kadytheredpanda

Title: Terrors in the Night
Fandom: Tintin
Rating: hard T
Pairing: Haddock/Tintin
Length: 1374
Content notes: Angst, child abuse/murder in dream form, mentions of gore, hurt/comfort,
Author notes: Takes place between chapters nine and ten of my fanfic "Fishes Out of Water." All you really have to know, though, is that Colleen is my hypothetical daughter for Captain Haddock. "Fishes" is about Haddock and Tintin finding out that she exists when she comes to live with them.
Summary: A parent's worst nightmare.

0000
 

Shrill shrieks, unmistakably those of a young girl’s, filled Marlinspike’s halls. Captain Haddock and Tintin instinctively woke up and threw the sheets off the bed in a mad scramble to the child’s room. Neither thought to place slippers on their feet or to brandish a makeshift weapon first. All that was known was that the witching hour just ended and that a girl—their girl—emitted countless bloodcurdling screams in her closed bedroom.

Snowy yelped in pain as Tintin tripped over him in the dark. Haddock reached his daughter’s room first and slammed it open. Even with his fading middle age eyesight he could still see Colleen in her undergarment-pajamas standing atop her messed up bed, arms against her sides. Her wide blue eyes enlarged twicefold than usual as she opened her mouth once again.

Haddock covered a ringing ear and dashed to his daughter.

“Colleen! It’s me!” He said, shaking. He was unsure what was wrong but he wanted to right whatever what that wrong was. When Colleen screamed, he already learned after so little time with her, it was for a damn good reason.

If she was still under her sheets, squirming and tearing them away, maybe the captain would be more confident that he could comfort her like only a good daddy could. But instead she was seemingly wide awake and didn’t seem to recognize them.

“No! No!” Colleen hoarsely screamed. “Don’t!”

“No?” He forwarded a hand towards her shoulder. “Colleen, don’t you recognize me? It’s—“

“No! Mommy, no! It’s me!”  Haddock jumped back, bumping into Tintin behind him. Colleen added sobbing to the mix before another desperate wail. “Mommy!”

“Captain, what’s going on?” Tintin asked. “What happened?”

“I don’t know myself.” He frowned. “I don’t think she even knows who I am anymore.”

Tintin cautiously stepped closer to the bed, making sure to not trip over another object (this time Suzie instead of Snowy). Snowy followed behind until Colleen pleading “Don’t hurt me!” made him turn tail.

“Blistering barnacles! It’s like she’s possessed. What’s wrong with my daughter?” Now Haddock sounded like he was about to cry.

“Turn on the light,” Tintin commanded.

Haddock flipped on the lamp beside the bed. Colleen, still in the same position, continued desperately demanding her mother to not harm her.

“Oh, now I remember what this is! Captain, I’ve heard of this. She’s having a night terror.”

“A nightmare? Then this is the worst I’ve ever seen, lad!”

“No, Captain—a night terror. Look—“ Tintin pointed at her opened eyes. “—She may look awake but she’s really still asleep. That’s why she didn’t recognize you.”

“Mommy n-aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” Colleen fell downwards like a sodden plank. “Mommy it hurts! Why, Mommy, why? Mommy!”

Haddock turned paler and fainter the longer he watched. He slumped against his lover’s back, anchoring himself with his hands. “We need to wake her up. I can’t stand seeing her like this…”

“I’m not sure what’s the best way to awake her. That’s the problem. Hmm…” He twisted his face back as far as it could go. “Did you try gently calming her?”

“I told her daddy was here.”

They faced the girl again. The mostly sharp screaming evolved into mostly soft sobbing. “Colleen’s been crying about her mother… Hurting her, I presume? Maybe we can get her out of this quicker if we try to talk to her about it. I can hold her and you can—Snowy? Snowy! Down boy!”

