From the Pacific to the Rockies - August 30th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 30
Title: From the Pacific to the Rockies
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG-1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or SG-1 people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn and Daniel head for Colorado Springs.
Notes: Follows Go Joyce and Inward Reflections. Based on Challenge 8637 at TtH
Seasons: November 2001 (Season 6 after “Wrecked”/Season 5)
Characters: Daniel, Sam, Dawn
Word Count: 2485
Daniel waved goodbye to Sam. She had found a Colorado bound flight from a small airport between Sunnydale and Los Angeles.
He climbed back into the car. Dawn had already moved to the passenger seat. “Any good at navigating?” he asked.
“Are we talking lost in the woods with a compass or a map and exit numbers?”
“A map.”
“I’m not terrible at it.”
He reached into the glove compartment and handed her the map Sam had gotten when they arrived in California. “Then you’ll navigate us to Denver. We should be able to make it to Nevada tonight.”
“Only as far as Denver?”
“It’s pretty hard to get lost between Denver and Colorado Springs,” Daniel said. “Or I’ve done it enough times to know better.”
Dawn nodded. “Okay.” She took a moment to study the map. “The 15 to Vegas.”
“Okay.” He turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
They were quiet for nearly half an hour. Dawn contemplating the changes to her life, Daniel running through a checklist of things that would need to be done.
“Why archeology?” Dawn suddenly asked, needing to pull her mind from all she was leaving behind.
“Hmm?” Daniel focusing his mind on his passenger. “Oh, uh, both my parents were archeologists. So was my grandfather.”
“Just joined the family business?”
“I had a knack for it.”
“I’d kill for something like that, to know exactly what I wanted to be or do.”
“It’s not unusual for people your age not to know what they want to be.”
Dawn nodded. It was hard to explain that she had to consider her life from the last year alone. And it was not like anyone had offered career advice for an ancient mystical Key in human form. The Scoobies had considered that Dawn should have faded from existence or at least memory after serving her purpose.
“Why don’t you go to school?” Daniel asked.
She stared out the window. “I get bored,” she answered. “So I figured ‘why go?’ Besides, no one was paying attention.”
“Except family services.”
“A slight miscalculation on my part,” she admitted.
“Did you have any sports or clubs?”
“Nah,” she said. “Between Mom and Buffy…” she trailed off. How could she explain that slaying came before swim meets and theater productions?
Daniel nodded. “Right, been busy at home.”
“To put it mildly.”
He hesitated a moment then spoke. “Not to go all ‘dad’ on you, but you know you have to start going to school, right?”
“Because education is important?”
“Because Colorado Department of Children and Family will be keeping a close eye on us for the next six months. If there is not improvement, they’ll get involved like they did in Sunnydale.”
“Except there is no one to take me if that happens.”
88888888
Daniel opened the door of the hotel room. They had gotten to the southernmost portion of Las Vegas just after ten that evening. The hotel was basic, but in the middle of several twenty-four hour food places. Dawn claimed the bed closest to the heater.
“What do you feel like for dinner?” Daniel asked as he dropped his bag on the floor. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his finger.
“Tacos,” she answered immediately.
“There was a Mexican place a block over,” he gestured to the door.
“Cool,” she got up, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. Daniel checked that he had the room key and followed.
They were seated before long and ordered from a dark haired waitress.
Dawn pulled open her purse and looked through it, pulling out a notebook and pen. She opened to a blank page and started writing, tilting her head to the side.
Daniel watched the quick flick of her light blue pen across the page. She absently tapped the end of the pen against her chin between thoughts. Her expression pinched and brightened as her pen moved. He spoke before he thought better of it. “You journal?”
“Yeah, for as long as I can remember.” She scratched the skin around the edge of her cast. “I had to start over after the old ones sorta…got destroyed.”
“What happened?”
“It depends on who you ask. Tara says it was an existential crisis. Spike said it was just a teenage tantrum, burning all the things from my past as a metaphor for letting childhood go.”
“Spike? He didn’t strike me as philosophical.”
She chuckled. “He would kill me for disclosing this, but in another life, he was a scholar.”
“What changed?”
“A psycho girlfriend and a mentor from hell,” Dawn told him honestly.
