"So, what do you think?" Mia leaned in the doorway of her office as she watched Leo Knight in conversation with their resident doctor.

His husband's hand strayed up her skirt and she frowned at him and slapped it away. "The door's open, Damian!"

"Well, let me close it. And then you can focus on me instead of the Casanova out there." Damian stole kisses and she giggled and pushed him away.

"Seriously, you need to take lessons in propriety. A woman in her thirties shouldn't sport hickies, especially when it's her job to set a good example for a class full of teenagers!"

"Well, the woman in question should meet the demands of her husband and not be so difficult when he's in the mood," Damian complained.

Mia giggled and shook her head. "You're impossible! What do you think Leo's relationship is with Andy?"

"Well, he's either in love or looking to get laid, why else would he come all the way here?"

"Hmm, good point. He does look nice, they'll make a cute couple, don't you think?"

"Good for them. Do you want me to give him the third-degree?" Nonchalantly, Damian's hand cupped Mia's bottom and she jumped away.

"What? No, of course not! I'm just happy for Andy. She didn't seem interested in dating. Finally, she's opening up after a change of scene! I'm so glad."

"Well, I'm just happy that she's straight. I was getting worried as you spend so much time with her and you're one sexy Professor!"

****

"Have you seen my phone, Mary?" Andy came to the kitchen to see Mary's head stuck in the oven. 

She popped up cheerily.

"A-Andy! Have some cookies!" She gestured to baking trays laden with every type of cookies imaginable. Andy identified oatmeal-raisin, choco-chip, cranberry and orange butter. She sniffed appreciatively.

"Oh Mary, are we expecting refugees from Syria? This can feed an entire family of at least twenty!"

Mary bounced and giggled, completely uncharacteristic behavior than what Andy had come to expect from her. "Oh, you're so funny! I loved you from the minute I laid eyes on you at the home." 

Andy shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to make of this confession. Mary thrust a batch of cookies laid out on a plate. "Have a pecan. I know that they are your favorite."

Andy smiled and took a cookie. She bit into it and sighed. "It's delicious! You will give Mia a run for her money." She popped the cookie in her mouth and excitedly held Mary's outstretched hand.

"You're great at this! And do you know what this means? You can finally work and support yourself. You can get divorced from your husband, once and for all! You'll be free of him! Oh, I'm so glad!"

Mary's face contorted as she pulled her hand away. "Now, why would I wanna do that? Phil loves me!"

Andy sighed. She took a deep breath and counted to ten. This woman certainly had issues. And it was increasingly apparent that she couldn't deal with those all by herself. It may not have worked out with Leo, but there was a grain of truth in what he said about Mary. "Ok. So let's do this. Let's go back to the Home. We'll see if they can help you there."

"I don't need help. My husband's coming to get me soon. And I will be taking you with us. He has threatened to kill you, but I hope I can talk him out of it. Cookie?" She thrust a plate of cookies onto Andy's incredulous face.

The woman was losing her grip on reality. Or maybe this was a bad dream. Andy felt woozy and she held onto the kitchen counter to steady herself.

"Mary, sweety, please understand. Phil is really bad for you. He hit you and threatened to kill you. He was also responsible for the attempt on your life when you ran away from here. You aren't safe with him."

"Well, Phil won't hurt me, but he'll probably kill you. I will do my best to prevent it, of course. Maybe I can convince him to lock you away forever? That way, we can always be close!" Mary thoughtfully dragged an unpainted nail on her chin. Andy saw it, but it seemed as if she was miles away. As if her soul had stepped out of her body and was taking notes. It was all hazy and surreal.

She knocked her hand to her woozy head. She needed to snap out of it and focus. What a strange dream!

"I- I don't feel good." 

Mary threw her an apologetic look.

"So sorry, but I had to drug you. It's only till Phil gets here. He asked me to kill you, in fact. But I won't do it because I love you. I hope he'll understand." She dug into her pocket and pulled out Andy's phone. At least what Andy thought was her phone because her grip on reality was tenuous at best.

"He'll be here soon." She looked at Andy with a critical eye. "You don't look so good. Maybe you should go and lie down? I'll wake you when he's here."

"No-" Andy croaked through the wool stuck in her throat. "Please Mary, I don't wanna go!"

Mary looked at her thoughtfully. "Andy, I can't leave you. You've been so good to me! I'll always love you, we'll always have each other."

Suddenly weak, Andy slid to the floor.  Her entire time in Prescott swam in front of her eyes. Her meeting with Leo, her friends at the diner, the night when she had taken Mary in. She had seemed so blase about the new lease of life she had received. And now, it would probably be taken away from her.  A kind face swam in front of her eyes. With laughing brown eyes. She hadn't yet told him that she loved him. "Leo-"

A glass of water was thrust in front of her face and she took cool refreshing sips. Belatedly, she wondered if she was being poisoned after all.

"I'm so sorry it didn't work out with him. I did like him, you know? But I'm glad in a way. You won't leave any entanglements behind this way. No one will even miss you."

No, she thought. No one will miss her. This is the life she had wanted. But that was before she'd met Leo. She hoped that at least he would miss her. 

Slowly, Andy slipped out of consciousness.

****

Dr. Williamson was an experienced, balding man in his late forties with kind eyes. He had gone over Mary's file in detail with Leo, but he had confirmed some of Leo's worst suspicions. Not only did Mary have bipolar disorder, she was also known to cut herself.

Leo was out of his mind with worry as he grabbed the steering wheel of his car. He had started back for Prescott as soon as he heard the Doctor's diagnosis. He felt like repeatedly hitting his head on the wheel. All along, he had sent detectives to tail Mary's husband, when it was clear that Andy had invited the crazy home. There was no telling what would set Mary off. She was a ticking bomb and Andy was stuck at home with her.

