Stay [a Roman Reigns story]

26 Sleepwalking

Roman POV

It was once again in the middle of the night when I heard it. The now all too familiar sound of the blanket and pillow ruffling. Every single night since I had brought DJ home she had wandered aimlessly through the house. At first I thought she couldn't sleep because she was afraid the nightmares that had troubled her in the hospital would return.

The truth, however, was considerably more alarming. I was afraid she would hurt herself. Sleepwalking... Something I never had to deal with before and it scared the shit out of me. So I followed her through every room and made sure nothing happened to her while she was wandering around. It's been going on like this for weeks now.

When I asked DJ if she had any idea what might have caused the sleepwalking or if she had done it before, she just said she had no idea what I was talking about. Overall, she had been very distant since the incident. Even the hours in therapy didn't seem to help her. Nothing helped. On the contrary, she became more irritable every day and went up to the wall because of seemingly trivial things.

I thought that maybe things would get better now that the trial was over. Now that the bastard would disappear for a long time behind bars. Unfortunately the opposite was the case. Meanwhile, she was talking in agitation while she was walking through the house.

At first, I saw this as a way to get answers from her. But her talk was very incomprehensible. And what was somewhat understandable was in German. It was maddening. I wanted to help her, but she just wouldn't let me. I could not even take her in my arms or pull her to me in bed to cuddle without her bursting into tears and withdrawing from me.

Why couldn't she just talk to me? What bothered her so much that it already changed her behavior and our relationship in a short time? There had to be a way to fix this.

The only thing that gave me a little hope at the moment was that Summer would be here in a few minutes. Maybe she could bring a little light into the darkness. Maybe there was something DJ had told her that she couldn't or wouldn't tell me.

Exhausted and frustrated, I made my way to the door when it rang a little later.

"Hi Roman! God, you look awful. Did you sleep at all?" asked Summer the second I opened the door.

"Hi Summer. No, not really. She's been sleepwalking all night again. Did she say anything to you, by any chance? Any little thing can help me. I'm desperate for help right now." I replied after giving her a hug in greeting.

"I wish I could help you. But she's barely spoken to me lately. The only thing that's weird is that she asked me to go with her to the doctor tomorrow." she explained to me.

"What? But... why didn't she ask me to go with her?" I wanted to know.

"DJ just said she didn't want to bother you with it. That she didn't want you to be there. She has to go to the- Oh no." she began until she eventually fell silent.

"What's wrong?" I asked as her face went pale.

"It's six weeks, right?" countered Summer.

"Yeah, why? What's going on? Where does she have to go? You're scaring me." I replied.

"She has to... she has to go to the gynecologist... And she doesn't want to be alone, but doesn't want you to go with her. Is it... is it possible... that she...?" she said, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging in the air.

I just stood there staring at my sister as her words began to sink in and make a horrible sense.

"No... that's not... that's not possible...she would have told me," I stammered.

"You need to talk to her. Right now." retorted Summer.

I mechanically walked to our bedroom, but hesitated briefly at the door. When I eventually did go in, I saw Dani standing at the window, staring out. Although she must have heard me, there was no reaction.

"I'm going to ask you something, and I hope you'll be honest with me, Dani." I began.

"I'll try my best," she murmured without looking at me.

"Did you... on that day... have a... miscarriage?" I asked. Each of those words felt like acid in my mouth.

But instead of answering my question, she just burst into tears. Dani covered her face with her hands as she slowly nodded. I quickly went to her to hug her gently but firmly. This time she let it happen, even if she hissed briefly because of her ribs.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked softly.

"Because I couldn't. I knew how disappointed you would have been. But more importantly, I know exactly what you would have done if I had told you." she replied softly.

"I deserved to know. I had the right to grieve. I had the right to-" I began.

"That's exactly what I wanted to prevent. You would have torn his head off during the trial. You would have killed him," Dani interrupted me.

"Damn right! I would have! I would have had one more reason to rip him to shreds. He deserved that, but you took that chance away from me." I said as I let go of her and put a few steps of distance between us.

"I was trying to protect you!" she yelled.

"You shouldn't have done that!" I growled back.

"Yes I fucking was! I had to! I didn't want you to go to jail because of him! I didn't want to lose you too, Roman!" she screamed.

"It was hard enough losing a baby I knew nothing about. How could I bear to lose you, too? How?" she whimpered as she looked at me with tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!" she whispered.

I went back to her and pulled her into my arms again. We just stood there like that. And cried. And grieved. Together we let out everything that had built up. Now I knew everything and could only hope and pray that it would make us stronger in the end.