Fandom: Star Trek
Pairings/characters: Leonard McCoy x reader
Words: 695

Summary:
Leonard has been having nightmares, and his significant other tries to help him.

Something stirred her consciousness. The sound of heavy breathing, as if someone was running for their life. Incoherent words, the voice full of fear, made her pull herself out of a sleepy haze and into the waking reality. She blinked. The room was dark, the only illumination was the control panel by the door, the stars in the window too far away, but it was enough for her to see Leonard next to her. He was on his back, lying straight and rigid. His brow was furrowed and eyes were moving rapidly behind closed lids. Looking down, she saw that his hands were clenched into fists above the duvet.

She raised her hand and laid it on Leonard's forehead. It was damp with sweat. She pushed some of his hair away from his face, but he was still stuck in his nightmare. This had been happening the past few nights, ever since they left Yorktown. He had been fine while they had been on the space station, but as soon as the Enterprise had been repaired and they went back up into space, the nightmares had started.

"Len?" she whispered, not wanting to wake him up too quickly. She laid her hand on his chest. "Leonard." No response, other than distressed whimpers.

Her heart broke for him. All of the nightmares were about what happened on Altamid.

She leaned forward to kiss his shoulder, and his whimpers paused. "Leonard, love. Wake up," she whispered a bit more forcefully. "It's just a nightmare."

"No... No..."

"Wake up, handsome." She scooted closer, her hand stroking his chest, and she kissed his shoulder again.

This time, she reached his subconsciousness and he woke up with a strangled breath, eyes wild in the dark. He looked around the room as if expecting enemies to be standing around the bed. But then he saw her next to him and started to shiver.

"It's okay, Len. Just a dream," she whispered. "Breathe, sweetheart."

He took a deep breath in through his nose, but then heaved on a sob. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He snuggled into her, burying his head in the crook of her neck. While his body wasn't rigid anymore, she could tell his teeth were clenched and he was almost shaking trying to repress sobs.

"Len. It's okay. I've got you, love."

She felt a few warm tears on her shoulder, but he didn't allow himself more than that.

"What was it?" she asked, hand stroking his sweaty hair. "The swarm?"

He swallowed a couple of times before he answered. "The transporter." He shuddered and she tightened her arms around him.

"You're okay, Len. You're safe."

They lay in silence, only Leonard's deep breaths becoming more and more steady was the only sound accompanying the hum of the warp core.

It was the third time he had dreamt about not being put together right while being transported onto the Franklin, each dream resulting in a different horrifying scenario. His other dreams were being overrun by swarm ships while piloting the stolen ship. Or losing her in the chaos of escaping the planet. Or not being able to save Spock and being left alone on the planet.

"Why don't we go take a shower?" she suggested, once it seemed like he had calmed down. "You're all sweaty. Computer, start the sonic shower." There was a beep and then light humming from the bathroom.

"You need to sleep," he said. "You have to be up early for that mission briefing."

"I can still take a shower with you."

He sighed. "You've barely been sleeping these last couple of weeks. I know you've been sleeping lightly just in case I have another nightmare. And I do. Every night."

"Not every night."

"Not those nights I work myself to the ground and I'm too exhausted to dream."

She disentangled herself from him and climbed out of bed. "Computer, lights at 20 percent." The lights came on. Then she held out his hand to him with a grin. "Come on, stubborn you."

He looked up at her and smiled tiredly. "I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you too."