We drove over to the hotel in total silence. We walked in a tight group to make Misty feel safe. Once we were inside the room she looked frightened again. I introduced her to every one.

“Misty I have a secret to tell you. Vicky, Lorrie, Jenny and I are self defense trainers. We can kill and maim with our bare hands. We are not going to let anyone hurt you. We will protect you. Let’s go look at the shower, Jenny said that it was a big shower. After we shower we will go get something to eat. I am a little hungry, are you hungry?” I asked.

“I haven’t eaten anything today. I think I could eat a little something.” she said.

I said to Jenny, “While we are showering check out the hotel restaurant and see if they have a private dining room and what the food looks like or else find us a good one.”

I turned to Vicky and Lorrie and mouthed, “Will you do make-up when we get out?”

We stepped into the bathroom. I left the door open to reduce the claustrophobic feeling. I turned on the water and adjusted it hot as I liked it. Misty was watching as I stripped off my clothes. I put my shampoo and a new fuzzy soap mitt on the tub trays. I looked at her and said, “Let me help.”

Misty was ahead of me as we stepped into the water spray. I washed every inch of her twice. I then washed her hair twice as I had promised. I finished washing myself then I rinsed her in a nice smelling body wash.

I dried her off then myself and finally blow-dried her hair. We dressed and Vicky and Lorrie applied some makeup. I walked out of sight to talk to Jenny, Sarah and Belinda.

I asked Belinda if Misty was able to sleep and if she had seen a crisis consular.

She replied, “Neither of us is getting any sleep. She wakes up a lot, afraid and screaming or crying. A consular has been seen twice, she doesn’t stay very long.”

I sent a text to Marcy asking her to go into my room to look in the box on my dresser and copy both sides of the 2 business cards in there and send it to Jenny.

Kate, Sarah and Belinda came to me when I was through with the text and said, “We think she is in bad shape.”

“Yes” I replied. “I don’t want her to go back to her dorm room. I want to be with her every time she wakes up to comfort her. Sarah you sleep with Jenny and I’ll sleep with Misty. Belinda can sleep on the couch or couple of us will escort her back to the dorm room.”

Kate said, “Belinda can bunk with me.”

“You do know that we may not get much sleep,” I said.

Kate said, “That is not much of an issue right now.”

Jenny came back from the restaurant and said, “Five star and they do have a room that we can use and I reserved it. They are open until 11.”

The makeup was finished. Lorrie asked if she wanted to look in the mirror to see if it was OK. She shook her head no.

We went as a group to eat. The waiter passed out menus. I told the group to order anything they wanted. An hour and a half later we were back in our rooms. Room service brought us another dozen large towels.

While everyone else was showering Misty and I set on the mini-sofa and talked about all kinds of things. I asked about her grades and what she was planning on doing for the holidays. I found out that she was staying at the college for the holidays. I found out that there were only 5 days left before the Christmas break. Those days were make up days for anyone that wanted to improve their grades or had missed any assignments. There was no mention of her attack.

Jenny, Lorrie, Vicky, and Sarah were going to double-bunk in one room. Kate, Belinda, Misty and I were in the other room. I went in and gave each of my lovers the normal passionate bed time kisses. Of course all eyes were on us, but no one made any comments.

As Misty and I climbed into bed I said, “Misty, I am going to make believe that you are my little girl and snuggle real tight to you to protect you. I‘m going to hold your hand and anytime you are afraid and want to make sure that I am still protecting you just squeeze my hand. Ok?” With that Kate turned the lights out and I snuggled close to Misty.

All the tricks of sleeping in foxholes in foreign battlefields came back to me; the ones where you sleep with one eye and ear open to any danger. I held her close, her hand in mine while I was in a light sleep. I could tell when the dreams started. Her legs would start shaking and her feet would move, she would tense up then her chest would heave like she was sobbing. Each time I would squeeze her a little and talk as softly as I could, not to wake everyone up.

“It’s OK. I’m here, you are safe with me. I’m here to protect you. Just squeeze my hand.” She would sigh and then settle down.

Sometime after midnight she had a rough one. It took a lot of talking to get her settled down.

A couple of minutes later Misty said, “Mommy, I’m afraid.”

“I know you are honey, I’m right here to keep you safe. No one is going to hurt you.” I said. “I’m going stay with you all night.”

“Mommy, I hurt, I hurt real bad,” she said.

“Honey, where do you hurt?” I asked.

“I just hurt all over, my heart hurts, and I’m so down. I’m just so afraid,” she said. “Will I ever get better?”

I heard the bed next to me move. I could tell someone came in from the other room. We had left the door between the rooms open.

“Honey, I know you hurt. But it will go away. It will take time but it will go away. You just have to be strong and ask for help when you need it. You will get better.” I said.

“Mommy, would you pray for me?” she asked.

“Oh Heavenly Father, I ask you to lift your healing hands to Misty. Her body and soul aches for the tenderness of your love and the protection that only you can provide. She begs for your forgiveness and your wisdom to remove this great pain. We pray for this great burden to be lifted from her heart and for you to make her strong again. In Jesus name Amen.” I said.

“I love you Mommy”

“I love you too honey. Let’s try to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day,” I said. “Good night, I’m right here if you need me.”

I felt a hand touch my shoulder, then a kiss on my cheek and a tear drop hit me.

A voice whispered, “I love you too.” She went back into the other room. Another hand touched my shoulder and said “Goodnight.”

I dreaded to see morning come. I hoped she would think she had a good dream. No one can live up to Mom and I sure didn’t want to.

Misty had one more little episode. A couple of words and a squeeze of her hand is all it took to calm her. It was shortly after six when I heard all the others get up and get dressed. Jenny appeared on the other side of the bed with several sheets of paper with notes written on them.

Do you want us to go get breakfast? I mouthed yes.

Do you want us to bring you anything? I mouthed no.

Around seven Misty woke up. She asked, “Where are the others?”

“They have gone to breakfast. Let’s get dressed and go meet them.” I said.

“I am starved,” she said.

We hurriedly got dressed and went to the restaurant to meet them. She ate like a horse; eggs, bacon, sausage, two pancakes, and orange juice. After breakfast we packed up and checked out. Then we went to the college to begin the setup for our class.

Misty and Belinda had one class that they needed to do this morning to finish up this semester. I asked if Misty wanted Vicky to go with her. They thought they would be fine. I exchanged phone numbers and they agreed to come find us as soon as the class was over.

Edit By Alfmeister