EternalxInsanity: You can tell her that to the cows come home but she's not going to believe it unfortunately. She knows what Annabelle meant to James and now that she's back in the picture, in her mind, it means she's getting the boot. NeroAnne: Annabelle's return has definitely brought the situation to a whole different level, emotionally anyway. And the emotion will definitely keep on coming.

…

Annabelle got Cooper and Mindy straight to the hospital, making sure Cooper fed the doctors and nurses a bullshit story about a bad car wreck. That was about the only thing she could think of to explain their injuries. And while they were getting checked out, she stole Cooper's phone and used it to call Julie so she could tell her what was going on. Julie wasn't the one who answered her phone though; Thorn was.

"Ghosts can use a phone?" the little girl said in disbelief.

Annabelle smiled softly at that. "Yeah. I can anyway."

"Oh. Is my mommy dead like Amber said she was?"

"No sweetie, your mommy is still alive."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm with her right now. She's not dead at all."

"Did Daddy hurt her?"

Annabelle ran her hand through her hair. What was she supposed to say? "I need you to listen to me very carefully. Can you do that?"

"Can you tell Connor not to be mean to me anymore?"

"Of course."

"Okay. I'll listen."

"Daddy's not Daddy right now. There is a very mean lady that took over Daddy's body and is making him do very bad things that he doesn't want to do. He's not the one that's been hurting you. I know that it seems that way, but it's not. He loves you very very much and me, your mom, Julie and Cooper are going to get the mean lady out of him so he can be his nice self again. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," Thorn replied. "Amber won't. She's been very mean. She pushed Chelsea down and-hi Julie. Connor's mommy is on the phone, do you want to talk to her?"

The answer turned out to be yes because the next thing Annabelle knew, Julie was on the line. "How are things?"

"Caroline broke Cooper's arm and beat the shit out of Mindy," Annabelle replied. "They're out though at least."

"What about Caroline?"

"I injected horse tranquilizer into James. Knocked her right out. I tied him into a chair down in the basement of the house."

"Well damn. You go girl."

Annabelle just nodded and bit at her nail compulsively. She didn't feel proud of herself at all. James was still possessed and it was going to be harder than hell to get her out of him. And on top of that, having to hear Cooper call Mindy "Mom"…it hurt. She felt stupid and selfish for being bothered by it because she knew how much James and the boys loved Mindy but she couldn't help it.

"Annabelle? Is something wrong?"

"Mindy-"

"What about her?"

"I don't think I should have let her seen me."

"Why not?"

"Because. It just…I think I messed her up. The way she keeps looking at me…her eyes are all blank…" Annabelle shuddered. "I just think I did damage."

Julie sighed. "Shit…well what were you supposed to do? She was going to see you one way or another. Schizophrenics are more in tune with the whole seeing ghosts and all that."

"I guess…"

"Look, there's something I need you to do for me. Mark's on his way to help and I really need someone to break the news to Cooper. Could you do that for me? He'll decapitate me if I do it."

"Yeah okay." Annabelle was partly relieved and party dreading Mark's arrival. There was years and years of bad blood between the two of them and she could only imagine how he would react to finding out she was back. But she knew that she was going to need him to help get Caroline out of James. He was good at shit like this. "I'll do it."

"Thanks. Do you think I should bring the kids to see Mindy and Cooper or-"

"I don't know. It's not my call." Annabelle rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm going to check on them, okay?"

"Okay. Call me again in a little bit, okay?"

"Okay." Annabelle hung up the phone and left the empty bathroom so she could go back into the room that Cooper and Mindy were in. The doctors were thankfully gone when she got back and Cooper had moved himself into the bed that Mindy was in and was holding the small woman in her arms. The vibe she got by just looking at them threw Annabelle for a complete loop. The way Cooper was all over her…something was going on there at his part. Mindy was completely unresponsive and Annabelle couldn't help to think that it wasn't just because they had taken her away from James. It's me. I'm doing this to her. She gulped because she didn't know what to do about that. She had never been good at dealing with people. Besides from James, Mark, Glen and Julie, she had never really socialized with people. Making new friends was impossible for her and dealing with people who obviously had a problem with her was the worst.

"Mommy? Are you okay?"

Annabelle blinked and shook her head as Cooper addressed her. "I'm okay," she lied. "I talked to Julie."

"Oh. What did she say?"

"Not a lot…but um…there is something that I need to tell you."

Cooper immediately tensed up. "What? What is it?"

Annabelle hesitated. She knew this was not going to get a pretty reaction, no matter how gently she broke the news. "Mark is on his way to help."

Cooper's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "What?" he yelled, making Annabelle flinched. "No! No way!"

"Cooper-"

"No! Not again! I'm not fucking having him here again!"

"Cooper please-"

"Do you have any idea what he's done to us?" He hugged Mindy even more tightly and kissed the top of her head. Annabelle felt uncomfortable once again because his touches did not seem to be completely innocent. "Do you? He tried to put me in jail and Mom got thrown into the nuthouse…and what about you? Do you remember the way he treated you?"

"I never forgot-"

"So don't let him come!"

"It's not about me Cooper!" Annabelle didn't mean to yell; she really didn't. But she knew she wasn't going to get a word in otherwise. Cooper was too stubborn when it came to Mark. "And it's not about you or Mindy. This is about your father. He needs help. He can't fight Caroline on his own and neither can we. I know you hate Mark but you have got to put that aside for now. Please…honey please, for me?"

Cooper did not look happy about it but he nodded reluctantly. "Fine. He better fucking just help and leave. We finally got Dad's priorities straight and we're not going to let them get spoiled. Right Mom?" He tried to pry an answer out of Mindy but she just kept staring at Annabelle, who became extremely uncomfortable under her gaze. Something had snapped inside the woman. Annabelle didn't even really know her but she could tell that something was horribly wrong.

"I'm sorry," Annabelle said softly. She felt so uncomfortable that she could hardly stand it. "Whatever I did I'm sorry."

Cooper looked confused as hell. "Mommy what are you talking about?"

She ignored him and gave Mindy a pleading look. "Please just say something!" she begged. "I…I just…" She shook her head and forced herself to shut up. She wasn't helping anything by talking. Mindy was now whimpering and crying again and she felt worse than ever. She backed into the corner and sank down to the floor, looking down at her lap. She didn't know what to do and she hated herself for it. She had never been good at being strong. James had always claimed she was the stronger one of them but she never felt like that was the case. She was weak…she had always been weak. Look at me! I'm falling apart because my sister in law is…well I don't know what she is but I can't let myself do this. It don't matter who the hell is mad at me. This is about James. I have to save James. He's the one who matters most right now.

…

When Caroline woke up, she felt physically ill. The horse tranquilizer was still working her magic, so she felt weak as fuck. "Mother fucker," she groaned. She could feel the duct tape and rope around James's body, which made her growl angrily. "Fucking bitch…that fucking fucking bitch." She was so furious at Annabelle that she couldn't even find words that properly expressed how she felt. That fucking little bitch…she always had to interfere. Always right by James's side, giving him love that he didn't deserve. It made her sick to her stomach. "Little whore," she slurred out. Little whore that slept with her own brother. Oh how those two disgusted Caroline. Retarded freaks the both of them. "Gonna…get her…" She groaned and closed her eyes, knowing that she needed more time for the tranquilizer to wear off. Once it did, there was going to be hell to pay. That little cunt is going to suffer for this…I'll fucking make sure of that.