MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING. I'M LEGIT SERIOUS ABOUT THIS.

If you are pregnant, or have ever experienced any problems with a pregnancy, I really want you to think before you read this. I couldn't bear the idea of someone being really upset by something I'd written.

If you don't wanna read it, it's cool - Chapter 6 kinda works as an almost standalone story, so if you skip this, it'll still make sense.

Norma insisted on them going about the rest of the day like nothing was going on, despite Alex's suggestion that he take the day off with her.

"No! Don't be ridiculous. You need to stay here so you can fill me in on all the gossip." She'd protested, as he helped her back into her coat.

"What gossip?" He handed her her purse.

"The unfolding lesbian romance?" She said incredulously, like he was being absurd for not immediately knowing what she was talking about as she span on her heel to face him.

"Oh. Of course. Yeah, I'm sure I'll think of nothing else today..."

She grinned at him, leaning up to kiss him again, pulling back before he could deepen it and convince her to stay a little longer. She slapped his hands from her waist, taking a step back.

"I'll see you at home."

And then she was gone, and Alex could barely contain the grin on his face for the rest of the day, even making a mental note of Regina and Janine's lovestruck smiles after lunch to tell Norma all about when he got home.

Her car was gone when he got home and he frowned at the empty space where her green mercedes normally sat, glancing around the empty parking lot.

"Norma?" He called out when he opened up the door. It hadn't been locked, but then she rarely locked the door. It drove him crazy.

"Norma?" He called out a little louder, greeted with nothing but silence. He'd stopped off at the store on his way home, picking up a pregnancy test, and a box of those tiny fancy chocolates he knew she liked, and he placed the items on the side table, feeling a sense of panic begin to take hold.

"Norma?!" He yelled again, though he already knew she wasn't here. He reached for his phone, freezing when it started to ring in his pocket.

Norma Bates calling.

"Oh thank God." He muttered to himself, sliding to answer the call.

"Hey, where are you? I just got home and-"

He trailed off as he heard her sniffle deeply, followed by a silence where he could hear the bustle and movement of people in the background.

"Alex?" She said, in a strange, cold sort of voice.

"Yeah. Norma, where are you?"

"Erm..." She cleared her throat. "I'm at the hospital. You have to come drive me home."

A cold sense of dread washed over him and he felt his knees go weak. He clung to the edge of the side table for support.

"Are you ok?" He muttered, though he knew she wasn't.

There was a long silence.

"They wont let me drive home. You have to come get me."

He opened his mouth to speak, but she hung up and he stared at the phone for a long time before trying to call her back, feeling like his hands weren't working properly.

It went straight to voicemail and he cursed her for a second. Calm down, Alex, he told himself, as he took a deep breath, grabbing his car keys and heading down the steps. Her phone could have died; She might have no signal? He tried not to focus on the fact that she might have turned her phone off, that she might deliberately not want to talk to him, because that would mean...

No. He pushed the idea from his head. There was no use panicking till he got there, so he focused on his driving, staring ahead at the road, his knuckles gripping the steering wheel hard. He continually glanced at his phone on the seat next to him, waiting for a call that wasn't coming.

"I'm looking for my wife, Norma Bates." He tried to keep calm as the woman at the front desk seemed to take an age to find her name on her computer.

"Ward 7C, Room 8, Mr Bates." The receptionist gestured broadly to the labyrinth of rooms behind her, and he couldn't even be bothered to correct her, just took off at a sprint, checking the ward labels as he passed.

"-And I'm telling you! I can drive myself!" He heard her voice coming from a curtained off little section at the end of the ward, yelling angrily, like she always did, and his heart soared a little. She sounded like herself, and he wondered if maybe his panic had been too hasty?

"Norma?" He tore the curtain back to see her sitting stiffly on the edge of a hospital bed. Her face was streaked with long-dried tears and she closed her mouth, mid rant at the terrified looking nurse who was trying to calm her down.

"Mr Bates?" She asked timidly, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Norma, her wide eyes boring into his, telling him everything he needed to know.

"I'm her husband." He said lamely.

The nurse nodded sympathetically, stepping around him and moving to shut the curtain behind her.

"I'll just give you two a minute..." She murmured, and if he hadn't already known, her gentle professional tone would have given it away.

"Norma, are you ok-" He started, taking a tiny, shaky step towards her, and she cut him off, dropping her eyes to the floor, one hand gripping the edge of the bed, the other held up defensively to stop him.

"It didn't take." She muttered, so quietly he could barely hear her. There was a pause, where she looked up at him, shrugging with one shoulder, her bottom lip trembling.

"It... It didn't take." She said again, gesturing glumly to her stomach, her tone cold and detached, clearly fighting hard to keep from dissolving into tears.

"Oh honey..." He whispered, feeling his own eyes prickle as he watched her shrug down at the floor like she was fine.