“I’m sure they weren’t-”
“I’ve met them. Trust me, Dru is a full-blown loon who is responsible for more than one asylum massacre. And Angelus…is a sadist that makes all of us want to run for cover.” She shook her head. “Even thinking about him gave me nightmares.”
Daniel reached into his messenger bag. “I journal, too.” He set a journal on the table. “I’ve done it for a long time.”
Dawn stared at the journal. Her mother had been into art and her sister into figure skating. The only thing Dawn had ever had of her own that was part of her memories and part of her actual existence…was something she shared with the man across from her. A man she did not know. But she could see pieces of herself in him. More than she ever shared with Buffy in looks or talents.
Her inspection was interrupted by the waitress returning with food.
88888888
Daniel woke with a start. He could just hear the shower running. He sighed as the situation came back to him.
Dawn, his daughter, who he was taking home with him. A home where he did not even know where the local school was. He sighed, sitting up. He rubbed his face. Dawn started singing something, he could not understand the words, just that she was not a good singer.
His cell phone rang. He pulled it off the nightstand and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“What the hell are you thinking, Daniel?” Jack demanded.
Daniel sighed. He had expected this call the night before. “I’m thinking…what the hell else was I supposed to do, Jack?”
His friend growled in annoyance. “Sam got back the independent lab test.”
“She’s mine.”
“Yeah, she is.” Jack was quiet only a moment. “What are you going to do about your day job?”
“Hammond said we were on stand down until the new year, at the very least I am.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
“Do you really think that’s going to work with a teenager who won’t go to school? That you can just figure it out?”
“What do you want from me, Jack?”
He sighed. “Are you doing this because you feel sorry for her? Or responsible since there was a night years ago?”
“Does it matter? She would still be my daughter.”
“And if you can’t be the father she needs?”
“Then I’ll cross that bridge,” he replied.
“I just don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into,” Jack told him.
“Wouldn’t you think the same thing if she was four days or six years old?”
“Probably.”
“So is this that she is fifteen or that I’m not father material?” Daniel asked, a bit angry, but mostly curious.
“You’ll be a great father, Daniel,” Jack assured him. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. We’ll be in sometime tonight.”
“Carter, Frasier, and Cassie are already seeing to the second bedroom at your place. They should have it moderately girlified, or at least emasculated long before you arrive. I was going to grab a bit to stock this fridge that has only baking soda, alcohol, and something that may have been Chinese takeout two weeks ago. Cereal, milk, macaroni and cheese, butter, bread, peanut butter and jelly-”
“She doesn’t like peanut butter,” Daniel said.
“Oo-kay.” Jack muttered something to himself. “Are you going to send her to school when it starts up again after Thanksgiving?”
“No, I thought I’d figure something out until the spring semester starts in January.”
“Need us to get anything else?” he hedged.
“Not that I can think of…”
“Anything maybe she’d need that you don’t carry?” Jack tried again.
Daniel looked up as Dawn exited the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Her hair was hidden by a towel, her cast covered in plastic and rubber bands.
“No…”
“Oh for goodness sakes,” someone snapped from Jack’s side. “Daniel?” Janet said.
“Hey, Janet,” he greeted.
“Put Dawn on the phone,” the doctor ordered impatiently.
Daniel frowned at the phone but held out to Dawn. “Janet wants to speak with you.”
Dawn looked surprised but took the phone. “H-Hello?”
Daniel watched as Dawn’s face reddened. “No, I haven’t…I’m not…no. Thanks, though.”
She hurriedly handed the phone back to Daniel and disappeared back into the bathroom with her hairbrush.
“What did you say to her?” Daniel asked.
“I asked if she needed feminine hygiene products,” Janet told him baldly. “The colonel couldn’t seem to spit it out.”
“Oh,” then it clicked in Daniel’s head. “Oh!”
Janet grunted something and handed the phone back to Jack.
“Well, now that that unpleasant business is over with, you’ll have a few things in the house to eat for breakfast and lunch, then you’ll need to go shopping.”
“Thanks, Jack. And thank the rest of them.”
“I’m sure they’ll be here to thank personally after you two have had a day. Thanksgiving has been planned. I’m hosting. You are responsible for rolls and Jell-O. And at least one non-alcoholic beverage.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up.
