"Skyler, hi. Come in. Do you want some coffee, or…?"

"No thank you."

"Alright." Kim sat down at the motel room's small desk and gestured for Skyler to sit on the other side of it. She handed her a piece of paper. "Prosecution witness list came through," she said.

Skyler's eyes looked down the list, her pulse quickening. It began with several names of DEA agents and APD officers. The next name after them was Marie's.

"Is this the order they'll be called in?"

"Not necessarily."

"Patrick Kuby and Huell Babineaux."

"Yeah. I'm glad you told me about Kuby before, means I've had time to dig up an awful lot of dirt on him. I'm pretty confident I can discredit him in the witness box."

Skyler nodded warily.

"I've defended Babineaux before. Thought I better level with you on that."

"Does that mean you have dirt on him?"

Kim laughed. "Attorney-client privilege, remember! You better hope I respect that!"

"Of course, I'm sorry."

"I do. I follow all the rules. Actually, you said that you didn't have many dealings with Babineaux."

"No."

"Are you sure about that? Think back, it's really important."

"No, he... he was just always there. He was Saul's bodyguard, so he would be there in his office when I went - I mean not in the office, he would be sitting just outside the door. And once or twice Walt and I had a meeting with Saul at Walt's condo, and Babineaux came inside to use the bathroom once."

"So he was present at your meetings with Saul Goodman?"

"Not present in the meetings, he would be somewhere in the vicinity outside of the room. Saul never seemed to go anywhere without him."

"He was his bodyguard?"

"Yeah."

Kim rolled her eyes and sighed. "Some things don't change. So did he ever... thinking back, I want you to think on this carefully, is there anything that he could have overheard? From his position outside the room or in the bathroom?"

"I don't think so. Saul's office must have had pretty serious soundproofing - the waiting room was always like a zoo, but you couldn't hear anything from the office. And at Walt's, the bathroom was upstairs, so. I can't say for sure, but it seems unlikely."

"So you think Kuby has more on you."

"Yeah, Kuby was the one I dealt with directly. On the car wash thing. But he and Babineaux were also hired by Saul to convince Ted Beneke to pay the IRS, but I didn't deal with them directly on that. I only dealt with Saul. And I told him that I didn't want Ted hurt."

"Beneke is not on the list. It's a notable absence."

Skyler looked at the list again. She saw the name of the IRS agent, and Bogdan Wolynetz. The paper the list was written on began to crumple at the sides as her hand flexed. The other hand gripped the edge of her chair.

"I'd imagine they probably didn't think Beneke was a credible witness."

"Because he was cooking his own books?"

"Yeah, maybe. He was charged with tax evasion about 16 months ago and he pled guilty."

Skyler's eyes widened. She hadn't heard about this.

"He got off with a slap on the wrist though, suspended sentence. On account of his condition. I'd say from the timeline that that must have happened after the IRS saw you on the news, and they reported the meeting that the two of you had with them. Re-investigated Beneke's case. The agent who met with you is on the list."

"I hope Ted's ok."

"Were you two close? What surprises me about this is, him being a tax cheat notwithstanding, he could testify against you for setting Kuby and Babineaux on him - that's not related to the tax fraud at all, and they could easily have him give evidence on that and not on the tax fraud if they chose. Thing is, though, that Kuby and Babineaux have not been charged with that. I mean not even arrested and then charges dropped; that appears nowhere in the records on either of them. And if the authorities hadn't found out about it by another way, they would have no reason to bring it up. The two of them are friends - they're not gonna turn each other in. They've obviously been given some incentives to spill whatever they know about you and Saul, but if they're not talking about that stand over, the only reason the authorities are gonna know about it is if Beneke tells them, and I suspect he hasn't done. Otherwise surely they would call him to use that against you."

"He told me he wouldn't say anything to anyone."

"Why?"

"Fear." Skyler gulped. "I think."

"What else could it have been? I don't want you to say 'think', I want us to be as sure as we can. That's the best way to be prepared."

"Yeah, actually..." Skyler sighed. "There is something about that that I didn't tell you, mainly because it's not relevant - well I hope it's not relevant. I actually think it would harm my case if it got out. Marie does know about it, though. But she might think it was one of Walt's lies, I'm not sure."

