#damie?

Part 2

It's not that Dani can't sleep. The opposite really. There's an exhaustion deep in her bones, throbbing in the finger shaped bruises on her neck. She hasn't slept since they crawled out of the lake the night before, so late into the night that it was more accurate to call it morning. At the time, there'd been so much to do. The children needed to be checked on and looked over, reassured that none of what happened was their fault. There was the well to look into, the heartbreak on Owen's face when he saw the figure at the bottom. Hanna had deserved so much more. Then there was the story to tell Henry, the dreams and the ghosts and all the times the children had been tucked away somewhere else while their bodies were driven around by another. There were plans to be made and drinks to be drank and such an air of sadness and regret, Dani felt like she couldn't breathe. 

Through it all, Jamie was right by her side. It was Jamie who helped pull Dani and Flora from the water. Jamie who held Dani upright in the cold air as Dani adjusted to the feeling of having too much inside of her, too many souls. Jamie who held Dani's hand on top of the table with no fear or shame as they told Henry what happened. Jamie who stayed with Dani through the laborious process of getting Flora and Miles clean, warm, and tucked into bed. Jamie who helped Dani fumble through her own shower with hands striking softly over her skin like Dani was something to be revered. Jamie, who borrowed a shirt to sleep in and pulled Dani down onto the bed with her at the end of the endless day they'd had. 

It was in Jamie's warm embrace that Dani knew it would be all too easy to fall asleep in that Dani laid awake. She couldn't sleep. Not yet. She didn't know what she'd see when she closed her eyes. 

She could feel the Lady of the Lake in the back of her mind, a prickling sensation that tingled along the top of her spine like someone was watching her, constantly. It wasn’t anything like Dani thought it would be like, but then again she hadn’t really known what to expect when she invited the faceless woman into her body. She hadn’t really known that that was what she was doing when she spoke the words. It’s you, it’s me, it’s us. That was what Miles and Flora had said up in the attic with Peter and Rebeca. Those were the words that had fallen from Dani’s lips desperately, everything in her body demanding she do whatever it took to save that little girl. 

She felt like she couldn’t breathe when it happened, still wasn’t sure that she was breathing anymore anyway. Not like Jamie was, soft puffs of warm air against the top of Dani’s hair. Dani was curled up against Jamie’s chest, Jamie had fallen asleep trailing her fingers through Dani’s hair. She didn’t feel warm in the way that Jamie did, warm and soft and safe. Dani felt cold and full and so very angry. A rage unlike any she’d ever known coursed through her, a rage that wasn’t her own. 

The rage was the scariest part. The kind of rage that made Dani unrecognizable when she looked in the mirror, one eye blue and one eye brown. This was the kind of rage that destroyed things, destroyed people. People were fragile and delicate and important and Dani couldn’t stand the thought of hurting them. Of hurting Jamie. Jamie who was soft and warm and fragile and who held Dani like she was the most important person in her world. 

So, I need a fic in which Viola coexists with Dani as she starts her new life, one day at a time, with Jamie. Because we know that Dani will subdue this “beast” in time. Even though they are destined for the bottom of the lake, Viola will never take anyone else again.