After he had gotten his wounds cleaned Walker had just made his way into the living room when Alex confronted him. He could tell in her eyes that something was seriously wrong and had glanced to the backdoor to see Jarod talking to Billings. Though it was painful to walk, Walker slowly made his way through the kitchen, wishing he could use the counters to lean on. When will the excruciating throb ever end? It seemed to never go away, even with the medication.

He could see Jarod through the screen door and as his brother caught sight of him he quickly went inside. The look on his brother's face told Walker that something rather important had just happened. But what could it possibly be? What had caused Alex to nearly break into tears? A knock at his front door, disturbed his thoughts and he slowly turned to see Gage walking into their house with Trivette not too far behind him.

Gage quickly stepped passed Walker to talk to Billings who was still outside on the porch. Trivette gave the brothers his usual smile which turned even bigger at seeing Jarod's Mohawk. Walker glanced at his brother again to see a remarkable resemblance to himself, especially now since Jarod's head was shaved.

Jarod shook Trivette's hand. "What are you doing here? Don't you have a little one to take care of at home?"

"Don't worry, Erica has a friend over to help her out. I wanted to make sure everything is okay." He pointed to Jarod's hair. "I like it."

Walker couldn't help but to feel as though he has been left out of something rather important. For some reason unknown to him, this caused the depression to once again wash over his mind. He quickly tried to hide it by turning his head down, but Jarod saw and went up to him.

Jarod waved to the dining room as Trivette went outside to talk to Gage and Billings. "Have a seat, Cordell." After Walker was seated his brother sat down next to him. "Your Ranger badge was left on the porch. It still has blood on it from the attack." He turned as Gage walked in with a bag in his hands. "Can we see that?"

"Sure, but it's evidence. So, don't open the bag." Gage handed the badge over to Jarod then gently patted Walker on his good shoulder. "We'll get Harris, don't worry."

After Gage left Walker reached out for the bag which Jarod handed over, with no questions asked. As his eye fell upon it memories of a life forever gone flashed before his mind. This was the badge he had pinned on his shirt numerous times and wore with honor. Oh how he missed being a Texas Ranger. He slowly rubbed the badge with the tip of his thumb as the depression finally hit him with force. No longer was he the man that had worn this badge last. No longer will he be able to do the things he use to do before that day. Then what was he good for? Why was he even alive?

"There was a high chance that I would have made Captain that year." His voice didn't sound like him at all. It was quiet and cracked as the emotion tore at his heart. "I don't remember that day, not one minute of it." He took a deep shaky breath as he kept his eye glued on the badge he held in his cast hands. "Sometimes I wonder why I'm even still alive."

Jarod sighed then patted Walker's shoulder. "There's a reason for everything…"

"Then why don't I see it." Walker shook his head. "I'm in constant pain, I can't read and now I may not be able to drive anymore. I don't see why there's a reason…"

"Listen, Harris dropped this off to do precisely this." Jarod pointed at the badge as he spoke. "He knows this brings back memories and he is hoping that will make you weak." He took the badge from Walker then shook his head. "I know you're stronger than this. Show Harris this doesn't effect you. If you let him see you are weak he will take full advantage of that." He leaned back into the chair then smiled at Walker. "Have you done anything to help you cope with all of this?"

Walker looked at his brother with confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well, as a teenager I was rowdy as hell. Always got into trouble so my adoptive parents tried to find ways for me to channel my energy. Tried several things till I found gymnastics. Found out I was actually quite good at it." He pointed to Walker's cast hands. "Maybe, for physical therapy you can do sculpting or drawing."

"Art has never been my thing. I can't even draw a stick figure." Walker sighed heavily then winced as that brought on pain. The medication was wearing off which meant he will have to take his last dose for the night. However he didn't want to till he had something to eat. "Do you think it will help?"

Jarod shrugged. "It might give you something to pour your emotions into. You should give it a shot. Couldn't hurt."

Walker glanced down at his hands knowing Jarod was definitely right about physical therapy. He will have to do something to strengthen his hands and like the other times he had broken them he may have to use a ball or a piece of clay to get dexterity back. Maybe here he could try sculpting, but the thought of doing art nearly made him laugh. He didn't have a creative bone in his body, it would just lead to more embarrassment.

"I'm going to start dinner." Alex said as she stepped up to Walker and Jarod. "Anything you guys want?"

Jarod shook his head. "Nope, just fix whatever you want." He slowly got up then stretched. "I'll help you out, Alex."

Alex stepped up to him with a smile. "I have this. Why don't you go help out Walker with his therapy."

"Right, will do."

Jarod gave Alex a big hug then went into the living room where she can hear him talking to Walker. Slowly all of their lives are going back to normalcy and soon, Jarod will have to find a job. She knew him and Walker had plenty of talks about what he should do now since he was honorably discharged from the Galveston Homicide Division. One of the ideas that kept popping up was Jarod teaching gymnastics. Whatever it was, she hoped Jarod will be happy with the decision.

She threw the rest of the vegetables in the stew then put the lid on the container. Another two hours and dinner should be done. Hopefully Walker can stay awake tonight to eat something. As of late, because of the injuries and the medication he's been falling asleep rather earlier only to wake up in the middle of the night. His sleep patterns were completely off, which Doctor Hayden suspects has been leading to the seizures. She hoped that was the case, however something in her heart told her it was much more serious than that.

While Alex was in the kitchen Jarod and Walker made their way into the living room, the former helping the other. Once Walker was comfortable on the couch, or as much as he could be Jarod brought over a wooden tray which he put in front of Walker. Wonder what his brother had in mind this time?

