Cassie wanted to prove something to Sid. That she was still sexy, still his wife, that he shouldn't leave her. So she kissed his cheek, ran her finger down his goosebumped arm, and lay down before him as if she were an offering. For a few minutes, he just looked down at her, running his eyes up and down her body. Hesitating. She then removed what little clothing she had on.

He got ontop of her, and just looked down at her again. It felt as if he was laying ontop of nothing, and it felt as if he would break her if he weren't careful. He looked up, pushing into her, and felt like maybe he wanted to break her. At least, break that part of her that was trying to self-destruct, pulling her so quickly away from God and himself. He wanted his wife back, so he did.

As he pushed harder, he stared up at the tiled wall and thought about breaking her. About how, with every thrust of his hips, that part of her broke some more. She put her hands on his face and tried to kiss him, tried to pull him down, but he'd just look back up, and push harder. He ignored her gasps, her crying, and he started crying too, frustrated. He would've pushed harder if he had more time, but it was over quickly, and he pushed himself off of her and lay beside her.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and listened to her crying. He felt bad, but he didn't know how else to let her know how worried he was. He didn't know what to say, or who to tell that something was going on. He didn't know how to comfort her. He got up, put his pants on, and went outside into the kitchen to see what he could wrangle up for dinner. She just lay where she was.

Effie enjoyed the afternoon with Tony – they sat around and talked, caught up. She didn't know why they had fallen apart- he had fallen apart from everyone after the accident. It was a struggle for him to be who he was without his physique, without the ability to do everything he once did. But after their second movie that they kinda, sorta watched, he turned off the screen and looked toward her. 'Effie, is the road thing going to happen again?" She didn't know what to say. "Tony, I wasn't trying to kill myself I promise." He looked at her for a minute, challenging her to tell him something else. "It wasn't!" Tony looked at her that way again.

"You weren't trying to get hit? Like I did?" She looked down. "I called Mom when Sid called me last night. She wants you sectioned. She thinks it's coming back." She stared at him incredously for a minute, shaking her head. "Effie?"

"That's not even…what? NO!"

"If the flashbacks are making you do that, Effie, yes, we have to. And…" he reached for her hand, but she stood up, and he just reached for her wrist and pulled up her sleeve, revealing the marks. She glared at him.

"Who told you?"
"No one. I saw them when you were sleeping last night." She jerked her hand away and walked toward his front door which, last night, he had already locked.

"Please, Eff? I'll come visit you every day if that'll make you go."

\"I don't want to go back there!"

"Effie…"

"I'm not GOING! That's final! Where's Fred? He was supposed to pick me up by now." Tony didn't really know what to say. Sid had texted him, saying that Fred was headed out of town for a few weeks. He knew how overwhelming it probably was.

"He's…" Effie shook her head.

"No. He's not leaving me. You're wrong." Tony shrugged.

"Effie, we have to deal with this." They stared at each other for a good ten minutes, and she conceded.

"Fine, can I at least shower first?"

He nodded, gestured toward the bathroom in the hallway. Minutes later, they were in the car together, headed toward the hospital. Effie's breathing was shallow, and she lit a cigarette despite the rain outside, opened the window and took a long drag.

He took one hand off the wheel and gently took hers. They parked in front of the hospital and just waited. It was a different one, at least. Not like the last one. Effie was at least comforted by that. She was comforted that Tony took her and not a crisis team. But she still wanted to stay in his car forever. At least he was letting her stay for a while.

Sid didn't check the bathroom until before bed, when he went to brush his teeth, and noticed Cassie, curled up there, still naked. "Oh, Cass." He felt the stab of guilt too close. "Cassie…" He leaned over her gently sleeping form, and, too effortlessly, picked her up, kissing her forehead. He tip-toed toward the bedroom, and she woke up only enough to rest her head on his shoulder and her hand on his neck. He tucked her into bed gently, rested his forehead against hers, and prayed for some sign of what to do.

"I love you so much, Cassie," he murmured and kissed her lips, eyelids and forehead. Then he grabbed his cellphone and dialed Tony's number. "Hey, Tony…"his voice was shaky. And, for the first time since college, asked him for help.

Tony was stressed, and half wanted to tell Sid to bugger off, deal with it himself, that he kind of had his own family crisis to deal with. But he didn't. "What's going on, Sid?" He said, and both of them felt like nothing had ever happened to tear them apart in that moment. That everything was fixed.

"It's Cassie," Sid managed to get out through tears. "I don't know what to do, Tony. I can't get her to eat and it's breaking our marriage and I don't know what to do."

"Did you pray?" Sid didn't answer for a minute, because he was sobbing. "Yes. Yes. Yes."

Tony didn't know what to do, either, but for once in their relationship, he had the opportunity to tip the scales, to repay him. Sid had never done anything but rescue Tony, now he needed to repay that.

"Stay there. I'll be over in a minute."