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”Hnnnng...?” Between sniffles and twitching fingers, he groaned loudly into his pillow. Half an eye peeked out into the room, a stark beam of light filtered between the open doorway and he instinctively moved to turn his head away. Caught halfway between a dream and reality, Grace's voice slowly lulled him out of sleep until he rolled over on his back and sighed. That took far too much effort, he realized, had he even slept? He didn't think so; his muscles aches and his joints were stiff, but the small peck of lips against his temple was enough to flutter his eyes open and stare groggily up at Grace. ”Hrmm..? Wha..?” he said, still half asleep, and moved to rub the sleep sand from his eyes. ”How long 've I...?” But he never finished his question. Heavy brows furrowed into wispy gray check marks at the sight of his mottled backhand, the skin was stretched thin and waxy pale, bright blue veins ran like train tracks and his knuckles were thicker, knobby, and they ached. But he barely had a chance to understand what was happening when another sucker punch knocked the wind out of his weary lungs. ”Wha-at?” he tried to shout but his voice was weak as he stammered for breath and repeated, ”job?” Just to be sure he'd heard right.

This must be a dream, he rationalized and rubbed the sleep from his eyes again. It has to a dream. Right? Blinking rapidly, he struggled to push himself upright in his bed, curious as to when he suddenly owned a pair of old-man's pajamas because he's certainly never worn them before and then refocused his blurry vision toward the source of the sudden bounce at the foot of his bed. Dominic rubbed his eyes again as if he'd just seen a ghost and slowly said, ”Aiobheal?” He barely recognized her but—it was her, it had to be—how could his baby be all grown up? Eve hadn't seemed to notice his confusion, nor Grace, for that matter. He found the muscles in his back aching without anything to rest on, and balanced his weight between his arms to hold himself upright.

This isn't just a dream, Dominic was discovering all too quickly. This was a nightmare. Glossing over the bedroom, so many little things seemed different but it was hard to point out; for some reason, his vision was just too blurry. Clothes he didn't recognize were stacked in a corner, his collection of mix-matched chess pieces had doubled, paint peeled and chipped at the corner of the walls and his small stack of quidditch articles was the new Leaning Tower of Pisa beneath the curtained window. It wasn't until he heard, ”Proud of me, daddy?” That he turned back to Eve and continued his rapid succession of blinks, maybe it would will the cogs to churn and help him understand but all his mind was screaming was 'Get me out of this bloody nightmare!' Instead, his lips parted to speak, and a dry, sandpaper tongue tried to wet his cracked lips before he could find the words to say, ”I—uuhh—yeaaah—I mean...” Trailing off, he couldn't keep pretending like this. He was a nervous wreck and his accelerated heartbeat was just shy of reaching a panic. He closed his eyes, tight, wishing the dream to go away. Maybe if he pinched himself?

Eyes pried open with the intent to do just that, pinch himself, his tired gaze stumbled upon the standing cheval mirror, and then his peppered gray and white thinning hair. Slowly, wrinkled fingers met wrinkled cheeks, the skin was loose and sagging along his jowls, his neck, and forehead. Barely stifling a shocked breath, Dominic crawled closer to his reflection, shuffling through pillows and sheets and blankets, moving right past the girls, to stare at the mirror with a dropped jaw. ”I'm dreaming...” he finally said it aloud, willing it to be true. Willing himself awake. ”It's just a dream, it's just a... “ he paused, slowly turning around to face Grace and Eve with a look of shock and horror and confusion. ”No.” Dominic declared loudly, pointing his finger at Eve first, and then again to Grace as he repeated, ”No.” And then gulped down a dry throat. ”This is not real. This is not happening.” And then in an absolute moment of desperation, he pinched himself, first his thigh and then his cheek until he threw his hands up in defeat and cried, ”Just wake up dammit!”