Looking after each other: Tour Edition

Part 2

He was unaware that it was Alex's hands on him, trying to calm him down, but he was so far gone. He could hear another voice phoning for help, maybe they wanted help overpowering him so they could hurt alex more.
His vision had tunneled and his mind felt like a swirling vortex.
The hands were on him again, and he threw them off, hearing a thud and yelp of pain he tried to barge towards the table but he was suddenly being held again, this time in a stronger more solid hold and a voice was whispering to him. He tried to place the voice, and tried to shake off the hold, before it registered.

Luba. That was Lubas voice. That was their calm time signal.
A tidal wave washed over him and he fell into the tight embrace as colour started to seep back into the world.

Luba was holding Neil securely in her arms, cradling his body close to her own. She had just about calmed him when more people burst through. One was holding a syringe and she snarled at them.

"Stop! Hes no animal. He was having a panic attack. Please dont hurt him" she told them, the eyes turned sympathetic and the one holding a syringe put it on a nearby shelf instead.

"You know he would never hurt on purpose. Specially her" Luba said directly to Lucy, who was patching up Alex's injury from where Neil had shoved her away.

"For him emotions can just be overwhelming sometimes. It does not make him a bad guy, he struggles with panic" she kept him close, almost cradling him to her chest as she gently rocked them both back and forth. It had been a little while since she last had to do this but neil had just come out of a real rough patch with his divorce and he also had ptsd from his childhood. They had formed a bond early on after meeting and she protected him like a big sister

"He told me about his ptsd, but I've never seen him like that" alex admitted quietly. Luba felt her heart sink at the way she said it. She really thought neil had found happiness once again and she knew he was besotted with her, but what if she couldnt handle him being like this? Neil would already be feeling guilty enough that he accidentally hurt her. If she was to leave him over this it could crush him completely.

Neil was just starting to come to, he felt a comforting hand stroking his hair and an arm tight around him. It took a moment to realise he was leaning on someone, or more accurately into their side with his head resting on their chest. The voice sounded like Luba, she had quite a distinctive tone that he could pick up anywhere. Then his fears about alex came rushing up and he startled, trying to stand.

"Hey, hey. Deep breaths" luba told him and he sighed but followed her instruction, finding it did help to clear the remaining mind fog.

"Alex?" He asked after a moment, looking up at Luba who gave him a small smile.

"Shes fine. Shes safe, and over there" she let him look, a little nervous but thankfully Alex's hurt wrist could be hidden under her sleeve for now.

She gave him a small wave with her other hand and smiled softly at him. Alex knew that it wasn't Neil fault, that he couldn't control what happened during a panic attack and hadn't realised it was her hands on him.

Still, her stomach did a few flips as he approached. She worried he could tell that she had tensed up when he reached over to hug her but she breathed in the smell of his cologne and let herself relax into his arms.

"Love you" he whispered and she smiled genuinely, whispering it back

"Sorry I had a panic episode" he told her, taking her hand "I didn't want you to have to see that... especially as sometimes I can end up lashing out. I'd never want to hurt you, ever. I think seeing you get checked over triggered my brain into wanting to protect you"

Alex nodded, reaching to kiss his cheek. She felt so guilty, all this was because he was trying to protect her and his fear of shots had morphed into seeing her get them done too.

"Well, no more shots for either of us today, right?" Alex said, bopping his nose cutely before turning to Lucy

"That's right, I'll have to do lubas but we can pop through to the other room and then finish your check up Alex"

Alex and Neil both nodded, so Lucy made her way over to Luba. The girl looked a little worried to leave the two alone so soon after what happened especially after seeing Alex be a little cautious with him but they seemed to have both relaxed now and were talking quietly, giggling over an inside joke as Alex moved to sit on his lap and he wrapped his arms around her.