"Good morning sleeping beauty."
Turning her head to the sound, Liv opened her eyes to see Tyler sitting in the chair beside her hospital bed. Dr. Kent had sedated her the night before and she was out for the night.
"Hmm, good morning to you too. How long have you been here?"
"Just a couple of hours. I wasn't sure if you would freak out when you woke up to see me sitting here or not. Figured I'd be safe down here at the end just in case you were going to hit me. How'd you sleep?"
"Okay, I guess. Nightmares are still here even with sedation. I hate that. Sedation and sleeping pills can put me out but they still give me nightmares. And makes it worse since I can't wake myself up from it."
"I know. I could hear you mumbling and groaning since I got here. Dr. Kent said not to wake you though. You needed to sleep." Pulling herself up to sit up on the bed as much as she could, her legs dragged up with her. "Still can't feel them?"
She shook her head at his question. "No, I doubt it was just a one night of sleep fix. I have a feeling it will take longer than that."
Knocking on the door, Dr. Kent popped his head in to see her awake. "Good morning, Olivia. How'd you sleep?"
"It went okay. But to answer the real question that you're getting to, yes, I am still interested."
"In what exactly?" Tyler asked, looking between the two of them.
"Dr. Kent says he has a way to overcome my somniphobia. I'd be able to sleep alone again. I do have my hesitations about it since we've tried pretty much everything and nothing has worked. But I am willing to try it and see how it goes."
"That's wonderful to hear," Dr. Kent pulled another chair to the other side of her bed. "Do you remember our conversation yesterday when I told you it would need to get worse before it gets better?"
"That's what I'm concerned about. It's already worse. 43 days without sleep was excessive. I don't ever want to do that again. Especially if it means I'm half paralyzed."
"Not at all. The opposite actually."
Ready to stand, Tyler touched her hand to get her attention. "I'll let you discuss with him."
"Actually, Mr. Finch," Dr. Kent stopped him before he could leave. "Olivia, if you're alright with it, I'd like to have him stay. He would be useful in the process."
"Tyler's not a support system."
"Please, let him stay and I'll explain his role."
Liv looked up at him for any answer but only received a shrug of his shoulders before she nodded, and he sat down again.
"I'm willing to help but like she said, I'm not part of her support team," Tyler told him.
"Which is fine. Though you will serve valuable to this. Before either of you start to object to this, I'd like to explain it in full and give you time to discuss it together."
Both Tyler and Liv looked skeptical at this idea but agreed to do so. "Alright then, let's hear it."
"Olivia, what I would like to do is reform the memory. I want to take away that entire night for you. We would make it seem that Stephen didn't die. Or at least he didn't that night. We would manipulate your mind into believing that you went to bed with him, and he was alive when you woke up. Actually, there's a number of ways we can make your mind believe. That would be a decision for you to make."
Gaging her reaction, Tyler tried to get a view of how she was feeling about this. "Are you saying you could make Liv believe he's still alive if she wanted?"
"In a way, yes, if that's what she wanted."
"No, Stephen has to be dead," she told both with a harsh tone. Grabbing Tyler's hand before she looked at him. "Sorry, I know that's cruel. But I can't go on believing that he's out there and not with me."
"I know, and I wouldn't want you to," Tyler tapped her hand. "How can you make her believe he's gone? Without having her remember his death?"
"This may sound rude, and I don't mean it to be, please don't take it like that. Olivia, what way would you have preferred to remember him to die? Ideally, we would get you to be out of bed with him. No blood, no Edison."
Thinking about it, Liv was not very into what he was asking her. "You want me to play death and choose how he dies? I don't want him dead at all. I don't want to decide. I want him here with me. I know it's not possible and I can't trick my mind into that. Can't one of you decide?"
"That might be better, Dr. Kent. Couldn't she eventually forget that she decided on how Stephen died and remember how he really did?"
"That's possible. It would be more of a surprise."
"Not a good one. But how can you even make me start to reform a memory? Would you need to, I don't know, cut out part of my brain?"
Dr. Kent laughed at the idea. "Not at all. We would medicate you to a hallucination state of mind. That would dull your mind of memories."
"Would I forget everything and everyone I met since then?"
"No, we're only going to target this specific memory. You'll remember everything else. Both before and after that night."
"So, what part are you looking for me to play in this? I'm not understanding," Tyler asked.
"You would be Stephen," Dr. Kent told him. "It actually works out better since you are identical twins. Rather than someone playing the part of him for Olivia and trying to make her mind see this other person as him, you be him."
