The lightening shines again in our room and she rolls to face me. Her beautiful lips are puckered and her cheeks are stained with tears from earlier. I slide into bed and pull her close to me. She snuggles right up and my heart feels like it is going to explode. This is so right. How can she not realize it?

My eyes slowly shut and I’m off into a peaceful sleep with the love of my life.

It feels as though my eyes just shut when I am jolted awake by Beth screaming out into the night. The blood curdling sound has me on my feet before I even know what is going on. I try to blink the sleep from my eyes and focus on the room.

That’s when I see her. In bed curled into a fetal position shaking uncontrollably. “Beth, Beth baby, what’s wrong?” She doesn’t loosen the grip on her legs. I don’t want to scare her any more than she is.

She jerks away from me when I place a hand on her shoulder trying to calm her. If it’s possible I think she actually curls into herself even more. I need her to focus on me. Moving swiftly around the bed to be in front of her, I crouch down to her eye level.

“Beth, I need you to look at me.” I move the matted hair away from her eyes. It takes a few minutes before I see her white knuckles move and start gaining color. Then her eyes meet mine. They seem so empty and scared.

When she finally seems to focus, she lunges at me. I move quickly to catch her body flying at me. If I didn’t know she was truly scared out of her mind, I would have laughed because she knocks me on my ass.

I just hold her. Caress her back and hair. She isn’t crying. If I had to guess I’d say she is in some sort of shock. Time seems to stand still. Then her body starts shaking again. “Beth, shhhhh, it’s going to be okay. Please talk to me. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

Her breathing seems to calm down and the shaking slows. “Where’d you go baby? Come back to me.” Feeling like I can move without scaring her, I cradle her to my chest and move to the bed again. Siting her on my lap, I rest my back on the headboard.

She looks up and tries to back out of my embrace. “Oh God, Jake, I’m so sorry.” Her hands try to cover her face. “That hasn’t happened to me since I was in school. Fuck how embarrassing.”

Grabbing her hands I pull them away. “You said you wouldn’t shut me out. Elizabeth look at me. What happened?”

Her face falls and she looks away.