88888888
“Janet didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Daniel told Dawn as they headed out of Vegas after breakfast.
“I know,” she told him. “It’s just not the first conversation you imagine happening with someone you’ve never met, over the phone.”
“Janet knows Jack and I pretty well. She gets fed up with us sometimes,” Daniel told her.
“Jack?”
“My best friend, he’s an Air Force Colonel.”
“Is he an astrophysicist like Sam?”
“Amateur astronomer. Jack is more action-guy. He only has so much patience for smart people when trying to work a problem.”
“My sister is like that too. ‘Okay, great, thanks for all that. But to kill this thing do I need to behead it or burn it?’”
Daniel chuckled. “Exactly.”
Dawn smiled.
88888888
It was evening when they finally pulled into Daniel’s driveway. The porchlight was on, but the rest of the house remained dark.
Dawn had fallen asleep mid-sentence a few hours before, her head propped on her hand, her elbow against the door.
“We’re here,” he said, gently shaking her shoulder.
Dawn came awake in an instant, looking around. She blinked several times.
“Come on,” Daniel said. Somehow he was more nervous now than the entire seventeen hour drive.
They left Dawn’s suitcases, only taking in the lighter things. Daniel unlocked the door and pushed it open. He entered first, flipping on lights. The house was a moderately sized one-story two bedroom two bath, with a study and a fairly large kitchen. There was not much of a yard. The walls were mostly covered with bookcases and knickknacks. Copies of ancient manuscripts were framed along the walls, along with some old world maps.
“Wow,” Dawn said as she stopped in the living room. “You really do live in your work.” Like her mom had with art.
“Office is through there,” he pointed. Then he led her to the hallway. “This is my room, the bathroom and laundry room, and your room.”
Dawn headed down to the door at the end. She pushed it open and groped for the light switch. When she hit it, she was surprised to find a semi-normal room. White walls and floorboards. There was a small desk, a wooden framed queen sized bed, small dresser, and a multi-shelved closet. All of the bedding and accents were medium blue.
She set her things down. On the desk was a square box.
Curious, she looked it over. The card said “Dawn” in big flowing script. She pulled open the card.
Dawn,
We’re excited to meet you, but Sam convinced us that you and Daniel would need some time to settle in.
You have three days. We’ll see you at Thanksgiving.
Cassie
P.S. The hat is tradition. You don’t have to wear it, it’s just their way of welcoming you.
She opened the box to find a blue U.S. Air Force hat. When she lifted it out there was a note in new scrawl.
Be kind, kid. He’s going to try and he’s going to fail a few times. But he’ll keep trying. Be forgiving.
--Jack
Dawn sighed. “I could have used a note like this after Mom died.”
She set the hat down and sat on the end of the bed. The surreal abruptly came to an end, she was starting a new life in Colorado, living in a library, with a man she had known about for all of five days. Then again, that’s longer than Mom knew him.
She threw herself back on the bed and stared up at her stucco ceiling.
Daniel entered a moment later. “Here are your suitcases.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you hungry? Jack grabbed some things for us until we can go shopping.”
“Yeah,” she pushed up and followed him back to the kitchen.
88888888
The strange ring was forty feet tall, perfectly round. It looked to be made of stone. Symbols were carved into it. The symbols started to move, an inner ring spinning. It paused seven times, on seven different symbols.
WHOOSH!
A vortex in the middle flushed outward then settled to cover the interior of the entire ring. The room was bathed in a rippling blue light.
All seemed to still for a moment, then a figure stepped through the ring. It was Daniel.
Dawn gasped as she came awake, forcing herself to sit up. The room was dark, the only source of light was from a small green hall nightlight.
She scrambled out of bed and turned on the light. Her heart was racing. She looked around the room. The dream had felt so real. It was almost seven. It was not worth trying to go back to sleep, not that she thought she could.
She opened her purse and pulled out her journal and a pen.
Daniel found her at her desk, writing, half an hour later.
“You’re up,” he said in surprise.
“Weird dream woke me a little while ago,” she told him as she finished the sentence she was working on. She closed the journal and stuck it in the top drawer of the desk.
Daniel nodded. “I was about to start the coffee. We also need to make a grocery list. Want to help me?”
