Author's Note: Thank you to lilblondienc and lyn for your support and for explaining what happened to the missing Everwood scene I was talking about last chapter. Thanks to kellie, xo bella italiana ox and especially Wadesbabygirl21 for the support. I totally appreciate it!! Okay, on with the show!!

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"So I couldn't believe he said we should see other people. He said something about not communicating and I'm thinking, 'Hello! We both speak English!'" Kayla ranted as she and Amy walked down the hall of County High.

Kayla had been so absorbed in her own dramatic break-up that she didn't notice Amy's glow. It had been two days since the kiss, and there had been more since then. Amy had yet to tell Kayla and probably wouldn't, she didn't want to spoil it. Colin seemed pleased that he remembered more about her, and Amy knew it was just a little while longer until this new Colin was replaced with the old one. She smiled as she thought about the prospect of having her Colin back.

"Amy? Are you listening to me?" Kayla asked, annoyed.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay. So, anyway..." Kayla started, only to be interrupted by a collision in the hall.

Alex hadn't been watching where she was going and had bumped into Kayla, not hard, but hard enough to break Kayla's train of thought.

"Hey, watch it, Kat!" Kayla yelled at Alex.

Alex smirked at Kayla and eyed Amy next to her. She didn't say anything as she walked away.

"Kayla, I'll catch up with you later," Amy said as she walked towards Alex. She felt the need to talk to Alex after what Ephram and said to her before. "Alex!" she called out.

Alex stopped, turned around and waited for Amy to catch up to her. She was intrigued, what could Amy possible want from her, now? She had Colin.

"Look, I know we haven't talked much, but I just wanted to say thanks for, you know, helping Colin out," Amy said.

"I never felt like I was helping him, just being his friend. Helping implies I wanted to save the guy or something, which wasn't the case," Alex answered.

She remembered how Colin had told her she had helped him...she never thought she had. 'Helping' out her friends back in L.A. got her expelled.

"Oh, well, I just really appreciate it. It's been really hard on Bright and me and I guess we weren't helping him like we thought we were by trying to get him to remember things," Amy said.

"But that's the thing, Colin doesn't need help," Alex stated.

"Of course he does. He needs to remember who he is, and when he does, he'll be Colin again and I just wanted to thank you for initiating it all," Amy insisted.

"You know, Colin is a person as he stands now," Alex said, getting annoyed. She really didn't want to talk to Amy anymore.

"I know, but it's just that he's not Colin," Amy said.

"Yes he is. That's where all you people are so wrong. He's Colin. He's a complete person. Has a heart, has a soul, all that stuff, but everyone here treats him like a freak because he has no memory and that, for lack of a better word, is bullshit. He doesn't need help, Amy, he needs friends. People to hear him out, to actually listen to him because what he says matters instead of humoring him and waiting for the real Colin to come back. Let him do the talking, Amy, let him find his own way, and your Colin just might return to you," Alex explained passionately.

Amy processed what Alex had said. Part of her was offended that Alex had the nerve to give her advice about how to act around her boyfriend, but part of her knew what Alex had said was priceless. Alex had willingly volunteered the "secret" to her successful conversations with Colin and Amy appreciated that.

"Is there anything else you need?" Alex asked. "I have to go to work."

"Oh, um, no, no, thanks for your time. I really do appreciate it," Amy said sincerely. Alex nodded her head and left.

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It's better this way, Alex thought to herself as she shot another basket, missing. Colin needed Amy, Amy needed Colin, Alex needed...to get over it. She dribbled around the court a bit before going in for a lay-up. At least she made the lay-up.

The advantage about living in a tiny town was that the high school basketball games were a big deal and she didn't have to work at Gino's so long as she was at the game. The Miners were actually a pretty good team, and Bright was a very good player. She could only imagine how wonderful it must have been to watch Colin play. Amy was on some dance team thing, and Ephram had a hard time keeping his eyes off her when she performed; Alex had tried her hardest not to tease him about it during the game.

It had been a very hard three weeks since she stopped interactions with Colin. She kept herself busy with school, work, and walking. It didn't make her happy, but that wasn't the point.