He rushed forwards, folding his arms around her, pulling her face against his chest, wondering if she could hear his heart breaking through his shirt. He held her for a moment, pressing a kiss against the top of her head, stroking his hands down her hair, before looking up at the ceiling, cursing a god he hadn't believed in for a long time.

"I'm so sorry." He breathed out, brokenly, feeling his voice crackle, his devastation apparent. Her hands came up to stiffly wrap around him, but her whole body remained rigid and tense in his arms.

"I just wanna go home." She said, muffled against his chest, and he pulled back to look at her. Her expression was unreadable, her wild eyes darting all around his face, as he cupped her face in his hands.

"They wouldn't let me drive myself home!" She complained, sounding just like herself again, pulling her face from his grip, and reaching behind her for her purse, impatient to leave.

"I just... I just wanna go home." She said again, in a much smaller voice now, addressing his chest. "Will you take me home?" She sounded like a small child, and he nodded, taking a step back numbly to allow her to jump down from the bed. She winced as she stood, and he immediately wrapped an arm around her waist, taking a little of her weight, feeling her body shaking against his as she leaned against him.

"Oh, Mr and Mrs Bates?" The polite professional nurse from before stopped them as they slowly passed. "You need to sign the discharge forms before you can go."

She held out a small stack of papers to them, smiling a small smile and Norma all but growled at her.

"I'm not signing anything." She hissed at the girl, her slow, uncomfortable steps never faltering as she moved past her.

"But... I'm not supposed to let you leave without signing t-"

"I just wanna go home." Norma whimpered, directing her words to Alex and Alex alone, and he frowned.

"I really just need you to-"

"My wife said no!" He yelled suddenly, turning his head to address the girl who immediately fell back, the papers dropping limply to her side.

"Send anything you need to White Pine Bay Sheriff's office." He said firmly, lowering his voice a little. "I'm taking my wife home now." He said simply over his shoulder, and she nodded. He turned back, feeling her tighten her grip on his jacket, finding her shooting him a grateful look before they started moving again.

The ride home was almost silent. Norma gazed out of the window unseeingly the whole way home, her hand idly toying with the fabric of her dress around her stomach, sniffling occasionally. Alex shot glances at her the whole way, driving slowly, carefully, doing his best to keep the car moving as smoothly as possible, while still getting her home as fast as he could.

"You ok?" He asked, immediately hating himself for asking such a completely stupid question.

"They said I'll be fine." She answered robotically, never dragging her glazed stare from out of the window.

"I can't make dinner tonight." She said suddenly, her tone almost apologetic, like she owed him a hot cooked meal every night. He would have laughed if he could feel anything but misery right now.

"We can order in? Anything you like?" He offered, feeling his words falling so short of what she needed right now. He just didn't know what the right thing to say was.

"I'll even go get thai food from that place I hate?" He added, trying to keep his tone light.

"I'm not hungry." She said, and he nodded. Of course she wasn't. Neither was he. He felt sick to his stomach. He couldn't think of anything worse than eating right now.

"Ok."

There was a silence as he pulled onto the road where they lived, seeing the house looming up ahead. He took a deep breath.

"Do you want to talk about-"

"No." She cut him off coolly.

She was jumping out of the car before he'd even turned the engine off, taking off up the steps, her arm wrapped around her middle as she slowly started picking her way up the stairs.

He ran to catch up with her, sliding his arm around her, firmly grasping her other hand and pulling it around his shoulder, pulling her against him to help her up the steps.

"Thanks." She breathed out, focusing on the steps ahead as he half dragged her up to the house, pausing to unlock the door and help her inside.

He unhooked her arm from around him, determined to actually lock the door behind them for once. He didn't want anything else to worry about tonight, straightening up once he was confident they were safe in their home for the night, turning and noticing her staring in horror at something ahead of her.

"Oh god, Norma I-" He jumped forwards, darting around her, realising her horrified eyes were focused on the pregnancy test sat on the table in the foyer.

She snatched it from his hands before he could do anything with it, staring down at it for a moment, and for a second, he had no idea what she was thinking, no idea what she was about to do.

She screamed suddenly, an anguished howl of grief and heartbreak, hurling the box at the wall with all of her strength, making him jump in the process. Her scream continued until she ran out of breath, doubled over, her body crumpling under the emotional and physical pain of it, and he finally moved. He jumped forwards, wrapping his arms around her as she sank slowly to the floor, her hoarse cries turning into ragged, broken sobs as he dropped to the ground with her.

"I'm so sorry." He murmured helplessly, as her legs collapsed under her, flopping out to the side, her hands coming up to cover her face as she wailed against his chest.

He felt his own resolve break, tears flowing down as his face as he sat heavily with her, wrapping her up, pulling her trembling body against his, feeling more powerless than he ever had done in his life.

"It isn't fair!" She sobbed the words over and over, punching her little fists against his chest, and he relished the slight pain she caused him if it felt like it helped her at all.

