Chapter 10

"Good Girls vs. Bad Girls"

Debra lays crumpled to the floor, gun in hand. Dexter stares blankly at her limp body.

The sound of the gunfire is still left ringing in his ears.

In the distance he hears baby Laura crying.

Harrison calls out for him, "Daddy!"

Hannah picks up Laura and hurries over to Dexter.

Harrison runs past Hannah, over to his father.

Dexter looks up from Debra's body. Harrison runs up to his father. Dexter picks his son up off the ground and holds him close. Dexter puts Harrison's head into his shoulder to shield his face from Debra.

Dexter meets up with Hannah in the hallway. They are both holding a child.

Dexter says, "Hannah, lets get the kids away from Debra. I don't want them to see her like this."

Hannah says with great sympathy, "Oh Dexter, I'm so sorry."

Dexter says, "We tried the best we could. There's nothing we can do for her now. Come, lets take the kids outside for a while."

Dexter, Hannah, Harrison and Laura, all go out onto the porch. There's a large swing chair out on the porch. All four of them sit in the swing chair. Dexter has Harrison in his lap. He holds him with his right arm. Hannah still holds Laura. She's feeding her. Dexter has his left arm around Hannah. All four of them huddle in the swing chair, like that, together. A few minutes go by. Dexter swings them gently in the chair by pressing his foot to the floor.

Harrison asks, "What was the loud sound. Where's Aunt Deb?"

Hannah says, "I sorry Harrison but Aunt Deb is... "

Dexter interrupts, "Aunt Deb fallen into a deep sleep for a long time. We'll talk about it later."

Harrison says, "But what was that noise? Was it something that hurt her?"

Dexter and Hannah exchange pensive looks.

Dexter says, "Yes, Aunt Deb was playing with something very dangerous. Something she shouldn't of been playing with. It let out a loud noise. It hurt her and cause her to fall into a deep sleep."

Harrison asks, "What was she playing with? Was it a bebe gun?"

Dexter says, "Yes, it was a special kind of bebe gun."

Harrison says, "Cody's bebe gun doesn't make noise like that."

Dexter says, "It's a kind of bebe gun that only grownups can use."

Confused Harrison asks, "It can make you fall asleep?"

Dexter says, "Yes, it cast her into a deep slumber like snow white."

Harrison asks, "So she's going to be okay."

Dexter says, "I'll take care of her later."

Harrison asks, "Can I go see her."

Dexter says, "No. We need to not disturb her right now."

Harrison says, "Gee, Aunt Deb needs lots of naps."

Dexter says, "Aunt Deb's been under a lot of stress lately. That's why I took her here. To help her relax."

Harrison asks, "What is 'stress?'"

Dexter says, "It means she feels tired and worn out from working so much as a cop. And she's the leader of cops. It's a hard job."

Harrison asks, "Did she have fun playing games with you here?"

Dexter says, "Sometimes, it seemed like she was having fun with me. But she was just pretending. I guess I couldn't help her stress. I think I made her stress worse. Bringing her here was a bad idea. I shoulda just let her be."

Hannah says, "Dexter, you did the best you could. You just gotta let her go."

Dexter says, "Maybe you're right."

They all sit there like that another twenty minutes.

Then Dexter gets up. He says, "I gonna lay Aunt Deb down in the rubber room for a while. That way she won't be disturbed. Hannah why don't you take the kids out for a short stroll ride. I wanna be alone with Aunt Deb for a little while."

Hannah says, "Absolutely, whatever you need."

Harrison asks, "What's a 'rubber room?'"

Dexter says, "It's a room that's all soft with cushions. If Aunt Deb had stayed in the soft room she wouldn't of hurt her head like she did."

Harrison asks, "Can I see the soft room?"

Dexter says, "Not right now. Aunt Deb needs to rest in there for a while. I gonna have you go on a stroll ride with Hannah and Laura. I just need like a half hour alone with Aunt Deb. Then you, Hannah, and Laura can come right back."

Harrison says, "Okay Daddy."

Hannah and kids leave for the stroll ride. Dexter goes back into the cabin. He goes to alcove area where Debra lays crumpled to the floor. Again, he stands over her limp body. Her long brown hair fans out on the floor. He looks down at her and shakes his head. He says to himself, "Good God Deb, what was I to do with you? I don't know."

She lays curled up on her side, gun in hand. He takes the gun outta her hand one more time. He picks up her body up off the floor. He carries her into the rubber room and lays her down in there. He folds her hands over her stomach and brushes her hair to frame her face.

