A/N: I am back in New Zealand so I am able to update my stories again...... although truth be told, I didn't want to leave the US.

It was half an hour before dinner before Mr Wolff came back and picked Alex up and put him on the towel that was covering his wheel chair. Mr Wolff then wrapped another towel around Alex, and wheeled him into his room. Where he dried Alex off and changed his boxers before dressing him.

He then pushed Alex outside where everyone was waiting for him.

Once there Onita stood up and everyone looked at her. She raised her glass and everyone else did to.

"Here's to Alex and a full recovery," She said, Alex blushed modestly.

"So Alex, I have lots of things we are going to do tomorrow." Big Ella said sternly.

Alex internally groaned.

"We are going to play soccer, and hide and go seek and then we can play on the instruments…."

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Big Ella, I know you want to do a lot with Alex, but there is a lot that he is unable to do." Little Grace said, "We don't want to exhaust Alex."

Alex ate the food on the plate his dad passed him.

"Hey, little buddy. Do you want to go into town tomorrow?" Mr Wolff asked quietly.

"Why," Alex asked with food in his mouth.

"We can get you something for the hot tub." Mr Wolff said before giving a little nod in Big Ella's direction.

"Ok," Alex said pleased for an excuse to get out of being dragged around by Big Ella.

Little Grace who was sitting by Mr Wolff turned to him and asked if she could tag along.

She wanted a bit of time to be with Alex away from everyone else.

Mr Wolff nodded.

They sat and ate and talked for over two hours, but then it was eight o-clock and although Alex really hadn't done much since lunch he was tired.

Abigail pushed Alex down to his room and help him onto the bed. She helped Alex to strip down to his boxers and helped him into the bed.

"Have a good night Alex," Abigail said kissing Alex good night.

Alex feel asleep despite it being still light outside.

Alex woke at 5am. He wasn't full of energy but he needed to go to the bathroom, not desperately but enough so he couldn't get back to sleep. Alex lay in bed a bit frustrated, he wondered what he would do if his dad and Abigail disappeared. It made Alex even more depressed as he realized he couldn't do anything.

Mr Wolff came in ten minutes later.

"Hey dad," Alex said, Mr Wolff could hear the frustration in Alex's voice.

"Hey little buddy," He said to Alex and ruffled Alex's untidy hair.

"Does it annoy you that I'm so dependent on you and Abigail?" Alex asked heavily.

"No of course it doesn't Alex," Mr Wolff said, he could see that Alex was depressed again,.

"It does for me," Alex said wishing bad things never happened to him.

"Alex, I know you want your independence, I want you to have it as well. But I love you Alex, I'm here to help me no matter what time you need," Mr Wolff said sitting beside Alex and trying to hug him.

"Thanks dad," Alex said softly.

Mr Wolff then helped Alex doing his exercises. Just as the pain got too much and he started to cry Big Ella walked in.

"Alex… Oh my god! Are you ok?" She asked seeing Alex crying.

"Ella, calm down. Alex has to do these exercises to he could move during the day." Mr Wolff said softly.

"Come on Alex, only another half an hour," Mr Wolff said reassuring Alex.

Big Ella wanted to give Alex a hug.

Mr Wolff managed to hold her off while helping Alex at the same time.

Finally the half an hour was up. Alex cried as he tenderly walked to the bathroom. After finishing in there, he returned and Big Ella hugged him tightly.

"Are you ok Alex?" She asked sadly.

"I'm ok, ok Big Ella," Alex lied and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"You don't look ok," Big Ella said.

"It's fine, I'm alright." Alex lied again.

"You don't sound alright," Big Ella responded.

"Just leave it, I'M FINE," Alex shouted.

Big Ella was upset and slowly backed out of the room.

His dad looked at him, it wasn't so much an accusing stare, but one of pity.

Alex then burst out crying and his dad came over and hugged him.

"Alex, you don't have lie and pretend every things ok. We can see you're unhappy," Mr Wolff said as he comforted Alex.

"It hurts too much," Alex complained, the pain usually took about half an hour to subside, providing Alex didn't do anything to aggravate it any more.

