AJR-Panic Attacks

Winter- 4 (Water)

A/N- Yes, every one of the kids are made up, except one. (Obviously)

Winters POV

We all went on a family vacation. That's everyone, so uncle Adam and auntie Emily and the twins, Addisen and Evan, uncle Jack and aunt Alba and Lucy, and mom and dad and me and Soleil. Addisen, Evan and Lucy are my cousins, and Soleil is my little sister. And I'm Winter. We all went down to a cabin for a weekend once dad and my uncles got back from tour. There was a lake and there was a beach and there was a cabin and there was family. I'm only 6, Soleil is 4, Addi and Evan are 5 and Lucy is 3. And none of us know how to swim very well. On the drive down to the cabin, uncle Jack said he would teach me. We also brought shay with us. Shay is uncle Jacks dog. I'm so excited for this weekend. We get to the cabin and we all run in to the cabin and get our rooms. Me and Soleil always share, so do Addi and Evan. Lucy got her own, but that's cause she's littler then us. Once we get all our stuff in, we have some dinner. Dad cooked. His cooking is the best. We watched a movie since it was too late to go swimming. We all fell asleep and got up super early the next morning. We were too excited to go swimming. Uncle Jack made us breakfast, and then we headed down to the beach. There was a dock that we could jump off of, and a bunch of chairs for the parents. All us kids put on our life jackets and jump into the lake. I love the water! I'm swimming around with all the kids, and uncle Jack comes in and asks if I wanted to take my life jacket off to try swimming without it. I of course said yes, and I took it off. Uncle Jack grabbed me to make sure I don't drown, and we started swimming. Uncle Jack yelled to my dad on the beach.
"Ryan, your kid's a natural!" I laughed at uncle jacks comment. Uncle Jack let go of me and I swam around and around. I was so good at this! Uncle Jack turns around to play with the other kids, and I inhale some water. I start coughing to try to get it out, but then I stop swimming. Uncle Jack turns around and my head starts bobbing up and down in the water. I can't keep swimming! I'm so scared. I can't touch the bottom of the lake. What if I stop swimming? Uncle Jack swims over to me and picks me up, holding me on his side, so I was above the water and I can catch my breath. Uncle Jack walks over to the dock and sits me down on it.
"Ryan!" Uncle Jack calls. I'm not focusing on anything. That was terrifying. Dad comes running over to me a moment later and so does mom. Mom wraps me in a towel and dad sits beside me. Dad wraps his arm around me and I start crying.
"Winter, what happened?" Mom asks. I can't answer, but thankfully uncle Jack does for me.
"Winter was doing great swimming around without a life jacket on and I think he inhaled some water and so stopped swimming and started almost drowning."
"Winter.." Mom says sadly. I wasn't really listening to them. I couldn't. I started hyperventilating while I was crying. I was so scared. Dad noticed and mentioned it.
"Winter, you're hyperventilating. I think you're having a panic attack. Winter, can you focus on me?" He asks. I was too busy staring off into nothingness, so I couldn't. All of a sudden I see dads hand in front of me. I snap out of my thoughts and look up at dad. I must've looked so scared. I was scared. Dad turns sideways beside me and puts one of his hands on my back, and one on my chest. Dad must've felt how quickly my heart was beating, because he pulled me closer to him and exhaled quickly, saying,
"Ohh, Winter. It's ok baby." Dad says.
"He's not breathing very well." Uncle Jack mentions.
"I know." Dad replies. "Hey Winter, can you breathe with me?" Dad asks. I look up at him and there seemed to be this subtle calmness between me and dad. I continued crying and then dad made me start breathing slowly.
"Winter, watch me." Dad said. Dad breathed in very dramatically and slowly breathed out. I tried to copy him but it wasn't working.
"It's not working, I can't!" I say, and start crying again.
"Try again Winter." Mom says behind me, rubbing my back. Dad does his dramatic breathing again, and I attempt to follow. After a moment it finally works.
"There you go baby." Dad says to me. "Come here." Dad adds. I fall into dads chest as I calm down. Dad hugs me tight and I relax.
"You ok Winter?" Dad asks me after a minute. I nod and sit up, wiping the tears off of my face.
"I don't wanna go back in though." I say quietly.
"Ok bud." Dad says. "How about we go to the beach for now and you can calm down for a bit and then we'll see about you going back in." I nod and dad stands up, along with mom and uncle Jack goes back to the other kids. Dad reaches his arms down to me and picks me up. I nestle my face in his neck and he walks over to the chairs on the beach. He leans back in the chair with me and uncle Adam asks what happened. Dad explained it and then started humming my song. Hearing the familiar tune makes my body relax within seconds, and breathing was getting easier. After a while Soleil came back with Addi to ask me if I am ok. I half nod but then dad says,
"Winter is gonna stay out for snack time, then he'll go back in." I tense up. I don't want to go back in!
"Winter, you'll be ok." Dad whispers to me, noticing I tensed up.
"What would you like for snack?" Uncle Adam asks.
"Goldfish!" All of us kids, including dad, say. Auntie Emily just laughed, as uncle Jack, Evan and Lucy come back. We help ourselves to the fishy crackers. I sat on dads lap still, everyone else on chairs or the ground around us. Aunt Alba said we had to wait before we could go back in the water, so we played a round of go fish with everyone. Once the other kids begged the parents enough, we were all allowed back in the water. I didn't want to go, and clung to dad.
"Winter, you had so much fun in the water!" Dad reasons with me.
"Yeah but then I almost drowned!" I say.
"Winter, you can't let one experience get you down so you don't do it again." Dad says.
"What if dad goes with you?" Mom asks.
"Ok.." I give in. Dad stands me up and he takes off his shirt and glasses. He puts on my life jacket that uncle Jack brought back, then holds my hand as we walk to the lake. I freak out once we get to the shoreline.
"No! I don't want to!" And I hug dad. Dad picks me up and hugs me for a moment to calm me down.
"It's ok Winter. I'm not gonna let you drown. I'll be right beside you." He says.
"O-ok." I say.
"You ready?" Dad asks. I nod. Dad starts walking into the lake, holding me. We walk in until dads chest was about half way in the lake.
"You ok?" Dad asks me. I nod, but don't get any less tense. Dad starts bobbing up and down a bit in the water and somehow that relaxed me and got me laughing.
"There you go." Dad says.
"Splash fight!" Uncle Jack screams, and starts splashing everyone, especially me and dad.
"Get him!" Dad says, and we start splashing back at uncle Jack. We had so much fun in the lake that I completely forgot about me almost drowning earlier. We got back out of the lake for lunch, then went back in the afternoon.