depending on what I need," she explained as she came back in the room and pulled her own blanket onto her shoulders, "If you might want to try valerian root tea if you think your powers are overwhelming you. By itself it doesn't taste very good, but it helps prevent insomnia, anxiety, restlessness and anxiety-related disorders. It also makes Catseye very drunk. I put it in all my teas."

"The valerian root sounds wonderful." Laurie replied, making her voice louder so that Dani would be able to hear her from the bedroom. "T-thankyou."

"You're welcome," when the tea pot whistled, Dani left the room again to brew the tea. "Any sugar or honey?" she called back to Laurie. She preferred hers with a little honey, but not too much.

"Sugar, please." Laurie replied, she had stopped shaking now, and the dream seemed far away as she chatted with her roommate. 'Roommate', she liked the sound of that, it would have been so much harder to get used to all this if she'd had to be in a room by herself. While she wasn't really comfortable around strangers, living with her mother had gotten her used to having someone 'there' all the time. It would have been weird to not have that presence. "Dani? Do you always stay up so late?"

Dani smiled over her cup of tea and handed Laurie hers before sitting back down again, folding her long legs indian style. No pun intended. "I slept for a few hours, I'll sleep a little later too," she replied, "I don't sleep much because of my own dreams. I see...bad things," she didn't really want to elaborate.

Laurie took a sip of her tea, blowing on it afterwards to cool it a little. She sat like that for a little while, trying to get rushing thoughts into more coherent groups. It really was way too late, or should that be too early, for anything that even looked like actual thought. Least she knew she wouldn't have a problem with waking Dani up if she had another bad dream, which was a bonus. Not that she was constantly having bad dreams. Indeed, this had been the first nightmare she'd had in a very long time but she supposed that could just be the whole 'new sleeping place, unfamiliar surroundings' style of thing.

"Have you lived here for long?" Laurie asked, curious. She hadn't really had a lot of time to get to know people yet, and as far as questions in the middle of the night go, it was fairly tame.

Now that was a question that opened up a potentially big can of worms. "I've been here about a year and a half," Dani replied, going for the easy answer. "Graduated last May."

"What's it like? Graduating, I mean. Were you scared about what you were going to do after?" Laurie asked, knowing she was prying just a little bit but curious. Graduation seemed so far off in her mind and she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do after it.

Dani liked Laurie's curiosity, even if she didn't want to wave some things around like a banner, she thought the openness was refreshing. "Graduation was a..." she paused, trying to decide on the right word, "non-event. Last year only a few of us graduated, and I missed everything in the medlab anyways. But I went to college for a couple months...ain't really a school person. You got any ideas for after high school?"

Laurie shook her head, and then took another sip of her tea before elaborating. "Nothing career wise, I guess I've got a couple of years yet before I have to decide anyway. But I thought maybe travel for a bit? I've always wanted to see Europe. Maybe start in England and then just go from there, take a year and just see everything I can possibly see before I do anything else. Hoping to take a few friends along though, it's more interesting seeing new things if you've got someone to share it with. And well, sometimes it's good having someone more talkative around, I'm not exactly great with talking to strangers."

Dani was more the listening type herself, although she didn't mind talking to people. She just learned more if she didn't. "I grew up in Oklahoma, been to Illinois...or was it Ohio? Where ever Dr. McCoy's parents live, Colorado, Washington DC, here and Muir Island, which is Scotland, but ain't exactly full of people. It's a private research facility on an otherwise deserted island," she shrugged, "Ain't got much reason to travel. Or much money."

"Nothing wrong with wanting to stay in one place." Laurie replied, placing her cup down beside her bed. She yawned, placing her hand against her mouth as she did so. "I think I might try to sleep some more. Thanks for being here, it's nice not having to be in a room all by myself when everything else is so new."

"Sleep tight," Dani said, getting up and taking their tea cups. Turning off the light as she left, Dani smiled. Laurie was a good kid.