A/N: This story carries on the events of 4x08 Unfaithful but veers into a different direction than the show. I want to find out how things could evolve if the triangle between Norma, Alex, and Norman had more time to unfold. Also I'm still traumatized by Norma's death and need a distraction (one in which she is very much alive). I LOVE Normero as a couple but also enjoy the twisted chemistry between Norman and Norma (mainly due to the amazing acting on this show). Therefore, all three characters will be an important part of this story. Just so you know what to expect.

One more thing: As far as Norman's character and the serious issue of mental illness is concerned, please keep in mind that this is fiction and not meant to be a clinical essay about his illness, its symptoms, and how to treat it properly.

Disclaimer: Bates Motel and its beloved characters belong to A&E and the brilliant minds of Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin. I'd never claim to be even remotely as talented as they are. Just let me have some fun. Thanks.

Every time she falls asleep, she forgets. And every time she wakes up, she remembers. Dawn is about to break, illuminating her bedroom just enough so that she can see the empty space beside her. Norma reaches out and touches the pillow, his pillow, that is cold, lacking his body warmth.

Alex. She was so happy with him. Is. Things are different, now that Norman is back home, but they only need time to adjust themselves to the circumstances. It's all gonna be good. That doesn't change the fact, though, that she misses her husband here and now. Norma sighs and immediately regrets it because Norman could have heard her manifestation of unrest. The walls are paper-thin in this house and their beds are only inches apart.

Norman. Another empty space in her bed and life. She loved their sleepovers when he was little although her deceased ex-husband hated them because it meant that he had to sleep on the couch. And she also loved falling asleep or waking up in Norman's arms when he was older, too old to sleep in her bed anymore. She remembers the day Dylan told her that to her face with a pang of guilt and embarrassment. That was the day she broached to Norman that he couldn't sleep in her bed anymore and stuck to it, well, the one or other exception aside. She misses their closeness. Convincing Norman to commit himself to Pineview was the hardest thing she ever had to do in her entire life, but as often as she has practiced the advantages of cut and run, of hiding or squirming free of another shitty situation, she has learned that there are situations when the truth is the only way out, no matter how painful it is. The night Norman was taken to Pineview. The night she confessed to Alex what had happened between her and her brother. It doesn't get more painful than that.

So all she wants, all she needs is the three of them living together and being happy. Is that too much to ask? Maybe it is. In light of what her life has been so far, probably way too much. Actually it's a miracle that Alex hasn't already left her considering what she told him about her past and Caleb. To expect that he deals with her mentally unstable son on top of all that is…

Norma sits up and listens when she hears something downstairs. Is he awake? After their dinner spun out of control yesterday and ended in a confrontation between Alex and Norman that almost became violent, Alex insisted on staying. She doesn't exactly know what happened between the two men outside, only that an ax and some yelling was involved. Well, they are all alive and kicking; therefore it couldn't have been too bad. Norma is no stranger to conniptions and her son shares her moody temper. Alex is the sheriff and knows how to handle difficult situations. However, what happened between him and Norman shook him.

I'm not leaving this house tonight.

You can't sleep with me tonight. I mean in my bed. I mean...

Norma cringes as she remembers her response that came spontaneously off the top of her head. The moment she said it, she regretted how it sounded. As if she wanted to shut Alex off, as if he wasn't allowed to be near her anymore now that Norman was back when all she wanted, all she wants, is to have both of them as close to her as possible – emotionally as well as physically. It has to work somehow because what if it doesn't?

I'm sorry.

She reached out to Alex, but he had already turned his back on her, walking into the living room.

I'll sleep on the couch but only for tonight. You are my wife.

Staking his claim. She is his and Norman has to accept that. She liked and didn't like his blunt statement at the same time. Alex doesn't beat around the bush when he wants something. The Big Daddy of White Pine Bay. She makes fun of it. Then again, he is the sheriff, he is her protector, has proven it in spades. Alex Romero being an alpha male is part of why she is so attracted to him. Yet, she disliked the pressure his words implied. They felt like a deadline. She has been living with too many threats dangling over her head during all her life. More pressure or threats is the last things she needs. Norma wants things to be better, they are supposed to be better, now that she has a husband who adores her, now that Norman is getting help. Normal is just a breath away.

You know I love you, right?

