The first thing the couple was told when Luna started going to therapy again was that she was not going to be like she was before. Something in the kid had changed and there was no way to take that back. The girl was going to have clear changes in behavior that were going to be hard to work out
The couple was a little skeptical about this. They were able to break Luna's shell once, they could do it again. However, they quickly realized that was not how it worked.
For starters, Luna had periods of time when she would go silent. She would suddenly space out, as her breathing became uneaven, almost as if she was stuck in her mind. The good thing was that it only took someone to give her a little shake to take her out of her mind. Still, when this happened, the nine-year-old would be withdrawn for the rest of the day
She also hated to be alone in her room, they didn't realize this until one day that Emma went to a friend's house and stayed over. The brunette woke up in the middle of the night and when she realized she was alone, her anxiety striked resulting in a full-blown panic attack. It took the couple nearly an hour to get her to sleep again
The panic attacks were the scariest of all these changes. Luna had panic attacks frequently, most of the time it didn't need to be specific trigger, it just happened. The part that worried the women even more was that Luna was getting really good at hiding them.
Until one night
Maya and Carina were getting ready for bed. The girls were already on their room and it had been quite a good day.
It was a little over 1am when Carina decided to go for a glass of water. As she walked through the hallways a frown appeard on her face when she noticed a light coming from the living room. When she made her way to the living room she found Luna sitting on the sofa, hugging Ace, staring at the window
"Bella?" the woman whispered trying not to scare the girl "What are you doing here? It's late" she said walking slowly towards her. As she walked closer to the girl, she noticed the girl's breathing... it was heavier that usual "Luna?" she called making the girl turn to look at her, allowing the woman to see her tear-stained face.
Luna had had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep. Everything was spinning, her breath was hitching making it impossible for the air to reach her lungs, and she felt like she was about to throw up. She tried to calm herself down like she had been doing the last couple of days but she couldn't
She didn't want to wake up her moms, she already felt like she was being a bit of a bother so she got up and made her way to the living room, followed by Ace, not wanting to wake up Emma as well
"I need you to take a deep breath" Carina said sitting next to her really carefully holding one of the girl's hands "Come on bambina, you can do it" she said trying for the kid to copy her breathing "Slow, in and out" she said seeing how much her daughter was struggling to copy her
Suddenly Carina was able to hear some footsteps coming from behind her that stopped for a second and then rushed towards them
Maya woke up when her wife left the room and quickly realized the brunette was taking too long, so she decided to go look if everything was okay
"Mom..." the girl was able to crock out when she saw the blonde walking towards them
"I'm here, I'm here" Maya was quick to reassure "You are okay" she whispered trying to keep calm "It will be over soon baby" she said
After a few minutes of seeing the girl not being able to ground herself, Carina decided to try one of the few technics that had worked before
"Bella I need you to listen to me" she said making the kid look at her completely scared, her eyes were just full of fear "Can you tell me 5 things you can see?" the woman asked making the girl start to look around
"The window..." she named between cries "Your rings..." she said as she looked down to her hands
"You are doing so good baby, keep going" she praised, encouraging the kid to continue
"The table..." she said looking up receiving a light smile from the couple "Ace's collar and the frame" she said making both women smile when they noticed her breathing going slowly back to normal
"Good job, now please tell me 4 things you can feel" she said this time, trying to keep the girl's mind occupied with something different than the panic attack
"Ace's fur" she first mantioned as she held tight to Ace with her free hand "the sofa and my clothes" she said closing her eyes for a minute "and my bracelet"
"What about 3 things you can hear" she asked caressing the girl's hand with her thumb
"Your voice" she said trying to smile for the first time "the wind outside" she said as she looked towards the window "and the cars on the street"
"We are almost done bambina" she said finally releasing a breath when she saw Luna finally calming down "Your two favorite smells?" she asked and the girl forced out a smile
"That's easy... your's and mom's perfume" she said finally relaxing, feeling how much easier it was getting to breath
"Okay then, last thing" Carina said softly "Your favourite taste" she said and Luna stayed silent trying to think
"Chocolate" she finally said. That was not her favourite taste that was her sister's but she didn't have one, or at least she couldn't think of anything right now
"That's not your favourite taste, that's Emma's" Maya intervened making the kid chuckle as she shrugged
"But I don't have a favourite taste" she said earning a little smile from her moms
"You feeling any better?" Maya asked making the girl slowly nod making the room fall silent
"I asked him to leave" the nine-year-old suddenly said making both women look at her, letting her speak. They knew Luna needed it "I told him to go... I swear I did" she then said trying to keep her eyes from flooding with tears "But he didn't listen" she said making both women shake their heads. They couldn't stand hearing their girl blame herself for what happened
"We know you did" Maya tried to comfort the girl "What happened it's not your fault baby" she said knowing where this was going "What Chris did wasn't..." she started but was quickly cut off by the girl
"Chris?" she asked frowning. The women all this time assumed the responsible for all of this was the girl's father. After all it was the only one that was taking care of her "It wasn't my dad" she whispered making the couple look at each other "It was Lucas"
And that was it, that was what Luna need it to be able to tell what happened that night. That was a long night for the three of them
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"Hi Carina, is nice to see you again" the social worker said as she walked into the house "Maya you too" she said as the blonde walked towards the woman
"Hi Kristen" Carina said as she closed the door "Nice to see you too"
"How has everything been going?" the woman asked smiling "How are the girls?"
