Episode #4: Overcoming Trauma #4: Letting it out

Jan,09 2026

<-#3: Overcoming Trauma #3 : Family Talk#5: Overcoming Trauma #5 : Anxiety and Therapy ->

I pace down the corridor.

John asked if I could be by his side, and in TV shows, I think the wife can be with the complainant, but now, the police officers wanted him alone.

Is it because they are afraid he might not fully open up?

All I know is that I always hate going to the police station for a statement, but then, I am rarely alone.

As a nurse in the trauma room of an ER, I often get cases that bypass triage. These are gunshot victims, murders, attempted murders, overdoses, etc...

One thing that many people don't understand is that it's rare the police will pronounce someone dead. Perhaps if they were decapitated or found cold hours after they passed.

A lot of shooting victims are brought to us in the hope we might save them, and to be frank, we often do, but many times, we can't. Well, sometimes I see things that the police need to know about.

They will take my statement at the hospital, but occasionally a case is serious enough to get me to the police station, usually in the company of one of the hospital attorneys.

Did you know that I technically break the law often daily? Well, I do. And the doctors I work with too. It's not illegal; it's just that when you have a patient who is unconscious and crashing, we often need to cut their shirts off, remove their jewelry, and do all of that without their consent.

Oh, we have justification to do it, but the attorney is then there to make 100% sure that the police don't use such actions as leverage to corner me into sticking to their versions of the events.

After all, a weirdly high number of gunshot victims were actually shot... by the police.

It could be convenient to claim an innocent bystander died due to a medical error rather than the bullet from that police handgun.

I find the coffee machine. It's a cheap vending machine from another era, and I know how bad it tastes from previous experiences, but I still need the boost from the caffeine to survive this ordeal.

My husband eventually joined me as I was almost done with this boot juice.

"Are you okay?"

"I am. They asked me to wait a few minutes; they have things to look for"

"I took the rest of the day off. Sarah will go to Cassie, and Kyle to William. We have all the time for you, John. You matter. This matters"

"Thanks."

We sat on the little vinyl-covered metal chairs and waited. It's more than a few minutes.

"I had to retell the story, like, 3 times"

I node. "Yeah, and in the reverse order?"

"Yeah"

"Typical. It helps to make sure that you aren't missing anything and that you aren't making anything up"

I offer to get him a coffee, but he claims to be jacked up enough from the statement.

It's an hour it took, but this time, I can be with him in the statement room.

"We have some news for you, Mr. Kinsey."

"You do?"

"We've located Greg Porter. We've confirmed he is the same one who went to your high school. We'll get a picture within a few minutes for you to confirm"

"That's good, no?"

"Well, Greg Porter was convicted of aggravated sexual assault on three minors, sentenced to 21 years in jail, and was stabbed to death in prison 5 months ago."

"Oh my God", John said. I put my hand on his arm.

"He was pending another trial for sexual assault, on a domestic partner this time. From your testimony, he was the main culprit, but we are still trying to locate Luke Jackson. No arrests, no other convictions, at least not in the adult system."

"He still participated. I had to...", says John.

"We know," cut off the police officer.

"And Henry?"

"Well, we have two Henry Wilsons that might fit. We are trying to make sure we have the right one"

"Do you have pictures?"

"We do, but at this point, I can't show them to you yet."

"I understand. So what's next?"

"We locate Luke Jackson and the right Henry Wilsons and get their statement."

"But Greg is dead"

"Yes, but you wanted to press charges against Luke too. If you still want to. It probably will be in juvenile court, however."

"But we are adults"

"He was a minor when the crime was commited"

"I see"

"Again, I am sorry this happened to you. We have files that Mr. Porter might have made more victims, but due to his early departure, many might not have come forward."

"I see. Thank you for that information."

We soon left and went to pick up Sarah. She was the closest to the police station.

There was only one car in the driveway, and we know they have two cars, so only Nadia was home, not Patrick yet. Plus, he drives a pickup.

