Trust In Time

Chapter 8: Count To 5

I hear faint voices in the sea of darkness surrounding me. I can't quite make them out at first, but they become more and more clear.

"Nora? Nora wake up. Can you hear me?"

"Should I call for help, Grayson?!"

My whole body feels heavy and I keep trying to open eyes, but they won't open. I finally tear them open and gasp awake. I'm staring at the ceiling and the marble floor is cold against my back. I try to get up, but I'm immediately stopped by sharp pain in my head. I wince and lay back down.

"Hey hey you're okay. Don't move."

I look to left and see that it's Grayson's voice I keep hearing along with Emery, who's right by him.

"What happened?" I finally get the energy to speak.

"You passed out when you came through the door and hit your head on the floor. I'm going to sit you up so I can get you over to the couch, okay?" Gray says in a soothing voice.

I sit up and a wave of nausea comes over me, but it quickly subsides. Gray and Emery take my arms and help me over to the couch.

"I'm going to call for help" Emery states in a frantic voice as she takes her phone out.

"No don't. I'm okay, I just need to sit for second." I say.

"You should get checked out, Nora," Gray says as he looks at me worriedly, "You could have a concussion, and your knee is bleeding. What the hell happened?"

As I recall what happened, anxiety starts to take over. Who were those guys? They still have my phone and ID, they know who I am. Thank god I don't haven't updated my address since I moved here. They could have hurt Gray and Emery. It would've been all my fault. I could've died. I could still feel the man's arm around my neck, making it hard to breathe. What if I hadn't gotten away?

My heart starts slamming against my chest and I can't get air into my lungs. My hands start to sweat and shake, and next thing I know my whole body is shaking too. I gasp and gasp for air, but I can't breathe. Tears sting my eyes and then trickle down my cheeks.

"Woah woah woah, Nora? It's okay. You're okay," Gray says as he comes and sits by me, "Remember what to do? Take a deep breathe and count to five. Exhale, count to five. Steady your breathing and focus on counting. You're doing good, keep going."

One. Two. Three. Four. Five

He does it with me and after a while I am able to match my breathing to his. My hands slowly stop shaking and my pulse starts to slow. This is the first panic attack I've had in a long time. I wasn't expecting it.

"Thank you," I say with a small smile at Gray.

Emery comes and sits on the other side of me and looks at me with worry in her eyes. She puts a comforting arm around my shoulder.

"It's okay, Nora, take your time." She says gently.

I finally find the words to tell them what happened. They just sit quietly and listen with shocked faces. As I finish telling them, Gray pulls his phone out and starts dialing a number.

"What are you doing?" I ask him.

"Calling Will. He'll know what to do."

"What? No. It was my own stupid fault. I don't want to bother him with it, he has more important things to do and people to help. I'm fine." I protest.

"Eleanora, are you serious? This IS important. You're hurt and you could've been killed. They had guns and god knows what the hell was in the crates. This is exactly what Will's job is. I'm calling him," he puts the phone up to his ear and before Will answers Gray looks over to Emery and says, "Em, can you go get my medical bag?"

She nods and rushes out of the room to go get it. I hate all this fuss over me. I'm fine, it's not a big deal.

Gray talks to Will and tells him to come over. As Emery comes back in with the bag full of medical supplies, Gray hangs up, and comes over to me. Emery says that she's going to make me some tea and heads to the kitchen.

"It's a good thing Aunt Darcy made me take those self defense classes huh?" I say sarcastically and attempt to smile.

"You're seriously joking right now?" Gray chuckles in disbelief and starts to clean the scrape on my knee. His face grows serious as he says, "Thank god you're okay, Nora. I'm so sorry this happened, I won't let it happen ever again. I promise."

"Chill, Gray. I'm totally fine. I'm sorry for the all the dramatics." I say slightly embarrassed as I think about how I passed out and had a panic attack in front of them.

He looks me in the eye and says, "You weren't being dramatic at all. After adrenaline rushes like that, it's really common to faint. I'm just glad you got back here before you did. Stop playing this down, Nora. You went through a lot tonight, you're allowed to feel what you to feel."

He finishes cleaning and bandaging up my knee and then takes out a small flashlight.

"Alright I need you follow the light with your eyes."

I do as he says and he asks me a bunch of questions on how I'm feeling. He's a good doctor, and I never doubted that for a minute because he's always been a good caretaker of me. When we were little, he was the one that always kissed my boo boos when I got hurt and whispered reassuring words to me when I wouldn't stop crying. He was the one who would tell me bed time stories when I couldn't fall asleep and tell me stupid jokes to cheer me up when I was sad.

He stepped up to take care of me when he realized that our father was never going to, and for that I'll always appreciate and love him for the great big brother that he is.

He interrupts my thoughts when he says, "Alright I don't think you have a concussion, but I'll make you an appointment for tomorrow just to make sure."

I was going to protest, but I know he wouldn't take no for answer. So I just smile and nod at him.

Suddenly we hear a loud knock on the door. Gray gets up to let in whoever it is. Next thing I know, I'm face to face with Will Sinclair.