First, I went to the closet in the hallway, grabbing the broom and dust pan from inside it. I set the dustpan on the counter and began to sweep up the pieces of the glass and the plate. I allowed Erwin to continue sitting on the floor where he had dropped to his knees. It is not that I did not care, I just felt that he needed to calm himself down before I tried to talk to him.

After sweeping up the glass, I went to the edge of the living room and called Michael's name from where I stood. He did not look up. I cleared my throat and called it a little louder, trying to keep my voice from cracking. He continued to play. Slowly, I went up to him and knelt beside him. I picked him up and held him closely to me. Michael squirmed uncomfortably in my grasp, unsure of why I had grabbed him.

"Come on, buddy," I said softly, through the tears falling down my face. "It's time for bed." I put my son in his bed and tucked him in. I sat at the edge of his bed, stroking his honey colored hair until he fell asleep. I crept out of the room as silently as I could, being careful not to wake him.

I found myself in the kitchen again. Erwin was still sitting on the floor where I had left him. He had hardly moved from that spot in the past twenty minutes I was in the other room. I approached him and knelt beside him quietly. His ragged breaths came out unevenly, making his whole body shake.

"Erwin…?" I said softly, putting a hand comfortingly on his back. "I'll be in the bedroom if and when you want to talk," I informed him gently. I stood and went to the other side of the house towards our bedroom. I changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, waiting for whenever Erwin would join me.

While I waited, I wondered if other people had acted like this when they returned from the Larson's world. Could there possibly be a group of them that get together somewhere? Maybe there was some kind of group therapy thing they did together. I rolled over onto my side and looked out the French doors into the starry covered sky and shadowed mountainsides. I would have to call Jameson tomorrow morning.

Minutes later I heard the bedroom door creak open. Erwin had entered, making soft footsteps towards his dresser and changing into a t-shirt and cotton shorts. I felt the mattress sink down behind me as he got under the covers. I rolled over to face him. I waited for him to get comfortable before talking to him.

"Are you alright?" I asked concernedly.

He nodded. "Fine."

I reached for his hand and held it to my lips. "Erwin, we'll get this figured out, okay? It'll be alright. You're not in this alone." I looked at him, imploring him to say or do something.

When he never replied, we adjusted ourselves closer to each other. His body reacted to my touch by immediately wrapping his arms around me while I did the same to him. His face rested in the crook of my neck. I could feel his warm breath against the skin of my chest. We laid in silence, holding each other tightly while our legs entangled, both of us slowly drifting off to dreamless sleep.

The following morning I called Jameson. When his secretary connected me to him, I immediately recounted the story from the previous night, leaving out the discovery of Michael's possible deafness. (After Jameson's call, I would call a doctor to set up an appointment for Michael). I even mentioned the Erwin's use of only his left arm when he threw the dishes at me. Jameson listened intently, only interrupting to clarify some things I had said.

"Well," said Jameson after I had finished, "that certainly is interesting."

"What do you think's going on?" I asked.

"Frankly, it sounds like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," he replied almost too bluntly, making me wince. "I would definitely suggest getting your husband to talk to Brady. He can help Erwin. He's helped others as well."

I paused. "Wait, so do you have a group session or something like that? I don't think Erwin would like talking one-on-one with Brady. He hardly wants to talk to me about this and I've been there."

"Yes, I understand." He cleared his throat. "If I'm not mistaken, they meet every Tuesday evening around six or seven o'clock at some old building. It's really not hard to miss. Would you like the address?"

"Please," I replied, grabbing a pen and paper. He told me the address and I quickly wrote it down. I was eager to get Erwin the help he needed. And also the help I needed. Whether or not I wanted to regard the fact that I was still having nightmares, it would not hurt me to go to a meeting such as this too.

It was only after I had hung up that I realized Jameson had mentioned that there indeed were others like Erwin and myself. I later found Erwin in the back yard and told him about my conversation with Jameson. He initially did not like the idea of going and reluctantly agreed to try it at least once.

That Tuesday evening, we pulled up in front of an old church. It was rustic in style, but looked as if it had been someone's home at some point. A piece of paper taped to the door told us the therapy meeting was in the second room to the right. I squeezed Erwin's hand gently and we entered together.

When we first walked into the small foyer, I immediately recognized the smell of an old building. Musty and almost sweet. The tile beneath our feet was cracked and dirty. The probably once-blue carpet now looked more gray with age and who knows how many shoes. We walked down the hallway to our right towards what we believed to be the room where everyone else must be.

