Work Text:
Night 174-190:
After Halloween went so badly, Zoldrak decided to work on desensitizing Nick to the sound of doorbells, too.
During the day, he recorded the sound of the doorbell ringing on his phone. He waited a few days, to let Nick get over the stress from Halloween, and then he decided it was time to introduce Nick to the recording.
That night, he got Nick fed and changed and then went to sleep, leaving Nick to watch the nature documentary in his crib. When Zoldrak woke up shortly before dawn, it was time.
“Sorry, buddy, you're not going to enjoy this.” Zoldrak commented and ran the recording. Nick flinched at the sound of the bell, moaning unhappily. “I'm sorry.” Zoldrak said, and held him, waiting for him to calm back down.
Once the tension had mostly left Nick's body, Zoldrak turned the sound down low and played it again. This time, Nick didn't flinch, didn't seem bothered at all. He moaned calmly and stared at the phone thoughtfully.
“That doesn't bother you at all, does it?” Zoldrak said. “So it's not the sound, is it? It's the volume that bothers you.”
Nick looked at him, confused, then back at the phone.
“All right. Let's try it a little louder.” Zoldrak said.
He increased the volume until Nick started tensing up slightly when it rang, then played it again and again, holding Nick to comfort him. When he started to notice Nick's tension had stopped going down between rings, he decided to stop.
As he paused the audio, he glanced at the time. “Shit. It's almost dawn.” He said. “We should get you to bed.” He started to get up, but Nick moaned and clung to him.
“All right.” He relented and sat down. His curtains were drawn, even if Nick stayed here until the sun rose, he should be fine. And it was Zoldrak's own fault, losing track of the time.
He held Nick, automatically rocking him back and forth. “You're all right. You're safe.” He assured Nick. “I'm here, I'll keep you safe.”
When Nick finally fell into his daysleep, Zoldrak carried him to his room.
Nick made little progress getting used to the doorbell recording, and Zoldrak was beginning to think he'd never be able to handle someone ringing the doorbell.
But one night, Zoldrak noticed something seemed different.
It didn't twig for him right away. But after a couple days, he noticed that Nick had started reacting more consistently when he spoke, and less to other sounds. In particular, when Zoldrak started the doorbell-accustomation training, Nick had been about as likely to look towards speech-volume doorbell recordings as to actual speech. Now, he rarely reacted to the doorbell unless it was too loud for him. Meanwhile, Zoldrak's voice got a consistent reaction. He also noticed that Nick had mostly stopped interrupting him—it was more like having an actual conversation, rather than Nick just making sounds when he felt like it.
That weekend, when Tierza came to visit, Zoldrak noticed something else. Nick reacted more consistently to his voice than to Tierza's. Fascinated, Tierza decided to test this response, recording glances and moans on a chart when she and Zoldrak spoke, and switching sides so they could tell if it was the voice or the direction that was important. Sure enough, he responded more to Zoldrak's voice. “I think he's starting to be able to recognize your voice.” Tierza suggested.
This change, meanwhile, seemed to coincide with the beginning of a slow improvement in Nick's reaction to the doorbell and the outside. He was still wary, but instead of needing to touch and sniff Zoldrak to calm down, now, merely his voice could help Nick feel calmer.