AN- Short Chapter, because I feel I owe you all and explanation, and my internet situation is difficult. Difficult as in...it's been cut off, and I'm currently hacking my neighbors' wireless. (polishes halo) Ahem. That being said, I will be writing more, I promise, but updating may be difficult and sporadic. All depends on the signal. (wolf grin) Soooo...If I don't reply to your messages, drop me a line on my forum. It's called Concerto in D Minor, and I'd love to hear from all of you. More soon, yours until then. - Kani

"Talk to me…what just happened to him?"

"We think it's a symptom of PTSD…Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Roger nodded, moving to sit at this desk and motioning the others into the chairs across from him.

"Please continue."

"We think it's a defensive mechanism…a type of dissociative disorder caused by the PTSD. He's trying to cope with what happened, but his mind refuses to let him. Any effort to deal with his situation or possibly some kind of trigger will force his mind to sever itself from reality. His thoughts are…disjointed, scattered. He's basically finding out what's broken, and then being forced away to deal with it. We've been monitoring him for the last three days, and he seems to slip in and out of some of form of REM sleep."

"If it's sleep, why hasn't he woken up?"

"Forced catatonia…he's pretty much refusing to come back until he's figured himself out."

"He'll have to come back eventually though, right?"

"Yes, likely when the body can't take the stress anymore. He keeps talking about a window."

"A window?"

"Yes, we called Sarah in to lip-read when he starting talking in his sleep. He's keeps repeating 'The window's broken.'."

"That's how the murderer got into his home that night…he broke in the through the window."

"So that may be what he's trying to fix. He's trying to understand what happened…"

"Don't question him about it when he comes around. We don't know what triggered the episode, and we don't want to risk another. Unless it becomes dangerous, just let them happen."

"It's not easy on him sir."

"There's more?"

"He's…having nightmares. I don't know how or what is going on inside his head, but we had to sedate him last time because he was throwing his system into shock. I don't know how he managed to sink deep enough into the psychosis to do that, but he's not making it any easier on himself."

"What did you dose with him with?"

"Lorazepam, sir. It's strong, but we'd have been using it anyway when he slipped into seizures."

"Wean him off of it, and switch to one of the lighter one…he's too little to handle something like that consistently."

"Yes sir. He needs to find someway of coping…he'll do permanent damage to himself if he can't learn to control it."

"What kind of damage?"

"It depends really…he may go permanently catatonic, he may piece himself back together, or he may end up tearing himself even further."

"How so?"

"From what we've seen, it looks at though he's hiding the murder away in his head, refusing to acknowledge its existence. The fact that it takes an episode like this for him to try and accept it suggests that he's forcing himself to separate between that memory and his present surroundings."

"He's splitting his mind in half."

"To put it bluntly, yes. If he refuses to fix the damage, or he's unable to, it may eventually degrade into severe bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, and possibly force him to divide his personality."

"Worst case scenario?"

"He can't even manage that, and his mind completely fractures…leaving you with a genius that's absolutely insane."

"…Well then. Give him three episodes to straighten himself out…if he can't, then we'll step up the treatment and impose therapy. Keep the drugs minimal, and don't give him a feeding tube, no matter the case. We want him to come out of this, and if we have to starve him back into reality, then fine. Do it."

"Understood."

"I want the tapes, security and audio, reviewed and I want a list of possible triggers on my desk in two days. Do a full physical, while he's out…might as well cheat, since the poor thing doesn't know what's going on."

"Understood sir."

"And Eric?"

"Yes?"

"Give him his bunny. Call me the second he wakes up."

"Yes, Roger."

XXXX

Nate watched the blackness slowly drift off again. His thoughts returned, and he was again aware of the black and white. A dim glow in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he froze at the sight of the white yarn. Memories of pain surfaced dully, indistinct words and phrases, fleeting glimpses of emotion that made him wary. The yarn was bad. The window was broken. The yarn was why. Why was important. However…why was bad.

That made sense. Finally.

He walked…drifted, glided, however one moves in void. Perhaps he lifted his feet in the motion of walking simply to amuse himself. He didn't touch the yarn, pausing a few feet away. He crouched down, instead, resting his chin on his knees as he thought. He thought long and hard about the window, and why.

But he didn't touch it.

He wasn't read to touch it yet.