Back for Good

Chapter 3

Whatever I said, whatever I did

I didn't mean it

I just want you back for good

(Want you back, want you back)

I want you back for good

Mona Madison smiled as she showed Maddie into the house calling Mitchell to let him know his sister was there.

"Mads what a nice surprise." He smiled coming to give his sister a hug, he took a second to notice how tired she looked but he'd heard about the murders in the news and it didn't take much to put two and two together to realise she was working on it. He was however, shocked to discover the case was what had brought her to his house on a Wednesday afternoon. He left the two ladies discussing paganism and went back to work where he discovered an email from Alex waiting for him.

Hi Mitch

I hope you read this before Maddie leaves in time to do something because I know she won't bring it up without prompting when she's on work business. I got you know who's address and told her but she's not doing anything about it. I know she wants too; she needs to, if I'm honest with how miserable she's been recently. Just prompt her and try to convince her to go and grab this opportunity with both hands. See what you can do and let me know how it goes – although she will guess I've prompted you.

Alex

He chuckled at the email, Alex couldn't stop herself at times but he knew she had Maddie's best interests at heart, and she was right, Maddie was getting more and more miserable and going out less, and it wasn't all down the how much more she was working. She was working to escape and it was only making her tired and more miserable. He thought for a moment at how happy Maddie had been whenever she was with or thinking of Casey, the troubles she'd been through seemed to disappear when the older woman was with her, they were almost always smiling when doing something as a pair. There were times he saw his mother in his sister's face, he remembered how happy his mother used to be and how her smile made him feel, he wanted Maddie to feel that way again.

He emerged from his office under an hour later to find the two women still talking but this time about what to get their step mother for her upcoming birthday. He decided to bite the bullet and come out with what he wanted to say as he wasn't brilliant at subtlety.

"So are you going to act on the address or simply stash it away?" He blurted out and braced himself for the imminent eruption of Mount Maddie. The eruption however never came; she simply sat there and shrugged her shoulders letting him know that she really didn't know what to do. All he could do was promise to support her no matter what she decided, as her big brother his concern was that she was alright, he remembered his promise to their mother that he'd make sure she was alright, and relationships he could support her with – it was the war zones where he struggled. He'd never forget the day his father called him to tell him she'd been injured, he felt his whole world fall apart with a few simple words and he'd never felt as helpless in his life.

Maddie returned to the 1-6 an hour later still feeling confused over what to do about the address but a lot more clued up on Paganism and the pentagram, and also Mona's sister's telephone number if she had any questions about it. Although Maddie doubted she'd phone the woman, she was a little too strange to deal with whilst sleep deprived.

"Good, now go home and sleep." Olivia said after she'd been updated on Maddie's findings and subsequent conclusions from the research.

"No I'm not tired." Maddie protested but she was exhausted, Olivia could see through the determined exterior and saw how tired the young detective was. Maddie needed sleep but she was also afraid of the nightmares that she knew would come the moment she closed her eyes, but she wasn't ready to admit that to anyone.

"I don't care, you're exhausted which means you're not at 100% and that's what we need on this case if we're to prevent another murder. Just go home." Olivia practically ordered and Maddie had no choice but to do as asked, or rather as told, she knew she'd never win against the elder detective.

Alex was sat waiting on the sofa when Maddie returned, she'd been emailed by Mitchell and knew that Maddie was confused and unsure of what to do; Alex was there to offer support and advice if it were needed. Maddie sighed as she let herself in and saw Alex sat watching TV, her cousin was one of the last people she wanted to see right there and then because she knew why she'd come. Alex was about to question Maddie on her reluctance to act on the information she'd been given but bit her tongue when she got a good look at the younger woman and saw just how tired she was. Instead of speaking Alex simply pulled her cousin into a strong embrace, she felt Maddie relax in her arms and sat the pair of them down.

"I'm sorry." Alex said, "I just want you to be happy." Maddie sighed before looking at her cousin.

"Why can't you just let me live my own life?" Maddie asked before getting up and walking into her bedroom slamming the door behind her.

Unsure of exactly what to do Alex remained on the sofa where she eventually fell asleep only to be woken a few hours later by noises coming from Maddie's bedroom. Quickly she ran into the room to find Maddie thrashing around on the bed, she was sweating profusely and was clearly agitated.

"Maddie wake up." Alex said gently placing a hand on her cousin to calm her down. After a few moments Maddie woke up, it took her a few seconds to realise where she was and what had happened. "Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked worriedly looking at the pained expression on her cousin's face. Maddie shook her head, the last thing she felt like doing was talking, she just wanted the nightmares to stop.