There Are Other Nights [1 of 6]
Title: There Are Other Nights.
Show: The Haunting of Bly Manor.
Description: If Jamie and Dani had only had a little bit more time... A look at all of the nights that could have been, if only they had had a little bit more time.
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It comes to her like second nature, lifting Flora up into her arms and carrying her off to bed with Dani trailing behind them guiding a groggy Miles to his own room.
Flora has always been the easiest child to love. Jamie met her just shortly after her parents perished, and even then, even in the most grim of times, the little girl was a light in the darkened night sky.
She’s carried Flora before; through Peter’s disappearance, through Rebecca’s death... Jamie would carry Flora to the end of the earth and back just to see her smile, and evidently from the warm look that Dani is giving her as she lifts the child.
She fixes the Au Pair with a soft smile, before a tiny voice distracts her with a small, “You’re the coolest.”
Her heart swells. She turns the smile to Flora, the whisper of a “Shh” on her lips as she carries the child with the utmost care through the hall and up the stairs and into the little girl’s room with ease.
She loses Dani at the top of the stairs, the blonde taking Miles to bed instead. It gives Jamie a moment to reflect as she pulls the blankets back, lays the almost sleeping again child amongst the sheets and begins to tuck the sweet, precocious girl into bed.
Flora, even in all the tiredness she had just moments before, can’t help but whisper a question to Jamie.
A question that clenches her heart.
“Jamie, will you stay and keep Dani safe tonight?”
From Peter Quint? She wants to ask, but even the thought of saying that bastards name to the sweet and innocent child in front of her, well... it doesn’t sit right with her. Flora’s witnessed too much already.
Her mind flashes temporarily to Rebecca, seeing her in the lake... Pulling Flora away to protect her... Spending every moment since the young woman’s death wondering if there was something Jamie could have done to save her life. To save her from him.
Jamie would have given anything in the world to go back- at least, until she saw Dani for the first time.
Now she would give anything in the world to keep history from repeating itself with the American.
“Yes.” She finally breathes out, though it’s painful.
The girl furrows her little eyebrows and questions without saying a word on why it took Jamie so long to answer. It’s been moments. Long moments. Long enough that Flora and Jamie are no longer alone.
Dani, peering in from a crack in the door opens her mouth to say something, to remind Flora it’s bedtime, before Jamie speaks and shuts her up completely.
“I’ll do anything to keep Dani safe Flora, I promise, okay?” It’s sincere, honest and takes Dani by surprise.
Satisfied, Flora nods her head and rests back against her pillow, an exhausted whisper of “I love you, Jamie” lulling her back to the sleep she was in just before.
“I love you too, sprout.”
Jamie leaves the room so quickly that she almost runs right into Dani just outside of the door frame.
Dani freezes, unsure what she should say, especially since she had heard everything that Jamie had said.
“How’s Miles?” Jamie interrupts Dani’s thinking.
“Miles-” She blinks, then remembers. “Oh, he’s fine, he went down just fine... What about Flora?”
Jamie blushes. “She’s fine, worried about keeping you safe though. Told her I’d watch over you.”
Dani’s heart skips a beat as she realizes that without the doorway between them, they’d be nearly chest to chest, face to face. Barely inches apart.
“Is that so?” Dani whispers, her heart racing as Jamie takes a small step closer to her. “Jamie, I-”
“We should get back... To Owen and Hannah.” Jamie interrupts, brushing past Dani so close that the blonde’s breath hitches and her heart stops for a beat.
“Yes, of course.” Dani agrees.
She doesn’t really agree though, she wants more than anything to stop Jamie, to confront her about what she heard in Flora’s room, and to make her see-
To make her see that there’s something between them. Or there could be if Jamie would let there be.
Being out in the woods, both armed and ready to take on a man like Peter Quint to protect the children, to protect Owen and Hannah, to protect each other?
Dani knows that there was more than meets the eye.
Even their conversation earlier, with Miles and Flora sprawled out in front of them, Dani curled up next to Jamie as she recalled the pain of losing Rebecca, the anger of what Peter Quint had done to her, and what felt like the fear of losing anyone else to him.
Dani knows Jamie is tough, and closed off, and would never say these things out loud but she could see in the look on her face. She could see the fear.
“Hey Jamie?” She says softly, stopping the brunette on the stairs, stepping closer to her, fingers outstretched to brush against Jamie’s knuckles that are white from clinging to the banister like she’s going to fall if she doesn’t hold on. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Jamie laughs it off, though her heart races like Dani’s did moments ago. “I should hope not, Poppins, it’s freezing out there tonight. You wouldn’t get far.”
