(William's POV)
"Ssshhhh, my love, calm. Did you have another nightmare? Sshhh, it's okay, it's okay." He soothed, and lifted her onto his lap though she tried vehemently to keep her distance.
"Adeline, dear, why are you fighting? You're normally holding on to me for dear life," he coaxed, kissing along her jawline as she turned to avoid him. Then he realized she was crying again, and decided it probably was a good time to use the restorative and memory modification ability that had come in handy so much as of late, knowing it would most likely calm her down.
Biting her as gently as he could, he set about convincing her that the entire thing that had just happened was but another of her psychotic breaks – a minor hallucination that had had no intent of hurting her. As soon as her cries subdued, William withdrew his fangs and looked her in the eyes, noticing the emotion in them had changed.
"It wasn't you…it wasn't you…it wasn't you." She repeated, still shaking slightly as she tried to shake the image of the hallucination off, almost smiling as he laid her back down on the bed and kissed her, far rougher than her hallucination had, making her realize it really was him.
She panted softly as he finally released her lips, his continuing to travel down her neck.
"Mhm…b-baby, st-stop…no more, please no more…" she whined tiredly, almost causing him to do a double take.
"Hm? You okay, darling? You, saying no more, to-" he smiled, one of his hands absentmindedly beginning to rub her hip as he kissed the corners of her mouth teasingly, "This?"
"I said no more." She repeated, suddenly stoic. Damn, he wished her mood swing weren't so erratic.
"Fine. But tomorrow, before I even try to catch up with what I finished tonight, I'm getting you in the shower and I'm promising you'll not have a mood swing for the rest of the day."
She licked her fangs, almost like she'd known what he what thinking.
"I wanted to be alone tomorrow…just wander around, you know?"
He nodded, "Alright. But you're at least interested in my suggestion?"
She blinked, and smiled, "A shower? With you? Now honey, why in the world would I not go along with that?"
He blinked, and then wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her closer, noticing she had sighed in defeat.
"Hm?"
"Can you just permanently set me up with painkillers that have me in a haze all the time? I'm sick of myself imagining things that aren't there…and I really don't want to hurt anybody anymore…I didn't know what'll be next – I'm only really sure that I…that you're-"
She bit her lip, snuggling her head into the crook of his neck.
"You're the only one that's safe from what I can become."
Waking up the next morning, William was surprised to not find Adeline beside him, instead, there was a note left on her pillow.
He smiled at how things had reversed, for all the notes he had left her while she was recovering from the battle with the demon, this seemed to be one of those moments where the term 'what goes around comes around' could be coined.
Unfolding it, he laughed lightly at the scrawl before him – she definitely had never learned the finer points of penmanship classes.
'To my love-
I didn't want to wake you, I know what a bother I've been these past few days, with Brendon and Mike and all, I must have done nothing but add to the amount of stress you already have. I'm sorry I don't have control of myself, I need some time alone. I have my phone on me, so if you really need me I'll answer. I just need some time to think. I'll be home by sunrise tomorrow. I'm sorry about skipping the shower like you had suggested, but…I don't want to make this day away from you any harder, and I'm afraid if we were to…carry out our normal routine we've fallen into, I'd never want to leave. I hope you can understand. But the morning is growing later – if I'm to go I need to be going. Je vais bientôt de retour. Je t'aimerai toujours, celui qui détient mon cœur. Au revoir. - Adeline Jeanette Winters'
He sighed, folded the note back up and rubbed his eyes, already feeling a headache coming on. Had she really just insisted on spending the day by herself? Normally, William would have been okay with that – but given her current track record of the things she would go and do while he wasn't around, the thought or her out by herself sort of scared him – who knew what she was up to?
And then he remembered what Michael had told him the night before he'd rushed in and calmed Adeline down – she was planning to go see the demon girl. Now that William knew what she would be doing, he realized things couldn't continue to carry on like this – Adeline ether needed to be set up with some sort of a mind-numbing anti-psychosis drug, or he needed to convince himself to break their imprint and stay away from her, because even though she'd told him she wouldn't hurt him, he wasn't sure how much he really believed her. Walking downstairs, William was slightly disturbed at how unnaturally quiet the mansion had become.
Wondering why, he realized now that Adeline was out, Sisky and Butcher had gone hunting and wouldn't be back for a few more days, and then- Figures. Sitting on the end of the bannister, tucked between the rails, was another note, this one from Michael.
'I've just got a bad feeling about all this – you know she's going to see the demon, I'd follow her and keep tabs. You're the only one that can get through to her. I'm going off to find Adam and the Butcher, just in case she decides to have a change of heart and go after them. And, I know this sounds bad, but – she took down Mike and Brendon, as good as they were. We can't underestimate her. All I'm saying is be careful.'
And with that, his mind had been made up. William knew there was no point in even trying to pressure her into the drugs – look what she'd done with the valerian. He didn't want to admit the obvious, but perhaps allowing her to run into the demon girl and her friends could fix things once and for all – because even he was sure they would be able to tell her sanity was unraveling as they watched.
He just hoped they would have the heart to kill her, so he wouldn't have to.