At first he thought he was dreaming.

Gabriel had been slipping in and out of sleep for the last few hours, trying to no avail to just relax. It seemed that even the blinking glow of his clock seemed too bright for him, and the his pillow seemed to have developed some very interesting lumps since he had slept on them last. The sleeping pills he had taken before were obviously not doing their job, and he also seemed to be developing a headache.

But after the third muffled something, he knew he wasn’t hearing things.

Gabriel swings his legs over the side of the bed and blinks into the darkness. He automatically looks over to check on Reagan but remembers she went to sleep in her own bedroom on account of the fight they had that evening. Wrapping his robe around him, he stalks stiffly down the hall, wincing as his knee twinges with pain. He reflected with some grimness that he was getting old.

He walks past Reagan’s door and listens carefully even though in his heart he knows it’s not her. Reagan’s not the sort of woman to stay awake over a fight. Much too undignified and it’s not like she would take the trouble to cry over him. They’ve been together too long for him to affect her like that.

Besides, she sleeps like a log. Though she’d never phrase it like that because it wasn’t something particularly ‘ladylike’. She snored too, but he would never tell her.

There’s a shuffling, something dropped on the floor and then more shuffling. He continues down the hall and doesn’t quite believe his eyes when he sees light glowing from the bottom of the door of Simon’s study room.

He slides the door open slowly, and finds her sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room, staring intently at the soap opera playing itself out on the screen on Simon’s wall. She’s muted it, but for some reason she looks as if she’s listening to them.

“Hi daddy…” she says not looking at him.

“What’s wrong River?”

River shakes her head, “It’s stupid…”

Gabriel pads softly forward and forgetting he’s angry