Caffeine Withdrawal | T. Drake ✔

[46] Panicked

The sound of a cup falling on the floor shook Tim out of his work and he left his books immediately, rushing down to the kitchen. Isadora was standing frozen to a statue and the cup was lying shattered at her feet.

Her hands were shaking but still in the same position as if she was holding the cup. Her brown eyes were wide in fear and her lips were parted but no sound came out.

"Dora?"

She did not acknowledge his presence even and kept staring ahead of her as if something absolutely terrifying was standing right in front of her.

"Dora, what happened?" He gathered her in his arms, carefully making her step back from the smithereens of the cup that lay scattered on the floor.

The look of pure terror on her face wrenched at him and her unnerving silence was making him get very anxious.

"Dora, look at me," he cupped her face in his hands, making her look at him instead. But even though he had turned her face towards him, her eyes were still fixed on that spot, still terrified.

Tim was in a fix for he didn't know how to deal with such a situation. Stephanie had once mentioned Dora snapping into an unresponsive state before but Alex had been there then and handled her.

And at the current moment, Alex was at the Iceberg Lounge and Steph wasn't with them either. So he knew he had to do something himself to make her snap out of whatever hallucination she was envisioning.

"There's no one here except you and I," he spoke in a soft tone, fingers running through her hair soothingly as he held her close to him, "and whatever you are seeing is not real."

A tear rolled down her cheek and he wiped it away, blue eyes gazing concerned in her brown ones.

"Alex... Alex..." She pointed to the same spot and Tim looked again in order to convince her.

He tried to reassure her, "Alex isn't here, he's at the Lounge."

"He's hurt..."

"No he's not."

"He's... Dying..." Her voice broke at those words and so did she for she had buried herself in his embrace, hands clutching tightly at his shirt.

Tim scooped her up in his arms, carrying her out of the kitchen because he had a feeling that if she stayed there, she would still see the terrifying scene in front of her.

"He was there, Tim... He was right there," she mumbled, her voice dimming but equally terrified.

"No he wasn't," he replied, "come up Dora, we can have coffee some other time."

"But... But..."

She was going through a panic attack, he realized as her breathing was irregular and her hands had gone cold. So instead of taking her to the room, he brought her out to the balcony.

Her heartbeat had quickened and her grip tightened on him. Tim sat down in front of her on the floor, guiding her breaths in order to calm her down but her condition only worsened.

He tried all the things he knew such as making her regulate her breathing to bring it back to normal, bringing her focus on to a single object, trying to make her picture a relaxing spot but nothing seemed to work.

"Tim, is everything okay?" Selina's voice reached him and he looked back to see her standing in her balcony.

"No, Dora's having a panic attack and it's getting worse."

"Wait, I'm coming."

Soon after, she swung over her railing with the agility of a cat and in no time she was right beside Tim.

"I've tried everything but she's not calming down," Tim too had started to panic by then but Selina's presence was a considerable comfort.

"There must be a way... Have you ever seen her go through a panic attack before? Or do you know how Alex deals with her when the need arises?"

Tim thought about it and recalled the time when Dora had woken up after the whole Scarecrow incident and that her condition then had been quite similar. "I... I think so. I... I'll try."

"Right," she stood up and he saw that she had a packet in her hands, "I assume the kitchen is not locked. She needs something to soothe her so I brought some herbal tea. Helps a lot."

"Oh."

"Stay with her while I'll be back in a moment."

Selina went down to the kitchen while Tim wrapped his arms around Dora, bringing her close against him and asked her to focus on his heartbeat. "Dora, count my heartbeat. Just focus on its sound, okay? Count it."

His heartbeat wasn't much steady either so he too had to take a few deep breaths to calm his own self down.

When Selina returned with the herbal tea, Tim was still holding on to Dora and her voice was faint as she counted his heartbeat. But her trembling had stopped and she had steadied.

Selina bent down and gestured Tim to draw back as she gently clasped Dora's hand, "here, drink this."

She made her drink it slowly but as she finished the cup, she felt a lot better. Selina had also given Tim a cup of coffee that she had brewed alongside and the boy returned her a look of pure gratitude.

"There was a cup shattered in the kitchen," she remarked, "I cleaned it up as well."

"Thank you," Tim mumbled.

When Isadora had calmed down considerably, a wave of exhaustion hit her so Selina asked Tim to take her back to the room. Knowing that her presence would not be needed anymore, she went back to her place while Tim carried Dora inside.

He gently placed her down on the bed, tucking in her blanket but her hand had closed on to his wrist. "Stay... Please," her voice was a low whisper and her brown eyes had fallen shut.

"Right, just a minute," Tim picked up the assignment he had been working on and joined her on the bed. He continued working while her hand rested on his knee as she snuggled closer to him.

He gently stroked her head, focus divided between her as well as the assignment but kept running his fingers through her hair soothingly until she drifted off to sleep.

A long while passed and though he was working still, his blue eyes were weighed down from fatigue, falling shut every now and then. He had fallen half asleep when he felt someone else's presence in the room and his hand shot up, holding onto the stranger's arm.

Though when he opened his eyes, he saw it was Alex who had returned from the Iceberg Lounge just then.

"Hey, I was just keeping these away," he spoke up seeing Tim awake, "you seem to be very tired. Go back to sleep."

He nodded in reply grip slackening on his arm as he eased back down.

"Don't worry, I'll wake you two up at breakfast."

Alex had put his books and bag aside and switching off the light he stepped out as well. Though he had a feeling that Tim wasn't just tired from his assignments but something else had happened that had worn him down completely.

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