Family

Chapter Sixteen

 "She's asleep," Andrew says looking up to Andra. Andra nods her head and looks down at Maggie who has been asleep for the past four hours.

"Her body needed a break. When she wakes up, she's going to feel like it's happening. She's going to feel like she's there. You'll have to get her to just breath and notice her surroundings." She says with a tired yawn.

"You can sleep." He says and then the lights flicker. They both look up and the lights stay on. "Power's back." He mumbles. Maggie starts to stir awake in Andra's arms.

"Hey, shhhh. Go back to sleep." Andra says holding Maggie to her chest. Maggie does so within a minute. "I'm going to go check on Max and Maddie." She stands up carefully with Maggie still in her arms. Andrew nods his head as she leaves the room. Andrew looks down at Nicole. Her head resting on his neck and her in his lap. Her cheeks are stained with tears, but other than that you couldn't tell anything was wrong.

He hears some commotion from the living room. He looks down the hallway to see Maddie. She looks at Nicole, but looks up at Andra and shakes her head. Maddie goes too far to the right and he can't see her anymore. Andra follows her leaving him a view of the kitchen.

He looks back down at Nicole, waiting for her to awake and have to relive her horrors. Andrew is there with her for another 20 minutes when she starts to move in his arms. "No, no questo non sta accadendo." She yells her eyes popping open.

"Nicole, Nicole. You're a home, you're safe. You aren't there, it isn't happening." He says grabbing her face and forcing her to look at him. "Nicole, you're safe in your own bedroom. Look around." He states. With rapid breathing, she looks around and notices he's right. She is in her bedroom. She looks down at herself. She's dry and there isn't any blood on her. She looks up at Andrew and starts crying.

Andrew pulls her into him and holds her. "Hey, shhh. It's ok." He says into her hair. Her body shakes and he holds her as she lets the pain out. She's tired of not letting it out for all the years. This is her way of grieving and it's the first time she's ever done it. "You're ok Nicole." He says rubbing her back. She nods her head and pulls back from him.

She wipes her eyes, but the tears continue to stream down her face. Andrew gives her a small smile and puts a hand on her cheek. "S-s-sorry." She stutters as she gives up on wiping the tears away.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for. You cry over your Mom, we all do." He says as she nods her head and looks down. She takes a few ragged breaths before she can stop crying. She pulls herself away from Andrew and stands up.

"Where's Maddie an Maggie?" She asks looking around her room.

"They're in the living room with Max and Andra." He says getting off of the ground. Nicole is quick to leave the room and run to the living room. She sees Maddie asleep in Max's arms and Maggie asleep in Andra's. Max looks up at her with what looks like a cold look. She looks at him confused, but he looks away from her.

"What?" She asks looking at him. He just shakes his head not able to talk about it civilly. She turns to Andrew with a questioning look.

"When you...you were describing the night..in Italian. Maddie had been translating what you were saying, but...you said something that triggered her. She...she-"

"Had a nervous breakdown and then a panic attack," Max says glaring up at her. "She started seeing everything, everything she saw that night. It freaked her out."

Nicole stares down at Maddie. "Is..is she ok?" She asks in a whisper not believing she'd caused her pain.

"She's going to be fine. Maddie has been going to therapy. It's been helping her." Andra says. Nicole nods her head and continues to stare at Maddie.