hey y'all! here's the first chapter of my new story...this is my AU for an AU. welcome to The Road You Walk, an alternate sequel to Hurricane where Tadashi's broken spine doesn't heal. I'm really excited for this story...hopefully it'll be fairly long. i think y'all will really like it!

thanks silvie for reviewing A Hero's Journey...i'm sorry it was so short, but it was only ever gonna be a threeshot and i had severe writer's block while doing it. i'm hoping this one will be awesome tho!

any more ideas are very much appreciated...so are reviews...and please tell all y'all's bh6-loving friends about this story! i've got BIG plans for this one...although i haven't worked out much of the plot yet, i can tell it's got potential...i hope you guys think so too!

peace out!

—TADASHI—

On the third day, I'd almost given up hope.

No, scratch that. I'd entirely given up hope.

No one was ever going to find me in this ancient, collapsing building. And I couldn't drag myself to freedom—I knew my humerus and wrist were both broken. But that wasn't the worst part.

I couldn't feel my legs.

Well, there had been feeling in them at the start, when I fell into the building, but then came the excruciating pain in my back and the numbness, and that's when I knew my spine was broken. I was never getting out of there—the rainwater wasn't enough to live off of, and there was no food. I was so hungry I wanted to cry and my whole body hurt and I didn't know where Hiro was and I'd been so stupid. If I'd just looked where I was stepping as we climbed over the mountains of debris left from the hurricane, Hiro and I wouldn't have been swept away in the flood, I wouldn't be here, and we might be safe.

Tears started to drip down my face as night fell. My life was over, I was sure of it. I'd never get to say goodbye to Hiro—

Suddenly, a small, weak voice cut through the darkness. "Dashi!"

"Hiro?" I rasped, hoping I hadn't imagined it.

A small, round face appeared in the hole in the ceiling, battered and bruised but lighting up. "Dashi! What happened? Where have you been?"

"Come down here and I'll tell you," I groaned.

Hiro squeezed through the tiny hole, and I noticed he was wearing some kind of brace around his waist. I wondered what was wrong with him—hopefully it wasn't too bad.

After telling Hiro what had happened to me and making sure my baby brother was okay—he had a broken hip!—I somehow managed to move my legs a little and wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to ignore the pain in the broken one.

Hiro powered on his thrusters and we slowly rose out of the building. The flight back to the hospital was painful for both of us, and I felt really bad for Hiro having to carry me. My baby brother was too small to be doing this—I should have been the one helping him.

We finally made it back to the hospital, where the doctors ran a lot of frantic tests on me. They got me in a wheelchair, put a cast on my arm and wrist, bandaged my cuts and scrapes, and gave me some painkillers—but they all avoided mentioning my back. Dread started building up inside me. It had to be bad if they didn't want to tell me about it.

Finally, Dr. Armstrong entered the room where Honey, Aunt Cass, and I sat. The doctor took a seat on his rolling stool, looking out of place in the new hospital.

"Tadashi," he began, his voice trembling slightly. "Your scan results just came back—" He cut himself off, burying his head in his hands.

I put my good hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me. I'm not going to walk again, am I?"

Dr. Armstrong raised his head, then slowly shook it, his eyes filling up with tears. "I'm so sorry, Dashi."

"It's okay," I told him. "I can deal with it. Where's Hiro?"

I could feel the sobs building up inside me, but I refused to let them go yet. I had to make sure my baby brother knew what was going to happen to me.

"He's—he's resting, I think," Dr. Armstrong said, wiping his eyes. "I'll see—"

At that moment, Hiro's face appeared in the doorway. "Dashi?"

"Hiro! Come here, buddy."

Hiro walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug. "How're you doing?"

"Not so good. My arm doesn't need surgery, but I'll need this cast for a few months. I have a concussion and a fever, so they have me on a ton of medication. And I have…" I sighed. "Hiro, I have a broken spine. They're not sure if I'll walk again." I could feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes.

Hiro's eyes widened, and I could see tears of his own welling up. "But you could move your legs! You could walk! You'll be fine, Dashi!"

I gave Hiro a half-smile, a tear slipping down my cheek. "Thanks for not giving up on me, buddy. But it got worse on the ride back, and I might not ever get better."

Hiro started sobbing, throwing himself at me and burying his face in my shoulder. "I'm s-so sorry…I s-should've l-let everyone else c-come get you…they could've d-done it b-better! They could've s-saved you! This is all my fault, Dashi!"

