"You... you're awake!! You're awake!!"

Silence finally broken through with shouts of joy as arms fall over shoulders and wrap around Dominic's head, squeezing tightly and holding love close, refusing to let go. Tears falling faster then before, eyes burning with happiness as lungs worked at an incredibly fast rate to keep up with fast breaths and sobs. Larger arms, an IV running from one of them, wrapping very carefully around Suki's body, eyes closing and breaths at a slower pace.

"I'm here, Suki... I'll never leave you behind." came the whispered breaths of her hero, NLCW's warrior... and many people's champion.

"I was s-s-so scared, I... you weren't.." choked the angel, who coughed lightly as her love gently rubbed her back, whispering sweet sounds of comfort in her ear. Giving up speaking, relenting to the moment between them as they held one another as close as they could with the given conditions.

"They can beat me down all they want, Suki... but I'm never going to stay down."

Pulling away from one another, red eyes blurred by an onslaught of tears staring into the calm, tired eyes hardened with determination. Another soft sob, as Dominic's strong hands reached up to carefully cup the angelically broken face of his love.

"I promise you, you hear me honey? I promise you..." he whispered to her, doing all he could to comfort her.

There were few people in the world who could absolutely take over Dominic Pericolo's heart... who, just by crying, could shatter his soul and bring so much tenderness into his being that he could scarcely contain it, and Suki Minamoto was one of them.

"B-b-but.. you..." she choked out, his hands running softly through her hair as she buried his face into the nape of his neck, her voice coming out muffled, "You ha-ave t-to fight th-three people... and you only ha-ave a few d-days to rest after, a-and..."

The sound of her voice, broken by her crying, brought tears to Dominic's eyes. Eyes still filled with that determination, still tired from all he'd endured... but now seemingly humbled by the sounds of his love's heartache.

"Suki, I..." he whispered, gently grabbing hold of her shoulders and pulling away from her to look her in the eye once again, "Say... you remember? Remember that one night back in the HWF...? I had to fight Mathew Logan and Ian in the same night... and one of those matches was in a cage. I won then... both the matches, and I know I can do it again with this. Now, Absolution can be as strong a team as they possibly can be... but what are they on their own?"

Suki closed her eyes, tears still falling down her face as she simply enjoyed his touch, her ears focused on all the words he spoke, searching for the comfort she knew to expect from him.

"I've beaten all three of them on their own before, Suki... never in the same night, but I have. I know I can do it again... I know it. Frank Merritt is probably the most muscled man on the roster, but what good are muscles if you can't keep up with speed? And look at Ethan Andrews, an NLCW legend... he has speed, technical ability, and strength to boot... but he doesn't have the same desire as I do, Suki. He doesn't have that same drive-- he's just following Violent A's orders and looking to gain another win from it."

Teeth grinding together as Dominic's thoughts drifted from the two Absolution members to the final one, the one who'd caused him so much trouble over all of this time... the one who he simply couldn't allow to beat him down any longer.

"Then Violent A... he's afraid of me, Suki. The man respects me... but he's yet to take me on by himself since the night I beat him. He's doing what he can to soften me up before he confronts me... he wants to get in my head. He wants to be able to humiliate me, not just beat me... because he believes he already has. Suki... Violent A is a tough guy, and I respect him, but... he can't beat me down. Absolution can't stop me, okay? I... I promise."

Eyes open softly, the tears beginning to slow as Suki gazed into Dominic's own eyes and softly smiled, knowing that he would make due on his promise no matter what it took. Wrapping her arms back around Dominic, holding him close and just simply nuzzling against him once more.

"I believe you..." she whispered, "I'll always believe in you..."

Now the clock read 4:00AM, as the night grew ever-earlier into the morning. Suki thought about sleeping, about finally being able to sleep beside Dominic and know that he was fine, know that he had already awaken. She thought about dreaming sweet dreams of Dominic and her together in their future, and not having nightmares of Dominic's skull nearly being crushed just nearly a week ago.

"Dominic...?" she asked him quietly, "Did you... did you dream while you were asleep?"

A seemingly silly question, yet completely genuine. Suki always loved listening to Dominic describe his dreams to her... always loved knowing what he unconsciously came up with while he lay beside her at night, eyes closed with his mind a million miles away.

"It's... funny," Dominic smiled, looking up to the ceiling now in thought, "I did... I don't remember all of it, but I did. It wasn't like my other dreams though... wasn't some sort of fantasy world where everything seems so different then it is here..."

She smiled softly, giggling as she asked, "So you didn't talk to Jesus again...?"

Dominic chuckled, holding her close and shaking his head, "No... no Jesus talks this time. It was... different, so very strange to have such a normal dream compared to all the ones I've been having..."

"Would you tell me about it?" she asked him softly, "I'm starting to get sleepy... I'd really like to hear what it was before I go to sleep..."

Dominic glanced towards the clock, his eyes softening as he realized the time and turned his attention back towards her, his smile sending a tingling sensation down her spine and throughout her very being. Cupping her cheek in his hand, he leaned forward to press his forehead to hers, their noses gently touching.

"You really should be asleep already..." he whispered.

"Sleep can wait when it comes to you." came her happily tired reply, her own hand coming up to cup his cheek as well. The moments of silence passed with the two simply gazing at one another with smiles on their faces, before finally Dominic relented to her requests and pulled away from her, a look of thought upon his face.

"Well... like I said, the dream was different..." he began, "No representations of one person through someone else... everyone there was themselves, and all the words spoken seemed so true to who they were..."

Ears trained carefully on all words spoken, as eyes closed softly to enjoy the images provided by the words he so beautifully used for her.

Dominic's dreams were always intense for him... but when he told them to her, she always got so lost in the story.