"I know." He agreed, clutching desperately at her back, holding her for what felt like a long time as her cries quieted to soft sniffles and she leaned on him so heavily that he wondered if she'd cried herself to sleep. He wiped his hand over his wet face.

"Come on." He muttered, sliding one hand under her knees, scooping her up as gently as he could, struggling to his feet. She felt heavier than usual, as if the burden of what she was feeling was physically weighing her down, as she curled up against his body, holding tight around his neck.

He walked smoothly up the stairs, depositing her gently on the bed and pulling back to stroke the side of her face tenderly, before reaching to shuffle the covers from under her, pulling them back and moving to the foot of the bed.

He undid her leather boots, sliding each one from her foot, and tossing them to the floor, before he crossed over to the dresser, routing through it to find her something to wear.

"One of yours." She commanded in a small voice, and he almost smiled, holding out an old grey POLICE sweatshirt for her approval. She nodded, rubbing her fingers under her eyes, sniffling and beginning to undo the buttons on her dress. He tugged her forwards a little, sitting her up and helping her pull the dress over her head, leaving her shivering for a second in her slip, that same black slip she'd worn this morning, a lifetime ago.

She held her arms up like a little kid, letting him pull the sweatshirt over her head, tugging it down around her and then pulling the covers up, tucking her in. She shuffled down under the covers, flinching a little and pressing her face against the pillow.

"It hurts." She whimpered.

"Where?" He held back fresh tears as he gazed down at her, wanting to do something, anything to make this better.

"Everywhere." She replied, one hand clutching at her stomach, the other pressed against her heart like it was causing her physical pain, and he felt himself suck in a shaky breath.

"Ok." He said uselessly, sweeping out of the room suddenly.

He returned a few minutes later, carefully carrying a tray laden with things, rounding the side of the bed and depositing the tray on her bedside table.

"Ok, I brought ibuprofen, and a hot water bottle-" She sat up a little, watching as he pointed nervously to each item on the tray. "-and I made you a cup of camomile but then I wasn't sure if that was what you wanted, so I also brought you a scotch, and I know you said you weren't hungry, but there's some toast there if you want it-"

He was cut off as she suddenly reached for him, fresh tears springing to her eyes, tugging him down by the back of his neck to rest his forehead against hers.

"Thank you."

They just breathed together for a moment, before she released him and he pulled back an inch or two, gazing at her, rubbing his thumbs across her cheeks, wiping the tears from her skin.

"Hot water bottle and scotch." She said suddenly, and he frowned until he realised what she meant, hurrying to hand her both items. She drained the glass in one, handing it back to him and then curling onto her side, pressing the hot water against her abdomen, squeezing her eyes closed.

When she opened them again he was gone, and she flicked her head over her shoulder to find him on the other side of the room.

"Don't go!" She blurted out desperately, her bottom lip quivering.

"I'm just taking my shoes off." He assured her, toeing his shoes off and stepping back towards the bed, climbing up onto it and crawling delicately over to her.

He settled his weight just behind her, pressing a soft kiss against her cheek, making her breath out a little sob all over again. She reached for his hand, pulling it up against his chest, his elbow burning against the scalding hot corner of hot water bottle poking out from the cover. He didn't care though - He would have gladly let it scald his whole body if it brought her some comfort.

"It wasn't my fault." She whispered, sounding more like she was convincing herself than him, and he frowned, leaning over her to look her in the eye.

"Of course it wasn't." He said immediately, feeling horrified that she could think that.

"I didn't lift anything heavy or... I didn't do anything." She protested, crying gently, rubbing her wet face on the pillow, squeezing his hand.

"It wasn't my fault." She breathed out again, sounding like she believed it a little more now.

"I know. I know." He murmured soothingly, curling his body around hers.

For a long time they lay there, him holding her, occasionally nuzzling her ear with his nose, pressing soft kisses against her cheek while she quietly cried.

"We're gonna be ok." He assured her and he felt her nod. He took a deep breath.

"And... when you're ready, we can try ag-"

"No." She stopped his thought before he could finish it.

"Norma..." He started gently.

"No, Alex. That's it. I was right - I'm too old. I'm done." She spoke the words firmly, and he floundered for a second.

"Honey. I know it's-"

"Stop. I'm done, Alex. I mean it. Don't push it. Please..." Her voice had a hard edge to it that faded into a pitiful whimper on the last word, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, before settling down behind her, pressing his body more completely against hers.

"Ok."

He heard her gasp, like she hadn't expected him to give in so easily, and he wondered how the men she'd known before him had managed to deny her anything - She clearly still wasn't entirely used to getting her own way when it came to men and her body and it made his heart ache.

"Thank you... I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too. So much."

I cried alot writing this. I put them through so much. I don't know how Kerry Ehrin does it. She must be one tough cookie!

I'm very sorry if anyone felt traumatised by this. I hope my trigger warning was taken seriously. Love you guys... Final chapter coming on Christmas Eve. :)