((Warning - contains material of an adult nature.))

Whether Rod Stewart had promised that tonight would be the night or not, Kaylee and Taylor had been content to take things slow, ending the evening in each other's arms to share a bevy of slow kisses, but whether they were still a little shy of each other or just tired, it seemed tonight wasn't going to be the night, after all. Rufus had remarked earlier that day that his nephew looked tired, and it seemed he was right, as it didn't take long before Taylor was asleep, safe and content in Kaylee's arms.

It took Kaylee a little longer to fall asleep, as it always did, but in the light of the two full moons from the window, she had a wonderful view. But even the sight of Taylor sleeping peacefully wasn't enough to stave off sleep for herself, and slowly but surely she joined him in dreamland.

It was no big secret that Taylor was something of an insomniac, unable to fall sleep and stay asleep most nights, though he claimed it wasn't nightmares that kept him awake. For him, it most far worse - it was memories that, even after seven years, were as fresh as Kaylee's. He'd tried therapy; he'd tried medication. He'd tried meditation and yoga and just about every other insomnia cure known to man, with the exception of magic. It was magic that had gotten him into this in the first place, after all. Since Kaylee had entered his life, he'd found that she was the best cure, and so it seemed for her, as well, but there were still those nights where he woke in the middle of the night and paced the floor or just lay awake and watched her sleep.

Tonight was neither of those. Maybe it was the talk with Rufus; maybe it was the full moons. It was more likely he'd never know the cause or the reason, but tonight, for some reason, it wasn't insomnia that kept Taylor awake, but nightmares that woke him. It was well past three a.m. - that time of night that seemed darkest and quietest, what people like to refer to as the "dead of night".

The dream started with memories, as haunted as he was by the faces of those whose deaths he'd witnessed as he was by the things that had killed them; but like dreams were apt to do, it wasn't just memories that haunted his nights, but worries and fears. It was Kaylee he saw in his dreams, watching helplessly as claws scored her body, while she screamed for help and for mercy, leaving her body a bloody, broken wreck. He called for her in his sleep, quietly at first, before the nightmare took complete hold of him and he screamed in the night, calling her name and begging them not to hurt her anymore, arms and legs thrashing, though in the dream, he was bound by some unseen force and could not move to help her.

Months of straining for every sound, however small, had made Kaylee a light sleeper. At the first groan from her bed partner, she'd roused, blinking away the vestiges of sleep to watch in concern as his distress grew deeper and wilder. And then she heard her own name on his lips, the fear and shock and pain in his voice, and something snapped in her. She slid out of the bed, heedless of the darkness, of the shadows that had freaked her out since she'd first got here, moving to switch on every light in the room, banishing every last shred of dark, pulling the curtains to shut out the night. Only then did she drop back to the bed, flailing to catch Taylor's arms, trying to calm him down.

"Taylor - Taylor! Baby, I'm here, I'm fine! No one's got me, they're not he-" A lucky flex of his arm got her a minor slap to the mouth, but she didn't bother nursing whatever it left behind. "Taylor!" Kaylee crawled bodily on top of him, straddling his thighs to hold his legs down as she pressed her hands onto his wrists, leaning down until her face was only inches from his. "Baby, wake up. Please, you gotta wake up, this isn't real."

There were tears on his face, sobbing in his sleep, unaware that it was only a dream - or was it' Horrific memories mingled the knowledge of what she must have gone through - knowing unequivocally what it must have been like for her because he'd experienced it, too. Terrified he'd lose her to them again, though in all his research, he'd never found a victim who'd been abducted by them again once their seven-month ordeal was over. His face was pale, damp strands of hair clinging to his cheeks and forehead, his t-shirt soaked through with sweat. It wasn't so much the light that freed him from the throes of his nightmare as it was her voice, calling him, summoning him back from the horrors his mind had conjured him during the night. His eyes flew open, startled, panic-stricken, gasping for breath.

There she was, on top of him, releasing his arms the moment he was awake to gently stroke his cheek, his hair. "Hey," she said, as gently as she could and still get through to him. "Welcome back." Leaning forward, she kissed him, setting her forehead to his. "I'm here. We're both safe, in your apartment, in Rhy'Din. All the lights are on, there's no darkness, there's no shadows. There's just us. And I love you."

"Oh, god..." he whispered, realizing what must have just happened. A nightmare" He hadn't had a nightmare like that in....well, not since before he'd met her and brought her here. "Kaylee," he whispered, his throat tightening, reaching to cup her face in his hands. He was safe in his apartment, and she was there with him, safe and sound, at least for now. "I-I dreamed..." he started, tears starting in his eyes again. Did he really have to share that dream' Wasn't it obvious enough"

"I got it," she assured him, not needing the details to be shared with her. They were both haunted by the same things, and it didn't take much to understand that now he was haunted by those things happening to her. Again, she was completely focused on him, not thinking of her own pain, her own suffering. She wanted to make his better, to take it away and give him peace somehow. Gently, she slipped from over him, lying down at his side again, teasing her fingertips through his damp, tangled hair. "You don't have to tell me. But it's just a nightmare. It won't happen, ever."

He was unaware that he'd been thrashing, that he might have hurt her in his sleep; unaware of anything he might have done while held in the clutches of the nightmare. "Oh, God, Kaylee," he repeated, breaking into sobs of relief as he pulled her close, burying his face in her Cookie Monster pajamas.

