Maggie was sitting up in the bed as Lena went over a few last-minute notes with her. After having to wait nearly two full days – days in which Evo restarted it up with Alex based on what became an erratic sleep pattern that forced them to use heavy sedation on her, which Alex physically fought to keep from happening – they were now ready to try Lena's plan.

Glancing over to the bed beside her, Maggie saw the deeply sleeping Alex and wondered once more if she could do this.

"Are you listening to me?" Lena asked.

"Sorry, yes," Maggie said.

"Then what did I just say?"

"You said there was a danger that instead of attaching to the electronic brain, Evo could invade my brain once free of Alex," Maggie said. "And my response to that is I don't care. I accept the risk."

"Be that as it may, if I start to see some issue, I will disconnect you from this and we will have to find another way to attack the problem," Lena said.

"I'm asking you not to, short of Alex's life being in danger," Maggie said. "We may have one shot at this. We don't know that we will have the opportunity to try something else. Just please, before you even think of disconnecting me, give me the benefit of the doubt of more time."

"If your life is in danger, I'm pulling you out," Lena said. "You can hate me if you want, but believe me, I would rather live with your hate than have something happen to you on what is a completely experimental process at this point. Not to mention the fact that I'm fairly certain Alex would kill me if I let anything happen to you and I don't scare easy, but Alex can be … intense."

That was one way to say it, Maggie thought.

"Go ahead and lay down," Lena said.

Maggie did as instructed, and Lena checked the sensors she had already attached to Maggie.

The plan was for her to be sedated just as Alex was so they were in the same phase of sleep. Once they were, Lena would put her device into action. In the past 48 hours, she made some modifications. Originally, the idea was to put her inside Alex's brain. But Lena found that to be too risky after all. Instead, her electronic brain, which now sat on a stand between Maggie and Alex's beds, was going to be used as a housing for their brains. In other words, she would put their minds into the electronic brain, and once she saw Evo and Alex's brainwaves separate in a way that made it clear which was which, then Lena would pull them out and leave Evo in the electronic brain.

That is if everything worked to plan and Maggie could find some way to pry Evo and Alex apart.

Lena had done her part at least until Maggie did her part.

"While I'm 100 percent sure that I know the answer, I have to ask anyway. Are you sure about doing this?" Lena asked.

Maggie looked over at Alex once more. "I am."

…

As it was Maggie didn't recall falling asleep, and even when she woke she was disoriented. She yawned as she sat up in bed but almost immediately she started to freak out a bit – why was she in Alex's bed? And why was she naked?

She tried to think about how she could have ended up here, but nothing was coming to mind.

Pulling a sheet around her body, she got up out of the bed and began to look around for her clothes.

"Maggie, if you don't get up, you're going to be late for work," Alex called out. "Remember you are supposed to drop Gertrude off at the vet. If you don't have time to do that, speak now or forever hold your peace because I have to get going."

"Um …" Maggie said. What the hell, she thought?

"You ok?" Alex asked, peeking into the room.

"Yes, just looking for my clothes," Maggie said, taking in the sight of Alex – awake, up and well. "Are you ok?"

Alex laughed, "I'm fine and you will probably find your clothes in the dresser." She walked over to Maggie, "You sure you are ok?"

"Yes," Maggie smiled. "Still a little sleepy."

"That's what you get for seducing me last night and keeping us both up past our bedtime," Alex said kissing her. "Now I need to get moving. Don't forget Gertrude."

"I got it," Maggie said.

"And don't forget to check her in under the right name this time. Last time the woman almost didn't let me pick her up because you checked her in under the name Sawyer. I know we hadn't been married long but I don't want to lose our baby girl because you forgot you have a hyphenated last name now," Alex said as she walked out of the room.

Maggie lifted her left hand and saw the wedding band that was now on her finger.

She took a seat on the bed, her eyes still on that ring. Even as she heard Alex yell goodbye and the front door opened and closed. She was still sitting there when a golden retriever came into the bedroom and jumped on the bed next to her – nuzzling her. She petted the dog back.

"Hey Gertrude," Maggie said. "Maybe you can tell me what is going on? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. How about I get dressed and get you to the vet?"

Maggie spent the day about as normal as could be. She dropped Gertrude off at the vet even though she was unsure how she knew which vet she was supposed to be dropping her off at. She got to work and even though there were some small changes – it was the same precinct that Maggie was used to.

She spent all day trying to figure out what was going on because she was at a loss.

Everything she experienced was weird but normal.

She got a few texts from Alex during the day – all benignly domestic. She responded in what she hoped was a normal manner back to her, all the time thinking if this was Alex's mind – why would Maggie be experiencing this without Alex being around. Except for those few minutes this morning, she hadn't been around Alex.

That was what was throwing her off.

When she had agreed to go into Alex's mind, she wasn't sure what to expect but this certainly wasn't it.

Because surely she thought – this isn't real.

From the moment she saw that ring on her finger she knew this wasn't real, but she wasn't sure how she was supposed to be navigating this whatever it was – so she decided to play along for at least a little bit. But she was looking forward to getting "home" because the only way to get answers to this was to speak with Alex.

