I arrive home to my worst nightmare. Two police cars and an ambulance are parked outside of the house. I leaped out of the car. I'm not even certain it had come to a complete stop and run up the driveway when I'm stopped by one of the officers.

"Whoa! Whoa, there! Who are you and where do you think you're going?" The officer held me back by my shoulders.

"I'm Alex Bragin," I said pulling away from him, I fumble for my wallet and pulled out my license. "This is my house! My family's house," I corrected knowing the addresses wouldn't match. "My mother is in there! Please, I need to know what's going on."

The officer gave me back my license and told me to follow him. I get inside and I see my mother. She was okay. A rush of relief washed over me as and I ran to hug her. She seemed surprised to see me.

"Alex? What are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you, Mom. I'm so glad to see you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

I didn't know how to answer her question and I didn't have the chance as two EMTs were carrying a gurney down the stairs from my Mother's bedroom. I looked up at the officer and the feeling of dread hit like a brick at the bottom of my stomach.

"I'll stay with her," the officer informed me and I nodded and moved across the room. I saw Tina, her eyes closed, blood crusted in her hair, dripping down her face, on her blouse.

"Tina!" her eyes fluttered open for a second when I called her name but never fully opened.

I followed the EMT's outside. "What happened?"

The EMT closest to me shrugged. "Can't say. We found her this way. Do you know who she is?"

"Yes, her name is Tina Worthington. She's my personal assistant. I mean... she works for my father's company. She was looking after my mom while I stepped out. My mother has Alzheimer's."

The two men looked at one another. "That explains some things. Your mother had no recollection of what happened. There was a call placed to 911 and then when the cops arrived they called for us. If you want to know more you'll have to talk to them."

"Where are you taking her?" I asked as they put the gurney into the back of the ambulance, wishing I could go with her.

"Memorial."

"Thank you!"

The second I got back into the door another officer pulled me aside. "Son, I need to talk to you."

I glanced over to my mom who is sitting on the sofa and offering the officer I came in with tea.

"What is going on with your mother? It's pretty evident she's not all there," the officer said not knowing I guess how else to put it.

"I just recently discovered she is in the advanced stage of Alzheimer's. I haven't been in touch with my family for the last 4 years. My father has recently passed away and I came home to help with the arrangements. I guess between the stress and depression her illness is advancing faster than I expected."

The officer's expression held such sorrow. "I'll be honest with you. We don't know what happened here. We came on the scene, rang the bell, your mother opened the door for us. We'd seen some cuts and bruises on her. Asked where she got them from but she couldn't recall. We asked if we could look around and she didn't deny us access to the house. We found the girl on the floor in the bedroom, the vanity mirror smashed, a few other broken or thrown items around the room but the girl wasn't conscious for us to talk to."

I wanted to vomit as he spoke. Scared for my mom and Tina, both. Not knowing what was going to happen to either of them. "Are you going to arrest her?"

"At this moment no, but she will have to be committed. We'll take her to the hospital, where she'll be held for evaluation. We won't press any charges unless there's a reason."

"You mean if Tina was attacked?"

"Yes," the officer said the look of pity in his eyes spoke volumes. "I'm sorry we won't have a choice at that time. Best to make certain to speak to legal council to find out what could be done for your mom should that occur. It's obvious whatever happened it was not intentional but ..."

"I understand. Can I ride with her to the hospital?"

"If you think it will keep her calm. I really would rather not use restraints to take her out of here."

Just the thought of my mother being taken from here in handcuffs made me want to cry. The officer put his hand on my shoulder. "I understand, son. I lost my wife to this horrible disease. I don't envy your position but I can help you with a few numbers for family support. You know... to get you through this."

I tried to smile at the man but couldn't. "Thank you."

He patted my shoulder and followed me to the living room.

"Hey, Mom," I started as I sat beside her. "We need to go with the officers here to the hospital."

"Why? I'm fine."

I take her hand in mine and turn it over where there was bruising and several cuts. I run my thumb gently across them. "You're hurt, Mom. See?" I pointed them out to her.

She frowned and I can tell she was getting upset. I put my arm around her shoulders. "It's okay. I'll be with you. I just want to make sure your okay. Can you do that, for me?"

My mother stared at me long and hard. Then her hand touched my cheek. "For you," she told me and I smiled at her too relieved that she agreed to do anything else.

She stroked my cheek. "Don't worry, darling. I'll be fine. You'll see."

"I know, Mom. I know."

I stood up and helped her up from the sofa. The officers lead us out to their squad car. We got into the back together and were taken to the hospital, the same hospital that they took Tina.

The officers lead us to the psych ward. There was a special wing dedicated to people suffering from Alzheimer's and Dementia. We waited a while before we were taken back to where she would be admitted.