"Alright, well you better let me know. If it's not relevant that's great, but remember that I need to have as much background knowledge as I can. I don't wanna be surprised by it if it's suddenly pulled out in court."

"I had an affair with Ted Beneke."

"Ah. When?"

"When I kicked Walt out of the house and then he moved back in and I couldn't do anything about it. Ted was an old friend, and... I just needed to escape somehow."

"Escape from Walt?"

"Yeah."

"Did he find out about it?"

"Yeah, I told him."

"You told him?"

"Yeah, the other thing was... I wanted to escape, and I really had no other way of doing that. It was literally the only thing that I could control. But it wasn't just that. It was that I wanted to get back at Walt."

"What did he do?"

"Got angry at Ted."

"Did he get angry at you?"

"A bit. Not that much."

"Ok. Yeah. It's probably best if that doesn't get out because… it makes it look like you had more power than Walt."

"I didn't. He moved back into my house and he wouldn't leave, he was trying to give me this dirty money that he'd made, and…. I felt trapped and powerless, I didn't know what to do, and Ted… Ted was just an escape. It just helped me deal with it."

"Did you talk to Ted about what was going on?"

"No."

"And timeline-wise... when was this Beneke book-cooking going on?"

"A little bit before that, but around the same time."

"Right."

"Could they still add him? To the witness list?"

"Yeah, if he comes forward… If it does come out, we need to emphasise the 'you felt trapped' angle. You said you felt it was the only thing you could control – I can work with that, but it is definitely something that's better kept quiet." Kim rubbed her hand over her eyes. "And you said Beneke didn't pay you any extra to sign off on the books, right? He didn't bribe you?"

"No."

"Why did you do it, then?"

"Because he told me that the company would go bankrupt otherwise. Which it has since done. Everybody lost their jobs. He said he was doing it because he didn't want that to happen, and I believed him. I thought it was fair enough. And I didn't wanna turn him in, because, as you have probably noticed, that's not me. I don't like to point the finger at people, especially not when the consequences of me doing so would be very far reaching for other people. In Ted's case that was the collapse of Beneke Fabricators, everybody losing their jobs, and in Walt's case it was the collapse of our family, the loss of our house, the loss of Flynn's college fund…" Skyler closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "I didn't turn them in because I was trying to prevent that. Prevent the loss and destruction - obviously I failed, but..."

Kim nodded. "That's good. I can work with that."

...

Skyler, Marie, Holly and Flynn were in Dr Jensen's waiting room. Holly and Flynn were playing with the toys there. Dr Jensen came through her office door and was about to speak when Marie waved at her to stop. She went over to her and begin discussing something in a low voice. Dr Jensen nodded. Marie nodded at Skyler. Skyler looked at Flynn. "You go," she said. "I'll stay with Holly."

"I th-think it should be you," said Flynn. "You're the one who's… You're… you're her mom, I-I'm not…."

Skyler looked back at Marie, who was now beckoning to her. Gritting her teeth, she stood and walked slowly into the doctor's office.

"So how long is it now?" asked Dr Jensen as the three of them sat down on the couches.

"Two weeks until the trial starts," said Marie. "We don't know how long the trial's gonna go for."

"Sounds like you don't have high hopes about it going your way."

"Not really, no. It might. But we have to plan for... it not."

"I agree. Even if you were convinced of a not guilty verdict, I would still be advising you to do this preparation. You need to tell her."

"When?"

Dr Jensen sighed. Skyler looked at the floor and wished it would eat her up.

"Let's start with how," said the doctor. "Do you have any ideas?"

"We were thinking that we should all do it together. Us and Flynn. So she can know that we're all working together on it, and so we can give each other support. We can tag team tell her different things - that's probably easier than one person having the responsibility to explain all of it."

"That sounds like a good idea. She trusts all three of you. If you're presenting it as a united front, she's less likely to question it. And then you can all have the support of each other. I would say do it at home. A familiar place. Somewhere where other people aren't going to intrude. Perhaps do something fun first like watch a movie or play a game. Have a nice time together. Reinforce that you're a family that gets on well together."