If this was some sort of weird mind trip then she needed to speak to the person who controlled that mind – even if she was unsure if it was Evo or Alex at this point. The only way to find that out was to interact in this world she now found herself in.

About an hour before she was off shift, she received a text from Alex telling her that it was her turn to bring dinner and she would pick up Gertrude.

Maggie ended up picking up food from a local joint that she and Alex had eaten at before – a safe option she figured. She beat Alex home and laid out the food and waited. She figured she would observe her first while eating to see if she could pick up on any clues that might give her an idea of her real identity.

It wasn't long before Alex came in and let Gertrude off her leash. The dog immediately ran to Maggie for some attention.

"I swear she likes you more than she does me," Alex said.

"That's not true," Maggie said, petting the dog while also watching Alex to see if she could notice anything.

"Oh really?" Alex said. "Then how come she doesn't seek me out like she does you?"

"Because you don't bribe her with enough treats," Maggie said as she reached over to the counter where they kept the dog treats and gave one to Gertrude. Still, Maggie thought it was odd that she seemed to know where things were located. Even this morning after Alex left she went straight to the dresser that had her clothes in it.

"I guess I will have to keep that in mind," Alex said coming over and kissing her. "How was work?"

"Oh, you know same old same old, what about you?" Maggie asked.

"Nothing major, although Kara did stop by for lunch – and by lunch I mean another hour of me listening to her talk about what a great person Lena is. I swear, if she doesn't just bite the bullet and ask her out already, I'm going to call Lena and tell her she needs to be the one to do it," Alex said.

Maggie wasn't sure how to respond as she had no idea if Kara was interested in Lena. Yes, in the real world Alex had said something about Lena being Kara's girlfriend, but even then she didn't know if there was something there between them or not.

"I brought food from Santino's," Maggie said, pointing to the table where she laid out the food already.

"Good choice," Alex said. "I'll just wash up and then we can eat."

Alex left the room and Maggie could see whoever it was, she definitely walked and talked like Alex, but that didn't necessarily mean anything given that Evo was already mimicking her in his cell.

Dinner was more small talk and revealed nothing to Maggie and as Alex washed the dishes – her turn since Maggie brought the meal, Maggie figured she would need to switch tactics to get anywhere. Perhaps it was time to be more direct.

Once Alex was done, she joined Maggie on the couch.

"You've been kind of quiet, everything ok?" Alex asked.

"I was hoping we could talk about something," Maggie said.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Evo," Maggie said, letting the statement linger out there for Alex to respond.

"Why would you want to talk about that?" Alex said getting up. "It's in the past."

Ok, Maggie thought, at least this isn't some fantasy where Evo never happened. That might make it easier to navigate she hoped.

"I'm not bringing it up to upset you," Maggie said.

"Then why bring it up at all? You know how I feel about all of that."

"But that is the thing – I don't," Maggie said.

"What do you mean you don't?" Alex responded. "Six months of therapy – some of which included you in the sessions. I think I delved into it enough. It's been two years."

Two years, Maggie thought. This was not a topic Alex wanted to discuss, but Maggie knew she had to press the issue.

"I wanted to talk about how you got out of the situation – or rather how we got Evo out of your mind," Maggie said.

"I was unconscious so you would know more about that than I do," Alex said, crossing her arms. "Why are you bringing this up? If this is about the whole child thing again, I don't know how many times I can say that I'm committed to you. If you don't believe me then I don't know what else to say."

Alex started to walk in the direction of the bedroom and Maggie quickly got to her feet and grabbed her arm. "Wait," she said. "We need to talk about this, and I will explain why but right now I need to you tell me how we got Evo out of your mind. Please, just trust me."

Alex shook her off. "I don't know what happened. Again, I was unconscious. All I know is I woke up and Evo was gone from my mind. I didn't care to know the particulars. All that mattered was that I was free of him," she said. "That and that it ultimately brought you and me back together. Now seriously why are you bringing this up?"

"Because Evo is still in your mind," Maggie said, resigning herself to the fact that she was going to have to try forcing the truth to get a reaction that could tell her anything about what was going on. "Alex, you're still unconscious. You are still at the DEO and Evo is still in your mind. None of this is real. It's not two years later and you and I aren't married. This right here, this is your mind and Evo is still here and I'm …"

"No," Alex said pulling away from her. "I fought him off. I won."

"But you didn't," Maggie said. "Look I get it, it would be great to imagine this was our life, but it's not. Alex, I need you to see this for what it is so that we can figure out some way out of this – together."

"I am free of him."

"No, you aren't," Maggie said. "He is still here."

"I think it would be best if I just spent the night over at Kara's," Alex said. "I'll pack a bag in case I need more than one night."

"Alex," Maggie said even as Alex walked into the bedroom.

It wasn't long before she was walking back out of the bedroom with a bag slung over her shoulder. She looked once more at Maggie but didn't say anything as she walked out the door.

Now what, Maggie thought. Again, she was left alone, which made zero sense to her. How was she supposed to fight Evo on this mindscape if she wasn't even around him or Alex?