Yet Alexis hadn't left her alone…Alexis not mother, never mother…that had been a momentary slip. A telling slip according to her shrink…not that Fallon listened to a thing that old man said.

God that man was almost as annoying as that woman who had once called herself her mother. It was almost as though Alexis had gone out of her way to find the most annoying man possible. He had to be at least a hundred years old. His head was tiny like a wizened walnut and the only place he had any hair was sprouting out of his nose. It was typical that M….Alexis had managed to find the only old ugly Italian to be her psychiatrist.

Yet despite his age and the glasses he wore perched on the end of his nose Fallon knew there was little that escaped those dark little eyes. During their daily sessions Fallon felt as though her very soul was being stripped bare and examined. Even if she sat there and refused to speak, which happened more often than not, Fallon still felt as though her many secrets were being exposed.

Still she had taken it all in her stride…the stares…the attempts to get her talk…the endless questioning until…

Until he mentioned the baby…

God knows how anyone had found out about that. It was supposed to have been confidential. That Fallon was certain Peter had insisted on and weren't the Swiss bound by all that confidentially bullshit?

At first she had been too shocked to react, her feelings bubbling up. Her guilt. Her shame. Her…relief…

"Tell me Fallon was the abortion your idea or was it Mr De'Vilbus's?"

Then she snapped. First it had been the cushion behind her back, then her shoe, then everything and everything she had been able to lay her hands on. She had screamed herself horse and for a moment the old man had actually looked afraid….afraid of her and the feeling of power was overwhelming.

Yet like everything it was fleeting.

One moment she had the upper hand, the next the door opened and in stormed two of the house boys…Paolo and…she hadn't caught the other ones name even if she had caught him watching her occasionally when she was permitted to wander through the grounds. Still despite his interest it didn't stop him holding her down as the doctor filled a syringe with a clear solution.

It was the one time Fallon was actually relieved to see her m…Alexis.

Obviously alerted by the loud noises the former Mrs Carrington was still tying her robe as she strode into the room. Thick black curls messy and tussled from being roused suddenly sleep.

"What the hell is going on here?"

As if startled by the sudden appearance of his employer, especially in such a state of undress the Doctor didn't know quite where to look, glancing between the negligée clad Alexis and where Fallon was being held on the floor. "I am sorry Madam but she became violent I have no other choice…"

"My daughter is recovering from a drug problem and now you are going to drug her?"

"Madam I have no choice…" The headshrinker exclaimed.

"No!" Alexis insisted her emerald eyes blazing moving to stand between her daughter and the doctor. "I won't allow it!"

"Madam please; we have discussed this, your daughter is a risk to both herself and those around her, and it is still my belief that she would recover quicker in…other surroundings."

"I already said no!" Alexis added her eyes narrowing as she waved both Paolo and the other boy to release her daughter who was so surprised by her mother's interference she actually remained down on the floor.

"I will not commit my own child and if this is your idea of helping my daughter then suggest you pack up your little black bag and leave! Before I take the time to shove it somewhere you might find difficult to reach!"

The doctor seemed to take her mother's threat seriously and with a barely restrained huff he packed up his bag and with as much dignity as he could muster tottered out of the door followed by the houseboys.

For a moment Fallon stayed down on the floor unable to believe what she had heard and seen. And although it choked her and for a moment the words stuck in her throat it was a sobering thought to realise that the only thing standing between her and a padded cell was the woman who had abandoned her a child yet who for whatever reason wasn't walking away now.

"Thank you." The words sounded rough and foreign to her own ears and clearly they startled Alexis who had sank onto the chaise and seemed to have momentarily forgotten she was there.

"What do you want me to do Fallon? I am quickly running out of options…You won't talk to me, you won't talk to Doctor Costa but things can't go on like this…"

The question surprised Fallon and she had no immediate answer. Even when her mother turned to gaze down at her Fallon couldn't help but feel like the small child who had been caught in her mother's closet, her sticky fingers having ruined several of her one of a kind dresses.

"Do you want me to call your Father?"

Biting lip Fallon could only shake her head trying to suppress the tears that threatened and failing.

Unbidden they spilled down her cheek as the anger and rage turned to pain and exhaustion. When her mother sank down beside her Fallon resisted her mother's initial attempts at comfort. Eventually though the need for comfort outweighed even Fallon's objections over who was providing it.

Sinking into her mother's warm embrace, inhaling her perfume it was almost possible to pretend that this hurt was nothing more than a childish nightmare; a terrible dream that her mother's soft words and gentle caress could sooth away.

"Baby…Fallon…Please talk to me…There is nothing you can tell me that would make me love you any less…dear god I've probably done far worse."

Shaking her head Fallon couldn't contain the scream that clawed at her throat. The terrible truth despite her mother's many faults Fallon doubted that murder was one of them. "No…No you haven't."