Ceilings were woefully under-designed, Cole decided. Sure, there were a few buildings that had grand ceilings with beautiful designs, but those buildings were usually significant for one reason or another. The average ceiling, specifically the ceiling in his hospital room, needed a serious upgrade. It was a basic white ceiling with tiny green specks all over. If Cole stared long enough, he could make out words or shapes. Already he had found the words "mom," "wow," "love," and "shoe" written in the specks on the ceiling. He wondered if it was possible to die of boredom.

"Good morning, Cole. How are you today? Where's your father?"

Cole looked at his nurse as she entered the room. He liked Nurse Phyllis Crane. She had a grandmotherly demeanor about her, but her Celtic accent reminded him of Anna, as did the way she carried herself, though that was probably because she had served in the military at some point in her life as the pin on her lapel suggested.

"Meeting… lawyer," Cole whispered in response to Nurse Crane's question.

"Ah, alright." Nurse Crane was writing in his chart and not paying attention. When she went to do her daily checks, he tried to get her to give him the remote to the TV, something Lou forgot to do before he left for court. When she failed to notice, Cole went back to staring at the ceiling.

"I've brought your breakfast. You have oatmeal today. I brought you some sugar packets if you want it a tad sweet. Let's get your sitting up some."

"There's… a giant… floating… baby head…" Cole mumbled.

"Where?"

"Ceiling."

Nurse Crane glanced up, saw nothing, and pushed the button to raise the head of the bed. She helped Cole adjust his body so he was comfortable.

"Right, let's get you ready for the day. Physical therapy is in an hour, and I believe the speech therapist will call on you today as well. And Dr. Mesda wants to speak to your father when he gets back," Nurse Crane said as she fed Cole.

"Who?"

"Dr. Mesda is the head of our psychiatric unit. He believes all patients at St. Alberts should have access to his team, not just those who were admitted to his ward. He understands it can be a scary and stressful time when you're in the hospital, especially if you're here for a longer period of time, usually two or more weeks, so he makes his team available to everyone."

Cole did not like where this was going. The doctors had finally stopped with the EEGs and CAT scans, now they wanted some shrink digging around in his innermost thoughts like he was some mental case?

Cole was so distracted he didn't even notice when Nurse Crane left and Brad, his physical therapist whom he hated, came in. Brad didn't care if his patients hated him if that's what motivated them to get better. Cole went through the motions with Brad, and with the speech therapist later. Lunch came, Nurse Crane had to feed him again, but he wasn't that hungry.

A distraction came in the form of his uncles Wil and Ben around three. Cole figured his dad had put them up to it, but he didn't really care since he still didn't have the TV remote. His uncles quickly discovered that conversation was hard, so Wil pulled out a deck of cards for some high-stakes poker, the favorite game among his extended family. Cole wasn't a huge fan of poker, but he knew they thought he was slightly loopy from all the drugs, and he wasn't about to let this opportunity pass him by.

"Don't worry about paying us back right away," Ben joked.

"Yeah, we can just get your dad to cover your debts," Wil added.

They were in the middle of their game when Jay came running in. It took Jay a moment to compose himself when he saw who Cole was with, but he quickly started rambling about his meeting with the ADAs, Kai inviting Libby to the monastery, and he still didn't know what to do about her or his parents.

"… Talk to them," Cole squeaked as he discarded two cards. He thought this conversation was sounding awfully familiar.

"How, Cole? Tell me!" Jay yelled.

"I'm sure this woman has a good reason for leaving you with your adopted parents. If she wants to meet with you then she probably wants to tell you why. I call and raise two thousand," Ben said.

"But Kai knew I didn't want her over, and he invited her to dinner anyway! And Nya backed him up!"

"Call. Which one is Kai again?" Wil asked.

"The red one," Ben said.

"Ah. I can't keep you ninja straight. Cole is one of you, that's all I know."

"Eh. Raise… thousand," Cole said.

"What am I supposed to do? Have dinner with her in silence?" Jay asked.

"I find that very impossible for you to do, and I've only known you for five minutes," Ben muttered under his breath. He called Cole's bet.

"I mean, I'm sure she didn't mean to abandon me when she got captured by Morgen, but my parents could've told me I was adopted," Jay said.

"Call and raise two grand. I told Lou there was something wrong with that woman and he should dump her," Wil said.

"We all did. You, me, Mom, Dad, I think even Misty said he should break up with her. You know it's bad if Misty is saying you should break off your relationship," Ben added.

"Didn't Misty say you should break up with Cordelia?"

"Yes, but Misty is very rarely right about anything. Cole, it's your move."

"Call," Cole mumbled.

"What are you even playing?" Jay asked.

"Five-card draw and I'm going to beat the two of them," Wil said.

"Ha! Don't make me laugh," Ben grinned as he called Wil's bet.

Wil and Ben turned their cards over. Wil had a full house, but Ben had four of a kind. Ben's face dropped, though, when he saw Cole had a royal flush.

"Not fair! Your face is paralyzed," Wil protested.

"And you're on drugs," Ben added.

"And this guy was distracting us!"

"I take… cash or check," Cole said.

"No, we're going again. Give me a chance to win my money back," Ben argued.

"No… tired…" Cole mumbled.

"Oh, come on," Wil pleaded.

"I'll… call Grandpa." Cole wished he could cross his arms, but his uncles got the message. Wil grumbled under his breath as he left to go hunt down an ATM, and Ben huffed as he pulled out a checkbook.

"Uh… am I missing something?" Jay asked after a moment.

"Just that he's the favorite grandchild and Dad would make us pay our debts," Ben explained as he ripped the check out of the book.

Cole smirked at his uncle. Lou came in looking confused.

"Cole, why did Wil call you a cheater?" Lou asked.

"Because that's the only explanation." Ben handed the check to his younger brother. Lou looked at the check and his jaw dropped. Jay managed a peek at the amount.

"Ten thousand six hundred dollars?!" Jay asked.

"He had a freaking royal flush. Wil left to go get the money to pay your cheating kid, and presumably to tell Miranda what happened."

"Like you have to tell Cordelia?" Lou asked. He put the check in his wallet.

"Yeah. I should go. And kid, seriously, just talk to your parents and birth mom." Ben left the room, grumbling.

"Good job, Cole. You managed to do what I never could: put those two in their place," Lou said as he gathered up the cards.

"Eh," Cole said since he couldn't shrug.

"Jay, could you please leave us? I need to talk to Cole privately."

"Oh, sure." Jay stood up and stretched.

"Not going… to therapy," Cole protested.

"Uh… I forgot, I need to meet the others. Bye, Cole." Jay left the room.

"It's mandatory, Cole. Dr. Mesda said it could take as little as two sessions, but he also said you won't be discharged until you go. It's up to you when you want to start," Lou explained.

"Never… TV remote?"

Lou sighed and turned the TV on.