4.

Four weeks into his stay at a certain institute, Jerry Grady was and is most definitely not the man he was not all so long prior. He no longer is the husband or father he had been; he is no longer the upbeat person he has strived for so long to be, thing is, was he ever the father and husband he was sure he had been? Was he ever that upbeat person he had reached to be or were those efforts of his nothing more than a façade or a front that had been hiding his true self from the self he really believed himself to be?

Even within the word BELIEVE there sits the word LIE ... live the lie and believe it.

With these four weeks and the time since his arrest having come to pass, Jerry no longer states over and over that they are not dead. The fact is that his wife is dead though his daughter is not and there is no way at this point that he, or most anyone else, could be sure that Maxene really is alive.

There is rehab ahead and plenty of it and there is therapy. If Jerry has lost his mind, then an attempt to bring it back will be made. Yeah, authorities never found Maxene so if Jerry knows where the child is then answers will be wanted. If he had hidden her somewhere and locked her away, then there is no way she has survived the weeks all the way up to this point so finding her locked away alive somewhere is not a hope or consideration.

If little Maxene Grady is laying lifeless somewhere then all authorities can hope for is that she can be found and be found soon in a condition not being cause of further distress that what the distress of finding a child in death would bring and the sooner she could be found the sooner she could be laid to rest.

Of course, there is the hope that the child is alive and well somewhere out there in the world. If it could be known where she actually is then would or could hopes change? This is what Tanya Ferguson hopes, had hoped, and no one other than Tanya herself knows where or had known where Maxene had been during the nearly five years following the death of Eve Grady. Well ... no one knew other than Darkness himself.

A priority, however, and not an immediate one given the passing of those first few weeks, is to get Jerry to open up. It is considered possible that he does not know where his daughter is though as it is there is currently no one who can be willing and able to declare such a thing. In many ways Jerry could be thought of as being unreliable, even to himself.

Yeah, just four weeks into a lengthy institutional stay, Jerry is brought into the office of a Doctor Brice Owens and Jerry has been brought in by two rather tough looking orderlies. Jerry is seated one side of the doctor's office table and the orderlies both take one step back each. They will remain standing either side of and right behind Jerry for the duration of a session with Doctor Owens, as after all it is the belief that the brutal murder of his wife has occurred at his hands such is why Jerry is here in this facility, so the safety of facility staff members is a priority.

Under doctor's orders, Jerry is not restrained. There are and will not be any handcuffs or anything else of the likes as ever since his arrest Jerry has not shown any signs of aggression. Still the orderlies will do their duty if and when needed.

There is another man in the room, having been asked to attend so that the doctor can seek counsel, another perspective, a second opinion so to speak. This other man is a councilor by the name Andrew Hardeman who at this moment in time is seven years away from meeting a little lady by the name Lexi Hansen. Andrew sits on a wooden chair out of the way, and he remains quiet for the duration of the doctor patient visitation.

'Now ...' speaks the doctor having entered the room and being the last person within the room to do so. He moves to sit in the chair on the far side of his desk when all who are present were sure that Jerry is calm and relaxed. 'The purpose of a visit here right now is for us to have a little chat; I hope this is fine with you Mister Grady.'

Hoping for a chat might be a little optimistic for Jerry Grady is as close to catatonic as one can be without actually being catatonic. He, of course, is at a loss to explain what happened to his wife and is still struggling with the fact that anything happened at all. With that however, something seems to have been sparked in this present moment. It is as if Jerry is fully aware of where he is and of what is happening where before this moment this did not seem like such at all.

'My name is Brice Owens and I have been a doctor here at this facility for fifteen years now ...'

The doctor stands to offer his hand to Jerry. If and wherever possible he likes to treat his patients like real people. Jerry looks to the doctor for the first time since the Doc came into the room and smiles. Bit of a Jack in the box this one; have just sat down only to stand back up. Is he really offering his hand too? Jerry begins to move slowly to accept the handshake, half questioning it and half grateful for it.

The orderlies were about to intervene in Jerry's movement though with a look to those orderlies the doctor saw to it that Jerry got his moment of humanity.

'Now, what I'd like to do right here right now is to try something, if you don't mind. I have some ink blot cards I would like to show you. We'll go through some of them one at a time. It'll be like a word association with these inky images. When I show you an image you tell me what you see or what you might perceive to see or might be reminded of. Simple as that, does this sound alright to you?'

'Yeah, sure ...' Jerry says indeed appearing to come more and more away from an unresponsive condition.

'Okay, so let's begin ...'

The first card is shown just as Jerry feels as if he ready for something which could be somewhat lighthearted. The glimmer of normalcy vanishes almost right away for instead of offering an instant hopeful and possible fun answer, Jerry is taken aback. His eyes open a little wider and he begins to fidget in his seat. A few seconds pass, Jerry tries to answer but no words come out, just the odd sound or beginning of a word. His eyes open wider, and he searches for signs that he is being set up. For some reason he has been disturbed by that first image.

'Alright' the Doctor says, 'let's try another one ...'

This one should have somewhat of a lesser effect ... but it doesn't. Jerry becomes just as uneasy or perhaps even more so with this second card as he did with the first card.

'T-t-t- th ... tha ...'

Jerry has never stuttered in his life before now. There is something in the images he sees that are very unsettling.

'It's okay Jerry, we can relax here and take it easy. Nothing can harm you here. This is just a simple exercise ...'

A third card is shown and even though no more cards are to be shown after this one due to the circumstances, Jerry feels as if he is being shown one after another after another, he feels he is being purposely bombarded with scenes of horror, scenes relating to him, scenes relating to his dead wife.

'N-no ... please ... s-s-stop ... so much blood ... stop.'

In his mind, Jerry can't help but see blood, he can't help but see his wife's lifeless body. No, he doesn't want to see this again, he doesn't want to go back there again. His wife ... so much blood ... the doctor calls an end to the session and tells the orderlies he wants a sedative administered.

Soon Jerry is resting and is being watched by Doctor Owens who considers for a moment as to where he can take things from here. Councilor Andrew Hardeman is also at a loss with offering an opinion. For a first time, Jerry, while alone in his quarters, is willing to concede the fact that his wife is dead. Eve is dead, Jerrycan grieve now to some degree at least.