just barely

[ Her arms pull him in, one looped under his to hold him up, the other around his shoulders. She pulls him into her chest, clinging to him both to suppress his thrashing and to anchor him. Though she has never been much for touching, she doesn't know what else to do. It's surely to blame for this, the contact between them, but only because it has allowed them to flood into one another like this. ]

Shhh. Shh. I'm right here.

[ As she says this, she tries to concentrate, to clear her mind as he had taught her. She lets her mind drift away from that strange red room she'd seen, focuses on the sound of her breathing and the fact that it's not labored and tight like it had felt for that moment. She grabs a fistful of his hair and turns her head down, pressing her face against the crown of his head. ]

It's me, Ben. It's just me.