They have a Ring doorbell. I press the button. Nadia's voice resonated, distorted by the little device.

"Elena, John. Here to pick up Sarah?"

"We are"

"Come on it. Just push the door in"

I hear a buzz, and John pushes. The door opens, revealing a small entrance with another door inside, like ours, except that on those French doors, there are black curtains installed.

When we closed the outer door, the inner one opened, revealing a fully nude Nadia, smiling and welcoming us in.

I wasn't ready for how at ease she was in her own skin, standing there as if nothing were missing, as if nothing needed explaining.

I'd seen naked bodies before. Many patients were injured and broken, but this was different. There was no reason, no emergency. This was deliberate and desired.

"Right, it's your home"

"You'll get used to it. Just look in my eyes"

"We are only passing by", I said.

She smiles. "Noted. Sarah?" she yells in a calm voice.

Sarah emerges, just as nude, from a door. "Hey Mom and Dad. Coming to pick me up?"

"Yeah"

"I'll get dressed", she says, returning to the same room, probably Cassie's bedroom.

"They had a wonderful time.", says Nadia. "They did their homework, all quiet, and then went to play the new game. Did you try it when Cassie brought it?"

I admit that I hadn't.

"It's not a long game, but the puzzles are intriguing. It came out for the Wii U first, but when they remade it for the Switch, they changed a few levels. Patrick and I played a little. When the girls are done, maybe you can try?"

John was still a little shaken up and hadn't really seen the girls play, so he just asked what it was.

"Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker", says Nadia

"Wait, is that the same as the levels in Super Mario 3D World?" he asks.

"Yeah. Very puzzle-based. And such"

"Ok, if you don't mind lending it to us"

"Mind? Please, we are becoming friends, aren't we?", she says, worried.

I speak up. "Well, there is still one big subject between us"

She laughs. "Right, the fact that I think that clothing is an obstacle to deep and honest relationships. Gotcha. Let's put a pin on that part. Sarah tells me that you agreed to let her be nude at home?"

"For now. I guess we'll need some curtains for our French doors"

"Oh, hold on", she says, leaving us in her living room. Sarah arrives, dressed, with Cassie in tow, nude.

"Thank you for letting Sarah come spend time with me, Mrs. and Mr. Kinsey"

"Well, thank you for taking care of Sarah while we had an appointment"

She smiles.

Nadia comes back with her hands full.

"So these are the rods you put at the top and the bottom, and those are the curtains. The trick is to place the bottom holders face down. The curtains will hold them up"

"Wait, why are you giving this to us?"

She laughs. "We bought new ones when we moved here but managed to just move our existing ones and got stuck with them outside their return window. The tape might be old, but at worst, any double-sided tape would do"

I look at her. She is a box full of surprises.

I take 40 dollars out of my purse. "Can I at least buy them from you?", I tell her.

She grabs the two bills and looks down. "Oh, I don't have pockets right now. Shoot. Why don't you hold on to that, and maybe when Cassie has a sleepover at your place, you can buy some pizza or something with it", she says, smiling, handing me back the two bills.

I don't trust people that nice, but again, is that my trauma?

"Seriously", I said, not taking them.

"Elena, something is going on. I can see it. I can feel it even if I don't know what it is, and if you do want to talk about it away from our daughters, you have my phone number. But one thing we do not lack is money."

I nod and take the two bills, while John takes the curtains.

We thank her. Sarah hugs Cassie, and we enter the "transition zone" that is their entrance.

In the car, Sarah gives us the rundown of what happened at school, and while I did some active listening, I don't think anything struck me as important. For her, sure. Everything is important when you are 11. But in the long term of things? Nothing major.

Kyle was harder to get away from his friend William as they were playing soccer in his backyard. His dad works the evening shift at a factory and, after school, is busy getting ready for work, waiting for his wife to come home from the hospital.

