Walking inside she saw a strange man on the couch. There wasn't any time to think about it she simply went up to him yelling, "What are you doing here?!"
She watched as the man jolted awake and backed up from her.
"What are you doing in this house?!"
Peter barely got a breath in to respond and cut her off, "Niki invited me. I swear."
Tina looked over at him wondering who the hell this man was. In all her visists to Niki it was haphazard knowing who would be answering that door that day. If it would be the Niki she had known or the Niki left over from losing everything she had ever known. Or if it might be the other woman, a mere shadow of the woman who scared her into abandoning Niki, reduced to moments of crying for help. It gave her a new understanding of the other side of the story. That even though what Jessica was doing was cuasing Niki to lose control for Jessica control was even more important having lived without it so long.
The commotion had brought Niki out of her bedroom.
"QUIET! You'll wake up Micah!"
Tina barely controled the flinch. Micah had been a sweet boy who had been the core of Niki's existing. And from the various tidbits she got from Jessica's fleeting outbursts the core of her existence as well. Now he was reduced ot a figment in Niki's broken mind. It made her wonder of the irony of insanity. Niki's irrational belief was the only thing keeping her sane to her own self. But in reality to those around her she appeared quite mad.
"Hey, you know I wouldn't do that on purpose, Niki." Tina walked up to her and went to put an arm around her, realizing it was a bad day when Niki backed away from the perceived threat of any contact and moved herself far out of reach.
"Yes...I know. And he's a friend, I think, I remember him from the dark time."
Tina closed her eyes. The dark time Niki's way of referring to when things went bad and she lost everything. If she was referring to it like that now today was going to be a worse day then she imagined.
With that final comment Niki went on preparing her day, stuck in and lost to a time that her fragile sanity couldn't bring itself to admit happened. And while she went on words coming forth from both parts of her split selves like an external dialogue. Tina and Peter could only look on knowing that they did have a partner in their fight to help her. Someone fighting to release themselves from Niki's veil of insanity before she herself went into the abyss Niki had already fallen into.