The staff at Haddonfield New Memorial Hospital were tense, going about their duties fearfully as groups of police officers kept watch at every entrance and exit. News reporters and curious citizens were making inquiries of the beleaguered staff and as Lindsey watched it all she felt the weight of that day's events bear down on her with a crushing immensity. She felt exhausted and knew getting off her feet would do her a world of good but she wasn't in the mood to rest.

It was after midnight and for all intents and purposes Halloween was over. There was no chance of Michael Myers forcing entry into the hospital as the police and staff feared but Lindsey wasn't about to go the entire stretch in explaining it all again. She'd already had to fill Keith in on the events of the whole day. He'd taken over her duties when she'd been babysitting Dexter and had listened stunned as she'd told him all that she knew.

Unfortunately all that she knew had been scant compared to what had gone on inside of the high school. Two students had been murdered and set up in a grisly tableaux along with a teacher.

Lindsey felt pained when she remembered how they'd found Tommy Doyle and those two teenagers. It had been macabre and there was no doubt in her mind that Mickey had born witness to the horrors of that classroom. Michael had set it up expressly for his victim after all.

And Tommy...she didn't have the heart to tell anybody to contact his wife and as for his daughter well...Jamie would be destroyed by it. Lindsey herself felt numb just thinking about her childhood friend. It pissed her off to think that Tommy had lived and accomplished so much just to be snuffed out by the monster they'd both escaped from. Just like Laurie.

It wasn't fair.

She took a calming breath as she thought about Tommy again. What mattered was that Michael Myers was finally dead and Haddonfield for the first time in thirty-five years could rest peacefully.

Or at least it would when the residents recovered from this most recent massacre.

Lindsey could still hear the mournful wails of Pierce Matheson's mother who was slumped almost lifelessly in a chair in the waiting room. There was so much damage control to be done and she wasn't sure she would be able to handle it. The personal aspect of crime fighting had never been her strongest suit when she'd been in Chicago and this case in particular hit too close to home for her.

Besides there was still Mickey to worry about. Lindsey shivered as she thought about the hollow, empty look that she'd seen in the kid's eyes before he'd left the gym. He'd seemed like a shell, a husk of what he had been but she wouldn't allow herself to think on the thought that itched in the back of her mind. Mickey had been through an undeniable hell. He was just in shock. Hopefully he would have enough sense to come to the hospital when he finally came around.

Sighing, she turned and made to leave the waiting area. The elevator from the lower floor dinged open and out of the corner of her eye Lindsey saw Keith exiting. He'd been called away twenty minutes ago, for what Lindsey hadn't had the energy to inquire about but judging from the look in his eye he had something important to discuss with her. She slowed her pace but didn't stop, not wanting to hang around in the waiting area anymore where so many accusing stares were being thrown her way. She wanted to tell them, Pierce's parents and Laney's family, that she had tried as hard as she could to prevent disaster and that Michael had just been too fast but she couldn't. They wouldn't understand.

As she walked down the corridor Keith drew level with her and fell into step beside her. For a moment they walked together in silence, their footsteps echoing down the hallway. Then Keith said, "So what's it looking like?" It was a pleasantry and one that she found too suggestive for her tastes but she didn't have the heart to resist.

"Curtis is out of OR and in intensive care," she replied. Miraculously the boy's injuries hadn't been as severe as the doctors had feared but he had lost quite a lot of blood. "He's stable," Lindsey added for Keith's benefit, "but only just so."

"And the girl?"

"Vanessa's perfectly fine," she replied. "They took her to the therapeutic hot tub, gave her a warm blanket and a cup of soup. But they want to keep her overnight for observation. She's...she's sort of in shock."

Keith nodded as they turned a corner that lead to the ICU where Curtis was being treated. "That's good," he said. "That's...that's really good." He paused and Lindsey felt an urge to slap him in the face and tell him to get on with it but again she was too tired. Keith, seemingly reading her mind took a deep breath as though stealing himself to spill the beans and said, "That dispatch...it was a call for a place down on Pleasence Street."

Lindsey felt her heart sink. Pleasence Street was where Mickey's house was and she prayed that the call had been him snapping out of his stupor and just phoning in for help. "What happened?" She asked him resignedly.

"Well someone thought they heard screaming at the Morris house and when we went to investigate we...we found Alan and Olivia Morris, both dead."

