So! I think I'm just gonna concentrate on this one fic until it's done. We're soooooo close and most of it is written. Just need to do some more proofreading and editing to make sure everything fits right. I've been rearranging some content from certain end chapters. But anywho! Ch 27 will be *THE* therapy visit. Ch 28 will be a recap of the directly before, during and directly after events that screwed Stephanie's mind up. The end of that chapter will focus on Stephanie's reaction to hearing the truth.

Currently, this fic is going to end at chapter 31. Wish me luck! Thank you all for the replies to the previous chapter. I love that you guys are enjoying this fic so much and its making good use of my psych degree, LOL.

Selene entered the hotel suite, her Subway bag making noise as she fumbled with the key and her purse. She leaned against the door, using her body to push it open once the light blinked green.

She dropped the purse on the couch and continued into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and placed her turkey sandwich and soup on the top shelf. She'd eaten lunch at the popular chain; this was for dinner. Call her crazy but she didn't exactly feel like cooking.

The look on the doctor's face at the end of the previous afternoon's session had been rather unreadable. He didn't look completely surprised, but something about it unsettled and soothed her at the same time. Maybe because the look wasn't judgmental.

The Doc probably thought her and Stephanie had killed someone. They probably should have ended the lives of three or four miserable excuses for human beings. But no, they hadn't dealt out death.

Selene plopped down on the couch and switched the television on. Before she even got fully comfortable, there was a knock on the door.

Who could this be? She damn sure hadn't ordered any food. The maid service ran earlier in the afternoon. But only hotel staff really knew who occupied this room. To be on the safe side, she grabbed a pen from the table and stuck it in her jeans pocket.

If it was someone who intended to cause harm she would stab first and ask questions later.

Wanting a bit of the element of surprise, she walked over and yanked the door open without asking who it was.

Hunter's eyes widened at the quickness of the door flinging open.

Selene's eyes widened fractionally at the fact that he was here at all.

The man before her tilted his head in question, his brown eyes studying her. "Stephanie?" He questioned skeptically.

Lifting her chin defiantly, Selene crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe. "Nope," she answered.

Hunter blinked for a moment, continuing his study. He was trying to note any obvious differences between the two women who occupied this one body. "Selene?"

A smirk graced her lips. "Yup."

Hunter puffed his cheeks up and then blew out the breath he was holding, shifting nervously. He didn't want to talk to this one. He wasn't in love with this person. This woman had been toying with his professional and personal life for months. She'd been trying to wreck his marriage, no doubt.

Then again...she was technically and obviously the one he'd actually married. God, this was so messed up he didn't have words for it.

"Can I talk to Stephanie?" He asked awkwardly.

Selene's nose scrunched up. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me," she said simply.

This was ridiculous. He was looking at Stephanie. It was her body, her hair, her facial features. But he had to remind himself that it wasn't actually her. Despite the physical attributes, the two of them couldn't be more different. "Please?" He asked nicely.

"You know...I've been trying to get you away from her for months now. Actually, you were never really supposed to be together in the first place but that's another conversation. But I knew you'd hurt her and screw her over just like every other person she's ever been too close to."

"I won't hurt her."

"You already did! You walked out on her...after she told you the truth. After she pratically bared her fucking soul. She hasn't breathed a word of this to anyone but she chose to share it with you...and you threw it back in her face."

His head lowered with his guilt. "I know," he admitted. He hadn't meant to. He just wasn't sure how to deal. He felt that he needed time away to process everything. And he'd been right. His head was clear and his emotions were back on track. He knew what to do now. That's why he was here.

Hunter opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Selene.

"You thought that was bad? You couldn't deal with little old me lurking about?" She asked angrily, pushing off of the wall to get right in front of his face. "You don't want to know the story of how I came to be. I'm the least of Steph's problems."

Hunter shrugged. "I don't care. I don't care where she came from, where you came from or what she's been through...not beyond helping her through it anyway. Nothing else matters to me. Not you, not my career, not the marital drama or who caused it...not anything." Finally having enough of the attitude and wannabe intimidation by the alter, Hunter stepped forward. His hazel eyes burned with passion as he stared at Selene. "Stephanie is my priority, now fucking let her out so I can tell her that myself!"

