Several long minutes of silence had passed almost without notice. Neither look nor word had been shared between the two people in the room. Each was focussed on themselves, one trying to decipher what they would do next and the other waiting for a move to be made. When no opportunity was forthcoming the second sought out an advantage, something to use to break the silence and they found it.

"You're frightened." Robyn's voice was low, dangerous.

Doctor Malone sat up, "Why would I be afraid?"

"Because you're out of your depth, you don't know why this is happening or how it happened. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"And what am I dealing with?"

"You tell me, you're the head Doctor."

Once more Doctor Malone fell quiet. His tongue was once more silenced by his interlocutor. It seemed as if he had long outstayed his welcome in the room but he wasn't about to leave. There was still more to be done. He had come to help a young woman who needed it and he wasn't going to let her or her family down.

Returning his eyes to the mirror to look upon the young woman he had been looking at out of the corner of his eye, he found them drawn by those that gazed at him through the glass. They seemed to fill his own, magnifying, intensifying every thought that formed in his mind. It was as if she were reading them, digesting them, and that she had found something she didn't like through her exploration. Her eyes darkened and her smile faded as her gaze seemed to penetrate him further.

"Tell me what happened to you last night." His voice shook the silence from the room and moved the eyes from him for the briefest of moments.

Robyn smiled sardonically, "That's easy. I was left in a car in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night by an incompetent…Doctor."

"I mean after that. You must have walked somewhere, been somewhere. Did you encounter someone? Something had to have happened to you, Robyn, we heard you scream."

Robyn was silent. Her eyes was downcast, her expression stony. She had turned to face him but refused to meet his eyes. As he viewed her he wondered why she refused to mention anything of that night. Something had happened to her, he knew, and it was something bad. He knew her, he knew her personality, he had seen her at her lowest point, he knew of her emotional instability and yet the speed with which she had altered worried him. In all of the patients he had dealt with he had never seen anything like this, not even in the extremest of cases.

He had to make her talk.

He rose from the bed and stood just behind her. "Tell me or tell Kit. Tell someone what happened to you. Whatever it is we can help. I can help."

"You help? A Doctor who works with patients that have mental health problems and tries to solve them when he can't deal with his own? You can't stand a phone ringing for more than a minute. You're beeper gets silenced the moment it goes off because you can't stand to hear it or ignore it. Just like now."

As if on cue the Doctor's bleeper sounded. He began to reach for it to silence it but his hand was beaten by another, Robyn's hand. Shaken by this sudden act he tried to get it back from her but she held it behind her back.

"Robyn, give it to me." Doctor Malone's voice was hoarse.

Robyn shook her head, "No."

"Please!"

"Why? It's just a little thing. If you really wanted it you'd come and get it. It's as simple as that."

There was no argument Doctor Malone could formulate, he wanted his bleeper but couldn't take it by force.

He was helpless.

A cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. Beneath his skin he could feel his heart beat quickening as panic began to take hold. His breath stopped short as his lungs shuddered to a halt. Gulping like a fish out of water he was drawing in gasps of air not large enough to sustain him. It felt as if she had wrapped her hands about his neck and were squeezing his throat. His hands reached up to join them, to try to pull away the invisible fingers that dug into his flesh. He could see darkness beginning to creep into the corners of his eyes as he began to sink to his knees.

As quickly as the darkness came, it vanished.

His heart thundered against his ribs as he ripped his eyes from his tormentor. Every fibre told him to leave the room. Forcing himself onto his feet he staggered towards the door. Laying a sweaty, shaking hand upon the handle he pulled it open. He had barely closed the door behind him when he collapsed against it drawing in great lungfuls of air. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a silken handkerchief and mopped his sweat covered brow.

Gaining his feet once more he made his retreat down the stairs, ignoring those that called after him as he pushed himself through the front door and out into the fresh afternoon air. He didn't stop until he had clambered into his car and had started the engine. Instead of pulling off straight away he lent his head back on the head rest and listened to the music drifting from his radio, the soft strains of a flute relaxing him and reviving him from his panic. Once he was calm enough to make the drive home he put his car into gear and left town.

Not once did he think of looking back.

Left alone in her sanctuary of peace save for the continuous noise of the little black bleeper in her hand, Robyn smiled. Turning to face the mirror once more she laughed quietly at how easily it had been to remove the Doctor from the room when she had tired of him. He had shown her a weakness that shouldn't have been revealed. It had given her an advantage but not one that she could use again.

Suddenly irritated by the bleeper her countenance changed. Her smile faded into a frown and her eyes held the bleeper firmly, almost willing it to stop its ceaseless commotion. It refused. There was only one option.

Clenching her fist with the bleeper still inside it, she crushed it as if it were a biscuit.