This chapter is a little shorter than typical, however I wanted to get something out to you all without making you wait forever. It's not one of my favorites but here it is anyway. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

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"Jay, lets go for a run or something." Mal suggested after a while, it was probably best not to head back to the hospital room. It wasn't going to do Carlos any good if Jay was having his own issues as well.

Jay nodded and the two teens headed back to Auradon Prep, Mal called Lonnie to join them. Mal wasn't a bad runner but she knew there was no way she'd be able to keep up with Jay after a mile or two. Lonnie was of course up for it and met them at the track after changing.

/

"Carlos, do you know who I am?" Evie said gently once the white haired boy had calmed down just a bit, but it was clear he was still very scared.

Brown eyes studied Evie's face for longer than she was comfortable with, "Evie?" he asked rather than answered. Evie smiled "Yes, that's right. I'm Evie. Do you remember Anita or Roger?" She gestured toward the adults on the other side of the bed. Carlos studied their faces for a while then shook his head.

"Where's momma?" he asked sounding like a scared little boy that just wanted his mom rather than a teen that had left home to go to a boarding school.

"She's at home." Evie answered, "she can't come here right now. Do you know where you are?"

Carlos shook his head again, he was so confused, it was way too clean to be the Isle, but then where were they? Evie looked up at Mrs. Radcliffe with a worried look that the woman shared, it was clear Carlos didn't wake up with all his memories in tact.

"Who were the kids that left?" Carlos asked bringing everyone's attention back to the fact that Jay and Mal had rushed out a few moments before.

Evie looked back at Carlos and studied him before answering "Jay and Mal."

The inquisitive look that was naturally on the freckled face turned dark and angry "Why were they here?" he spat out "Did they do this to me, did they hurt me?"

Roger and Anita looked at each other confused but Evie got even more worried. "No, they didn't hurt you. We were hoping you know who did…" Carlos shook his head and Evie continued "Mal and Jay are our friends."

"Mal's mean." Carlos stated as if everyone knew this crossing his arms stubbornly "and Jay just steals from everyone."

"So you're not friends with them?" Evie questioned, an other shake of the head.

"But we're friends?" she asked. Carlos shrugged "I went to your birthday party a long time ago. But we don't play. I want momma."

Evie nodded "Will you stay in this bed for a few minutes I need to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe alone for a couple minutes, we'll be right back. Okay?"

Carlos scowled but nodded. Evie and the Radcliffes and the doctor that was in the room all went out to the hall, "He doesn't remember Mal and Jay being friends with him, it's like he doesn't remember he's 14 and anything that's happened the last 3 or 4 years. He was 9 or 10 when the four of us all became friends, before that Mal and Jay were a team, and Carlos and I were… we'll I'm not sure what we were, but he doesn't remember any of that." tears silently fell from her eyes as she glanced through the window in the door back to Carlos who's natural curiosity had him pressing random buttons on the nearby machine. Anita turned to her husband and cried into his shoulder.

"I wouldn't worry too much, memory loss is common with brain trauma, there is hope he will make a full recovery in time. Miss," the doctor turned to Evie, "would you please help out with him until he gets used to others, he seems to trust you at least."

Evie wiped her eyes and nodded.

"Uh oh," Anita said as she looked through the window of the door and spotted Carlos attempting to take out the IV in in his hand, everyone rushed back in the room.

/

Mal sat on the bleachers and watched Jay and Lonnie run laps around the track. She'd managed a couple miles herself but then had to call it quits, she was fit, but not "run a marathon because it's Tuesday" fit.

Ben and Jane came over and sat down with her after a while, "How's he doing?" Ben asked as he held Dude in his arms and played with the small dog.

Mal frowned and shrugged "He didn't seem to know where he was." she said sadly while she picked at her shoe laces. "Evie sent a text, told me and Jay not to come back to see him just yet." she continued then snapped her head up, her eyes were watery as tears threatened to fall "Ben, he's scared of me .. and Jay."

Ben scoffed "You're hardly scary." he tried to encourage.

"On the isle I was, and I wasn't very nice to him when we were kids. We weren't always friends." Mal went back to picking at her shoes, slowly peeling the purple paint off to reveal a mustard yellow under.

"He'll remember. Just give him some time." Jane said encouragingly.

Ben pulled Mal into a hug and she leaned into him thankful for his strong arms holding her as she finally let her emotions go and for the first time since she could remember, started to cry.

Jane felt a little like a third wheel at this point so she took Dude from Ben and decided to go and visit Carlos herself.

/

Jay finally had run his emotions out of him, at least for the time being. He wasn't sure how many laps he ran, he knew Mal had stopped around 3 miles and Lonnie said she stopped close to 10, but Jay had kept going. He had seen Mal in Ben's arms for a little while but then apparently they had moved on as well. As he got into the lukewarm shower in the locker room Jay leaned forward onto the wall letting the water wash over him, his scars were still covering his back despite the magical cream that Nurse Flora had given to him and Carlos to help them heal completely. She did say it could take up to a year to work completely. Jay sighed he wasn't sure what to do, what to feel, what to think. Expectations in Auradon were so different, he wasn't sure he could do this here, Mal seemed as lost as he was but at least no one was threatening to take away the one thing she was good at because of her grades. Evie didn't seem to be having any issues at all and Carlos was definitely having the worst it, but with his naturally sweet disposition, innocence, and still was adorable in a way the others weren't the adults and most of the kids felt so bad for him that he was getting all the attention. Jay banged his head on the shower wall, ashamed that he was even slightly jealous of how much everyone fussed over Carlos even though he managed to get himself into some sort of trouble every other day. Turning off the water and grabbing a towel, Jay dried off and got dressed stopping by his tourney locker to grab his clothes, he wasn't sure when they were last washed and figured it might be time. A piece of paper fell out as he opened the door, confused Jay picked it up and glanced at it before shoving it in his pocket and heading back to his room.

/

Evie was sitting with Carlos desperately trying to explain why his mother couldn't come to see him. She was all the more frustrated that Carlos even wanted Cruella to come, it's not like the woman had a maternal bone in her body. There was a knock on the door and Jane poked her head in. "Can I come in?" she asked and Evie waved her in. Carlos just sat there staring as Jane came in.

"You're pretty." Carlos said when Jane came nearer, she blushed deeply and looked down. Dude, who had come in with Jane unbeknownst to Evie and Carlos decided that he was done being overlooked, he barked once and then hopped up onto the bed to give his boy kisses.

It didn't go well. Carlos screamed and Jane quickly scooped Dude up looking at Evie with confusion.

"Carlos, shhhh, it's ok. This is Dude. Carlos please stop." Evie tried to calm him down but the terrified boy was not in a state to be reasoned with. "Just take Dude out, now." she snapped at Jane who nodded and ran out of the room with the little dog just as Anita, Roger, and several doctors headed into the room to help.

Once Dude was safely out of the room Carlos calmed down quickly, "Why the hell would anyone keep a d-dog?!" he spat out in a huff.

No one answered him thinking it would just be best to move on to an other topic at the moment, "Carlos, the doctors say that you can be released tomorrow, but you're not ready to go back to school, we were planning to take you home with us until you're all better. How does that sound?" Anita said gently. Carlos looked at the Radcliffes and then Evie who smiled and nodded encouragingly, going with strange people was really the last thing he wanted to do but it didn't seem like there was much of an option either and so he reluctantly nodded.