For some time, Aaron was slumped back into the recesses of the mattress. The softness kept him cocooned and its comfort kept him still. There was a gentle rocking motion making him drowsy. Every now and again, he would briefly close his eyes, and each time he reopened them, he felt as if it were a great effort. They were in the back of an ambulance. His Mum was there along with another woman. This woman kept readjusting an oxygen mask after each lazy attempt that Aaron made to remove it. His Mum kept talking. Her mouth expanded and contorted into a myriad of forms. He watched the motions, fascinated. Of the speed and depth they took, of the precision and competence that they were completed with. Disconcerting, though, was the invisible barrier that clung to his outline. It seemed to distort her words as they passed through and by the time Aaron intercepted them, he had no clue what they were.

The view changed and he was floating down a corridor. People in blue uniforms and white coats surrounded him. Their faces loomed down in front of Aaron but they didn't belong to any human he'd seen before. They were terribly deformed and each person's features held physical extremities. Eyes bulged and cheeks rippled in waves. Hair weaved and slithered as if it were a life of its own. Long bony hands unfurled towards him. The sight was sickening and yet Aaron lacked the ability to leave. He was still and powerless. His mind could not call to action the requirements to move. Behind them, the room spun into vortexes before stabilising, dividing and then crashing into one another. The room split, becoming a series of kaleidoscopes and then fused. Sometimes, the people submerged, other times they remained still against the chaotic background.

Time continued and his mother looked more and more startling. Random pulses burst across her lips, sending out shockwaves across the surface. Her fingers that maintained a grasp on his arm, grew and knobbled and twisted. Her pupils bled into their surrounding areas; the blackness seeped from her sockets and ran down her face. Her skin receded in small circles, exposing bone. Aaron started screaming.

Words were thrust at him, but the language held no recollection. Hands lowered towards his body, forebodingly. Tendrils of fingers with sharp, pointed nails stabbed and broke flesh. Aaron scrapped together the will to move and finally managed to break free from the immobilisation his mind had created. Suddenly, he was surrounded by more mutilated figures. They towered over him and held him down. Material was tightly strapped around his wrists and legs, cutting off all chance of escape. Aaron continued to scream.


"I'm sorry that we have to meet again under these circumstances." They had been the accompanying words that Doctor Malcolm had used with his greeting. Chastity had already explained to Paddy and Cain that this was the doctor who had seen Aaron only a few days ago. Seriousness defined his face, "I understand Aaron stopped taking his medication."

"That's right," answered Paddy, "is he OK?" Earlier, Aaron's sedation had worn off and he'd become increasingly agitated. The doctors and nurses had repeatedly asked the simplest questions but it was as if Aaron couldn't even understand them. He'd merely cried and screamed, tried to run away and remained petrified. Doctor Malcolm had entered and ordered he be restrained and all Chastity could do was to watch her son as he lost bladder control in his frenzied panic. It was shortly after that the doctors made a decision and gave him two injections. Chas still didn't know what they were. Paddy, Cain and herself had watched the change in Aaron. He'd seized up like a child playing musical statues. His entire frame froze in his attempt to curl inwards, it was as if he was waiting for the music to restart. The three of them had been ushered out of the room and through the window they'd watched Aaron being examined. Lights were shone in his eyes but Aaron didn't flinch. He was gently shaken but did not move. A restraint was undone and his arm was outstretched. When Dr Malcolm let go, Aaron's arm remained rigidly in place. It unnerved them.

"I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that Aaron is very ill." Each of them nodded at the Doctor. "He is experiencing full-blown mania with psychotic features and visual hallucinations," he said, pausing to let them absorb his words. "At the moment, he isn't capable of separating reality." Through the window, Chastity watched a curtain being pulled around Aaron's bed. She pursed her lips together to stop herself from crying. "We've given him a high dosage of mood stabilizers and antipsychotics." There was hesitation in the doctor's voice, "this medication has now caused Aaron to enter a catatonic state."

"Catatonic?" repeated Paddy.

"Yes, it's not unusual for this to happen. The brain is overloaded and it shuts down to protect itself."

"How long will he be like this?"

"We can't say for sure. Sometimes, it's just a few hours, sometimes days. However, there is a very small chance that this could continue for years." Each of them sucked in a breath and the doctor was quick to reassure, "There is a very tiny chance."

"And then he'll be better?" asked Cain.

"Aaron controlled his bipolar disorder successfully for a number of years. There's no reason that, as long as we get his medication right, he shouldn't continue as he had done before." The shaky exhale sounded louder than Chastity intended and she felt her knees weaken from relief. All she wanted to do now was go and sit back with her son and hold his hand and hug him and kiss him and tell him that everything would be OK. The doctor was still talking, "People who are bipolar often lack the insight to understand how important it is that they stay on their medication. It usually takes a number of years before they follow their care plan. From his notes, it seems that since being diagnosed, Aaron has never relapsed like this, which is incredibly rare. What's important is that we understand the reason he stopped to prevent it from happening again." Something inside of Chastity stalled. It was knowledge, the understanding and realisation of her actions. She looked sideways at the Doctor and didn't miss the returning glance in her direction. He had after all been there when Aaron refused the new treatment plan. He'd looked at her then too before clearly stating that it needed to be Aaron's decision. A nasty feeling started crawling through her limbs. The weight of her behaviour coiled into apprehension. A pulse pounded in her ears, drowning out what the doctor was saying. She had caused this. Fear and panic had blinded her. Aaron had said, "You made me do it." And he had been right. She'd interfered to such an extent that her son felt he had no choice but to take this drastic action.

