RYANS POV
I'm working on producing a song in my room when I glance at the clock. 3:22. Almost an hour after Winter's supposed to be done school. He's 11 now, so we let him walk home from school by himself. The walk should only take him about 15 minutes or so, but sometimes he takes the long way through the park, which only adds a few minutes. It's been almost an hour. I start to get worried, but I know he's a smart kid. Not even 30 seconds later, I hear the door open and I breathe a sigh of relief. Although, as I continue listening, it sounds frantic and strange. It sounds like Winter maybe ran home, but that doesn't make sense if he's home an hour late. I hear Cat welcoming him, and then I hear Cat yelling,
"Ryan!" I rip my headphones off and quickly make my way to the front room. I get past the hallway to see Cat holding Winter in a massive hug as Winter is crying and shaking and panting, trying to catch his breath.
"What happened?!" I ask frantically. Winter releases himself from Cat and plunges into my arms as I crouch down in front of him.
"Hey, you're ok, I'm right here, you are safe." I whisper near his ear, trying to settle him so I can figure out what happened. Cat crouches down beside Winter, rubbing his back softly.
"I... I... I..." Winter pants out, trying to explain what happened.
"Woah, slow down bud. Take a deep breath." I say. He takes a breath and kind of calms down, even though he's still crying.
"Settle down bud." I say. "You're safe." We settle him back down, making sure his breathing slows down before we ask what happened.
"Here, how about we go sit down on the couch." Cat suggests. We move over to the couch, Winter sitting beside me, leaning into me. He starts fidgeting with his hands; he's clearly very anxious.
"So, can you explain what happened?" I ask slowly and carefully, trying to gauge Winter's reaction to the question.
"Well, I was walking home from school," he starts, talking very quietly. "And, these people in my grade, well, they, they pushed me into this building that's beside the school... and, took me to this one room, and, they, they... locked me against a wall and... kinda... umm... taunted me." Winter pauses, looking at me and Cat's faces, both of which were frozen in shock.
"Wait, what do you mean locked you against a wall?" I ask.
"Umm... they tied me against the wall with ropes..." he mumbles.
"And what do you mean by taunted you?" Cat adds.
"They made fun of my name, and you, and my clothes, and my hair... basically everything."
"Ohhhh, bud..." I don't even know what to say.
"How did you get away?" I ask.
"Umm... well... I had a knife in my pocket that uncle Jack gave me a while ago, and I managed to get my hand out of one of the ropes, but the other was... really tight... so I had to cut the ropes off without them noticing. As soon as I was out of the ropes I ran out of the building and ran home."
I don't even know what to say. I just want to make sure my kid is ok.
"The scariest part though wasn't even them pushing me into the building or tying me up, it was after I got out of the ropes they... they noticed and then started running after me. That's why I was so out of breath when I got inside, I sprinted all the way home."
"Buddy..." I mumble. "Are you ok? Did they hurt you at all?"
"The rope on my left hand was really tight and that kinda hurts, but they also punched me a few times to stop me from trying to get out of the ropes as they were tying me up, and because of that I have a h-headache..." he mentions.
"Is that everything?" Cat asks. Winter nods.
"Except I'm really scared now..." he whispers, snuggling into me.
"You have every reason to be scared." I say. "But, you are safe now. I promise. I won't let anything bad happen to you. You are home, and home is safe, ok?" He nods, leaning forward to give me a hug.
"I love you bud." I smile.
"Love you too." He whispers.
"Can I take a look at where they hurt you?" Cat asks. Winter nods, then pulls off his hoodie. Under it, his wrist was red, but not bleeding. He lifts up his shirt to show us two bruises. One on his ribs, the other on his stomach. Neither looked that bad, but I could tell they were hurting him.
"Alright. Would you like some pain meds, or are you feeling ok?" Cat asks.
"Pain meds please." He mumbles. Cat stands up to grab him the medicine while I pick him up and hold him.
"Do you know who hurt you?" I ask him. He nods. "Ok. Tomorrow at school then I'll walk you there and back and I'll talk to the principal and let him know, ok?" He nods again as Cat comes back with the meds and a glass of water. Winter takes the medicine and I ask him what he wants to do to get his mind off of what happened.
"A movie?" He suggests.
"Perfect. Which one?" I ask.
"Hamilton?" He suggests.
"You got it! Wanna grab some blankets from my room?" He smiles and nods as I set up the movie on the TV.
As the movie plays through the intro, Winter comes running back with blankets in his hands and we sit back on the couch. Winter snuggles into me and we watch the movie. Cat comes back into the living room with a cup of hot chocolate for Winter and me, going back to retrieve her own. We all snuggle up together drinking our hot chocolate under a few soft blankets and watch the entire movie.