"That sounds a bit brutal. Make her happy by doing something fun, then rip the carpet out from under her?"

"No, it's about putting her in a place where she feels safe and happy. Bad feelings like anxiety, uneasiness, uncertainty, as well as trauma triggers and dissociation all have a cumulative impact on the brain. Be exposed to just one and you'll probably be alright. It's only when it happens a lot - multiple times in a row or over prolonged periods - that our brains struggle to cope. Having a nice time together beforehand is a way of hitting the reset button on all of your brains, filling them with good feelings so that when the bad feeling hits, it won't be as overwhelming."

Skyler looked into the doctor's eyes, understanding dawning on her face.

"We were thinking that it probably should be led by Skyler," said Marie.

"Yes. It should. You need to own it, Skyler. It's about you."

"She told Flynn. When he had to know, she told him and I sat next to her and added in bits. And support. And I think that went ok. You could ask him."

"Well he was much older, so it's a little different, but I definitely like the idea of having him there too because one of the really important things you need to do is validate Holly's feelings about it, and he's probably the one who can identify the most with her. You won't go into nearly as much detail in your explanation to Holly as you did in your explanation to Flynn; she knows what cops and robbers are and she knows what punishment is, but she probably doesn't know what money laundering and prison are. Don't over-complicate things by trying to tell her that. You need to simplify it as much as possible so that she can understand. And it's ok to tell white lies. Don't hide things that she needs to know, but you need to make sure that you minimise any distress she may feel. So for example, right now you don't know what the length of the possible prison sentence is going to be, but do you know the minimum and maximum possible?"

"One to nine years," said Marie matter-of-factually.

"Wow. That's a huge variation and it would be both upsetting to Holly and hard for her to understand, particularly for her to understand why you don't know yet. Even if you did know and it was a year, say, which is not at the bad end of the scale, I would still not recommend telling her that because a year to her is a third of her life. That's a really really long time. Children her age don't have a proper understanding of the way time moves, so you need to phrase it in a way that she does understand. So for now you can say that it will be a while and you're not sure how long, and then when you do know how long you could use terms like 'by your next birthday', or 'by Christmas next year' or something - pick a date near to it that she can relate to."

"Yeah, that makes sense," said Marie.

"And don't underemphasise it. No answer is fine, 'I don't know' is fine, but do not use words like, 'soon' or 'it won't be that long' because then when it isn't soon, when it is long, she will be devastated not only that it's going on longer than she expected, but that you lied to her about it. And she'll feel betrayed."

Marie nodded and turned to look at her sister, who was hunched over, her fingernails digging into her hands. "Are you ok?"

Skyler looked up to find Marie's eyes on her. She hadn't been aware her distress was that obvious. "Yeah," she said, her knuckles turning white.

"Be kind to yourselves too. It'll be really hard, and you can't support Holly effectively if you're not in a good place yourself. Pay attention to your own mood, as well as hers. Remember you have to start from a good place so that when the bad feeling comes it doesn't overwhelm you. That means you might need to postpone it, and that is absolutely fine. It's great that you've started planning it now - you have time for a couple of false starts if necessary."

"Should I be holding her?" asked Skyler. "When I tell her?"

"Yeah. That'd be great."

"It won't confuse her? I'm trying to get her used to having her needs seen to by Marie, s-so I'm trying to hold back on over-mothering her."

"No no no, don't do that. When she's with Marie, which you are doing, how many nights a week is it now?"

"Four."

"Four! Wow, well done. And she's doing ok with that?"

"Yeah, I told her it was because of my work and that if I had a choice I would be with her but I don't have a choice."

"That's good. Ok. I don't think you need to increase that anymore, it's already more than half of her time. Leave it at that until she has to move in with you, Marie. So Skyler, when she's with Marie then Marie has to do all of the mothering, but when she's with you, she still needs you to do it. If you don't, you're in danger of making her feel like you're rejecting her. That's dangerous, you don't wanna do that."

"No."

"So absolutely, hold her in your arms, rub her back, stroke her hair. Make her feel secure in your love. And I think doing that whilst you tell her is a great idea; it'll reinforce the whole you not having a choice, I think."