As soon as we opened the door, we were greeted with an almost too cheery voice. "Welcome!" said a woman with bright red, curly hair who was standing not far from the door. She was well dressed in a navy suit and skirt. Her messy hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, exposing her face. Her eyes were a light green with wrinkles just beginning to form near the corners. "Welcome, welcome!" she said again. "Who might you two be? My name is Clarissa and I lead this group."

"I'm Ariadne and this is my husband, Erwin," I replied, holding out my hand for her to shake.

"It's wonderful to meet you both," she said, shaking both of our hands. "We're just about to get started so please, feel free to take a seat anywhere you like."

"Thank you," Erwin said with a nod and leading me towards the chairs set in a circle.

I sat down beside a dark skinned man who wore a green shirt and khaki shorts. His long, dark hair was braided into multiple tiny braids on his head and was pulled back by a rubber band. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and head down so I was unable to see his face. Erwin sat on my other side, keeping his hand tightly in mine.

Finally, I took a look around the room at the other people sitting in the circle. I was surprised to see them staring at the Erwin and myself until I realized who they were. Although it was an all but joyous reunion, I was almost startled to see Levi and Armin. They had been chatting quietly with each other before, but now they sat quietly, both staring at us.

Before I could offer any sort of greeting to them, Clarissa entered the circle with her hands on her hips. "Alright, everyone!" she said in her cheery voice. "We have a new couple joining us today, so we'll go around and tell everyone our names. I'll start," she said, putting a hand on her chest. The man sitting next to me still did not look up. "Hello, I'm Clarissa!" she introduced in a sing-songy voice. She made me want to throw up. She indicated to Levi who was closest to her. "You're turn!"

"Levi," he muttered.

"I'm Armin. Armin Arlert," said Armin, looking at me with a shy eagerness.

"My name is Erwin Smith."

Finally it was my turn. "I'm Ariadne Smith."

I turned to look at the man to my left as I waited to hear what his name was. Something about him seemed familiar, but I could not quite put my finger on it. He lifted his head and glanced around at everyone. His eyes were a beautiful, chocolate brown. "Ahli Fuchs." Quickly, he put his head back down. His voice was soft and deep. Something about his soft spoken voice made my heart jump.

"Well, if that concludes-"

"Sorry I'm late!" The door suddenly burst open. All eyes turned to see the short woman standing in the doorway. Her hair was cropped short and with a streak of blue beaming from the left side of her hair. She had multiple piercings on her ears, a silver loop on her right eyebrow, and a small stud in her nose. She wore mostly black and looked very odd compared to the rest of us. With all of her heavy make-up on, I did not recognize her as Mary Kat at first. It was only until I realized her eyes were hazel that I recognize her. "There was a huge bit of traffic on my way here and I got stuck in the middle of it."

"That's fine," said Clarissa, obviously irked by the interruption. "We just finished introductions. We have a new couple with us today."

Mary Kat's eyes scanned the room and landed on Erwin and me, widening in recognition. "Oh my god," she whispered. "It's you."

"You know each other?" Clarissa asked, confusedly looking between the three of us.

"Of course," interrupted Levi with a scowl. "We all know each other. We went to the same damn place. We were all in the same military branch."

Mary Kat slowly sat down in the chair closest to her. "All except Ahli. Ahli was just a citizen, not a soldier." Ahli seemed to tense up beside me. Erwin squeezed my hand lightly.

"Well, maybe that would be a good way to start off today's talks then, hmm?" suggested Clarissa enthusiastically as she sat down in a seat. "Everyone can all say how they know each other from the other world and we'll go from there. You can say 'pass' if you don't want to talk. Who wants to start?"

Nobody moved or said anything. Clarissa tried to make eye contact with someone, but everyone refused to look at her. "Fine," she said, defiantly. "Ahli, why don't you start us off? You're usually well spoken."

Ahli raised his head and looked at everyone in the room. "I didn't know anybody here in that world," he said softly. "The only one in that world that I personally knew who was in the military was my older sister."

"Well, who was your sister?" asked Armin. "Maybe we knew her?"

Ahli immediately seemed as if he wished Armin had not asked that. His face was a mixture of pain and sorrow. Quietly, he shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep in tears, which ended up falling down his face anyway. "I can't say her name," he croaked. My heart broke for him.

"That's alright," Clarissa assured him. "You don't have to if you don't want to." Clarissa stood up and took the empty seat on the other side of him. "It's okay, Ahli," she said gently, putting a hand on his back. "We're here for you and we willlisten. That's what we're all here for. We help each other out."

