9-1-1: Jennifer Love Hewitt Has a P/a/n/ic A/t/tack as She Returns to Work After Her T/e/r/rifying K/i/d/napping (Exclusive)

Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) finds her return to work to be “more triggering than expected” in PEOPLE’s exclusive preview of the March 27 episode of ‘9-1-1’

For Maddie, it’s anything but business as usual on 9-1-1.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive look at the March 27 episode of the ABC procedural drama, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is struggling to get back into the swing of things following her scary abduction.

“Maddie’s return to work proves to be more triggering than expected, as she may have returned too soon,” according to an official synopsis. “As Eddie (Ryan Guzman) struggles to adapt to his new surroundings, Christopher (Gavin McHugh) discovers him in an unfamiliar situation.”

In the preview clip, Maddie struggles to catch her breath and begins to hyperventilate as she returns to her job as a 9-1-1 dispatcher and helps a young boy.

A firefighter tells the boy that he’s “going to get you out here” as the room fills with smoke and the boy begs the first responders, “Please let help my dad.”

Meanwhile, Maddie faces her own demons as the call seemingly reminds her of her past trauma. She is then comforted by her coworkers.

Sue Blevins (Debra Christofferson) tells her, “It’s okay, Maddie. He’s safe. Tell me what’s wrong. Is it your heart? Chest pains?”

“I can’t speak,” she whispers as her panic attack continues.

On the March 6 episode, a shocking twist left Maddie’s life in jeopardy. She was kidnapped by Detective Amber Braeburn (guest star Abigail Spencer), who worked with her and Athena (Angela Bassett) to nab a serial kidnapper rather than the murder.

Hewitt, 46, recalled how she and Spencer learned about the surprise while filming.

“Well, when we started filming, we didn’t have the full script yet,” Hewitt told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “We just had kind of little sections, and then we sort of found out after we had started where it was all going. So [Abigail and I] kind of got to be surprised together.”

She added: “And I think that actually helped us, because when we did the scenes in the precinct, we didn’t fully know what was happening yet. I kind of knew, but not to the full extent. So that kind of helped us not give anything away.”