A pestilent anger began to brew within her, tapped by the sharp point of her father's sin. It bubbled within her, released from its holdings. Inch by inch it pulled itself upwards like magma threatening to spew from an erupting volcano. Her blue eyes burned with white heat as she stared at him with almost unseeing eyes. Her legs seemed to move more steadily than they had done in months, pulled on by a depth of sheer fury unlike any that had ever surfaced within her before. Her mother's words reverberated through her head becoming louder and louder the closer she came to him. They were joined in their chorus by two words she had heard once before, words she could also hear in her mother's voice but a voice which was beginning slowly to alter. It deepened, the accent hardened, it softened. It became a voice she knew well, a voice she could hear echoing in her ears as it spoke to her.

She blinked her eyes, it was there. He was there. His hand was on her arm, she had stopped walking. The storm within her still raged, it hungered to be released, to be unleashed with all the power it possessed. It scratched away at her like a hungry animal, wild beyond hope of ever being civilised or tamed. The words rose to fever pitch, they screamed into her ears, deafening her to that voice speaking to her. She could see the mouth opening and closing but the words were nothing but silence. A strange smile passed fleetingly across her features as she marvelled at how like a dummy he looked. Cocking her head to one side she wondered if he were a dummy that could feel pain.

Through the thunder that still rumbled in her ears she began to hear snatches of his words and her expression hardened once more. Spite made her hate the dummy even more, she wanted it to be quiet but it wouldn't stop talking. Its words made no sense to her. It seemed to jabber on incessantly.

She could hear those words again in that voice, his voice. They rallied her fury, it began to gather pace. Her blood began to boil. All of a sudden the words became clear, they were making sense but they still continued. She wanted him to be quiet but the words wouldn't stop. Her arms lifted themselves up, her hands clamped to her ears but she could still hear his voice, hear those words. She ripped her hands from her ears, knocking his hand from her arm. She could feel his words in her mouth. They tasted bitter. She had to be rid of them. Her fury was past the last barrier.

"Keep it! Keep it! Keep it!" She screamed. Her fist clenched, it connected with his jaw with a blow that sent him sprawling to the ground.

Her anger still not appeased she wanted more, she wanted to hurt him as he had hurt her but something grabbed her, restraining her. Voices were calling out to her but she couldn't hear them, all she could hear was his words. She wanted to move forward but she was being pulled backwards. Her fury spiked again, she began to kick out. She had to be free. The arms holding her refused to let go, the voices continued to shout. Raging against her entrapment she demanded to be free.

A sharp pinching feeling in her neck halted her movements. Lethargy began to calm her senses. It quelled her hunger for vengeance. Her eye lids began to feel heavy as she fought to stay awake. Time seemed almost to stand still as she felt the arms loosen their grip on her. She could feel herself falling slowly through the air as they lowered her gently down to come to a rest on a soft bed of blankets. No longer did she wish to do harm, all she wanted to do now was rest.

Ziggy stood back from the bed. The change in the woman lying upon it was drastic beyond words. He'd never seen her like that before. He'd been scared of what he'd witnessed, for a few moments she wasn't the person he'd known since childhood, she hadn't been the woman he'd once loved and still did have deep feelings for. She'd been a stranger, a fiend with incredible strength despite her obvious disabilities. Three men had had to hold her back, three men had almost failed. As what had occurred what seemed seconds ago flashed through his mind, Ziggy wondered what might have happened if they hadn't been able to hold her and she'd gone to attack Sportacus once again. A cold shudder ran through him at the thought, it was too horrible to raise in his mind's eye again.

He'd tried to work out what had happened to make Robyn attack one of the men she loved most in the world in that fashion. None of the possibilities his imagination could propose seemed to fit in with what he had seen. It didn't make sense. Even though he'd had nearly nothing to do with the family since seriously injuring Robyn in a jealous rage he'd been keeping his eyes and ears open but hadn't been aware of anything serious happening between the two. He'd watched Robyn strike Ellen, another act which had confused him, and hadn't seen Ellen around town in a while. When he thought about it more it didn't seem to make as much sense as he'd thought.

Lifting his head he tried to find an answer in Robbie's down turned face but there was none, he didn't know either. He could see that Robbie wanted to hold his daughter's hand but he seemed almost scared to touch her, scared of what she had done. He was fighting a battle that raged silently inside himself, a struggle he seemed to want to win but didn't know how. With his companion engaged with himself in such a manner as assisting him in making his exit, Ziggy decided it was best to leave.

"What happened to her?" A voice asked him as he turned to go.

Ziggy stopped in his tracks and moved back to see Robbie looking at him.

He was about to reply when Robbie continued, "She was never like this, she never would have done anything like this. I don't know what's gone wrong, I try to work it out but I still don't know. One minute it's like she's normal, like there's nothing wrong and the next…"

Robbie trailed off evidently unable to find any other words by which to express himself. After several minutes had elapsed in silence, Ziggy made another attempt to make his leave but again the voice pulled him back.

"Thanks," Robbie said forcing a smile, "You didn't have to help you know."

Ziggy shook his head, "I did. I couldn't just turn a blind eye. Despite what's happened Robyn still means a lot to me, I know that's not something you really want to hear but it's the way I feel."

"I know. As far as I'm aware Robyn knows too."

"Is she still mad at me for what I did?"

This question prompted a shrug from Robbie, "I don't know. She's not mentioned it since it happened, not to me anyway, I'm not even sure she's talked about it with Kit."

"How is Kit? I heard the news. Is he ok?"

"As far as I know he's holding up ok. I was planning on calling him later but after this…what do I tell him? If I tell him nothing he'll find out when he comes back and will have my guts for his bootlaces and if I tell him the truth he won't spend another minute in that hospital when that's the place he needs to be. What am I going to do? What can I do?"

Ziggy watched as Robbie sat down on the edge of the bed. He seemed to have won his silent war as he clasped Robyn's hand firmly in both of his. Sensing that their short and neutral discourse was over, Ziggy turned to leave once more. This time nothing stopped him as he left the room and descended the stairs. When he reached the living room he knew with almost flawless familiarity, he paused a moment. It had been a long time since he'd been in this room, since he'd had an opportunity to come near the house he had visited daily as a child. He had a lot of memories here, each of them tarnished by the despicable thing he had done. A thing he wanted to try to make amends for and there was one way that presented itself to his mind.

Pushing back all of the thoughts that tried to fill his mind he left the room and sought the Doctor. He needed a ride out of town.