Deidre walked through the hall, her heels clicking on the smooth floor. She reached the door and knocked.

Kristen opened the door a crack, before confirming that it was Deidre, and opening it the rest of the way. She'd clearly been crying earlier, but was much more composed than when she'd called. "Thank you for coming," she said gratefully. "I really appreciate it."

Deidre stepped into the apartment and immediately pulled Kristen into a hug. "Are you okay?"

Kristen nodded against Deidre's shoulder, returning the hug tightly. "I'll be fine," she said. "There's just a lot going on, and I can't talk about all of it, but I just… needed a friend." She didn't know if she was making any sense, but she was glad beyond belief that Deidre was here.

"It's okay. Is it a guy? I seem to recall you complaining about someone … What was his name? Flask? Are you still with him?" Deidre asked moving into the apartment to sit down with Kristen, her short skirt riding up but she didn't seem to mind.

Kristen shook her head, following Deidre into the living room, the walls of which were completely covered in shelves crowded with books. "Flass was two boyfriends ago… He's in prison now. He was taking money from drug dealers, apparently. Then I dated another officer, Tom Dougherty… That didn't work out so well either."

"And now?" Deidre asked. 'Two boyfriends ago', there's one Kristen wasn't mentioning. Which must be the one causing the problem. "The new boyfriend? What's he like?"

"He's… well… Edward's different," she sighed, sitting down on the couch next to Deidre. "He's a little awkward around most people, and I didn't know how to respond to him at first, but… it's kind of cute. And he's sweet. He can be overprotective, but ... He doesn't insult or hurt me like ... " she shook her head. "But … he has issues of his own to work through, and lately that's been … complicating things."

"Anyone in the world will come with their own baggage. He doesn't hurt you or insult you though - so at least that's progress." She said. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked before looking at her seriously. "He's not dangerous is he? Are you afraid of him?"

"No," Kristen said, defensively, then looked away. "At least … I don't think so. I don't know … It's just … Some things have happened lately. A family member of his showed up and attacked him, and … it brought out this other side of him … and now there's this … new acquaintance of his who could be a bad influence, and …" She was quiet for a moment, struggling to decide what to say and what not to. "Look, I won't go into detail, because I don't know how comfortable he'd be with me talking about it, but he's been dealing with some mental health issues on top of everything else, and … things are kind of a mess right now."

"So … He's a good guy … He treats you well, but he got attacked and reacted negatively?" Deidre asked. "And he has a mental health issue that isn't his fault? He doesn't sound too bad to me. He sounds human. I mean I don't know anything beyond what you're telling me but ... Do you think maybe you're looking for the bad in him because of your past relationships?"

"Maybe," Kristen said, shaking her head. "I don't feel like I can trust my judgment anymore, but … there's more than that. He's … done some things that scare me … some terrible things, and so have I … The whole situation's gotten really out of control, and I still want the relationship to work out okay, but … I don't know if it really can, or if I'm just desperate for something to actually work out the way it's supposed to for once."

Deidre turned sideways on the couch, facing Kristen her arm up on the back of the couch. "What do you like about him?" Deidre asked.

"Well, he's brilliantly smart," she said. "It's like he finds everything fascinating all the time. And he really is sweet … He does all of these little things that he doesn't have to do … I'm really not used to that."

"Little things like what?" Deidre asked, looking honestly curious about Kristen's new boy toy.

"Well," she said. "He likes to make dinner … and incidentally he happens to be amazing at it. He brings me coffee at work sometimes. He says these nice little things, he lets me play his video games … He's just very considerate."

"Call this my own curiosity …. How is he in bed?" She asked a slight smile coming over her face at how Kristen's expression changed when she talked about this Ed guy.

Kristen blushed profusely. "He's … he's good," she stammered. "Though he's …um ... a lot bigger than I'm used to, so … Still getting accustomed to that."

"What's with the blush Kristen. We used to talk about things like this all the time." She said smiling as she nudged her playfully. "Though I have to say, it's been a long time since I've seen that look on your face. You lost that look around the time you started dating that Flask guy. I'm glad it's back."

Kristen smiled. "I really like Edward a lot," she said, then sighed. "And … overall, things have been good so far, though it hasn't been that long yet, so …" she shrugged. "I just … hope it can stay that way. I keep wondering if this is it, if this is where it starts to go bad." She shook her head, her eyes tearing up slightly, "I just … maybe I'm rationalizing, just like I did before, but … I'm convinced that we have something good, and I don't want to lose that."

"Then maybe you do have something good. If you don't want to lose that, then maybe have a talk with him. Wait until things calm down, and sit and talk. Like you said he was attacked right? By a family member? So maybe he was just stressed. He didn't hurt you through this did he?" She asked concerned. "Did he take his anger out on you at all?"

"No," she said quickly. "No, he didn't hurt me. Though …" She hesitated, then shook her head. "There's something I definitely need to talk to him about."

"It sounds like there's a lot you two need to talk about. How long have you two been together?"

"About three weeks now," said Kristen. "But we've been working together for over a year … I didn't really start getting to know him until lately, though. Again, he was kind of awkward and not as direct as I was used to, so it took me awhile to figure out that he was even interested."

Deidre nodded. "So I take it then he's a bit on the nerdy side? Hey, Nerds can be cute." She said with a laugh. "So here's the big question. Situation today aside … You said he has some kind of mental illness. Even if today was a one time thing … Is that something you're willing to deal with? What kind of illness does he have? Is he on meds?"

