Paralyzed

Chapter 23 : Finding Riker

Chapter 23

Avery POV    

The police agreed to send someone over to be parked on Riker's street and keep anyone off his property. I was really annoyed to see the same guy from this morning, standing on Riker's porch when I got back.

"You better leave now," I said.

"Why? I know Riker's in there. I'm not stupid."

"Well if you don't leave, a cop will be here shortly and if you don't stop trespassing and harassing me, you'll have to deal with the cop."

I unlocked the door and slammed it in the guy's face. I locked it again, feeling so annoyed. Riker doesn't deserve this. Why can't people respect his privacy?

"A-Avery?"

"Riker? Where are you?"

I walked down the hall and saw him sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs.

"Riker, what happened!?"

"Avery, my back hurts!" He cried.

"What did you do?"

He covered his face with his hands, crying.

"It's ok. Just breathe and try to calm down, Riker."

I put my hand gently on his back, rubbing circles into it.

"What if I made it worse!?" Riker cried.

"Tell me what happened."

"I fell down the stairs."

I gently pulled the bottom of his shirt up.

"You're not bruised or anything. Hopefully you're just sore and that's it. Can you sit up?"

He slowly pushed himself up with his arms.

"What happened to your arms?"

I gently took his hand and turned his wrist so I could see it better.

"Riker, what happened while I was gone?"

"I had a panic attack. It's rug burn."

"God, Riker..."

I pulled him into a hug. He felt extremely shaky.

"Deep breaths. I need to get you calm again before we can do anything."

He laid his head on my shoulder and focused on taking deep breaths. His trembling went away after a few minutes and he stopped crying.

"Where's the office chair?" I asked.

"In the kitchen."

"Why is it in the kitchen? You know what? It doesn't matter. I'll just drag you back to the living room."

I stood up and put my hands under Riker's arms.

"Riker, just tell me if any of this hurts, ok?"

"Ok."

I gently lifted him slightly and dragged him back to the living room. He laid down on top of his blankets, looking exhausted.

"Can you tell me what happened now?" I asked, sitting down beside him.

"Come down here."

I laid down next to him. He wrapped his arms around me tight and pulled me closer to him.

"I feel like I'm going to start panicking again," he said, softly.

"It's ok. If you do, I'll help you calm down again. But I need to know what happened."

"I put on the tv to distract myself because I was worrying about being home alone. And I think it was the guy from this morning... He started knocking on the door and he wouldn't stop. It triggered my panic attack and I felt like I just needed to get far away from him. So I pulled myself down the hall and up the stairs to my bedroom. I was a little calmer, but then he started ringing the doorbell and yelling that he knew I was in here and that I needed to open the door. I couldn't calm down. I tried really hard, Avery. But I couldn't. So I wanted to call you so you could calm me down. So I crawled back down the hall with my arms and got to the stairs. I started going down, but I was really dizzy and shaky from hyperventilating. My hands slipped and I fell down the stairs."

"I'm so sorry, Riker. I didn't realize you were that anxious about being home alone."

"I wasn't until the guy started knocking and ringing the bell and yelling. I just started freaking out at the thought of him exposing everything that happened to me and having to face everyone and give an explanation. I don't even know if I've come to terms with what's happened to me yet. I can't imagine trying to tell the whole world."

"You don't have to. Ever. It's your business. And it's not right for them to be stalking you to try to get pictures and create fake stories about you. You're not going to have to worry about it. The police said they'd send someone to be parked outside your house for a week. And after a week, if they come back again, they said to just give them a call, and they'd take care of whoever tries bothering us. Ok?"

"Thank you."

"I just feel bad about what happened while I was gone."

"Well don't. It was my dumb idea. I'm glad you went to the police. I don't want to be woken up to them knocking on my door again. Or have them taking pictures of you when you get the mail."

"Do you want some medicine for your back? How bad does it hurt?"

"Actually, now that I'm not hyperventilating anymore, it doesn't hurt that bad. You're probably right and I'm probably just sore."

"Ok. You had me really worried."

Riker still had practically a death grip on me.

"Are you ok? Do you want to do anything? Or watch a movie? Eat lunch?"

"No. I just want to stay here for a while. You're my safe place. I just want to listen to whatever's on tv and try to clear my mind. Is that ok?"

"That's more than fine. Just tell me if you need something, ok? Or if you want to talk more."

He turned his head so his face was against my side.

"I don't need anything. I'm perfect here."