Title: A Turn of Events Chapter: Nightmares Rating: PG-13 Summary: Nightmares haunt Noah, while Rose has just come out of surgery Characters: Noah, Luke, Rose (OC), Lily, Holden and Aaron Genre: Drama/Romance (And no more mystery!) Warnings: None Disclaimer: This site is no way associated with "As the World Turns", CBS, P&G, or Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann. This is not for profit. No copyright infringement is intended. Authors submit and write their own work.

I stood frozen in the window, my eyes wide as I looked on in horror at my father, alive after all, with a gun against Luke’s head. My blood was frozen, as the rest of my body, and breaths were almost nonexistent. I caught Rose’s eye for a moment, and guilt washed through me; I had really thought she was responsible for her father’s death, but knew now that she wasn’t.

The look in her eyes told me all I needed to know: she had a plan. I tried to distract my father, questioning him to give Rose enough time for whatever she was going to try. He heard her a moment too late, and fell to the ground. I thought that was it. I thought we had won. Then I heard the gun shot. And then another.

I closed my eyes and shook away the tears, telling myself the shots hadn’t hit anyone. And then I felt my body shift, and I opened my eyes, but I wasn’t in the window anymore. I was lying on the ground, the hot metal of a freshly-shot gun weighing down my hand, and my eyes set on the bleeding body of my sister.

No, no, no. It wasn’t true. I tried to shake my head, to drop the gun, do anything, but I couldn’t. I had no control of my body. I heard Luke’s voice, “You killed her, Noah. You killed her.” I raised my head up, not of my own accord and looked at him. He looked at me in terror, and my hand raised the gun to face him.

No! No! No! I was screaming the words in my head, but it did no good as I stared at him, tears streaking his face and he stared at me in fear. I never thought he would, or even could, look at me like that, as though he were truly afraid of me. I wanted to drop the gun, to run over to my sister and try to save her; no one else was moving to do it. But my hand only tightened around the gun against my will.

NO! NO! NO! My finger squeezed the trigger and I let out a silent scream as a bullet pierced his perfect face. And then I heard it. What my father had wanted me to hear the entire time: Luke’s dying scream.
“NOAH!” a voice screamed in his ear, and Noah bolted up right, gasping for breath and sweating as though he’d just run a marathon, “Are you alright?”

“Luke,” Noah mumbled, “Where’s Luke?” His eyes darted around, everything blurred in his search for the blonde.

“He just went to get some coffee; he’ll be right back,” Lily said gently in his ear, rubbing his back softly.

Noah sighed, his breath starting to return to normal, and he was able to take in his surroundings. White walls surrounded them, in what seemed to be a waiting room, and Noah recognized it as the one the nurse had directed them to when they arrived. It was in the back, away from the main waiting room, and only about a dozen chairs sat around them, as well as the two-seat bench that Noah was sitting on, with Lily in the chair beside him, and Holden on the other side of her, “Rose?” he asked, jerking his head back around to Lily as the reason for their presence in the place finally hit him.

Lily gave him a weak smile, “She came out of surgery just about a couple hours after you fell asleep. The doctor came in about half an hour ago and said she’s in recovery.”

“He said that two people can go in and see her at a time,” Holden continued for her, leaning with his arms on his knees, “But Luke wanted to wait until you woke up; he knew you’d want to see her first.”

Noah nodded slightly, “Thank you,” he muttered quietly, “How long was I asleep for?”

“A few hours, I think,” Lily said, “Luke didn’t want to wake you; said that you haven’t been getting much sleep lately, worrying about Rose’s murder case and everything.”

He only nodded again, then opened his mouth to ask about his father, but thought better of it as a flash from his dream came back to him, and he stared at Rose’s body with the gun in his hand. Shaking away the image, he stood, “Which room is Rose in?”

“Go down the hall to the right, and it’s the last door on the left,” Holden replied.

Without a word, Noah started out of the room, almost robotically, and half way down the hall, he again noticed the feeling of having no control over his body as his feet took him to Rose’s room. He stopped in the middle of the hall, if only to prove to himself that he still had control of his body, then shook his head for being so ridiculous, and continued to the room.

Noah swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as he stepped into the recovery room. Various machines beeped and buzzed, and he didn’t even want to try and count the number of tubes and needles connected to Rose’s frail body. His eyes fell to the chair beside her bed, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to sit still, so he just walked closer to her bed, forcing back tears that threatened at his eyes.

