Shortly after returning home to Colorado to find what she had assumed to be the murder scene of her only friends, Lucy had spent a certain amount of time under heavy sedation. Her panic attacks had been through the roof, and having her denial shattered allowed her PTSD to catch up with her.

Suffice it to say that it had not been a comfortable time for Lucy. It had taken several months of steady therapy and medication bingo for her to achieve some semblance of normal again.

Lucy remembered very little about those few months, but if asked she'd have likened it to how she felt in the days following her confrontation with Patricia and subsequent reconsolidation with Hedwing.

Everything seemed fuzzy and out of focus. She could feel herself moving and speaking, but couldn't be sure what she was saying or doing. The voices in her head were muffled, as though calling out to her from underwater.

The trick this time was that there weren't any meds, and that the voices she was drowning out were the ones begging her to see reason.

Casey had schooled her features to remain neutral at the falsely pleasant meal she and Maria had been led to, but her eyes betrayed her concern when she saw Lucy sitting across the table. Her favorite teacher seemed blank, withdrawn. She had been alone in the kitchen when Patricia had brought them in, and she didn't say a word as she accepted the sandwich offered to her.

Something had happened.

"Can...Claire come eat with us?" Maria asked hesitantly.

"No." was Patricia's immediate response. "I'm afraid that can't happen."

Something finally flashed in Lucy's eyes as she seemed to notice that the blonde was indeed missing from the table. She looked between the girls in question. Casey shook her head minutely.

"...She'll be hungry though, won't she Trisha?"

"You needn't worry about that, dear." the woman patted her on the head. "I'll have Dennis see to her later."

Casey looked between the pair as discreetly as she could. Patricia seemed to her like a hard, no nonsense sort of woman, but there was a certain tenderness in her gaze with a hint of longing when she looked at Lucy. It seemed to reflect in the art teacher's eyes, though hers held an undercurrent of unease.

"I'll make her sandwich now, since you fret so much." Patricia smiled at Lucy before turning her gaze to the girls. "Always the bleeding heart sort, you know."

Casey did know. Lucy had a wonderful habit of finding the most downtrodden things - and people - and giving them the TLC they desperately needed. It was one of the reasons she liked art class, and the class's teacher, as much as she did.

But where Lucy attempted to love something back to life; be it a refurbished art piece, or Casey herself after her father had died, one thing Lucy lacked was the self-awareness. She often couldn't see when her feelings were putting her in danger. This had led to more than one confrontation with the highschool principal, the head of the community center, a few entitled parents, and one particularly nasty instance with Casey's uncle.

That hadn't been a pretty day.

It seemed that Lucy still hadn't learned her lesson however, as Maria slowly snuck up on the turned away Patricia while raising her folding chair over her head.

Casey shook her head to try and tell her it was a bad idea, but she couldn't stop herself from gasping in shock when Lucy put herself between the pair at the last second.

The older woman cried out in pain as she crumpled to the ground, alerting their captor, and giving Maria the distraction she needed to make a run for it.

Casey was put of her chair in a second, putting herself between Patricia and the doorway. Patricia brandished the knife she had been using to cut the sandwiches sternly.

"Go to your room and lock the door. Do it now."

Casey's eyes cut to Lucy, an unconscious heap on the concrete floor.

"Now!" Patricia's tone was harsh, but had a hint of hysteria in it. Casey wasn't sure she wanted to see what the woman would do if she got anywhere closer to Lucy.

Gulping, she spared the teacher a final glace before doing as she was told. Casey was beginning to think Lucy might be in a tighter bind than she and the others were.