In the corner of the room he sees the knife and Debra's cut up straight jacket.

Dexter thinks, "This is Debra's suicide knife. Even in the straight jacket it's possible Debra finagled the knife up-in-there somehow. She may of done it at any point. If he was elsewhere in the cabin. Even with Hannah watching her. If Hannah were distracted with the baby or Harrison. It was all possible... "

Dexter carefully looks over the room. He notices a single drop of blood in the middle of the white padded floor. He thinks, "Debra cutting herself with the knife was a likely scenario. He looks back over to where the jacket and knife are...

Hannah and the kids return from their stroll a half hour later, as per instructed. The baby's asleep in the stroller. Dexter's in the kitchen sitting at the table. He has the kitchen table collapsed, so that it was back to being a two-seater table. Yesterday Dexter had taken out two extra fold up chairs that were in the closet. While Hannah and the kids were gone, he had put the extra chairs away.

Dexter says, "Harrison could you go play out on the porch for a little while? I wanna talk to Hannah alone."

Harrison says, "Okay Daddy" He runs outside. Some of Dexter's old matchbox cars are out on the porch. This being the Morgan family cabin, it was fairly well equipped to host the next generation. Yesterday Dexter had discovered some of his old toys in the his old haunts. He had been coming here since he was eight. Dexter had never been much interested in cars, but keeping up appearances had started young for him. Even here the mask never dropped until absolutely necessary.

Dexter tells Hannah, "Pull up a seat." He gestures for Hannah to sit in the empty seat across from him. She sits down.

Dexter says, "I looked in rubber room. I discovered a knife and Debra's cut up straight jacket."

Hannah says, "So the knife, that's how she got out of the jacket."

Dexter says, "We were watching Debra. How could she of finagled the knife up-in the jacket?"

Hannah says, "Yesterday afternoon you were looking through the cabin. You were trying to find toys for Harrison to play with. Remember you got the cars for him. Well I was watching Debra for you in the kitchen. The baby started crying. Harrison ran outside with Laura's pacifier. I chased him. I was only outside for like thirty seconds. Debra must of used that opportunity to finagle the knife up-in the jacket. I'm sorry Dexter. I got distracted."

Dexter asks, "Last night, early this morning, when you were outside Debra's door. Did you hear anything suspicious?"

Hannah says, "I laid down in the hallway to feed Laura. Again, I sorry Dexter. I fell asleep. Then an hour later Laura started crying. The crying woke me up. She was wet. I went back to the living room to get a diaper for Laura. You looked so sweet in your sleep I thought I'd give you kiss. My kiss woke you up. You went to the bathroom. I noticed, once you were in the bathroom, that you had dropped the key to the rubber room. I picked up the key for you. I was going to give it back to you after you got out of the bathroom. But before you went to the bathroom, you asked me if Debra was still sleeping. I didn't know if she was or not.

So I went back to hallway to check Debra. When I came to the door Debra was looking out the window slit out at me. I figured the noise of us must of woken her up. She said she needed to use the bathroom. I unlocked the rubber room door for her. I knew you were in the bathroom but I figured Debra could use it after you got out. I started to open the rubber room door. Debra then asked me if I could get another tampon for her. I said sure. I left the door open. After I got a tampon from my purse, Laura started crying. I went to change her." Hannah shakes her head.

Dexter says, "So that explains it then."

Hannah asks, "But Dexter, how did Debra get the gun exactly?"

Dexter says, "She got the gun, out of a desk, in the hallway. It's our father's old hand gun. He kept it in the bottom drawer of that desk. The gun's actually located in the false bottom of that drawer. That bottom drawer was locked. But the key to that lock is nearby. The key was left in the top drawer of that same desk. That wasn't a great hiding place for the key."

Hannah asks, "Oh, it was your father's gun. So Debra knew exactly how to access the gun the whole time?"

Dexter says, "Well, the day before yesterday, Debra saw me get the gun out. I got it out for her to have, for self protection. She tricked me. She told me she wanted us to go around the world together fighting crime. She said, she and I, we could travel the planet together, saving innocent lives, by helping me killing killers. I believed her. It was stupid of me. I mean, I suspected she was suicidal in the first place. Just like when she was nine and she got raped. That's why I brought her here. I did it to keep her safe. I thought I'd observe her behaviour and make sure she wasn't suicidal.