Title: From the Pacific to the Rockies
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG-1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or SG-1 people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn and Daniel head for Colorado Springs.
Notes: Follows Go Joyce and Inward Reflections. Based on Challenge 8637 at TtH
Seasons: November 2001 (Season 6 after “Wrecked”/Season 5)
Characters: Daniel, Sam, Dawn
Word Count: 2485
Daniel waved goodbye to Sam. She had found a Colorado bound flight from a small airport between Sunnydale and Los Angeles.
He climbed back into the car. Dawn had already moved to the passenger seat. “Any good at navigating?” he asked.
“Are we talking lost in the woods with a compass or a map and exit numbers?”
“A map.”
“I’m not terrible at it.”
He reached into the glove compartment and handed her the map Sam had gotten when they arrived in California. “Then you’ll navigate us to Denver. We should be able to make it to Nevada tonight.”
“Only as far as Denver?”
“It’s pretty hard to get lost between Denver and Colorado Springs,” Daniel said. “Or I’ve done it enough times to know better.”
Dawn nodded. “Okay.” She took a moment to study the map. “The 15 to Vegas.”
“Okay.” He turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
They were quiet for nearly half an hour. Dawn contemplating the changes to her life, Daniel running through a checklist of things that would need to be done.
“Why archeology?” Dawn suddenly asked, needing to pull her mind from all she was leaving behind.
“Hmm?” Daniel focusing his mind on his passenger. “Oh, uh, both my parents were archeologists. So was my grandfather.”
“Just joined the family business?”
“I had a knack for it.”
“I’d kill for something like that, to know exactly what I wanted to be or do.”
“It’s not unusual for people your age not to know what they want to be.”
Dawn nodded. It was hard to explain that she had to consider her life from the last year alone. And it was not like anyone had offered career advice for an ancient mystical Key in human form. The Scoobies had considered that Dawn should have faded from existence or at least memory after serving her purpose.
“Why don’t you go to school?” Daniel asked.
She stared out the window. “I get bored,” she answered. “So I figured ‘why go?’ Besides, no one was paying attention.”
“Except family services.”
“A slight miscalculation on my part,” she admitted.
“Did you have any sports or clubs?”
“Nah,” she said. “Between Mom and Buffy…” she trailed off. How could she explain that slaying came before swim meets and theater productions?
Daniel nodded. “Right, been busy at home.”
“To put it mildly.”
He hesitated a moment then spoke. “Not to go all ‘dad’ on you, but you know you have to start going to school, right?”
“Because education is important?”
“Because Colorado Department of Children and Family will be keeping a close eye on us for the next six months. If there is not improvement, they’ll get involved like they did in Sunnydale.”
“Except there is no one to take me if that happens.”
88888888
Daniel opened the door of the hotel room. They had gotten to the southernmost portion of Las Vegas just after ten that evening. The hotel was basic, but in the middle of several twenty-four hour food places. Dawn claimed the bed closest to the heater.
“What do you feel like for dinner?” Daniel asked as he dropped his bag on the floor. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his finger.
“Tacos,” she answered immediately.
“There was a Mexican place a block over,” he gestured to the door.
“Cool,” she got up, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. Daniel checked that he had the room key and followed.
They were seated before long and ordered from a dark haired waitress.
Dawn pulled open her purse and looked through it, pulling out a notebook and pen. She opened to a blank page and started writing, tilting her head to the side.
Daniel watched the quick flick of her light blue pen across the page. She absently tapped the end of the pen against her chin between thoughts. Her expression pinched and brightened as her pen moved. He spoke before he thought better of it. “You journal?”
“Yeah, for as long as I can remember.” She scratched the skin around the edge of her cast. “I had to start over after the old ones sorta…got destroyed.”
“What happened?”
“It depends on who you ask. Tara says it was an existential crisis. Spike said it was just a teenage tantrum, burning all the things from my past as a metaphor for letting childhood go.”
“Spike? He didn’t strike me as philosophical.”
She chuckled. “He would kill me for disclosing this, but in another life, he was a scholar.”
“What changed?”
“A psycho girlfriend and a mentor from hell,” Dawn told him honestly.
