Issue 1 Downtime

The date had likely gone better than Trev had expected it to, though maybe not as well as he'd hoped it might. Still, they'd ended up sleeping in the same bed, so that was something at least. Sometime in the middle of the night, Elena started twitching slightly and then woke with a start. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, slowly extricating herself from the bed and slipping into a robe to stand by the window.

Trev, while normally a person that slept like the dead, had mostly been dozing as a result of normally being up nearly this late anyway as well as drinking too much caffeine with the late dinner, so he noticed the absence of girlfriend immediately. He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, wearing an undershirt and a pair of Spongebob Squarepants boxers that he had initially had no plans of letting his girlfriend see, but the night went unexpectedly better for him.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, rubbing his eyes.

She rubbed her arm absently as she considered the question. "No, probably not," she admitted.

Trev had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

oh god we didn't even go all the way and she's already regretting her decision. Fuck. You're so fat and stupid and naive, why would you get your hopes up...

"...what's wrong?"

"Bad dreams," she said. "Off and on, but they when they show up, I can't sleep. And when I can't slip, control starts to slip."

"Want to talk about it?"

"At first, it was just nightmares about a rescue mission I went on, but since the body switch... it's... I don't even know how to describe it."

"...was it that one with Steph? In the North Sea?"

"That's how it started, yes," she said, looking over at him for the first time in the conversation.

"*Hearing* about it was scary as hell--can't really imagine being there. But you said they're...different now?"

"Yes. Sometime during the body swap, they switched. They're similar, but more frightening in a way. It's hard to describe."

"Why worse?"

"...we can talk about something else of you want," he added quickly.

"I'm still afraid... terrified... but what I'm frightened of changes and it always feels more real." Her stance opened up subtly in a silent invitation.

Trev frowned, pushing himself up and crossing the room to her, making a move to embrace her.

"Well at least they're just dreams, right?"

She leaned into his arms, putting her head on his shoulders. "I keep telling myself that. It hasn't helped yet."

"Well for what it's worth, I won't let a damn thing happen to you," he reassured her, gently squeezing her.

"Thank you," she said quietly, wrapping her arms around him to hug him back.

"If I were a telepath I could probably dream with you, give you some backup."

"Not that I'm not already dreaming of you frequently," he teased, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Thank you, but I don't want anyone else in my dreams if I can help it. Right before the truly weird part started, someone new showed up in the dream. I didn't quite recognize her and I don't remember what she called herself, so I assume she was a part of the dream, but I think that was when they got worse."

"Have you talked to anyone about them? The staff is pretty good about this stuff..."

and in a place where you can swap bodies with someone, dreams meaning something more doesn't seem far fetched at all.

"When it started, everyone was busy with the body swap and now... well, I don't know."

"Did the changes to the dream happen during the body swap?"

"I think so. Stuff's started running together a bit. Dreams, you know..."

"They may just be dreams, but they seem to be bothering you quite a bit, and so now, I'm bothered."

He gave her another light squeeze.

"You're really sweet," she said, giving him a kiss. "I appreciate you listening to me."

"I like listening, and besides, it's my job now," he teased, giving her a kiss on top of her head.

She managed a smile, "I guess I'll try getting back into the Danger Room first. I haven't really been back up on the horse, so to speak, since then, so maybe I should get back into things."

"Routine is good," he agreed. "And I'm happy to be your power spotter or punching bag."

"You may live to regret those words."

"As long as I get kisses afterwards to sooth my wounded body and ego," he smirked.