Chapter 4:

Claire and Phil walked in through the front door. Haley was sitting at the breakfast nook texting and eating strawberries. She looked up when she heard the door close.

"Hey, how's Alex?" she asked.

Phil looked at Claire. She shook her head, so Phil said, "She's going, um, great. She's better already."

"How stupid do you think I am? I know she can't be 'doing great'. She tried to kill herself last night, for God's sake! Now tell me what's really going on."

For a few moments, everyone just looked at each other. Finally, Claire said, "She tried to run away. She ripped the IVs out and ran down the stairs. They think it might be best if we don't visit her for a while. It might be easier for all of us. She's under observation, anyway, so she'll have people checking in on her a few times a day."

"What are you going to tell Luke?"

"I haven't thought about that yet. But he'll probably believe what we told you at first."

Haley shrugged her shoulders. "Probably."

The phone began ringing and Claire ran to get it. She picked it up and said, "Hello?" After a few seconds, she added, "Oh, hi, Dad." Claire looked at Phil and Haley with pain filled eyes. "No, Dad. I don't think… No, please don't... That probably isn't the best idea to… Please don't…" Claire pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, angry. "He's going to visit Alex in the hospital," she said.

"Honey," began Phil. "I don't think that that is the best idea."

"It isn't, but there is nothing that I can do. He'll just have to figure that out on his own. I'm going to sit by the phone. I have a feeling I'm going to be getting a call from the hospital soon."

Jay walked into the grey colored waiting room. The receptionist sitting at the desk looked up from her computer monitor and stopped pecking at the keyboard.

She asked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Alex Dunphy," he replied.

The receptionist ran her finger down a sheet of paper taped to the wall. She then told Jay, "She's not supposed to be getting visitors right now. I apologize, but I can call you when she is, if you would like."

Jay nodded and took out his wallet. "Are you sure she's not accepting visitors?" he asked as he slid a twenty dollar bill onto the side of the counter nearest to the receptionist.

She looked at it and smirked. "Alright, sir. Right this way." Jay followed her down the hall and into Alex's room.

The receptionist said, "Alex, you have a visitor."

Alex opened her eyes. "Hi, Grandpa," she said.

"Hi, Alex. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Do you have any idea when I can leave here?"

"How about now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to take you out for some lunch. You can only eat the slop the hospital calls food for so long. Get out of bed and let's get going." Jay picked up the spoon that was resting on the tray and lifted up what the hospital claimed to be mashed sweet potatoes. He watched in disgust as it heavily fell back into the pile of other potatoes.

"I don't think I really should be leaving. I mean, I have to get more medicine in a few hours, and what if someone comes into check on me, and I'm not here?"

"Stop worrying! None of that will happen. Now, let's go!"

Alex sighed and got out of bed and followed Jay out of her room. They snuck down the hallway; they both knew that they really shouldn't be leaving.

"Hey!" a voice shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"

Jay and Alex fearfully turned around, ready to explain what they were doing. Much to their surprise, they found that the nurse wasn't yelling at them, but at an elderly man who was walking and pushing his IV down the hallway.

They kept walking, rode the elevator to the first floor, and walked out the door. Jay's yellow sports car was easily spotted in the parking lot, which was otherwise filled with dull colored cars. Jay pushed the button on his key that unlocked the car. The car beeped, causing everyone in the parking lot to look at them. Alex angrily looked at her grandfather, hoping that the attention that was drawn to them would soon end and everyone would go back to what they were doing. Luckily, it did.

Alex opened the car door and slid onto the heated leather seat. As soon as she slammed the door shut, she began to second guess their decision.

"I don't really think that we should be doing this," she blurted out.

Jay replied, "Would you stop worrying so much? It's going to be fine. We're just going to go to lunch and then we'll be back before they even realize you were gone."

She rested her head on the headrest and closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves.

Claire and Phil sat on the couch looking at Luke who was sitting in a chair across from them.

"What do you mean she tried to kill herself? Haley told me she had to be rushed to the hospital to get her appendix taken out," said Luke.

"That was just something to tell you so you wouldn't worry this morning when you woke up and Alex wasn't here," explained Phil.

A worried look spread across Luke's face.

"Oh, no, sweetie," began Claire, "don't worry. She's, um, doing great." She looked at Phil and he nodded. "She's making more progress than they thought."

Suddenly, the phone rang. Claire got up off of the couch and picked it up from the charging dock.

"Hello?" Claire asked. There was a pause while the person on the other end of the conversation responded. "Alright, I'll be right there. Thanks, bye." She hung up the phone.

"What was that, honey?" Phil questioned.

"That was the hospital. They can't find Alex."