Second entry for the #OQbedsharingmonth.

A big thank you to Nani for the betareading.

Prompt:

6. Bedsharing to comfort each other

52. Panic attack

Blackout

She thought she was past the panic attacks and the nightmares, but she was wrong. It didn't matter how many years had passed since that day, it didn't matter if it was day or night, if she was alone or with someone, if her mind decided to go back, the only thing that could come from that was a panic attack.

.

..

Four years earlier

When she had woken up that morning she had a strange feeling, she was anxious and she felt like something might happen. But she dismissed everything, thinking it could have been the tiredness and stress. After all, as amazing as it was having a one year old and a four years old at home, it wasn't easy.

Nevertheless that morning she got her kids ready, she kissed her husband, she brought her son Henry and daughter Olivia to kindergarten and day-care and she went to work.

She was a lawyer and she worked in a building with about thirty floors and her office was on the twenty third one. And while she fought in a courtroom, her husband Daniel fought on the streets. He was a detective and they had met because of that, because of a case both of them had worked on.

Her friend Malia, or Mal, and her were in the elevator coming down from their office when it started. They were laughing about something their kids had done when the elevator began to shake. Not even thirty second later they were in a free fall.

They didn't know for how long they fell but the moment the two women thought it was the end, something blocked the elevator from crashing down.

Mal and Regina looked into each other's eyes and while they were lying on the floor, they reached for their hands. They knew they lived in a risk zone for earthquakes, but has much as you know and you do evacuation tests, you are never really ready for the real thing.

They had thought it was over when the building started to shake. Another earthquake caused the elevator to go down again.

This time nothing but the ground floor stopped their fall, but they weren't that high that the fall could cause too much damage. They were on the ground, yes, but they were stuck inside and the two women could hear that something was falling upon them from the elevator shaft.

Both Mal and Regina were extremely worried for their children of course, then for Daniel and Mulan, Mal's wife, and only in the end for themselves.

At the end of that terrible day, after they were rescued and checked out by a doctor, they were both able to go to their families with a lot of bruises but nothing broken. Mal went home to Mulan and their children. Regina went home to her children too, but her husband did not. He never made it out of the building where he was helping people to come out before it collapsed. It didn't matter if he was a detective, everyone was helping as much as they could.

For Regina it was extremely hard to go on. The trauma from the elevator, the immense fear for her children and husband while she was in that death trap, the fears even if she was safe and sound with her children at home and her husband's death were bringing her to the ground.

It took a lot of convincing from her parents, her mother in particular, and Mal for her to accept help and realize that talking to someone about everything that was going on in her life wasn't a sign of weakness. And after her latest panic attack she accepted to go to therapy.

Robin was a fireman. He lost people that day too, not his child or his wife, who unfortunately had passed away when their son was one, but colleagues and friends.

It had been a hard time for him, as for everyone else, but he knew that talking to someone could be really helpful. He had done the same thing when he had lost his wife. And now he was doing it again.

And that was how he found himself in a therapy group, listening to the story of a brunette woman who was trapped into an elevator and had lost her husband under a collapsed building and was now battling panic attacks.

They bond over that, over the loss of their partners, of what had happened that day and raising their kids without a parent. Of course they weren't the only ones who had lived that but something pulled them together, they were comfortable with each other and they found it easy to talk with each other about what they had lived. And most importantly they understand each other.

Robin had invited Regina out multiple times, with and without children as they considered themselves friends. Robin wanted something more but Regina wasn't ready.

It took Regina almost two years but she was finally ready to say yes to Robin about a date. He had asked in the past but she wasn't ready and he understood that and he had no problem waiting. So when an afternoon she went to him and smiling she said 'Yes' Robin was the happiest man alive.

From that day Robin Locksley was also the man who could call Regina Mills his girlfriend.

.

..