The people Norma told that she loved them can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Norman. Dylan. Norman's father (way back then when she thought she did). Dylan's father (because she needed him to marry her so that she could get away from home). Alex. She never told her mother or her father, never heard them say it to her or her brother either. When she loves, she loves deeply, maybe too much, gives everything she has and more. Nevertheless it always feels as if love is a stranger passing through, as if she could lose it any time. Life is so fragile. If she has learned anything, than it is this. Anything good can be taken away any moment.

So she needed Alex to be sure of her love. Now more than ever. Well, he knows already, but saying it out loud would maybe keep the demons at bay for a while longer until they have figured out how to handle this mess.

Alex sighed and Norma knew from instinct that he wanted to not say it back for once. Not to hurt her but to make a point. When he turned around to look at her, she saw in his face, though, that he was unable to resist her just as she is always, always unable to resist him. Their fates are inextricably linked.

He reached out and gently touched her face, caressing her lips with his thumb.

I know. Love you, too. Night, Norma.

She went upstairs, paused at Norman's door and knocked because she wanted to make her peace with him before she went to sleep, but he didn't respond and she didn't want to go into his room without his invitation. That was what she used to do, what she would have done weeks ago without hesitation but not anymore. How could she expect him to respect her privacy if she didn't respect his? His silence hit her hard, the rejection it was meant to be. So much has changed. In moments like these it felt as if nothing would ever be OK again.

Maybe this time I win.

Ever since Norma took Norman home from Pineview, the song is stuck in her head. She sang it at that stupid musical audition. It wasn't a random choice. Far from it, in fact. The words of this song always have moved her in a special way as if it was written for her, as if whoever wrote it knew her life and her longings. If only it could come true.

Norma hears something downstairs again and stands up. She might as well go down and face what the new day has to offer.

Alex has been awake for a while. He didn't sleep much last night, stared at the ceiling most of the time, dwelling on his thoughts or rather the events of the previous evening. Norma trying to yell some sense into her son, Norman taking a swing at him with an ax. Not exactly a normal family dinner, for sure not what Norma had hoped for. He feels sorry for her, but his compassion overlaps with something else, something that struck him as odd when he listened to Norman's tirade. Mental issues and territorial claims aside, shouldn't Norman be happy for his mother? Shouldn't he want her to be happy?

Okay. Alex? There's something that you don't seem to understand. You can be married to her. You can be sleeping with her. But you're never gonna get in between us. This is our world. And that's what love is. Things can never change.

Norman's words rang false. In the end, it's not the image of Norman swinging an ax that didn't let him sleep. It were those words. They weren't the words of a son fearing that he will lose his mother's affection; they sounded like the words of a rejected lover.

"Morning."

Norma's light steps come down the stairs. The fact that she's awake already giving away that she didn't sleep well either. It satisfies him. That she can't sleep well anymore without him lying next to her.

"Hey." She kisses him, a shadow flitting across her face when he doesn't reach out to touch her like he usually does, but she covers it immediately. "Do you want coffee?"

"Yes, sure." He shouldn't be so curt with her. Norma does her best; Alex knows that, but the words and images of Norman keep floating around in his head.

"Norma, wait." He grabs her wrist when she turns around to go into the kitchen. "We have to talk about Norman."

Her expressions changes. She expected it. That doesn't mean she wants to have that talk. "Let's have coffee first, okay?"

She's stalling for time. He won't stand for that. "No. We have to talk about it now, before he wakes up. The things he said yesterday. The way he behaved. You have to tell me what happened the night we had him committed. I have to understand."

Norma slowly pulls her arm away, rubbing her wrist absent-mindedly. "He committed himself," she states. Semantics. More stalling. Then, "You, um, you saw what happened. Norman was confused and very upset and..."

"Norma, stop!"

Alex stands up from the couch, towering over her. Without her high heels they are not on eye level and he uses it to his advantage, knows that she responds to alpha men and their dominance. As long as he doesn't put too much pressure on her that is. Too much pressure and she will snap.

"What happened?"

He remembers their past cat-and-mouse-game of half truths and lies, of hidden love and obvious attraction. These days, there should be no reason to lie or hide anything anymore. He knows her darkest secrets. There can't be anything worse, right?

Norma screws up her face, takes a deep breath and lowers her voice, "Norman... he… he was very confused, delusional. He accused me of murdering his father, Blair Watson and Bradley Martin and… he wasn't himself." She tears up, the memories of that night clearly haunting her.

Alex takes her hand and softly caresses it. "Why did you call me?"

