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Birmingham, 1917
"No, no, no, no, no."
The moment Isabella woke up to a man speaking to and holding her hand, she had leapt off the bed she was laying on. She was currently sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, with her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth. Her hands were holding onto her hair, hard enough to rip out multiple hair strands.
Nicholas, Charlie and Curly were watching the girl in utter horror. While Nicholas had seen and helped Isabella through similar panic attacks a couple times before, he had never seen anything to this extent. She was a horrifying sight, Nicholas could see blood dripping down her hands from how hard she was gripping her hair and head.
Charlie moved towards Isabella's form to try and comfort her somehow. He had never seen anyone this troubled, especially not her, never the little girl be had raised.
"Darling, it's Uncle Charlie. You have to calm down." His try to comfort Isabella didn't do what he expected. Instead of Isabella calming down she started screaming. Leaning so far into the wall behind her almost as if it would swallow her.
"Uncle Charlie. You need to step back." Nicholas finally having gathered his bearings got to work. The first time he had witnessed Isabella having a panic attack he had uselessly stood by unable to help. Afterwards he had researched how to help her through one, read every book he could get his hands on and even went to visit the doctor that lived in his neighborhood. All so that next time Isabella went through one, he was right there helping her. "Curly, you too. Stand by the wall over there."
Nicholas stepped closer to the rocking form and squatted down before her, keeping a safe distance to her body allowing her to choose when she wanted physical touch between them.
"Bella. It's Nic." He slowly said, keeping his voice low and calm as not to scare her, still keeping the distance between their bodies. "You're safe. I'm right here."
"You're safe Bella. It's Nic. I'm here." Charlie watched Nicholas' every move with intrigue. He couldn't help but wonder about how many times Isabella had been in this state of unrest with only Nicholas helping her through.
Through her haze, Isabella could hear Nicholas' familiar calming voice. She timidly reached her right hand forward, towards the direction his voice was coming from. When her hand landed on another she gripped onto its wrist, feeling the pulse and trying to mimic her breathing to its rhythm. "You're safe. Just keep breathing, sweetheart."
"No, no, no, no." Isabella moved her hand from Nicholas' wrist as if it had burned her. Grabbing onto her head again.
Whatever small process she had made was thrown out the window. She was back to mumbling and rocking back and forth while simultaneously trying to push herself further into the wall.
