Deleted Scene : The Ring

Season 4, Episode 3

'Till Death Do You Part

~ Alex had finally gotten home around midnight. He'd called Norma to tell her that her son was safely checked into Pineview and to give her one last chance to back out of this whole absurd wedding idea.

She didn't seem to budge from it, and Alex wasn't going to be the first one to blink when challenged.

When she had approached him about the idea, he had thought it was a joke at first. Not a funny joke, because he didn't get the punchline. Then, when she seemed completely sincere, he had thought she had finally gone off the deep end.

Alex knew Norma wasn't crazy herself. He'd dealt with enough individuals with mental issues to know the difference between that and a woman who was just under a lot of emotional stress. What Norma was dealing with, her son, her failing business, not to mention the harassment Bob Paris had put on her, had badly hurt an already delicate situation.

Still, when Norma wasn't troubled by these things, which was rare, Alex found her magnetic. She challenged him in a way he wasn't used to.

As Sheriff, especially where his father had so badly salted the earth here, people tended to giving the younger Sheriff Romero the cold shoulder. Never giving information unless asked. Never welcoming him in unless forced.

It had been refreshing to met Norma who's brash and fearless attitude had so smitten him. Who didn't smile to his face and talk about him in whispers. If Norma didn't like him, which she didn't at first, she let him know. Which she had. More than once.

It had felt like a small victory to win each other's trust over the next few months. Alex could have stayed at the other motel across town. It was newer and closer to work. He stayed at the Bates Motel because he wanted to be closer to the attractive lady who he couldn't stop thinking about.

The pretty blond lady who wasn't afraid of him. Who didn't pretend to be nice to him just to get something out of it.

He'd stayed at the motel because he liked catching those quick glimpses of Norma every morning when he left for work and when he came home. Her rushing to the office on those well toned legs with a dress that hit tastefully at the knee.

Soon he timed his morning routine down so that he left his room just as she rounded the corner to the office and she would wave and nod to him. It wasn't long before they seemed to be in perfect sync with each other and Alex had to wonder if Norma had been wanting to catch him just as much as he wanted to catch her.

A silly high school game of seeing your crush in-between classes, but it was enough for him. It was enough, until a few nights later when he'd come back to the motel late and saw the single light was one in the big house. Saw the shadow moving across the room inside and saw Norma Bates, splendid in matching bra and panties pinning her hair up in front of the window. Oblivious that anyone could see her.

Alex's breath had been stolen away by the sight of her.

She had the body any woman would envy. No one would have ever guessed she'd had children or that she was nearing the age of forty.

Alex didn't feel shame at first for letting his eyes glide over the beautiful curves of her body as she turned her back on the window and unhooked her bra. Her breasts becoming free so that she could slip on a night gown.

He felt like he was looking at a work of art and yet, when she reached for that black night dress, he felt a discomfort growing in his pants and had to look away before she turned back to the window and accidentally exposed her naked breasts to him.

He told her the next morning and she had only stared at him. Both of them knowing full well that she'd changed in front of her window and that he'd most likely seen everything. Norma not looking the least bit ashamed and Alex not apologizing for appreciating art.

It had been like a strategic chess game between them of back and forth. Of welcoming smiles, of worried accusations. Of dinners with the family to screaming and allowing her hit him.

Alex still felt weak after letting her escape that night. He wanted so badly for her to stay with him. For her to confess everything and allow him to make to love to her.

Instead, her tears turned to wrath and she'd lashed out at him.

Not one to ever hit a woman, certainly never her, Alex had allowed it. All of her fury didn't hurt him at all and only excited him when he pinned her to the wall and dared to brush his lips against hers.

Her sobs of anger, or remorse for attacking him, were hot and her breath was close to his as he kissed her jaw and tried to wander up to her lips. Her stubborn rejection seemed more out of pride than anything else.

Later that night, they had embarrassingly apologized to each other. Both of them feeling the sense of hopelessness that they were doomed to this horrible fate.

Then again, maybe they weren't.

Alex was thankful he'd kept some of his most treasured family heirlooms in a safe in his office. It was where he'd kept things insurance could never replace and a habit he'd learned from his father.

Now, it was all he had of his past since Zane Morgan burned his house down.

The safe was large and contained old pictures of his mother and grandparents. His discharge papers from the Marines. His father's watch and old Sheriff's badge. An extra side arm. A dirty gun with a body on it. Just in case he needed to send someone away for murder. His divorce papers from a wife who'd he'd barely been married to back when he was too young to know better, and his mother's engagement ring.

Alex paused a moment before opening the black leather ring box. Norma expected this to be a sham wedding. Something that wasn't real. Why was he pulling out his most treasured possession and wanting to give it to her? If it wasn't real, why was he giving her the truest thing he had?

Alex carefully opened the ring box and saw the brilliant stone blinking back at him.

Instantly the tension in his chest eased. He lifted the ring out of the box where it had sat unseen and unloved for too long. He'd forgotten how slender his mother's fingers were and hoped it would fit Norma.

"She's going to love you." Alex whispered to the brightly blazing stone that seemed to burn like fire in the morning light. He let the sunlight catch the facets of stone and pictured Norma's reaction to him slipping such a stone on her finger. Would it be surprise or horror?

He'd hopped he eyes would lit up when he put it on. That her eyes, so bright and truthful, would lit up with happiness when he put this on and maybe, perhaps, she might not think this was a sham wedding after all.

Alex slipped his mother's ring into his breast pocket and glanced at the clock. He was running late and knowing Norma, she'd be at City Hall early.

He quickly shut the safe door and spun the combination. Leaving his office to go and get married.

'Your move, Norma Bates.' he thought cheerfully to himself as he rested a hand over the pocket where the ring was safely stashed.