“SHOULD we go rescue the remote before the batteries die and she beats the shit out of it because she doesn’t know it takes batteries to operate?” Shadow asked Isaac in amusement.
Isaac chuckled. “I’ve been up in her grill twenty-four seven since . . . well, hell, basically since I pulled her out of my SUV she’d stolen and decided I was keeping her. I couldn’t imagine any situation where I didn’t want to be as close to her as possible, but she’s like a kid with a new, obnoxiously loud, annoying toy who plays it over and over and over again.”
Shadow cracked up while Knight and Dex, who’d entered the kitchen just as Shadow suggested mounting a rescue mission to retrieve the remote, both snickered. Then Dex stopped and turned one ear in the direction of the living room, standing silent for a moment.
“I dunno, it might be safe to go back in. The channel hasn’t changed in the last minute or so—it’s the same newscast I heard on my way to the kitchen,” Dex said in a hopeful voice.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Shadow grumbled as he ambled toward the door leading into the living room.
He came to an abrupt halt, his body language putting Isaac on immediate alert. He was about to demand what the fuck Shadow was looking at when Shadow said, without turning around, “Isaac, you need to get in here fast.”
The edge in Shadow’s voice made Isaac’s stomach plummet and he shoved by Dex and Knight, breaking into a run. He shoved Shadow so he’d move to the side, and then Isaac saw what Shadow meant.
Jenna stood as rigid and as ghastly white as a statue just a few feet in front of the television as it droned on. He could see even from where he stood that she was hyperventilating. As he started toward her, he heard a high-pitched, childish voice—Jenna, only not Jenna—and the only word that echoed softly through the room was, “Mama?”
Oh fuck. A dull roar began in Isaac’s ears just as he noticed that she’d stopped hyperventilating. In fact she was so still that it didn’t appear she was breathing at all. She wobbled precariously like a drunk in heels and he lunged for her, shouting for the others to help.
He caught her just as her legs gave out and she slid toward the floor. He gathered her in his arms, fear gripping him by the throat. What the hell had traumatized her to this degree?
He carried her to the couch, sitting her up and holding her when she began to list forward as though she was about to pitch right off the couch onto her face. He grasped her shoulders, turning her to face him, and he shook her lightly, just enough to gain her attention.
“Breathe, god damn it! Breathe, Jenna!”
Her eyelids fluttered, and for a moment she stared at him in blank confusion as if she didn’t even recognize him.
“Jesus Christ,” he whispered.
Shadow pushed in on one side, pressing a cold rag to the back of her neck while Knight slipped his fingers around her slender wrist to check her pulse rate. Dex was focused on her near nonexistent respiration rate while Isaac tried again to get her to snap out of it.
“Mama?” she asked again in a trembling voice.
“Oh honey,” Isaac said, his heart breaking for her.
He did not have a good feeling about what had prompted her panic attack. Not a good feeling at all. He turned to Zeke, who’d rushed into the living room when he’d heard the shouting, and quickly snapped an order.
“Rewind the current program at least thirty minutes and pause it. Whatever Jenna saw on it fucked with her in a big way.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Brent asked quietly as he stepped up beside Zeke, while Eric and Capshaw crowded in behind them.
“I need to know what the fuck she saw on the news that caused her to completely lose it and go into nuclear meltdown mode,” Isaac bit out to no one in particular. “But do not play it back until I have her out of the room.”
He refocused his attention on Jenna, who was now emitting sounds reminiscent of a fish gasping for air out of water. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes wide, her face completely devoid of any color or life. She had the look of someone who’d just lost everything that ever mattered the most, everything good, leaving her with nothing. The soulless eyes staring back at him were his complete undoing. He had to get her back from whatever hell she was in. He refused to let her stay there a moment longer. She was exhibiting signs of shock and that, combined with all the other factors in play, scared the holy fuck out of him.
He grasped her cold hands in his and rubbed them to infuse warmth into her fingers, all the while speaking to her in a calm, soothing voice about nothing in particular. After a moment, he ditched the nonsensical shit and leaned in so their noses were mere inches apart.
“Baby, come back to me,” he pleaded, framing her face with his hands, pushing back the strands of hair from her cheeks to behind her ears. “I’m here. I’m with you. Whatever it is that’s frightening you, you aren’t alone. I need you to take some nice, deep, even breaths. In through your nose, out from your mouth. Like this.”
He made certain he had her attention and then he demonstrated, inhaling and exhaling, taking his time, slowing his breathing down. Slowly she began to show signs of heightened awareness. She looked into his eyes and he knew the instant she’d come out of the worst of it because he saw recognition on her face, but it was the crushing relief that exploded in her eyes right before she threw herself into his arms and wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around his neck that rattled him to the core.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he soothed, rocking her back and forth as she clung to him as though he was her only lifeline. “I’ll never let you go, honey. Just breathe for me and try to relax. Focus on the most wonderful thing you can think of. The most beautiful dream you ever dreamed. See only that and nothing else and let me take care of you. I’ll never let you fall. I’ll always be here to catch you.”
He knew he was babbling, but he was precariously close to succumbing to a panic attack of his own. When her breathing had regulated itself to a more even rhythm, she went limp against him, as though her strength had been completely sapped. He gently collected her into his arms and cradled her in his lap before rising from the couch, settling her more firmly against his chest.
He glanced Shadow’s way. “Get another one of the pills we gave her last time. As badly as I want to know what in the fuck happened and what she saw that made her withdraw so sharply from reality, she’s in no shape to relive it right now. She needs to rest and relax and when she wakes up, if she feels strong enough, we’ll get into it then.”
Shadow nodded and hurried to the kitchen while Isaac carried his precious bundle into the bedroom. He laid her down, pulling off her shoes, then her jeans and then the rest of her clothing, before rapidly getting one of his shirts that swallowed her much smaller frame and easing it over her head.
Though she was aware of her surroundings and was no longer lost in the hell she’d descended to briefly, she remained quiet, only her eyes moving as they followed his every movement. When Shadow entered with the medicine and a glass of water, she didn’t even protest. She allowed Shadow to slip it onto her tongue, and then Isaac quickly held up the glass of water so she could swallow it down before the bitter taste filled her mouth.
She sank back onto the pillow, tears filling her eyes as she stared blankly at the ceiling, avoiding the gazes of both Isaac and Shadow. Shadow sent a look filled with deep concern Isaac’s way. Isaac stared bleakly back at him, having no idea what to do or say. He couldn’t fix an unknown problem, couldn’t fight an unknown enemy combatant.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Shadow murmured, his gaze flickering back to Jenna, the look of worry growing deeper on his face. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thanks,” Isaac said hoarsely.
Jenna was already succumbing to the effects of the sedative. Her eyelids grew heavy and she blinked several times as if trying to fight going to sleep. Her eyes closed and remained closed and Isaac thought she’d drifted off, but as he was about to turn to go back into the living room, she sluggishly opened her eyes and they tracked sideways until they found him.
A tear trickled down her cheek, her paleness even starker than it had been before.
“I was loved,” she whispered. “My father. He loved me.”
Isaac’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean, honey? Did you remember something?”
But her eyelids had fluttered closed after her cryptic statement, and this time she gave a little sigh and didn’t reopen them. Soon her even breathing and the soft rise and fall of her chest registered the fact that she was sleeping peacefully.
Isaac sank down on the edge of the bed and buried his face in his hands for a long moment. What the hell had happened to her in there? Why the fuck had he left her alone? He hadn’t left her by herself until today. And she’d paid dearly for his negligence, because she’d been left alone to deal with whatever ghost from her past that was now haunting her.