His gaze lingered on her face, a tube across her nose, and bruises from things he wasn’t sure he wanted to know about. Noah let his fingers graze the top of her hand, and then careful took her hand in his larger one, handling it as though it were more breakable that glass, “I’m sorry,” he whispered softly, eyes on her hand as he rubbed his thumb absentmindedly across the top of her knuckles, “I should’ve believed you. I just- I never thought my father…If I even had a clue he was alive…” He wasn’t sure if she could hear him, or if he was just talking to himself, but he would say it to her again when she woke up.

“She doesn’t blame you, you know,” a voice came from behind him, “No one does.” Noah felt Luke’s hands squeeze his shoulders lightly, then run smoothly down to hold his forearms.

The tears Noah had tried to suppress now flowed freely down his cheeks as he softly replaced Rose’s hand on the bed sheets, and turned to gather Luke into his arms, “I know,” he said softly, “I was so afraid. I thought- I thought I was going to lose you. And now Rose-”

“Shhh,” Luke cut him off, rubbing small circles on his back as Noah’s tears dampened the shoulder of his shirt. Noah’s head jerked up when one of the machines started beeping faster, “What’s wrong?” Luke asked, staring at the machine, but Noah only shook his head, glancing back to the door and flagging down one of the nurses as she passed.

“I’ll take care of it,” the nurse said kindly, and Luke and Noah stepped out of the room. Luke glanced back to see her adjusting one of the IV’s, and turned to follow Noah back into the waiting room.

“Everything alright?” Lily asked as soon as they walked into the room. Noah said nothing, but just sat back down on the bench and stared blankly at the wall across form him.

“Yeah,” Luke said quickly, picking up that Noah wasn’t going to answer, “I think the nurse is just refilling one of the IV bags; you two can probably go in and see her if you want.”

“Ok, we’ll be right back,” Lily said, shooting a worried glance at Noah before Holden ushered her out of the room.

“She’ll be ok, you know,” Luke said softly sitting down on the bench next to Noah and slipping an arm around his waist.

“I hope so,” Noah said, not very convinced as he put an arm around Luke’s shoulders and pulled him closer to him, “I just can’t believe it,” he said after a few moments of silence, “My-” he cut off and shook his head, “The colonel’s alive.”

“I know,” Luke said, shaking his head, “I can’t believe it,” he sighed, then turned his head up to look at Noah, “They took him to Statesville. Jack called and told us while you were sleeping. He told us all the charges, but I can’t even remember them all.”

Noah just shook his head, “I don’t want to remember any of it,” he muttered, shifting a bit and burying his head in the crook of Luke’s neck, “He’s not my family. Not anymore. Rose, and you, and your family; you’re the only real family I have left. The only family I’ve ever had.”

Luke glanced up as someone appeared in the doorway, “Oh, sorry,” Aaron muttered sheepishly.

“No, it’s fine,” Noah said, sitting up, though he had his back to Aaron for a moment as he wiped his face, then turned around with a forced smile, “Thanks for coming.”

Aaron gave him a weak half-smile, “How is she?” he asked, walking in and standing in front of them.

“She’s in recovery,” Luke said quickly to save Noah the trouble of speaking, “The surgery went fine; no complications or anything.”

“That’s good,” Aaron said with a stiff nod, “Well, I have to go. I’m meeting Ally,” Luke shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the girl, but Aaron didn’t notice, “Could you just give these to her when she wakes up?” he asked, handing a small bouquet of purple roses to Luke.

“Of course,” he said with a slight smile, twirling the small bouquet around in his fingers, his other hand tracing small circles absentmindedly on Noah’s back, “Maybe you should go back to sleep,” he said softly, looking sideways at Noah, “You still look pretty tired.”

“No,” Noah replied a little too quickly, and Luke looked at him strangely, “I just, I want to be awake when Rose wakes up,” he lied, trying to shake out images from his earlier dream.

“I’ll wake you up if she wakes up,” Luke said simply, leaning back a bit.

Noah raised his eyebrows at him, “ No you won’t,” he said simply, “You wouldn’t even let your mom wake me up when she got out of surgery.”

Luke just shrugged guiltily, “You look cute when you’re sleeping,” he said with a light smile: the first real one that had graced this room since they’d arrived.

“And that’s why I’m not sleeping again until Rose wakes up,” Noah said, allowing a soft smile to play across his lips as he kissed Luke softly on the forehead. He shifted a bit so that Luke was leaning more on his chest and he leaned back against the arm of the bench, his hand stroking Luke’s blonde locks as he gazed at the man in his arms. His, now and forever, alive and safe from his father. And from me. he thought sourly, yet again pushing away images form his earlier dream, and wondering how long it would be before he could forget about the frightening images.