Skyler nodded.

"So...when?" asked Marie.

"Soon. Start planning now what you're gonna say - I can lend you a book that gives you some ideas of how to phrase things. Once you've planned it out, do it. Pull the band-aid off. You must be finishing up your work soon, Skyler?"

"Yeah."

"I would advise that after you tell her you make sure you spend as much time with her as you can for the next little while. And do fun things together, make happy memories that you can look back on and she can Iook back on. That's really important. It connects you all together."

"If I spend all my time with her though, isn't that going to negate what we've been doing with having her spend four nights at Marie's?"

"She should still do that, but she can spend time with both of you. It shouldn't be either or: the two of you should be connected in her mind. She should be spending the majority of the time with Marie, yes. Four nights is plenty. But now that she has got used to being with her alone, we can give her a bit more time with the two of you together. And then you can, of course, each leave her alone with the other when one of you has to do something without her, or when one of you is struggling to cope. You shouldn't let her see that."

"We don't, I try not to, I... but then the other day she asked me why am I always sad."

Dr Jensen nodded. "Children can tell. But they can tell if you're putting on an act too. Don't be fake, but just minimise what she witnesses."

...

"Do I have to... you know?"

Skyler put her indicator on and turned into Marie's cul-de-sac. "What?"

"Do I just sit there or do...do you want me to...do you want me to say things, or…?"

"Umm. This is why we went through it last night, honey."

"Yeah I know, b-but I was just listening last night. I felt like I couldn't add very much."

"That's fine, you don't have to. I'm the one who has to…" Her voice trailed off as she looked in the rear view mirror at Holly. "If you could just sit there and be supportive, I would really appreciate it."

"It's not that I d-don't wanna say anything, it's just that I don't know what…you want me to say."

"Flynn, it's a little late for you ask me now. Just remember what we said last night."

Skyler pulled into Marie's driveway and turned off the engine. She got out and undid the clips on Holly's car seat. Holly climbed down and ran to the front door. Flynn followed slowly.

He wasn't sure why it bothered him exactly. Telling his sister that their mother was going to prison was not going to be fun for anyone, of course. But something was making him feel worse than he had anticipated. Perhaps it was the memory of past family meetings, none of which had revealed anything good. Perhaps it was uneasiness at having suddenly been promoted to one of the adults, one of the people who knew what was going on and was meant to come help explain it to somebody else. He'd never done that before. But he didn't think that was it. He found himself upset by the fact that it was finally happening. His mother had been living under the shadow of a prison sentence for a year and a half now, but somehow Flynn had managed not to think very much about what that really meant. That he would have to go and visit her in a scary regimented place. That she wouldn't be able to text him back anytime, only to call at regimented hours for restricted times. That in the midst of their worry and overactive planning for how to lessen the blow of this on Holly, Skyler and Marie seemed to have forgotten that Flynn, barely 18 and not feeling like an adult at all yet, was losing his mother too.

Skyler seemed to be in complete control. Flynn watched her stride briskly to the front door and knock. She looked absolutely fine. He wondered whether it was fake. There was a sound, and the door popped open but didn't open wide, as Marie's disappearing voice was heard yelling, "Come in, something's boiling over!"

Skyler pushed the door open and entered, followed by Holly, who quickly ran past her and into the kitchen, just as Marie was grabbing a violently overflowing pot off the stove and carrying it to the sink. She saw Holly when it was almost too late and screamed, "Holly, no!"

Skyler ran after her and swept in under Marie and the pot to pick Holly up and whisk her away. Marie dropped the pot in the sink with a bang, and Holly began to cry.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry Holly, are you ok?" Marie slid over to pat Holly on the back, but Holly's face was buried so far in Skyler's chest she couldn't respond to anyone else.

"What happened?" asked Flynn, arriving in the kitchen and projecting his voice above the wails.

"Oh my god I should not have let you in, I should have known she was gonna do that! She always runs in like that! What's wrong with me?"

"Don't blame yourself, it's alright," said Skyler.

