A/N: Sorry about the long time between updates I have been extremely busy, this is the first time I've had enough downtime to continue.

By seven, everyone else was up, Alex wasn't having the urge to vomit anymore so Abigail lead him to hopefully have something for breakfast.

"Hey dad," Alex said unenthused, he tried to run over to him, but was too stiff to run, and hugged his dad.

"Dad I don't like talking taco's" Alex said a bit upset.

"Ok Alex, lets have some breakfast," Mr Wolff said.

He led Alex to a seat in between him and Big Ella.

"Hey Alex, you get to sit next to me." Big Ella said happily.

"I DON'T WANT TO SIT IN A STUPID SEAT" Alex shouted.

Big Ella looked like she was going to cry, she thought she upset Alex.

"Alex, here sit in this chair," Mr Wolff said directing Alex to the same seat.

Alex sat down in the chair without complaint.

Nat looked at his brother, hopefully he would wear himself out today.

"Want to spend time in the hot tub?" Nat asked Alex.

"I hope it's full with soda," Alex said desperately.

Alex looked at his feet, he suddenly noticed a can of soda.

He dived under the table to get it.

"NO!" Juanita shouted and dived under the table and began trying to wrestle the can from Alex. They were an even match, but Juanita eventually prised it from Alex's hands and threw it to Rosalina. She then wrapped Alex up in a hug.

"Alex, calm down, you don't need soda," Juanita said breathlessly. She could see Alex would need all the help he could get.

"This is too hard," Alex sobbed.

Juanita could see Alex was shaking violently and continued to hug him tightly.

"It's ok Alex, we are all here for you," Juanita said softly.

She managed to calm Alex down while Rosalina safely disposed of the soda.

Alex only got worse as the day progressed. He hit almost everyone, the only two that were safe so far was Juanita and Big Ella. It was another day of watching DVD's and Juanita, Abigail, Little Grace, Nat, Onita or Mr Wolff would always be sitting beside him, to help keep him occupied and try and stop him destroying things in a search for soda.

They all smiled with relief when Alex finally fell asleep in Juanita's arms.

"For the first time in 3 days, he's sleeping like a rock." Nat said softly.

Mr Wolff went over and picked Alex up and took Alex and laid him in bed, making sure he didn't wake him. He smiled as he left, Alex was peaceful for the first time in days.

He went and sat back down in the lounge, he could see everyone was exhausted.

"I never realized he was such a handful." Onita said.

"He's a determined kid, even if he is going through an extremely rough patch." Mr Wolff said.

"Another week, and hopefully he will be going strong again," Nat said sadly.

As much as they all tried to relax, there was no hiding that they were all still thinking about Alex. They were cautious not to wake him. Nat, Rosalina and Abigail soon headed to their rooms and fell asleep. They needed to be awake when Alex woke up.

It was 2am and when Alex finally awoke. He was feeling more awake, but in every other way he was feeling worse than before he went to sleep. He had a massive headache, he was too stiff to move, his hands were shaking uncontrollably, he felt like he was burning up, and he desperately craved for a single drop of soda to land on his tongue.

"Hello Alex," He heard his other self say. "It's getting difficult isn't it, you know soda will make it all go away,"

Alex just stared at his other self, he was sounding really convincing now.

"Mmmmmm Soda. Can you get me some?" Alex asked desperately.

"You have to get it your self," His other self said calmly.

"HOW CAN I GET SODA MYSELF! I CAN'T MOVE!" Alex yelled angrily.

Abigail had been up for about an hour when she heard Alex was awake. She quietly walked in.

"You ok Alex?"

"No! I WANT SODA!" Alex yelled.

Abigail sat down beside Alex.

"Soda wont help you Alex. You have to be strong." She said tightly hugging him.

Alex tried to hit Abigail in anger and frustration, but Alex was unable to get any power due to the way Abigail was hugging him.

Mr Wolff and Abigail and decided that there was no hope in getting Alex to do his exercises, they hoped it wouldn't take too much longer before Alex battled through.

"I NEED SODA!" Alex yelled.

"Shhhhhhhhhhh, You know that you don't want or need soda, your giving up remember." Abigail said softly.

Alex imagined a soda machine falling on top of Abigail. It was such an appealing prospect.

"You will stop seeing soda everywhere and the hallucinations will stop once you give up." Abigail said softly. She knew Alex was struggling and if it wasn't for his lack of mobility she knew he would have turned back to soda.

For the next 5 days it was hazardous to anyone's health to sit next to Alex. He hit everyone. Juanita copped it for no reason at all. She sat down next to him and received a hard slap across the face. It took all her control to stop herself hitting him back. She knew it was just Alex detoxing.