The only reason Leo had decided to make a trip to Dallas and the Sharon West Home for Women was after a call made with the bright and able officers of the Prescott Police Department. Note the sarcasm. They had spent weeks combing for traces of the person who had attacked Mary and came up with exactly nothing. In this instance, Leo had a sneaking suspicion that maybe there was nothing to be found. Mary had been using the knives, maybe looking to cut herself when Washington had interfered and probably saved her life by risking his own.

Mary had panicked and fled to her husband and all along they had suspected Bremer and tried to save Mary. They hadn't yet realized that the person she had needed saving from, was herself.

Leo had called off the detectives trailing Bremer due to zero suspicious activity on Bremer's part. Now, he needed to make sure that Andy was alright.

One of the detectives who Leo set on Bremer, called Leo with some more upsetting news. It seemed that Bremer had no convictions in his name, but, surprisingly, Mary had gotten in trouble with the law for stalking two women. They had both declined to press charges, but none of this boded well for the well-being of Andy.

"Pick up, pick up!" Leo muttered under his breath, but Andy's call went to voicemail once again. Cursing, he called up Drew and ask him to check on Andy, but he was also away on work. He was still a few hours away from Prescott, so he pumped the gas, impatient to reach Andy.

****

Andy felt curiously rested. She opened her eyes to look at an unfamiliar room. She realized that she was lying on the floor and coughed out the dust mites. The floor was dirty and the room was extremely messy.

Gathering her bearings, she sat up. Pain shot in her wrists, it seemed like she was tied to the leg of a sturdy table around her wrists. Her ankles were free and surprisingly she wasn't gagged. Maybe Mary thought that as they were secluded, no one would hear Andy scream. And she was right. She moved her arms and legs and feeling swept in, an overabundance of energy as the drug she was administered wore off.

Still groggy, she took deep breaths to calm herself. Panicking now was probably not a great idea. She quickly realized that she was still in her house in the one room that she refused to enter, the attic.

A single bulb diffused feeble light. She could make out old abandoned furniture, some covered in sheets, but mostly nothing that would help her escape. She tried to wriggle her wrists, but they were tied with a nylon string, the more she struggled, the tighter it cut.

She bit her lip to tamp down her rising frustration. She still could do one thing. She would try to do today what she hadn't been able to do to Mary in so long. She could try and talk to her out of her madness.

She sat up and even tried to muster a smile as she heard Mary come up the stairs.

"Hello, A-Andy! Good, you're awake! I hope you're hungry because I brought you milk and cookies."

Andy smiled, pretending that last thing that Mary fed her hadn't made her comatose. "Thank you so much! You always took such good care of me."

Mary beamed. "You know now why I think you should come with us? We'll always be together."

"Of course, I would love nothing more." Andy nodded understandingly, tamping down her urge to scream and lunge at the lunatic in front of her. "But I don't understand why you need your husband? We will do so much better than our own. Don't you think so, honey?"

Mary's face fell and her bottom lip trembled. "He's my husband, Mary. He loves me a lot. Besides, he promised to not punish me too severely for running away the first time if I bring him to you. Once you get over the fact that he has a temper, you'll realize that he's nice."

Andy swallowed the bile rising in her throat. She took a deep breath. "Mary, you do know that if he finds me, he'll probably kill me. Do you want that-"

Mary swiftly kept the plate of cookies and the glass of milk in the floor and came towards Andy and cupped her face. "I promise you, I won't let him kill you. He may get angry, but he'll take care of us."

Staring up close into the eyes of a lunatic is fucking scary, Andy realized. Her generally unfocussed gaze was a crystal clear green. She even had a Madonna-esque smile on her face. She looked cherubic, not bat-shit crazy.

"You know that he has a temper and you can't promise that Mary. Why don't only you go to him, I will wait here for you here."

But Mary was already shaking her head and standing up. "No, he promised to go easy on me only if you come with me. I'm sorry I had to trick you, but Phil insisted that. There will be an adjustment period for you, of course, but it will go really well for you. Much better than the last girl."

Panicked clawed at Andy. "Which girl?"

"I have a good feeling about us, Andy. We will both survive this together."

"Why, Mary?" Andy fought to keep the desperation out of her voice and failed. "I was always nice to you. Why did you have to contact Phil now? I always tried to save you from him. Was this always the plan, did you plan to bring me to him all along?"

Mary looked at Andy thoughtfully. "When I first came here, I was on the run from Phil. He was pissed when I messed up with the last girl. I knew that he would only take me back after I give him a replacement. I tracked you here as I happened to see your forwarding address on the file. But, when you met Leo, I knew that I had lost you. I wanted to leave you then. Phil was adamant that the next girl I select has no ties to the outside world. That put a spanner in our plans, so I did leave you. But you followed me, even fought Phil for me. I knew then that I couldn't let you go."

"This is twisted and sick." Andy looked at Mary and wondered how she could talk about kidnap and murder with such complacency. "Mary, if you let me go now, I promise you, you'll never have to see Phil again. He's a bad man, surely you know that? He's abusive and cruel and frankly involved you in illegal ac-"

Mary jumped up when the doorbell rang. "That's Phil. Please don't do anything to make him mad."

And with that, she was gone in a flash.

---

A/N: So, who saw that twist coming? I hope I have captured Mary's manic-depressive(bipolar) personality correctly, as you can see, she's manic now but was depressive before.

Hope this makes sense.

Do comment/vote.