"Then you would kill Tyler?"
"Not legitimately dead. Think of it as a play. One that seems so real that you can not distinguish reality from make believe. We would trick your mind into thinking Tyler, who is Stephen, has actually died. Just in a different way than his actual death."
Olivia crossed her arms thinking it over. "I'm waiting to hear the catch to all of this. You make it seem simple enough but there's got to be something else. Where is the downside?"
"Yeah, I'm not liking this only good things can come from it, doc. What's the downside?"
"I would have you admitted into the psychiatric hospital for a period of time. We would get you to sleep through the night with the nightmares you have. You agreed yesterday that you are not an emotional person, but we would be bringing up those feelings of grief and loss again. It would be something that you need to face again."
Liv shook her head; she was not looking forward to that part. "How would you even do it? I mean, what is the process? Has this even worked on anyone?"
"It has worked before. With many successes. I've done this before as well. A dozen or more times. I strongly believe this will be beneficial to you, Olivia."
Tyler started to agree with the doctor about the arrangement but could see her apprehension to it. "Explain the process. From the beginning please."
"Of course. We would start, let's just say, tonight. We would get you set up in a private room there. When you're ready to get started, we will sedate you. Give you the night to sleep. That would bring the nightmare of his death to the front of your mind. Which is what we want. I want that memory to be the only thing you think about. Then, after you've had a good time of sleep, I would change from your sedation to hallucination before you were even awake. You would wake up in a confused state with 'Stephen' beside you in bed. The two of you would go about your day like any other, but it would only be half of the day. Go for a walk, play a game, watch tv, anything that you and he would normally have done. Before you would go back to bed, 'Stephen' will have died. You'll see his body as if he were dead. Just not the way he really was."
"And this would cure it? A simple overnight stay."
"No, we would keep you for minimally a week. We would repeat the exact same thing every day in that time. The repetitiveness will replace the memory of what actually happened and reform the memory."
Sensing she still wasn't completely on board with this, Tyler took hold of her hand and gave it a slight squeeze. "I think Liv and I should talk about this a bit more."
"Yes, of course," Dr. Kent stood and put a hand on her shoulder. "I am convinced that this will help you, Olivia. It can give you back the control of your life that you want. I'll be around the hospital today if you should have any questions. Have the nurse page me if you do or you decide."
Without an answer, he walked out of the room leaving them alone. With arms crossed, Liv thought more about it. Would it even work? Could this type of therapy actually give her back the life she had?
"Talk to me, I can see the wheels turning," Tyler interrupted her thoughts.
"Is this something you'd even consider doing? That's a lot to ask of you."
"Stephen and I used to pretend to be each other all the time. It's nothing I haven't done before."
"But you'd be pretending to be dead. That's different than switching to pass a test."
"I know. But this isn't about me, Liv. This is about you and what you need. And you need to be able to sleep. If we have found out anything in the last few weeks, it's that you won't rely on anyone else until push comes to shove. You won't call anyone and tell them where you are so they can come to you and be with you. You won't let me do it. I think Dr. Kent is right. It'll be beneficial to you in the long run. If you have to have a week of nightmares, then that's what you need to do."
"But I'll be drugged for a week. By the end of it, I won't know which way is up and which way is down."
"He's manipulating a memory, not your whole brain, Liv. I'll be here with you the whole time."
Touching her legs, she ached to get out of bed. "He said my brain disconnected from my feet and that's why I can't feel my legs. Sleeping will restart my brain and let it come back. I'd gain function in my legs again." She sighed and leaned her head back looking at the ceiling. "I don't want the others to know. No one, especially Jerry. If this doesn't work, I don't want him to take over and try to find another solution. I'm willing to give this a shot but I don't make any guarantees that it will work. No one can guarantee this. We all know I'm damaged and let's just keep it that way, as far as the others will know."
"You're not damaged, Liv. I hate hearing you say that. You have had some issues but you're dealing with them."
"If I do this, you have to swear that you won't tell them. Don't breathe a word about this to anyone. Cyrus and Michael will hover and tell me this is an insane tactic. Verna will demand to know the exact steps and wonder why she didn't think of this before. Jerry will take over as my medical proxy and tell them to stop. Huck will come here and start kicking someone's ass for even putting me under sedation."
"And the other?"
"Who?"
"Fitz."
"He doesn't give a damn about me. Promise that this will be out secret."
"I don't think it's right to hide help from your friends, but I get it. Fine, I promise not to tell them."
"Thank you, now let's have them page Dr. Kent and get this started."