Amy hadn't talked to her since then and she could have cared less. It wasn't that she didn't like the girl, because, quite frankly, she didn't know her, but she wanted to vomit every time she say Colin and her together.

Ephram had been pretty supportive. He and Alex had some weird bond being the "other boy" and "other girl" in the lives of the most popular couple in school. Yup, couple, she thought enviously as she shot another basket. It was a brick.

She should have been happy considering she was the one who walked away so he'd forget about her and get to know Amy again. But, she was miserable every time she saw them together and she brought it on herself. Colin had remembered a lot about Amy and Bright and his parents, much to everyone's happiness. It's better this way, she repeated to herself.

She visualized an opponent in front of her, did a clean crossover, made a quick release, and the ball sank. Ah...I still got the magic touch...she thought to herself. She hadn't played in what felt like ages, though it was actually just two months - since she left L.A.

"Nice shot," a voice said behind her.

She freaked momentarily, having thought she was alone in the gym. She turned around to see Colin.

"Um, thanks," she said nervously.

"You have a nice follow-through," Colin commented.

She looked at him as she dribbled. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Just didn't feel like going home. I remember playing last year, and I guess I just wanted to hang around and see if I would remember anything else."

"Oh, I see," she said, looking down.

"Yeah, um, how, how have you been?" he asked her. It seemed like ages since they talked instead of three weeks.

"Oh, alright. You know, school and work..." she trailed off. "You?"

"Oh, just trying to find myself, you know..." he jested.

Alex laughed. "I think we all need to do that," she replied. She looked up at him. His right arm was no longer in the sling.

"So, I guess you can write again, huh?" she asked as she pointed to his arm.

He looked down. "Oh, yeah, I got if off yesterday," he explained. "But it feels sorta weird, I always wanna have it bent. But it turns out that my left hand writing is better than my right hand. My right hand is out of practice, I guess," he rambled.

"You are ambidextrous then," Alex replied impressed, remembering their first conversation.

Colin smiled, remembering her kindness the first day she came to Everwood. "Yeah, yeah, I guess I am," he said. "Thanks to you," he added shyly.

Alex swore she was blushing but prayed the dim lights didn't show it. She shook her head, "No, you did it on your own. I'm, I'm happy for you," she said unemotionally.

"Don't sound very happy," Colin said quietly.

He hadn't expected talking to Alex would be so difficult to do considering she was the easiest person to talk to before. For the past three weeks, he thought about her often, but never conversed with her more than a simple 'hello.' He would see her walking down the hall as he walked with Amy, and it would hurt to see her eyes look away from him.

He remembered enough of Amy to know why she was his girlfriend, and he figured the rest, like the sparks and stomach butterflies, would come when he remembered all of her. The kisses were nice, soft, but not...passionate. But that would come in time, he thought, trying to convince himself.

"No, really, I...I am really happy for you," Alex said.

Colin chuckled lightly. "This is weird now," he confessed, motioning to the two of them talking.

"Yeah, it is," she replied quietly, dribbling some more.

"So, you play often?" Colin asked, trying to find a subject they could talk about and not feel so uncomfortable.

"Oh, I used to be on the basketball team in my freshman and sophomore year," she replied. She had no idea why she was talking to him. She tried to move her feet to walk away, but they didn't want to move.

"Were you any good?" he teased. He saw her play, he already knew the answer.

"I'm sure I could take you on," she replied.

"Well, yeah, anyone could beat the guy who got out of a six month coma a little over two months ago," he teased.

She laughed. "Whatever," she replied, turning around to take a shot.

Colin trotted to the basket to get the rebound. He dribbled with his left hand and crossed over to his right, testing to see how well his right arm was working.

She watched him attentively. "Not bad," she said.

He looked up at her. "Could always be better," he replied as he took a short-range shot. It missed.

"Patience, Young Grasshopper," she said. "It'll all come back, just like your memory," she added encouragingly.

"What if it doesn't?" he asked her.

"What if what doesn't?" Alex asked.

"What if my memory doesn't all come back. Sometimes I wonder how I was before. Was I a nice person? I just can't remember," he confided.

