Note: There are a lot of cuss words and politically incorrect terms regarding mental health in this chapter and there will be in all following chapters, I imagine so please be aware of that.

Violet Crawley made her way into Downton Hospital around 9 o'clock the next morning, she gave Mrs. Hughes a smile and a polite 'good morning'. One of the wards (or maybe interns...?) greeted her as she made her way to Robert's office and she gave them a slight nod but didn't reply as she didn't know who it actually was, she generally tried not to bother with all of those frivolous niceties like learning every single employees names, she just bothered with the employees she liked.

She continued down the long hall to Robert's office, within the hall was Dr. Carson and Dr. Sybil's offices along with the hospital's 3 conference rooms. All the doors in the white hall were wooden and brown, none had windows and personally the hallway itself made Violet feel quite trapped.

Thankfully, she got to the end of the hallway. Just as she was about to walk she overheard Cora and Robert chatting.

"I just want her to get here already," Robert confessed.

"I know, sweetheart, I know."

"I hate these money conversations, we were always well off before, why must things change?"

"Oh, Robert, you'll be fine. It's only your mother."

This was the point Violet chose to enter the room (she always did love a dramatic entrance), "Yes, don't worry Robert, it's only Mother." The couple both looked at her immediately as if this were a television show. "Good morning, you two."

**
"God, I wish I had some coffee," Ethel moaned. "It's completely unfair they take it away from us. I'd even settle for tea, but no, Dr. Carson said we can't have any."

"It's because it will negatively affect your medication," Anna said taking a sip of her orange juice.

It was breakfast time for the patients and today they were having porridge. Mrs. Patmore made that a lot though sometimes she made scrambled eggs or even bacon if she was in a particularly good mood or if she wanted to make things hard for Daisy and Ivy (the latter happens about twice a month, three times if she's feeling vindictive).

"Well not having coffee is negatively affecting my attitude," Ethel remarked.

"I think we are all well aware of that," O'Brien muttered.

Ethel scoffed but she took a sip of her juice nonetheless.

**
"So, Gwen, how are you today?"

"I'm okay," Gwen replied fidgeting in her leather arm chair. Dr. Sybil was facing her in a blue swivel chair with a clipboard in hand. 'How are you?"

"I'm great, thank you for asking," Dr. Sybil replied, she was always very friendly and bright when Gwen had her appointments, always trying to get her to open up but it didn't work that often. "So, it says here Dr. Carson both increased your dosage of Celexa and started you on Ativan."

"Yes," Gwen said with a nod hoping this was not a bad thing.

"Do you know why that is?"

"He said your notes lead him to believe I was not making enough progress in the getting better process so he decided to increase the amount of medication I take," Gwen answered doing her best to recite what Dr. Carson had told her.

"I see, and how do you feel about the increase in your medication?" Dr. Sybil asked.

"I don't know, I don't know much about medication," Gwen said.

Dr. Sybil laughed for some inexplicable reason, "Sometimes I wish I was the same way." This kind of confused Gwen because she didn't understand why Dr. Sybil continued to be a doctor if she didn't want to know about medication but Gwen decided that Dr. Sybil was odd,like most doctors Gwen had met, so she just smiled.

**
Daisy sat down at the cafeteria table, she had at least an hour before she needed to start prepping for the patients lunch so she decided to go see who their was to talk too as Mrs. Patmore was busy running an errand for Mrs. Hughes. William and Jimmy sat at the table with her, William staring into space and Jimmy reading a book.

"Good morning," she greeted, William looked up and immediately a goofy grin appeared on his face.

"Good morning, Daisy," He greeted back. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, I do hate waiting between meals, I never have anything to do."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm here to entertain you," William replied.

Daisy giggled, "So, what's the rest of the staff doing?"

