the moon (a rini au)

a small step

-General POV-

It's been a couple weeks since Ashlyn's show, its mid September. They group has started hanging out more, going to dinner, the park, playing board games in one of their apartments and becoming close. Ricky and Nini have been keeping their competitive streak up, they haven't spoken about that night; they started studying together more, spending days in the labs and classroom, they were top of their class. Nini hasn't let herself slip up since the hand raise incident, she's been guarded with the group, trying her best to be trusting and open but she hasn't really been able to, they know bits and pieces from EJ and they don't really push on it. 

It's 12 am on a thursday night, Christina's about to head home, she goes back to her classroom to grab some papers she forgot, only to find a small figure on the table by the window, headphones on. Nini's completely occupied by the material in front of her, oblivious to the movement around her. Usually she's super alert, always on her toes but 3 days of no sleep tends to dull your senses. Christina walks up behind her.

"You don't slow down a lot do you, kid?"

"Roberts?"

She reaches her hand out and places it on Nini's shoulder gently. Instantly being pushed to the floor. 

"Oh god, oh my god professor Cho I'm so sorry" Nini trembles. Chris gets up slowly, reassuring her that she's okay.

The sit in silence for a while, she makes Nini drink some water. "Therapy helps, you know?" Nini stays quiet, her eyes set on her feet.

"I'm serious Roberts"

"I know.. I can't afford it right now." Nini mumbles.

"We have therapists here, I can talk to the chief, we can work something out, I can try and get you a session a week atleast." 

"you don't have to do all that..it's okay"

"Monday, 2:30, 4th floor west wing, room 418, Dr. Freedman; atleast give it a try"

"A-Are they female?"

"Yes Nini.." Christina says, concerned.

"I'll try" she said. Nini bites the insides on her cheeks till she regains her composure, numbing herself. 

"Go home kid, sleep, I'll see you tomorrow"

"Yes ma'am." 

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Nini walks home, It's around 1 am, she texts EJ about therapy, she decides to call Ricky and tell him too, mentioning no specifics, just the fact that she's starting therapy. She has no idea why she wanted him to know but she did.

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Therapy is weird for her, she's been to a few sessions now, she went on Tuesdays too when she wasn't working because Dr. Freedman(Alice) asked her to, she couldn't talk. She tried the second session, talking a little about the first house she was placed in, a couple sessions later the second house; she couldn't bring herself to continue from that, her body would shut down and go into a panic attack. The talking helped slightly, helped lessen the effect of a few triggers. She was diagnosed with C-PTSD amongst other things, prescribed pills for it, they made her feel worse though and she couldn't figure out why.

Outside of that room she kept herself held together, her clever witty personality in check, a smile on her face. One thing therapy was actually helping with was her ability to spend time with her friends, not push them away, Alice would re-assure her. 

A/N 

a small filler