Time had ceased to have meaning and it seemed like Kid had been sitting alone beside his mother's bed for an eon when Liz bustled in with a tote bag and a worried expression. Her hair was tangled and her eyes were a little glassy, but Kid was in no shape to notice.

"Oh my God. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here. My, uh, my phone was off. Are you okay? Kid? Look at me." alarmed by his lack of response, Liz snapped her fingers in front of the Reaper's face, "Look at me!"

Kid finally tipped his head toward her, acknowledging her not because he wanted to, but because she demanded it.

"I brought you some clothes," she said, kneeling down next to him, and placing the bag at his bare feet like an offering, "I can't imagine what you're going through right now, but it's gotta be even harder without pants."

"Thank you," he whispered. Speaking ruptured the dam he'd rigged to contain his emotions and they flooded over him, waiting for him to drown.

"I don't know what to do," he gasped, wrapping his arms around his chest protectively in an attempt to keep his panicking heart from bursting out of it, "I don't know what to do,"

He began to rock rhythmically, cranking Liz' worry up to eleven. He was showing all the signs of one of his major breakdowns; the kind he hadn't had since Maka had healed him. Liz did not want to see the end result of what promised to be a record-breaking freakout and knew she had to distract him. To get his focus redirected, even if it was toward her. This wasn't going to be pleasant. She pulled up a chair and put her hand on his shoulder.

"I knew," she said quietly. She bowed her head but felt his eyes snap into focus and bore right through the messy curtain of hair that hid her face from him.

"Knew what?" he demanded shakily "What do you mean?"

Liz risked a look at him, "That she was alive," she confessed, nodding toward Sophie, "You dad told me years ago, kind of by accident. Right after we came to live with you."

"What? All this time and neither of you told me?" He clamped on to her upper arm with frightening strength.

"Your Dad explained things so that I'd understand your...condition. What you were dealing with and why you needed to be...helped. And, uh, I think I ended up being the person he could talk to about it."

Frustration shook Kid, and his grip tightened, "You were the person he could talk to about it? What about me? She was my mother! He saw what I was going through. Why didn't he talk to me?"

Liz started to reply, but he cut her off, "Never mind. I'm sure he has some half-assed reason that doesn't make sense to anybody but him. But why wouldn't you tell me, Liz? Why would you do this to me?"

Kid abruptly let go of her and slumped forward, bracing his elbows on his knees to support himself.

"I...I promised. I wanted to talk to you about it so many times, but I swore I wouldn't." Liz stammered, "Please try to understand Kid. I didn't want to lie to you, but I didn't want to hurt you more, either."

"It's not your fault," he muttered at the floor, "You were just following orders. How could Dad lie all these years, though? How could he take her away from me? How could he look me in the face and tell me she was dead?"

"It wasn't a lie," Liz murmured, stroking his back, "Not really. That's not your mom anymore, Kid. Her body is alive, but she's not the same person. The mom you grew up with would never have tried to hurt you. But she's sick now, and it made her try to kill you once. Do you blame your dad for not giving her a chance to do it again?"

"I don't know what to think anymore!" Kid cried, "Does everybody know but me? Have you all been keeping this a secret?"

"No," Liz assured him, "I think your dad only told a few people besides me. Mr. Albarn, Sid and Professor Stein. Maka's mom obviously. Maybe Mrs. Hurst knows, but I don't think the rest of the staff at the house do. And we didn't tell Patty or anybody at school. I'm sorry Kid. I really am. And I won't ever keep anything from you again, no matter what. Nothing but the truth from here on out."

She leaned over to hug him and a bright glimmer on the tile floor caught her eye. She hunched forward to get a better look and got a horrible, crawly shock when she realized what was twinkling at her. Sliding out of her chair and onto all fours, she fished the platinum skull ring out of the corner. To her knowledge, it had never left Maka's finger before. She didn't even take it off for practice or gym class, or to shower afterward, so what was it doing on the floor like a discarded gum wrapper? Liz' already sizeable sense of foreboding had a sudden growth spurt.

"Kid, why is this down here?" she asked quietly. The ring's component parts had loosened and they jingled faintly as she spread her palm beneath his drooping head.

"What happened? Where is Maka?"

Kid paused, searching, and despair deepened its clutches on him when he couldn't feel her through their bond. It got even worse when he realized he hadn't even noticed.

"I...I don't know." he whispered, raising panicked eyes to Liz' bloodshot ones, "Maman went wild when she saw Maka wearing this and grabbed her. I was so afraid Maka was going to get hurt. I pushed her to get her away, but I didn't watch myself...how much strength I was using. I knocked her right off the bed and she hit her head on the wall."

Liz inhaled sharply and Kid felt the sting of tears, "She threw this at me and left. She left, and I didn't go after her and now she's closed herself off. Maybe I've lost her, too. I don't know what I'd do without her. I don't know what to do!"

Kid dug his fingernails into his scalp. The pain pulled his focus outward and was much easier to deal with than the anguish inside of his head and heart. Liz reached out tentatively to stop his scratching like she had so many times in the past seven years. For the first time, she was afraid he'd slap her away. To forestall that, she dropped the ring into his hand and closed his fingers around it.

"What you need to do right now is figure out how to get this back on her finger," she said firmly, "We'll figure the rest out later. And we'll do it together. I know you probably feel like it, but you're not alone. I'm with you, and so is Patty and everyone else. We're going to get through this somehow."

She expected an angry, hopeless rebuttal, but Kid flung himself into her arms and huddled there, shivering in his thin robe and begging her to tell him how to make it better. Liz kissed the top of his head, glad he couldn't see the doubt clouding her face. She didn't say a word about things getting better. After all, she'd just promised never to lie to him again.