“I’m sure they weren’t-”
“I’ve met them. Trust me, Dru is a full-blown loon who is responsible for more than one asylum massacre. And Angelus…is a sadist that makes all of us want to run for cover.” She shook her head. “Even thinking about him gave me nightmares.”
Daniel reached into his messenger bag. “I journal, too.” He set a journal on the table. “I’ve done it for a long time.”
Dawn stared at the journal. Her mother had been into art and her sister into figure skating. The only thing Dawn had ever had of her own that was part of her memories and part of her actual existence…was something she shared with the man across from her. A man she did not know. But she could see pieces of herself in him. More than she ever shared with Buffy in looks or talents.
Her inspection was interrupted by the waitress returning with food.
88888888
Daniel woke with a start. He could just hear the shower running. He sighed as the situation came back to him.
Dawn, his daughter, who he was taking home with him. A home where he did not even know where the local school was. He sighed, sitting up. He rubbed his face. Dawn started singing something, he could not understand the words, just that she was not a good singer.
His cell phone rang. He pulled it off the nightstand and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“What the hell are you thinking, Daniel?” Jack demanded.
Daniel sighed. He had expected this call the night before. “I’m thinking…what the hell else was I supposed to do, Jack?”
His friend growled in annoyance. “Sam got back the independent lab test.”
“She’s mine.”
“Yeah, she is.” Jack was quiet only a moment. “What are you going to do about your day job?”
“Hammond said we were on stand down until the new year, at the very least I am.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
“Do you really think that’s going to work with a teenager who won’t go to school? That you can just figure it out?”
“What do you want from me, Jack?”
He sighed. “Are you doing this because you feel sorry for her? Or responsible since there was a night years ago?”
“Does it matter? She would still be my daughter.”
“And if you can’t be the father she needs?”
“Then I’ll cross that bridge,” he replied.
“I just don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into,” Jack told him.
“Wouldn’t you think the same thing if she was four days or six years old?”
“Probably.”
“So is this that she is fifteen or that I’m not father material?” Daniel asked, a bit angry, but mostly curious.
“You’ll be a great father, Daniel,” Jack assured him. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. We’ll be in sometime tonight.”
“Carter, Frasier, and Cassie are already seeing to the second bedroom at your place. They should have it moderately girlified, or at least emasculated long before you arrive. I was going to grab a bit to stock this fridge that has only baking soda, alcohol, and something that may have been Chinese takeout two weeks ago. Cereal, milk, macaroni and cheese, butter, bread, peanut butter and jelly-”
“She doesn’t like peanut butter,” Daniel said.
“Oo-kay.” Jack muttered something to himself. “Are you going to send her to school when it starts up again after Thanksgiving?”
“No, I thought I’d figure something out until the spring semester starts in January.”
“Need us to get anything else?” he hedged.
“Not that I can think of…”
“Anything maybe she’d need that you don’t carry?” Jack tried again.
Daniel looked up as Dawn exited the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Her hair was hidden by a towel, her cast covered in plastic and rubber bands.
“No…”
“Oh for goodness sakes,” someone snapped from Jack’s side. “Daniel?” Janet said.
“Hey, Janet,” he greeted.
“Put Dawn on the phone,” the doctor ordered impatiently.
Daniel frowned at the phone but held out to Dawn. “Janet wants to speak with you.”
Dawn looked surprised but took the phone. “H-Hello?”
Daniel watched as Dawn’s face reddened. “No, I haven’t…I’m not…no. Thanks, though.”
She hurriedly handed the phone back to Daniel and disappeared back into the bathroom with her hairbrush.
“What did you say to her?” Daniel asked.
“I asked if she needed feminine hygiene products,” Janet told him baldly. “The colonel couldn’t seem to spit it out.”
“Oh,” then it clicked in Daniel’s head. “Oh!”
Janet grunted something and handed the phone back to Jack.
“Well, now that that unpleasant business is over with, you’ll have a few things in the house to eat for breakfast and lunch, then you’ll need to go shopping.”
“Thanks, Jack. And thank the rest of them.”
“I’m sure they’ll be here to thank personally after you two have had a day. Thanksgiving has been planned. I’m hosting. You are responsible for rolls and Jell-O. And at least one non-alcoholic beverage.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up.
