how could a heart like yours, ever love a heart like mine?

breathe deep, breathe clear, know that i'm here

JJ was not a heavy sleeper. Tonight there was a storm, and the rain was beating down on the roof and being blown into the windows. JJ wasn't a huge fan of storms. Chalk it up to bad memories.

He was exhausted and bored out of his mind, but sleep was not coming easily. He was lying on his back, with his arms behind his head, listening to the sounds of his friends breathing.

Over Pope's snoring, JJ could've sworn he heard Kie say something. He turned to her direction but couldn't see anything.

"Kie?", he whispered.

No answer.

He figured it must've been a trick of the wind. Then he heard it again, a little louder this time.

Tiny alarms started going off in his brain.

"No stop!" She murmured loudly.

JJ nearly jumped out of his skin.

He got out of his booth and moved over to hers.

Kneeling down beside her JJ could see Kiara's face was twisted in distress. She was murmuring, calling out, moving around, and her breathing was sharp.

JJ thought back to the nights at the Chateau when they would all be awakened by John B calling out to his father in his sleep. Kiara always said it could be harmful to wake him up so she would lift him up a bit and position herself behind him so his back was leaning against her chest. She would proceed to repeat; "it's okay, you're safe, you're okay, you're home, everything's fine." Eventually he would calm down but she usually wouldn't move until morning, but always before he woke up.

JJ suspected she had done the same for him a couple times because some mornings he would wake up with the strangest feeling that someone had spoken to him, and his pillow would smell faintly of coconut and peaches.

Kie called out again which snapped him back to present day. He immediately moved into action. He lifted her up and moved her pillow so it was behind his back. He laid her down so she was leaning against him, the back of her head was on his shoulder and his legs were on either side of hers.

She felt so small lying there. JJ had always thought of Kie as a big presence. She was a small person but you never really felt that way about her. She was vocal about her opinions and hardly ever showed signs of fear. But there, while she was vulnerable and afraid, she seemed fragile. JJ wouldn't let her break.

He started saying to her all the things she had said to him, and to John B.

"You're okay. You're safe. I'm here."

JJ was a physical being. He was always hanging off the boys, ever since they were young. Most people kind of found it annoying. Pope usually pushed him off. So when it came to Kie, he tried not to do it so much. Of course he didn't always succeed, but he tried. Boy did he try.

And the fact that he tried not to get too hands on with her had nothing to do with the fact that having her close was kind of disarming. Or that if he held her for too long, he might never let go. It's not that it scared him that the way she smelled was one of the most comforting things in the world to him.

So maybe it was a little about those things. Maybe the biggest reason was if he scared her away, he wouldn't make it. That he couldn't risk losing her.

Ideas like that often got locked away in the filing cabinet in the back of his mind marked; "DON'T GO THERE!!". But with her tiny person pressed against him, in need of saving for one of the first times in her life, it was hard for him to suppress the joy bubbling up inside him over the fact that he got to do the saving.

Her breathing slowed down, and she stopped talking so loudly, just quietly whispering complete nonsense. She turned over a bit so her cheek was against his chest.

He sat there for a little while longer, until suddenly she stirred.

"JJ?", she asked, sleep heavy in her voice.

"Yeah, hey."

"Hi."

"Sorry. I'm like supposed to move before you wake up, aren't I. I wasn't really expecting you to wake up so soon."

"What happened?", she tried to sit up a bit but she was still leaning on him.

"You had a bad dream."

He moved around to support her more.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Did I wake you?", she asked, trying to look at him.

"No. I was already awake."

The rain was still blowing against the window and they could hear it hitting the patio furniture.

"Do you wanna talk about it? Your dream I mean."

"It's exactly what you'd expect. Every time. They're there, and then they're not."

"Wanna go into specifics?"

She looked up at him, and sighed.

"Ward was there, and Rafe. They were dragging John B and Sarah away, hurting them. I was tied up, I couldn't get to them."

"That makes sense."

Kie gave JJ a confused look.

"Oh! You were like, telling someone to stop. I guess that must've been the Cameron men," he said with a roll of his eyes, because calling Ward and Rafe 'men' was an overstatement.

Kie just nodded, staring off into space.

JJ regretted asking her to talk about the dream and felt the need for a change of subject. He couldn't think of one.

Suddenly, Pope let out the loudest snore known to man.

Kie was shaken out of her thoughts and then her wide eyes connected with JJ's, and she started to laugh.

It started as a breathy giggle and grew into a complete attack. She couldn't stop. Even as every misfortune that had occurred over the past two months flashed before her eyes, she could not stop herself from laughing.

JJ was taken aback at first. He was so confused but an amused grin quickly spread across his face at the sight of the pure joy that alighted Kie. Soon it was too much and he was laughing along with her.

They kept trying to shush each other so as not wake Pope, but luckily the boy was down for the count. Eventually it passed and they were left staring at each other with warm smiles.

Finally, JJ got up. Everything inside him was screaming at him for the action, especially as the warmth from her body was countered by the slight chill in the air.

He made it halfway back before he heard a voice behind him.

"JJ?"

"Yeah?", he said turning around, as if he had been pulled from some deep thought.

She was looking at him as if what she was about to say required some great effort, as if the simple sentence would shift her universe for good. But then her face relaxed and she smiled.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

His look of curiosity faded and he returned the smile.

"Goodnight Kie."

Her smile widened and she nodded.

"Goodnight JJ."

Kie drifted back off into a dreamless, restless, sleep, hearing the soft echos of comforting words that had seeped into her nightmare. She sensed the hollow feeling of missing something but not something that was somewhere in the far off waters, but something that was lying in a booth, just across the room.

JJ slept soundly after having exhausted his sleep deprived brain and his strained little heart, trying to figure out, what that beautiful girl had meant to say to him.