"It's okay," she whispered to him, more than a little startled to suddenly find him sobbing into her shirt. She'd never seen Taylor cry, never even seen him close to it, and for a moment, she felt completely helpless, useless for any attempt to comfort him. But that didn't stop her from trying, ignoring her own discomfort, the gentle throb in her mouth from that random hit of his. She drew her arms around him, stroking her hands over his back, through his hair, peppering his forehead with kisses. "I'm here, and you're here, and we're alive. We're together. We're safe. I love you, Taylor. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, not ever."

"I just want this to be over, Kay..." he managed to stammer through wracking sobs. It had been years since he'd broken down like this, years since he'd had a nightmare so bad that his carefully-controlled hold on his emotions had cracked. It wasn't so much his own pain and terror that had caused the breakdown, but his fear for her safety and her life. "I want it to be over," he repeated through heart-wrenching sobs. "I can't lose you, Kaylee. I can't. I won't."

He held his breath as her lips found his flesh in tender exploration. He had noticed the similarity of the marks that marred her flesh to his, though he had not yet realized that they were not only similar but identical. He had never really understood their purpose other than to terrorize, but perhaps they served some sort of sick purpose, marking them as former victims. He felt himself slowly relaxing as she explored further, pushing his fingers through her hair and down her back, just needing to touch her.

There was no rush to this, no pushing sense of urgency. She took her time to explore him, tracing her fingertips over his skin, teasing the edge of his waistband only to be replaced with lips that teased that little bit more. She wanted him to understand that there was no urgency, that this didn't have to happen right now. They had all the time the night had to offer them and more. Soft hair stroked against his chest as she crawled over him, returning time and again to his lips to trade kisses back and forth, to remind him with whispered words that she was alive, she was here, she loved him.

She had spoken of a life together, a future together, marriage, home, children - things he would have never considered possible only a few short months ago. It seemed to him that the impossible had become possible, and all because of her. Those who had tormented them could never have known this would happen, could never have known that their biggest mistake was leaving them alive. They would find out soon enough, but for now, for tonight, Taylor was content to try to forget them and focus his entire mind and body only on the woman whose life was more precious to him than anything else.

Each touch, each kiss, each caress they shared seemed to bring them ever closer together, not just in mind and body, but in heart and soul. He let her touch him as long as she wanted, soothing his troubled mind and elevating his desire for her, until he could remain patient no longer. Though he had promised to follow her lead, he could keep silent no longer. "I want you, Kaylee," he whispered back at her between tender kisses that told her of his love. "I need you."

"I'm right here, baby," she promised him, another kiss christening his lips before she rolled onto her back, wriggling to slip her bottoms off, letting them fall to the floor beside the bed. Last year, such an act would have been just a shameless expression of lust for her; here and now, it was a sign of just how deeply she trusted him, how much she loved him. She'd bared herself completely, heart, body, and soul, leaving herself vulnerable to anything and everything, and it was entirely for him. "I want you, Taylor," she whispered, teasing her fingertips against his cheek. "Ball's in your court."

To anyone else, it might seem strange making love with every light in the room on, but for them, it was perfectly natural - necessary even - shining light in every dark corner of the room. The light made it hard to hide their imperfections, but those same imperfections were, in a way, what held them together. No one else could ever understand the other the way they did. Despite the light that hid nothing, Taylor did not see Kaylee's flaws. He saw a lovely young woman who had shared his nightmare, who understood him better than anyone else could, and who loved him. "You're so beautiful," he whispered as his gaze moved over her, finding even those flaws beautiful because they had brought her to him.

She smiled, a little shy, a little nervous, but soft and loving as she let him look his fill. "Only to the eyes that matter," she murmured softly, her fingertips skimming from his throat to gently snap the waistband of his pants as her smile grew playful. "You gonna make me strip you, too?"

"No, I think I can handle it," he replied with an amused smile of his own, rolling off the bed so that he could tug his shorts down off his legs, revealing further scars that matched her own. If she was brave enough to bare herself to him, then he had to find the courage to do the same.

Kaylee didn't see the scars. She saw the courage and warmth of the man she loved, reaching out to draw him into her arms once again, not giving him time to regret reaching that level of vulnerability beneath the glaring lights that illuminated them. "I think you should be handling me," she murmured, brushing her lips against his cheek as her body trembled longingly at the close contact. "Please, Taylor."

"You don't have to say please, Kaylee," he said as he rejoined her on the bed, as naked as the day he was born. If one could look past the scars, he was as handsome as she was beautiful. She wasn't exactly voluptuous, but voluptuous wasn't what he wanted. She was as slender and graceful as a willow tree, lithe as a dancer with soft, gentle curves that were neither too much or too little. In his eyes, she was simply perfect. He drew her back down to the bed, covering her with his body, tracing the graceful line of her neck with his lips as his hands moved over her, learning her, memorizing her.

From here on in, it was all about instinct and emotion. There was love there, they both knew it, but it was a different sensation to feel that love in the passage of hands and lips, in the joining of bodies that did not consider themselves entirely whole. Instinct kept those hands from touching scars too much; that same instinct kept them from avoiding those scars as well. As kisses and touches grew more searing, Kaylee gave up worrying that he might not truly like what she was and simply surrendered to loving and being loved, unafraid to stick two fingers up at the darkness that had brought them together in this passionate joining.

In the end, it was not the monsters that had tormented them who would win, but them. Didn't good always triumph over evil" Didn't love always conquer all? Taylor refused to believe happy endings only happened in fairy tales. He had fallen in love with this slip of a girl who was far stronger than she dared to believe. Like the willow tree, she would bend but not break, and together they were determined to have their happily ever after. They deserved it. What they shared today - this coming together, this joining of two bodies, hearts, and souls in the sacred act of love - was only the next step on their path to the future they both desired and deserved. And like the song said, no one was going to stop them now.