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Jessica awoke for no discernable reason, it wasn't due to a sudden noise, or a nightmare, or due to the child a room away. She was simply awake. A sinking feeling stirring in her gut
Like most nights on Caladan, it was raining. Something that normally put Jessica's mind at ease was now only making that gut feeling grow worse.
Jessica turns onto her side to look at Leto, pressing a kiss to the line of his brow- still knitted even in sleep- and decided to get up to check on Paul.
Jessica didn't bother grabbing anything to bring with her, since the door was only a few steps away. As she strided purposefully towards the door, she was interrupted by the barest whisper of a door creaking open, she almost freezes, knowing no guard or servant should be Herr at this time.
She then takes three quiet steps back and grabs the knife and shield kept on her bedside. Hoping that it was simply nothing, but unwilling to risk it if it wasn't.
Jessica slowly pushed her own door open, knife clenched in her hands as she uses the rain to mask her footsteps. Jessica's breath catches in her throat as she sees Paul's door slightly ajar. She speeds up her steps.
She looks inside Paul's room carefully, noticing a figure cloaked in shadows standing at the foot of her sleeping son's bed.
The figure looks uncertain, from what little Jessica can see of them in the dark room, they're shifting uncertainty on their heels and hands shaking as they clench the small, easily concealed knife they held in one hand.
Jessica wastes no time as she slips behind the figure and cuts the knife she carried in her own hand cleanly across the assassin's throat. The body crumbling silently to the ground.
Jessica doesn't visibly react as the feeling in her gut finally abates, staring down at her sleeping son. After looking around the room and noticing nothing out of place, she gently kisses Paul's forehead and carefully picks him up, not wanting to wake the sleeping four year old to such a terrifying scene.
Her steps are significantly less hurried as she carries Paul back over to the room she and Leto shared. Gently placing him in the bed next to her sleeping husband, a brief smile flitting across her face at the sight of the two people she loves most, before she slips out of the room to go alert the guards to the intruder.