It All Started With Magnets

.42.

The next day

My sleep had been... a little poor. It wasn't that I had a nightmare, at least not that I could remember, it was just that I had woken up with my heart racing and gasping for air. I must have made some sort of noise because Mare had come into my room and asked if I was alright. I had said that I was, that I was just having a bit of a hard time sleeping.

She had just nodded and offered to make me some tea and perhaps a bit of meditation. I had agreed. It had felt nice to have her there when I woke up feeling like that. We had a small cup of tea and then meditated for thirty minutes, just until I felt calmer. She hadn't pressed me for anything but I found myself telling her about what happened anyway. She did as she always had, listened patiently and made sure that I understood that she was hearing me, even if she wasn't saying anything.

After I had been all talked out and feeling a bit wrung out because of it. She just gave me a rather sad smile and said that because brains were so complex, they hadn't been able to figure out how to heal the damage trauma caused outside of doing their best to mitigate symptoms and minimize the damage and keep the situations from happening at all. She said she was sorry that they couldn't give me anything to take it away from me but she, and the others, were there for me whenever I needed to talk and that if I needed even more support, they had mental health professionals they could arrange for me to see.

I had appreciated it. I had never felt more supported. The guys were there for me and knowing everyone on the council was as well, made me feel like I could perhaps get over it with some time. It was just so weird for me. I wasn't a person who had panic attacks or who was scared by loud noises or had nightmares. My life had been good for the most part and I had to wonder if perhaps getting shot in the shoulder had kind of made the entire assembly attack that much worse. Thinking back, every time there had been a gunshot I had flinched sightly, wanting to cover my ears. I didn't know though, I wasn't an expert in trauma or mental health. I knew I was fairly lucky that the trip to earth was my only really trauma-based thing in my life.

But still, I was slightly tired and I hoped that I would be able to sleep better when I went to bed. I didn't do well on very little sleep.

"These are so weird." Ham looked over his holo deck. I was hesitant to call them smart phones because they were much more advanced but they functioned basically as the same thing. But Dunnerton had gone out and got the guys each their own. Mine had been sitting on my shelf in my room so I had just snagged it. But I had thanked Dunner profusely for getting them for the guys. Communication was important and I knew they would feel better with a way to communicate with each other and me if we ever got separated.

"The fuck you talking about, Ham? These are fucking amazing!" Twigs seemed to be having a lot of fun playing with his. He had taken several scan pictures and had been fiddling with the holographic display and it was now pink in colour. Which he seemed to be absolutely thrilled about.

"What's Human Watch?" Luke's question came out hesitantly as he turned his, showing off the site that he found and I snorted.

"I forgot about that." I grabbed my own holo deck and brought up the site. "They made that when I first got to Torin, it was basically to report on all the things I did." There were nearly a thousand articles on there when I had left Torin, I could see the number had jumped slightly, probably people reporting me returning and my hospital stay.

"That's a major logistical problem." Fist said it and Luke and the rest seemed to agree.

"It's harmless. No one bothers me for the articles and they function off of the data that's publicly available." It definitely wasn't like the paparazzi on earth. I was given my space for the most part but they really did like writing articles about me. "I bet you guys on are on it now too." I scanned the newest headlines and smiled. "I was right." I brought up the newest article and the guys all stared at me in disbelief. "New Humans! Torin has been visited by eight more humans. They arrived with Roxie Matthews after her unfortunate trip to earth and have been staying with her in an undisclosed hospital during her recovery. We are hoping to share more info soon." I swiped the holo of the paper to turn and then tapped the picture. It showed a rather impressive composite sketch of the eight guys. "See?"