Page 12 of Daddy’s Little Duckling (Ivory Mountain Daddies #1)

CHAPTER TWELVE

EMMETT

H e had no clue what just happened to his babygirl, but he was going to find out. Everything was going well and he could tell she was having a great time.

When the kid beside them started screaming, Rae dashed away and wouldn’t stop when he called out to her. Quickly making his way towards the restrooms, he decided to see if she would come back out in a few minutes.

Glancing down at his watch Emmett noted that five minutes had passed and Raelyn had yet to emerge from the bathroom.

He knew that something was seriously wrong and he didn’t care about the consequences he would face by going into the ladies' bathroom.

Emmett was more concerned about his darling than anything anyone had to say to him. Opening up the door and announcing that he was coming in, Emmett walked upon a scene that broke his heart.

Right away Emmett could tell that Rae was having a panic attack. He was raised by a mother who frequently had them while he was growing up.

Many of his childhood memories consisted of him coaching his mom through her attacks. Quickly walking over, he sat on the floor beside Rae.

“Hi, Little Duckling. I need you to try and focus on my voice.”

It didn’t seem as if she heard him, but not being swayed by her lack of response Emmett pushed on.

“I’m going to pick you up, Little one, and help you sit on my lap. I promise that I am going to be here. You aren’t alone.” The little whimpers that she let out crushed him.

Slowly reaching out so he didn’t scare her, Emmett placed his hands around her waist and guided her to sit and cuddle against him.

Pleased that she didn’t pull away and that he didn’t trigger the panic attack to get worse, Emmett wrapped his arms around Rae and hugged her tightly.

He understood that deep pressure therapy would help ease the attack quicker.

“Daddy is here, Little Duckling. It’s going to be okay.”

Emmett continued to hold her and whisper to her that Daddy was here and wasn’t going anywhere.

Slowly her shaking eased and the whimpering that was slowly breaking his heart quieted down. He could tell that she was regaining her presence in reality.

Nevertheless, Emmett didn’t stop his sweet words of encouragement.

“Daddy?” he heard Rae whisper to him.

“Yes sweet girl, Daddy is right here.” Pleased that she didn’t look disgusted at his words, Emmett mentally filed away that information for later when Rae was feeling back to normal.

“I’m sorry I freaked out.” he heard her timidly say. Needing a little more information from her, Emmett began asking questions about what happened.

“Sweet girl, Daddy needs to know what went wrong. I can’t help you if I don’t understand.”

He watched a blush slowly etch its way across her face before she answered. “I get easily overwhelmed at times. It’s part of the processing disorder that I told you about at breakfast.”

Not wanting to rush her, he patiently waited for her to continue explaining. “I could feel myself getting overwhelmed by all the stimulation around me. I didn’t want to stop playing though, so I just pushed it down and tried to ignore it.”

Halting the growl that was forming in his chest, he squeezed her a little tighter and listened for her next words.

“The little kid beside us had a meltdown about leaving. The screaming was the final straw and it triggered my attack. I didn’t want you to see me like that, so I ran away in here to try to self-regulate. As you can tell, I didn’t do such a good job.”

Emmett kissed her head, “Oh, Little bit. I wish you would have spoken up about how you were feeling. Daddy always wants to help when his Little girl is struggling with something.”

The couple fell into a comfortable silence as Raelyn continued to come back to reality. He felt her hand slightly push against his chest before he saw her adorable green eyes look at him.

“You keep calling yourself Daddy.”

Emmett couldn’t help the small smile that graced his face. “Yes, my darling Duckling. I don’t have any doubt that I’m your Daddy, just like I don’t have any doubt that you are the Little girl that I have been waiting for.”