Princess of the universe // Hardzzellee

Chapter 16

They spend the first two weeks with Addison mostly with the four of them. They got to know her a little better and she was starting to open up more. Slowly she started to put more trust in the three men that she was now living with. Joe was now teaching Addison how to play Mario kart. Even though he is most competitive in this game, he let Addison win. Although he couldn't help but let himself win once after a particularly good race. 

They had read up on all of her files. One thing they had read is that a lot of alcohol misuse had occurred at her previous home. To avoid that trigger, they decided to stop drinking altogether. The first trigger was when Ben was home alone with Addison. Gwil and Joe had gone to the store to buy some groceries. Ben was left to cook dinner. Meanwhile, Addison was seated at the kitchen table colouring. 
"I was thinking, do you want to go to the library to pick up some more books to read?" Ben asked. He turned to meet her eyes when he didn't get a response.
"I had my back to you, honey. I can't see if you shake your head," Ben said. It was one of the ways he was trying to get her to talk more. She had already opened up so much more, but she still had the tendency to be quiet.
"What is a libory?" Addison asked. Ben raised an eyebrow.
"A library is like a bookstore, but instead of buying books, you can take them home for three weeks. After that, you return them and someone else can read them. And then you can take different books with you," Ben said. Addison nodded slowly.
"Okay," She said before going back to her colouring. 

Ben moved an empty jar in the cupboard to get something that was standing behind it. With that, the jar knocked against a different jar. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Addison froze. He knew that sign all too well. Ben put everything down before making his way over to Addison. He lifted her off the chair before sitting down himself, Addison on his lap. He started shushing her softly while keeping her close. Her breathing was now rapid and her eyes didn't seem to focus.
"Take a deep breath, honey," Addison didn't seem to hear what he was saying. Ben was taking deep breaths himself. He hoped that she would copy him.
"Everything is okay. You are safe now." Ben continued whispering reassuring words until Addison was a little calmer. 

"Can you close your eyes for me?" Ben asked. Addison did as she was told.
"Okay, now can you tell me five things you can touch?" Addison didn't respond at first. So, Ben repeated his question.
"My jeans, my shirt, the table, you and the paper," Addison said.
"Good job, sweetheart. Can you tell me four things you can hear?" Ben said before kissing her forehead.
"Your voice, my voice, cars and a clock," She said. 
"Very well. Three things you can smell?" Ben asked. He could feel that Addison already was a lot calmer.
"Bread, soup and you," Addison said. 
"Good job, two things you can taste?"
"Lemonade and cookie," Addison said. Ben placed a kiss on her forehead. 
"Last one, bub. You can open your eyes, tell me one thing you can see," Ben said. 
"The table," Addison said. 

"How do you feel?" Ben asked. Addison looked puzzled for a second.
"Good," Addison said. Ben kissed her forehead. 
"I am glad to hear that. Do you want to continue colouring? I think Gwilly and Joey will be home soon and dinner is almost ready," Ben said. Addison nodded while picking up her pencil. Ben grabbed Addison's binder out of the cupboard in the living room. They had made a few templates they could fill in. He quickly wrote down what the trigger was and on a different page he wrote down that this method of calming her down worked really great. 

Gwil was the one to bring Addison to bed. He stayed with her in the bathroom while she showered. She was still scared of the shower, but with one of them present it wasn't a problem anymore. 
"It might be a fear of drowning," Joe said in one of the conversations they had about it. So, Joe was looking into a specialist that could come in to teach here to swim. Hopefully, that would make it a little better. After Addison hopped out of the shower and brushed her teeth, Gwil tucked her in.
"Okay, let's see which story we are reading today," Gwil said while opening the book. Every night they would read her a story. 
"Oh, the disappearance of the mighty bear," Gwil said before he started reading.

"Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you," Gwil said while kissing her forehead.
"Goodnight, Gwilly," She said. Gwil handed her Misha before he turned to leave the room. She waved at him before he turned the light off and closed the door. Ben and Joe were still seated at the dinner table.
"One of her triggers is the sound of glass hitting each other," Ben said. Gwil cocked his head to the side.
"Really? What happened?" Ben explained exactly what happened and how he calmed her down.
"That is a really difficult trigger," Joe said while frowning. 
"Why's that?" Gwil asked.
"Sounds of glass against each other are everywhere. Now it was because Ben moved something in a cupboard. But think about a restaurant, how often do you hear glass hitting glass? When a waiter gathers the empty bottles or when people toast. It's everywhere," Joe said.  
"She might grow out of it though," Ben said.
"Let's hope that. It would have been easier for her if she had a less obvious trigger."

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Goodbye,

Xx Itsametaphorjoe