Judge Stephens retired to her chamber across the hall and rubbed her fingers across her mouth. The clerk of the court appeared behind her. "Kevin, can you have Ms Wexler come in here please?"

Kevin disappeared, and the judge sat down heavily behind the desk. The door opened and Kevin reappeared with Kim.

"Ms Wexler, do you know if your client has had any psychological treatment, now or in the past?"

"I don't know for sure, ma'am, but I don't believe so. She certainly hasn't had any counselling or treatment since everything that happened with her husband."

The judge nodded. "Your medical certificate from the other day recommended psychiatric assessment. I'm gonna order that. Kevin, we'll adjourn for the rest of the day; you can dismiss everyone else but keep the defendant here, I want you to get me a psychiatrist today."

"I-I'll do my best, Judge Stephens."

"Thank you."

The clerk scuttled out of the room.

"Ms Wexler, before this trial began, we were aware that your client was suffering any mental health symptoms like post-traumatic stress, or…?"

"Well it makes sense that she would be suffering from trauma, as is quite common in cases, especially ones of this magnitude."

Judge Stephens nodded.

"But nothing I saw or was told about, no."

"And in your dealings with her, has she been lucid? Calm?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Judge Stephens rubbed her hand across her forehead. "We'll see what the shrink says."

...

The psych assessment took more than two hours. Skyler sat meekly in a chair and answered the psychiatrist's questions. They made her feel even worse. As he was finishing up, she asked him in a weak voice, "What do you think is wrong with me?"

"I think the anxiety and depression are based on external rather than internal factors. The problem, though, is that your situation is ongoing, so while under normal circumstances I might say that once the external factors disappeared the anxiety and depression would reduce, when it's been ongoing for this long, that becomes less likely. The hormones that cause them to come on become a permanent fixture of the brain which require pharmaceutical and psychological treatment. Today was a trauma reaction due to post traumatic stress. You've heard of PTSD?"

"Yeah."

"From what you've described of flashbacks, panic attacks, nightmares, they are definitely post-traumatic stress induced; now whether you have post-traumatic stress disorder or not would require further assessment. I will say that without treatment, these sort of things only get worse. But with treatment, they're better. I highly recommend you seek ongoing therapy as soon as you're able."

"Well I'm going to prison, so."

"You don't have much hope of a positive outcome to the trial, then. That'll definitely contribute to your anxiety. Likewise, lack of hope contributes to depression. But if you do end up there, a lot of prisoners have mental health complaints. They do provide a minimum level of care in there - it's pretty basic, but I highly recommend that you engage with whatever they have. Based on the length of time that you've been having these symptoms, I can say for certain that they will not go away on their own."

Skyler nodded, looking frightened but defeated. "Thank you," she said. He left the room and she remained seated, unmoving, staring straight ahead. The door opened again five minutes later and she didn't react. "Mrs White?" said a voice. Twice.

"You're free to go, Mrs White."

Finally, Skyler turned and regarded Kevin, the clerk of the court. "You're free to go," he repeated. "Your case will resume on Monday morning."

Skyler slowly stood, turned and walked past the clerk and out into the corridor. She walked slowly, focusing on her breathing and the movement of her feet. One in front of the other. One in front of the other. She stared at the large window of the lobby at the end of the corridor, and the pot plant that sat in front of it. She watched it getting bigger.

Arriving in the lobby, she turned and walked towards the entrance. She didn't notice the two people sitting in the chairs by the door until they began to move. Flynn stood up, and the movement that attracted her attention was the afternoon sun reflecting off his crutches. She stopped and turned towards him, regarding him with weariness and a touch of embarrassment. Marie stumbled to her feet behind him. "Are you ok?" he asked.

Skyler didn't answer.

Handing his right crutch to Marie, Flynn stepped forward and put his right arm around his mother's shoulders. "Come on," he said. "L-let's go home."

...

"Flynn, hi," said Kim, leaning back on an airport chair and putting her feet up on the low window ledge that looked down on the runway of Albuquerque Sunport. "How are you doing?"

"I'm alright."

"I'd like you to continue on Monday morning if that's ok."

"Y-yeah, but is there any way you can make it so that…M-Mom doesn't have to listen?"

"That's what I'm phoning to tell you. The psychiatrist recommended that, and I have had a very long and eventful afternoon with Judge Stephens, Prosecutor Martin and all of their hangers-on, and got that sorted. She will be permitted to leave the room while you complete your testimony. One thing I do have flagged to play, which would have to be done with you in the room because you would have to testify that it was yourself and describe what was happening, is the recording of your 911 call. The psychiatric assessment confirmed that that's definitely not something Skyler should hear, so."

"Good."

"What about you though, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"It's something that was traumatic for both of you, so…"

"Y-yeah, but I saw a…counsellor afterwards and she didn't. I c-complained about it at the time, I was in high school and I…didn't want to have to be called out of class to go to a c-counsellor, but I'm glad now."