She didn't know what caused it this time but Regina woke up in the middle of the night screaming and it was difficult for her to breathe. She stopped screaming when someone began to talk to her and as soon as she realized she was in her bedroom in her house but she couldn't stop crying and shaking.

That someone who was talking to her was her son. The screaming had woken up Henry and Olivia. The little girl had run into her mother's arms and she hugged her tight, her mother hugged her back without stopping crying. Henry had tried to calm her down but when after ten minutes the situation hadn't changed and she kept silently crying and shaking he grabbed his mother's phone and called the only person who could help her.

Robin was at her door, with a sleepy eight years old Roland next to him, in twenty minutes.

"Where is she?" He asked immediately when Henry opened the door.

"In her room with Liv. I tried to take her down with me but mom wouldn't let her go. Nor Olivia." He said.

He was trying hard to not cry but he was terrified and worried for his mother. Her panic attacks were lesser and lesser but when she had them they were horrible.

"You did good by calling me." Robin pulled him for a hug and kissed his head. The three of them went upstairs, Roland and Henry in the latter's room and Robin to Regina.

He found her on her bed, Liv still in her arms, still awake despite the hour. She was still crying and shaking, like Henry had told him. It took a bit of convincing but in the end he was able to coax Olivia out of Regina's arms. He brought her to Henry's room where the two boys were talking quietly.

Olivia immediately went to her brother's arms and looked up at him with her big blue eyes. "Mommy is going to be okay?" She asked with a whisper that was barely heard.

Henry just nodded while Robin answered her, kneeling down next to the bed so she didn't have to look up to watch him and he took her small hand. "She's going to be just fine." But he didn't want to lie to her so he tried to explain better. "Your mommy needs a lot of help and a lot of love right now to get better. She's not completely fine but she will be. Okay munchkin?"

She nodded and she snuggled more into Henry. She put her thumb into her mouth but Henry gently pulled her hand away like their mother does. Henry didn't know why but their mother didn't like when Olivia did that. Henry put his sister on the bed between Roland and himself and the three of them snuggled together under the covers while Henry read from his fairytale book.

Robin looked at them from the door, it was a sweet scene to look at. But he had something to do in the other room so he quickly snapped a photo to show Regina and went to her room.

Regina was just coming out from the bathroom when Robin entered the room.

"I have something to show you." He said, sitting on the bed next to her.

"I'm not exactly in the mood right now." She dismissed him.

"And that's why I want to show you this."

He took out his phone and showed her the photo he had taken of the kids. As soon as her eyes landed on it she brought a hand to her mouth and she melted like only the kids are able to make her do. And yes, Roland is not hers but she loved him as much as she loved her children. The same thing could be said of Robin towards her kids.

"Did you tell them to position themselves like this?" Her eyes were full of tears but she was also kind of smiling when she asked that.

Robin put his arms around her and guided her to lay on the bed with him. "No. I only brought Liv to Henry's room, they did that all on their own."

He kissed her head as they moved to get comfortable. He was laying on his back, his arms were still around her, her head was pillowed on his shoulder and one of her arms was hugging him.

They stayed quiet, avoiding the elephant in the room until Robin spoke.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her gently.

"Not really." Her answer came muffled from her mouth pressed against him.

"You know it can help." He didn't want to push her too much but he knew her enough to know she would feel better after talking about it.

"I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"Fine. Then I just don't like you."

Robin snorted but he didn't say anything.

It was Regina to break the silence this time. "I was in that elevator again."

He didn't say a word, he just waited for her to continue. "I was alone, Mal wasn't there."

Her voice began to tremble and she took a deep breath. Robin kissed the side of her head. "It's okay, take your time."

"The elevator started to fall but nothing stopped it but the ground. And when it would touch the ground crashing down, the fall would start once again. It was like a loop."

Her voice was almost like a whisper and she was crying. Robin knew what had happened in the elevator and he would get goosebumps by only hearing the story. He couldn't imagine how it could have been for her.