He watched as his brother got a game of Scrabble then took out all the letter pieces. "You're going to spell out words by using these tiles." Jarod said as he mixed up the tiles on the wooden surface. "Okay, what word do you see first?"

It took a lot of concentration for Walker to sort out all the letters which to his damaged brain appeared to be a sea of black blurs. He couldn't believe it was this hard for him to do something so simple as spelling words. Hesitantly he reached for a block then decided against it. Why was he having so many problems deciphering which letter was which? What was wrong with him?

"Here, let me start it off." Jarod grabbed a tile then placed it away from the others, right in front of Walker. "What letter is this?"

"B." Walker's face flushed as he felt real silly for not being able to read the letter when it was mixed in with the others. "Let me try now."

But it seemed he couldn't pick out any letters if they were mixed in with the others. Why was that? He began to get flustered and it showed which irritated him more. And with the pain he was in and the lack of sleep, it was hard for him to keep his anger in check. Every now and again he would lash out which always got Alex upset. He knew it was caused by depression and wished he could control it. Most times he could, but right now more than ever he was feeling completely useless.

"Hey, Cordell. You okay?"

"No, I'm not okay!" Walker's voice carried throughout the house and he could hear Alex gasp. "I can't read, I can't write! What am I good for?"

Alex quickly ran into the living room, her face masked with confusion. "Walker, are you okay?"

"I'm getting tired of that question." Walker shook his head as Alex sat next to him on the couch. It ashamed him to no end that he just lashed out like he did and he could feel his face getting redder. "Just leave me alone right now…"

"No." Walker turned to his brother and saw determination in Jarod's face. "You're going to do this."

Walker bowed his head in embarrassment and he could see his brother picking out letters then placing them away from the others. He took a glance at the tiles to see with relief, a word. Though it took him some time he managed to spell, "Bear". This got him a smile from his brother who pulled out more tiles so Walker can use them to spell a word. It was as though Walker was his son Ray, who was now just learning how to read. What had happened to the man who got several honors in school? Where was he now when Walker really needed him?

He sighed heavily then spelled the word, "Table". "Just wish this came easier for me." He spelled out another word then looked up at Alex then back at the tray in front of him. "Thank you, Jarod."

"No problem." Jarod patted Walker's good shoulder then slowly stood up. "Here," He chose several tiles then put them in little groups. "Work out the words and I'll be back in about ten minutes."

Once out of earshot of Walker, Jarod let his shoulder's drop as he exhaled a deep breath. "Have you called Miller or Hayden about what's happening?"

Alex shook her head. "I was hoping it was just shock, but I'll call him tomorrow." She went to stir the stew. "He's always had problems with words and putting sentences together on paper." She sighed heavily, took a look in the living room then motioned for Jarod to come with her till they were standing near the back door. "Please don't repeat this anywhere. Nobody knows about this and it will devastate Walker if he learned about it."

Jarod gave Alex a nod. "Sure, what's up?"

She took a deep breath then leaned against the kitchen counter. "For the first month or two, when Walker came home he would try to write in the notebooks. Turns out, he couldn't put words or sentences together. Now, he eventually found this out and is now able to write at roughly a third grade level. But the first few months, he tried to write in his notebooks and all he did was write down incoherent sentences full of jumbled letters."

"Explains why he's having problems with the task I gave him to do." Jarod took a glance at the living room then back at Alex. "But he's able to write down his own notes, right?"

Alex took a few steps into the kitchen and grabbed one of the notebooks. "We made it simple. Walker threw a fuss over it, but he eventually agreed to do it this way."

Jarod flipped open the worn notebook to see several columns with names of medications and even hours of sleep. Then, there was a big column for seizures and the type. It was made so all Walker had to do was check off his medication, write down the number of hours for sleep and the seizure column had Alex's writing in it. It was rather detailed and to think there was several of these notebooks around the house. He closed it and saw on the cover in black marker, "Kitchen".

"I see color dots over the medication. Is that for him to know which one is which?"

"Yeah, he can't read the big words so we worked a system out so now all he has to do is grab the bottle with the correct dot." She went back to stir the stew again. "Just wish you got to know him before all of this happened."

"Same here. Heard through Jimmy and Gage, he's incredibly smart man and was a great Texas Ranger." He leaned against the counter next to the stove. "Unfortunately, that part of him is trapped inside his damaged brain. I think that's the reason for his frustration and depression." He gave Alex a reassuring smile. "I'm going to go check on him. Don't worry, we'll figure things out."

As Jarod made his way back into the living room he noticed his brother had finished most of the words. He went over, patted Walker's good shoulder then sat down next to him.

"See, you did really good." His brother slowly nodded his head as he worked out more tiles into word. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

Walker took a deep breath then shook his head. "It's been five years, this is my life now." He looked at Jarod with his good eye which was still slightly black. "So, I'm thinking of going to the Reservation as early as the end of next week."

"Really? But isn't that too soon?"

"No, I want to know why my parents didn't tell me about you." He gave Jarod a lopsided smile. "Don't worry, the pain isn't as much as it was a few weeks ago." His smile disappeared as he glanced down at his hands. "But you'll have to drive up there."

"Sure. But what about your head and shoulder. You just had surgery to both not too long ago, maybe you should wait…"

"No, it's okay." Walker sighed heavily, grimacing as he did so. "Besides, once there, I'll be able to relax. I just want to get out of the house for a bit."

"Okay, we'll plan for next Saturday, but if Hayden or Miller says no we will not go." He raised his hand as his brother started to protest. "They know better than you do. If that proves to be the case, we'll shoot for the Saturday after that."