"Dr. Sybil has appointments all morning, Dr. Carson never comes in here unless he has too, Mrs. Hughes always has to stay at her desk, Nurse Isobel mentioned something about a shipment of books, I'm not sure what Ivy's up to and Thomas and Alfred are giving out the patients medication." If William and Daisy were more observant they would have seen Jimmy scowl (in what seemed to be envy) at the last part of William's answer but they aren't so they didn't.

"You're really good at keeping track of people, William," Daisy said looking impressed.

"Why thank you, Daisy," William said, ever-present goofy smile looking even brighter.

Behind his book Jimmy didn't even bother to suppress an eyeroll.

**
"Thanks," Mary said taking her dose of Clozapine from the red headed intern. When he didn't leave right away she took the hint and dry swallowed her two pills, even opening her mouth to prove she had taken them. "Happy?" The intern just walked off in Branson's direction and Mary smiled smugly to herself.

"Terrorizing interns now? Jeez, you must be really bored," Branson commented behind his book.

"Oh, shut it, I was just proving I was trustworthy," Mary replied with a certain faked innocence.

"You were taking advantage of the fact you terrify the poor lad," Branson said mirroring Mary's tone.

"He's in a mental hospital! He should be prepared to be terrified. I mean, honestly, we're all psychos here, you have to be tougher than that!" Mary said getting a little wound up.

"You're so sensitive to your fellow patients, eh?" Branson retorted perfectly calm.

Mary huffed in response and wondered why she even put up with the Irish man. It wasn't like there was any good reason too. Her bad spirits worsened when she thought she heard Matthew laughing at her from behind his newspaper.

**
"Good morning, Edith," Dr. Sybil greeted ushering Edith into her office. "How are you, today?"

"I'm fine," Edith answered. "What have you been doing since our last session?" Dr. Sybil asked.

Edith shrugged, "Nothing."

"Nothing at all?" Dr. Sybil pryed. "You didn't talk to anyone? Or read a book? You didn't even sleep?"

Edith rolled her eyes, Dr. Sybil did this a lot, always trying to joke around and be Edith's friend, it was ridiculous you couldn't maintain a proper relationship with your therapist so why even bother trying? "Yes, I slept and I read. No, I didn't talk to anyone unless absolutely necessary."

"And why is that?"

Edith sighed, "Isn't it your job to figure it out?"

"We're actually trying to figure it out together."

"Sounds fun," Edith muttered.

**
"Do you have any 2s?" Bates asked Anna, they had figured out the only card game they both played by the exact same rules was Go Fish and so the pair was currently in the progress of their fifteenth round.

"Go fish," Anna replied smiling a little smugly as Bates picked up a card. "Do you have any 5s?"

"I do indeed," John said handing over his 5.

"Do you have any Kings?"

"I do."

"Oh wow," Anna smiled. "Do you have any 8s?"

"Yes."

Ethel moaned into her book, "Would you two just fuck already? I can't take the damn sexual tension."

Anna gasped at the language and Isobel was quick to turn away from the bookshelf she was stocking, "Ethel, language."

"Sorry, Nurse Isobel," Ethel said monotonously, it seemed as though this was a phrase she was very used to saying."Just don't do it again," Nurse Isobel reprimanded.

"Oh but she will," mused O'Brien.

**
"Robert, the fact of the matter is you either need to fire a lot of people or gather some new patients quickly. We can only go so far with the funding we're given if we don't get enough people," Violet said bluntly.

"Well who am I supposed to fire?" Robert asked running a hand through his hair.

"What about the interns? It's not as if you can't just give their jobs to the wards, or what about some of the kitchen staff? Or that Nurse Isobel, Cora can just take her duties, besides, I never did care for her..." Violet suggested.

"Mother!" Robert cried aghast. "I will not fire someone just because you don't care for them!"

"Well, you must fire someone if the rate we're getting patients doesn't increase soon," Violet reiterated. "So, if you don't make the decision I will." And with that Violet turned on her heel and walked out the door.

