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Dani pushed the doors of the private and expensive hospital at 6.23 in the morning after coming off her night shift. Apparently when you were rich and could afford hospitals like this there was no such things as visiting hours, one could come and go at any time they wished and she was on the approved visitors list.
Her phone beeped telling her she had a message and she carefully balanced the tray she was holding while walking through the lobby that was more like a fancy hotel than a hospital to the elevators. She glanced at the screen and signed as the details of the latest murder came through, she had been hoping it would have been interesting enough to cheer Bright up but looked like it was a standard double murder, gang related as they had thought.
She looked at the tray of lemon jello she had made to make sure that they were still sitting in their plastic cups and wouldn’t tip over as she stuffed her phone back into her back pocket. Until now she had never known the reasons why jello was served in hospitals; it was easier on patients who were bed bound to digest. Malcolm had trouble with most foods and jello was something he could tolerate and eat, plus he had a sweet tooth like none other. In the last week he had been complaining that they only served him apple and cherry. It was very strange because she had learnt that an expensive hospital such as this one had chefs that made the patients whatever they wanted however she had promised him that the next time she came to visit she would bring him lemon jello. She hadn’t known that the jello they served at the hospitals were different than the ones she had when she was a kid. Maybe not all hospital jellos but Malcolm’s was different, it had a spoonful of some stuff that was supposed to be giving him the vitamins, nutrients and protein he was surely missing. His mother’s driver had dropped of a box of the mix as the message for the recipe had beeped into her phone 3 days ago. Dani wasn’t sure but Malcolm’s mother might be more terrifying than his father.
She exited the elevator on the 14th floor and made her way down the corridor to the furthest corner suit, not only was Malcolm staying in a suit, he was in a part of the hospital that was the quietest possible. As she pushed the door with her shoulder she noticed that the blinds where still pulled giving the room a nice glow however not too dark because apparently their peculiar profiler was not too fond of sleeping in the dark. In the last three weeks they had learnt more about Malcolm than he would be comfortable about them knowing. A light room was easier for him to bring himself out of his night terrors than a dark room therefore his room was always lit, she now could "profile" why his apartment didn't have any blinds whatsoever. When he was sleeping the hospital made his room little bit darker just like now in the hopes that he would get more sleep. All this pointed to the fact that he was sleeping and she had to be very quiet because he rarely slept.
Soft music was playing throughout the room, which was a new addition as the psychiatrist at the hospital had suggested it and it seemed to be doing wonders for him, the music sometimes, although rarely, penetrated his panic and sometimes brought him out of the nightmare before it blossomed into a terror. She greeted the male nurse that was sitting in the room with nod, a nurse was always present when Malcolm was sleeping, the hospital had learned quickly that a panicking Malcolm Bright tore his stitches and re-injured his wrist while in the grips of a pavor nocturnus.
She very quietly made her way over to the visitor’s living room section of the room, which had a pull out couch and two comfortable arm chairs. There was also a table with chairs around it for the visitors to eat around and also the patient could join them if they could get out of bed. She placed the tray in the rooms’ fridge and took off her jacket and turned around to take in her friend.
The hospital was under stick instructions of no sedatives and during the first week of his stay and after the third time of re-stitching his torso, and second time of realigning his wrist the hospital had assigned him a nurse while sleeping because by the time they had made it into the room it had been too late. And of course there were the restraints. She walked over to the bed very quietly taking them in, even after 3 weeks of seeing them they were hard to see and her hearth ached for him. His broken hand had been placed in a cast just last week as they had first placed it into a brace and waited for the swelling to go down to see if it needed an operation and him having night terrors meant he re-injured it while in the throes of night terrors. He could not keep it still and now it was in a cast, thank god no operation had been needed. He had however hit a nurse over the face with the cast 2 days ago therefore it was now bound to his chest while sleeping and his upper body was in a restraining blanket keeping him immobile on the bed. However if he woke up fully restrained, he panicked even more so his right arm was not under the blanket however it was also in a restraint that was attached to his wrist. Since he slept in restraints for god knows how long it probably gave him some comfort. The mouth guard was also in place telling her that he probably hadn’t been able to sleep through the night and had settled down to get much needed sleep when the sun was breaking the horizon.
As she got to the bed she realized he was dreaming, the rapid movement of his eyes behind closed eyelids being a clear indication. And as she reached his side his breathing picked up and he gave a distressed tiny little groan as his head began to move from side to side. He bit down on the mouth guard and Dani knew that if it hadn't been there he would be grinding his teeth hard enough to do damage. The nurse in the room got up but Dani waved him down as she took the railing on the side of the bed down and took a seat next to him on the bed. It was amazing the skills one could pick up in just 3 weeks of regular visits, she now could without looking unhook a hospital beds railings.
She didn’t rush, people who saw someone having a nightmare were always quick to wake them, not Malcolm, if you rushed him he half woke and picked up on your anxiety and his distress rose. She gently started to stroke his hair and speak softly to him assuring him that he was fine, that it was just a dream. He began groaning and tiring to move but was restrained. She continued her literary of assurances none stop for 10 minutes, her heart breaking and aching a bit more as he seemed to be caught in his own mind and nightmare.
She was thinking that it was not going to work and he was going to go into a full night terror when saw the exact moment she broke through. It was really a cute moment, Malcolm without waking tilted his head slightly to the side like he was listening and frowned, the genius trying to figure out what was happening even in sleep. Her hand kept running through his hair but she stopped assuring him that he was dreaming and started talking to him like she would if he was awake. She told him about the latest double murder they had, giving him the details that Edrisa had sent just moments before. It was fascinating to her that someone who had nightmares about murder was also calmed with the details of one. Maybe details of another murder took him out of the one he was trapped in? She really didn’t mind as long as it worked.
She talked Malcolm through the details as she would have done in their conference room and told him it was an open and shut case not really worth the time of a profiler. They had a bolo out on their prime suspect and he would be in custody soon and then they would move on. As she finished telling him about it, she saw that he took a deep breath and settled more into bed and she knew he was settling down for more sleep. She smiled; 8 out 10 times he woke so his body didn’t get the required rest it needed. He took several deep breaths and slowly all movement left his body as he drifted off into deeper sleep with no dreams.
Dani continued to run her hands through Malcolm’s hair for a few more minutes thinking about what she wanted to do, she was exhausted, had come off a double murder and almost no sleep in the last 2 days and going back to her apartment from uptown at morning rush hour didn’t seem very appalling at the moment but what could she do?
As she got off the bed and turned around to retrieve her jacket she saw that the nurse had opened the couch and had made the guest bed. He had even turned down the blankets for her. She gave him a surprised look and he gave her a smile in return. Dani realized that sleep was calling her, she walked over to the bed, sat at its side and took off her gun and badge and placed them on one of the arm chairs. She toed of her shoes and looked up at the nurse who once again had sat back down and had picked up the book he was reading. He felt her eyes on him and raised his head, smiled and whispered.
“I’ll wake you up if he starts dreaming again.”
With that Dani lay back into the bed and couldn’t even remember if she pulled the blankets up or not as she joined Malcolm Bright in the land of deep sleep.