Connected

Trauma Bomb

I was shivering, but I wasn't quite sure why. I didn't feel cold. In fact I felt hot. I tried to catch my breath, but I felt like I had just run around the house multiple times. My vision was fuzzy. My hearing was muffled, like something was covering my ears.

My hands twitched on the sides of my head. Oh, I was covering my ears. I tried to move them and my arms stiffly moved. But, sounds seemed to filter through a bit easier now. There were two different voices talking to each other, but I could only pick out words here and there.

"Basement..."

"Abuse..."

"Father"

A lot of curse words. Nothing made sense all together. But the voices sounded worried.

I stopped shivering, my hands coming to rest in my lap. I took a deep breath. My vision cleared slightly, and the voices came in more clearly.

"What do we do, Lee Know?"

"I don't know Captain. What happened last time? How did you end it then?"

"I didn't, she just seemed to come out of it on her own, after I called her name a bunch."

"Did you try that this time?"

"At first I did, but then she kept backing up away from me so I just stopped. She looked terrified... Of me."

I looked around. I was behind a chair in the main room of Lee Know's house. I put my head in my hands. My eyes felt tired and my muscles were still spasming every now and then.

"It's this house. She wasn't ever supposed to come back here."

"Yeah, well that obviously changed Lee Know."

"I understand you are worried, Captain, but you don't have to get snippy. In this situation it was unavoidable."

I heard Chan sigh. "I know, I'm sorry."

I pushed my legs out and away from my body. I had calmed down a bit more, taking deep breaths. I was here to make a bug. Both of the men out there were worried about me. Both of them cared about me. He was dead. I was safe.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Lee Know's face as he moved around furniture to be able to see me. I turned slowly to him.

"Hey, you back with us?" He asked as his eyebrows pulled together.

I nodded slowly and he came to crouch in front of me. "What?" My voice was hoarse. I could barely get the full word out, let alone an entire sentence.

"You had another panic attack."

I made an O with my mouth, but the noise got caught in my throat.

"You were screaming, and I think you also hallucinated this time."

"Fun." I croaked.

He chuckled and reached out to pat my arm but stopped. "You feel up to moving?"

I shrugged.

He nodded and held a hand out to me. I weakly put my hand into his. He helped pull me up into a standing position. Once I was back on my feet I slumped against him slightly. His arm came around my waist to hold me up.

"Couch, I think. For now."

I just nodded. My eyes stayed on the ground as Lee Know walked us both towards the couch. I couldn't bear to look into Chan's eyes. I'm pretty sure I had hurt him, but I didn't know how.

Lee Know set me down lightly. Then he crouched down in front of me again. "Water?" I nodded and managed to croak out a thanks before he left the room.

Finally, I looked up and around the room. I was alone. Both of them had left. Lee Know would be back, but I didn't know when Chan had left. Or if he would be coming back.