JR knew what Marissa was asking when she told him to look at the picture of his son, but he couldn't stop the bile that rose in his stomach. He didn't want to see his son's smile, he didn't want to believe it was possible for his son to be so happy without him… he had been fostering this resentment for so long he wasn't ready to let go so readily.

So instead of obeying her JR looked up with a glower at the vision of his ex-wife.

"Why am I playing this game? You're not real! What are you going to show me next? You've done the past and the present… I suppose in true Scrooge style you're going to show me my future where I'm dead and everyone hates me!"

"No." said Marissa bluntly, crossing her arms across her chest. "This isn't about you! This is about AJ's future! Do you want to know what that looks like?"

Marissa handed JR a mirror.

JR looked down at his own reflection. He snorted; that was a cliché waiting to happen! But then he hesitated there was a shadow behind the face he could see in the glass, darkness in the eyes he didn't quite recognise as his own. It wasn't his face he was seeing but the shadow from his nightmares that wore his features like a mask… Terrifying, hateful, violent, uncontrollable and unrelenting; projecting so much hate, whispering such convincing lies…

JR slammed the mirror face down on the bed.

"That's not me!" said JR vehemently.

"But it's a part of you." said Marissa leaning closer. "And if you keep on this path you will make it a part of AJ too. You know yourself the strangle-hold hatred has on you. Is that what you want for your son?"

"No. Never." muttered JR quietly, still shaken by the amount of fear that engulfed him at the sight of that nightmare staring back at him from a mirror; staring back at him with his own eyes.

Phantom Marissa reached out and once more JR could feel the warmth from her hand as she placed it over his.

"You weren't always a monster JR." she said softly. "You used to be a good man. You could still be again."

JR looked up into her understanding eyes and didn't know how to respond.

"It's too late!" said JR. "I'm Adam's son!"

"That's an excuse." said Marissa leaning closer, her grip tightening on his hand. "You grew up with two dads, Tad and Adam, one who wanted to possess you, keep you and control you and the other who let you go because you asked him too, but he was always there when you needed him. Right now, which of those two men do you respect the most? Which one are you prouder to call father? Which one of those men taught you the most about love?" Marissa was staring determinedly at JR. "More importantly, which one of those two fathers do you think AJ most needs you to be?"

Marissa was now so close her voice was almost a whisper as her lips brushed against his ear.

"One last thing JR… everything I told you, everything I said… you already know! After all I'm just a figment of your imagination. The question is what are you going to do about it?"

JR sat up sharply at her whispered words and his hallucination evaporated as realisation set in. She was right, every word that came from Marissa's mouth came from his own thoughts!

He looked down to see his hand not clutching a nightmare-filled mirror, but scrunching up the magazine cutting that he'd laid out in the bed. JR unclenched his fist and smoothed out the paper. It was an image of AJ and everyone standing in front of a staircase.

For the first time, after looking at that same image a hundred times before, JR truly saw the happiness in his son's eyes.

Marissa was right, he had to do something! He couldn't go on like this!

But he was scared… and a Chandler should never fear anything!

Even as JR tried to dismiss his revelation Marissa's disembodied voice came back to him…

"You're right JR, a Chandler should never have to fear anything …Especially not his father!"

…