29.

~ Norman woke up to a small saucer plate next to his bed and a glass of water. He saw that his medication from Doctor Edwards, one of the conditions of his early release, was on the plate.

He'd been taking his medication and hadn't had many problems the past year at PineView, but being back home was different. All these memories of how life was. How it could never be the same again, was upsetting. It was bringing on more and more episodes.

Mother had always called them 'blackouts' which sounded terrifying and strange. The lost time, the odd things he did.

Rebecca just called them 'episodes' and made him 'rest' in his room till it was over. She refused to coddle him or worry over him. She just allowed him to exhaust himself like a toddler having a tantrum.

Norman looked at the little plate and glass of water and was thankful. There were many places Rebecca refused to go to in this house. His mother's room, the basement and his room. She must have been very worried to have ventured into his room to bring an extra dose of his medication.

He was allowed the extra dosage when his anxiety was high and he could feel those strange 'episodes' coming over him. Times when he didn't know what was real or what wasn't. But he didn't like the drugs. They made him groggy and seemed to leech the color and brightness out of everything. As if his entire world was experiencing a drought. The green of the trees were muted and brownish, the sky always looked gray and polluted. And no matter how many coats of expensive paint he would put on the motel cabins, it would never look as nice as mother had done it the first time.

~ He could hear Rebecca in the kitchen. She hardly ever cooked and when she did, she mostly made sandwiches or something simple. She didn't waste time or energy preparing meals. That was something Norman missed the most about his mother. Her cooking.

He hadn't had a decent meal in all this time and wished he had appreciated her dinners or breakfasts more.

But Rebecca had surprised him. The smell of bacon was in the house. Linens from the motel were spinning in the dryer and for a moment, Norman thought he'd dreamed it all.

Perhaps he'd never been to PineView. Perhaps his mother had never married that awful Romero and sent him away so she could enjoy her new lover. Maybe she was home and making him breakfast right now.

No. It was just Rebecca in baggy, mismatched sweats with her hair in a high pony tail.

"You were asleep for a while." she said looking relived. "I had to go up three times to wake you."

"You did?" Norman asked. He didn't remember that.

Rebecca looked kind and concerned.

"I had… another…" Norman tried to explain.

"It was a bad one." Rebecca told him. "Did you take your meds?"

Norman nodded.

"I'll call the pharmacy's automated number and get a refill. I don't want you to run out." she said and fixed him a plate of bacon, eggs and pancakes.

Norman felt gratitude so overpowering he almost started to cry. He missed his mother. Missed that strong, wise, maternal person who looked after him. Cared for him, championed for him.

Rebecca was a good enough friend and companion to have, she was better than nothing, but she wasn't his mother. She could never be like his mother, no matter how hard Norman wished.

"None of that." Rebecca said noticing his tears. "Crying gets you nothing and nowhere. You're not a cute little girl who can cry and get what you want from life, Norman."

She fixed her own plate and sat down at the table next to him.

"So, when you were having your episode, you were pretty chatty." she said as if talking about a movie she'd seen.

Norman looked up at her in surprise.

Oh, no. Did he say something he wasn't supposed to? He didn't remember. He didn't remember much at all. He wasn't even sure what day it was.

"It sounded like you were rehearsing a play." Rebecca answered his unasked question.

Norman looked at his food and started eating slowly.

"You were doing both lines. Yours and some… I don't know, someone else." she said.

"What… what did I say?" Norman asked.

Rebecca shrugged and drank some orange juice.

"I didn't stay and listen. Sounded like you were repeating a commercial or something." she said with a weary smile.

Norman looked back at his food. He knew she was lying. Doctor Edwards had told him all about his other episodes at PineView. How he would blackout and become this other person. A stranger he didn't know but who he called mother.

"When I was at PineView…" Norman said carefully. "The doctor told me that I would have episodes. They said I would act like a different person."

"We all act like different people sometimes." Rebecca said.

"I know, but it was like I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop it from happening." Norman explained. He didn't want her to make it easy for him. For her to brush off his fears by saying he was free to be himself inside the house, or that she understood if he was a bit odd.

With Rebecca, she never enforced the idea of 'normal'. She was cynical and felt everyone was a fraud and hiding something. If Norman had his problems, so what? Join the club. Didn't everyone have issues?

