It has been a few weeks, Essie has been barely leaving her bed. On top of that, she hasn't really spoken to anyone. Eddie has been trying to get her into therapy but she keeps refusing. It's 1 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. She's spent the morning in bed reading. Thinking that no-one's home, she puts her book down, gets out of bed and walks out to the kitchen to get a drink of water. 

'Good afternoon.' She hears someone say as she opens the fridge, making her jump. She turns around and sees Carla sat at the dining table. 

'Fucking hell, you scared me.' Essie puts her hand over her chest. 'I didn't think anyone was here. I finally convinced dad to go back to work. You know he's been watching me sleep, right? I don't think he's slept in his own bed since I got back.'

'Your dad wanted me to come over.' Carla replies. 

'He sent you to to try and convince me to go therapy, didn't he?' Essie realises. 'I already told him, I'm fine. I don't need therapy. I've been reading my books, that's a form of therapy.'

'He said that you've been sleeping pretty much all day, you've barely been eating, you haven't really talked to anyone.' Carla responds. 'He's worried about you. We all are.'

'Dad has sent everyone he could possibly think of - family, everyone at the 118, some family friends to try and convince me to go to therapy.' Essie says. 'I can't go to therapy.' She shakes her head. 'The last time I spoke to someone who was supposed to help-' she trails off, 'you know the rest. I know I didn't have a choice to go to rehab and I couldn't have just decided to stop going.' She adds. 'But I do have a choice whether I go therapy or not. And I'm not going.' She gets a bottle of water out of the fridge and returns to her room. 

.

It's later that day, Eddie has picked Christopher up from school and they are both walking through the front door. Carla is still at the house so when Christopher sees her, he hugs her before walking through to the front room.

'Any luck?' Eddie asks. 

'No.' Carla shakes her head. 'She came out of her room once to get some water but that's it.' She continues. 'I did make her something to eat but she hasn't touched it.' 

'Okay.' Eddie sighs. 'Is she still in her room?' 

'Yeah.' Carla nods. 'I'll stay for a bit in case you need anything.' 

'Thanks.' Eddie smiles appreciatively. He walks through to Essie's room. When he walks in, he sees that she's not in her bed but her window is open so he figures that she's sat on the roof where she set up a little hangout. 

(this is the only picture I could find but I hope you know what I meant)

Eddie walks over to the window, climbs out and up onto the roof. He sits next to his daughter.

'You have no-one left to convince me to go to therapy.' Essie states, not looking at him. 

'There's always Christopher.' Eddie says.

'No way.' Essie shakes her head. 'Don't drag him into this.' 

'I just want what's best for you.' Eddie tells her.

'I know.' Essie sighs, looking at him. Tears are filling her eyes. 'I'm scared, dad.' She croaks. 'I'm scared of being in a room by myself with someone I don't know. I'm scared of locks. I'm scared of nurses.' She continues. Eddie wraps his arm around her to comfort her. 'Did Athena tell you what happened when they found me?' 

'She just said that Lukas was killed.' Eddie replies.

'When Athena and her partner came into the room where I was being kept, he was on top of me, forcing kisses onto me. If they hadn't come in when they did it would have gone further.' Essie begins. 'He pulled me up and pressed the knife to my neck. Lukas had asked me something and I used the distraction to try and get the knife out his hand myself but he was stronger than me. He forced the knife up to his neck, with my hands still around the handle and cut through his neck and carotid.' She tells him the story. 'I killed him. If I hadn't-'

'If you hadn't had done that, you could have been killed.' Eddie cuts her off. 'Essie, you didn't kill that man. He did that himself.' 

'I can't sleep without seeing his face, without feeling his hand around my neck, my body. I can't eat without thinking about when he would spike my meals and drinks at the rehab centre. I can't breathe without feeling him breathing on me.' Essie sobs. 'He's still- he's still taking things from me and he isn't even alive.' She carries on. 'It's exhausting - therapy will just - it will just make it worse and I know - I know if I keep bottling it all up things will get worse but I can't go therapy every week and talk about it. I can't keep reliving those few months.' 

'I know it's hard but you need to be eating.' Eddie tells her. 'You've lost a lot of weight, you're only drinking water, you're not sleeping. You are slowly killing yourself and it's killing me watching that.' Eddie's eyes start to fill with tears. 'What if I sat in with you during therapy?' He questions and Essie scoffs.

'I don't know a therapist that would let you do that.' She states. 

'I spoke with the LAFD therapist.' Eddie starts. 'He's only attached to two firehouses so he has quite a bit of time on his hands. He's agreed to take you and let me be in the room.' 

'Really?' Essie asks quietly. 

'Yeah.' Eddie nods gently. 'You have PTSD, Essie. We don't need a therapist or psychiatrist to tell us that, but if you talk to someone about it, someone trained, we can come up with a plan to help you manage it. We'll do a few sessions and if it's not for you, we'll stop and try something else. But I am with you every step of the way. So is your mom. She's looking for a place to stay close by but she's in a hotel for the time being.' 

'You're kidding me right?' Essie raises an eyebrow. 'She's your wife. You're not divorced or separated. I'm not mad at her anymore. She can stay here.' 

'It was your mother's idea.' Eddie informs her. 'She felt like it would be too much.' 

'What hotel is she at?' Essie queries.

'The Ramada.' Eddie responds. 'Why?' 

'Come on.' Essie starts, starting to climb back into her room. 

'Where?' Eddie asks confused. 

'Don't act stupid.' Essie laughs gently. 'We're going to bring mom home. We're going to be a family again.' 

~~~~~~~~~~

More of an Essie/Eddie centric chapter but I know some of you love those kinda interactions so I thought there was no harm in ending the chapter the way I did! Let me know what you think!

Let me know what you think!

Much love