Ahli continued to cry silently. After a minute or so he composed himself and sighed heavily. "Someone else can talk now."

"That's alright, Ahli. Thank you for sharing," Clarissa said understandingly.

The rest of the session went uneventful and slow. Since we all already knew each other, it was basically repeating old information. Erwin decided he did not want to talk during this part so passed on his turn. The only one who seemed interested was Clarissa. She asked us questions every so often to clarify what we had said or make sure everyone was on the same page. She also gave some helpful tips to help with "episodes" (as she put them) of flashbacks or nightmares. Overall, it was a good first session for the two of us (at least I thought it was good). Erwin and I would talk about it when we got in the car or when we got home.

After the session was over, Armin said his good-byes and went ahead and left. Mary Kat, Levi, and Ahli lingered in front of the building, waiting for Erwin and me. Clarissa had asked for our contact information just in case we decided to come back next week and if we had any further questions about the group. We exited the church and found the group patiently waiting for us.

"Well, what did you think of it?" Mary Kat asked when I stood beside her. Erwin had stopped to talk to Levi.

"It's nice to know you guys are real," I said sheepishly. "I was never sure if we were the only ones in this area."

Mary Kat shook her head. "Nope. We're here!"

"This group hasn't been around long," Ahli informed me.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, probably only about a month or two," Mary Kat said, putting a finger to her chin as she thought.

I nodded. "I'm sure Jameson or Brady would have told us about it sooner had it been around much longer."

Mary Kat made a face. "Those two don't know what the hell they're talking about half the time," she spat bitterly. "They make themselves so high and mighty they don't realize how irritating they are."

"You aren't wrong there," I muttered.

Mary Kat looked over my shoulder at Erwin. "So you guys were together then, huh?" she said, smiling. "In that other world."

"And here," I replied a little sheepishly. "I thought we kept it pretty well under wraps though!"

Mary Kat laughed and shook her head. "When something like that happens, there's no way it's staying a secret! Especially in that small of a military branch."

"Why didn't you say anything?!" I cried. "Oh, whatever. It doesn't matter now." I sighed. "Now that I think about it, we should probably go. I need to get my son's results from his doctor's appointment earlier today."

"You guys have kids?" Mary Kat asked in amazement. "Oh, why am I surprised? You're married."

"Just one kid right now," I said. "Maybe more in the future, but right now is not a good time. For any of us."

Mary Kat nodded. "Yeah, I get it," she said waving her hand. She turned to Ahli. "Ready to go?"

"Whenever you are," he replied.

"See you later, Ariadne! Erwin!" Mary Kat said, taking Ahli's hand and pulling him towards her car.

"Bye! It was nice to meet you!" I called after them. I watched them drive away and then joined Erwin and Levi where they were standing. "Hey, Erwin we need to leave. We need to pick up Michael's test results before the doctor's office closes."

Levi glanced me over. "You've hardly seemed to change," he said before Erwin could reply to me.

"Not especially," I replied quickly. "But really, Levi, we do need to go." I looked up at Erwin, trying to get support from him.

"We'll see you soon again, I'm sure," Erwin said, turning back to face Levi.

Levi waved his hand. "Yeah, I'm sure. See ya." He turned on his heels and left, leaving Erwin and I to stare after him.

Several minutes later, we were in the car heading towards the hospital to pick up the test results. I was nervous holding the envelope in my hand while we headed towards home. When we did arrive home nearly an hour later, I began to open the envelope with shaking hands. Erwin took the envelope from me before I could fully open it.

"Maybe now isn't a good time," he said quietly. "We'll look at this in the morning."

"What are you talking about?" I asked glancing up at the clock. I was surprised to find it was nearly eleven. When did it get that late? "Oh..."

I looked up at Erwin. His eyes seemed tired. He had dark rings under his eyes that I did not remember being there earlier. I realized I probably looked much the same. I had not realized how tired both of us were. This was only the beginning it seemed. He took my hand and led me to our bedroom for the deepest sleep either of us had had in a long time.

So fun fact: Mary Kat didn't always dress the way she appears in this. When she woke back up in this world, she had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to this world and so a therapist suggested she change the way she looked to try and help her find a new image to form to. She obviously found one she liked and it helped her adjust.

Also, sorry it's taken me so long to update! I've had a heck of a time finding time to write this chapter with school, band, tennis, and work overloading me with stuff to do. And plus, I was really unsure of how to end this chapter. There wasn't really that great of a stopping point so that kinda explains the crap ending. (I know it's crap please forgive me .A. )

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review! Thanks for reading!