Chris came to see Karen just before he started.
"How is she?"
"She's better." He hovered quite close to her desk. "She didn't feel up to coming in, so I let her stay at mine for a bit."
She smiled softly. "Thank you for that, Chris. You've been ever so good with her."
He moved his gaze to the floor before flitting it back to her. "She did have a small incident, but it's all taken care of."
"Why, what's happened?" She sharply got up, anxiety clearly there on her features. "Is she hurt?"
"No, she's fine." Chris quickly positioned himself next to her, helping her to sit back down and stay calm. "She's fine, Karen…please don't worry."
Karen nodded dimly. "So should I come and get her after work?"
"Yeah…she's likely to wanna stay there till I get back." He knew that Bex did not want to go back to her own home, which worried him. For a start, it was her proper home, secondly she lived with her family.

Later on after work.
Bex sharply jolted after hearing the flat door close; she half-expected Chris to be just on his own, but he led Karen, who was behind him, to where she was. "Why have you brought her here?"
"Come on, love. Let's take you home." She smiled softly.
"I want to stay here."
Not oblivious to her protest, Chris remained up against the wall, allowing Karen to grasp Bex and start to take her back home.
"You don't want to keep hassling Chris all the time."
"I want to stay here." She reaffirmed, her eyes insistently fixed on him as he slowly turned to gaze back at her.
"You should do what your mum says, Bex." He knew that he was doing the right thing by letting Karen take her. She was her daughter; she was in her custody and not his. But he still offered her to stay at his for however long she wanted.
"Chris, tell her. Please…tell my mum I don't want to go."
Karen gazed at Chris, who looked to her worriedly. "What does she mean?"
"I said to her she could stay for however long she wanted." He noted quietly. "If she still feels unable to cope."

"She should go to a mental institution then, if she's getting like that." She retorted, shocked to see Bex go back over to him and wrap her arms around his waist.
"Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit here?" He twirled a few long, silky blonde strands around his index finger. "Trauma destabilises people. One day she could be fine, the next, not so. That doesn't mean to say she should be admitted just like that."
Karen had to admit, she felt awful for taking such a nonchalant view on her own daughter.
"For now she needs to get herself sorted out and get another lot of sleep before she goes anywhere." Chris noticed her posture become more lax, almost like she was giving in to what he was suggesting. "She's frightened at going anywhere like a mental hospital, if that's where you wanna take her. She thinks she won't come back out again."
Karen nodded dimly. "Ok…I'll let her stay with you for one more night, Chris. But after that…I want to take her. At least then you won't be so burdened with having to look after her."
"Karen, it's not a problem looking after her, I was more than happy to do that. But I wouldn't wanna let her go to some place she didn't wanna go."
She smiled softly. "You've been so good with her."
"S-so is it ok if she stays for tonight and goes back to you tomorrow?"
"That's fine."

Bex felt like she was stuck in some dream as she'd positioned herself under the shower; the numbness taking over her body blocked out the hot water that had sprayed down onto her, and she couldn't get out of it.

"Everything ok in there?" Chris did not want to come in and see her completely stark naked – that would definitely see him being sent packing.
No answer.

"Bex, I'm going to have to come in if you're having trouble." After all, he was the only adult in the flat! And if anything had happened to her, he had to know about it. For all he knew, she could've slipped and knocked her head on the wall – anything could've happened.
He came into the bathroom, noticing immediately that she'd stayed completely still against the wall; the water was going full-pelt onto her, and he was worried that it was scalding her without her even feeling it. Luckily, she'd covered herself up, a fairly large towel covering her from her chest area to the tops of her legs.
Once the water had been stopped, Chris tried to distract Bex's trancelike gaze, which didn't seem to be locked onto anything in particular. She just stood there stock-still and staring into space. This was trauma he'd never seen before. "I'm going to have to get you out, ok?" He steadily placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing her there in a supportive way. He was unsure as to if she'd heard him, but his guess was probably that she hadn't.
He pulled her up against him, scooped her into his arms and carried her onto the bed. "You ok to dry yourself, Bex?"
No answer.
Chris inched himself closer to her. "You can't exactly go to bed like that, you know."
"F-feel so cold." She managed to say.
He slipped the towel further up over Bex's shoulders, pulling her up against him; he started to dry her himself, rubbing her down her back. He was worried – had she gone completely brain-dead? He really hoped not. "You'll soon warm up."
She felt a little better being up against a warmer body, and she relaxed a little.
"You wanna get something on so I can towel dry your hair for you?" Chris did not want to dry her if he was going to end up exposing her private areas. He didn't know what sort of things could set the trauma off.

"I feel so incapable." Bex mumbled, as he positioned himself behind her and started to rub her hair dry once she'd gotten dressed.
"Ssh…don't feel that way." He managed to dry her hair quite quickly, detangling the long straight strands of it by combing his fingers through it. "I know it's interfering with your life, but you have to try and fight it."
"I can't." She put to him weakly, prompting him to place his hands on her shoulders. "I don't feel strong enough to."

Chris was quiet for a few moments.
"I don't even remember what happened…how did I even end up here?"
He wasn't surprised that she didn't remember. She completely froze everything out. Almost like she couldn't respond. "I think you went into emotional shock."
"I did what?"
He laid her down in amongst the blankets, which was her previous spot for sleeping. "You froze…that was all. It's a normal response to being in shock."
Bex sat up, bringing her legs up to her chest. "It sounds worse than that."
"It isn't. It really isn't." He got her lying back down again. He realised it was getting quite late, and he softly swept her long hair back away from her eyes. "Keeping yourself awake at night like this isn't helping. Try to relax…ok?"
"Can't I stay up with you?"
"I shouldn't let you really." Chris sounded apologetic. "I know you don't wanna be on your own, but you need your sleep more so than me."
"I want this to go." Frustrated, Bex rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into the pillow. "I want it to stop, Chris."
Gently, he inched closer to her and placed a hand on her back. He rubbed her there, feeling so bad that he could do no more than what he was already doing.

She jolted from the contact, and sharply gazed up at him, as his bright blue eyes placidly fixed onto hers. She threw her arms around him, as he wrapped his around her; he rubbed her down her back some more as she relaxed against him. Above anything else, contact was what she was screaming out for.
"If you ever want someone to talk to…" Chris could tell she was relaxing in his embrace as he continued to rub her. "…I'll be right here for you."
Bex smiled a little.

"See, that's better." He got her to lie back down as she made no movement to resist that time. "Try and be strong, Bex…you can fight this."