Kristen shook her head. "He isn't on meds … I brought up maybe getting help, but he seemed insulted and upset by the idea, so I didn't push it. He … um …" She paused, looking seriously at Deidre. "You know this is just between us, right?"

She trusted Deidre, or she wouldn't have been talking to her about any of this in the first place. But Edward had told her about his condition in confidence, and she needed reassurance that it wasn't going to get out because of her.

"Of course." Deidre said nodding. "Who would I tell?"

"Right," Kristen sighed. "Well, it's … He says he hears this voice sometimes. And sometimes sees this … other self. Apparently he says some pretty nasty things. But Edward says it's mostly when he's angry or stressed … He says it doesn't happen much when he's around me." She shrugged, glancing down uncomfortably. "It's … not his fault. And I like to think I'll be able to handle it … Lord knows I've put up with worse things. But I've never actually seen him in the middle of an episode, not that I'm aware of anyway, so I don't know if I'd actually know what to do."

"Maybe you should talk to him about seeing a doctor again. That sounds like it could be very dangerous." She said, now worried about her friend. "In the meantime perhaps just …. Be cautious …. Watch his behaviour look for anything unusual?" She said quietly. "I don't know …. I've never dealt with anyone like that before. But if you haven't noticed anything yet it sounds like he's really good at hiding it. Which isn't good either."

Kristen nodded, her eyes tearing up again. "It's … I mean … He still seems pretty in control. He at least seems to know it's not real, it's just in his head … I think it scares him. I don't think he's dangerous to me, I really don't, but …" She hesitated. Maybe she shouldn't bring this up, with how worried Deidre already was. But it kept gnawing at her. "He did something, trying to protect me that … really bothered me."

Deidre looked at her. "He … Did something." She repeated her. "I take it this is that family member that attacked him." She said shifting nervously on the couch. "Did he ….. Did he kill him?" Deidre asked. She'd never seen Kristen this shook up, even with Flask. She hoped she was wrong but she figured to start at the worse case scenario and work her way up. Given the situation, it seemed most likely.

"What?" Kristen flinched, her face stark white. Had it been that easy to piece that together? What else could Deidre figure out if she kept talking like this? "That's not… I… I wasn't going to say that."

Deidre watched her for a moment, seeing the sudden fear in her face. "Kristen, calm down." She said putting her hand on Kirsten's arm. "Anything you tell me will stay with me."

Of course it would stay with Deidre … unless Deidre thought Edward was a danger to her. Unless she got desperate enough to bring someone else in for Kristen's own good. But if Kristen was the one who would be incriminated, there was no way she'd say anything about it. How had she even gotten to a point where she was thinking like this? Everything seemed so out of control and crazy. "Again, I didn't say that," Kristen repeated. "Though …" she looked down at the floor. "When he … when he was attacking Edward, I was afraid that he might kill him, and I couldn't get him to stop, and I …"

She couldn't finish that thought. It wasn't entirely untrue. Edward might have finished him off, but she'd fatally wounded him anyway. She'd still stabbed a man. Deidre didn't need to know the rest. "God, everything's just so messed up," she whispered. Her hands were shaking, and her throat felt tight.

Deidre's eyes widened in shock. She killed him then? That must have been a crazy situation for Kristen to have done that, she couldn't imagine Kristen hurting anyone intentionally. "Kristen …" She said taking her shaking hands in hers. "If it was as bad as you say it was, then I'm sure you did the right thing." She said pulling her into a hug. "It'll be okay." She didn't bother asking how it was taken care of. She doubted they would have called the police, if they had then she wouldn't be sitting here right now, she'd be at the GCPD getting questioned. What ever had happened clearly shook her up, and explained why she'd called her. She needed someone to talk to. She ran her hand through Kristen's hair as she'd used to do all those months ago. "It'll be okay. Everything will work out." She said, though she wasn't sure if that was true. What if they were caught? What if Kristen went to jail? The thought terrified her, but she couldn't think of that right now.

Kristen held Deidre tight, as if that was the only thing keeping her from falling apart. She was sobbing uncontrollably again, and felt stupid for it, but there was still a sense of relief now that she'd told Deidre such a large part of what was bothering her, and Deidre had just accepted it. "I don't know how anything can possibly go back to normal after this," she admitted. "Everything's so complicated now and I don't know what to do."

"Do you know how he feels about all this?" Deidre asked. "You said it was one of his family members. Is he mad at you for this?" She asked, still holding onto Kristen. It was a really messed up situation and she really didn't know what to do, but she knew Kristen needed someone here with her and she was more than willing to just sit and talk, hear her out.

Kristen shook her head. "No," she said. "I mean, he hasn't seemed mad, anyway." Though she wondered, now, if maybe he was and just didn't say anything. "I'm sure he would have done the same thing." She knew it for a fact. "He ran away from home when he was young just to get away from him … I've seen the scars …" she shivered slightly. "It's still family, so I'd understand if he was mad, but … He didn't seem angry at me at all."

Deidre didn't know what to say as she sat there holding Kristen. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Deidre spoke up again. "Do you want me to stay tonight?" She asked, knowing if she was in her position she wouldn't want to be alone.

Kristen looked up at Deidre and nodded. "Are you sure you don't mind?" she asked.

"Not at all," Deidre said kissing her head before getting up and moving into the kitchen to make them both some hot chocolate.