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It's always nice when she gets assigned to the same dungeon as Bryce and Toby. Doesn't happen that often, but it puts a smile on her face every time.
Doesn't mean she's not busy, of course. The second she finishes checking up on the last rescuee out of the dungeon, she sees one of the other rescuees tripping on the corner of the guiding tent, and heads over to double-check that nothing inside broke when they fell on it.
And in the course of doing the check-ups, she naturally ends up separating the Formerly Curled-Up Person from the person bothering them, so that eventually, when she gets around to checking up on the Formerly Curled-Up Person, she can have a little time and privacy to sit down next to them.
"Hey," she says. "Rough day, huh?"
"I mean, I think it's pretty fair to be having a hard time right now. Nobody loves a giant worm."
Snort.
"I just, I," they say, and curl their knees up to their chest and hug themself.
"We were out."
"We were out and now we have to do the whole thing again, and, it's - "
Their breath is starting to come faster.
"Yeah. And that sucks! But you got rescued that time and we'll get rescued this time too."
...there's always a part of her, when it comes time to use certain parts of her training, that thinks it's not going to work. Surely she's just going to sound silly. Surely she's not reading the situation right, surely she doesn't really know what she's doing, surely the things she was told to try won't help, won't land right, won't get through.
Sometimes the right thing to do is to sound silly, though.
"Can you take a deep breath for me?"
They scrunch their eyes shut, and clutch harder at their hair, and their scalp - but they do take a breath, long, slow, and let it out shakily.
Instinctively, she matches the pace of her breathing to theirs. It makes it easier to lead by example when she says, "Again?"
She leads them through a few more breaths, and when it seems like they're catching the rhythm and following it down, she leads them through a couple more and then hands them a water bottle.
Breathe. Sip.
"I just," they say, and their voice still sounds strained, shaky, but not on the edge of spiraling any more, "I don't feel like I can do it again. I don't even know what I mean by that, it's not like I can - "
They gesture around, jerkily, frustrated. "What am I gonna do other than do it again. But I can't."
"Yeah. It sucks that we're here. If I could make us not be here, I would, but all I can do is try to make it suck a little less."
Sad giggle. "Thanks."
They dehug a little, and run their hands through their hair.
"Can you just," they say in a small voice, "just - tell me what to do."
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