"Because I was afraid of him," she admits. "Because I didn't know what to do. He had never been like that before." The tears shimmer in her eyes. Sometimes Alex thinks Norma is most beautiful when she's on the verge of crying. "But he's better now. Norman would never... He would never hurt you or me. We just have to give him more time."

Her face is like an open book. Norma actually believes that they will work this out somehow. Alex is envious of her about her unabated optimism. After all the bad things that happened to her, she still believes everything will be good in the end.

"Did he threaten you?"

Norma breaks eye contact before Alex can read the answer in her face albeit the mere fact that she broke eye contact probably is a yes. "He didn't know what he was doing. He called me from Pineview, left a message and apologized for everything. You should have heard it. It was heartbreaking. Please, Alex. If you want to make this work, give Norman some leeway."

It's a fine line. Making sure that they are safe, and that includes all of them, while granting Norma her wish to give Norman the time he needs to get better. But here they go again. How could he deny her anything? Especially when he knows that Norma's love for her son is the one and only thing that has the potential to drive them apart. Alex is aware that she didn't tell him everything. Norma didn't lie, wouldn't do that anymore, but she left some things out. Her way of trying to make things work. It will take more talking to find out the rest, to make him understand what makes Norman tick and evaluate the position. Patience is not one of Alex Romero's virtues even though he might appear to be stoic to a casual observer. However, he has no choice. And she's worth it.

Alex enfolds Norma in his arms and kisses her. "Let's have that coffee you were talking about."

Norman wakes up and hears hushed voices downstairs. He turns his head to one side, then to the other, and the quick movement shifts the world, a sudden, unfamiliar tilt of his usual perspective. That's how everything feels, familiar and not familiar at once. It's the same house, he is sleeping in the same room, and yet, everything is different. There is a damned flat screen in the living room. His mother never would have bought such a monstrosity. It was him. The house doesn't even smell like it used to anymore. It used to smell like her. Everywhere. These days, he sometimes detects a whiff of the sheriff's after shave even if he is not there. Norman knows that he has been living here the entire time he has been in Pineview.

Sometimes, his mother conceded when he asked her. It was a lie. Just as…

We actually became good friends. He's a good man. And I like him.

Friends… Like… More lies. Soft-selling the truth because she thought he wouldn't be able to bear it. She loves this man. The sheriff. Alex Romero. And she was right. He can't stand it. The thought of his mother and her husband being together at this very moment, possibly talking about him, drives him crazy. Well, he is supposed to be the crazy one, anyway, isn't he?

The sheriff couldn't wait to get his hands on his mother, to get her. The same man who suspected him of murder twice and couldn't wait to put him in prison. And now he is married to his mother. Husband and wife. The mere idea feels as if someone is trying to poison him. It is sickening to see the ring on her finger. And yet… and yet… he was getting better at Pineview. Dr. Edwards actually helps him and the medication keeps his hallucinations at bay. Norman wants to get better. It's just that the thought is intolerable that Pineview simply was a ploy to get him out of the picture and make way for a honeymoon that would never have happened otherwise.

Norman walks into the bathroom. He dreads going downstairs, dreads a breakfast that will be as awkward as their dinner, but he has to eat, he has to live here. All he wants is to rewind time and have his mother all for himself. Hell, he could even live with the sheriff pining for her and badgering him from time to time if that's what it takes. But it's too late. They are married and they won't get a divorce. Alex as well as his mother made that perfectly clear.

I love him. And he loves me. And that is it. And you have to deal with it.

He was too enraged yesterday to let her words break him, but now every letter scratches his skin raw, every move feels heavy as if life is slowly drowning him. But he won't give up, he can't give up. For her. That's what he promised her.

I stayed in this world for you, mother.

Maybe she'll remember that if he just gives her time and continues to get better.

Just as Norman goes back to his room to get dressed, he hears something outside. Judging from the voices downstairs, they heard it, too, because they stop talking. He walks over to the window to look outside. There is a digger piling up soil just where the pit used to be that was filled up during his absence. Another one of Sheriff Romero's doings, he is certain about that. So why would they dig another pit at exactly the same spot? It's only then that he sees the water seeping out, flooding the street. A burst main.

The front door opens and closes as Romero walks out to check what is going on.

Norman smiles. The burst main bought him some minutes alone with his mother. Maybe it is all gonna be good as she loves to say. He just has to convince her that they need some slight adjustments to their living conditions. And if she won't listen to him today, he has to be patient. There is no way she loves the sheriff more than her own flesh and blood. He only has to make her remember that.

To be continued