Sean and Tiffany are in the kitchen discussing his late night disappearance the next morning, apparently not having gotten that much sleep after it happened the night before.
"I think we should go to General Hospital so you can talk to somebody about this," Tiffany said.
"I knew you were going to say that," Sean replied.
"You knew I was going to say that because I'm right to say it. I wanted to bring this up last night and I just thought it was bad timing, I still think you should have seen someone anyone after what happened to you on that island."
"I don't need help because I was locked in a dark place for a few months. I certainly went through worse crises when I was with the WSB."
"I think there's no comparison too," Tiff said.
"Good, then we can drop it."
"Like hell, I'm going to drop it. The difference is you were taken away from your family for months. You didn't know if you were ever going to see us again. When you were with the WSB, you were a loner, not thinking about anything like that."
Maren breezes into the kitchen, blissfully unaware of the conversation and everything that preceded it. "Can you drop me off at school, Dad?"
"Sure, honey," he said.
"No, he can't, Rob will take you, Maren," Tiffany said sharply.
"I think I can get her to school, sweetheart. If I can get across town practically unconscious, I think I can go four blocks when I'm awake."
"Please don't joke about this, Sean."
"What's going on?"
Sean and Tiffany stop in their tracks, they look at each other, communicating without words. Tiffany shrugs, not knowing what to say about it.
"Mom? Dad? Want to clue me in?"
"Can we talk about this later, honey?" Tiffany finally said.
"I recognize the code word for 'never' when I hear it," Maren retorted.
"We'll talk about it later," her mother said again more stridently.
"Fine, fine, fine," she said as she exited the kitchen. "They tell you you're all grown up and they'll treat you like an adult, but really it's just the same thing on a different day." Her parents listen as she exits. "Fire up the Batmobile, Rob, you're taking me to school, woofreakin'hoo." The door slams behind her.
Sean turns back to his wife. "You're not going to give up on this, right?" She purses her lips and shakes her head in response. "OK, OK, I'll go. I don't think it's necessary, but the quickest way to prove that is to go to General and let them shrink my head."
They exit the kitchen and prepare to go out.
Meanwhile, Ellie breezes into the PI office. Her brightness fades a little when she looks at her desk and there is nothing on it and a little bit more after she checks her voicemail and her email and doesn't have any messages. She takes a peek in Sean's office, and frowns when there's no sign that he's been there.
Royce enters the office, three cups of coffee in his hand. "Morning, Ellie. Cream, two sugars for you, right?"
"Morning, yes, thank you," Ellie said with feigned interest.
"Boss man here yet?" he asked. She shakes her head.
"One of the perks of owning the candy store, I suppose," he said. "Can you shoot me the cold contact list over email? I'll start working the digits."
"Right away," she said, getting on it before he could even close his office door.
A couple hours later, Sean has been referred to Dr. Cowart, who has already irked Sean merely by being about half his age. Not to mention the fact that the psychiatrist doesn't exactly have a poker face, practically sitting open-mouthed as Sean regales him with the story of Sasha Popovic, his own "death" and the subsequent resurrection.
"It certainly sounds like grounds for sleepwalking," Dr. Cowart said. "Usually these episodes last only half an hour, it sounds like yours have been longer. That is a little cause for concern."
"I don't think we need to go overboard, doctor," Sean said. "It's only happened twice."
"Twice that you know of," the doctor interrupted.
"OK, twice that we know of, but I'm pretty sure that's all it's been."
"Why is that?"
"Well, my wife and I figured out these incidents rather quickly, and I'm sure if there were more, we would have noticed them as well."
"We could do a sleep study," Dr. Cowart said.
"What does that entail?"
"We keep you overnight, monitor what you do, that sort of thing."
"I really don't think that's necessary."
"I'm not sure it is either right now, but I'd certainly like to set up some more sessions, particularly if there are more instances."
"My wife will be thrilled to hear that," Sean grimaced.
"I'd like to talk to her for a couple minutes if I could," the doctor said.
Sean's clearly uncomfortable with the idea, but nods and goes to get Tiffany. She introduces herself brightly and shakes the doctor's hand before sitting down.
"I just wanted to talk to you for a couple of minutes and what you should and shouldn't do if Sean has another episode," Dr. Cowart said. Sean rolls his eyes.
"I woke him up last night and then, a minute later, I figured that probably wasn't such a good idea," Tiffany admitted.
"There are different schools of thought on that. Personally, I agree that the best idea is just to lead the sleepwalker back to bed as gently as possible. There are some indications that, particularly in adults, sleepwalkers can become violent if they're woken up. And the reasons that this is probably taking place at all right now would tend to lean in that direction, so do the best you can not to disturb him."
"Of course," Tiffany said.
"I was telling Sean about an overnight sleep study we can do here if it continues, but I have to say that there's a good chance it will start disappear now that he's talking about what happened earlier this year."
"That's great," she said supportively, squeezing her husband's arm. Sean's not quite as impressed.
"I'd like to see him again in a day or two, in the meantime, just to monitor the condition," the doctor said.
"OK, I will," Tiff said as they all rose to exit his office.
"As the doctor leaves them alone to give Sean's file to his assistant, he rolls his eyes again. "I can't see what good any of that could have done," Sean said.
"You never know. Sometimes just talking about these things can help," she said.
"Do me a favor and don't tell Robert about this, OK?"
"OK," she said.
"Or anyone else." He went to the counter to pay for his session.
"All right."
When they got back to the penthouse, Sean went right to the telephone to call the office. "Hi Ellie, it's me." Tiffany pours herself a glass of water and sits down on the couch.
"Hi yourself," Ellie said. "Everything all right?"
"Everything's fine, just had an appointment that I probably forgot to tell you about."
"Oh good," she said. "Are you coming into the office now?"
"No, I've got some things to attend to. Stanton there?"
"Yes. He's doing the cold calls."
"That's fine. Probably about all we can do anyway until people find out we exist."
"Will I see you later?" Ellie says hopefully.
"I'm not sure. Just call here at the penthouse if anything of note comes up."
"All right," she said disappointedly.
Sean hangs up, then walks over to the couch and leans back into it. "Now what?"
"You could take a nap ... you're probably pretty tired," Tiffany said. Sean makes a face that she quickly discerns as his reaction to an unappealing idea. "Want to talk?
"I think I'm talked out for now," Sean admitted.
"Can I do something for you?"
"Yeah, come here," he said, pulling her into his arms and leaning back so they're both lying on the couch.
"Sean, there's nothing wrong with recognizing what happened to you as traumatic. It was for all of us and I can't even fathom what that would have done to me."
"I'm sure glad we're not talking about it," he joked.
"I just don't want you thinking something's wrong with you, because that couldn't be farther from the truth," she said, pulling his arms tighter around her.
"Yeah, nothing's wrong with me," he repeated, not believing it for a second.