The gun Debra killed herself with, that's actually the same gun she scarred her face with, the night before yesterday. You know, when she tried to shoot herself in the head, the first time. Two days ago, Debra saw me take everything out of that desk, the key, the gun. And then I put both items back, in the same location, where I initially got them out from. So Debra knew exactly where they were. Again it was stupid of me. I mean, I just figured, between the straight jacket, the rubber room and us watching her all the time. She couldn't possible access the gun. I was wrong. She found a way."

Hannah say, "Good God Dexter. You tried so hard to keep Debra safe. But how can you keep someone safe from themselves. It's impossible. You can't beat yourself up about it. Especially the thing about the gun. Hell, once Debra got a hold of the knife she could just slit her own throat or stabbed herself in the heart."

Dexter says, "People don't usually kill themselves that way. It's just a hard thing to do your yourself. Debra tried, and failed, to slit her own throat last night. Pulling a trigger is just much easier to do. She even opted to pop pills the first time around. Even though, for a couple of decades, she walked around with a gun on her hip. Pills are how women usually do it. It took her awhile to work her way up to gun, never mind suicide by a knife."

Hannah puts her hand on Dexter's hand to comfort him. He covers her hand with his other hand. He feels both band-aids that are on Hannah's fingers. A pink band-aid with hearts covers the tip of both her index finger, and middle finger, on her right hand.

Dexter asks, "You cut yourself on something?"

Hannah lies and says, "Yah, I reached into the diaper bag. Something sharp in there cut two of my fingers."

Dexter pulls out a piece of paper, out from under the table. The paper has a bunch of crease marks on it. Like the paper was folded up and bent a bunch of times. The bent up paper is now flattened out as much as possible. Dexter holds the paper flat to the table. The paper's blank. Dexter presses his index finger to the paper and slides it over to Hannah. When the paper reaches Hannah, Hannah holds the paper, to the table, with her fingertips.

She asks Dexter, "What is this?"

Dexter says, "I found it in the rubber room near the knife and jacket."

Hannah's confused, she picks up the piece of paper. There's some writing on it. It reads, "You can start cutting. Dexter's asleep." It's in her handwriting.

Dexter smiles at Hannah, he says, "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Hannah looks afraid, she says, "Dexter, she beg me to help her. She was in agony."

Dexter keeps smiling and says, "Help her do what? In agony from what?"

Hannah says in a quavering voice, "To end it."

Dexter gives a wistful look and says, "End what?"

Hannah smiles with tears in her eyes and says, "Her life."

Dexter asks quietly, "Is that all?"

Crying Hannah asks, "Well... what are gonna do about it?"

Dead eyed, Dexter says, "You know what I am. You know what I do."

Whimpering Hannah says, "What about Laura? She needs me."

Glaring, Dexter says, "I'll take care of Laura. Don't worry about that."

Hannah whimpers, "When?"

His face contorts into a monstrous grin. He says, "Right now. Thanks for Laura."

Glaring and grinning, Dexter stands up out of the chair. He starts walking around the table towards Hannah.

Wide-eyed, trembling in terror, Hannah shoots up outta the chair. She quickly turns and tries to make a run for it.

Dexter violently lunges forward and grabs her arm. He yanks her closer to himself.

Hannah trips on the ground. Her body hits the chair. She grabs the table with her free arm so her head doesn't go slamming into it. She looks up at Dexter, shaking her head. She whimpers, "No." Her tears fall on the table.

Dexter's hands viciously lunge at Hannah's throat. His fingers encircle her neck and squeeze. Hannah's eyes bug out of her head. Her hands grab and pull at his hands. Her face turns pink and twists into a contorted frown.

Grabbing her by the throat, Dexter lifts Hannah up into the air, onto the tips of her toes. Like a fish outta water, the thin blonde thrashes wildly in the air, unable to breath. She kicks her legs. She bangs into the table and chair on either side of her. Her hands repeatedly yank down on what locks off her airway.

Dexter pivots Hannah around himself, away from the table and chairs. She moves through the air, while being hung by Dexter's outstretched arms. She continues to kick her legs, her toes scrape the kitchen tiles uselessly. He lowers her onto her knees, on the other side of him. He then lowers her onto her back. He's now on all fours over her, while she lies on her back, face up on the floor.