They had also taken to sitting with Alex away from anything breakable. Alex had destroyed several lamps a number of plates and cups in fits of desperation for soda. Other times he threw them at where ever he was seeing his other self. Cooper had to be taken to hospital with a broken arm on one occasion, yet they still stood by Alex.

Nat and Rosalina sat on Nat's bad. He was upset, he usually didn't have bad dreams, but this night Nat had dreamed that he did kill Alex. Nat felt himself alone, and felt the guilt he felt for hurting Alex and the hate people would feel towards him if they found out what happened.

"Nat it's ok," Rosalina said hugging him. "Alex is going to be fine."

"Would you be saying this if Alex died?" Nat said sobbing. "I mean It's bad enough that I am always hearing him crying out in pain."

"Nat we all know it wasn't your fault, if you didn't do it she would have killed you, and knowing how sadistic she is, she would have forced Alex to watch before killing him." Rosalina as she attempted the difficult task of comforting Nat.

She held him tightly and let him cry into her shoulder. She did this for about 30 minutes when they were interrupted.

Alex wheeled himself in his wheelchair, they could see he had been crying aswell as tears still ran down his cheeks.

"Nat are you ok?" Alex asked trying to stop himself crying.

Nat pulled himself out of Rosalina's shoulder, he saw Alex and wanted to be strong for him.

"I'm fine, Alex. What about you?" Nat said trying to sound normal.

Alex didn't really notice.

"I'm lonely," He said sadly.

"Where did mom go?" Nat asked he knew Abigail was supposed to have been watching Alex.

Alex shrugged.

"I'm lonely," Alex said, everything was too quiet.

"How did you get into your wheelchair if mom's not around." Nat asked.

"I got lonely, It hurts really bad. Do you know how much it hurts to drag yourself off the bed and into your wheel chair?" Alex asked wincing as he was still having the after effects of the effort pulse through his back.

Rosalina went over and picked up Alex, he had been eating just not massive amounts while he tried to get of soda, so was relatively light. She lay him on the bed next to Nat before laying down herself.

Rosalina put her arm around Alex. Neither her or Nat noticed one major thing with Alex.

Alex tried to hug both Rosalina and Nat, but it felt awkward.

"Alex?" Nat said quietly.

"Yeah?" Alex said about to fall asleep in between Nat and Rosalina.

"Just how lonely are you?" Nat asked.

"Very," Alex said quietly.

"Very as in no more hallucinations?" Nat asked gently.

"Yep, it's too quiet," Alex said softly, the realization that he had beaten his soda addiction hadn't yet sunk in.

"I'm so proud of you Alex," Nat said hugging his brother tightly. Alex winced in pain but didn't make a sound. Keeping his physical pain hidden and become second nature, Alex knew that no one was aware of how much pain he was in. He still didn't want to pass that burden on.

"Why?" Alex asked confused.

"Because your off soda, you made it." Rosalina said softly

Alex opened his eyes.

"Really?" Alex asked as he raised his head curiously.

"Yeah man" Nat said ruffling his brothers hair.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alex shouted becoming immediately awake, and waking everyone else in the house up.

If Alex could he would have been jumping up and down on the bed.

Abigail came into the room.

"What's going on, you just woke everyone up." Abigail said sternly, she hadn't seen Alex wedged in between Nat and Rosalina. "Now do you know where Alex got to."

Alex rolled over onto his back and let his head droop of the bed, so he was looking at Abigail upside down.

"M…….. M………" Alex started trying to say mom, but it was awkward, never in his life had he ever called someone mom, "Mabagail,, I'm not on soda anymore,"

Abigail looked at Alex, it saddened her to see Alex with such difficulty trying to call anyone mom.

She looked to Nat and Rosalina and they both nodded in support.

"Don't you feel so much better now?" Abigail asked excitedly.

Alex shook his head.

Abigail looked a bit shocked at this.

"I feel so lonely now," Alex said softly.

Abigail came up and ruffled Alex's hair, it was seeming to him that was all it was good for.

"You just need to get used to no hallucinating" Abigail said quietly.

"Hey little man," Qaasim said walking in looking tired.

Alex looked at Qaasim.

"I'm not on soda anymore…….. I need to find stairs," Alex said as he realized he was even more behind with his goal to climb the statute of liberty.

"What?" Nat said confused looking at his brother.

"I need stairs. I have to climb the Statue of Liberty. I am way behind." Alex said urgently

"Alex," Abigail said holding him, "Lets see if you can walk first, you have been so out of it for the last week."

Abigail thought it would be best to put Alex in the hot tub to loosen him up a bit, before they helped him do his exercises.

They helped Alex to get into the hot tub, he was wearing a pair of board shorts and a singlet. Alex enjoyed being in the hot tub, it was one of the few times he was able to forget how much pain he was in.