After the movie, Cat makes a quick and simple dinner, spaghetti, and we eat it around the table. We eventually put Winter to bed, Cat and I going back to the living room to watch another movie.
Around an hour later, Cat is asleep on the couch, and I'm still awake. I suddenly hear a scream, but it wasn't high-pitched; it was just a scream.
"No!!" The voice adds. I instantly stand up and rush to Winters room, and open the door carefully. He's thrashing around his bed, his movements jarred and frantic. He sits up after a moment in a cold sweat, panting and shaking. I walk into his room, careful not to startle him. He's just frozen in place. He's scared. I sit beside him and say,
"Hey, Winter, you're ok." I gently rest a hand on his shoulder, letting him feel my presence.
"D-daddy!!" He cries.
"Can you lay back down for me?" He starts crying hysterically and lies down, facing away from me. His whole body is tense and rigid. As I lie down behind him, I felt something hard underneath my head. I sit up for a moment to see what it is, and I realize it's his baby blanket. It's normally hiding in his closet, because although he loves it, he's trying to get out of the habit of needing it. Today he needs it, and must have grabbed it before he fell asleep. I grab it with my left hand and wrap my arm around him to give it to him. He takes his blanket and buries it right into his face. Winter loves his blanket because most of the time it's cold, which works well today because he feels warm. I rest my arm around him tightly and hold him close.
"Shhhh, Dad's here, you're ok." I whisper, quieting Winter down. He quickly turns around so he's facing me and nuzzles in close to me. His head rests up against my chest, his face burying into my shirt. Almost every part of his body was touching a part of mine. I wrap my arm around him super tight, trying to create a blanket of comfort for him. His blankets were thrown all around him, he clearly had a bad dream. I could feel that he was quite warm, so I leave the blankets off of him. I hug him for a while, quietly shushing him to calm him down. He eventually falls asleep, cuddled into me. I pull one of his blankets over us and fall asleep as well.
I wake up the next morning having not moved from Winter snuggling into me. I'm glad I was able to calm him down, although I don't really know what set him off. It was obviously a bad dream, but what was it? I look at the clock in his room and see that it's 6:43. Winter usually gets up for school by 7, so I just lay in his bed cuddling with him until his alarm goes off. He wakes up, but acts scared and clings onto me.
"What's wrong bud?" I ask.
"Bad dream." He states quietly.
"Wanna talk about it?" I offer.
"It's just... what happened yesterday replayed in my head and it was scary...." He mumbles.
"Awww, bud... It is time to get up for school though." I say.
"But I don't wanna go. It's too scary." Winter mumbles into my chest, snuggling back into me.
"Ok. How about we ask Mom if you can stay home today."
"Mk." He smirks. I go to sit up and Winter clings to me. I grab his hand and we walk together to the kitchen where Cat is making breakfast.
"Hey you two!" Cat smirks, knowing I was sleeping in Winter's bed last night.
"Hey. Winter has a question for you." I state. Cat and I look at Winter, but he shakes his head, clinging to me again.
"Ok. I'll ask." I tell Winter. "Winter doesn't want to go to school today."
"Aww, buddy." Cat sympathizes. "Why?" Cat asks me quietly.
"He had a bad dream last night reminiscing what those kids did to him yesterday and is quite freaked out about the whole thing." I explain.
"Well, I think it's fine for him to stay home today." Cat decides.
"Sounds good. Do you mind emailing the office then?" I ask Cat.
"Yep! I'll do that once I finish making breakfast." Cat replies.
"What is breakfast this morning?" Winter asks schemingly.
"Just some eggs and toast." Cat smirks, knowing that's Winter's favourite. Winter smiles, sitting down at the counter. I go into the kitchen to prepare my tea like I do every morning, and to give Cat some love. I wrap her in a hug and smother her with kisses, Winter commenting,
"My eyes don't need to be burning AGAIN!" We all chuckle at his comment.
"What? You don't want to see your parents love each other?" I defend, giving Cat another kiss.
"No, that's fine, it's just you don't need to pretend you're birds feeding their children!" Winter laughs.
"Oh ho ho I think you've done it mister!" Cat decides, us both knowing what to do to annoy Winter. We run over to him and attack his face with kisses, him busting out in laughter, trying to get away from our exuberant love.
"Ok ok I get it!" He laughs. We pull away laughing so Winter can continue eating his breakfast.
As I drink my tea and Winter eats his breakfast, Cat emails the school to let them know Winter won't be coming in today. It was nice that it was a Friday, a nice long weekend.
Although we were all staying home today, we got dressed in not pyjamas. Cat needed to clean the living room, but didn't want either me or Winter to help. I never figured out why, but it may have been because of the pillow fight we had at one point where we broke some glass. I took Winter into his room and offered to play a game with him. He loves spending time with me, and I love it more. I ask him what game he wants to play, and he chooses Uno. I sit down on his bed as he runs over and grabs the cards from his bookshelf. He starts walking them back, when he freezes mid-step, staring into oblivion.