"I don't know what changed. I just know that after what it felt like the hundredth time that damn elevator fell I began to scream and then I woke up. And it was difficult to breathe. And it felt like there was dust all around me, in my eyes, in my mouth -"

She was crying harder and Robin did the only thing he knew could help her: hugging her tight and talking to her softly to make sure she stayed in the present and her mind didn't wander to that day.

They stayed like that for what it felt hours before Robin moved to get up from the bed. He thought she was finally asleep but he was wrong.

"Where are you going?" She asked immediately when she realized he was getting up. Being alone right now wasn't something she wanted to be.

He moved back next to her and kissed her head, an act that comforted her. "I thought you were asleep. I just wanted to check on the children." He said to her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She nodded. "I'll come with you."

They both got up from the bed and he took her hand.

They weren't ready for the sweet scene that welcomed them when they stepped into the room. All the three children were asleep, the book Henry was reading on the floor and the two boys were hugging the little girl that was sleeping between them.

Robin tugged her hand to go back to bed but Regina had another idea. She walked fully into the room, she put the book on Henry's nightstand, she took her time to look at the children, all three of them, she kissed their heads and tucked them carefully. Only then she grabbed Robin's hand and went back to her room.

They set themselves into bed but it was clear that Regina's intentions were to stay awake and considering it was almost four in the morning it was a terrible idea, they were lucky the next day was a saturday.

"You should sleep Regina." Robin whispered in her ear.

She just shook her head 'no' and kept staring into space.

"You're exhausted darling. Why don't-" He didn't even finish what he wanted to say that she began to shake her head once again, this time harder, tears were rolling down her face and it was like she was panicking all over again.

Robin put his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him. "Regina darling. Regina." He tried to draw her attention but it was like she was looking at something over his shoulder.

He called her again, this time shaking her a bit and her eyes locked into his.

"Robin." It was a whisper but Robin could hear the despair in that whisper. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight as she cried. He knew why she didn't want to sleep, she feared going back there, that her mind would bring her back to that awful day but being exhausted didn't help either.

It was like she was trapped: she didn't want to sleep because of the nightmares and the panic attacks but staying awake and being exhausted would only increase whatever thing was going on in her mind.

In the end he decided it was better saying nothing. It wasn't the ideal but exhaustion would win and she would fall asleep, whether he wanted it or not.

Robin stayed with her all night, keeping her in his arms. It wasn't the first time they shared a bed and it wasn't the first time they did it because she needed comfort after that kind of episode. Robin imagined this wasn't going to be the last time, and he was ready to do everything he could to help her and comfort her.

He held her through the night, running his fingers through her hair, and he didn't know if he did that to comfort her or himself, whispering sweet nothing to her when it was clear she was in distress, kissing her head every time she snuggled more into him, and that happened a lot. At some point he fell asleep too but he kept holding her during what remained of the night.

When he woke up in the morning it was with three kids standing next to him and staring at him and with a beautiful brunette in his arms.

Regina was woken up by voices and giggling outside her bedroom door and not even a minute later her three boys and her girl came into the room. Henry was holding a tray with way too much food to be for just one person, Roland had three glasses, the little lady of the house was carefully holding a bottle of apple juice and Robin had two cups of coffee.

If Regina's night had been horrible, her morning had been perfect.

She was right about the way too much food: in fact that was the breakfast for all of them and they ate it all together on the bed. A breakfast in bed without the romantic part of it but with a lot of love.

They spend the day together, trying not to think of what had happened the night before even if considering how clingy Olivia was, she was a clingy girl but that day even more, and the glancing Henry was giving her it was a bit hard because it was clear something was upsetting both Olivia and Henry. Roland was a bit more subtle but he was worried too.

Her panic attacks and nightmares didn't end that day and Robin knew they would still be there in the future but he and their children were always there to comfort her, to help her and to love her.

Thank you for reading. Constructive criticisms and thoughts are always welcome.