You and Me, Kid

○ Chapter 19 ○

"Autumn Bradshaw-Mitchell?" A kind-looking woman called from a doorway to an office. Autumn turned to look at her parents, nervous. Giving her encouraging smiles, they stood and headed into the office. "Hello Autumn, my name is Claire. It's a pleasure to meet you." Autumn remained silent, extremely nervous.

"Thank you for meeting us on such short notice, Claire," Sandra thanked, a hand resting on her daughter's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze as to give her some form of comfort.

Claire smiled, picking up her notebook. "Of course. What exactly seems to be the situation we're in?" Autumn fiddled with her fingers, biting her lip as Pete's hand came to rest on hers, giving her a gentle smile.

"Autumn was in that, uh, incident with Mary Ford Elementary School the other month," he explained, trying to word it in a way that wouldn't cause his daughter any distress. "I was talking to someone when I was dropping her off at school and he recommended therapy, said it helped his kid with the whole thing and I thought we'd give it a shot. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, but it's always best to give it a shot. At least to help her in any way that we can."

Claire hummed, writing down what Pete said in her notebook. "Has there been any trouble sleeping at night? Any nightmares, clinginess?"

"Autumn's always struggled to fall asleep," Sandra explained, "but it has gotten worse since the shooting. She's been waking up more during the night and has been more tired recently. Autumn doesn't like being in a room on her own anymore, or one that's very open without any obvious exits or escape routes."

Claire nodded again, writing everything down. "Autumn, hunny, was there anything that happened that day that scared you? Anything you saw that stuck with you?"

Autumn nodded. "My friends... they left me. I saw... I saw Mrs Stuart... she fell and didn't get up. There was red stuff coming out of her. My friend Millie, she... she screamed. Then there was a bang. She didn't get up, and red stuff was coming out of her too. Then more bangs. Then my arm hurt and there were no more bangs after that. A kind man helped me, and then I saw papa."

"I see," Claire spoke softly, writing once more before setting her notebook down and looking at the three in front of her. "Well, she's a bit young to start her on any type of medication, though I don't recommend it at all. I believe she'll be developing PTSD as she grows up but for now the best thing I can suggest is keeping a diary of everything that happens, as a sort of at-home therapy. It's probably best to keep up with these sessions, and I recommend for the first couple of months to have a parent sit in with her just so there's someone she knows and trusts in the room since we'll be covering some tough subjects."

"Thank you, Claire," the brunette thanked, standing to shake the woman's hand as they headed to the door of the office. "How long will the sessions last in the future?"

"Each session will last around an hour to an hour and a half," Claire explained. "If you go to the front desk, Madeline will be able to help set up your next appointment." Crouching down to Autumn's height, Claire whipped out a strawberry flavoured lolly and held it out for the six-year-old, "I'll see you next time, hunny." For the first time since entering the building, Autumn smiled, accepting the lolly.

Thanking Claire again, they headed to the front desk where the receptionist, Madeline, was working. "Hi, could we schedule another appointment for the same time next week?" Pete asked. Madeline nodded, writing it into the calendar. "Thank you, have a good day." With that, the trio left the building and headed to the base where they met up with the others and hung out for the rest of the day.