Hello Everyone out there in the realm of fanfiction, happy Friday, and welcome to another installment of Alexinthymia :) Thank you to gypsy rosalie for reviewing :)

Chapter 13

Alex looked up at the knock on her door and rolled her eyes as her mum's head appeared around the corner.

'Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?' Claire let herself into the room and sat on the edge of Alex's bed.

'I think the question should be how are you feeling?' Alex's eyes were accusing as they locked with her mum's.

'I'm sorry, I know you feel like I abandoned you, and I should've stayed and talked with you, but I felt the need to go to your uncle and thank him for looking after you when I couldn't. I knew something wasn't quite right, but you weren't talking to me, and I didn't want to push you because you don't react well to that,' Claire confessed. 'I didn't know what to do, and my inaction could've killed you, but Uncle Mitchell stepped in when I didn't and...there just aren't words enough to tell you how grateful I am.'

'You knew I was going through this?' Alex frowned; those words had jumped out of the sentence.

'Not that it was depression, you had just become more withdrawn, shorter tempered and you spent as little time as possible around the family.'

'Why didn't you talk to me?' Alex was caught half way between anger and tears. 'Why didn't you ask me what was wrong?'

'Oh honey, I didn't think I could.' Claire scooted closer and stroked her daughter's hair. 'I thought that maybe you wanted to be alone; you're so different from the rest of the family, sometimes it's hard to tell.'

'All I wanted was someone to notice me, someone to know that I wasn't okay.' Tears were flowing freely from Alex's eyes now and Claire, in response, climbed into bed next to her and held her daughter close, her own tears blurring her vision.

'I'm so sorry,' Claire whispered. 'So, so sorry.' Alex sobbed loudly into her mum's blouse, feeling like a small child again, enjoying the comfort of her mother's scent and the hand stroking her hair.

'You're my baby, and I don't ever want you to feel this way, I love you so much Alex!' Claire's voice was choked and she had to pause from stroking Alex's hair for a moment while she wiped tears from her cheeks. 'I don't really know what to say about what you're going through apart from we're going to do everything we can to help you get better, I don't care how much time and money it takes, I want my cheerful, smart, little girl back again.' Alex nodded, unable to say anything; a mixture of her snot and tears was running down the front of her mum's shirt, taking away any credible opinion she might have.

'I'm sorry too, mum.' Alex spoke up finally, grabbing a tissue from the box on her bedside table and blowing her nose.

'Why?'

'For your shirt,' Alex laughed. 'For getting depression, for how much I hated you for not noticing that there was something wrong with me.' Claire looked shocked for a moment but she shook her head and cupped her daughter's face in her hands.

'Don't be sorry, you have every right to be angry at me, I failed you, I should've noticed and there is no excusing my not noticing.'

'Mum...' Alex trailed off, not knowing what she could say to make her feel better; she couldn't even make herself feel better after all.

'No it's true, but that's okay because now I know and now I'm going to try harder, I'm going to be your mum,' Claire nodded determinedly. 'Now your dad said something about family counselling sessions, let me know the details and I'll put them in on the calendar.'

'They clash with Luke's soccer practice, so I understand if only one of you can make the sessions.'

'Luke will just have to deal with missing soccer; he can join another team or something. As a family we've neglected you and now we must all work together to help you recover from that neglect, no matter the sacrifice.'

Yay, resolution :) isn't it what we all live for? Until next Friday please review :) Every review equals a little writer smile :)