**
Matthew observed the common area and those who occupied it. It was an odd place. Downton was an odd place. Matthew figured that was to be expected though given the kind of place it was.

Matthew still couldn't bring himself to call Downton what it was. A psychiatric hospital and rehab. He couldn't accept he was in a psychiatric hospital. A mental hospital. A crazy house. A fucking crazy house. A motherfucking crazy house. A goddamn motherfucking crazy house.

Crazy.

He was crazy. He was fucking crazy. You had to be fucking kidding him. For fucks sake! After all the shit he's been through and now he's fucking crazy. Jesus Christ.

Not to mention the people he was here with, Matthew was generally a nice person in fact before he started working at Collins & Collins Law Firm he was fine, he was peachy in fact. He was fucking peachy until those assholes came into his life. They ruined that though, with their pressure and their overworking him and their condescending attitudes and their ugly, stupid faces.

It really did make Matthew's blood boil.

Now, back to the people he was staying with. They all fucking sucked.

Alright, that wasn't true but still, they weren't the best bunch. That was for sure.

First of all they were more batshit crazy than he was. Not to mention half of them were kind of assholes. The other half could be quite pleasant but the asshole half...

First of all there was... Okay so maybe he didn't have any good examples but he didn't have to like the people here. So he wouldn't.

And okay, maybe some of them were quite nice, Anna always offered him a kind smile and Mr. Bates was friendly and Tom actually seemed like someone he'd be friends with outside of this place. But what about the staff? Were they even qualified? It certainly didn't seem like it. Well, except Mrs. Hughes she was quite nice... and Nurse Isobel actually seemed quite motherly. Oh and Dr. Sybil was lovely and Dr. Carson was clearly very qualified. The kitchen team must have been good as the food was always good. And Matthew didn't really have a problem with the wards or interns (he had just decided to repress the memories of his tour). And Nurse Cora and Robert seemed nice, though they didn't really talk to him.

But what about... Mary! There, there's a problem. Mary. Goddamn Mary. With her condescending attitude, and her mood swings, and her pretty face, and her perfect eyebrows (have you seen them, they're fantastic). There, Matthew had found a problem. Mary. She was ruining everything. Plain and simple. He'd just have to avoid her then.

If she'd actually let him...

**
A single chocolate chip muffin was planted before Elsie Hughes as she typed. She looked up and there was a bashful looking Dr. Carson in front of her. "What's this? Is it my birthday and I've simply forgotten?"

"No, no, I just noticed you skipped breakfast," Carson answered. "And, one should never do that so I thought I would bring you something."

"Well, you are the doctor, Charles," Elsie replied biting into the moist muffin. "Thank you, it's very good."

"Of course, Mrs. Hugh- I mean Elsie," Dr. Carson said retreating back to his office.

**
Sybil shut the door behind Ethel and collapsed into her chair (God, she loved her chair, it was so comfortable). That woman was always quite the experience. To say the least. Not to mention before that she had an appointment with O'Brien which never did anything to help her self-esteem (she probably shouldn't let a patient affect her like that, but O'Brien was really good at insulting people and in the kind of way you can't actually say anything about her, especially when you're her doctor).

She heard a knock at her door, "Come in." Normally she would answer the door herself but she knew it wasn't a patient and, honestly, at this point she couldn't be bothered.

Cora entered her office with a plate of something delicious smelling in her hands, "I figured you'd want this, I know how much you love Mrs. Patmore's scotch pies. Not that I can blame you, I almost ate this on the way to your office and I saw Mrs. Hughes eyeing it as I walked by."

Sybil smiled and took the plate happily from Cora, "Thank you so much, it has been such a busy morning. Apparently all my appointments had to be back to back."

"That's always the way it goes, isn't it? Do you have anymore appointments, then?"

"Just one, Tom Branson." Sybil answered trying to keep her tone as neutral as possible.

"Well, that's not too bad, I've always liked Branson."

Sybil swallowed, "Yes, me too."