Dani is halfway to explaining that she didn’t mean it like that, but Jamie’s already taken the stairs by two, like she’s running from ghosts that Dani can’t see.
They meet again in the kitchen, taking one look at the living room where Hannah and Owen preside and mutually deciding not to disturb them from slumber.
Okay, maybe that’s putting it lightly. Jamie walked silently to the wine cellar and picked out a bottle, pouring herself a glass to give her something to do.
Dani continued staring at the picture of Peter and Rebecca like if she looked hard enough, it’d tell her something new, something Jamie won’t say.
She stares into Rebecca’s eyes and wonders how a woman who looked as smart, beautiful, funny and kind could choose a man like Peter Quint, or any man really, over what she already had in her life.
Miles and Flora? Dani’s only had them in her life for such a short time and already she’d died for them a thousand times just to keep them safe and happy.
Hannah and Owen? Dani would die for them too. Two innocent people with the most wholesome intentions. It’s difficult to find someone who has genuine goodness in their hearts, and these two, well they are as good as two people could ever get.
Jamie is rough, calloused hands, and chain smoking, and anger at a lot of things, namely Peter Quint and Henry Wingrave, two men who didn’t deserve the treasures that were recklessly given to them.
Jamie gives Dani butterflies, and trembling hands, and a racing heart. Jamie makes Dani feel like she finally understands what love is supposed to be, which is silly because she’s barely known the girl for two minutes, let alone the forever that Dani feels in her heart when she looks at her too long.
If Dani would die just to keep Miles, Flora, Hannah and Owen safe and happy... then Jamie is who Dani would die for just to keep her from getting hurt.
From reliving the pain that Rebecca’s death gave her.
In the silence of the kitchen, Dani wants to ask Jamie if Rebecca ever knew how much the brunette had cared for her. If she knew that Jamie had felt that way.
Part of her doesn’t want to hurt Jamie more than tonight already has, to ask questions that will upset her, that will make her sadder than she already is.
The other part doesn’t want to hear the answer...
Dani doesn’t want to know if Rebecca curled up on the couch beside Jamie in the same way that the two of them did tonight, where you couldn’t tell where one started and the other ended.
Dani doesn’t want to know if Jamie would reassure Rebecca in the same way that she does Dani, where she sees exactly what insecurities lay beneath and does what she can to combat those words of doubt.
Dani doesn’t want to know that she’s not special, that Jamie did all the same things for Rebecca. She doesn’t want to hear that this is just the person that Jamie is.
She wants to believe that there’s something more.
And so, she doesn’t ask THAT question.
She doesn’t actually ask any questions, or talk really, Dani instead just stares at the picture until the phone rings and brings the two of them back to reality.
The very words stop Dani in her tracks.
She sees the pain in her friend’s eyes and tries to will it away. He is a good man, and he didn’t deserve this.
Her legs want to buckle on her, tonight had been a whirlwind of emotions, but Jamie keeps her standing upright as the trio of ladies escort Owen to his car, Hannah holding the crying man tight to her chest and whispering reassurances into his ear.
Dani doesn’t hear what Hannah says. She doesn’t need to. That’s for Owen and the one who cares for him most. She keeps her distance, gives them space.
As Owen leaves, so does Hannah, off to light a candle. Both Dani and Jamie know that it’s more for Owen’s sake than Mrs. Sharma’s that she’s doing it.
Dani walks Jamie to her own vehicle, she’s stunned silent, they both are until the blonde manages to get the courage of a whisper. “I’m so glad you stayed.”
She wants to beg Jamie not to go home, she wants to beg Jamie not to leave her all alone at the manor (even though she has Hannah and the children).
The words don’t come out.
As much as Dani can think them, and think them she does... She can’t manage to tell Jamie out loud that she needs her to stay, that she’s terrified of Jamie leaving, that she sees Jamie and even though it’s barely been a moment, she knows that Jamie helps her function. Jamie helps this all feel real, and not just a dream. Jamie makes Dani feel like a person.
The words don’t come out though, and Dani doesn’t spill her soul to Jamie, not in the traditional way.
Instead she grabs hold of Jamie’s hand, holds it tightly, strokes her fingers over the knuckles and begs silently for Jamie to understand what she’s trying to say.
Dani lets go, Jamie steps back towards her car and the blonde thinks that she’s made a fatal mistake.
But then there’s a smile, and a shake of Jamie’s head, the smirk on her face growing as she whispers.
Jamie still leaves, and Dani still misses her terribly when she’s gone, but she doesn’t feel quite so alone.
That night when Dani has her recurring nightmare, Eddie and the truck, his glasses, the way he yelled at her... The bad dreams are chased away by the vision of Jamie, holding a rifle, promising to protect them all.
