At 2:30 in the morning, Emily called Tara...

At just before one in the morning, she'd awoken to find Alex's side of the bed empty and cold – clearly, she'd been up for awhile and Emily had a feeling that didn't bode well. She'd been awoken by Lindy screaming bloody murder, which was rather unusual behaviour for the infant who was normally quite even-tempered, in spite of her young age.

Immediately fearing the worst, Emily was up and out of bed, racing to the nursery to find it empty. Her heart was pounding with anxiety and she could feel the adrenaline racing through her veins as she prepared for the worst case scenario, even though she had no idea what said scenario could possibly be...

"Alex!" she called out, moving from room to room in search of her missing wife and daughter. "Alex, what have you..." She stopped just short of outright accusing Alex of doing something horrible and she hated the fact that her mind had even gone there in the first place. She took a deep breath, attempting to calm the panic trying to claw its way out of her chest, then tried again, "Alex, where are you?"

Still, she didn't answer and that did nothing to help Emily's emotional state.

When she eventually did locate her, it was to find Alex tearing the kitchen apart in an obvious search for something. She had Lindy balanced in one arm while she slammed cupboard after cupboard in her search, the sound obviously disturbing Lindy who was already agitated.

"Alex, what are you doing?" Emily asked, attempting to keep her voice level and calm.

Alex whipped around at the sound of her voice, obviously surprised by Emily's presence. "What did you do with them!?" she demanded, voice just a shade off irate.

Holding her hands up in self-defence, Emily said, "I don't know what you're talking about..." Attempting to change the subject, she added, "I think Lindy's hungry, why don't you pass her to me and..." She took a cautious step forward, extending her hands to reach for the baby.

Alex immediately turned to shield Lindy from Emily's reaching hands. "Don't!" she shouted, "She needs me."

Seeing how agitated she was getting, Emily backed up slowly. "Alex, just calm down," she urged. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"You won't believe me," Alex accused. "You never believe me anymore!"

"I want to help you, Alex," Emily insisted, "But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's going on, okay?"

Rather than directly answer that question, though, Alex instead demanded, "Where are all the knives!?"

"The knives?" Emily repeated, feeling fear climb up her throat as all the worst case scenarios rushed to the forefront of her mind.

"You hid them, didn't you?" Alex said scathingly, "You don't trust me, so you hid them like I'm a child!" She pointed an accusing finger at her, took several steps towards her, then seemed to think better of it and once again backed up, shielding Lindy from her.

Emily sighed wearily, doing her best not to show how utterly frustrated and exhausted and absolutely terrified she was just then. "Yes, I hid the knives," she admitted, "But only because I'm worried..." She'd locked up all the knives and the medications and anything else Alex could possibly have used to hurt herself or Lindy in the safe – which she'd had to change the code to as well, just in case Alex thought to look there.

"Fuck you, Emily!" she snapped. "If you really cared about Lindy at all, you'd help me, instead of acting like I'm crazy!"

"No one thinks you're crazy, Alex," Emily insisted for the umpteenth time. "We're just..."

Alex cut her off with an abrupt, "I don't care what your excuse is! This is an emergency, so get me a knife or I'll find one myself!"

Lindy was still screaming bloody murder and Emily could tell that her cries were only spurring Alex on in her frenzied state. "Please, let me soothe her," she pleaded, "Then we can talk about what's going on with you..."

"I'm trying to help her!" Alex maintained, "That's why I need a knife!"

"Why?" Emily pressed. "Give me a valid reason and I'll go get one..."

"Because of the spiders!" she shouted. She was nearly in tears now, though it wasn't quite clear whether they were tears of anger or sadness or something else entirely.

Emily raised a brow, confused but also intrigued. "What spiders?" she asked. This was the first she was hearing of spiders being involved.

Alex quite literally growled. "The spiders in the formula – the ones they're poisoning her with! They're hatching in her stomach and that's why she's crying! Can't you see she's in pain? That's why I need the knife – I have to get them out!"

Emily blinked in stunned silence for a few moments as she struggled to process a lot of information given to her in the span of a few short seconds. "Alex..." she said gently, paused a moment to decide on her next words, her tongue flicking out over her lip. "Spiders can't survive inside the human body. It's just not possible."

Tears welled in Alex's eyes, then, and she stomped her foot, rather like a petulant child. "I'm not crazy!" she insisted, breath coming in choked gasps.

"No one said that," Emily murmured. She took a chance and stepped closer and, to her surprise, Alex didn't shy away. "Why don't you pass Lindy to me and I'll go get the knife?" she said; it was a lie, of course, but it was in everyone's best interest.

Alex stuttered for a moment as she seemed to debate whether or not she could believe Emily. Ultimately, though, she relented and passed the squalling infant to her wife. "Hurry, though..."

Emily smiled (or, rather, grimaced) and nodded. "I'll be right back," she said. As soon as she was out of earshot, she'd pulled her phone from the pocket of her robe and began dialing.

At 2:30 in the morning, Emily called Tara...