"Well, I'll leave you to your pie, darling," Cora said exiting Sybil's office.

Sybil ran a hand through her hair, she had forgotten she had an appointment with Tom today. Now she was feeling both excited and guilty, a feeling that generally came with seeing Tom.

She, of course, knew that it was not okay to be in a romantic relationship with a patient. Obviously. But it was more complicated than that (wasn't it always?).

It had all started about three months ago when Tom first arrived at Downton. Sybil had been working there about two years (six months as an intern, six months as a nurse and a year as a proper doctor).

Unlike most prior patients Sybil had been intrigued by Tom and so she did some research, more than was strictly necessary. She learned about where he grew up, his family, what he did before he came to Downton and, most importantly, why he was at Downton.

She officially met Tom at his first group session, she of course had seen him around the hospital and read his file at least a dozen times but had never properly spoken to him. She introduced herself right away, shaking his hand rigidly in a way she hoped conveyed 'I haven't been reading about you all day'. "Hello, I'm Dr. Sybil, I'll be leading the group therapy sessions. I'll also be your psychiatrist during your stay at Downton."

"Tom," was all he said in reply, but he had smiled at her just slightly which was unexpected.

After that Tom began meeting with Sybil twice a week as all patients were required to, as the sessions went on Sybil and Tom started to get to know each other, she learned he was quite interested in politics, held similar morals to her own and could be quite funny at times. Soon when she looked at her schedule she would see Tom's name pop-up three or four times a week, there were times when he would make a last minute appointment at the end of the day for no apparent reason.

Sybil would like to go on the record and say he kissed her first. Yes, she kissed back. But, but, she did not initiate anything (well not really). They had been finishing up their session when Tom swept her into her kiss, romantic movie style. She was shocked at first but it admittedly took her a very short amount of time to kiss back, a lot shorter than she's proud of. The kiss itself was all passion and surprise. It was rushed and messy and rather perfect and part of Sybil wished it would last forever (the more rational side of her brain knew it had to stop, however, she tended to tune that side of her brain out whenever she needed it most).

When she did pull away the first thing she said was, "Wow." The second was, "You probably shouldn't have done that."

"So, you didn't like it?" Was what he asked back, a cheeky grin threatening to show on his face.

"Well, I, um, I didn't say that," As the realization of what just happened, and more importantly how she felt about it, set in Sybil got exceedingly more frustrated.

'So, you did like it?"

"I didn't say that either."

Apparently this was all Tom needed to bring her into another kiss. This one was much more tender and a lot shorter.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Doctor."

And with that he was gone leaving a very flustered Sybil in his wake.

"Good, God, what did I just do?"

The whole affair continued on, well until now. Tom would schedule the last appointment of the day a few times a week they would talk for awhile but it always lead to... other things. Of course she had never had proper sex with him! But that didn't mean there hadn't been other things, things she would never describe to anyone.

Sybil knew it had to end. She knew it, she really did. But she didn't want it to. Was that bad? It was really bad, wasn't it?

It's just, she was kind of, just a little bit, in love with Tom.

She just couldn't help it, in any other circumstance they would be allowed to be together, but of course this was the one circumstance where it wasn't the case.

Sybil considered ending it everyday she saw Tom but she never did, she never could. Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard a knock on the door. She sighed and dragged herself out of her chair and there was Tom at the door.

"Hello, darling," He greeted entering her office with ease. "How are you today?"

She smiled and shut the door behind her. She would end it another day.

Probably.

**
Robert had always been adamant that the wards and nurses (and by extension the interns) try to get involved during the free time between lunch and dinner. Sometimes they would have icebreaker games or play bingo, maybe watch a movie. Today was not one of those days. No, today was the day they played board games.

That was the reason Thomas was stuck playing Cluedo with Ethel, O'Brien, Bates, Anna and Jimmy. At least he got to be Mr. Green.

