Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters, and chances are that I never will.

A huge thank you everyone who have reviewed and read this fic so far!

Happy New Year, and Enjoy!


Alex nodded. "Yeah. And it's Alex."

"Hi, Alex. I'm Hailey, and I'll be your primary nurse while you're here at Brookfield." She looked towards Izzie and Meredith. "And you two are?"

"Izzie, I'm Alex's wife. And this is our friend, Meredith."

"Nice to meet you both. How was the drive over?"

"Nothing special." Alex replied as they made their way down a hallway. "Look, are you sure this is where I'm meant to be, no offence, but it seems a bit out of my price range."

Hailey had been approached by Dr Gordon earlier, and he had filled her in on some things. "Your physician at Seattle Grace, Dr Shepherd, from what I understand he knows our chief of staff, Dr Gordon; I don't know the details, but he has arranged for you to receive the highest standard of care that we offer. Dr Gordon will be treating you personally, when he meets with you this evening he will most likely be able to tell you more."

"Oh, okay." Alex mumbled, it didn't really make sense to him, but he was too worn out from the trip to really care.


They turned another corner, and came to a room, Hailey took a small set of keys from her pocket and unlocked the door, she held the door open for Travis to wheel Alex in and for Izzie and Meredith to follow them in.

Alex's first impression of the room, well he was in shock, it was massive, logic told him that it was to make it easier to get around, but still.

"Okay, Alex, this will be your room throughout your stay here." Hailey announced as she took hold of the wheelchair handles.

Travis slipped out of the room, no longer needed, while Hailey wheeled Alex over to the bed, and she picked up one of the remotes, this one was attached to the bed. Over the bed there was an automated hoist, it also ran into the bathroom.

She held it for Alex to see. "First off, this remote operates the hoist system, I know it may feel frustrating to need to use it to move around, but with a bit of practice it will allow you to move in and out of your wheelchair, to the bathroom, without needing help. A physiotherapist will be by later to explain it properly."

Next one. "It's pretty easy to work everything really, this remote allows you to raise and lower the bed, adjust the backrest and legrest." She put that one down and picked up another, this was connected to the wall. "This one is for the nurse call, over bed TV controls, and in room climate controls. Now, I just need to ask you a few questions and check your vitals, and then I'll leave you to unpack."

"Okay." Alex agreed as Hailey sat down on the arm of one of the lounge chairs, while Izzie and Meredith sat on the bed.

Hailey flicked the first few pages of the chart over, before pulling out her pen, and starting to work through a checklist. "Okay, Alex. Any allergies?"


Twenty minutes later, and Alex had answered the series of questions that Hailey asked, sometimes he had to defer to Izzie if he didn't know something for whatever reason.

And up until this point all the questions had been very straightforward.

"And can you just describe the accident for our records?"

"I don't remember it, the last thing I remember was leaving the house that morning. I've been told that I was driving to work, a truck in front of me hit a broken down car and jackknifed, my car hit the truck."

"Okay, and can you tell me what you want to achieve while you're here? We will go into it further later, but just so we can get an idea."

"I want…" Alex began, only to pause. He glanced up at Izzie and Meredith sadly before he told Hailey. "I want my life back. I want to finish my residency, I want to…" he looked pointedly at Izzie as he said "I want to have a family. I don't want to be the guy who screwed up and spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair with everyone feeling sorry for him."

"That's why you're here, Alex." Meredith reminded her friend. "You're gonna be fine. Seriously."

"Your friend is right. If you commit to working with the team here, it is the best chance you have of recovering." Hailey told Alex seriously, before she said. "I'll give you some time to settle in now, Alex. Just press the call button if you need anything."


The group of residents then watched as the young nurse walked out of the room, leaving them alone. Once Hailey was gone, Izzie commented, "It's a nice place."

"Yeah, guess so," Alex replied as he too surveyed the room.

An awkward silence filled the air, no one was sure of how to proceed, eventually to break to silence, Izzie said, "All your stuff needs to be put away, I'll just get started on that" She grabbed Meredith's arm, and pulled her over towards the wardrobe with a smile, "Mere, you don't mind helping do you?"

Meredith removed Izzie's hand from her arm, as she lightly replied, "No problem."

As Alex sat by the bed, Meredith and Izzie worked together on the unpacking.

"I hate this," Meredith commented in a hushed voice, "We should've taken Alex home, we could've managed. He shouldn't be here, we're doctors, we could handle this."

"I know, Mere, but this place is the best. Alex nearly, he nearly died, if we want him back, how he was before this, he has to do this," Izzie replied in a matching barely audible tone.

But as much as Alex, Izzie, and everyone else around them wished that things were different, they weren't, and they just had to get on with things as best they could.


Alex had his first session with his physiotherapist, Ben Marcs, a thirty something former track and field star from Texas, ten years ago a knee injury ruined his career, but led him towards his new one.

An orderly took Alex through the hallways of the unit to the physical therapy room, where Alex was met by Ben, "Hey Alex, how're you doin' this mornin'?"

They quickly got to work at one of the tables that allowed focus to be on arms and hands. Due to the relative immobility caused by the leg casts, the range of exercises Ben could work through with Alex was limited, mostly they focused on regaining motion in Alex's left arm.

It wasn't easy, each and every attempt had Alex panting exhaustedly, on the verge of breaking down.

Ben did everything he could to help Alex work through it. "That's good, Alex. Have another go, try to grip the stress ball, I know it's hard, but this is the only way you're gonna get your arm back."

It was true, as painful as the exercises were, it was Alex's only chance to regain use of his arm. Squeezing stress balls, resisting Ben's attempt to push his arm up, down and every other way, focusing on moving finger by finger, or more correctly attempting to move his fingers. It felt like hell, but Alex had no choice but to push himself through it.


When Alex's session was over and he was taken back to his room, upon being left alone, Alex was too tired to so much as lift himself into bed; instead he fell asleep sitting in his wheelchair. Tears of frustration and effort were still staining his face.


TBC...

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