They entered the restaurant and were quickly seated. The atmosphere inside was dark and quiet, only lit by the candle on each table and the only noise was a lone skeleton, plucking strings on a guitar. Carrie was surprised by how at home she felt with the entire building, it was like someone took her favorite place to be and made it into a restaurant. Her eyes wondered the atmosphere until they settled on the menu in front of her and she eagerly flipped through its pages.

"This is amazing," Was all she was able to say. "Tell Darwin thank you,"

"I will, though I already paid him fifty bucks…"

"He made you pay? I revoke the previous statement,"

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"Is there something special about today…" She left the sentence open and Gumball seemed to think on it awhile before shrugging.

"You're here; I think that earns today the title of special."

"Aw, you're horrible at this," She said with a playful smile.

"It adds to my charm." He said smiling back.

"No it doesn't," She said dryly and he deflated a little. "I just think you're cuter because of it." She added. The waiter came by soon enough and took their orders along with a plate of chips.

"Actually Carrie, I did want to talk to you about something," He said rubbing his neck.

"Well shoot," She said happily eating another chip.

"I know, we're just teenagers, and Anais was kidding, but… I mean…"

"Use your words Gumball," She said laughing to herself.

"Do you think… That we could… Or, am I marriage material?" He spat out and Carrie dropped the chip she was holding.

"Well, I love you but—"

"Carrie Booregard?" Someone cut her off and she looked up to an ominous looking stork man with sunglasses and an officer's outfit on.

"Yes?" She asked looking to Gumball for some indication on who he was but he just shook his head and shrugged.

"My name is Agent Stanley, paranormal affairs; I need you to come with me,"

"Why?" Gumball asked for her. Agent Stanley pulled his sunglasses down and looked Gumball in the eye.

"I'll need to take you in to therapy son," He said coldly.

"What? What the fuck is happening?" Carrie asked panicked.

"Please, you know just as well as I do, now follow me," He turned to leave but Carrie didn't move.

"Are you kidding? You call me a criminal and tell my boyfriend he's crazy and just expect me to follow you? Tell me what's going on!" She snapped and Stanley was in her face the next second.

"You can come quietly or I can force you in, your choice and don't insult me by calling this poor idiot your boyfriend, we both know what he is."

"I'd like to go on record by saying you're crazy." Gumball cut.

"Hard way it is," Stanley said and whipped out a tazzer. He jammed it in between Carrie's neck and shoulder and she wordlessly drifted to the floor.

"Carrie!" Gumball shrieked and collided his fist with Stanley's skull as hard as he could. The agent fell on his stomach but quickly recovered.

"Son you have to listen to me, it's not real, whatever this girl told you, it isn't real, ghost don't love, they just find hosts to suck the life from, they do it a lot by making their victim think they're in love, I know you're innocent in this, but I will take you down if I have to,"

"Buddy, Carrie doesn't do that, she regained her life a few weeks ago and I feel fine,"

"No you think you feel fine, but in reality it's just the ghost's hold on you, please try and stay calm."

"You're fucking crazy—" Gumball said until he felt the pain of the tazzer for himself and blacked out.

Carrie felt one eye lazily open, then the other, though her vision was blurred she could smell that wherever she was, it didn't smell good. Her vision began to come back and she could see Agent Stanley standing behind a pane of glass, she looked to her left, then to her right, only to be met with similar panes of glass. She felt… Alone.

"Good morning Carrie," Stanley said.

"Why are you doing this to me?" She asked, terrified of her surroundings.

"Because it's ghost like you that make the underworld look bad,"

"What was my crime?" She asked recomposing herself.

"Keeping a civilian as life cattle, oldest crime known to ghost kind," He answered without any emotion.

"Listen to me, Stanley right? I have no idea what you're talking about,"

"Let me ask you something, do ghosts have a heart beat?"

"No… but I'm not a ghost anymore, I was inspected by a medical professional.

"Now, how does a ghost come back alive? Life doesn't just grow on trees, you're alive Ms. Booregard because you stole your 'boyfriend's' life, if you'd hung around him any longer the damage would have been irreversible,"

"You mean… I was hurting Gumball?" She asked horrified.

"Hurting him? You were killing him, and because the affect makes the victim attracted to its predator, he thought you loved him."

"I do love him!" She shouted.

"Then protect him, if you're around him anymore you'll kill him," He said coldly and Carrie backed down. "This glass is designed to negate the effect, we have him in therapy right now, but you had him good, poor bastard might be too far gone."

"I… I'll stay here…" She said and curled into a ball. "Please tell me when Gumball is better…"

"Will do ma'am, in the mean time you do have a visitor." Stanley said and let someone in. Steps came from the darkness of the room and Carrie shot her eyes across the room until her visitor stepped into the light.

"Hello again Carrie," Charon said with his devious grin.

Gumball sat in the all white room, his head resting in his hand and bored out of his mind. These idiots had been asking questions for hours, it seemed they were trying to tell him Carrie was evil and doing a very poor job of it. He looked up as another man in a suit opened the door and sat down across from him with a stack of papers.

"Gumball, so far you've been very convinced that Carrie loves you,"

"Because she does," He cut it.

"But did you ever stop to think that maybe it was because she kept your eyes away from other women?"

"No." He answered with a bored tone.

"Well, we're still going to try, here is a picture of your classmate, Teri, now tell me what you see here."

"It's a picture of Teri," His tone unchanged.

"I see, I see, now what do you think of Teri?"

"She's concerned, smart, she's a drawing so I couldn't exactly tell you if she was attractive and she never shuts up about her mother…"

"What do you think that means?"

"Why the hell are you asking me? Aren't you the physiatrist?"