"Everything has been going good" She answered
"Girls can you come and say hi?" Maya said a little louder for the kids, that were watching a movie on the living room, to hear her
Both of them slowly got up and walked towards the newly arrived woman
"Hi Luna, It's nice to see you again" the social worker said earning a little smile from the girl "and you must be Emma" she said to the little blonde that had now decided to hold tight to her sister's waist
"Hi" the six year old said looking at the woman "Please don't take her" Emma whispered. This week Emma had hardly let go of her sister. She was still a little scared of someone taking her away like they did before
"Don't worry sweetie, I'm not planning on taking Luna anywhere" the social worker said giving her a comforting smile
"Thank you" the little girl said finally smiling
"Did you have fun at Travis' house?" the blonde asked as she entered her house with the six-year-old
"Yes" the girl simply said "He's fun" she stated making her mom smile "Where's mamma?" she then asked not seeing the Italian around
"We have a little surprise for you in your room?" Maya said gaining the kid's full attention
"What is it?" the girl asked not being able to hide her excitement
"Why don't you go see?" she asked and the six-year-old didn't waste any time before starting to run towards her room
"Mamma" the little blonde called as she run to the room "Mamma!" she called one more time as she opened the door "Mommy said there was a surp..." she started but suddenly stopped when she saw who else, other than her mom, was in the room
"Hi Em" Luna said smiling as she felt tears well up in her eyes
"Luna?" she asked begging for it not to be a dream. It had happened before and it wasn't nice "Luna!" she said now louder running towards her sister, feeling her heart beating out of her chest. Luna immediately received her with open arms "Missed you" the blue-eyed said crying, hugging her a little tighter. Luna had to contain a wince that wanted to come out of her mouth
"Careful bella" Carina said realizing Luna was in pain
"Luna stays here?" she asked fearful of the answer
"We are not going to let her go anywhere else" Maya said from the door making both kids smile
"You came back" Emma whispered not being able to keep her tears from falling
"Always"
"Well, I won't be long" Kristen said smiling to the couple "I just want to fill you up on some things" she said making both of the woman nod
"Girls why don't you go to your room for second while we talk?" Maya said and the girls quickly nodded and left the room
"Well, we were able to contact with Luna's father" Kristen started as they seated "Actually he contacted us" she said making the couple frown "He wanted to know how Luna was doing" she explained as the couple nodded not really knowing what to say "Also, he signed to give up his parental rights, in case you want to continue with Luna's adoption"
"Of course we want to" Maya didn't waste time to say "We would love to"
"Great!" Kristen said "The only thing he asked for was to see her, but that we can discuss later" she said as Carina and Maya tried to contain their excitement "Now Chris also gave us some information about Lucas Ramirez" she said with a much serious tone, and that excitement the couple had was replaced by anger and disgust "He has some records on sexual assault so if you want to make this a legal matter, It is almost certain that you will have a positive result" she started "But the bad thing would be that Luna would have to testify"
Although the rape kit showed that the kid had been molested, they had not found any prove on the girl's underware or pants
"We will have to talk about it" Carina answered receiving a nod from her wife "I don't know if that's the best for her right now"
"I understand" Kristen said nodding "Well, from now on I'll be the one to guide you on the girls' adoption" she said changing the subject "I'll call you in a couple of days when all the paper work is solved"
"We'll be waiting "