Selene narrowed her eyes and stiffened her face. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because I'm in love with her. And I'm here," he added sincerely.

"You hurt her again and there will be hell to pay," Selene warned while pointing her index finger at him.

"I won't," Hunter affirmed.

Selene nodded, though she was still skeptical. She supposed it did speak volumes that he'd even come back at all. He could have easily stayed wherever it was he'd just come from. She motioned for Hunter to follow her into the suite.

They stopped near the couch. "Before I...step aside, so to speak...I just want you to know how much of a wreck she's been since you left. Don't be surprised if she falls apart at the very sight of the person who broke her heart."

Trying to scare me off, Hunter thought. He definitely knew that it was the truth. But he also knew that this wasn't a simple heads up. She was trying to give him an easy out. He'd be pissed if he didn't recognize that Selene was genuinely trying to protect his wife. "I'll spend as much time as I need to, making up for it," he promised.

Reluctantly, Selene sat down on the couch. She pressed her hands to her temples, inhaling and exhaling deeply. She cut her eyes in Hunter's direction again. "I'm telling the Doc everything tomorrow...so she can start healing. She doesn't need more shit to deal with. So don't fuck this up," she suggested.

Hunter nodded seriously before cracking an amused smile. "Leave now, please," he requested.

Selene couldn't help herself; she let out a slight laugh. She then forced her mind to blank as she closed her eyes.

The first thing that Stephanie noticed was that she felt physically stronger. Her body had clearly had some food and water. Which meant that Selene must have taken over and done that for her. Stephanie knew she damn sure wasn't responsible for it. She'd been practically starving herself on purpose.

Hunter noticed an almost imperceptible change, even though the person before him hadn't really moved much. It was an aura kind of thing. But he could just tell he was looking at someone different now. "Stephanie?"

Stephanie squeezed her eyes shut tighter. Just great, she thought bitterly. Not only did she have a split personality, a mystery past that had fucked up her mind and a failed marriage; now she was hearing voices. Specifically, her estranged husband's voice.

What, had her mind split off again and turned Hunter into one of her personalities? Would she essentially have loving conversations with...herself basically to soothe the pain of his departure?

Trying not to panic, Hunter reached out and ran a hand through her hair, leaving his fingertips at the end of the strands.

What the hell? She thought. Now she was - what - caressing herself? Slowly, she fluttered her eyes open, looking down at her hands. They were both still in her lap, but she distinctly felt a hand in her hair as well.

Was she imagining people touching her? Was she really that far gone? The hand moved from her hair to her chin, lifting it upwards.

She flinched back in shock. "Hunter?"

"In the flesh," he answered with a timid smile.

"What are you doing here?"

Taking a chance, Hunter sat down on the seat beside her. He tried not to get upset at the fact that Stephanie scooted away from him a few inches. "I'm sorry that I bailed on you," he said. "The time apart really has helped me get my head right. But I know that that wasn't the best decision for your well-being."

"Huh." Ignoring most of the apology, she asked a question instead. "And what does your head tell you?" If he was done with her for good she'd rather get this conversation over with so he could go. And she could start spiralling into depression again most likely. Either way, she didn't see a good reason that any of this be prolonged.

Hunter smiled a little, noting that Stephanie was being a little cold to him. He wasn't surprised or offended. He'd expected no less since he'd given her good reason to shun him. All he cared about was making it better and supporting her fully from here on out. "That I love you more than anything else in this world and I'm going to stand by you no matter what," he said without hesitation.

Stephanie bit down on her bottom lip and turned her head away from him. "You don't mean that."

"I do. I know I hurt you very badly when I left. But please don't think that it wasn't hard for me to be without you these last four days."

Her head turned and she looked at him again with unshed tears in her eyes. Not wanting to make a huge emotional scene, she simply nodded. Only time would tell if what he was promising would last. For now she would just roll with it. At least then she wouldn't have to wonder "what if?"

"So now what?" She shrugged. "I mean do we just pick up where we left off?"

"Now, you bring me up to speed on what's going on. I want to be informed for when we go to therapy tomorrow. Selene said she's telling the therapist everything."

It felt like someone had thrown a dumbbell against Stephanie's chest. Her jaw dropped and she sat up, practically pinned against the couch cushions. "You-you're coming? You w-w-want to come?" She stammered.