Right, I work with William's mother, who is another nurse in the ER. No, it's not how Kyle and William met: they are in the same class. That I know Lucy is a pure coincidence. We aren't really friends, just friendly. We do share about our respective sons.

In fact, as we stand in the backyard waiting for our son to finally "finish his game", I realize that the only person I could possibly call for emotional support with what's happening with John... is Nadia.

And that bothers me.

Where did all my friends go?

Sure, a lot moved away for better opportunities in other towns. A few never had kids and couldn't understand the time commitment we needed to give our two little bundles of energy.

For the rest, well, life got in the way. Perhaps their kids are the wrong age compared to ours to hang out with them, which is complicated. Oh, and there is Jennifer, who has a severely autistic son who needs a lot of help, help we can't provide without neglecting our own kids.

It's difficult to keep friends when an adult, and now, we have this couple, well, this woman at least, who wants to be my friend, and what is blocking this friendship is something as ridiculous as what we like to wear.

Would I reject a goth? No! Would I reject a woman who dresses in rags? Not even that. Would I reject Nadia's friendship because she wears no clothes at all? That remained to be seen.

At home, I began preparing supper as John installed the curtains. Without us really realizing when, we ended up with a nude daughter again by the time supper was on the table.

Sigh.

"Mom, Dad, what happened today?", she asked.

John decided to speak up. "Do you know if you have bullies at your school?"

"I know a few of them. Older kids. I avoid them, why?"

"Well, when I was a little older than you, one of the guys at my school was bullying plenty of people, including me, and today, I learned that he passed away", he says, sugarcoating the truth to a level appropriate for our kids' understanding.

"Oh"

"He was a bad person. He died in prison because after school, he kept doing bad things"

"So who did you meet?", she says. We told her we had a meeting, and she is trying to piece things together.

"Well, I spoke to the police. They wanted to know the name of the guy who was helping him when we were in high school"

"Oh, ok", says Sarah, who returned to her meal.

It's easy being a kid!

After supper, I asked John if I should talk to Nadia about the whole situation.

He thought about it and agreed. "Maybe I'll tell Patrick, but if you start with Nadia and tell her she can tell her husband, it might be easier for me", he says.

"Anything off topic?"

"The details"

"Right, of course."

So I did call Nadia. I took her up on her offer. And she listened. Truly. And asked questions. Real ones, pertinent ones, like how I felt about it. How I thought it might affect my marriage. How John was taking it. If it's her fault that he is reliving this right now.

I was honest. I think this has the potential to bring John closer to me.

In our relationship, I was always the broken one. The one with trauma, while he was the savior, the helper. Now, I could help him the way he helped me.

He was always guarded sexually. I don't want to think about the details, but now I can see that he was being cautious. Always trying to remain in control to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Like he had an arm tied behind his back.

Perhaps facing this will help him unwind and trust me more.

I couldn't tell how he was taking it yet. He isn't used to strong emotions, so I fear that in a few days, he will drop like a brick, but for now, he is standing.

Nadia made the joke that Patrick is used to that and can help. I didn't get it until I realized that as a mason, Patrick lays bricks all day to make solid walls.

It was a decent comment, which lightened the mood.

"And it's not your fault, Nadia. Our daughter's nudity might have been the trigger, but the problem isn't the trigger; it's that he buried it deep inside him in shame. If anything, now he will be able to grow out of it"

"Good, one way to grow out of sexual abuse is to reinhabit the body", she says.

"Right, with naturism"

"Well, it's one way... But there are other ways. It's just an easy way. Getting close to adult friends who are there to support you is another"

I thanked her, but honestly? With my upbringing? That felt like manipulation, not like the care she had for us.

And yet, the rest of the phone call was irreproachable. She even accepted my trauma with grace and respect. That's rare.

<-#3: Overcoming Trauma #3 : Family Talk#5: Overcoming Trauma #5 : Anxiety and Therapy ->