"Winter?" I ask, staring at him as he freezes. The bag of Uno cards slip out of his fingers and onto the floor, and he doesn't react to it.
"Winter, hey, what's wrong?"
"Daddy?" He mumbles, starting to tear up.
"Winter, I'm right here bud, I'm right here." I say, scooting to the edge of the bed and rolling my hand around his shoulder.
"Dad?"
"Winter!" Whatever I say, I can't seem to snap him out of his trance.
"Daddy?!"
"Winter, bud, I'm right here!" I start rubbing his back, and he snaps out of his head and breaks down. He falls into a ball on the ground, curling up extremely tight. His breathing is short and shattered, and he's shaking and crying hysterically. I jump down immediately and pull him into my lap, wrapping my arms around him tight. I call for Cat in the living room, her quickly running in to help calm him down.
"Winter, hey, baby, we've got you. Mom and Dad are right here." Cat whispers, rubbing his back. He seems so helpless, I feel terrible.
"Dear Winter, I hope you like your name." I start singing. I gently sway back and forth slightly in an attempt to calm him down. Noticing that Winter isn't breathing very well, Cat focuses on steadying his breathing while I sing his song.
"Winter, hey, breathe in and out, slowly."
"I c-can't!" Winter cries.
"Ok bud, listen to your Dad. Focus on the words. Try to breathe along with the lines. You're ok." Winter couldn't seem to settle. By the last verse, he started to slow down and try to steady his breathing, but I know he can't calm down in that time. I hold him tight, Cat rubs his back slowly, and we try to remind him things like, "we love you", "we're right here", and "you're ok." It takes Winter a bit, but he finally manages to calm down.
"Do you mind grabbing his blanket?" I ask Cat quietly. She nods and stands up to grab both his baby blanket and his fuzzy blanket from his bed. I adjust Winter so he's hugging me, resting on my chest. Cat wraps the fuzzy blanket around him, and hands him his baby blanket to hold on to. I rub his back softly in a simple up and down motion, trying to make sure he feels as safe as possible. After a moment, Winter sits up from my chest slightly, looking down at my shirt.
"Can we go see Shay?" He asks faintly.
"You wanna go see Shay?" I repeat his question, confirming that's what he was saying. He nods. "Ok bud. I'll ask uncle Jack to see what his plans are for today and I'll find a time where we can go see her, ok?" He nods again, laying back down on my chest. It feels weird seeing Winter who's now 11 years old look so helpless and fearful. I grab my phone from the ground beside me, opening up messages to text Jack. I start with,
"Hey what are your plans for today?"
He responds almost immediately with,
"We're just about to head down to take Shay to the park for a bit and then going out for a meeting"
"Can we join you at the park?"
"Yeah sure"
"Sweet. See you in a bit." I turn off my phone and tell Winter,
"Uncle Jack is just about to take Shay to the park, and he said we can join him. Wanna go?" Winter nods, even though he didn't move from me.
"Aww bud.." I mumble, giving Winter a hug. He normally gets so excited to go see Shay. Those kids totally messed him up yesterday.
"Come on bud, let's go get your sweater on." Cat says, urging him to stand up. He stands up, the fuzzy blanket falling off of his back. He keeps holding onto his baby blanket though as he grabs his hoodie from Cat who got it from his closet, putting it on without placing down his blanket. I stand up and fold the fuzzy blanket back up and put it on his bed, grabbing Winter's hand to head out of his room. Cat grabs her sweater, and I grab mine and my keys. Winter places his baby blanket down on the counter just inside the door, waiting for him to come back. We head out the door and head into the elevator. We head down to the park, Winter glued to my side as we walk. We get to the park and find Jack, Alba and Shay. Winter runs over to play with Shay, Cat and I going to talk to Jack and Alba.
"Why isn't Winter in school? Does he have an off day?" Jack asks as we say hello.
"No, he got attacked by some kids yesterday and is totally shaken up about it." I explain.
"Wait what?!" Jack asks.
"Yeah." I state. "He's had a few panic attacks, a massive nightmare last night, they totally messed with his mind. I feel so bad for him." I explain.
"Poor kid." Alba says.
"Yeah.. He totally zoned out this morning, I'm assuming he was replaying what happened yesterday, and then freaked out about it. We spent like 15 minutes trying to calm him back down. After he did calm down, he asked if we could go see Shay, so that's why I texted you."
"Yikes..." Jack states. "What are you gonna do to snap him out of it?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. He's gonna hate it if we put him in therapy, but I don't know how he's gonna snap out of it any other way. Maybe if we talk to the principal at the school and explain what happened, maybe he'll expel the other kids and then Winter will be more inclined to go to school."
