AN: Hey All! So depending on whether or not I can focus on my writing for the next little bit, I may post another chapter early for you guys. For now this is an early Christmas gift XD Enjoy guys and Cheers!

She took a deep breath before walking into the building. She hated going to these therapy sessions, but they were mandated and if she wanted to get back to a somewhat normal life, she had to be medically cleared to do it. Something about making sure she was emotionally and mentally stable enough to return to work. Apparently near death experiences were traumatic and because she wasn't showing any signs of it being such, her therapist was worried she wasn't being open. So there was no end in sight.

It was hard enough to try to keep from talking about Hell and her time at the hotel. She'd once brought up Alastor by mistake, a slip of the tongue and it was very hard to find a lie to explain who he was. An old college friend that she kept in touch with, they got along well, but it never went more than that. It was hard to lie about all of it, but she had to, she had no choice. There was no way she could tell her therapist what had actually happened. She'd be shipped off to a mental hospital, never to mingle with society again. So here she was waiting to have another session about learning how to cope with a trauma she didn't have.

She greeted the receptionist and was promptly waved down the hall toward the room where she normally met Abby, her therapist. She was just about to knock when a voice made her jump.

"So this is where you've been sneaking off to every week. And here I thought we were past secrets."

She turned to find Alastor standing a few feet behind her. It still felt a bit weird not hearing the staticky radio voice.

"No. What? You shouldn't be here, I -how did find out..just…no, Alastor."

Before he could respond or she had time to think, the door behind her opened and a young woman with a blonde pixie cut in black leggings and a loose fitting blazer stood there.

Ellen turned quickly, throwing a fake smile on her face. "Hey Abby, I was just about to knock. Ready for me?"

Abby nodded but turned to look at Alastor, her head tilted to the side thinking.

"Is this a friend of yours?"

There was a moment's hesitation but she slowly nodded hoping to buy herself more time to put a story together.

To her dismay, Alastor jumped right in inducing himself.

"Pleasure to be meeting you miss, I am Alastor."

"Oh?" Abby turned to Ellen and Ellen already knew what was going to be asked next. She answered it before her therapist could ask.

"Yes, that Alastor."

"Well." She turned back to him with a hand out. "It's nice to meet you, Alastor. I've heard good things. My name is Abby."

Alastor discreetly caught Ellen's eye, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

Her stomach started to twist uncomfortably, this was not going to end well she could already tell.

"Ellen, are you ready for our session?"

She nodded, giving Alastor one more look before turning to head into the room.

Alastor moved to follow but was stopped by Abby.

"I'm sorry Alastor, I can not let you in. This is a private, safe and comfortable place for Ellen to be able to talk without having to worry about judgment or criticism and to open up and be vulnerable. I'm sure you understand."

Ellen knew he definitely did not fully understand, but being turned away at the door didn't mean he wasn't still going to slip in. He would be a distraction if he was going to be shifting in shadows throughout her session. She inwardly groaned. This was why she had been trying to keep it secret. Better to have him sit in where she could hopefully keep him silent than in the shadows watching.

"Maybe today we could have Alastor sit in. I'm comfortable with him and he's probably the only one that really knows what I'm going through."

Abby turned to look at her, no doubt trying to see if there was something behind her words being a motivator for the change of plans. Lucky enough, it wasn't a lie, probably the only reason she conceded.

"If you are comfortable with that then I suppose I don't see the harm of having him sit in for a session."

Alastor waved Abby in and he followed closing the door behind him.

Abby took a seat in her chair, getting comfortable and pulling out her little notebook flipping a few pages to get to the one she wanted.

She smiled at Alastor gesturing for him to take a seat on one of the chairs and he did, though he was taking in the room, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the posters on the walls talking about healing and self-love.

"Please make yourselves comfortable."

Alastor looked over to her and Ellen discreetly shook her head. Not THAT comfortable. He took every opportunity he could get to return to his normal sinner form. Not that she could blame him, she had been fortunate enough to wander hell as herself, but here he couldn't do that. But there was a time and place for that and this was neither. He wasn't too happy about it but he said nothing.

"So last week we talked about triggers and ways to deal with intrusive thoughts. One option being to reach out to people you trust; friends, family, colleagues."