Snowy disobeyed his master and somehow managed to climb up the bed. Despite the awful noises coming out of her the dog sensed the captain’s daughter, the one that liked to play with him when his master worked, was clearly distressed.  As a dog he couldn’t pacify the girl-pup with items like Tintin and his mate could, but he could give her all he could: an emotion via an action. He surveyed for a good place to slick a lick against and concluded that the face itself just wouldn’t do. The dog moved down along the weeping girl’s body, sniffed a salty hand, and slid his tongue against the area until she jumped with a start.

“Wha—“ Colleen first felt her slobbering wet hand, then faced the dog and then the lit lamp. Her face, especially her eyes and sore throat, stung. Even without touching them she could tell her how puffy and moist her eyes were. Finally she faced forward, seeing a seemingly relieved father and carrot top.

“Dad? Tintin? What are you guys doing here?” She asked, reaching a hand towards the pleased pet.

Haddock found himself onto the girl’s bed and hugging her tightly. “Y—you were screaming, lassie. Gave us quite a scare.”

Colleen stared at her father with shock. “I was?”

Tintin picked up Suzie’s head and gently prompted Snowy to move. He joined father and daughter and nodded. “Yes, quite often. Would you like me to bring you a cough drop?”

The girl snatched Suzie from his fingers. “Um… Water’s fine…”

A couple minutes passed. Tintin filled a glass with tap water. Haddock ran a large head against his daughter’s wavy hair. Colleen smashed a cheek against her father’s chest, clutched Suzie like a teddy bear the best she could, and allowed Snowy to lie against her the same way. Tintin placed the glass’s rim against her open mouth and the red eyed girl sipped half of it away at once.

“Thanks, carrot top…”

Tintin thanked her back with a smile.

“Are you okay now?” Haddock asked.

Colleen deeply breathed in the comforting tobacco smell her father emanated. “Um… Yeah, I guess… I was just having another nightmare…”

“Another?” Tintin said. “Do you have these often?”

“Not ones with my mom. It was like my last night with her…” She smushed her cheek further into her father, as if she wanted to seek shelter inside him. “…Only worse.”

“What happened?” Haddock said. “Can you tell us? If you don’t mind, of course…”

“She was telling me… that I wasn’t me…”

“Wasn’t you?” Tintin asked.

“Yeah. Said I was a demon or a monster pretending to me so I had to go back to hell like the evil thing I was. I kept telling her that I was me but she wouldn’t listen. She tried to choke me but I managed to run away. Then she took out this humongous butcher knife and stabbed me in the stomach and took my heart and other guts out. Then she ate the heart raw. So I don’t possess me again, I guess…”

The men turned white.

“Would Ag—I mean your mother really try to disembowel you like that?”

“No… My mom’s psycho but she wouldn’t do that to me… Or she didn’t do that to me before she was gone…”

“I’m truly sorry that you had such a bad dream,” Haddock said. “But just remember it’s just that—a dream. If you have another one like that again you can just wake up and get away from it. Or you can go to Tintin and me if you need us…”

Colleen sniffed. “It’d be nice if you two could sleep with me tonight. Snowy too, if that’s okay.”

Tintin sadly smiled. “That’s fine with me… I just don’t think there’s enough room for Snowy, unfortunately.”

She dropped her head downward. “Oh… Well, then here—he can borrow her.” She forwarded the doll head to the dog. Snowy grabbed the hair with his teeth and hopped down. “I don’t want him to be lonely on the floor.”

“That’s very sweet of you, lassie.” Haddock kissed her cheek when she faced him.

The bed was not tiny, but cramped with two grown men and a child sandwiched between them. Yet somehow they made it work, with Haddock to Colleen’s right and Tintin positioned towards her left. Colleen herself slept on her side so that she could cradle herself against her father if she wished.

“Good night, Daddy. Good night carrot top…”

Haddock moved back just far enough to reach the switch. He faced his daughter once again. Instead of screaming, or crying, she was slumbering peacefully like a baby. He tousled her hair one last time before finally getting some shuteye of his own.