"I suggest it was Mrs. Peacock, in the library with the revolver," Anna said brightly moving Ms. O'Brien's piece into the library.

"I can disprove it," Jimmy announced with forced enthusiasm, he flashed Anna a card and she dutifully started making check marks on her 'detective's sheet'. "Alright, well, I'll stay in the hall and I'm going to suggest Mr. Green, with the pipe in the hall." He moved Thomas's piece over to the hall with a rather smug look on his face as if he had just foiled all of Thomas's big Cluedo winning plans.

"I can disprove it," Ethel said not even bothering to hide her boredom. She rolled and moved a few spaces before plopping the dice in front of O'Brien who also rolled and seemed to purposely avoid going into any rooms.

Bates went next and he actually seemed to be enjoying this experience, though Thomas suspected this was due to the fact Anna was playing. Thomas envied that just a little, to still be excited about something as remedial as this. Though, Bates hadn't been at Downton near as long as Thomas. Thomas envied that too.

"Mr. Green with the candlestick in the Lounge," Bates decided.

"Sounds like people think you might be the murderer, Thomas," Jimmy said. "I wonder what that says about you."

"It says I have bad taste in Cluedo characters," Thomas replied. "I don't think it says I'm planning an elaborate murder dinner party."

"Are you sure? I think it really reveals your inner murderer, don't you?" Jimmy smiled, or rather smirked. "Oh, and I can disprove your suggestion, luckily for Mr. Barrow."

"Yes, I won't be charged for murder anytime soon, thank you ever so much Jimmy."

Ethel sighed loudly, "Oh good God, just fuck. Just do it. Because I am done watching what I can only assume is flirting while talking about murder."

"You've already done that, line today," Bates noted patting a shocked looking Anna on the back.

"They're worse than you two, and that says something because I thought you two were the worst! But, no, nothing is worse than that. Plus, these two can do something about it, they're allowed too and yet they don't."

"I'd say that's it for Cluedo then."

**
Mary chuckled a little bit, Ethel's little outbursts were always entertaining and there was always a hint of truth in them too, Mary had noticed that the ward, Thomas was his name, Mary thought, and the cute, blonde, ambiguously gay intern had been laying it on rather thick when it came to their attempts at flirting.

Mary never would have pointed anything out, and if she did it would have been a lot subtler than that but Mary can appreciate the sentiment. If Mary had cared enough she would have gotten involved ages ago but she didn't so she hadn't.

No, Mary's concern at the moment lied with that bloody Matthew. He just waltzed in here and seemed to fit right in, not to mention it doesn't seem like he even really has a problem. Not a proper one at least. So, he had some big work related breakdown? How bad could it really be? It's not as if he told anyone about it so Mary figured she would never know. Unless she could force it out of him...

No, that probably wouldn't work it wasn't as if he had talked to her much when she had tried the first time. She probably just shouldn't bother with him but Mary couldn't help but be curious. Some new guy comes in all secrets and smiles it's intriguing.

He must be hiding something. He must be. Why else would he be the way he is? Mary was determined to find out more about him now.

**
Ivy, because she liked a little cliche in her life, was whistling while she worked. She was prepping for the patients dinner with Daisy. Of course Daisy wasn't talking to her like usual. Ivy never did understand why Daisy seemed to despise her but she was at a point where she just accepted it.

Ivy quite liked working at Downton, she never expected to be working at a place like it but she enjoyed it nonetheless. The people were nice, the hours were good and she had a place to stay. Really she had nothing to complain about and assumed there was no reason why someone might complain about her.

Which is why she was surprised when she heard Mrs. Patmore call, "Ivy, Mr. Crawley would like to speak with you!"

Ivy cleaned up her work station, gave her hands a wash and scurried out of the kitchen to see her boss, Robert Crawley, standing there in all his intimidating glory. "Ah, excellent, Ivy, I was hoping you and I could have a quick chat."

"Of course," Ivy said. Robert turned around to walk to his office just in time for him to miss seeing Ivy seemingly pray for a brief moment.

