Damage Control

Posted on Sun Mar 29th, 2015 @ 10:36pm by Counselor Melony Taylor

Episode: Orphans
Location: Ships Counselling Room

Once back on to the ship Melony continued damage control of the situation, knowing that anyone who had witnessed anything to do with the situation happening on planet, needed to be contained and talked to to prevent the spread of panic among the rest of the colonists. Other wise it was possible some of the colonists could be fearful of staying even when the situation was resolved, not something that anyone wanted.

Thankfully she had had chance to talk to Malcom and he had assured her that he would personally ensure that he would do his best to prevent gossip, but it was inevitable some would leak out so she had suggested he tell them of some aspects, just not the worst of the details at the moment to give her time to talk directly with those who would be affected the most by this,the victims family's and those who had encountered the horrifying scenes.

Her main concern now was to ensure that April the woman who had stumbled across the dead body was alright and could find a way to come to terms with what she had seen, ensuring that she could help her to recover from this shocking and horrifying experience, it was possible that she could develop PTSD from this, although that was unlikely you could never be certain the effects something of this magnitude would have on someone's psyche she knew their would be no quick fix for April in all of this a debriefing might help her considerably in the following few days she had to come, enabling her to better cope with situations that might crop up.

When Melony entered her counselling room she found April on the sofa, the second the doors opened April flinched away from the noise, this wasn't going to be easy "April your alright here its safe I promise you, nothing in this room will hurt you, you remember meeting me don't you?" Melony paused giving her time to answer.

April mearly looked at her warily as she came to sit on the sofa opposite.

"April you don't have to talk to me but i'm here to help you I cant help unless you tell me how your feeling and what your thinking about what's happened, you remember I helped Daniel get over his anxiety about going to the planet. I want to do the same thing for you." Melony said reassuringly.

Recognition had flickered in Aprils eyes at the mention of David "You did help him, he spoke very highly of you" she paused "You saw it too didn't you, their was so much blood, and his face he looked like he was in agony" A sob ripped though her "I cant get it out of my head" April said between sobs.

It seemed like that dam had burst thankfully she wasn't bottling it up, that would of only made things worse, Melony moved to the same couch as her and comforted her "He`s not in pain anymore April, and the doctor told me the pain didn't last very long" a white lie wouldn't hurt her at this point.

"What if it attacks someone else" April said panic stricken.

"They are going to find whatever did this and stop it from doing it again, no-one is going back until it is safe, I wont allow it, and nor i'm sure would anyone else on this vessel" Melony said, seeing the visible effect her words had on April as the panic melted away a bit. This session was going to take a while and the debriefing was going to be emotionally draining for April but it would probably go a long way to stop her from developing any further long lasting issues from this trauma, and helping to solve what had happened to cause it would do the rest.

Two hours later, two boxes of tissues down and Melony had explained some of the things April might experience such as being more on edge, flashbacks, nightmares, feel emotionally numb at times, be unable to control her mood, depression, have to keep busy to cope and find it more difficult to get on with others, and explained why it was important to get all of this experience out of her head, write it all down or at anytime of the day or night to come and talk to her. April had also relived alot of the ordeal and had focused particularly on the blood and the unknown factor of what had done such a horrific thing but overall felt alot better about it all but still shaken up about it and was encouraged and eager to accept Melony`s suggestion of coming back everyday until the situation was dealt with at the very least. Then they would take things from there.