Rose petals

Chapter 27

The entire family is over at Ben's. Aiden, Hailey, Austin, Cassidy, Rachel, Athena, Mum, Harvey, Jenny, Alex, Hudson, Hayden, all the kids, Noah, Milo, Max, and Kade. Mia and Holly decided to spend the day with Everly while we all gathered together in hopes of coming up with something to help bring her memory back. The EMDR currently being the only option on the table.

It didn't take much to convince Everly to hang out with the girls since they had been talking on the phone almost every single day since the very first day she arrived. They've gone above and beyond to make sure she felt welcome and to make her feel at home and they've done a better job than I have.

Holly and Mia have always been her sisters more than they have been her friends. They used to have catch up sessions at least once a week and went out for dinner every two weeks without fail. I remember keeping a tally of the amount of cancelled dates because of their dinners, and making her make up for each and every single one of them. The tally got to twenty three and we only made up sixteen of them. She owes me seven more dates.

And so today they got up bright and early and planned an entire day for themselves while we took the chance to come up with a plan. Anything helpful at this point is a plan.

"Therapy?" Aiden suggested.

"She doesn't know what she's supposed to be talking about." I said, shaking my head and gently rubbing Atlas' back. He had fallen asleep on me an hour ago and the last thing I wanted to do was move.

"What if we recreate events like you said?" Max said.

"We don't know if she'll remember things or not, or how much it'll strain her brain." Ben said softly. Valentina cuddled up to his side, she had fallen asleep not too long after Atlas. If it weren't for the stomach bug that has been passed around the kids, she'd be out in the backyard chasing the kids with 'spiders'.

"I'm going to just rip her brain out at this point, it's not like it's doing her any favours." Aiden grumbled, leaning back into the couch opposite me. "It's been fucking weeks. Weeks! Months even! And she knows less than the fucking bricks making up this house!" He said in frustration.

"We'll have to go for the EMDR." I sighed. It's been the last and only option on the table at the moment.

Everyone had spent the last two days thinking, researching, and emailing neuroscientist in hopes of finding another solution. Ben got in contact with every single person he's known since his college days thirty years ago till his surgery in England from his unexpected visit there. All the 'solutions' have come up as useless and the possibility of going for the EMDR is only growing.

"EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy." Hayden said, standing in the open sliding doors that lead out to the backyard where we all had a clear view of the kids playing.

"What's up, Hay? Need anything?" Hayley asked putting her arm around his shoulders.

"You're thinking of trying EMDR on Ev? Why? I thought you'd be able to think of easier solutions." He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion as Hudson jogged over to us and looked back and forth between us and his twin brother.

"We are, kiddo. But it's harder than it looks." Ben said with a sad smile. "You know what EMDR is?" Ben asked, a poor attempt at relieving the obvious stress. Though I don't blame him, I forget they're no longer the seven year old kids I first met.

"I read about it when I was researching." Hayden whispered, staring at his shoes as his cheeks burned bright red.

"What's EMDR?" Hudson asked, tucking the football under his arm as he looked at Ben waiting for a response.