Ivy had seen Robert's office once before for her job interview but at the time she was so nervous that she hadn't really taken in her surroundings. Getting a good look at it now was incredible. It was so extravagant and almost Victorian looking. Everything was so elegant and put together and it made Ivy feel a little dumbstruck.

"Sit, please," Robert said gesturing to the chair in front of his desk as he took a seat. Ivy obliged not wanting to do something wrong. "How are you, Ivy?"

"I'm good, Mr. Crawley. How are you?" Ivy said, looking down as if there was something fascinating on her shoes.

"I'm good thank you," Robert replied with a rather forced smile but he was definitely trying to be friendly. "Though, you can call me Robert if you like."

"Oh, that's okay, Mr. Crawley."

"Alright, well, Ivy, I just want to say you are by no means in trouble I just wanted to check in with you and see how you're doing. I plan on doing this with everyone, you're just the lucky girl who gets to go first." Robert drummed his fingers on his desk like a nervous twitch.

Ivy nodded, "Alright, Mr. Crawley."

"So, how are things here at Downton?"

"They're good, I like it here a lot."

"That's good to hear, and how are working conditions for you?" Robert had never conducted an interview like this, one that seems like such a lie because no one knew his intentions and no one knew that the results of these interviews could affect the security of their job.

"They're really good, Mr. Crawley, the room you provide is lovely and I of course like the meals, though I may be a little bias." Ivy laughed nervously at that last part, desperately hoping Robert might join in.

Robert chuckled, "Yes, I suppose so, how are your co-workers? Do you all get along?"

"Oh yes! Everyone is really nice, I like to think I get on well with everyone too."

"I should hope so, is there anyone particularly good to work with or difficult to work with?"

Ivy pondered this for a moment, "Well, Daisy was quite helpful when I first started, she knew a lot about what she was doing. She got a little frustrated with me when I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I can't blame her as she is so competent."

"Is there anyone else?"

Ivy reddened, "Well, Jimmy, the intern, he's really nice. He's always friendly and making jokes." She paused a moment before amending, "Not that's he's unprofessional or anything, he's quite good at his job actually. It's impressive."

Robert smiled, "That's great, Ivy thank you for talking to me, I hope it wasn't too intimidating."

"Oh no, Mr. Crawley," Ivy said getting up to leave. "Have a lovely evening."

"Yes, you too."

**
O'Brien dumped her plate onto the pile of dirty plates, she had finished her mediocre meal of tacos and rice. Mrs. Patmore's cooking wasn't as good as everyone claimed it was in her opinion. O'Brien remembers when she first got here how every staff member droned on and on about how she would love the food, and maybe the staff food was incredible but her food never was.

O'Brien, personally, hated Downton. She knew it was necessary she be there and that was why she stayed but it didn't mean she liked it. Every staff member was patronizing despite the fact she was older and wiser than almost all of them and every patient avoided her like the plague.

O'Brien had been at Downton for seven months and she wasn't actually expected to leave anytime soon. She was here for an "indefinite amount of time" and O'Brien suspected that she may die in this god awful place.

What she hated most was the fact that she was alone. She had been alone since her brother had died but at least she still knew people then. Now, now she knows no one. And that kills her.

**
"How'd the first interview go dear?" Cora asked pulling the covers over her. It was another late night for her and Robert, they had been up late running around trying to figure out a solution until about midnight and now, half an hour later, they finally got to go to bed after a very long day.

"Fine, fine, poor girl seemed rather nervous," Robert mused. He stifled a yawn and said, "Hope the others are as painless."

Cora pressed a quick kiss to his lips before turning over onto her side, "As do I, sweetheart, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Note: Thank you for all the kind words! They meant so much to me! Since the holidays are upon us I want to note that I may not get to post until January which is why I posted this chapter so soon, not all updates will be nearly this quick. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Have a wonderful holiday!