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Carlos sighed heavily as he waited for Wilson to come back out of the room where Wilson was meeting with Mary so he would be able to go in. He always knew that he was a bit short tempered, but he was about ready to fly off the handle if this guy didn't come out within the next four or five minutes.

Lucky for both Carlos and Wilson, Wilson arrived back in the waiting room within three minutes time. Carlos didn't have to pound him like he had previously thought.

Still, he had to approach him. "You were gone a lot longer than ten minutes. That was more like forty-five."

"I'm sorry, I know. It took longer than I expected it to."

"Are you done with her now?"

"Yeah, you can have your turn."

"No. I mean with Mary in general. I want her back, and I need you to leave her alone."

Wilson, at this point, snapped. His frustration seemed insurmountable. "I'm sick of everyone trying so hard to keep us apart. We're just friends. We like to talk to each other because we can understand each other, and it's nice to talk to someone who is outside of the situation. I'm not promising anything to anyone anymore. If we want to talk, we'll talk. If we don't, we don't. It's not that big of a deal."

Wilson went to walk away, but Carlos walked back to him, slightly stunned by what Wilson had said. Obviously there was more to this than simply Carlos asking him to leave Mary alone. "Do you think there's a chance she'd come back to me?"

"That's up to Mary."

"Fine."

Wilson looked around for the rest of the Camdens but could not find them. "If you see the Camdens, tell them I said good bye and thank you."

"Will do." Carlos said, brushed passed Wilson, and then went to find the waiting room attendant. He approached her at her desk in the front of the room. "Carlos. Carlos Rivera, Mary's husband. Go ask Mary if she'll see me now, please."

"Sure, Mr. Rivera."

The woman waddled out of the room and then came back in in a few short moments. She looked at Carlos, nodded, and then waived her hand for him to come forward. Carlos could feel the gravity of this moment as he followed this woman to the room next door. He found it ironic how disconnected he'd felt to Mary all morning, only for her to be held in captivity a few feet away from him on the other side of some cinder block.

His heart melted when he saw Mary. She was a broken woman. Her face was drawn and sallow, her hair a mess, and she was holding her knees into her chest. She seemed so little and afraid. Carlos wanted nothing more than to walk in, sweep her up in his arms, and take her away from this place. Carlos still could not wrap his head around the fact that Mary was mentally ill, so he placed all of the problems she was having currently on her being stuck in this place. His objective was to make sure she got out of here, not got better.

He approached her slowly, and Carlos watched as Mary drew back in her chair. It saddened him deep to his core to see her act this way. For some reason, this reminded him of women who get beaten by their husbands. This must be how they react when their husband comes home at night- that's how scared Mary was of Carlos.

"Carlos?" her voice was shaky and quiet.

"Mary," he said calmly.

"Come here," she said, and waited for him to walk closer.

He walked in the few feet from the door and stood two feet in front of her.

"No," she said sterner. "Come here." Carlos walked up to about an inch away from the tips of Mary's toes that were hanging off the edge of the chair beneath her.

"Yes?" he said.

Gingerly, Mary peeled her hand off of her knee and reached it outward and to Carlos. She placed her hand gently on his stomach, drew it back as if she were cowering, and then reached out and touched him yet again.

"Are you all right honey?"

"I don't know," she said quietly. "Sit."

He did as she told him to. "Why am I being ordered around, huh?"

"Just hold on," she said. Mary stood up and walked over to what Carlos had only assumed was a big mirror. This must have been how they were being watched. Mary tapped lightly on the fake glass and a young man came out, the same man that told Mary that she needed to stay there for two weeks earlier in her stay.

"Everything all right Ms. Camden?" Carlos heard him use Mary's maiden name from across the room and frowned.

Mary turned back around and looked at Carlos. "Do you see him? Do you see a man sitting there?"

"Yes, I do. Are you all right?"

Mary didn't answer. She did not know herself. "Could you do me a favor?"

"I guess," he responded.

"Can you get Christine in here?"

"Why?"

"I want a second opinion."

The man laughed at her, but only at her frantic nature, not her apparent illness. "Sure, I'll send someone to bring her in."

The man walked back around the glass and Mary turned back to look at Carlos. He stood up and started to walk over to her. Mary panicked.

"Stop," she said in a low and authoritative voice.

"What? What's going on?"

"If you love me," she said, "you'll just sit in that chair and wait a second."

He sat back down in his chair. "Are you all right? Can I help you? I want to help."