"See, my mother had a hard life. A hard marriage to my father." he explained. "He was terrible to her. To us. But she was so strong and she took care of us. She was so brave. She was always my hero."

Rebecca looked sad, and sympathetic. Her eyes casting away from him.

"So, I think sometimes, when I need to be strong, I do that." Norman said.

"Do what?" Rebecca asked.

Norman swallowed hard. Rebecca would surely run away when he told her. Run away and leave him. Perhaps that was for the best.

"Before I started taking the medications…" Norman said. "I would talk to Mother. Not my real mother but something… something that looked like her. Only she wouldn't be there. I'd be alone. She'd be different though. Sometimes she would be… mean, or she would do other things. Sometimes I would talk to her… and they told me sometimes… I would become her."

To her credit, Rebecca didn't flinch. She didn't even blink.

"Now you're seeing her again?" Rebecca asked.

"She's so horrible now." Norman said helplessly. "Romero came here and what if he comes back? Mother was so awful to me and she called you a witch and everything. I don't know what to do."

He was on the verge of tears again.

"Norman." Rebecca said when he'd finally cried himself out. She hadn't tried to comfort him or console him. It wasn't her way.

He looked up at her and whipped his nose.

"Did I ever tell you I was a beauty queen?" she asked.

Norman shook his head but he didn't doubt it. Rebecca, under the right circumstances, was attractive enough. Not beautiful like his mother had been, but he guessed she'd been pretty once.

Rebecca nodded and smiled.

"I went up against a lot of girls who were gorgeous and who had beautiful dresses that cost a lot of money. Who had their mother's with them and coaches and dance lessons and piano and gymnastics. I went up against all of them in my second hand bridesmaids dress and I won every time." she said. Her eyes gleamed like she'd found a secret treasure map.

"I won some of the biggest titles in this country even though I didn't have a fancy dress or hair and makeup the other girls did. You know how I won, Norman?" she asked.

"How?" Norman asked with a shaky breath. Rebecca was as fearsome as a dragon, he could imagine she just ripped the other girls heads off and that was how she won the crown.

"I believed I could. I told myself everyday that I would win it. I told myself I'd win so much that I believed it. It never entered my mind that I couldn't win, because I had the one thing that they didn't have. I had the will." she explained.

Norman wasn't sure what to make of her story and how it related to him.

"You'll keep taking your medication." she said. "I'll make sure you have it. But I want youth keep telling yourself something."

"What?" Norman asked.

Rebecca looked worried, but wouldn't look away from him.

"That you'll tell yourself that this… person who keeps tormenting you isn't able to hurt you." she said. "I know it feels real. I'm sure it feels very real to you a lot of the time. Tell yourself she's a sick old woman up in that room."

Rebecca looked up at the ceiling meaning his mother's old bedroom.

"Tell yourself she's very frail and can hardly lift a finger. Make her powerless in your mind, Norman. If she has to be in your head, take away her power over you." Rebecca ordered. Her eyes practically glowing like fire.

Norman leaned away. Mother was so strong and fierce. He couldn't picture it.

"Say it." Rebecca ordered.

"My…" Norman gasped. Even the words felt like poison and would bring punishment if Mother found out.

"Mother, she's very sick. She's an invalid." Norman said shakily.

Rebecca nodded.

"Good." she said. "What else?"

"She- she can't leave the house. She's very frail and old." Norman said.

Almost like magic, he could feel the tightness in his chest release.

He could see it. See a frail old woman sitting up in that room.

"She's harmless." Norman said.

"Say it till you believe it." Rebecca ordered. "Make yourself believe it, Norman."

"Mother is old and frail. She's very sick. She never leaves the house. She'd harmless." Norman said more confidently.

Rebecca nodded.
"She wouldn't hurt a fly." Norman smiled at last.

~ It had been a small wedding in the hospital room. Just Emma's friend from school. Dylan's friend from work and Alex and Norma with Julian asleep on her lap. Will had been in his hospital bed crying. It was a much larger turn out than Norma's own wedding to Alex. Although the occasion was much sadder.

Will Decody had wanted to see his daughter married to Dylan before he passed away and seemed comforted that a young man he liked so much would be looking after the only person in the world he loved and would be leaving behind.

Emma was naturally sad that her father was dying. The heart attack happening so suddenly and seeming to drain away his life day by day. Will growing paler and losing strength but wanting to spend time with Emma and telling Dylan to take care of her. Telling Norma to please look after her. That Emma looked at Norma like the mother she never had.

