As I said in the summary, this is movie-verse. I haven't read the book nor intend to, but I had to write this out. Enjoy!

***

It had been half an hour since Lester watched Andrew be escorted to the car to get a lobotomy and he felt tempted to throw something, anything other than sit in Crawley's fancy office and waiting. He barely noticed when Crawley returned, his dazed eyes staring into the depths of the flames.

"There was nothing you could have done. This was a last ditch effort, we knew…" Lester shook his head. How he wished that were the case. Sculling the remainder of his drink he interrupted.

"… No. We failed him… I failed him." The last part was barely a whisper. God, what had he done?

"What are you saying?" Crawley's voice was soft, soothing, the kind of voice Lester used many times when his patients were talking nonsense. Lester ignored him, his thoughts buzzing in his head, stinging like bees.

Two Years.

Two years since Andrew had come to them, and he had been placed in their care… his care. Damn it.

"If there is something you are not telling me, I implore you to tell me now." Harsher this time and when Lester looked up at his boss now, he knew there were tears in his eyes, yet he could not stop them.

"I-I am starting to think that maybe, maybe he didn't reset after all." A long pause followed this statement.

"My god." The whispered words were more than Lester could handle and he found himself babbling in an attempt to give some justification for his actions.

"I went over and he asked me how I was… I thought he was ok and then he started pulling out all this partner business again… I thought… I thought." Lester's words were a gush as if getting them out as fast as possible would some how lessen the implications of his actions.

"Go on," Crawley's voice was flat as he sat down. Lester felt ill.

"Moments after I signalled to you, he said something. He said that he had been wondering whether it would be better to die as a good man or live as a crazy one. That in itself isn't much, but then to walk away without a word?" Lester took a shuddering breath. "That isn't Teddy. Teddy asks questions. Teddy would have been suspicious, would have wanted to know where he was going and why I wasn't coming. That man wasn't Teddy. He was Andrew." Lester felt his throat clench and he could say no more. He knew what happened to people like… Andrew.

"Yes; that was rather strange," Crawley admitted, absent minded as he took out his pipe. His motions practiced to beyond the point of needing to think about them. "I was right to place him in your care; I doubt anyone else would have noticed that." His face was blank too, as though he had come to some unknown decision.

"… But I failed, I let him go…" Lester stammered, quite unable to believe what he was hearing.

"What do you think he would have done if you drew that to our attention? As you know he is quite intelligent and resourceful when need be. He would have just have sank further back into his Teddy persona and we would have been fooled." Crawley sighed, the pipe dangling lazily from his lips. "I think it might be best for you to take some time off. You have been focused on Andrew consistently for so long that you need it. If you want you can take the ferry out either tomorrow or the day after. Leave me a contact number and I will get back to you if I hear anything about Andrew." Lester nodded mechanically and stood up. "One last thing; I think it would be best if you keep this between us. Telling people won't change anything. I'm sorry. I really hoped that things would have worked out better this time."

"I am too."

***

So what do you think? I was really trying to keep them in character. I suspect I got that quote thing wrong but I couldn't find it and I have only seen the movie once. Last night actually and I thought it was awesome. Anyway thanks for reading.