Ellen nodded along trying to keep her focus on Abby, while her mind kept drifting to the other person in the room. Hoping he would do what he normally did, sit and observe.

"Now as a little homework assignment I asked you to make a list of all the different people that you feel safe reaching out to, including ways to contact them so if you ever needed you had a list compiled already. Did you bring it with you?"

"I did." Ellen reached into her pocket pulling out a small folded up piece of paper. She handed it to her therapist who took a quick look over it.

"I see you've also added the type of relationship with each person."

"And it's in order of preference," she added proudly. There were no extra marks in therapy, but that didn't stop her from going above and beyond.

She watched Abby's eyes dart over to Alastor for a second before moving to hand the paper back to her.

"I noticed Alastor was the first name on the list but you failed to put down a means of contact or relationship."

"That's correct."

Ellen hoped she wouldn't be asked to explain further because she didn't have an answer.

There was a bit of hesitation, clearly Abby was hoping she would elaborate but when the silence dragged on, she pushed forward.

"Ookay. Well I'm glad you've found comfort in confiding with your friend here." She gestured to Alastor with a warm smile.

"Husband," he corrected.

Ellen's stomach knotted, her eyes darting to him hoping to express her need for his silence. He didn't get the message, instead pressing on a bit curious.

"I don't see why you're trying to lie my dear, you are terrible at it. Is this not supposed to be-" he pointed to one of the posters on the wall reading off it "- a safe place to be honest and open."

If looks could kill…

Abby turned to Ellen, curious about the recent accusation. "Ellen?"

Her face blossomed red, mouth opening and closing like a fish trying to figure out what to say now being put on the spot.

"I- uh- well we're not really- I mean we were- it's umm." How was she getting herself out of this now?

"Have you told this woman nothing? Is that not the point of this nonsense?"

She gave him a disapproving look, her voice lowing, though the room was small enough it didn't matter, Abby would likely hear her anyway. "You know very well that I can't go into detail. You've already given me a hassle about telling Julie and she doesn't determine if I can be allowed back into society."

Abby cleared her throat, still glancing between the two. "You're uhh-"

Abby's gaze turned to Ellen's hand to find no ring on her finger. Though Alastor did have one. It seemed there was a lot more to unpack here then she had originally thought. Perhaps she should not have invited this man into the session. He did seem to cause Ellen to open up more though so maybe it wasn't all bad.

"-friend is correct, I can not help you if you aren't going to be fully honest with me. I know it can be scary opening up and feeling vulnerable, but I am here to help. Near death experiences are different for everyone and there is nothing wrong with needing time to-"

"Is that what they're calling it," Alastor interpreted. "Your time in Hell was a near death experience? You were not near death on this plane."

Before Ellen could respond Abby jumped with more questions of her own. "Hell? You believe you went to hell? Why do you feel that's where you would go?"

"Oh there's no question, she was indeed there."

"Alastor!" Ellen hissed, giving him a hard glare.

"Why are you hiding all this?"

Abby's look turned to one of concern. "Do you think you actually went to Hell?"

"Well of course she did, it's where we met, and walked the middle aisle. Quite the adventure."

"ENOUGH!"

Ellen turned to Alastor glaring at him angrily. "I can't be honest about it at all or I'd be written off as insane. I need to be cleared as mentally sound in order to get back to work and get my life back together."

This was the most Ellen had opened up in months aside from the one session they had about her friend Alastor or…husband? That was the most vulnerable she had seen her. There was clearly a lot to unpack here, but with the quick notes she was taking they could address some of these points later.

There was a few moments of silence before he turned to look at Abby who had leaned back to simply watch.

"She won't take your word?"

"No one here will, because as all of Hell has clarified, a mortal has never been down there. If you hadn't seen me for yourself would you have believed it?"

Alastor leaned back. "Hmm. I suppose not."

"So why the hell would anyone here believe it?"

"So you truly believe you went to hell and met this man there?" Abby started scribbling in her notebook quickly.

Ellen's eyes were glued to Abby's pen moving quickly across her notebook. "No, I don't 'believe' I was there."