Alex looked away. Colin had successfully gotten her into a meaningful conversation after three weeks of purposely avoiding him. Part of her didn't mind at all but rather, was grateful that they were talking again.

"Does it matter?" she asked him.

"What?"

"How you were before. Does it really matter? People seemed to adore you, so I doubt you were a bad person. But I mean, what can you do about it now? Can't erase the past."

"I know, but I just wanna know who I am!" Colin said angrily as he threw the basketball against the wall. It rebounded back to him with a loud THUD. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done that."

Alex shrugged. "It's fine, I don't mind. I did that a lot too before. So, Colin Hart, who are you?" she asked him.

He looked at her quizzically. "I told you, I don't know," he said, slightly bitter.

"Sure you do," Alex said encouragingly. She was cursing herself for still talking to him, but it was just so much easier and nicer and happier to do so.

"Alex, um, is this your idea of a sick joke?" Colin asked.

"No. But think about it. Who are you?"

Colin decided to play along, he trusted her anyways. "I'm Colin Hart. I'm sixteen. My parents are..." he started.

"No, no, no, your age and the name of your parents don't make who you are," she said, shaking her head.

He looked at her strangely, hoping for an explanation.

"Okay, here. I'm Alex Nasagawa. I stand up for what I believe in even if it means I have to do it alone. Everything I do, I do with other people's best interests at heart. I love basketball because it relaxes me; I get in a zone and I forget about my crappy life. Someday, I want to become a history teacher because I think history is the key to the future even if I don't get paid much. Eventually, I want to find the love of my life and if we're lucky, we'll have one of those stereotypical houses with a white picket fence and energetic dogs running around," she ended.

Colin was silent.

"You try," she said.

"I'm Colin Hart. I think that I no longer fit with the people who used to be my friends. I like talking walks...this is stupid, Alex," he said, embarrassed.

"You try," she repeated.

He sighed and continued. "I like talking walks because I can imagine that I'm somewhere else. Like at a Laker game or at Rockefeller Plaza, anywhere else but here. I like Chemistry because it's cool seeing how different chemicals react with one another and how these very basic things can create amazingly complex compounds. I don't like shallow people and I've found that a lot of the people here are just that. I hope that I'm not one of them in disguise. I want to get away from here for college, go to either the East Coast or the West Coast, but I can't stay here. I think I'd suffocate," he ended. "I told you it was stupid," he mumbled.

"That was nice," Alex said softly.

"And the point was?"

"The point was that your past isn't the only thing that identifies you. Your likes, dislikes, beliefs, dreams, hopes...as corny as it may sound, those things make up who you are too," Alex explained.

Colin thought about it, smiling slightly. "Yeah, I guess," he admitted. He felt much better now. "Wanna play HORSE?" he asked her.

She hesitated. "I don't think that's a good idea," she said as she began to walk away, for the second time.

"God, why do you always do that?" he asked, annoyed.

She stopped and turned around. His eyes were serious and drew her out to ask, "Do what?"

"Leave. You left me that day, you avoid me at school, you walk away from this conversation...I just don't get it. What happened?" he asked her bluntly.

Alex didn't expect him to be so straightforward, that was usually her specialty. "It'll get too complicated if I stay," she replied softly, she didn't want to tell him the detailed version. She had already stayed too long.

"I don't understand. What will get too complicated?"

"This," she replied frustrated, motioning between the two of them. "If I stay, I will not want to go, ever. Do you understand that?" she pleaded to him as she paced the court.

Colin looked at her, conflicted. He understood. He thought about his time with and without Alex. He was still happiest in her presence, like now.

"And what if I want you to stay?" he asked carefully.

She looked at him in shock and shook her head adamantly. "No...no...you have Amy. I can't stay. I'll see you around, Colin."

Colin wanted to stop her, to tell her that for some reason he could not think about much besides her, but it just didn't work that way. There were too many strings from his previous self that held him back from doing what he wanted. But that's not me anymore, he thought angrily. But she was right, he did have Amy, and Amy deserved an attentive and loving boyfriend, especially after waiting for six months for him to wake up. He would be that for her. He could be nothing to Alex.

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