The woman asked my mother a bunch of questions and I was surprised she answered them all correctly. Her full name, address, phone number, even her primary doctor's name. She didn't have her insurance card on her, neither of us thought to grab her purse before we left. I promised I would fax it to them when I got home.

"Okay, hun. You're going to come with me but your son though as to stay," the nurse informed my mother.

I'd seen the panic in my mother's eyes. "It's okay, Mom. They are here to help you. And I'll be waiting. The moment I can see you, I'll be at your door, okay?"

She looked so lost. Her expression told me she understood where she was and that this was no mere trip to the hospital to check out some scrapes and bruises. Her expression was one of a scared child. Somehow I felt our roles had reversed and I wanted to go to her, hold her, reassure her somehow that everything was going to be okay. I felt desperate to keep her safe. But as one nurse lead her away another was tugging on my arm telling me its time to go.

My mom stared at me until the doors shut, sealing her in and locking me out. 

"We'll keep her 24 hours for observation. She'll have medication that will keep her calm so she'll be all right. They'll have her evaluated for competency but hopefully, it won't come to that. If she is prone to such outbursts, you may wish to consider leaving her care to professionals that will know how to properly care for her. I wish I could tell you she'll get better but..."

"She won't." I finished, my eyes stinging with tears.

The nurse's lips pressed together and her head shook. "No, she won't. So you have to think of what's best for her."

"I understand," I said, my heartbreaking. The nurse gave me some pamphlets on places that could care for her, support groups from me, even an advocacy group that helps people who have this disease that get into criminal trouble.

She went back into the ward and I turned to find the officer, who told me about his wife, sitting in the waiting room. He stood as I walked forward. He held out a piece of paper that had a few more numbers of places that I could call and I took it, not knowing if I would use any of it. Right now just I felt numb.

"That last number is mine," The officer told me. And I'd seen his name written next to it. "If you need to talk to someone who understands," his words trailed off because honestly what more can someone say.

"Thank you, Officer Kenny," I put the paper in my pocket.

"Your assistant has been admitted. She is in a room and out of ICU, they are going to run a few more tests but if you want to see her she is in room 412."

I thanked him again and he nodded and took his leave. I asked around until I found the cafeteria and got some food, hoping to clear my fogged brain. I called my father's lawyer and told him what happened. He gave me a number for the best criminal lawyer he knew of. 

 It was then I noticed I had several missed calls from Cat. I listened to the voice mail she left, grateful she said it was good news and that she can't wait to share it with me. I don't think I could handle any more bad news. 

Since I knew everything was okay. I decided not to call her back right away. I didn't want to bring her down, with everything that was happening here. I instead called the criminal lawyer. I had to leave a message with his secretary, but she promised he would call me back.  

I sat in the cafeteria and sipped on some hot coffee. I thought I could eat but my stomach refused food after the first bite. I looked over the pamphlets the ones in regards to where my mom could live weren't needed as my father had already picked out a place for her, so I knew if I must go that route, it was already arranged.

The one on criminal activity and what to do was too disturbing to read through at the moment. It would seem this sort of thing happens, usually, it's petty crimes, shoplifting, fender benders, or minor altercations with caregivers, but once I got into the more serious end of things I had to put the pamphlet away it was too much to think about right now.

Feeling a tad bit steadier I chose to check in on Tina. The hospital had me all turned around but I eventually found the right elevator to take me to the 4th floor. I get to the nurse's station and she directs me to the room but Tina wasn't there.

"She was most likely taken down for her MRI. You can wait in her room if you like." I discovered when I checked back with the nurses' station.

"She conscious?"

"Yes," the nurse told me. "They wouldn't have released her to a room if she wasn't."

"Thank you," I said and went back to her room. Took a seat and waited.

I made the call to the funeral home and the coroner's office and made all the arrangements to have my father's body moved. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you set yourself to robot mode. Having task, after task to handle somehow was keeping me sane.

I heard voices in the hall, and an orderly was bringing Tina back into the room. She was chatting it up with him so I took that as a good sign that she hasn't been seriously injured.

She seemed surprised to see me sitting there. I stood up as the man got the bed back into place and in the proper position.

"Alex? What are you... Your mom... Shouldn't you be..." Tina's words all stumbled one over the other.

"She's here too," I told her and Tina gasped, her hands coming up to her lips. "Please tell me she isn't hurt?"

"You don't know what happened?"

The orderly left the room and I pulled up the chair next to her bed.

"I heard the crash. I hung up on you so I could call 911. I was fearful I wouldn't be able to handle her on my own if she was really aggressive. When I got to the room she was in a full tirade throwing things, hitting her fist into the closet door, her vanity. She smashed one of her perfume bottles and cut her hand.