"Oh my god, if that had fallen onto her face -"

"It didn't, and please don't scare her or me any further."

"Y-your hand is red, Aunt Marie," said Flynn.

Marie looked down, realised her hand was hurting, and put it under the cold tap. Skyler carried the still wailing Holly to the kitchen table and sat down on one of the chairs, cradling her. Her heart was pounding through the roof, and she found she needed to bury her face in Holly's hair and close her eyes.

"Oh my god, I can't believe that just happened," said Marie, leaning heavily on the edge of the sink.

"Can I help r-rescue this?" said Flynn, picking the pot up out of the sink and looking around for a dish to transfer its surviving contents into.

"It's just going over the pasta," said Marie. "In that big bowl there. It's only pasta sauce. The pot was too small for it." She shook her head. "Oh my god, I didn't hear that it was boiling over until I was more than halfway to the door, so I just answered the door because I was closer to the door, but I shouldn't I have done that, I should have known she was gonna run in after me!"

"It's ok, d-don't blame yourself. It could happen to anyone."

Marie looked at Holly and Skyler. Holly was still crying, and neither of them were moving. Marie pulled her hand out from under the cold tap and went over to sit next to them. "I'm so sorry, Holly."

"Don't blame yourself, Aunt Marie," said Flynn. "A-and don't be thinking that you can't look after Holly, I know y-you're thinking that right now but it's not true."

The three ladies of the family became silent and still as Flynn bustled around the kitchen serving the meal. Then he set the table, put the plates on the edge of the counter and transferred them to the table, one by one. Skyler was still hunched over with her eyes closed and Marie's face was buried in her hands.

"Are you ok, M-Mom?"

Skyler looked up as her son placed a bowl of pasta in front of her. "Me? Oh, yeah." She began to stroke Holly's hair. "Do you want something to eat, sweetheart?" She whispered. Holly shook her head and buried herself deeper into Skyler's chest, her body curled up in a ball. Skyler looked up at the ceiling and began to cry silently.

"She'll be ok, Mom," said Flynn. "D-don't worry."

"I'm not thinking of now," said Skyler, tears streaming down her face.

Flynn sat down and began eating silently.

Marie raised her head and looked at Skyler. "Not today. Right? We can't do it today when she's just…"

Skyler closed her eyes, nodding.

"Are you ok?"

"Are you? Did you burn yourself?"

"Oh, Skyler. Always answering a question with a question." Marie stood up and went to get a cold compress for her hand.

...

"Aww, look at her, sweet little face sleeping on Mommy's shoulder." Marie made baby noises and leaned in to kiss Holly on the forehead. She put her arm across Skyler's shoulders. "You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Skyler replied, starting to move towards her car. Flynn gave Marie a hug and followed. Skyler strapped the still sleeping Holly into her car seat. She and Flynn got in and they moved away.

The silence between them was thick.

After several minutes, Flynn spoke. "D-don't worry, Mom. I think any little kid would've been upset by that because it w-was all loud and surprising and-and she didn't understand."

"Yeah," said Skyler softly, her eyes moving to Holly in the rear-view mirror and then back to the road.

A piercing wail came suddenly from the back seat, and Skyler almost slammed on the brakes in the middle lane.

"Mom, watch the road!" yelled Flynn, his voice barely audible above his sister's screams. He turned and grabbed her legs. "Holly! H-Holly wake up, you're having a nightmare!"

Skyler zoomed across the right lane and pulled into the first turn off she could find. Ironically, it was the parking lot of a bedding store called "Sleep Ezy's". She jumped out of the car, ran around it and into the back seat, unbuckling the child and pulling her into her arms. Holly had now woken and was wailing blue murder. Skyler rubbed her back and whispered comforting words to her, all the while wanting to scream herself.

Flynn sat in the passenger seat facing forward, a resigned expression on his face. After the volume of the cries began to fall, he turned and said, "Do you want me to...drive us home?"

Skyler looked up. "Ok," she said. She lifted Holly back into her car seat. "I'm just gonna buckle you back in, darling, but don't worry, I'm not gonna let go of you." She heard what she had said, winced, scrunched up her eyes and buried her face in the side of the car seat.