There was a few minutes of silence, Abby busy writing notes. Alastor gave Ellen a knowing look. She just glared in return. It was going to be a nightmare trying to explain this out in the next however many sessions. She was so sure she had almost convinced Abby she was fine, and now she was stuck with this mess.

Ellen let out a defeated breath. "I was in hell. I met Alastor there."

Abby's eyes shot up, her pen finally coming to a stop. "If that's the case, it seems this is far worse than I feared. I'll be reaching out to some colleagues of mine to discuss some more options for treatments, maybe some medications that may help with the physcosis." The pen continued its scribbling.

Ellen threw her hands up in defeat. "Perfect! I'm going to spend the rest of my life locked in a padded room."

This couldn't have gone worse if she tried. She didn't know when during the discussion she pushed to her feet but she fell back into her chair head in her hands. Any semblance of a normal life had just been chucked out the window.

"It does not appear that you are a danger to yourself or anyone else. You would not be sent to a psychiatric hospital." Abby didn't bother looking up from her writing.

"Would now be a good opportunity to get comfortable?"

Ellen lifted her head to look at Alastor, not having the energy or care to fight it. Couldn't really get any worse. "No harm comes to her."

Abby's head shot up. "I'm sorry what?"

"I suppose I should have known, but very well," he sighed.

Abby's eyes widened in horror as the man called Alastor shifted into something inhuman. In his stead was a creature dressed in a red pinstripe suit, the coat looking a bit tattered. She couldn't tell how tall this creature was, but the chair it sat in now looked remarkably small for it. It had red hair cut into a bob, the tips black and two weird tuffs on its head. The most horrifying part was its face. The menacing sharp yellow toothed smile stretched across its face. The red eyes glaring at her had her pressed back into the chair, feet tucked up becoming as small as possible.

Ellen ignored the loss of colour in Abby's face, having now completely given up with the facade.

She lamely waved in his direction not bothering to hide the dull tone in her voice. "Abby, this is Alastor, or his normal demon form I suppose. The devil himself wed us in Hell, which was where I was the whole time I was out. I do not have any underlying fear of death, I'm actually kinda friends with the guy. I'm only here because the hospital says I have to be." She turned to Alastor with a look of annoyance on her face. "I was hoping to keep this to myself because I knew this wasn't going to end well, but here we are, no more lies. This does fall under doctor patient confidentiality right?"

Abby was trembling, unsure of what to do. She had to be dreaming, this wasn't real. She shrunk deeper into her seat as it stood, now towering over her. Ellen said it was a demon? Demons didn't exist, though looking at this horrid creature, she was having a hard time convincing herself of that.

"I'll have to take that book, I'm afraid. Can't have these wild fabrications getting into someone else's hands now can we?"

Abby hugged the notebook tighter to herself, eyes finding the sharp claws. She swallowed nervously. "This- this isn't real."

Alastor chuckled, snapping his fingers causing the notebook to appear in his hands, where he immediately started reading. Abby looked down, shocked to find it gone but didn't move to grab it back.

"Ellen my dear, it seems you were correct, she does not believe you about this at all. She mentioned something about delusions here." He shrugged before it was engulfed in green flames. "It matters not."

That notebook had notes on all of her patients, almost two years of work gone in a blink but there was no way she was going to call out the tall figure in the room, even if she wanted to, her throat had gone dry making it hard to speak. She didn't think it could get fixed being burned away anyway.

He leaned down so his face was a little closer. She responded by turning her face away from him, her voice whimpering. It only caused his grin to pull wider.

"Now, we will be leaving and I-"

"-actually I still have another thirty-five minutes of the session."

Alastor turned to look at her and Ellen simply shrugged. "The receptionist is going to ask questions if I'm leaving early."

"It's - it's fine I'll - I'll tell her something came up," Abby managed to stammer out.

Alastor slowly turned back to the therapist, his tone mocking politeness. "No, no. We shall stay for the session." He moved to sit back in the spot he had evicted earlier but quickly realized it was not going to be comfortable. He waved himself a seat before turning to the terrified woman across from him.

"Tea? Coffee?"

She just stared wide eyed and silent.

He turned to Ellen.

"I'm okay, but I could go for something small to munch on."

She smiled at the small plate of beignets that appeared in her lap. She happily grabbed one and started nibbling at it.

