Gwen's Worst Nightmare (One Of Them At Least)...

Chapter 4: Midnight Panic

2:30am

David was taking a midnight bathroom break when he heard something coming from outside the bathroom. Maybe someone had knocked an item over in their sleep? He quickly became alert and listened carefully. He couldn't hear much after that except for... Hyperventilating? Maybe Max had a nightmare again? That seemed like the only reasonable excuse at this time of night. Once he finished up, David walked out of the bathroom to not only see Max sleeping just fine, but Gwen was sitting on her bed, wrapped in a throw blanket. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. David used the knowledge he knew from handling Max's nightmares to see if approaching Gwen in that manner wouldn't provoke her. 

Gwen held onto the throw blanket as tight as she possibly could, she felt like the whole room was spinning. David carefully stepped towards her from the corner of her eye. "Gwen?" He spoke softly. "you ok?" Gwen couldn't speak. She felt her throat close up as her hands began to shake. "No." She tried to talk. David checked to see if Max was alright, which he was, and then looked back at Gwen before he went to grab an office chair and place it next to her bed. In truth, this was what a mild panic attack looked like for Gwen. Luckily, David knew how to handle situations like these as he had been working with ehr for a long time. He got the counselor to focus on him as he began to walk her through de-escalating the panic attack. It didn't take that long before her breathing pattern was regulated. "Th-Thank you, David." She finally managed to speak. "Anytime, Gwen." David replied. "Do you wanna talk about it?" He asked, Gwen shook her head in response. David could tell that deep down, there was something on her mind, but she just didn't have the energy to talk about it. "You don't have to tell me right away." He said, reassuring his friend. David quickly retreated back to his bed and fell asleep. And just like the previous evening, Gwen couldn't sleep after that. 

3:45am

"You need to get over it." She said to herself. "You are in your 20s for fucks sake." Gwen quickly turned to her side, facing away from Max. "I'm trying, ok?" She said, barely at the level of a whisper. "If you really WERE trying, you'd stop having these sleepless nights and bothering David when you're having one of your panic attacks." Gwen felt ashamed that she didn't think of David in this scenario. "What kind of example are you setting for the other campers?" There was a beat for a minute before she finally decided to admit defeat and let her mind go on autopilot. She spent the rest of the night beating herself up mentally, thinking her fears were foolish for someone her age despite the heart to heart she had with Max back at the hospital. She was caught off guard after hearing Max begin to stir in his sleep. "God dammit..." She mumbled. Max turned to the counselor, his eyes barely open. "Gwen?" He whispered in a gravelly voice. "Why aren't you asleep?" Gwen darted her eyes at Max, "I was... Just getting up to use the bathroom." She reassured the child. "Just go back to sleep, ok?" She got out of bed and quickly locked herself in the bathroom. Max pressed his ear up to the wall and heard muffled whispers from the other end, he couldn't quite make out what was being said. But he could tell just by the tone that it wasn't pretty. 

7:30am.

David woke up bright and early and saw that Max was already up while Gwen was still asleep. Max had probably fallen asleep while trying to hear what Gwen had been saying to herself. "Goooooood morning, Max!" David whispered softly, Max shuddered at his positivity. "Morning, Camp Man." He replied in a monotone, while staring blankly into his mug. He contemplated telling David what he heard last night after the confrontation over the phone. But David could tell something was up. "Max? Is there something you wanna tell me?" David questioned sternly. Max held his mug to his chest. "....There's something wrong with Gwen." He stated bluntly. "Well that's rude of you to say-" David tried to reply. "No, I don't mean it in THAT context." Max paused. "Did you notice her acting... Weird at all last night?" He asked. David thought for a moment before remembering what had happened during the night. "I mean... I did walk in on her having that panic attack." David said. "You were already asleep at that point, Max." Max furrowed his eyebrows and set his mug aside. "...Was it bad?" He asked with a strong hint of worry in his voice. "She managed to calm down pretty quickly, so I'd say no." David replied before questioning Max if HE saw anything strange about Gwen during the night. "Well... I heard her talking in the bathroom, but I couldn't make out what she was saying." Max explained. David looked at the sleeping counselor, then back at Max. "...I'll try and talk with her later." David said. 

9:30am

Gwen finally woke up. She looked at her calendar and saw the date. Wednesday. She dreaded the next 48 hours for sure. Just as she was about to grab her phone, she saw a note on the nightstand. It was folded  up neatly, indicating that David probably wrote this. She unfolded it and began to read.

"Taking the campers out to the lake today. You're free to join us if you want to. -David. PS: Max told me about something he heard during the night, do you think we could talk about it later? -Also David."

"...Maybe talking about it wouldn't hurt." Gwen said before setting the note down. She wanted to get this over with, despite the trials she had to deal with recently.