Rather than get help and support to deal with the depression and pain of watching his daughter slowly kill herself, he is stuck in a cycle of anger and defeatism. Anger can be insidious and motivating. Stephens uses anger as a way to transmit psychic pain to others, making others pay for his emotional deficits as well. Stephens is very aware of this, but chooses to continue working on these cases. “So I'm not a lone ranger driving into town in my white Mercedes-Benz to save the local shepherds from the black-hatted cattle barons. I'm clear on this. Also, I don't exhaust myself with these terrible cases because they somehow make me a better person. No, I admit, I do it out of personal revenge; what the hell, obviously. And I don't need a shrink to tell me what motivates me." At the end of the story, Stephens receives a call that he hoped he would never receive. His Zoe has AIDS and there is nothing he can do to improve the situation. Stephens convinces Zoe to come to his house to talk and give her more money, but hopes that she will stay and let her father take care of her while he still can. Whether Zoe stays or not, the disorder Stephens suffers from won't go away without getting help for himself. He will continue to live in the same vicious cycle of being a victim of his own game, unless he chooses to break it