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Hyde woke up screaming.
It had been that nightmare again.
And just like every other time he awoke from that dream, he wasn't sure, if he was still dreaming.
He looked around, breathing shakily.
At first his view was blurry, but then he recognised Utterson's spare bedroom.
After taking a deep breath and looking inside, he could feel Jekyll's presence within. Jekyll was sleeping. Unlike him.
It was a sensation that should have been reassuring.
He wasn't alone. Jekyll wasn't gone. He wasn't wanted all over England. No one was dead and everything was fine.
But the shadows kept whispering doubts into his mind.
What if this wasn't real?
What if this was just a trap to lure him into a false sense of security?
Hyde looked down on his long, spidery fingers that had claws rather than nails.
Sure, he had promised Utterson to never scratch himself again. But the only thing that could fully convince his twisted mind, that this was real, was-
“Edward?”
Hyde screamed in terror at the sudden voice.
“Edward, calm down! It's just me!”
The brunette turned his head and saw Utterson stand in the door frame, wearing a morning coat and holding a candlelighter in his left hand.
“I heard you scream”, the lawyer told him gently and came in. “What happened?”
“Nothing”, the younger man sniffled, “Just a stupid nightmare …”
“That's not nothing”, Utterson contradicted. He set the lighter down on the table and sat on Hyde's bed. “Will you tell me what it was about?”
So he did.
When he was finished, the older man didn't speak. He just took Hyde's hand and stroked it gently.
Finally he offered: “Want to cuddle?”
The brunette nodded and sniffed.
The lawyer slipped out of his morning coat, blew out the candles and crawled under the covers with him. Hyde immediately nestled into him and pressed his face against the other's chest.
Then the black-haired man wrapped his arms around him, petted his hair and began to sing something in Greek (probably a lullaby).
Slowly but surely, Hyde's anxiety ebbed away and he fell asleep with a smile.
No one could make him feel quite as safe as Gabriel John Utterson could.