"Now, here's Penny Fitzgerald, please describe her,"

"She's hot, move on,"

"I think we should emphasize on that,"

"I think you should die in a hole, too bad we all can't get what we want." Gumball continued, still bored out of his mind.

"Did you once have feeling for Penny?"

"Yup,"

"Do you any longer?"

"Nope,"

"Why do you think that is? Because I believe Carrie could be influencing your mind to believe you know longer have feelings for her."

"Listen dingus, everything about my body is mental, nobody fucks with me head unless I let them, I love Carrie, I don't love Penny,"

"Why do you think that is?" The man asked again and Gumball heaved the biggest sigh he could muster and slammed his head against the desk.

"Can they just taz me again and shut you up?"

Charon continued to stare upon Carrie with his piercing eyes and toothy grin, like he was enjoying seeing her locked in a cage.

"What do you want?" She asked coldly.

"I came to take you home," He said sympathetically.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." She affirmed.

"Carrie, can't you see you belong with me? I'm to only one you can't hurt, I made you cut out all your friends to protect you from this very situation, you must either stay here or come home with me, those are the only places you will be safe." He said with a smile.

"Go fuck yourself, I'm staying here," And Charon licked his lips at that.

"I love it when you're angry, and I missed those lovely lips of yours, I miss watching you use them,"

"Pervert…" Carrie muttered. "I'd rather suffer here than go back with you, at least I'm closer to Gumball here…"

"Do you still think he loves you? Who could possibly love you? You're evil Carrie, a biological leach that people lock away and forget about, Gumball will forget about you the second he realizes it was never real."

"It was real for me, if it wasn't for him, then I won't get in his way, let marry Penny, whatever, I just never want to see him unhappy, because no one deserves to smile more…"

"Sweet sentiment, but it doesn't change reality, you must realize that this is the way life works, you must move on you be left here for all your eternity." And Charon banged on the glass to her cage but Carrie remained silent.

"Leave Charon, now." She hissed and he complied shaking his head in disappointment.

"Gumball, your family is here, I think they'll help you through this."

"Huh? We're you talking?" Gumball asked sitting up from sleeping on his desk. The man waved his hand and the Watterson family came in. They all took a seat on a provided couch and looked to the psychiatrist for direction.

"Mrs. Watterson, we'll start with you, have you noticed Gumball and Carrie's relationship moving quicker than most?"

"No," Nicole said simply. "In fact they're probably going slower than most, the most I've seen them do is kiss, on the cheek, twice, and most kids in high school are trying new things at that point."

"Perhaps you were affected by the ghost too…" The man took a note down on his clipboard. "Now, Mr. Richardson, has Gumball acted any different than usual?"

"Usual? Gumball?" Richard asked and burst into a giant laugh. "Ha, ha," He finished and wiped a tear from his eye. "No sir, Gumball has been Gumball recently."

"…Perhaps you were also affected…" He took another note and his brow began to sweat. "Uh, Darwin, has your brother been, distant recently?"

"Not at all," Darwin said pleasantly. "He even plays Dodge or Dare with me again, and Carrie plays too sometimes."

"Clearly you are all around Carrie too much to see a difference, we'll bring in someone who can actually help." The doctor said and issued the family out. "In the mean time Gumball, try and think about if you actually know what love is." He said and followed his family out.

Carrie and Gumball spent the night in their cells, it was anything but a pleasant sleep, Gumball felt like he failed her and she felt as if she betrayed him. To talk to one another would be perfect, but they couldn't, so all they had was their thoughts. It was near midnight when Gumball heard his door open again and he causally looked up to see the doctor again and he lied his head back down. "Go away," He groaned from the floor.

"Why won't you let me help you?" He asked and Gumball simply flipped him off from the ground. "Well, luckily I brought someone who you'll listen to." He waved his hand and a familiar nut entered.

"Hey Penny," Gumball said tiredly.

"Hi Gumball, how are you doing?"

"Well, supposedly I'm bad, and I think I'm good, but hey! What the fuck do I know,"

"Gumball, I'm sorry," Penny said.

"Apology accepted, what are you apologizing for?"

"For being mad at you, I didn't know Carrie messed with your mind, but I did call this if you remember" And Gumball sat up from where he was on the floor.

"Listen, Penny, you're a nice girl, one of my best friends, or used to be… Doesn't matter, here's what's happening right now, an innocent girl is being held here, falsely I might add, and everyone thinks I'm crazy, now I've been to therapy, and they cleared me last time, now you can either tell this man here that I'm not crazy or you can try and do what he's doing, which is tell me I'm broken, whatever you do, I'm still stuck here and whatever you do, I'll still love Carrie, but-"

"Carrie left," Penny blurted out.

"What?" Gumball's confidence left him almost in seconds.

"She left with… Some guy an hour ago,"

"That's… I find that hard to believe,"

"It's true, maybe she was just using you, maybe this man is right,"

"I… Carrie…" Gumball said and looked around the room heaving at this point. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know, but you can leave too, if you just let us help you,"

"No… No…" Gumball began muttering to himself and rose to his feet. "I… I need Lucy, I need my shop!" He shouted at them.

"Who's Lucy? What are you talking about?" Penny asked frantically.

"I can't… I don't…. I don't want to be here anymore!"

"We'll take you to Lucy Gumball," The doctor said behind Penny and she looked at him with concern. "Mr. Watterson here has suicidal tendencies, when sent into a great deal of shock he has a habit of trying to kill himself," The doctor explained. "Thank you for your help in this matter Ms. Fitzgerald."

"Wait, but you promised that if I—"

"That is enough, please take your leave and we'll handle the rest." He said sternly and took Gumball by the shoulder.