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Sylvia takes the precaution of becoming unseen as she leaves the hospital.  Chicago in winter precludes the option of lingering on the sidewalk, so she moves in a random direction as she calls Colin.

Colin isn't sure if he should be relieved or worried, but he takes up the phone immediately.

"Colin here. Syl, where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital," she tells him.  "I need to talk to your dad.  Can you arrange that?"

"Uh... Chris, you mean? He's right here in front of me. We could come and get you. Are you sure?"

"Yeah.  Something's got to be done, Colin.  She has to be stopped.  She doesn't have her powers anymore, but that's not going to stop her from hurting people.  She's evil to the core."

Colin is too tired to argue with Sylvia about this. "Ok." he simply says. He checks with Chris, then says. "We'll be there in a moment, and then you'll explain him."

He drinks up the rest of his chocolate, orders a hot coffee to bring to Sylvia, and gets out with Chris.

A few minutes later, Chris' old car drives up the road and stops beside her.

Sylvia gets into the car, looking half-frozen and grim.  "Hi," she says briefly, minding her manners around the adult.  "How much have you told him?" she asks Colin and then turns to Chris.  "How much do you know?"

Chris' expression is neutral.  He's a cop and he's good at keeping himself calm under stress.  "Nothing specific.  You're one of Colin's friends, and so I assume part of that circle of friends that gets into... " he pauses, searching for the best word, "..situations that most people avoid."

"Torrance Shipman," Sylvia says, trying to sound adult so he'll take her seriously.  But her voice trembles a little.  "Torrance Shipman has killed people.  She was a telepath with mind control powers until recently.  She killed her friends at her old school, and she sent people to try to run us over.  She's the one who sent Donnie after Elrod.  I don't know what else she did before she was turned off, but she had no compunctions.  She had no conscience.  She's evil, Mr. O'Brian!  She won't stop--"  Sylvia can't seem to stop herself, really.  With another rush of adrenaline coursing through her body she finds her teeth chattering and her whole body shivering like a battered tuning fork.

"Try and calm down Sylvia.  We'll get this sorted out.  Now, you say she was turned off?  What does that mean?  Is she dead now?"

Sylvia shakes her head, and it's just a little tremor, the way her neck muscles jitter.  "She's been turned off.  She doesn't have her powers anymore.  She's alive.  She's awake.  She's in the hospital.  If she were dead, I wouldn't worry about her.  What do you do?  What can you do about people who commit crimes with their minds?  Who stops them?  Who makes sure they don't hurt anybody?"

Chris is quiet for a minute.  He taps the steering wheel, then sighs.  "You call an expert."  He takes out his phone and places a call.  "Kevin, we need to get an expert in mental powers.  Someone that can consult on a case, it's an Oak Park case, but it involves paranormals."  He listens for a few moments, nodding occasionally.  "Ok.  I'll talk to the Oak Park PD and let them know we want to be involved and see what they say."  He hangs up.  Turning back to look at Sylvia he seems more relaxed.  "Ok, I'm going to talk to the Oak Park PD and my partner is calling someone to find us an expert.  We'll get this sorted out, and if she's done everything you think she has we'll make her pay for her crimes."  He furrows his brown a moment.  "How."  He tries to sort through his thoughts.  "Can her loosing her powers be traced back to you or any of the other kids in your group?"

Sylvia's eyes go large and dark.  She hesitates a moment and then says, stomach twisting, "I did it."

Colin's eyes go hard. From a certain point of view, she's lying. From another, she's telling the actual truth. He doesn't like it either way. It makes him feel... dirty. But if what she says about Torrance is true...

"Is it different from binding the witches so they can't do arm, Chris? Or from disarming someone?"

Chris shrugs, "That depends on method, and some other things.  We might be able to get past it if there is no lasting harm."  chris turns to look at Sylvia, "Off the record, that was a straight up lie what you just told me, but I'm not an expert and an expert will have to determine what can and can't be proven."

"I can't talk about who did it.  If I have to talk about who did it, I can't help you.  I can't testify.  I won't."  Sylvia will defend Smith with all her being.

"Chris, in a worst case scenario, what would happen? Is there anything like a mental signature? We kinda have to protect who did it, even if it was wrong. It's complicated."

And it's all Sylvia's fault. Why does she always have to complicate things?

"If I tried to fix her, would it make it better or worse? She'd have her powers back, but she would be put away, wouldn't she?"

"You can't do that, Colin."  Sylvia takes Torrance's crimes very personally for some reason, and her voice is tight with anxiety.  "It's not the power.  It's the will.  It's what she'll do with it if you give her the chance.  She thinks she has the right.  She thinks we have the right."

"Then you have to talk with Beetlejuice. So he can protect himself. You got him into this trouble, after all. We should have done this from the very beginning." he says, blaming himself as least as much as he blames her.

"Does it even matter?"  She turns and asks Chris this time.  "Does it matter?  That she lost her powers isn't the crime."

"It matters. If we want them to look into Torrance' crimes, they're gonna have to look into this too. I don't think they can turn a blind eye on it. Especially after what the Mayor said. She's yet another student at Oak Park High School who got hurt because of 'paranormal activity'."

Sylvia shakes her head.  "No, that doesn't follow."  It's as if she's not trying to convince Chris or Colin, but the law.  "Look, she got her powers after a surgery.  They weren't a birthright.  They were a fluke.  They could have gone away as easily as they came."

"Guys.  Just try and relax.  Colin, I'm not sure what they can or can't find in someone's head if they go looking.  And, if she's as willing to use her powers as Sylvia says, then giving them back to her would be like handing a loaded gun to a known killer.  No, we have to go from where we are now.  Sylvia, no one can really compel you to testify, so if you want to protect this person just don't say anything."  Chris shakes his head, "I'm going to have to lie now, so you guys had better be right about all this, because I'm sticking my career and my neck under the axe.  If you're wrong about this, we're all gonna get in serious trouble."

"Wrong about what part?" Sylvia asks, brow furrowing.  She doesn't want to get Chris in trouble either.

"Why? Who do you have to lie to?" Colin says, touching Chris' arm.

"I have to pretend she didn't just confess to shutting off that girls powers, which I'm sure would be a violation of her cival rights."

"But Chris, the last thing she did with her powers was to send three drivers to kill my friends. She had to be stopped. We can argue about what should have been the better way to stop her, but it can't be worse than letting her kill someone."

He thinks about it.

"Or you're worried that her arrest might be illegal now that you know?"

"No.  If they can trace this back to Sylvia she'll face a civil suit from the parents at the very least."  He holds up his hands.  "We're not going to talk about this.  What's done is done and we just have to go from here.  I'm going to take Sylvia and you home, then I'm heading to the Oak Park Police station."

Sylvia's state of high alert seems to subside.  She's made her choice.  No more hiding who she is or what she can do.  Something had to be done.

"No, take me to school, Chris, please. It's the last day before winter break, somebody has to go gather our homework. We've skipped too many hours these last few days."

Chris drops Colin by the school and then Sylvia at her house.  "Try not to worry about this Sylvia.  We'll get it sorted out." Chris seems to believe it, Sylvia senses his capacity to believe in the impossible had increased dramatically since the school year started.

Sylvia nods and weakly lifts a hand to wave as Chris and Colin drive away.  She goes into her house and seeks out her family for the sheer solace of it.