I know better. I know I should have kept my distance but she was bleeding and I wanted to help her. I guess she thought I was coming to hurt her or subdue her... I don't know exactly but she pushed me away and I lost my balance, I stumbled, got a bit spun around, and hit my head into the vanity mirror and then the vanity itself. That's the last thing I remember."

Tina's hair had been shaved in one spot. I could see the stitches. I cringed. "This is all my fault."

"No. No Alex!" Tina said adamantly. "There was no way you could have know she'd react this way. Your dad's death has been hard on her but she's been dealing with it, all this time. Who knows what triggered the fit, but it's not your fault. I knew better than to try and approach her when she was like that. I should have just made sure she stayed contained until the cops came or when you would have had the chance to calm her down. Is she... is she okay?"

"They are keeping her 24 hours for psychiatric evaluation."

"She's in the psych ward?!" Tina said alarmed. "Why?"

"You weren't conscious so they didn't know if anything criminal took place. They knew she wasn't exactly coherent and so it was either placing her there or I imagine she would have been arrested."

"Oh my God!" Tina was stunned. "I never thought... I'm so sorry... I'll straighten out everything, Alex. I promise."

"She's safe, Tina. Best place for her to be at the moment. So don't worry. I have the number of the officer on the scene. I'll call him and let him know you're awake and what happened. If you aren't going to press charges then my mom should be able to come home."

"Press charges?! Of course, I'm not going to press charges. It was my fault, not hers."

"Thank you! Are you... okay?" I asked the question though it seemed so lame.

Tina grinned. "I'll need a new hairstyle or maybe get into wearing hats until my hair grows back but other than that, I'm fine."

"Have they told you about the results of the MRI?"

"No, too soon but it was really just a precaution that they ran the test. I did hit my head pretty hard, they just wanted to be certain it's not a concussion, but honestly, I'm fine now."

"How long will you be in here?"

"Not sure," she told me and I nodded, and then a thought occurred to me.

"Is there anyone I can call? You know, anyone that would be concerned that you're in here?"

Tina smiled at me and shook her head no. I already knew her parents were dead but I thought she would have a friend or someone that would be concerned about her.

"Okay, in that case, is there anything I can get you?"

Tina thought for a moment, "My spare set of glasses. They are in my purse. My other pair is broken. I would love to have them because I hate how the whole world is a blur right now. They kept doing the whole how many fingers am I hold up thing but honestly I had to guess because I'm as optically challenged as a bat without my glasses."

I laughed. "So, nearly legally blind, huh?"

"Yep," she admitted.

"I'll get them. Anything else?"

"I should be okay. I'm sure I can just go home in the clothes they brought me in with," she was frowning as she said this, and I remembered the blood that was on her blouse.

"I can bring you back a new set of clothes, or hell buy new ones for you."

She was already shaking her head at me. "No, that's not necessary."

"Your clothes are a bit messed up, Tina." I looked around for the bag containing them and pulled out the blouse so she could see.

She sighed. "It's just until I get home. It'll be all right. I will need a lift home though."

"Consider it done," I told her.

The nurse came in. Took her vitals and asked about her pain, to which Tina said she was doing fine. The woman reminded her about ordering dinner before she left.

I stayed with Tina until her dinner came, and then called my driver to be picked up to go home. I promised I would bring her back her glasses when I returned. Tina told me not to rush back. Tomorrow would be fine. She was a little tired anyway.

I walked through the hospital my entire body ached from the fatigue or stress or both. I had no idea at the moment. I knew I wasn't sleeping or eating well, so I don't know what else I expected to feel.

The driver pulled up outside the hospital and I slid into the back seat.

"Everything okay, sir?"

My eyes met his in the rearview mirror. "Both my mother and Ms. Worthington will be in the hospital until tomorrow. Ms. Worthington will require a ride home when she is released."

"Of course, Sir. I'm at your disposal."

"Thank you," I replied and he raised the window between us, realizing the conversation had ended. The driver dropped me off at home and I open the door. I wished to collapse but instead, went up to my mother's room and started cleaning up.

You realize how surreal your life has become when your scrubbing blood off of a piece of furniture and you have to wonder who's blood it may be.

Everything was put away, anything broken thrown away, I half thought of getting rid of the vanity all together but knowing how much my mother loved it, I didn't have the heart. Maybe I can find someone to fix the mirror.

I sat on the bed thinking how many times I'd go looking for Aiden and find him here laying across the bed watching my mom brush her long hair or putting on makeup. He'd be mesmerized by the process and would only come and play with me after I annoyed him enough and he knew he'd get no peace until he gave in to me.

"God I miss him," I said to an empty room. I got up and walked downstairs. Now the entire house was empty, quiet. I was... alone. The immense weight that word held in my mind had me dragging my steps over to the sofa until I fell upon it. Needing to rest. Please God, let me rest. And sleep overtook me.