Hunter leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to her parted lips. "Absolutely. I'm gonna help and support you however I can. I want to be there, if you want me there."

Stephanie blinked in response. "Okay," she said simply. She was too stunned to say anything else about it. She would finally know the secrets that her mind had hidden from her, for her protection. If Hunter meant what he was saying and didn't spaz out on her again, she'd feel better about the whole thing if he was there to comfort her.

For the next couple of hours, Stephanie told what she knew thus far. She lightly went over the happenings of her adolescence and time in college before getting right to the things that happened since her relationship with Andrew. That Selene had grown tired of watching Stephanie be mistreated and decided to do something about it. Posing as Stephanie, of course, she had convinced Hunter to marry her as a way to piss off her family. She knew that the embarrassment would cause them to vacate the company, practically handing over the keys to the throne to the two of them.

It was only supposed to be business. She hadn't wanted to complicate matters, but had ultimately been too attracted to Hunter to leave sex out of the equation. The kisses and touches that they shared publicly, to convince people they had a real relationship had proven to be too much for her to handle. She'd lasted two weeks into the marriage before she sought out a release...elsewhere, that is. But, Hunter had caught her and lectured her. And she decided that if he wouldn't allow her to pursue gratification as she saw fit, then she would have him instead.

After all, soon she would have everything she wanted and Hunter would then become disposable. So she saw no harm in mixing business with pleasure. Until the occasion of their union caused Stephanie to take over again. Ever since then, she had been trying to fight her way back to the surface. She was only able to manage that when Stephanie was too drained or stressed out to keep her mind strong enough to keep her at bay.

She made it a point to shake things up when she was able to, just to remind Stephanie who was really in charge. She wanted to ruin the marriage just because she was never supposed to have it and was convinced Hunter was no good So she'd been engaging in heavy flirtation with Kurt Angle, even going as far as convincing the man to try to take Hunter out permanently. When that halfway failed, Selene had convinced the guy she was in an abusive relationship.

She felt that Stephanie had no right to try to force her out after all these years of living side by side. Especially not since Selene protected Stephanie when people tried to use or screw her over. What she should have received was a thank you and instead Stephanie attempted to exile her and finally land the two of them in therapy.

Stephanie had to work overtime to calm Hunter down when she told him what happened with Ritchie. Though it was a somewhat traumatic event, she felt oddly thankful for it. The danger Selene posed to Stephanie's mental safety is what finally brought the wild woman under control and got her to agree to cooperate in therapy and stop trying to ruin Stephanie's relationship.

Hunter nodded, trying to digest everything that he had heard. "So I can tell that this is you now…but how will I know in the future?"

"Well until our personalities become integrated, you'd have to look inside yourself for that, and know whether or not it's really me."

He laughed uncomfortably. "This is crazy, Steph. We have the most dysfunctional marriage."

She quickly shook her head. He had it all wrong. "You and I? No. Us; Hunter and Stephanie have always been relatively good," she clarified, "It's Hunter and Selene that have problems. Mostly because she's purposely causing them and doesn't actually love you."

Hunter shook his head slowly, feeling a little bit overwhelmed from all that he learned tonight. That he'd basically been married to two people at the same time. "I feel like I've been cheating on you."

"Well technically you married her," Stephanie pointed out. "But most of the time you were with me."

A guilty look crossed Hunter's face. So he hadn't cheated on Stephanie with Selene, but had cheated on Selene with Stephanie?

As if she sensed his thoughts, she quickly sought to explain the situation. "It seems like Selene popped up solely to plot or start shit with you and not to be your wife. Even still...we're in this body together, so it doesn't matter," she finished awkwardly. Upon seeing his guilty expression remain unchanged she sighed and laid her head against his shoulder. She felt comfortable enough to do that seeing as he remained planted to his seat, listening to the story eagerly. He hadn't run off yet and hopefully he never would again.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. His thoughts were all over the place and he stared at the wall. Finally, he absently asked, "Steph?"

"Yeah?" She asked, not lifting her head.

"How many conversations are we going to have to redo?" He wondered.

"Good question."

So I tried to throw in tiny amounts of funny things with Hunter/Selene and Hunter/Steph. You know, since this fic is supposed to be Angst/Humor. LOL.

What did you all think?

Reviews = love :)