Living was not the issue. Sleeping was.

Even though Molly had gone through years of extensive therapy to deal with the aftermath of the many difficult situations she had faced on the job, she still found herself tangled in the distant screams, in the helpless feelings, and worst of all, in the agony she had felt. Sleeping didn’t come easy.

Still, for the past few years things had gotten better but in the wake of the Syndicate’s attack and the subsequent taking down of Ashley Newton, Molly found herself back with her old sleeping difficulties.

For the better part of the previous month, with Lucas and Calvin in the hospital, and the investigation that followed, Molly had not slept but rather passed out from exhaustion whenever her body gave in. When her life had become calmer, things were different. Some nights she would sleep the whole night, others she’d sleep for a few hours before waking up sweating in the early hours of the morning with a scream wedged in her throat. Visions of her mangled right hand would cause her to wake up in terrible pain, or the lifeless stares of Ryan, Calvin, or Lucas would haunt her until she finally woke up in the morning. There was no telling what would come and when.

A few years prior, when the first nightmares had started, sleeping medication had become a habit. A routine to be filled every night, when all Molly wanted was to fall asleep, but sleep didn’t come. After years of use, it had become more than that. A ritual that could not be broken. A requirement for a full night’s sleep. One of those practices that Molly could stop whenever she wanted. Or so she told herself every night as she downed yet another pill, or gave herself another hypo, whichever version she happened to have at the time. And yet, now that she needed them the most, they seemed to have stopped working, at least in her usual dosage. So she doubled it.

For the first week it worked perfectly. No more nightmares, no more pain, no more agony, just peaceful dreamless sleep. The second week brought a few restless nights here and there. By the third week, the nightmares were back. So Molly tripled the normal dose, and her peaceful nights returned.

At first, Molly didn’t think anything of the sporadic bouts of dizziness she started feeling during the day. Then, she found herself passed out on the living room floor, being awaken by a very concerned Calvin. Molly shook it off as lack of food. Later that week, she fainted again, this time in HHI’s elevator, having regained consciousness to a panicked young security officer who tried desperately to wake her up. It took only a few minutes for the news to reach Lucas, as he greeted her worriedly when Molly arrived at Sacred Heart to visit him that evening. Once again, she shook it off to a long working day. That night, Molly ended up passing out on the chair next to Lucas’s biobed and never made it home.

The issue finally became impossible to ignore when, a few days later, on her way to her daily visit to her uncle, Molly collapsed on the sidewalk right outside of the main entrance to Sacred Heart Hospital.

As passersby rushed to help what was now one of the most recognizable faces in the Colony, a young Trill hurried into the hospital’s main hall. Running to the Service counter, the panicked young man nearly yelled. “Molly Holloway just passed out by the front doors! I don’t know what happened, she just dropped! Please get some help!!!”

Molly Holloway, CEO Holloway Heavy Industries