Niall Horan
I felt bad for Avery's parents, I really did. We hadn't told them about Aimee's panic attacks because she had only one prior to this and I don't think any of us expected it to happen again. The look on Tom, Avery's father's, face was heartbreaking.
"We're gonna sort this out." I assured him. "The doctor is coming as soon as he can." I looked over at Ave and Aim- Avery was holding our daughter close to her chest, whispering things into her ear to calm her down.
"How many times has this happened before?" Tom asked me. We were across the room, so the girls couldn't hear us.
"Only once." I admitted. "We thought it would be the last time."
"And this is from when Avery's boyfriend..." He trailed off, the words putting a sickening taste in his mouth. I hated thinking about it, thinking about someone laying their hands on two girls that were my world, my everything.
"Beat them." I finished for him. "It's horrid." I let my mind wander to a place I never dared to go often, thinking off all the times that Jake hurt them. They were defenseless and couldn't save themselves from him for all of those years. I sniffed, feeling my eyes start to water.
"I'm so glad she has you." Tom said, surprising me. "I really do... and I can tell that you two really love each other. If I could pick someone for my daughter, I'd pick you in a hearbeat." I felt my heart swell.
"Why?" I asked. "Not that I disagree, I just want to know." I blushed.
"I can see that you really care for my daughter and wouldn't ever hurt her. And you step up with Aimee and help out. You look like her father and act like it, too. You're perfect for them both." Tom chuckled. "You have my blessing."
"Thank you," I said. "I appreciate that. But for now, I don't think we'll be getting married. We might have Aimee take my last name instead of Jake's, though." Tom nodded, absorbing my words.
"I hope that punk goes to jail." He shook his head. "If murder was legal, I would have shot him by now. This stays between us, by the way." I laughed and nodded.
Suddenly, there was a knock from the front door of our hotel room. I sighed, relieved that the doctor was finally here. It wouldn't be the same doctor, but I hoped that he didn't have any other suspicions or concerns about Aimee. We had so many things against it, I didn't know if I could take another.
Tom got the door and a tall, skinny man with glasses entered. He had thick, curly hair and looked extremely nerdy. I could tell, when he looked at me and by the way he looked at me, that he recognized me instantly but was trying to be professional.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Franklin. Over the phone you said something about panic attacks...?" He trailed off, shaking my hand firmly. I nodded and looked over at Aimee, who was still in Avery's arms.
"Our daughter has been having severe panic attacks and we'd like to get some help for it as soon as possible." I informed him. "This is the second time now and we'd like to stop this."
Mr. Franklin nodded and jotted some things on a clipboard that he was holding. He walked over to Aimee who looked at him with big, fearful eyes. He smiled sympathetically and sat beside her on a chair.
"You're Aimee?" He asked in a small voice. She nodded, her hand shaking furiously. He nodded and looked over her records, looking at Avery. "It says on here that she has PTSD. Can I ask what that is about?"
Avery looked over at me, but I smiled, trying to make her feel better. She sighed and nodded.
"We were both in an abusive situation." Avery said, trying to come off very professionally. The doctor nodded and wrote things down on his notepad.
"Can I ask what happened with that?" He asked, suddenly a lot more interested.
"My previous boyfriend would... uh, hurt both me and my daughter. Just recently we left him, but the last doctor we saw thinks that Aimee has a form of PTSD... probably from those situations." I could tell that Avery was so uncomfortable, but I also knew that I couldn't cover for her since I wasn't actually there.
"I see." The doctor nodded. "Well, yes, I assume that is what it's from. There are a lot of things we do for PTSD to treat it and I suggest you at least do one of these. There's always meds that she can take, now I'm not sure how strong the dosage could be because she's so young. There's also counseling, which could either work very well or not well at all. It all depends on the person."
"And for the meds," I stepped in. "Would they be a daily thing or do we give them to her when these panic attacks come on?"
The doctor bit his bottom lip, deep in thought. "It depends. There are medicines for both, but then again I'd have to see which would be best for her since she's so young. How does that sound, Aimee? You want to get all better?"
She nodded, her eyes droopy. These panic attacks seemed to drain her of her energy.
"I'll prescribe you a medication that I think will work and she can take daily, and I'll also write down a list of counselors that I recommend to my patients who deal with anxiety disorders. They can be extremely helpful and crucial for healing and overcoming these obstacles." He started scribbling on his paper, and I could see Aimee coming back from her panic attack.
"How ya feelin', princess?" I asked her, sitting by her and Avery on the bed. She yawned and smiled, crawling up to me and curling up in my lap.
"I'm sleepy, daddy." She pouted.
"I know baby, you can sleep after this." I promised her. "And I'll let you watch a show on Netflix, okay?" Aimee seemed happy by this, and she was starting to look like herself.
"How long does the usual panic attack last?" Avery asked the doctor.
"Anywhere from 30 seconds to hours, it depends per person. But a part of medicine and counseling is getting rid of these panic attacks, so hopefully with those two tools everything will work out. It might take time, but you'll see improvements. If you don't, contact me." He handed over a slip of paper and another with his business card on it.
"Thank you, doctor." I smiled, shaking his hand.
"This is very unprofessional of me, but could I get your autograph? My daughter is a big fan." He blushed. I laughed and nodded, grabbing the doctor's clipboard and pen.
"Who should I make it out to?" I asked.
"Uh... Robert." The doctor blushed more, and I tried so hard not to laugh. It was obvious that this autograph was going out to him, but I didn't point it out. I scrawled on the tablet and smiled. Tom showed him out of the hotel and I sat beside the girls on the bed.