Alastor cleared his throat giving her a disapproving look, his eyes pointing to Abby.

Ellen's eyes lit up realizing what he was reprimanding her for. It was impolite not to offer some to their guest first. Not that Abby was a guest per say, but she wasn't going to argue. She shoved the rest of the beignet she had started into her mouth before standing and offering the plate to Abby with a muffled noise.

"Mmphr?"

She hesitantly reached out with a shaky hand, taking one. Alastor snapped her her own plate, but she seemed unfazed, her gaze stuck staring at the creature in the room.

"It's rude to stare my dear."

Her eyes widened before they moved to the plate and she started to nibble on the dessert.

Ellen turned to Alastor, no longer worried about Abby. It was likely she would sit there quietly hoping to be forgotten about and she was happy to oblige.

Ellen grabbed another dessert giving Alastor a sharp look. "You know you have to stop telling people you're my husband."

He took a small sip of his coffee looking almost amused at her look. He crossed his leg and leaned back, getting comfortable. "As I recall, you promised me eternity. You are a woman of your word, yes?"

"I did, and I am-" she started, shifting in her seat to face him better. "-but it was til death do us part."

"You are not dead."

"Not exactly, but that contract no longer exists so clearly something happened to void it."

There was a moment of silence as he thought, taking another small sip of coffee, eyes moving back around the room at a leisurely pace.

"It would be a simple fix, we simply do it again."

He had said it so casually it took Ellen a few blinks to fully comprehend what he had stated.

"Again?"

Ellen felt a little flutter in her chest. It wasn't that easy. Of course she liked the idea but things were much more complicated now. She wasn't dead, he was. She wasn't sure she'd make it to Hell and even if she did it would likely take years.

"Do you not wish to be wed?"

Ellen straightened up, shocked at the question. "What? No of course I do I just-" She let out a sigh. "Alastor, you know things are a bit complicated right now. This isn't that simple."

"It shouldn't be all that complicated," Abby interjected.

"Thank you Abby." Alastor gave her a small nod. Ellen just glared.

"I'm sorry, were you not the one just calling me crazy for thinking I was in Hell?"

She held her hands up in surrender. "You are in a therapist's office. I also happen to specialize in couples therapy."

"Yeah well don't," Ellen sneered. It didn't seem to bug Abby at all as she continued with her analysis.

"You were both wed before, yes? And by the sound of it, it wasn't a consensual end so what's stopping you remedying the issue?"

Ellen looked between the other two, mouth hung open dumbfounded. Did she really need to explain why? The two looked at her expectantly and she scoffed in disbelief that she had to actually explain herself.

"The problem is it can't be any more than what it was. I'm here now, and he belongs in Hell. I don't know if I'll ever see him again and I-I can't do that."

"So it's a long distance thing? I have worked with many couples that have-"

Ellen shook her head. "No! It's-ugh. As much as I want to, as much as I want to stay married, stay bound to Alastor, it wont work, can't work. I'm going to live for another, what sixty years? And then what? I go to heaven and we're bound but not together? And then there's our son. What do you plan on telling him, hmm? 'Hey kiddo, your mom's alive but you'll never see her, never know who she was, never meet her.' No. It just…it can't be done. I want to, I really do, but let's be realistic here."

Abby flipped between the two. "There's a kid?"

The other two seemed to have forgotten the audience now only addressing each other.

Alastor turned away, putting his cup down beside him, steepling his hands. "Do I not get a say in the matter?"

Ellen's shoulder fell. "Well yeah of course but-"

"Good." His hands moved to be placed neatly on his knee. "As I mentioned when the idea of marriage was first broached, I have…I had no intention of being wed, it wouldn't affect my life in Hell. I will continue to be honest and straight with you." He finally caught her eye. "I am entirely capable of returning to the way things were before your arrival in Hell. But as I'm sure you are very aware of, it has taken a while to come to terms that I care a great deal about you. That I-" His eyes darted over to the therapist with a glare before returning to her to continue with a slight pause. "-love you."

