Three Months Later

As he stepped into Doctor Hayden's office Walker was led to a bed where he sat down. Hayden was a specialist in head trauma and specifically worked with patients who had lasting effects. In Walker's case it was the seizures, difficulty reading and something new he found out about once he got healthy enough to work out. He had problems with hand eye coordination, which was crucial in martial arts. Hopefully Doctor Hayden could help him out.

"Hello, Mr. Walker." Hayden closed the door behind him then opened a folder. "Got your CAT scans back today." He stuck them in a light box then turned it on. "How are you feeling today?"

Walker could sense that Doctor Hayden was hiding something from him. "What's going on?"

"The part of your skull that took the hardest hit was the back." He pointed to a brain scan which didn't look right to Walker. It had a very small spot near the back, which Hayden pointed to with a pen. "This, is the damaged part of your brain, unfortunately the brain does not heal. With physical and occupational therapy you should be able to continue living a great life."

"I see." Walker's shoulders slightly slumped. "This is my life now, huh?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Doctor Hayden sat down on a stool with a smile. "But you're alive." He opened the folder and began to jot down notes. "How are the seizures?"

Walker nodded. "Doing good. I'm beginning to know when they're about to happen. It usually starts with some dizziness, then nausea and my arms began to get a tingle sensation. Thanks to the medication, I'm able to control it, for the most part." He handed Hayden the journal where he logged all the seizures he had since he left the hospital. "Do you think they'll stop?"

Hayden sighed heavily as he glanced through the journal. "They could, we will keep a really close eye and this here," He held up the journal. "Is a very good idea." He took a deep breath as he rolled over to the counter. "How is the physical and occupational therapy coming along?"

"Doing really good. My reading has improved. But, my hand eye coordination isn't what it use to be." He glanced down at his clasped hands. "Doc, I'll do anything to get back to how I was before the attack."

"Walker, I'm not going to lie to you, you may never get back to exactly how you use to be. Your brain suffered serious trauma." Hayden paused then closed the folder. "It's amazing that you have made it this far. I have seen the scans and x-rays from when you were admitted, with the type of injuries you suffered I usually see patients walking in here in far worse condition then what you are now." Hayden took a deep breath. "You're one of the lucky ones."

Walker slowly nodded his head. "What should I do now?"

"Keep doing what your doing." He scooted his stool till he sat directly in front of Walker. "Okay, I'm going to test your reflexes." He took out a small flashlight from his lab coat and shown it directly into Walker's weakened right eye. "How are you dealing with the lack of depth perception?"

"It's doing good. I see a little out of the eye, so that helps some." Walker followed the light as Hayden waved it front of him. "Just something else that I've been learning to deal with."

Hayden smiled. "You'll learn how to do things slightly different, Walker. Many patients do." He nodded his head, jotted down some notes in the folder then held out one finger. "Follow my finger and then point to it." Walker did as he was told, but found it difficult to point at the finger while it was moving. "I'm going to give you simple exercises to do at home." He took out a piece of paper from the folder and began to go over what Walker had to do.

In the waiting room John sat reading a Time's magazine while Walker had his weekly checkup with Doctor Hayden. After this he will take Walker to the dentist where he will have another surgery on his mouth, this time to fix a cracked molar. Since John's arrival back to Dallas a month ago, Walker has had ten surgeries to fix his teeth. Unfortunately he had three more surgeries to go; one root canal and two more broken teeth that needed to be taken care of.

He yawned then stretched, wincing as the sore muscles in his chest began to pull. Three months ago he and Michael were sent to Iraq, one of the reasons why they couldn't get away for Christmas. It was a month ago today when John got involved in a shoot out which left him fighting for his life. He was just released from the hospital close to a month ago, unfortunately thanks to some \nerve damage in his right arm he may never be a Marine again. However, his mood was not dampened. Once he was healthy enough he would began training once again for the Olympics.

"You ready to go?"

He glanced up to see Walker standing in front of him, in his hands an envelope. "Yeah, how did everything go?"

Walker shrugged. "Doing okay. Thanks for taking me to all these appointments. Really appreciate it. Lunch is on me."

John patted Walker's shoulder. "Deal. Don't forget though, you have oral surgery in an hour."

"Don't remind me." Walker grimaced at just the thought of another surgery on his mouth. The worst surgery he has had was to get metallic implants put into his gums so he could place false teeth over them. As for the missing molars, he had a retainer with two false teeth on it which took some time to get use to it. "Where do you want to eat?"

"Mexican sounds good." His phone buzzed in his pocket. Quickly he fished it out to see it was for Walker. "It's your friend, Chip Henderson."

Walker quickly took the phone from John then pushed the green button. "Hey Chip, thanks so much for doing that project for me. Did you find the evidence?"

Chip sighed heavily. "Yes, I did. Her blood was still frozen, which I'm amazed to find since the case was closed." Walker could hear wheels sliding across linoleum as Chip went to another station. "According to the blood work, twins are related to Ellen, she's their mother."

"Thank you." Walker sighed with relief then sat down on a chair. "I really appreciate you doing this for me Chip."

"No problem, sorry that it took awhile."

"Oh, that's no problem." He said good-bye then glanced up at John. "You said you wanted Mexican, right?"

John nodded. "Yeah, what did Chip want?"

Walker took a deep breath as he handed the phone back to his son. "He's got the results back. I know who you and Michael's mother is." John's face turned into shock. "It wasn't your mother, but a lady that," He rubbed the nape of his neck,. "I dated for awhile and plan on marrying. I'm sorry, John."

"It's okay." John squatted down in front of Walker to face him eye to eye. "Me and Michael kind of figured that our mother wasn't really blood related. We saw many pictures of her before her death, and we look nothing like her. Just thought we took after our dad, which we do." He smiled at Walker. "Let's get some Mexican."