Once Caroline got home she went straight to her liquor cabinet and pulled out her bottle of scotch. She tried not to drink it too much because it had been found she got kind of nasty when she got drunk off of it, but tonight she couldn't help herself. Tonight she was seated at her kitchen table, drinking her way through the bottle while smoking all the cigarettes she had. Her radio was sitting nearby but tonight it stayed off. The music would disturb her from the attempt she was making to process what she had overheard back at the hospital.

From the sounds of it, it seemed that James had made some sort of deal with a demon or warlock or something to pretty much change not only his life, but the lives of everyone around him. It just baffled her to really even think about. Their life wasn't what it was supposed to be. James had changed it all. Her mind was trying to reject that very idea because it just didn't seem right but she couldn't deny for an instant what she heard. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath. She clenched her cigarette tightly in her teeth and stared at her glass of scotch. She was trying to search her brain to see if she remembered anything about the life that she apparently had before this one. There was nothing though. In her mind, there had only been the life they all had now. Just trying to imagine anything else was too foreign of an idea to really be possible for her.

She took her cigarette out of her mouth so she could down her scotch in one gulp. The processing wasn't going so well at all. She poured herself more scotch and let out a long sigh. She briefly flirted with the idea of calling the others and telling them what she had heard but then she decided against it. It would just cause massive confusion and even if they did believe her, she wasn't sure if their reactions would lead to them doing anything helpful.

She downed the glass of scotch she had just poured and then pinched the bridge of her nose. Judging from what she had overheard, James had done this shit to make things better, either for himself or for everyone else. And now he was having to die for it, which Caroline could not allow. She had listened to Mr. D very carefully and there was definitely something very off about him, besides the fact that he was something powerful enough to do something like this. He had very strategically drawn James into a corner and made him think that there was no option BUT to accept his "fate". Caroline didn't believe that though. Maybe it was because she just didn't want to but she didn't believe it. Mr. D was up to something more and she was going to find out what it was.

"Mommy Mommy!"" James came running into the house as fast as he could. He practically threw his backpack across the room and jumped into her waiting arms. "Hi hi hi!"

"Hi sweetheart." She lifted him up with relative ease, although it was clear there was only going to be so much longer that she could do it. At only seven years old he was a bit over four and a half feet tall and she was quite curious to see how big he would get before his growing was all said and done. "Did you have a good day at school?"

"Uh huh." He nodded his head and hugged her neck.

"Where's your sister?"

"Outside with all her friends. Suzie was chasing me again?"

"Again?"

"She was trying to kiss me and give me cooties." He wrinkled his nose in disgust and it was so cute that she had to laugh and give him a kiss on the cheek. She wasn't an affectionate woman by nature, but with James she made a huge exception. Since the day he had been born he had been the apple to her eye. She loved Annabelle and Jacob, she really did, but James was her baby and she didn't do that good of a job at hiding it.

"Where's Mark at?"

"He had to stay after school again. He called Mrs. Stevenson a bad word but I'm not supposed to tell you that." James nodded along to that until he stopped and realized he just told her anyway. "Wait a minute…" his eyes got really big "whoops…"

Caroline shook herself out of that memory and put her cigarette out. This processing wasn't getting her anywhere. She needed to take action. She got up to her feet and started to head towards the phone. It did occur to her that there was one person she could call that might be able to help her: that person being Paul Bearer. It was not a choice she really wanted to make. She and Bearer had never liked each other. For whatever reason he didn't like James and that had instantly rubbed her the wrong way. But she didn't see much choice in the matter so she was just going to suck it up and do it.

When she got to the phone she realized that she couldn't remember his number off the top of her head. She stood there for several minutes, trying to remember it. Finally she rolled her eyes in frustration and went looking for her purse because it had a little book with all the phone numbers she needed stored in it. She was sure Bearer's was in there. At some point she must have written it down in there. She hoped so anyway.

Caroline found herself flipping through the channels over and over again, even though there was nothing on and it was doing nothing to soothe her anger. She and Annabelle had gotten into another fight. She didn't even really remember what had started it this time. These days, the drop of a pen set the two of them off and made them try to rip each other's heads off. It did not help that Annabelle would not listen to any sort of reason even if her life depended on it. She wanted to do what she wanted, even if Caroline told her no and also explained why she shouldn't do so. It was enough to just drive her completely and totally insane.

She heard the sound of the door opening and in came James, his rushed footsteps making the pictures on the wall rattle as he went. Fourteen years old and he was bigger than Caroline herself, although he didn't always act like it. He had caught on to the fact that he was Caroline's favorite long ago, and he still hammed it up whenever he possibly could, much to Jacob and Annbelle's disgust.

"Mom look! I found a puppy!" He held up a pit bull puppy, who was happily trying to turn itself back around so he could resume licking James's face.

"You found him?" Caroline's face was already twitching in amusement and exasperation. "Or bought him?" That was the same puppy they had seen at the pet store window the other day and James had wanted to go in and get a closer look but there hadn't been time for that.

"Uh…" James pouted his lips a bit and bounced on the balls of his feet. "If I admit I bought him am I in trouble?"

"James!" Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.

"But Momma he was all lonely there!" James knelt down beside Caroline's chair and held the puppy more towards her so she could get a better look. "Look, he's happy now!" He set the puppy down on her lap and patted its head. "I named him Sparky."

Caroline let out a long sigh and stared at Sparky, who put his two front paws on her chest and licked her face. "You know this is a lot of responsibility, right?"

"Uh huh!" She didn't say no so that automatically meant yes to him, so he scooped Sparky back into his arms and kissed Caroline's cheek. "Thanks Mom."

"I-" She let out a low chuckle as he took off to go show off his new puppy. "That boy I swear…"

"Oh fucking hell," she muttered under her breath. She had been searching all through her little book while thinking back about that day and hadn't found Bearer's number anywhere. She shook her head and tried looking again, this time keeping her mind clear as she looked. But still it wasn't there. She must not have bothered to write it down, which wasn't too surprising considering the state of their relationship but a huge inconvenience at the moment. She tossed the book aside and went back to the kitchen so she could grab her keys. She was just going to go to Bearer's and talk to him and if he wasn't home she would just figure out how to find Mr. D and talk to him herself.

One way or another though, James was NOT dying on her watch.