She turned away, chest squeezing at the affirmation, unable to look at him, afraid that if she did she would be lost to her emotions. "Alastor…"

"I have found that while it wasn't ideal at the time, I did enjoy having you bound to me in a way that surpassed normal earthly marriage. If it takes sixty years to see you again, I'm certain I can manage. It's negligible to eternity, which I'll remind you, is what we originally agreed to."

A small smile slipped onto Ellen's face. "You liked the idea that I was yours through and through. Heart and soul. It ensured I could never leave."

"Perhaps."

She shook her head moving past that point to the one she thought was more detrimental. She didn't mind being under contract, it benefited her well, and in a way it was his way of showing her that he did have every intent on keeping her as his and keeping her safe. Back on earth though it was different and that was the point she needed him to comprehend.

She forced herself to meet his gaze, her eyes begging for him to understand. "What do I tell people for the next sixty or so years when they see a wedding band on my finger?"

"That you are married," he replied simply.

"What about my parents?! They're going to ask questions, demand to know who I've wed to and why they've never seen you."

"Tell them the truth. You can't exactly lie, my dear."

She gave him a disapproving look. "I can't tell my parents that I married a demon from Hell, Alastor. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?"

"You shouldn't concern yourself with what others think, you do what you need to live a full, happy and fulfilling life."

Ellen glared at the therapist. "That's rich coming from you. You practically pissed yourself at the sight of him." Her thumb jutted towards Alastor.

"I-um…" Abby's eyes moved back to the floor.

There was a moment of silence and one look at Alastor made Ellen turn away again feeling guilty. It was obvious he wanted things to go back to how they were, but she wasn't in Hell anymore; it wasn't that simple.

"Did you not say that your father would have approved the union? That your family would have accepted me?"

Ellen could hear the nervous inflection in his tone, only barely audible through the calm and practiced demeanor. Her head fell into her hands rubbing down her face in hopes of keeping tears from slipping. She did say that while under the truth wine. It wasn't a lie. She knew for sure he would be the 'perfect' man for her in her parents' eyes, as long as he kept the murderous tendencies under wraps. He had put a lot of thought into this and it only made it harder for her to reject the idea. She took a few steading breaths before turning back to him.

"Of course Alastor I-look I-" She sighed. "If we did go through all the work of planning a wedding, however big or small it may be, I'd want Xander there and that's the easy part. You need a birth certificate, which I think if they went looking, they'd find your death certificate too. There's all the legal stuff and paperwork too. It just- It's complicated here."

"Then we do as we did before. We can get Miss Charlotte to do it."

"And what, just open up a portal from Hell to have her and the rest of our friends here with my family for a wedding?" She shook her head, her mind already filling in all the terrible outcomes that could arise. Did everyone in hell have a human look? It could be possible- she shook her thoughts pushing on. "No, right now we need to focus on Xander okay? We can-we can discuss this after."

Abby cleared her throat, looking nervous having to interrupt. "Umm so that would conclude our time here for this session."

Alastor stood quickly, waving his chair and the plates away. "Come my dear, I believe Miss Abby will sign off on whatever she needs to to clear you from whatever this is."

"Well no actually see I still need to see Ellen-"

Alastor shifted back to his human form, opening the door and waving Ellen through.

Feeling a bit sorry for her therapist, Ellen turned back to her. "I'll let the receptionist know I'll be off for a few weeks. Vacation out of the country or something. I think we both need some time to sit with this last session."

Abby just nodded. "Sure, right, yeah, okay."

Before the door clicked shut Abby could just make out Ellen scolding Alastor.

"You can't scare her into forging paperwork. She could lose her license for that, you know."

"If she can't accept things that are right in front of her, I'd say good riddance. I never cared much for shrinks anyway."

Abby stared at the door speechless. It was clear this…Alastor was not a threat to her so how could she make an argument about Ellen being in danger? Could she break doctor patient confidentiality? As much as she wanted to, she didn't think anyone would believe her. Ellen was right, it was probably best she take a few weeks off, this was a lot to take in and hopefully the rest of the sessions moving forward would be just her. She didn't think she would be able to turn the demon away if he showed up again.

She looked down to find the other half of her dessert sitting on her lap. Whatever that thing, that demon was; it made good beignets. She popped the other half in her mouth letting the sweet treat help calm her thoughts.