After a while, she fell asleep, and Max carried her to bed.
Days passed she got into one of her depressive moods around noontime. She refused to eat, shower, or get out of bed. The void had caught up with her. Emily couldn't get herself to care about anything, nor gather up the energy to do it. All she could do was stare at the ceiling and cry. She couldn't even bring herself to answer the phone when it rang.
"Emily!!" Max yelled from the living room about an hour later. He had been the one calling her, to see how she was. When she didn't, he assumed the worst.
"Leave me alone!" she called from the bed.
"There you are. What's going on?" While worried, he was relieved that she hadn't tried to kill herself again.
"You wouldn't understand"
"I don't understand how lying in bed is gonna solve anything." In Max's opinion, she needed to occupy her mind more rather then dwell on things, which he felt made her worse.
"As opposed to drinking?" she retorted.
"Come on, at least take a shower, you'll feel better" he tried to pull her from the bed.
"No!"
"Don't disturb your mother when we get home. She's tired" Max warned Jordan when he picked her up from school a little later. It pained him to see how Emily's moods affected his daughter.
"Okay"
When they got home, Max noticed that Emily had cut her hair. When he went to look in on her, she sported an unbalanced bob.
"I see you cut your hair"
"To protect myself"
"Oh….." he sighed and rubbed his head in anguish.
"I drew this for Mommy. Think she'll like it?" Jordan asked, holding a picture up a bit later. She hated it when her mother was sad, and very much wanted her to be happy.
"Of course honey, when she feels better" Max took a gulp from his shot glass. He liked beer, but preferred the strong stuff, especially when things were stressful.
The next evening, she cut Jordan's hair as well.
"Mommy! No!"
"Please, baby, it'll make me feel better"
"Fine" she sadly agreed. Jordan was willing to sacrifice her hair for mommy. She really wanted her to be happy.
"What's going on??" Max asked when he came home, and found Jordan asleep, next to Emily, in the couch, with a crooked hair cut.
"I needed to protect my baby!!" she told him fiercely.
"This…isn't the way to do it. What are you afraid of babe?"
"Them"
"Them who?" the detective didn't feel up to dealing with one of Emily's paranoia periods.
"You don't get it!"
The next day, he called in sick to look after things at home. He worried that his wife would do something more serious to Jordan. Emily sat on the living room couch for the most part.
"Do you think they can track me through the T.V?" she asked in pajamas she had been wearing for about a couple of days.
"I…doubt they have the technology" Max said, humoring her, as he hid several knives and other sharp objects.
TBC
