Slowly Sinking -A Bondi Rescue Fanfiction-

Panic

Rosalie was sat in the back of Deano's car with Matt. She was fiddling with the elastic band she had on her wrist, and Matt noticed this. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she pinged the band repeatedly against her wrist until it was glowing bright red. Concern grew, and he made a mental note to speak to Reidy about it in the near future.

The beach quickly came into view and Rosalie was taken aback by how beautiful it looked. Thousands of people lined the sand and grassy hills and everyone seemed to be enjoying their day. She had seen pictures of beaches, but none of them looked anywhere near as nice as this one did. The car stopping broke her out of her thoughts, and the four of them got out of the car. Deano and Matt went ahead whilst Reidy hung back to speak to Rosalie.
"Hey, erm, just so you know, I don't live alone. I share my house with Matt and someone called Chris, who you'll meet later. Obviously we've given you the biggest room and it's got a bathroom attached so you have your own bathroom, I just wanted to warn you so you didn't panic when there wasn't just us in the house." Rosalie nodded, she had previously been told that her father didn't live alone, so it didn't come as much of a surprise. She was just thankful that she had somewhere to live. 
"Okay, so now that's been cleared up, if you want to stay in the tower that's absolutely fine. I'm stationed down at Backpackers but Deano's in the tower so you can stay with him." Rosalie nodded again, something she realised she had been doing a lot. She didn't want to go to the beach yet, because she was still paranoid about her face and her other injuries and she didn't want anyone to stare at her.
"I'll go to the tower with Deano if that's okay?"

The tower was quiet, and Deano and a tattooed man who she learnt was called Jesse were sat watching the water. After a quick introduction, Reidy had to leave to assist in his area, and Rosalie took the empty seat next to Jesse. Subconsciously, she moved the seat to the very edge of the desk, nervous at not really knowing the man and also not wanting to get in anyone's way. Jesse glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and shot her a playful grin when she looked back.
"I don't bite." He joked, raising his eyebrows at the girl who couldn't hide the blush that reached her cheeks, and slowly relaxed into the chair more.

The rest of the shift was more comfortable for Rosalie, and Jesse and Deano for that matter. She only felt panicked again once, and that was when they changed who was in the tower. They both knew who she was however, and were both quick to put her at ease.
"Hello Darlin', I'm Anthony, but everyone here calls me Harries." The tall one introduced himself, with a large, infectious grin.
"Hey, I'm Maxi." The younger looking one introduced, grinning just as happily at her.

Rosalie learnt that she got on well with these two, perhaps more so than Deano and Jesse. But only because they were humourous and were always making it fun and light, that is, until they brought up why she was here.
"So, if you don't mind me asking," Maxi began, "how come you're only visiting Reidy now?" Harries shot him a look of disapproval, but he had already said it. Rosalie's head dropped and the mood quickly changed.
"I.. I don't know. My mum always told me that he didn't want me and hated me, so she never told me anymore about him or where I could find him. I only found out who he was less than a week ago when my mum-" Rosalie cut herself off at this point. She couldn't finish that sentence. Her heart was racing at now and she could feel a panic attack building.
"I'm gonna go for a walk somewhere." She announced, quickly leaving the tower with speed that impressed Harries. They both felt bad, especially Maxi for making her so uncomfortable, but neither of them could bring themselves to go after her.

Rosalie wiped the tears that fell. She was angry- not at all at them for asking but at the situation. She would never be able to find out if her mum was telling the truth about her dad, because realistically, he could say anything now to her to make her like him, and she would never be able to ask her mum for clarification. Seeing a less populated corner, she paced towards it, weaving in and out of the crowds trying to go unnoticed and fell to the floor when she reached it. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

By now, a full blown panic attack had surfaced. She tried desperately to calm her breathing, but despite her best attempts, she couldn't. A gasp of fear and panic escaped her lips and soon she was hyperventilating. Her body grew numb and she began to loose control of her thoughts and breathing. She saw that a small circle of people had began to watch her now, and they all seemed baffled as what to do. She wished they would go away, she wished they would leave her alone, but before she knew it, one of them was next to her and shielding her from the crowd.

It was a man who had sat with her, and he was talking desperately to her, but her ears felt full and she couldn't make out words. He smiled at her and began breathing over-dramatically, and she realised it was for her to copy. She tried to follow his breaths, and eventually she began to be able to feel her hands and she was finally able to breath normally.
"There you are, sweetie. My name is Tom, and I work as a lifeguard here," Rosalie scanned his body, and noticed he wasn't in a uniform. "I'm off duty today, but I saw you and came to help." He explained, smiling once more and  simultaneously urging the crowd to move on now she had calmed down.
"I think we should head over to the tower, sweetie, that was a pretty bad panic attack." He said softly, and Rosalie sighed.
"I was in there anyway." A flash of realisation appeared on his face, and he grinned even wider.
"You must be Rosalie! Reidy's daughter!" He almost shouted, and Rosalie shot him a half smile whilst nodding. "Pleasure to meet you sweetie. How about we head up to the tower and I'll stay with you for a while?" Rosalie smiled, she liked this man already, but really she just wanted to sleep. 
"Actually, is there anywhere I could sleep? I haven't slept properly since..." She trailed off, memories flashing through her head. Tom frowned, but nodded.
"Yeah, there's a bed in the medical bay." 

Rosalie followed Tom to the medical bay in the lifeguard tower, and ignored Harries and Maxi, she didn't do it to be rude, but she knew they would ask her if she was okay, and she knew she wouldn't be able to lie and say she was, and she was far too tired to try and explain what was going on inside her head.
"Here you are." Tom announced, gesturing towards a medical bed with a small blue blanket on it. Rosalie smiled and thanked him, before climbing on the bed and pulling the blanket over her. Shortly after, she drifted into what she hoped would be a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
But in reality, her sleep was rocked with nightmares that would have scared anyone of the people in her life.