It has been 3 days since Lizzie got back home from Italy with Scarlett. Elia somehow has her time where she could laugh, smile but then she's laying in her bed, mourning, just spacing out, thinking, trapped in her own mind.
And ever since Lizzie's back, Elia's been sleeping in her parents bed. But lucky her, she doesn't have nightmares anymore every time she sleeps with her parents. So, it's a relief and a win-win situation.
Elia also every time she's asleep, Lizzie could feel that skin to skin contact could make Elia's tense body fly away every time she's having an early stage of nightmares. Always touching her mother's collarbone or Lizzie will rub her daughter's bare back under the shirts. Lizzie will also wake up on Elia's hand under her mother's shirt laying her hands on top of Lizzie's stomach.
In those 3 days, the little family literally spent their day attached to each other's hips. Elia and Sebby even got into Lizzie's gardening and it turned out to be a mess doing it with Seb.
And they will always sit at the kitchen whenever Lizzie's cooking their breakfast, lunch and dinner just talking to each other, making light conversation and jokes right there and then.
It's all to distract Elia from being in her own mind.
They also have packed their things for Atlanta since they are going to go to Atlanta in 2 days. They are going to take Lizzie's private jet, wanting to avoid Elia in a crowded place since she's still in recovery.
Lizzie and Scarlett agree to go together and they are also neighbors in Atlanta from where they rent their house there for 3 months.
Honestly, those two are inseparable. But Elia loves it nonetheless. Rose will be there too but after a week when they've arrived because she's still with her dad.
They haven't opened Elia's birthday gifts yet and they decided to invite everyone for dinner tonight. The one with them in Monaco for Elia's surprise birthday party and the cast that couldn't join in Monaco and wanted to give Elia their present too.
So, The Olsen-Stan family right now are preparing dinner together for the guest. Elia is sitting on the island while chopping vegetables, Lizzie is stirring the gravy and Seb is helping Elia chopping.
The background TV sound filled the air until some noises triggered Elia's flashback. The sound of cars speeding as the advertisement about F1 got aired.
"Mom, I can't control the wheel anymore"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ELIANA! YOU KILLED HIM!"
"Eliana!" Seb said, taking notice Elia cut her fingers but her eyes seemed far away from here. Lizzie came to them immediately
Elia snapped from it, breathless that she's drowning under the sea once again, repeatedly shaking her head to get the voice and images out of her head.
She doesn't feel the pain of the cut, she feels the pain, the fear from 'that day'.
This is to be expected. Beatrice has warned the parents since the first meeting with the trauma that Elia goes through and all of the story that Elia tells her, she's in the early stages of PTSD.
Separation anxiety, PTSD, Anxiety. It's only a matter of time until she falls into depression. They were hoping that time won't come because as Beatrice advises them, with all of the support that they gave to Elia, the understanding, the patient, she'll most likely fall into a depression state.
So, it makes them at ease a bit.
Back to Elia, she blinked her eyes several times and once the images of 'that day' fades away, she could see her mama in front of her looking at her worriedly, cupping her cheeks with her hands and her daddy hold her hands and she just notice now that it's bleeding.
God, she just wants one day where she has her usual normal day with her family. Just for tonight please. That's all she's asking for.
Just for tonight without her having flashbacks or any kind of accidents.
"T-the ads on the TV. The car sounds speeding. It all came- it all- I could hear him whispering saying he can't control the wheel anymore over and over again and that- that I-" Elia said, mumbling, stuttering, stumbling over her words as she explained to her parents.
"Okay, deep breath baby. It's okay. Everything's okay now. You're safe. It's all gone. I'm right here okay?" Lizzie said, softly caressing her daughter's cheek.
Elia just nodded her head. Can't comprehend any words at the moment.
"I'll go grab the first-aid kit" Seb said, informing Lizzie and went to grab the first-aid kit.
When he came back, he started to clean the blood on Elia's index and middle finger where she cut it. Lizzie just stands behind Elia, rubbing her shoulders to keep her ground.
When Seb applied the antiseptic wipes, Elia started to feel the sting wound and she flinched and winced in pain.
"I know, baby. But we gotta keep the bacteria away before it's infected" Seb said softly. Lizzie just keeps on kissing the top of Elia's head to somehow comfort her daughter and it actually works. Every time she did that, it worked. Like the time when Elia's shoulder popped out, they had to reset it back and Lizzie stands at the top of the bed to hold Elia's head and keep kissing it.
10 minutes later, all is clean and Sebby has put the ointment in Elia's hand, it's time for a band-aid but the band-aid in the first-aid kit is too boring and formal. So, Sebby goes to one of the cabinets and takes out a theme band-aid that he hid.
It's an Avengers theme band-aid that he and Mackie bought for fun.