Lindsey stopped moving, her knees suddenly feeling weak as the dark thought in the back of her brain grew. She felt suddenly sick and opened her mouth to inquire more about what Keith had found but all she could say was, "I...I need to sit down." She turned suddenly and hastened back down the corridor the way she had come. Keith, blinking in confusion followed suit.

"Lindsey we need to talk about this!" He insisted.

"Did...did they find anybody else?" She asked, not bothering to look at him as she continued down the hallway. She could feel her eyes stinging but she wouldn't let herself cry.

"No," Keith said, panting in his efforts to keep up with her. "Both their sons were gone...we found some blood in the youngest kid's room but it was just spatter from the other crime scenes."

Somewhat relieved Lindsey slowed her pace but still her heart was hammering in her chest. "Signs of forced entry?" She asked him tersely.

"That's the thing," Keith explained, looking relieved that she'd slowed down, "the front door was unlocked with the house key and there was no sign of much of a struggle from either of the victims..."

Lindsey opened her mouth, about to ask him if they had found any signs of Dexter and Mickey when she stopped in her tracks. They had returned to the waiting area by this time and there, sitting to the edge of the seats in a blood stained costume was Mickey Morris, cradling his little brother who was wrapped securely in a starry blanket and sleeping contentedly in his big brother's arms.

Lindsey stood frozen, her mind screaming at her. There was walking evidence sitting quite at ease feet from her and looking as contented as a cow in a green pasture. Keith, having also noticed Mickey, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back into the corridor.

"I know you're tight with the kid," Keith said in a hurried, hushed whisper, "but Lindsey this looks pretty bad on him."

"It...it could have been Michael for all we know," Lindsey said, her mouth moving despite what the rational part of her brain was telling her.

"Okay," Keith said nodding in agreement, "the rest of us on the scene considered that. When do you figure the son of a bitch went down?"

"I...I don't remember," Lindsey said, her eyes darting back to the waiting room where Mickey was still sitting with Dexter in his lap. The two boys looked so peaceful and she had never seen Mickey happier than when he was with his baby brother...it wasn't entirely a bad thing that they no longer had to put up with their monstrous parents...

"Not good enough sheriff," Keith said. "We need corroboration. Maybe if we can question Mickey..."

"No!" Lindsey said sharply and Keith looked startled at her sudden return to her usual briskness. "That boy has been through the ringer tonight," she told him, "and I'm not going to allow anyone badgering him."

"But...Lindsey!" Keith said incredulously as she started back to the waiting area. But once again she stopped short just before getting to the cluster of seats. She was an officer of the law. It was her job to make sure justice was upheld and any personal connections to suspects had to be put on the back burners. She had to make sure that the law did it's job, even if she wasn't sad to hear about the bloody ends of Alan and Olivia.

"Lindsey," Keith hissed in a voice barely above a whisper, "if it was Myers then it was Myers and that's all there is to it but if stories don't start adding up we're going to have to look at the possibility that...that Mickey killed his parents. It's not like this is the first time this has happened in this town."

Lindsey kept her eyes on the kid who was looking lovingly down at his slumbering brother.

"Right," she replied. "Of course...there's also the possibility that it was just a home invasion."

"With the front door key!" Keith said in a disbelieving voice. "C'mon Lindsey that's a little out there."

"Well...don't rule it out," she replied softly, her eyes still not leaving Mickey, silently imploring him to look up. If she could just look into his eyes again and see sparkling green and not empty black then she would know for certain that he was innocent.

"Well if it wasn't Michael and it wasn't Mickey then who was it?" Keith asked her insistently.

Lindsey didn't answer, still staring at Mickey. He had to be innocent...just had to be.

Mickey finally looked up and Lindsey felt her heart flutter in her chest as their eyes met. They were green for the briefest of moments but then something changed. Whether it was a trick of the light or a strand of the kid's hair casting shadows on his face or something deeper Lindsey didn't know but something about Mickey's eyes changed, making them dark and hollow...and lethal. In that instant Lindsey understood with awful finality exactly what must have happened after he had left the gym and what would happen if she or anyone else dared to separate Mickey from those that he loved, a fate shared by his parents and even Michael.

"Lindsey!" Keith snapped, his patience finally at it's limit, "who was it?" And incredulous sneer came over his face and he added, "Was it the boogeyman?"

"Yes," Lindsey replied with a defeated sigh, her eyes still on Mickey as he looked back down at Dexter, "as a matter of fact...it was."