"Good. I do usually recommend to all my witnesses, particularly in a complex and traumatic case like this one, that they get counselling afterwards, even if it's just one or two sessions with a therapist. Because the court case drags it all up again. It can be very hard to deal with. So I do recommend you do that."

"W-what about Mom?"

"Yeah, well. The best thing I can do for her is try and get a not guilty verdict. And the Defence has only just started, I've got a lot of strong arguments to present. You did really well today. So we are definitely in with a chance on that one."

"Thank you. Th-thank you so much for your help."

"You're welcome."

...

Flynn stabbed one crutch into a corner of the picnic blanket while Marie and Holly spread out the other corners. Skyler leaned in to try and help but she was too late, they had already done it. Marie placed three large purple cushions along one side of the blanket and looked at her sister. "There you go," she said, gesturing at the cushions. "Lie down and relax."

Skyler dropped to her knees and then flopped onto the blanket, placing a cushion under her head and lying on her back looking up at the leafy tree branches and the perfect blue sky behind them. "Good idea," she said. "Thanks, Marie."

"Here, Mommy," said Holly, pulling a golden-coloured teddy out of Marie's picnic basket and handing it to her mother while she grasped a soft toy lion in her own arms.

"Thank you, darling," said Skyler. "Why don't you lie down next to me here and look up. It looks pretty great."

Holly lay down and put her head on her mother's chest. The two of them looked up into the trees.

"There's a thing you can do," said Marie, kneeling down beside them, "called mindfulness. Have you heard of that? Dave taught me about it."

"I've heard of it."

"It's a technique to stop yourself from freaking out by grounding yourself in the present. So you pretty much focus on your senses - sight, touch, sound. I find closing my eyes and feeling the breeze on my face helps. If there is a breeze. Or you can touch what's around you and focus on how it feels in your hand, or just look at something and focus on how it looks. It's very calming because it brings your focus back to the here and now and away from whatever's going on in your head."

Silence. The tweeting of the bird.

Skyler stroked Holly's hair. "You're so kind to me, Marie," she said.

Marie tilted her head to the side, looking like she wanted to say something more but wasn't sure what.

Flynn frowned. "We do things for each other because we're family, Mom. Th-that's not something you should be…surprised by."

Skyler looked up at the canopy and sighed. "Unconditional love can cover all manner of sins, Flynn. You should not, ever, do something for someone just because they are family, or just because you love them. You don't get a choice in who you love." She turned her head to look at him. "Especially in the case of family, it is unconditional. The love part. But you can choose whether you do things for that person or not. You should never follow blindly, and you should never do things for someone just because they're family. I'm aware that this is the opposite of what you were raised to believe and I'm sorry." She turned her head back and looked up at the leaves.

Flynn swallowed. Holly snuggled closer into her mother's arms.

Marie looked between them. "Thank you, Skyler, I'm glad you've learned something. Now, we are not going to think about that today because we are going to have a lovely time eating the most delicious picnic." She began taking food out of her basket. "And then I was thinking we could go on the pedal boats. Because that would be really fun."

Nobody said anything, so she kept talking as she laid out the food on the blanket. "Do you remember the time Hank made it into a race and then started trying to ram you? Sky?"

"Oh, I remember that!" said Flynn. "Th-that was Uncle Hank and me! That was awesome!"

"Yes it was you, you were about seven and sitting in the middle of our boat while your mom and dad were in the other one, and I was very upset with Hank because I was a hapless passenger taken along for a very violent pedal boat ride which did not make the proprietor very happy."

Flynn laughed. "That guy was funny!"

"I was upset with Hank, but actually it was you who was egging him on."

"Yeah. Th-that was awesome." Flynn grinned.

Holly sat up. "What's a peggle boat?"

"It's a boat propelled by pedals," explained Marie. "You push them with your feet and the boat goes."

"Yeah," said Flynn. "I-I can't do that, though."

"That's alright, Holly won't be able to reach the pedals either. You two can be the passengers."

"Isn't it only…two adults per boat?"

"Yeah. Oh, we have to have two boats. We can't race if we don't have two boats!"

Flynn laughed. "You wanna race again?"

"Yeah! You and me against them. I mean, I can't promise I can drive a pedal boat in anywhere near as exciting a way as your gung-ho uncle, but…." She pointed at Skyler. "I'm gonna get you." She raised an eyebrow playfully, and Skyler managed a half smile.

"I think I have to give you some chocolate first, though. Pep you up a bit." Marie dug into the picnic basket, pulled out a packet of Lindor balls and handed them to Skyler.

"Oh my god, thank you." Skyler ripped into the packet.

"Can I have one?" asked Holly.

"Alright."

"This is not a thing, Holly," said Marie. "Having dessert first is not a thing that we do. You must never expect that. Go for it."

The family began to eat.