Hannah opens her mouth for air. Air doesn't come to her. Dexter forces himself to tighten his grip on her. Her face goes from red to purple. Her well manicured nails claw at his ungloved hands. A bandage still covers Dexter's hand wound, where Debra cut him with the kitchen knife. Hannah clawing rips the bandage off. She digs her nails into the cut. This causes Dexter's hand to bleed profusely. This makes Dexter's grip slippery but doesn't hamper his efforts.

Dexter looks down at Hannah. She moves her lips to say, "I love you." She mouths these words without sound. But Dexter's lip reading conveys their meaning.

Dexter's eyes turn red with water. His mouth trembles as he goes to speak. In a quavering voice he says, "I love you too." He watches his eyes rain down tears. The drops fall down on each side of Hannah's face. The tears splash onto one cheek, then the other.

Dexter's hands begin to shake. His grip on her loosens and loses it's strength.

Hannah sucks in the tiniest bit of breath.

He shuts his eyes and turns his head to the side.

He thinks, "Don't look. Just squeeze."

His grip on her regains some of it's strength.

The baby cries. The high pitch sound pierces the air.

He thinks, "Don't listen. Just squeeze."

Harrison runs in from outside. He sees his father choking the life out of Hannah. He cries, "Daddy stop! Stop! Don't hurt Hannah! No!"

Dexter thinks, "Don't think. Just squeeze."

Dexter feels Harrison's little hands grab and pull at his own larger hands. The little boy was trying to pry his father's hands off Hannah's throat. Hannah was using her own hands to do the same. Harrison joins in this fight for Hannah's life. But the little boy ends up taking over that fight all together. Just then, Hannah's own hands slow their digging and clawing. Her scratching and scraping had left the scene a bloody mess. Hannah hands fall to her sides. Her long nails run red with blood. Her eyes roll into the back of her head. Her mouth hangs open.

As Hannah's hands fall to floor, Dexter feels the life going out of her. He thinks, "If you don't do this now you'll never be able to do it."

Dexter opens his eyes and looks down. Hannah's no longer the woman he's choking. He instead sees a vision of Debra. His sister has taken Hannah's place in his strangling hands. Dexter's hands still strangle the woman beneath him. But, unlike Hannah, Debra's face is pale and her countenance calm. Somehow, in the vision, despite all his best efforts, his death grip has still left his prey unencumbered. He sees Debra's lips move. Again words are said without sound. But Dexter's lip reading still conveys their meaning. He sees Debra's mouth say the words, "You're killing the wrong killer." Like Hannah's "I love you," what Debra says is heard in silence. Dexter knows what this vision means. Again he shuts his eyes, but now just briefly. Upon reopening them, Hannah has returned to her place, underneath him, in his death grip.

Dexter's quivering hands loosen their grip on their victim's throat. His fingers uncurl. His hands lay flat on either side of Hannah's blood red face. He's still on all fours, over Hannah's body.

Once released, Hannah leans her head back. Her lungs wheeze in a desperate breath. Her hands fly to her wounded neck. She rolls on her side and curls her legs. She coughs violently and inhales raspy breath. Her face regains a more natural color. Then, eyes closed, she exhales a sigh of great relief. She wipes the tears from her eyes.

She whispers, "Thank you."

Dexter crawls off Hannah. He leaves bloody handprints behind on either side of Hannah's face. He balls up his hands into fists on the floor. He rests his head on top of them. He shakes and sobs. Harrison goes from fighting his father to comforting him. Harrison leans against Dexter and pats him on the back. The blood that was on his father's hands is now also on his.

Hannah picks herself up off the floor. She goes over to Laura who's crying in the stroller. She picks up Laura and the nursing pillow. Hannah then goes back over to Dexter and sits up beside him. She nurses Laura.

Dexter's still face down on the floor crying.

Hannah tries to speak. She clutches her throat and opens her mouth. Only the hoarseness of breath comes out. Volume of voice escapes her. She leans close to him and whispers, "Dexter... "

Without looking at Hannah Dexter weakly whimpers, "Why did you kill her?"

Hannah's hands cup her throat again. The volume of her voice croaks out of weak note. She speaks, "Dexter, Debra gave me a message to give you. There was something she wanted you know after she was gone. It was something I was never going to tell you. But I'll tell now. Debra told me she would rather die the person she was than to live without her mind. She said she had spent forty years unwittingly enabling your need to kill. It's a fate worst than death for her to spend another four decades doing the same."