88888888
“Janet didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Daniel told Dawn as they headed out of Vegas after breakfast.
“I know,” she told him. “It’s just not the first conversation you imagine happening with someone you’ve never met, over the phone.”
“Janet knows Jack and I pretty well. She gets fed up with us sometimes,” Daniel told her.
“Jack?”
“My best friend, he’s an Air Force Colonel.”
“Is he an astrophysicist like Sam?”
“Amateur astronomer. Jack is more action-guy. He only has so much patience for smart people when trying to work a problem.”
“My sister is like that too. ‘Okay, great, thanks for all that. But to kill this thing do I need to behead it or burn it?’”
Daniel chuckled. “Exactly.”
Dawn smiled.
88888888
It was evening when they finally pulled into Daniel’s driveway. The porchlight was on, but the rest of the house remained dark.
Dawn had fallen asleep mid-sentence a few hours before, her head propped on her hand, her elbow against the door.
“We’re here,” he said, gently shaking her shoulder.
Dawn came awake in an instant, looking around. She blinked several times.
“Come on,” Daniel said. Somehow he was more nervous now than the entire seventeen hour drive.
They left Dawn’s suitcases, only taking in the lighter things. Daniel unlocked the door and pushed it open. He entered first, flipping on lights. The house was a moderately sized one-story two bedroom two bath, with a study and a fairly large kitchen. There was not much of a yard. The walls were mostly covered with bookcases and knickknacks. Copies of ancient manuscripts were framed along the walls, along with some old world maps.
“Wow,” Dawn said as she stopped in the living room. “You really do live in your work.” Like her mom had with art.
“Office is through there,” he pointed. Then he led her to the hallway. “This is my room, the bathroom and laundry room, and your room.”
Dawn headed down to the door at the end. She pushed it open and groped for the light switch. When she hit it, she was surprised to find a semi-normal room. White walls and floorboards. There was a small desk, a wooden framed queen sized bed, small dresser, and a multi-shelved closet. All of the bedding and accents were medium blue.
She set her things down. On the desk was a square box.
Curious, she looked it over. The card said “Dawn” in big flowing script. She pulled open the card.
Dawn,
We’re excited to meet you, but Sam convinced us that you and Daniel would need some time to settle in.
You have three days. We’ll see you at Thanksgiving.
Cassie
P.S. The hat is tradition. You don’t have to wear it, it’s just their way of welcoming you.
She opened the box to find a blue U.S. Air Force hat. When she lifted it out there was a note in new scrawl.
Be kind, kid. He’s going to try and he’s going to fail a few times. But he’ll keep trying. Be forgiving.
--Jack
Dawn sighed. “I could have used a note like this after Mom died.”
She set the hat down and sat on the end of the bed. The surreal abruptly came to an end, she was starting a new life in Colorado, living in a library, with a man she had known about for all of five days. Then again, that’s longer than Mom knew him.
She threw herself back on the bed and stared up at her stucco ceiling.
Daniel entered a moment later. “Here are your suitcases.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you hungry? Jack grabbed some things for us until we can go shopping.”
“Yeah,” she pushed up and followed him back to the kitchen.
88888888
The strange ring was forty feet tall, perfectly round. It looked to be made of stone. Symbols were carved into it. The symbols started to move, an inner ring spinning. It paused seven times, on seven different symbols.
WHOOSH!
A vortex in the middle flushed outward then settled to cover the interior of the entire ring. The room was bathed in a rippling blue light.
All seemed to still for a moment, then a figure stepped through the ring. It was Daniel.
Dawn gasped as she came awake, forcing herself to sit up. The room was dark, the only source of light was from a small green hall nightlight.
She scrambled out of bed and turned on the light. Her heart was racing. She looked around the room. The dream had felt so real. It was almost seven. It was not worth trying to go back to sleep, not that she thought she could.
She opened her purse and pulled out her journal and a pen.
Daniel found her at her desk, writing, half an hour later.
“You’re up,” he said in surprise.
“Weird dream woke me a little while ago,” she told him as she finished the sentence she was working on. She closed the journal and stuck it in the top drawer of the desk.
Daniel nodded. “I was about to start the coffee. We also need to make a grocery list. Want to help me?”