At Ellie's apartment, they met , Ellie's mother, supervising CSU in going over her place. Eames quickly intercepted her so her partner could start his unusual investigation techniques. "Ellie was starting her own therapy practice," the older woman began. "She worked as a social worker for 20 years, but finally got her master's and license to practice therapy. It was her dream. Who would do this to her?" " , I'm going to have you go with an officer to make a statement." Ellie's mother nodded.

Eames joined Goren in the bedroom where he was spinning around in circles. "You're making me dizzy," she said, "What's up?" "Ellie had her meds in a weekly med pack, kept the bottles neatly in a drawer in her dresser. She had a mood tracker on her bulletin board, a sleep tracker next to her bed, Bible verses taped to her wall. Everything in this apartment is neat, not spotless, but organized." "Not the marks of someone in the throes of a bipolar episode", Eames stated. Goren shook his head. "Here, she even had her mother as a cosigner on her bank accounts and credit cards. To keep from spending too much. Her mother…she would have had the authority to cut Ellie off." Goren rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "She has this disease but it's not beating her," he said, with a tone of admiration. "She's not letting it defeat her." "Well, someone defeated her and we need to know why. Maybe this bipolar connection is the key", Eames said. "Come on, let's have them bag all this stuff". Goren was deep in thought and she had to touch his elbow lightly to bring him out of his reverie. "Hey", she said gently, "Let's go." "Yeah. I just…" "I know. I'm frustrated too. Let's get back, lay this all out in the conference room and put the pieces together, ok? I'll get all their computers too." Goren nodded. She could always bring him back from the brink. He knew he would spiral without her there. He'd done it when she was on maternity leave, and again when she was kidnapped. He loved and hated that he was so dependent on her for his own sanity. And yet…all he kept doing was hurting her. He shut her out of anything personal that was going on with him, making her guess and making her angry.

He thought the last straw was going undercover to get his badge back without telling her. She'd been so upset, and the hurt in her eyes was almost his undoing. He tried to find ways to apologize, but the words felt flat, so he never said anything, and it was just one more thing growing a chasm between them. Now, they were finding their footing again. And she was slipping right back into the role of keeping him from falling off the edge.

Bobby remained silent on the way back to 1PP and she assumed he was deep in thought about the case. This was a tough one. It was taking too long for either of their liking. And, it seemed to involve mental illness, which was a hot button for Goren. But really, what wasn't a hot button for him these days. He had shut her out of his life, even though she thought they were making some progress before her kidnapping. She was angry at him for doing it. She had proved time and again that she cared about him, was loyal to him, was his friend, and still he treated her like an outsider, someone that was going to hurt him. She kept coming back, even though he hurt her. Didn't that mean anything to him? She reminded herself of her sister's words, 'you can't wait forever' but pushed them to the back of her mind, and started to train her thoughts on the task at hand.

They made it back to the squad room and Bobby set up in the conference room while Eames went to get the women's computers from TARU. By the time she got back, papers were tacked to the bulletin board and scattered on the table.

"Look at this", he said, without preamble. "All the women, except Ellie, made large cash withdrawals two days before they were killed. They were paying someone for something that cost just under the $10,000 mark." "Well I can see why Ellie didn't. Business wasn't good. She was using her savings for her new practice. There's no way she had $10,000 to give anyone." "But he killed her anyway. Why?" "Because she couldn't pay up?" "No. No that's not it. The other women paid and he killed them. She didn't and he killed her." Eames sighed in frustration. This was getting them nowhere. "What if Ellie was just a copycat? No connection to the other three murders?", she asked. "But…the lithium…the bipolar disorder…it's connected." Eames nodded.

Eames opened Ellie's computer and started going through her search history. "The Depression and Bipolar Alliance, National Association on Mental Illness, an Amazon purchase of The Bipolar Survival Guide. She was really trying to educate herself. Maybe this was a recent diagnosis?", Eames asked. Goren nodded. "Bipolar…it can look like a lot of things. Depression, anxiety, ADHD. Sometimes people aren't diagnosed properly. I saw…I saw some sweatpants and sweatshirts in Ellie's apartment. Ones without the strings. Usually they do that…when someone is hospitalized. So they don't…", he said, haltingly. "Right." Eames looked through a folder containing Ellie's paperwork. "Here we go. She filed a claim with her insurance company that she had when she was employed as a social worker. It was for a hospitalization. Doesn't say what kind." Goren nodded. "That could have been it. She was hospitalized…diagnosed…came out, started throwing herself into recovery. Maybe she joined an online support group too?" Eames fingers flew across the keyboard. "Bingo. Bipolar R Us," she said triumphantly. She set about opening the other women's computers to see if they were part of the same group. "Matches up. All members of this group. Oh wow. It advocates not taking medication for bipolar disorder. Its statement is 'we were born this way, we shouldn't let big pharma and the so-called professionals bring us down or up, we can do it ourselves'". "The other three women appear to agree. Ellie is the one dissenting voice. She talks about her hospitalization, barely graduating because of her depression, draining her bank account on spending sprees, getting an STD from a one night stand. The moderators were all over her", Goren observed. "She even got a threat from someone called ProudBP." "Well let's find him and see how proud he's going to be in interrogation."