Dexter sits up next to Hannah. Harrison jumps on him and hugs him desperately. Harrison starts crying. He holds his son and pats him on the head, comforting him. Dexter now notices his own bleeding hand. Hannah's clawing had dug into Debra's knife cut. Dexter pinches the side of his palm with his other hand to put pressure on the wound. Dexter turns to look at Hannah. Like Hannah, this time Dexter musters more volume to his voice. He asks, "What do you care? What's Debra being gone do for you?"

She breathes out in a quavering voice, "Because you betrayed me."

Dexter looks at Hannah with tear a streaked face and asks, "Why punish Debra for what I did?"

Hannah says grievously, "You being dead or in jail won't keep us together. It won't make us a family. I need to be sure you'll always make me your priority. And you didn't do that when you put me behind bars for the rest of my life. This is for the best. For our future. For our children. Can't you see, one way or another, your sister would always be a problem for us. And now nothing's holding us back."

Dexter shakes his head at Hannah and says, "It's over. Get out."

She slides her open hands down her wet cheeks and then slides her hands down her sides, drying her hands. This leaves streaks of blood over her face and clothes. She stands up in front of Dexter, cradling the baby. She tells him, "I'll give you some time for Debra. But no Dexter, this isn't over. And it never will be. We're a family and nothing gonna change that."

Hannah gathers all that belongs to her, including Laura. She wheels the stroller outside, minus Harrison.

Dexter hears the front door screech shut. Hannah and Laura are now gone. Harrison's still in his father's arms. Dexter's still sitting on the floor. He rocks his son while he cries. Dexter still pinching his own palm to put pressure on the freshly-clawed-at hand cut. He kisses Harrison on the forehead. The boy eventually falls asleep.

Harry appears next to Dexter and says, "How did you think this would end? Debra's suicidal. Hannah had already made an attempt on her life."

Dexter says, "But everything Hannah told me was true. Debra was no longer a threat to her. If Hannah's mad at anyone she mad at me. She said I had been punished enough."

Harry says, "Apparently she didn't think you had been punished enough. But there was one great way to punish you. And one way to ensure your loyalty was never divided or comprised. One simple act would do the trick."

Dexter says, "Kill Deb."

Harry says, "You wanted confirmation of your worst fears, you got it."

Dexter says, "What can I say? You were right. You were always right."

Harry says, "You know what you have to do to fix all your problems for good. There's only one answer. There's always just been one solution for you."

Dexter says, "I know what to do. I just don't wanna do it. But I'm going to do it, for Deb." Dexter carries Harrison to couch and lays him down. He does this in a cumbersome while trying not to bleed all over his son. Harry and Dexter looks down at Harrison sleeping on the couch. Dexter's blood was on the little boy's clothes, in his hair, on his little hands...

Harry says, "What about Harrison?"

Dexter says, "I'll make sure he gets to Orlando. Then I'll take care of things here. This will all come to an end soon."

After Harrison wakes up, Dexter leads him to the rubber room. He opens the door.

He tells Harrison, "This is the soft room where Aunt Deb is."

Harrison says, "Wow. It's covered in pillows." Harrison runs to the other side of the room to bounce off the wall.

Dexter points to Debra, who's lying on the floor. He says, "This is where Aunt Deb's sleeping."

Harrison goes over to Debra. He says, "She still has on that funny shirt on."

Dexter explains, "This is actually a new funny shirt. Aunt Deb cut up the old one."

Harrison asks, "How come she keeps wearing that?"

Dexter explains, "It stops her from hurting herself. Like with the bebe gun."

Harrison asks, "I thought you were just playing."

Dexter says, "The game got too rough. She wasn't playing nice."

Harrison says, "Ohhh." Harrison goes to touch Debra's cheek.

As he strokes her cheek, Debra twitches and makes a noise, "aaahuh."

Dexter says, "Aunt Deb will be awake soon."

Harrison asks, "Will you bring her to the hospital?"

Dexter says, "That's right. I'm going to bring her to a hospital in Mexico. They will make Aunt Deb feel better."

Harrison asks, "Are we going to Mexico right now?"

Dexter says, "Actually, I'm going to bring you home to Jaime. Jaime will take you back to Orlando. You'll stay there while Aunt Deb's getting better. When she wakes up, I'll tell her we're leaving. Then I'll bring you home."

I've always thought of Debra and Hannah as an angel and a devil on Dexter's shoulders. Debra took over Harry's job and helped further refine the code. She made him stop taking cases from the police and get rid of the blood slides. But Hannah on the other hand encourage Dexter to kill to survive. Like with Brian, Dexter has to choose between two people he cares about.