"How're ya doin', Aim?" I asked her. She shrugged and crawled up to me.
"I wanna swim, daddy." Aimee said. "I'm not sleepy anymore, I wanna swim. In a pool." I could see her getting excited as she kept on talking. It was a bit weird, I figured since she'd just had a panic attack that she would be tired, but she seemed to be fine.
"It's the middle of the night, baby." Avery chuckled.
"But you going swimming!" Aimee argued. I had almost forgotten- Avery and I were in our swimsuits, and our hair was wet. We were caught in the act, and now we couldn't lie to Aimee. I didn't want to, anyways, I'd never want to be a bad example for her.
"Okay, Aimee, we'll take you up swimming for a bit. But you gotta be good okay?" I looked her in the eye so that she knew I was being serious. She squealed and jumped up and down on the bed. "Where's her bathing suit?"
"In her back, stuffed somewhere." Avery admitted. "I cannot believe we're taking her swimming in the middle of the night. Such great parenting." She joked.
"We're fun parents, though! All of Aimee's friends are gonna love us when she's older." I reminded her, grabbing a yellow polka-dot bikini from Aimee's backpack. I had to admit- it was the most adorable thing that I'd ever seen. I was turning into a softie.
Avery quickly changed Aimee into her bathing suit while I grabbed her a towel for when she need to dry off. I just hoped that the others were still up there, because I knew Harry wanted to teach Aimee how to swim.
"Come on, lets go swimming!" I announced, trying to get Aimee to forget about the little episode that we had just had. And I know what Avery was thinking the same thing, and that was the only reason she agreed to take Aimee swimming. We just wanted her to feel better.
"I'm gonna be a fishy." Aimee told me as I held her tightly. We were climbing up the stairs to the top deck and out into the hot air. I could see some of the boys waving us over and I grabbed Avery's hand with one arm and secured my grip on Aimee with the other.
"There she is!" Louis exclaimed, hopping out of the pool to meet up with us. He quickly tried to take Aimee from me, but I didn't want him to. It made me nervous with her around the pool- she couldn't touch or swim. "Come on, mate." He chuckled.
"I'm gonna hold onto her for now." I said, awkwardly scratching the back of my neck. "She just had one of her attacks and I want her to be careful around the pool."
"I second that." Avery said, standing beside me. "I think we're going to stay in the shallow end for now." She giggled. Aimee reached over for her mum and I let Avery take her as Louis frowned at us, not really understanding. You can't understand the things parents worry about until you actually become one yourself.
"Look who's up!" Harry said from the deep end. His hair was wet, which meant that his curls weren't as loose and they bunched up around his face. I always liked his hair like that, it reminded me of the X Factor days from years ago.
"Momma, I wanna swim!" Aimee complained. I watched closely as Avery took Aimee to the shallow end and they stepped down into the heated pool. Avery was careful with her, holding her hand the entire way and then finally scooping her up when the water reached her chin. I knew that she would watch her closely.
"You're whipped. Not just by your girlfriend, but you're daddy whipped by that little girl." Louis chuckled, still standing beside me. He grinned and put his hands on his hips as we watched the two girls join Darcy in the shallow end.
"Parenting has corrupted me, mate." I laughed, shaking my head.
"I think you're a wonderful dad." Louis mused. "I see how you take care of Aimee. Almost as well as Avery, actually. And Avery does so much for that little girl, so that's a lot." I chuckled.
"I wanna make up for everything, ya know? All those years of being hurt by Jake, I feel like it's my job to make that up to 'em. And I'm going to do that." I promised him. "We're gonna try and get the papers together for Aimee's last name to change."
"Really?" Louis asked, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think the fans will think? They don't even know Avery, let alone Aimee."
"I reckon a few will be mad, but I hope they understand." I smiled. "I've never had a serious relationship before and I just hope they're nice to 'em." Just thinking about this was stressing me out, I had never really given this subject much thought.
"So," Louis sighed. "What happened down there?"
"She had another panic attack." I said, sitting on the side of the pool. Louis sat down beside me and put his feet in the water. "This is the second one, so we got a doctor and he got her some medicine, or something." It was all a bit confused to me. "And she's gonna go into counseling."
"Seems rough." Louis admitted. "It's a good thing she has you and Avery." He leaned back on his elbows and I watched as Harry was trying to instruct Aimee on how to swim. So far, though, she just clung to Avery's arm.
"It'll all work in the end." I said at last.
"I believe you, man." He nodded.
"Daddy, look at me!" Aimee squealed, kicking her legs in the water. I laughed and both Louis and I clapped for her as she held onto Harry's tattooed arm. I had only known these two for around three months, and they already felt like close family to me. Heck, they were close family to me now.
"Just watch out for those paps." Louis said, interrupting my thoughts. "They can be brutal when you're in a relationship, and if they find out there's a kid involved they'll go mad." He shook his head. I hadn't thought about that, either. I really had to protect their identity wherever we went.
"Thanks, Lou." I smiled, slapping his knee. "Don't know what I'd do without ya."
"Probably die." Louis said bluntly, causing us both to erupt in laughter. I felt like I could always come to Louis for anything- whether it be to have a laugh or get some serious advice. And now since talking to him, I felt a bit better about the whole panic attack situation. I just hoped now that everything would go as planned.
Suddenly, I saw Sam run up to the rooftop. He was wearing shorts and a wife beater, and his face was a bit alarmed. What had gone wrong now? I just prayed that nothing was going to happen now, right when things were starting to simmer down.
"Everyone, they're talking about Kate Winters on the news!"
a/n:
yay for aimee getting better!
comment, vote, fan, ily :*
- x Delilah