Monday.

Bex waited in the small, clinically white room; she positioned herself on the bed, trying to ignore the iciness within the place.
"Now this won't hurt and it'll only take a minute." The young-looking female doctor explained to her supportively.
She twisted about a little on the bed on her back, trying to block out the feelings that she could see coming. "No."
"Bex, you need to relax, else we won't know how badly hurt you are."
She tensed up even more under the starchy blankets, causing the doctor to withdraw. "I-I'm sorry…I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry, it's fine. The trauma is still set in quite deeply." She stood not too far away from her. "Have you seen anyone about how much this is affecting you?"

"I've spoken to someone if that's what you mean."
"Well, that's always a positive thing. Even if it's someone like a friend or relative." She placed a hand on her shoulder supportively. "If you want, I can refer you to some counsellors…try and free some of this anxiety. And if you want to keep talking to the same person again, that's also a good thing in itself."
Bex nodded unsurely.
"The main thing is you're willing to get help for this."

Later on that evening.
"You feel ready to talk again?" Chris eventually asked after ten minutes of silence between him and Bex.
She nodded dimly.
"Talk in your own time."
She drew in a deep breath, slowly closing her eyes and letting her anxiety make her see things she didn't want to see. "I feel so awful."
He sat closer to her, unsure of how to make her feel any better. He noticed that she seemed weighed down again, and he pulled her up against him. "This isn't your fault."
"Then why do I feel so bad?"
Chris felt her relax a little. "There's a lot of stigma surrounding this sort of thing. And some girls don't tell anyone as they might think it won't ever get sorted out. But it's good that you've told me."
"W-will you do anything about it?"
He gazed at her, unsure. "If you wanna report it, that's your call, Bex. Not mine."
Bex nodded slowly. "It just feels like it's affecting everything."
"If it's interfering with your life, then I would intervene. Anyone would if you felt like you couldn't cope. You're on the list for counselling. Try and stay strong for yourself up to then."
She felt a tear roll down her cheek, and she hastily wiped it away in the vain hope that Chris didn't notice. "I-it's so hard…"
He felt awful that he couldn't do much more than talk to her; of course, that didn't mean to say it wasn't helping. All he could do was to give her plenty of time to talk it over some more, even if it meant her repeating herself, or allowing her as much time as he could to sleep. "You know, these feelings you have are normal."
Bex shakily gazed up at him. "Th-they are?"
He nodded slightly. "Don't ever think the way you're behaving is abnormal…or crazy. This is what shock does."
She shuddered a little, although feeling safer as she was pressed up against him. "You know, there's something strange about all this."

"What's that?"
She cast her gaze to the floor. "Sometimes I feel sad…and other times, I'm not. Other times I feel like I've frozen. Well, maybe not so much frozen, but I guess it's almost like I'm stuck in some sort of dream – and can't get out."
Chris rubbed her down her back.

"Does that come off as odd to you?"
"No, not at all. That is still normal." He turned his body to face her more. "I know it happened a short time ago, but it is still shock. And because you didn't wanna talk about it before, you've probably been repressing those thoughts and feelings – holding it back. And it's never good to do things like that because sooner or later they have to come out."
Bex suddenly came over tired, and he decided that she'd been through enough talk with him.
"You feel like stopping?"
She nodded slowly, and allowed him to lay her down in amongst the mass of warm blankets he let her have. "It feels like this is all taking forever."
"I know it does, but it'll take some time." Chris positioned himself next to her, placing a hand on her wrist. "Even if it comes out in bits or you find yourself repeating the same stuff over, that doesn't make it any less conducive. That's part of the healing process…ok?"
"Ok."
He cast his gaze away, before flitting it back to her anxiously. "I know this is a sensitive question for me to ask, but do you ever feel like…hurting yourself?" He hoped her answer was no, and in a way he didn't want to know the answer at all.
Bex didn't seem sure. "I don't know…It's never occurred to me to do so."
He was slightly relieved. Although she'd said no, it didn't mean to say she would never feel like doing that whatsoever. What she felt right then could alter an hour later. Shock changes people – and he knew that. "Just try and sleep for now…ok?"
"O-ok."

An hour had passed.

Chris decided to check up on her, confused when he realised she wasn't where he'd left her.
He heard sniffling coming from behind the bathroom door, and was shocked at what he saw.
Bex was sitting down with her back against the wall – he didn't know why she was there at first, but it became more apparent when he noticed a small amount of dark red fluid on the floor.
She'd cut herself.
Chris's initial reaction was to simply stand there in shock; the shock was affecting her in a more severe way, right in front of him. Managing to get himself together, he bent down next to her, grabbed hold of a nearby towel and pressed it into the deep injury at her wrist. Once that had been taken care of and he'd managed to stem the loss of blood, his next plan of action was to remove the offending sharp object she'd used. Of course, that wasn't very easy as she was still holding it in her free, uninjured hand.

Chris decided the only way he could remove it from her was if he subtly eased it out – without aggravating the situation. He'd heard of cases where the victim was adamant not to go along with dropping their weapons and held onto it even tighter. He couldn't let the same thing happen. Not to Bex.
"It's ok, you don't have to do this anymore." He placed a hand on hers, softly stroking at her wrist. "You can let go of it now."
"P-please let me."
"I can't, Bex. I'm sorry." He was slowly winning at this little game. "You've got too many people who love you too much to let this happen."
She shivered a little – what from, Chris wasn't sure, but he guessed it was sheer despair of the situation. "I can't take this anymore."

He managed to take the weapon from her and slowly put it to one side; he'd done enough to immobilise her for then. His second worry was the cut she'd made. Luckily, the bleeding had stopped and had begun to heal.
She gazed up at him anxiously. "Please don't tell my mum."
"I'm going to have to." His answer prompted her to lower her head. "This isn't something that I'm going to just ignore."
"Are you going to take me away?"
Chris helped Bex up off the floor. "I'm not like that." He made sure she was otherwise ok; her eyes were red from the few tears, but apart from that, no lasting damage. Maybe it was a better idea for her to stay up for a little bit – just to calm her down.