"I went through life of my own twin wishing for my death... please... please " Casey started.

"Please... shut up and stop fighting. I... I'm begging you." She pleaded the twins.

"I don't know why you guysa re fighting now, but please.. just... don't. Please please stop."

". . . Ash...." Casey said quietly before sighing, heavily. She almos thesitantly turned to face Linday.

"I..." She started, before sighing again.

". . . neverind." she said, her voice quiet, subdued, before she just started for the stairs.

Casey, who had been just about to wrap him in her arms and hold him close, just sighed as she noticed the change back to the pompous version of him.

"I..." She started before sighing, again, heavier this time.

"No... no I'll be all right." She told him simply, lying through her teeth and not caring if he could see through it. She knew that he'd do no good as he was. She needed the real him, not... this pompous asshole that she and Ash had noticed he'd become.

"... my art always helps..." She said quietly before just turning and heading back upstairs, leaving Lindsay alone. She almost didn't care if he followed her, either.

Casey made her way upstairs, her steps not any different than usual, but Lindsay, somewhere in the back of his brain, there was a lot of concern for her. It was overwritten, sadly, by whatever it was.

She reached the room she'd claimed as her studio and just sighed, heavily, before stepping into the middle of the room. She didn't know what it was that was going to come next, but she knew she had to to try something. She hadn't felt this horrible for ... years. She was scared, considering what she had been doing last time she felt this horrible.

Seemed all the progress that had been made with Lindsay... was gone, considering she was seriously considering what she was considered.

So, as a result, she stepped into the middle of the room and just sat down - and not nicely at that. She drew blood on her hands with zero hesitance, before placing them both onto the floor where a rune lit up. The one person she thought that might help, being summoned.

Preferably before she caused more damage to herself to bleed out.

Casey didn't move, didn't say anything for a moment. Her hands clenched into fists, but he could tell, there was plenty going through her head. The slight tremble he saw said even more.

"I..." She started, before just taking a breath.

"I'm sorry." With that she swiped the rune, all before he could say anything, cancelling it.

Nevermind the blood rune being a long time since she'd last done it. The fact that she just apologised and canceled it was something she hadn't done in even longer.

Casey, who hadn't cleaned up the blood, and wasn't tending to her hand, just sighed.

"No." She answered.

"Yes... No... I ..." She just sighed, heavily.

"I don't know." At no point did she even look at him.

He hadn't seen her like this in a very, very long time. It was so jarring to see it now.

Casey didn't fight him off when he took her hand to wrap up. She also didn't say much of anything.

Her silence was... old. Something that he hadn't rightly witnessed like this since she was a child.

"Thanks." She said after he finished with her hands.

"And sorry... you don't nee dot hang around. You've other things to do." There was most certainly a despondence to her voice that he hadn't heard in longer than the average person could remember.

"I..." Casey started before sighing.

"Why bother?" She asked.

"He only 'cares' because it betters his own image." She then said. The question was whether or not that was serious. From what he knew, Casey was overstating it. That can't have changed since he last spoke with either of them. Sure, it had been awhile, but that still can't have changed, right?

... I'll go and find out what's going on with Lindsay in a couple minutes. Once I finish with these kids. was the reply he received. He could hear the extreme concern in her mental voice, as well.

Casey, meanwhile, was just silent. She seemed to not have anything to say to him. At least for a few minutes.

" . . . Gergory... I..." She started.

"I'm scared. It... it's been so long since I've been here... I ... I don't..." She started before shaking her head and just pulling her knes up.

Casey was completely silent, not reacting to him pulling her close at first. After a few minutes though, she just wrapped her arms around him and held fast.

It was extremely reminiscent to how she'd been when she was with her ex, and seriously making considerations that Gregory would never let her follow through on. Why she'd seemed to have returned to such a mental state was ... concerning. Extremely.

---

While Lindsay was sitting in his office, there was a knock on his door.

"The door is unlocked, you may enter of your own power" He called to whomever it was.

When the door opened, he saw an auburn haired lady he was rather used to seeing. The problem was, as she closed the door, he could almost feel how irate she was with him.

"What the fuck do you think you are DOING!?" She snarled.

"My daughter is up there being consoled by Gregory, while you're here doing what? 'debating your cases' or some shit?"