Sam woke up suddenly and looked up at Helen, who was leaning over him and looking at him with concern. He stretched a little lazily and briefly moved the still tired muscles in his shoulders.

"Is everything okay, Sam?" she asked him as he sat up.

"Yeah, sure. Was the time already up?"

"You only slept for about an hour." One hour? He still have had time? He could have finally kissed Penny, which was everything he'd ever dreamed of, and then they woke him up way before time was up?!

"Then why did you wake me up?!" he said his thoughts out loud in disbelief and Helen exchanged a surprised look with Ellie, who was standing next to her.

"You see, Helen, I told you not to wake him up," Ellie now objected with satisfaction.

"His rapid heartbeat wasn't normal," she replied a bit bitchy, to which Ellie rolled her eyes in annoyance. Apparently the two had already discussed this before.

"His smile spoke volumes." Ellie's grin grew even wider as she said this and looked challengingly at Sam, who lowered his eyes in embarrassment and felt like a caught boy for a moment.

"I'm a nurse Ellie. I have to keep him safe!"

"If I could interrupt you?" Sam now intervened, who had previously listened to them in silence, but was now becoming a little impatient. "I'm certainly the best judge of what was wrong with me. In the future, no one will wake me up if the time isn't up or I don't really look like I'm in agony! And now I'd like to go back to sleep, please!" he said energetically and lay down again. He looked expectantly at Helen, who groaned in annoyance and opened the supply of the IV again. He saw her sit down on the chair next to his bed and make a few notes on a board before his eyes closed again.

He found himself a few meters behind the sofa in the station's common room and looked around, but there was no sign of Penny. His eyes fell on a pillow on the floor and he picked it up. Where could Penny be? Did she try to distract herself with any work?

He turned around, absentmindedly throwing the pillow back onto the sofa and was about to make his way into the hall when something soft hit him in the back.

"Back again, Mr. Jones?" Penny said, smiling. "I've already been greeted more warmly by you, or are you planning on having a pillow fight?"

"To be honest, I hadn't seen you. I know how much you hate to lose," he replied teasingly and earned the second pillow that hit him in the stomach. "Oh you just wait...," he warned her and threw the pillows back, but she immediately sought shelter behind the back of the sofa.

Since they both obviously shared the same thought for supplies, the room filled more and more with pillows as they completely lost track of time and chased each other wildly around the room, throwing pillows at each other, laughing loudly when they hit each other or the pillows burst on the wall and the feathers flew everywhere. More and more feathers flew around the room and the floor was no longer visible when they slowly ran out of breath.

"Give me a break, please!" Penny called out at some point, laughing, and fell onto the sofa so that the feathers around her whirled into the air.

"I never thought you could get so exhausted with a pillow fight in a dream," said Sam, laughing as he flopped down next to her, feeling as if he had run a marathon.

"Since this is an experiment, everything is probably not like in a real dream," Penny replied with a smile and turned to him to pluck a feather from his hair.

"Did you have to remind me of the gravity of the situation? I had almost forgotten."

"Don't worry, Sam. You heard that polonium will let me go at some point."

"If you haven't starved by then."

"I'm not going to worry about that yet. A little fasting never hurt anyone and I just really enjoyed the pillow fight with you." She smiled at him so happily that it involuntarily brought a smile to his face. "What was wrong that made you wake up so quickly and get back even faster?"

"Oh, Helen woke me up. She said my vital signs were a bit crazy," he replied sheepishly and saw concern flash in Penny's eyes. "No, no. Everything is all right. It was just...due to the moment. She won't wake me up again for such a trifle." Now a short, embarrassed smile appeared on Penny's face as she realized what he meant by the moment and she had to slow down her own heartbeat to pick up speed again. "I should also say hello to you from Helen. Everyone is very worried for you."

"Tell them they don't need that. Fireman Sam is looking after me," she replied with a grin and gently hit him in the shoulder with her fist when he grimaced in annoyance. "How long have I been here now? "

"I have to think about that. We were at the mill around 8 p.m. Before Helen put me to sleep for the first time it was around 3 a.m. So I guess it's around 9 hours now, if you take into account the pillow fight included."

"Do you think we can wish ourselves out? In front of the entrance to their hiding place? Maybe we'll recognize something."

"It's worth a try, right?" he replied, enthusiastic about her idea, and they both focused on it before their surroundings blurred and solidified as a forest again. The rising sun shone through the dense trees and birds sang everywhere, a fox jumped out of a bush right next to Sam, who jumped back and stumbled backwards over a stone.

"He won't hurt you, Sam," Penny objected, laughing as she gave him her hand to help him up.

"Ha, ha. I wasn't expecting it and neither the stone," he grumbled as he stood up with her help and stopped immediately. She hadn't backed away and Sam had such momentum that he came to a stop right in front of her. Her eyes, as always, magically attracted him and he couldn't resist the urge to sink into them. As the morning sunlight played around her back, she appeared to him as beautiful as an angel. She was always beautiful, but there was something magical about this.

He wanted to dare again, wanted to kiss her and hoped that Helen would listen to him this time, forcing himself not to smile and controlling his heartbeat. He just hoped that his body would translate that into reality.

"Are you a permanent guest in our ranks now, Sam?" he heard Polonium's voice and he couldn't stop himself from taking a deep breath. These disruptions were infuriating.

"What do you want again Polonium?"

"I just wanted to check on everything. How does daydreaming affect the real you?"

"As if I would help you with your research," he replied harshly.

"Oh, your willingness to help would be immensely important. I don't want to make your little friend wake up too often so as not to miss anything that happens in your dream world. But you seem to wake up regularly. Then why not kill two birds with one stone. You want her back as quickly as possible and I want results just as quickly. The more I have, the sooner I can complete the test phase."

"What do you mean?" he now turned to Penny.

"It's your decision," she replied with a shrug. "On the one hand it sounds tempting, but on the other hand I don't trust her and I've always had quite a problem with blackmail anyway."

"I'll give you information. But in return you'll release Penny," Sam gave in after a short time to think about it.

"I think you're forgetting who's in charge here, Sam?!" Polonium replied with a laugh. "I know you're a man of honor, but I've also heard about your sense of justice. You're bringing that policeman back on my neck as soon as she is free and I don't get anything. No, no. You give me information with the chance of a quicker release and in return I won't keep an eye on you all the time. I still have to get my beauty sleep catch up and it's almost unbearable how you pin over each other all the time anyway."

Sam immediately blushed and looked at Penny, who had turned away embarrassed and pretended to casually walk a few meters.

"Okay, deal."

"I knew you were a good boy," he heard Polonium whisper with joy. "Then have a good night's sleep, or should I say, a good awakening, Sam?" Their laughter faded into the distance as Sam looked down and Penny turned back to him. Both could see him slowly starting to fade.

"I'll be back as soon as possible. Quickly tell me where you're going while you wait."

"Everything is fine, Sam. I'm going for a walk. You know I love the forest," she replied and winked conspiratorially at him before everything went black around him.

To be continued...