Alex and Norma keeping silent about what they knew about Audrey Decody.

It had been nearly a month in the hospital before Will Decody finally passed away. He'd ended up in a coma and on breathing machines. Emma had made the difficult choice to take him off. He'd been cremated and his ashes taken home. No one really prepared for a funeral. No notice was put in the paper of White Pine Bay. It had all been too much.

~ "We can have a real wedding when you're ready." Norma promised laying Julian out to crawl around on the living room floor.

"No." Emma said quickly. "I… I don't want a big wedding. Neither does Dylan. We…"

Her strength seemed to have gone out when her father passed away. Everything that had made her sparkle and unique was suddenly dulled.

"It's going to take a while." Norma said. "You take as long as you need."

Emma nodded.

"Dylan says you're selling the motel" she croaked. "I think that's a good idea."

"Yeah. We need the money, for this one." Norma nodded at Julian who had seized the stuffed dog Alex had gotten him last week and was chewing fiercely on its' ear. The baby's face was scrunched up just like his father's.

Julian looking like he meant business when he was chewing just like 'Sheriff Romero' did when she first met him.

Alex and Norma were constantly at odds over who Julian looked like. Especially when he looked angry or serious. It was always a toss up. He was a happy mixture of both his parents though. Not too much of either of them, and defiantly their child.

"I'd like to send him to the private school. University isn't cheap either." Norma sighed.

Emma nodded but said nothing. They watched the baby roll around on the floor for a little while.

"Are you sure you'll be okay with selling? It was your home with Norman." Emma said at last.

"Norman hasn't written or called me in so long. He's still in PineView and I'm not on the guest list." Norma rolled her eyes. "Besides, I can't let him near Julian."

"Why?" Emma asked. "His issues are that dangerous?"

"We can't take that risk. Not with the baby." Norma said.

Emma nodded.

"I get it. What if Norman ever gets out? What if he tries to come home and sees the motel has been sold?" she asked.

"We'll know if Norman has been released." Norma sighed confidently. "He won't be released unless we say its' time."

~ Alex Romero was taking out his anger towards Norman Bates on the Everlast punching bag at the gym. Boxing had been a hobby of his in the Marines and he found it was all coming back to him. The footwork, the hitting. The amazing way his body responded to the rapid fire arm work. Muscles were sore he'd forgotten he had for days on end.

All the stairs at the apartment building had been fine for staying trim with Norma's good cooking, but Alex had sadly lost a great deal of bulk and muscle tone. He'd become lazy and out of shape when he'd always been deceptively strong before.

He'd been more than pleased that Norma, his new bride, had appreciated his physique. Her face had been innocently amazed he'd been toned under all the layers of clothing. It had made their first night together a much more tender thing in his memory.

The fact they hadn't kissed till their wedding day. That they hadn't touched each other's bare skin till a few days later. Her eyes going wide in astonishment and her breathing picking up. His hands, pulling off her clothing as her fingers ran over her chest and shoulders.

Not that their sex life had gone down hill, but he missed the way he used to look. To feel inferior somehow to Norman Bates in that parking lot. The young man having obviously grown stronger during his time in PineView.

It had been upsetting to practically be run out of his home town like that. To not be believed, and worse, to have Norman Bates win.

Almost immediately after getting home, he started weight training and hitting the bag. It felt good to punish it. To imagine it was Norman. To picture Norman's smug face and then attacking it with such vigor, he hardly noticed the sweat coming off him. He didn't stop until he could feel the ache in his arms. The burning feel. Then he did his morning routine of stairs to check on apartments again.

If he saw Norman Bates again, if he showed up here and scared his wife and threatened his son, Alex would be ready.

So it's VERY important that in the book and movie Norman describes his mother as a sick old woman who can't leave the house. I think this is an interesting way to get Norman to think of her like that. To try and get the image of 'Mother' away from Vera who is younger and healthy and vibrant, and into something more sinister.

Also, I like Norman's and Rebecca's relationship. Mainly because she's unknowingly molding him into the Norman Bates we know from the movie.

The 'show' he's able to put on for others. Pretending to be a nice young man for the new Sheriff for example and fooling her. Rebecca lets him know it's okay to be himself at home but he has to at least 'act normal' when he's in front of others. It's a skill a future serial killer will need.