Mary thought for a second. Was that something only the real Carlos would say? Maybe. She had to get Christine in there just to make sure. "I-I don't know," she croaked. "Just hold on."

Carlos saw a young girl of about sixteen or seventeen enter through a side door. "Mary? What's going on? Do you have a visitor?" Mary motioned for Christine to come closer to her with her hands and she did. "What?"

Mary pointed back at Carlos. "Do you see him sitting there?"

Christine giggled. "Yes." Christine processed the information and then gasped. "Is that your husband? He came all the way out here just to see you?"

"If you see him, too, then yes."

Christine looked at him, and then looked back at Mary. She was having what Christine could only describe as a panic attack. She put her hands on Mary's shoulders and looked her new friend square in the eye. "He's here. He's really here. Sitting right there. He's wearing a blue t-shirt and black pants, and he's got dark black hair and a scruffy beard. OK? I see him. You're not hallucinating. Now calm down and go over to talk to him. I bet he's got a lot to say."

"But-"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know you all that well, but-"

"He's sitting right there. See, I'll talk to him. Carlos is his name, right?" Mary nodded. "Hi Carlos," Christine said aloud.

Carlos waved back at her, unsure of what was going on. "Hello."

"OK, see? Everything is fine."

Mary sighed. "OK."

"All right. Now got sit back down and talk to him. I'm going back to lunch, OK?"

"OK."

Mary sighed again, letting go of some of the anxiety she had built up. "Thank you. I know I must seem like a moron, but-"

"No, no. I get it. I totally get it." Christine looked back at Carlos, and then over at Mary. "He's hot. Good luck." And she left.

Mary turned back around, shamefaced to her husband. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what else to say besides I'm sorry." Mary walked back to the seat next to Carlos and sat down.

"No," he said. "You apologize for nothing." Carlos was silent before he worked up the courage to speak what he wanted to say. "Can I ask you..."

"Ask me what?" He could have been referring to a billion things.

"Was that, did you think I wasn't real?"

Mary lowered her head. Now she was thoroughly embarrassed. "Before I came here, about a month ago I guess, I started seeing you. Hallucinating. You would just pop out of nowhere and sit down and start talking to me. They were so vivid and so real that I didn't know if you were really you or if I was so stressed out that I was imagining you here."

"Didn't you know I was here? Didn't you say that you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, several times. I just, I didn't know if this was really you."

He started to laugh a little bit.

"You don't understand," she continued. "Imagine this conversation we're having right now, imagine that it's not real. That you come to find out that I'm not really sitting here, that I'm not really talking back to you, and that it's all in your head. Wouldn't it make you question if I were really here or not the next time you saw me?"

"I guess." Carlos saw the sheer terror in Mary's eyes. "Do I scare you that much?"

"A little," she admitted, and began to cry. "I don't want you to, I'm sorry, but I can't help it."

"Do you want me to go? If you can't do this, then I'm not trying to force you. I understand."

She sniveled. "No, I want you here. I need you Carlos. More than anything in the world, I need you. I'm sorry I didn't see that before but I see it now."

He picked up her hand. "I want to make this go away for you."

"I want you to, too," she laughed, "but you can't."

"I don't want to see you in pain- no matter how mad I've been at you these past few months. Once I got your letter most of that was erased."

She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry for that." Mary paused. "But what I'm even more sorry about is that I can't say that I've let go of my anger toward you."

"Why are you angry with me?"

"I don't know. I think it has something to do with my life not working out the way I wanted it to, and I blamed you for that. It wasn't intentional, but I can't shake it."

"So right now, you're mad at me."

"Yes." She squeezed his hand so he wouldn't be able to jerk it away from her. "I'm mad that you didn't come after me when I left. I'm mad that you didn't find out what was gong on with me for months. I'm mad that I'm here."

"You blame me for you being here?"

"They keep telling me not to, but I do. I feel like, if you had tried to patch things up, it wouldn't have gotten to this."

"Mary," he used his reasoning tone of voice. "I say this because I love you. You are not a well woman. Whatever reason you left for, that had to have been the start of all of this. Not after you left; it was why you left. And you're still not better yet."

"I know I'm not. I wouldn't have freaked out on you just now if I was."

Carlos rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. "So let's change the subject. Who was that girl? A friend of yours?"

Mary nodded. "Christine."

"You two seemed close. Do you share a room or something?"

"No, all the rooms are private. She came and introduced herself the day I got here and we've been talking."

