It was sheer luck that Dennis was the one to visit her next. Lucy didn't really know what she'd say to Hedwig or Patrica at this point. To be honest, she wasn't even sure what to say to Dennis.

The door cracked open in what Lucy had decided was the middle of the night — not having windows or a clock was taking a toll on her ability to tell time — and she could tell instantly by the heavy footfalls who had the light without even having to look.

"Are you awake?" Dennis' accented voice drifted across the room that was lit only by the star nightlight casting spots of light everywhere. He heaved a heavy sigh. "Look, I get you're mad. That alright, we deserve it. I deserve it...I deserve it..." Dennis took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. "I let you down. I should've fought harder against that social worker, I should've kept looking for you. To be honest, I thought you were better off without us. You know, you could make your own way." One of the corners of his mouth pulled up a smidge. "But you're you. You never gave up on us. All those letters, you were so mad at everything. Like they were the crazy ones for trying to keep you away. I'm sorry I wasn't as strong as you. But I'm gonna be. The Beast isn't just gonna hurt people, he's gonna protect them. People like Kevin, like you, he's gonna protect them better than I ever could. And he already knows how special you are. He's not gonna let them get to you. He won't fail you...Not like I did..." Dennis looked down at his shoes, fidgeting with the glasses that were still in his hand. "...Can you say somethin', please? Lucy, I know you're awake."

Lucy signed and rolled over to face him. "...What do you want me to say?" She asked, heartbreak evident in her voice. "You want me to be grateful that this Beast wants to protect me? I don't want it's protection, I didn't ask for it. Dennis, I'm not a kid anymore. I actually managed to make a life for myself, I've got a job, I've got friends, like a normal person."

"Y-You're not normal." Dennis shook his head. "You never were."

"What if I wanna be?"

"What about us?" His voice cracked just a little. "You trade us for normal?"

"Dennis no." Lucy sat up properly. "You're my family. I wouldn't trade you for anything."

"Yeah? Sounds like you've made yourself a good life without us. Look around ya Luce." He gestured to the room. "We put places like this together everywhere we went. Got board games, trinkets, like you were gonna be there tomorrow for them. We literally can't operate on the idea of you not being here!"

"And you really think that's a one way street?" Lucy couldn't stop her voice from shaking. "I still have Hedwig's drawings up on my refrigerator! I'll set a second place at the table without even thinking about it! I haven't taken this -" she pulled at her necklace. " - off in ten years!" She huffed as her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Dennis, come on. I need you just as much as you need me."

And that was what was effecting her judgement. Lucy had spent hours rearing herself up to manipulate Dennis, to try and do the right thing and save those girls from being killed. From being eaten.

But the look on Dennis' face as his voice cracked made her buckle instantly. "...You mean that?"

"Of course I do." Was the instant reply. It was true; what Dr. Wong would call and unhealthy co-dependency, but it was her's.

Dennis took several steps towards her, his long legs covering the room quickly. He pulled Lucy into his arms and she immediately returned the embrace.

"I'm sorry..." He said into her hair, too tall to burry his face in her shoulder any longer. "I'm sorry..."

"Shh, shh, it's okay." Lucy rubbed at his back. "It's okay. We're together again. We can stay together. That's what you want, right? You just have to let the girls go and we can be a family again."

There was a small shudder in the body of Kevin Wendell Crumb that was not the result of Dennis' sobbing. The grip on her slackened as it was pulled away.

"And is this how you treat family, dear?"

"Patrica, I-"

"Don't!" She snapped, a hint of danger in her voice. "You may have once known what was best for us, but do not assume that you still do. And using poor Dennis'attachment to you to try and free those impure?" She shook her head. "Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the times have changed you Lucy. You're no better than them." Her eyes flashed to the half of the bat signal around her neck and she suddenly reached for it, pulling so hard the silk cord holding it in place snapped.

Lucy gasped, her hands going to her throat automatically as the cord stung. "...Trisha..." tears pooled in her eyes.

"Don't call me that, you've no right. Just as you've no right to this." She held the pendant aloft. Swallowing straightening herself as though the next words took effort, she turned away. "It would seem the Beast will have a full meal upon his arrival. I'm sure he'll be pleased." She left, slamming the door behind her.

Lucy collapsed on the floor in tears. She cried for the girls she had failed to save, for the fate she now shared. She cried for want of Bruce's comfort, of the familiar leather seats of her orange bug, of the warmth of the SVU precinct, all things she was unlikely to see again.

But most of all, she cried for the loss of her friends and the pain that they had been forced to endure. Pain that had changed them to people she wasn't sure she recognized.

People that perhaps could not be saved.