I stroked Hiro's hair, tears dripping onto my baby brother's head. "This isn't your fault, Hiro. If you hadn't found me, I'd probably be dead by now. The fever might have killed me. And you were so smart. So brave. You let me hold onto you even though it hurt, and I'm sorry about that. I promise you, Hiro, you did everything you could. This was never your fault, and even if it was, I'd still love you. I'll always love you, Ototo. No matter what."

I kissed the top of Hiro's head, trying to help him feel better. Hiro was positively bawling now, and I could hear Aunt Cass and Honey doing the same. I beckoned them closer and pulled them all into a hug, Hiro now sitting on my lap. "We'll be okay, guys," I said, my voice breaking. "We'll be okay. I promise you that. We are not broken."

But I am.

two years later

"My name is Tadashi Hamada—Doctor Hamada to you," I announce to the group of students, rubbing the back of my neck. "Yeah, I'm probably not much older than a lot of you. But I promise I'm completely qualified to teach this class."

I don't know why I have to teach a high school health class as part of my med school training. But I do, and I'm death scared.

I wheel myself to the front of the room—but I don't actually turn the wheels, since Hiro motorized my wheelchair. He also equipped it with thrusters, racing stripes, headlights, and electricity blasters.

"So you can all get to know me better, today we're going to learn about paraplegia," I tell the class. "No, I wasn't born this way, no, it won't go away anytime soon, and no, I do not go to the bathroom with a catheter."

The class giggles, which I hope is a good sign. I want to be a great teacher for today.

"Alright," I begin. "For those of you who don't already know, paraplegia is the paralysis of the lower half of the body, which may or may not include the bladder and rectum. For me, it doesn't—hence why I don't need a catheter. Paraplegia can be a symptom of various ailments, such as certain disorders, trauma to the spine, or a stroke. In my case, it was caused by trauma. I broke my spine in the hurricane two years ago—I'm sure you all remember the hurricane."

The class nods mutely, suddenly staring at the floor.

"I hope you and your families were alright," I tell them softly. "And if anyone lost someone in the storm…it's going to be okay. I don't know if you all believe the same thing I do, but I believe that we'll see our lost loved ones again."

I get a few sad smiles from the class, so I hope I helped them feel better—although I probably shouldn't have brought up the hurricane in the first place.

"If we're ready, we can move on," I mumble, rubbing my neck again. "It that okay with you guys?"

The students nod, so I keep going. "Okay. Now, who can tell me what the prefix para- means?"

The rest of the class goes smoothly, and the students seem to really like me. When the bell rings, they file out the door and I wave at them, then breathe out a sigh of relief and collapse against the back of my wheelchair. I'm exhausted now, and my back hurts. It's time to go home.

When I get back to the café, my wife is waiting for me with a box of donuts.

"How was it?" Honey asks, handing me a cinnamon twist donut.

"Not too bad," I tell her, realizing that it actually went a lot better than I thought it would.

"That's great," Honey says with a smile as I begin to devour the donut.

"Yep," I agree, my mouth full. "How was your day, babe?"

"The baby's been kicking all day," Honey laments. "But it's kind of nice to feel her doing that. And Hiro's been really helpful in the café, so I didn't have to work too hard."

At that moment, Hiro appears from the back, carrying a huge stack of plates. He sets them on the counter and turns to me. "Hey, Dashi!"

I give my baby brother a fist bump and then put on my apron. "Hey, Hiro. Anything I can do to give you a break?"

"I'm fine, Tadashi," Hiro insists, but he's definitely limping worse than normal when he heads into the back for more plates.

Hiro broke his hip in the hurricane, in the same flood that broke my back. He was swept down the hill on Main Street and slammed really hard into a partially collapsed building. The bones didn't heal properly and he's got a permanent limp—until we can get hip replacement surgery. We're trying to save up for it, but it costs a lot of money and I don't think we're going to make it before Hiro goes out of state for college.

"Go sit down," I tell Hiro as soon as he comes back. "Seriously, I'll work for a little bit. I can take the counter."

Hiro groans. "Fine. But I'm taking over after a little bit."

But he falls asleep after only a few minutes, so I don't think he's gonna be doing that any time soon.

The shift at the café is tiring, but it feels good to help. That's all I've ever wanted to do—help people, and now it seems like I'm the one being helped instead of helping. I hate feeling like I can't serve people—it's not like I'm completely paralyzed. I'm probably lucky that I wasn't, since I could have broken my back in any place. But it broke far down enough that it didn't paralyze my organs, just my legs.

It's still hard.

I don't want to accept the fact that I'm never going to walk again. It just makes me feel so helpless and weak, even though my quality of life hasn't been diminished all that much. I just can't move around as much as I used to, which has unfortunately given me some more padding around my midsection. It's a little embarrassing, but only a minor annoyance. The back pain is worse—I feel it if I overexert myself too much, always right around the break in my spine. It's not usually too bad, but I wish it would go away. Sometimes it's just a dull ache, sometimes it's a sharp, burning pain, sometimes it's so bad I almost cry. I want to a lot of the time.

