The silence was pressing in.

Luke turned his head to look at the illuminated display of the digital clock on his bedside table. 11:27pm. He should really be asleep by now. He settled his head back on the pillow, comfortable but restless. 'Aberdeen?' he whispered into the darkness. 'Are you awake?'

'No,' came the muffled response. 'I've fallen asleep. Without taking my potion.' Her voice was so quiet that he could only just make out the sarcasm.

'You know,' he started tentatively, 'it... it might not be a bad idea to start weening yourself off it. The healers did say you shouldn't rely on it indefinitely.'

Luke heard a disgruntled noise coming from Aberdeen's side of the bed. 'It's too late in the day for being sensible at me,' she complained wearily, but Luke smiled a little nonetheless.

'You think I'm right, then.'

'Oh, you're always right, doesn't mean I have to like it.' Aberdeen rolled over to face him. He could just about see her outline by the light of the clock. Eyes searching for her face through the gloom, he pictured an intent expression etched into her face. 'Luke, I do know the nightmares will stop eventually.' (Luke surreptitiously reached a hand out from under the covers to touch the wooden frame of the bed. You couldn't live with a woman who swore by Murphy's Law without developing an aversion to tempting fate.) 'But, I... I'm scared that they won't stop unless it's of their own accord.'

Luke's eyebrows drew together in thought. 'You think the nightmares are something you have to get out of your system?'

'Hell, I don't know. I never did psychology.' Aberdeen rolled onto her back; it seemed she was feeling restless too.

There was silence again for a time, not an awkward one, but then not a particularly comfortable one either. Luke wondered briefly if Aberdeen's thoughts, like his, had drifted back to Robin. He didn't wonder for very long. Their thoughts strayed to little else. It made the back of his head feel like it was tingling, thinking about someone he couldn't even remember. Finally, he broke the cloying silence. 'Having trouble sleeping.'

'When I was a kid,' Aberdeen murmured, 'sometimes when I couldn't sleep, Dad'd sing to me. Did I ever tell you that?'

'...No, I don't think you did.' Luke breathed a long sigh out through his nose. 'My parents read to me sometimes. But... I don't think I had trouble sleeping back then, not by the time I was a kid, anyway.'

Another pause, and this time Luke was acutely aware of the soft sound of his wife breathing. Then, 'Luke. D'you suppose... Robin ever had trouble getting settled down?' He could almost hear her tentative thought process. 'He must've, right? What do you think we did about that?'

Luke could feel her hand sliding into the middle of the bed, reaching out for him. He extended his own arm under the covers and took her hand gently in his. 'If we had a child--' he stopped himself. He hated the hypotheticals that came with a child he had in theory, but not in practice. 'If we had him back, now, and he wasn't sleeping well... I'd sing to him. Like your dad sang to you. So, that would have been what I did.' He heard the conviction in his voice, but didn't quite feel it. What he did feel, however, was Aberdeen's hand squeezing his. He squeezed back gratefully.

'What did you sing?' she murmured sleepily.

'Baby Mine,' Luke replied almost without thinking. 'The lullaby from Dumbo.' He didn't know if it was true... But it felt like it was. And feelings counted for a lot when it came to clinging to what little they had of Robin. He knew Aberdeen wasn't particularly sold on Disney animations, she'd seen some of them, certainly, but on the whole they were too idealistic for her tastes, but it was a part of Luke's childhood he had never let go.

Aberdeen didn't say anything else straight away. Her grip of his hand relaxed, and he wondered if maybe she had nodded off. If she had... should he wake her, to take her Draught for Dreamless Sleep? He was spared the decision, though, when, very quietly, Aberdeen started singing.

'Baby mine, don't you cry...'

She trailed off, and Luke realised it was because she didn't know what came next.

'Baby mine, dry your eyes.'

This evidently prompted Aberdeen's memory, because she joined back in:

'Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine.'

Maybe there was something to being sung to sleep. Luke felt a lot closer to drifting off. There was a rustling on the other side of the bed, and suddenly Aberdeen had let go of his hand and was cuddling close to him, forehead nuzzling into his neck.

'Luke?' she mumbled sleepily.

'Mm?'

'I'm... I'm going to try sleeping without my potion.'

Luke smiled, his eyes closing. 'That's my girl.'

'If you hear me having a nightmare--'

'I'll wake you,' he assured her.

Another pause. 'Luke?'

'Yes love?'

'Maybe... maybe you could sing me to sleep?' It was remarkable how a little timidity could make Aberdeen sound so unlike herself. Luke reached to give her a fond kiss on her forehead, silently wishing for sweet dreams for a both of them.

'Little one, when you play
Don't you mind what they say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear
Baby of mine'