"What happens now?" asked Paddy.

"We are going to call around the local psychiatric hospitals to find a bed." She felt sick. All those years ago, she'd sworn that Aaron would never end up hospitalized again. She'd made it her personal mission. She'd spent hours checking up on him. She'd pulled locks off doors and counted knives in drawers. She'd devoted herself to exhaustion, had shifted from caring to controlling, and it appeared it was all for nothing. It appeared that her attempts had thwarted the very thing she was striving to achieve. Chastity hated herself in that moment. What a terrible interfering cow she was. The doctor must have noticed how distressed she looked. He reached out a comforting hand, "hopefully, he won't have to be there for long. It does, of course, mean that it might be a while before he goes back to Dubai." Internally, Chastity laughed. Her determination that Aaron should return home felt ridiculous. Why had she been so single-minded? What had she been scared of? She couldn't believe what she'd done, and all for the sake of keeping two men apart. Chastity shook her head numbly. Everything had culminated to this point. She saw a timeline of failures, a succession of scenarios more horrible than the last. And she was responsible for each one. She felt walled-in by her behaviour, separated from the others involved in this conversation and too underserving to be a part of Aaron's recovery. As the discussion continued, something seemed to occur to the doctor and Chastity heard the words that maybe should have brought her relief, but she felt none. "There's a chance that flying to Britain in the first place may have aggravated Aaron's illness." This should have caught her attention. Instead she looked blankly at Doctor Malcolm as he spoke. "When people fly across time zones, it causes jetlag because the body and brain are completely out of synch with their normal patterns. With bipolar disorder, any slight change can cause a manic episode."

"Are you saying that Aaron was getting ill before he stopped taking his medication?" Paddy asked, his arms tightly folded and his brow creased.

The doctor shrugged, "when Aaron came to see me, I was weary of his sudden decision to have an unplanned trip on the other side of the world. It is exactly the sort of impulsive activity that a bipolar person engages in. It suggests that the lowered dosage wasn't enough to counteract the beginnings of the milder mania. When you add on the jetlag on top, then you find a person very vulnerable and susceptible to making the wrong decisions, hence him stopping his medication."

This theory vindicated her, meant that she wasn't completely responsible, that actually she hadn't emotionally manipulated Aaron. She wanted to cling to this, she really did, except she couldn't because it was completely hollow. Nothing was certain anymore. She could examine each theory but adhere to none. Was it the lowered medication and subsequent flight that began this chain reaction or was it her interference? After all, everything Doctor Malcolm was saying made perfect sense. It was the conclusion that she'd drawn earlier and had argued to whoever she needed. She was convinced that what happened between Aaron and Jackson was a result of the medication and now it seemed she was getting confirmation. What did she feel now? Relief that her assertion had been right? Validated for the way she'd spoken to Jackson? It was all there, written out like a neat little equation. The evidence was arguable and the answer easily confirmable. This should have made her happy, though something in the back of her mind knew that this was wrong. This was everything that she'd wanted to hear, but it left her feeling cold.

Doctor Malcolm left and Paddy motioned for her to enter Aaron's room. Cain had disappeared, but she didn't know if he was merely fetching something or if he'd gone home. Apparently, that whole conversation had happened without Chastity hearing a single word. They both settled into the room and gazed down upon Aaron. He was no longer shrouded by the curtain and he was now wearing a hospital gown. His restraints were undone but he made no attempt to move. Chastity held her breath as she took in every inch of his appearance. Aaron was lying flat out on the bed. His vacant eyes fixed on the ceiling. He was expressionless. He looked neither tense nor relaxed.

Paddy spoke first, "I guess you were right."

She didn't answer, instead she reached out her hand to touch Aaron's cheek. There was no reaction. "This is such a mess," Paddy said. He pushed up his glasses before leaning over in his chair. Chastity noted how exhausted he looked, but she didn't possess the energy to ask if he was OK. Instead, they settled into a silence that was interrupted only by Cain entering with a couple of coffees. It was Cain who spoke first, who voiced the Doctor's earlier surmising. She knew what he was going to say before he'd opened his mouth and could tell that so did Paddy. "Do you think that Aaron only wants Jackson because of his illness?" She exhaled a shaky breath and didn't dare form an answer. "It's possible," responded Paddy, turbulent confusion washed his face. It looked like he was going to divulge a theory, or argue a case. Instead he merely gazed at Aaron and said nothing. "Do you think that Dean will take him back?" She closed her eyes against Cain's question. How on earth was she going to look Dean in the face? How was she going to explain that her gentle coaxing of him to visit the Emmerdale was nothing more than manipulation? She heard Paddy shift in his seat and opened her eyes to see his startled expression. "We just took off and left him in the village." He looked alarmed and overwhelmingly guilty. "We didn't even make sure he was OK. We need to call him." Chastity just closed her eyes.