Lizzie and Elia raised their eyebrow in amusement watching Seb grin at the band-aid
"That's too formal and boring Lizzie"
"When did you buy this?" Lizzie asks her fiance while smirking
"Ever since we moved in here. Mackie and I wanted to buy it as a joke but then we remembered how kind of an accident prone our daughter is so I just thought ''why not 2in1, right?" Seb stated
Lizzie and Elia just chuckles at Sebby's statement. Then they opened the box and Elia could see lots of superheroes on the band-aid.
She needs two for her index finger and middle finger. She then took out 2 superheroes and gave it to her papa.
Lizzie just smirks while Seb just grumbled about something 'you're my daughter, you should choose me'
But Sebby just put on the band-aid on Elia's finger nevertheless.
It was Black Widow and Scarlett Witch theme.
"Good choice, baby," Lizzie said once it's done.
Elia has less tense and thank god she's not thinking about it anymore. She really needs to focus on tonight's dinner.
No need to make them worried about her. They deserve a break. But Elia also deserves a break. But it's kinda a break too for her when everyone is not worrying over her.
Sweet, sweet Elia always thinks about others instead of herself.
"Now, let's go. Let's get ready before the guest arrive" Lizzie said
The three of them get upstairs, getting ready for tonight's dinner.
-/-
The guests have finally arrived. There's Grammie and Grandpa, Aunt MK and Ashley, Aunt Scarlett and Uncle Chris, Gwyneth, The Downey's, Uncle Mackie, Uncle Renner, Uncle Hiddleston, Uncle Hemmy (Hemsworth) and Holland. The Grey's and The Clarke's are also there.
The others who couldn't come are because they have work and it's unavoidable even though they really want to be there so badly.
Elia is still upstairs getting ready. No, she's staring, spacing in and out in her own mind. Why does Jamie come into her mind pretty often today? Everything that she does, every single things seems to triggered her back to 'that day'
She decided she can't keep wallowing in her room anymore and she could hear the chaos downstairs, so she better distract herself with them.
When she reached downstairs, everyone greeted her, she threw a smile and a grin at them. They talked for a while just to kill time until dinner and because they just simply missed each other too.
Surely they'll be meeting more often after this because they're all gonna be in Atlanta, filming.
Elia was busy telling her Grandpa about the recent book that she read, her time playing with Dodger while her mama and Aunt Scarlett were away.
"And then Dodger came back with a rat instead of the frisbee. Papa, Uncle Chris and I immediately ran around the backyard and Dodger thinking we wanna play chase and run with him but no we were literally running from the rat that he brought in his mouth" Elia wildly telling the story to her Grandpa while her Grandpa just grins hearing Elia's story.
It's been a while since they last met Elia and act this happy. So, it's a blessing for tonight.
When Elia told the story with her hand running wild gesturing over there and then, Grandpa caught the sight of Elia's band-aid fingers.
"Hey, what happened? Lizzie?" Grandpa asks worriedly, taking Elia's hand to inspect it
Everyone in the living room immediately stopped talking when they heard the worriedness from the grandfather.
"I was helping mama in the kitchen and I cut my fingers. It's totally okay though, I didn't realize it and look, it didn't hurt" Elia said
"How could you cut your fingers? Elia you're not the person who seems to lack safety when using sharp things" Uncle Chris said weirdly.
Elia seems to be tense by the question. She doesn't want to tell them that she accidentally cuts her finger because she's having PTSD. Tonight was supposed to be a cheerful night, family night. Not sympathizing with Elia's fate night.
And of course everyone noticed how tense Elia's body was, so they dropped the subject and looked at her parents for their confirmation of theories that had been plaguing their brain.
"I think it's time for us to eat. Scarlett could be grumpy when she's hungry" Lizzie said, cutting the tension in the air in order to make her daughter comfortable.
Scarlett glared and scoffed at Lizzie annoyingly.
"Control your fiance" Scarlett said, turn to Sebastian
"She's your best friend" Sebastian argues
"So, as you can see, that is how Aunt Scarlett grumpiness when she's hungry. Let's go people before she eats us all" Elia chimed in, smirking mischievously when she continued the teasing her mother threw at Scarlett.
"Okay, you wanna play it like that huh baby Olsen. Alright" Scarlett said sarcastically and then rushed off to grab Elia before she could run off elsewhere and tickled her.
Her laughs and giggles erupt in the air making all of them smile lovingly hearing that. It's truly been a long time. Then Scarlett decided to stop because Elia was panting heavily right now by the tickles. Tucking Elia next to her as they walk to the dining table, hands wrapped around Elia's shoulders
"I like your band-aid" Scarlett states and Elia once again fills their ears with her precious laugh and they'll never get bored hearing that.
--------------------------
Oohhhhh!!! There's some heartbreaking scene in the beginning. Oh no another mental illnesses for Eliana? Oh poor baby. But I'm in love that we got some cute little cheeky Eliana at the end! I'm gonna post next chapter in a few hours! It's a fluff chapter of Elia opening her birthday gifts!! Yeayyyyy!!!
I hope you guys are enjoying reading this! Have a blast! And don't forget to always be safe!
LOTS OF LOVE MY LOVES <3!!!!