"So what's wrong with her? She seemed normal to me."

"She's anorexic."

"Oh, gosh."

"Yeah."

Mary sighed. "She's not planning on leaving for a while. She's already been here over six months, too."

"How old is she?"

"Nineteen."

"She looks so young."

"It's because she's so little, I think."

"Is she better?"

Mary shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. She eats now. But she doesn't ever want to leave because she's afraid that if she does she'll fall right back into it again." Mary laughed. "It's funny, I feel the exact opposite."

"You think that if you left from here it would fix everything?"

"If I left and I went home with you back to New York, and we worked on our marriage, then yeah. If we fix us, then I'd feel a whole lot better."

"It's going to take longer than a few days to fix this, if we can."

"Wait," said Mary. "If we can?"

"Mary, I can forgive a lot of things, but what you did-"

"You mean with Charlie?"

"Yes."

"Speaking of," Mary said sarcastically, "thanks for telling Sarah. I appreciate that one." Mary seemed genuinely angry.

"What was I supposed to do? You just packed up and left and then said that you wanted a divorce - not from me, your husband- but from your three month old son. I was a little angry with you."

"Carlos-"

"No. I don't care if you're insane. That won't work with me. If you didn't want this baby to begin with then you should have said something before."

"Before when? Before when I was pregnant? Before I got pregnant?"

"I don't know, just before."

"So, if I was pregnant, and I got up one morning and turned to you and said, 'gee, Carlos, I don't think I want to have this baby,' you would have preferred that?"

"At least I would have known."

"You're completely mental!"

"So are you," he said with a laugh.

Mary laughed, too. Carlos let go of her hand and reached up to wipe away some of Mary's tears that had fallen out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Mary leaned against his touch, loving the feeling of his skin on hers. She'd wanted nothing more than that for weeks now. She started to cry again, but this time there were more tears of joy than there were of sadness. Finally, Mary felt like she could breathe again.

"I hate that we're being watched," Carlos mumbled. He felt the energy between them, too. There was no way he couldn't. "Is there anyway we could arrange for a conjugal visit?"

Mary laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

"Good." He pulled back and patted his lap. "Come here."

"But-" she pointed to the two-way glass.

"Oh, quit being such a child. Come here."

Mary moved over to sit on Carlos's lap. He put his hand on her hair and stroked it.

"Thank you for coming to see me."

"What, you expect to send me a letter saying that you've been put into an institution and I'm not going to come? That's ridiculous."

"Where's Charlie?" Mary asked.

"With my parents."

"Great," she said. Carlos's parents didn't like Mary all that much to begin with, and now they must think she's psychotic.

"I didn't tell them. I just said that I needed to do something out here and that I couldn't bring him. I'm sure they know it had to do with you, but not that you're here or anything."

"Thank you."

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for me. I didn't want to have them harping to me about you being an unfit parent."

"Do they know what I did?"

Carlos shook his head. "No. I didn't tell anyone but Sarah." He paused. "Did you tell anyone?"

She diverted her gaze from Carlos. "I told Wilson, but no one else."

"Who is that guy? Why are you talking to him?"

"I told you about him. That guy I dated in high school and then I almost married him."

"He's the one with a kid, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't like him," said Carlos.

"Why not?"

"Because he was acting like he knew you so well. He doesn't know you."

"And how do you know that?"

"He hasn't seen you for years."

"I haven't changed that much, and it's been less than two years."

"I'm only going to ask you this once," Carlos said seriously. "Did you have a relationship with him while you were out here?"

"What?! No. He's married."

"So he said." Carlos shrugged. "So what. That means nothing." He paused. "Is he happily married?"

"I think he wants to be."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Carlos. His life is none of your business."

"If it affects you, it's my business."

Mary rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop already."

"Fine."

"How's Cecily?" Mary asked in the same tone Carlos was using to talk about Wilson.

"Mary-" Carlos quickly became hot under the collar.

"Calm down, I was joking. I told you already. I picked that fight as a way to get out. I saw an opportunity and a grabbed it."

"Why did you want out that badly?" She didn't answer. "Did I do something? Because, whatever it is, I'll try to fix it. You know I love you."

"You still love me? After all of this?"

"Yes, I do. No matter what happened, I could never stop loving you."

"I could never stop loving you, either. Even if I tried."

"Good. I don't want you to."

"I think you should know, though."

"Yes?" she asked.

"I kept Cecily on. She's working even more hours now. I couldn't do it alone and my parents only had so much sympathy for me."