"Alex, I want you to get into the hot tub, it will help you out, I'll go talk to Big Ella," Mr Wolff said softly.

Seeing as Alex hadn't got dressed, he slowly walked and with a bit of pain climbed into the hot tub. The moment he was in, Nat came along in a pair of shorts and climbed in next to Alex.

"Morning Alex," Nat said seeing his brother.

"Hey Nat," Alex said and moved himself over and hugged Nat.

Nat could tell that Alex was so far having a bad day.

"Alex, I'm so sorry for doing this you," Nat said hugging Alex.

"It's not your fault," Alex said quietly, for the hundredth time.

"I wish this happened to me not you," Nat said, he would rather go through the pain than to watch Alex suffer through it.

Alex and Nat just hugged each other, they had such a big bond, that some times just giving each other a hug, would do so much good. They didn't speak for ages until Alex broke the silence.

"Nat, do you think there is a god?" Alex asked as still he hugged his brother.

"I don't know… I guess so," Nat said a little of balance.

"Do you think he hates me?" Alex asked as he clung to his brother even more.

Nat could hear how insecure his brother was so he hugged him tighter.

"If there is a god, he doesn't hate you man," Nat said softly.

"Then why does everything bad happen to me?" Alex asked, he felt his brother holding him tighter.

"Us, Alex. What happens to you, happens to us. We are a family Alex," Nat said quietly.

"It happens to me more," Alex mumbled. "I don't see you breaking your back,"

Nat sighed and just kept on hugging his brother, he didn't particularly like the way Alex was talking.

Mr Wolff found Big Ella crying in her room, he went over and gently hugged her.

"Why is Alex angry at me?" Big Ella asked and she stopped crying.

"Alex isn't angry at you," Mr Wolff said softly, he suspected Alex was angry at life.

"He yelled at me," Big Ella said.

"That wasn't Alex, that was the pain." Mr Wolff explained.

"What pain?" Big Ella asked softly.

"Those exercises Alex goes through, they hurt him a lot. He has to put up with 2 hours of a lot pain each morning just to be able to move," Mr Wolff explained.

"Poor Alex," Big Ella said sadly.

"Yeah," Mr Wolff said softly. "I think Alex maybe in constant pain, he just tries to hide it, he doesn't want to scare you or anyone. He keeps too much to himself,"

"When will he get better?" Big Ella asked

"The doctors said that his back should heal in about a year," Mr Wolff replied.

"Can I go say sorry to him?" Big Ella asked.

"You haven't done anything you need to apologise for," Mr Wolff said.

"But I might be hurting when I hug him," Big Ella said.

"Hugging makes him feel better," Mr Wolff said but walked with Big Ella to Alex.

He saw Alex and Nat hugging when he got there, it made him smile a little, he knew how much Nat and Alex depended on each other.

Mr Wolff held Big Ella back, if Alex was getting things off his chest it was a good thing.

Nat looked up and saw his dad and Big Ella.

"Morning Dad, Morning Big Ella," Nat said quietly.

"Morning Nat," Mr Wolff said smiling.

Alex slowly stopped hugging Nat and moved away.

"You ok Nat?" Mr Wolff asked.

"Fine," Nat lied, but gave his father a look to say 'I'll tell you later'

"Come on you two, I think it's time to get out," Mr Wolff instructed.

Mr Wolff returned with towels.

Alex climbed out silently and grabbed a towel. He let himself drip dry, before wrapping it around himself. He then tenderly walked away.

Nat then got out and grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself.

"Dad, can we talk," Nat said quietly.

Mr Wolff nodded.

"Why don't you go wake up the band, they shouldn't be sleeping on a day like this." Mr Wolff said softly to Big Ella. She didn't hesitate and ran off to wake them.

With Big Ella gone, Nat and Mr Wolff began to walk to Nat's room.

"Dad, Alex is really scaring me," Nat said quietly.

"I know he's upset, but we need to stick by him," Mr Wolff said softly.

"He's so depressed, I'm scared he'll do something stupid," Nat said, Mr Wolff could hear the apprehension in his voice.

"We'll help him out Nat, We'll help him" Mr Wolff said heavily.