"Yeah but that doesn't do anything about the nightmares or flashbacks..." Alba mentions. I nod. I have no idea what to do to help him. I hate seeing him sad and scared. I suddenly feel a nudge on my arm, and I look up at Cat.
"He's having another flashback." Cat mumbles. I look up to find Winter frozen in fear, standing near the middle of the park. I stand up and race over to him, everyone else following behind me. I kneel down in front of him, careful not to startle him.
"Winter," I start quietly, grabbing his arms in my hands. "Hey, buddy, it's ok." He snaps out of it quicker than this morning, launching into my arms and crying. Cat stands just behind him, rubbing his back softly. I guide him over to one of the short concrete walls that lines the park and sit down with my back leaning against it, hugging Winter into my chest. Cat sits beside me, continuing to rub his back slowly. Suddenly I feel Shay jumping up beside me, trying to get to Winter. She manages to move his arm, and she starts licking his face. He almost instantly stopped crying, moving his arm to pet her. I adjust his body so he's facing Shay, who jumps up on his lap and continues licking his face. One of his arms was still around me but the other was petting Shay. Winter was calming down more and more with every motion of petting Shay, it was remarkable. Winter wipes the tears off of his face, nuzzling into me. Shay suddenly sneezed, which made Winter burst out in laughter. I started laughing at Winter laughing. It felt great to hear him laugh after all his pain and sadness today. I look up to see Jack and Alba standing in front of us, and they say,
"You know, we have to go to a meeting anyways this afternoon, why don't you guys take Shay home and we'll pick her up later?"
"That would be great guys. Thanks."
"Anytime." Jack smiles.
"How ya doing buddy?" Jack crouches down to ask Winter.
"Shay makes everything better." He mumbles.
"Do you wanna take her home with you?" Jack asks, handing him Shay's leash. Winter smiles and nods, taking the leash from Jack. Jack ruffles up Winter's hair, standing up and saying,
"Alright, bye guys, we gotta go."
"Bye guys." I say.
"We get to take Shay home!" Winter smiles.
"Yeah we do!" I smirk. "Wanna throw the ball for her in the meantime?" I hold out my hand with Shay's ball, which she dropped when going to lick Winter's face. He nuzzles up close to me, not in the mood to throw the ball right now.
"No? Ok bud." I throw the ball for Shay to give Winter a distraction, as he can watch every movement she makes. Cat continues rubbing his back slowly, further relaxing him. Shay comes running back with the ball, dropping it in my hand. I offer it to Winter again, but he shakes his head. I throw the ball again, Shay fumbling with it before she grabs it. This makes Winter laugh, and when Shay comes back, Winter puts his hand out for Shay to drop the ball.
"Let's do two more and then we'll go." I decide as Winter throws the ball. Shay comes back and drops the ball in Winter's hand, and he throws it the last time. Shay comes back with the ball and I take it, telling Winter to put on her leash.
"You wanna walk her home?" Cat asks. Winter smiles and nods.
"Alright bud, let's go!" I grab his other hand and start heading back home. Winter glues himself to my side again, walking slower and slower with each step.
"Wanna go turtle?" I kneel down to ask him. He lights up and smiles. I took that as my answer, and turned around so he could climb on my back. I stand back up again, adjusting him to sit comfortably. Cat laughs as she walks beside us, Shay walking happily beside us, her leash still in Winter's hand.
In the 5 minute walk back home, I can feel that Winter has fallen asleep. We get back home and I carefully lay him down on the couch. Shay right away jumps up beside him, turning around a few times before snuggling up to him. I grab a blanket from the back of the couch and place it on top of them both. I guess Winter needed a nap after all that happened today and with the bad dream from last night. I walk over to Cat and we both look at him.
"Out like a light." I smile.
"He needs it. Let him rest for a bit." Cat nudges. I give her a quick kiss before saying,
"I'm gonna go work on a song in our room. I have some ideas."
"Sounds good. Love you." Cat smiles.
"Love you too."
I leave to go to my room, sitting in the chair and opening up ProTools. I open up a new session and start playing around on the piano.
A short time later, I hear the a knock at the door. I think nothing of it, as Winter bursts into the room running full speed, straight at me. He throws himself at me, tensing up around me extremely tight. I wrap my arms around him, trying to figure out what's going on.
"Woah Winter, what happened?" I didn't realize it when he came in, but he's crying and breathing very quickly, almost hyperventilating. I quickly change from asking what's wrong to trying to calm him down.
"Shhhhhhh buddy... it's ok." I quiet him down just enough to ask again what happened.
"They... they're here!" He cries out, sitting up from my chest and staring into my eyes.
"Who's here? Jack and Alba?" I assume, knowing they were coming to pick Shay up.
"No!" Winter yelps. "They found me!"
"Who found you?" I ask.
"The bullies!"