"It's all right," Mary said. "I know nothing is going on between you. And even if it was, I left. You have every right to-"

"Don't even talk like that. You're my wife. I have honor and dignity; I wouldn't betray you like that."

Mary rolled her eyes at Carlos. "You sound like you belong with the Knights of the Round Table."

"Is it wrong to be chivalrous?"

"No." Mary snuggled in closer to him.

"You all right?"

"I have no idea. I wish I did."

"When are you getting out of here?"

"I can sign myself out in two weeks."

"Are you going to?"

She thought for a moment. "I don't know. I've been planning on it, but, honestly, seeing you, and Wilson, and Lucy, it kind of scared me. I might need to stay longer."

Carlos took Mary's face with his hands and stared deep into her eyes. "Whenever you decide you are ready to leave from here, I want you to know that you'll have me to come home to. You get out, you get on the next flight out to JFK, and you come home to me and the baby. Don't give it a second thought."

"Thanks honey. I appreciate your understanding."

"Well, to be honest, I don't understand, but I'm trying. I want to. It's just difficult, you know? I don't know what is going on in your head. Not that I had any idea before, but now-"

"I know. I feel the same way, believe it or not," Mary admitted to him.

He pulled her in closer. "It'll be OK. This won't prevent you from living your life." Mary leaned her head against his shoulder and prodded his earlobe with the tip of her nose. "We can't let it."

"Whatever." Mary didn't believe him.

"All right," he finally said. "I'm all out of things to say. I think I'm going to leave now. I don't want to get you too riled up or anything like that."

"No." Mary clutched onto his shirt. "Please. Don't go."

"Mary."

"Please. Just stay until two o'clock when they kick you out." She started to cry again. "Who knows when I'll get a chance to see you again."

Carlos sighed. "Your parents are waiting for me. They drove me here. I'm sure they want to get back, especially since you refuse to see them."

"And I have good reason. I can't do it right now. It was hard enough having to deal with Lucy and the way she looked at me. They just won't get it."

"They might."

"No." Mary shook her head. "They won't. I'm not even going to try."

He could see that he was upsetting her. "OK. Fine."

"So will you stay? Please?"

"Sure." He pulled her in tighter. "Sure."

The time from 12:35 until 2:00 passed very quickly. Mary and Carlos didn't say one word to each other; they were all talked out. Carlos just clutched Mary so tightly against him. He'd never seen her this scared or this vulnerable before. It frightened him to death. Mary was always such a strong woman. She had a good head on her shoulders, but she was tough in that sexy, tomboy kind of way. Carlos had been instantly attracted to her, once he saw her after she had grown up, that is. Now she was just a shell of the woman he fell in love with. It was sad.

The man from before came from behind the two-way mirror and told Carlos that it was time for him to leave once 2:00 rolled around. Carlos felt Mary clutch onto him even tighter. "Come on, Mary. Let's go." Carlos turned to the man. "Can you give us just a minute?"

He looked reluctant. "I guess so."

"Thank you."

Mary felt like crying, but she held herself together. "I'm going to really need those antidepressants once you leave."

"Don't talk like that."

"Sorry," she said.

Carlos put his hands on her waist. She felt like she had lost some weight. Carlos hoped that that story about Christine wasn't just what was going on with Mary and she was to scared to admit it. Carlos placed a gentle kiss on Mary's cheek. "Te amo."

"I love you, too."

"I'll write to you, OK?"

"OK."

"Now buck up, kid."

Mary laughed through her tears. "If I asked you to kiss me, would that be weird?"

Carlos leaned in and placed his lips on hers, trying to be as sensuous and comforting as he could. "No," he whispered. "It wouldn't."

Mary nibbled on her bottom lip. "Kiss Charlie for me, OK?"

Carlos took a deep breath. It took a lot of maturity for him to be able to suck that up and not make that into a big deal. "OK, I will."

"Good bye," she said.

"Bye."

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A/N: I feel like this chapter had a lot of depth. Carlos had depth. He had struggle, struggle between knowing that Mary was not of sound mind and his lingering, unwavering anger about her forsaking their child. Mary being scared is priceless to me. That's the one and only time you get to see how upset and differently she's acting, how this thing has overcome her.

Next chapter is possibly the last. Last chapter is good, I admit. If you were wondering about Mary/Carlos, that's your chapter. If you're still not keen no them, then I apologize.

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If you don't review, you should cower in fear next time I walk into a room.

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