I try to tell myself that people died in the hurricane, that my friends died, that I'm blessed to be alive, but I hate feeling like only half a person. I don't consider myself disabled, but everyone else does, and it's so hard. I just want to help.

"Hey, Dashi," Honey says softly. "You okay?"

"Oh—just thinking," I tell her hastily. "I'm fine."

"If you need anything, I'm here," Honey assures me, putting her hand on my shoulder. "And so's our daughter. Just three more months."

I give my wife a smile and gently place a hand on her stomach, feeling my daughter kicking. I can't believe I'm going to be a dad—I thought I wasn't going to be able to after I got paralyzed. But I am, and to me, that's a miracle.

But I'm never going to be able to run with my daughter, throw her up in the air, lift her up and walk with her on my shoulders. I'm not going to be able to help her put the star on our Christmas tree, go bouldering with her, do anything a normal dad does.

Nothing I did with Hiro. Nothing our dad did with me.

I'll only be half a daddy to her.

Honey reaches down and wipes a tear I didn't know was there off my cheek. "What's wrong, baby?"

"I'm just…" I sigh. "I'm not going to be a very good dad, Honey. I won't be able to do anything my dad did."

"But you're not your dad, Tadashi. You're you. And I know our daughter will love you just the way you are and won't think any less of you. In fact, I'm sure she'll think your wheelchair is really cool—if you let her ride it." Honey smiles down at me. "I promise, Dashi, you're going to be the best daddy ever."

"Yeah," I mumble, trying not to burst into tears. "Thanks, Honey. You're the best."

"So are you," my wife says, kissing me on the cheek. "Now, did you take all the cinnamon twist donuts?"

That night, Hiro and Honey head out on night patrol, following a lead they have on Professor Callaghan. He escaped from prison during the hurricane, since the storm knocked down the whole building, and he's been at large for two years now. But someone thinks they may have spotted the professor just outside of San Fransokyo, in Muirihara Woods, armed with an immense number of microbots.

I'm seriously worried.

"Be safe," I tell Hiro and Honey as they suit up to climb aboard Baymax. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"We'll be fine," Honey reassures me, brushing a hand over my cheek. "Don't worry about us."

"Yeah," Hiro adds. "Promise, Dashi. We'll be okay. But call us if we're not back in three hours."

I ruffle Hiro's hair teasingly. "Okay, buddy. But you call me if there's an emergency—remember, I've got thrusters now."

Hiro laughs and swats my hand away, but then pulls me into a hug. "And you'll come running—well, flying. We'll be fine, Dashi, seriously."

He releases me, and then my brother and wife both climb on top of Baymax and shoot upwards.

"Be safe!" I call, my voice lost in the darkened, star-studded sky.

As I wheel myself back inside, I realize something's off.

There shouldn't be any stars in the sky.

San Fransokyo is a big city with a lot of light pollution, so we normally can't see any stars whatsoever—we have to go to Muirihara Woods or another natural spot for that.

So why can I see stars?

I look out over the city, and that's when I realize that the lights are going out. Every light in the city is being extinguished.

The café's lights go dark, and the rest of the city soon follows. I know in my gut that something is seriously wrong—but what? A power outage is usually nothing to worry about.

But if someone's cut the power to the whole city—

That's definitely something to worry about.

I have to go get Hiro and Honey and tell them to come back, tell them it's not safe. One or more of the villains is evidently after something important, and I don't want Hiro and Honey—not to mention Baymax—in their way.

I press the button on the armrest of my wheelchair to activate my thrusters and rise a few feet into the air. Hopefully these are charged enough to get me to the woods so I can check on my family. If the power for the whole city has been cut, the power to Baymax could have also been compromised. I really hope not—I don't want my tiny, vulnerable brother and my pregnant wife crashing in the woods.

Pulling a pad of sticky notes and a pen from the backpack attached to the back of my chair, I scribble a note to Aunt Cass telling her where I've gone. I'd hate for her to freak out and not know where her kids were.

I strap myself into my seat and push the joystick on my wheelchair forward. Next stop, Muirihara Woods.

My wheelchair soars over the skyscrapers faster than I would've thought possible and I let out a yell of jubilation. This is my first flight—just like Hiro got to take on Baymax. I'm so happy Hiro was able to make this for me.

But there's no time to dwell on it now—I have to go make sure Hiro and Honey are okay.

I'm going to prove I can help.

No matter what.