Abigail was waiting when they pulled up and Little Grace slunk away.

"Alex, we are going to talk," Abigail said worried.

"Ab, let's let him get in the hot tub, he is really sore." Mr Wolff said.

"Ok," Abigail said and followed Alex as he slowly walked. He felt uncomfortable as she watched him change into the board shorts. He then climbed up into hot tub.

Big Ella came over she missed having Alex over.

"Not now Big Ella," Mr Wolff said softly.

Ella was going to complain but Onita quickly came and took her away.

"What's the matter Alex?" Abigail said softly.

"Nothing," Alex lied.

"Alex please don't lie, you don't have to deal with this yourself. We are here for you," Abigail said softly.

Alex didn't say anything.

"You scared a lot of people today," Abigail said softly.

"How?" Alex asked.

"Juanita thought you sounded suicidal," Abigail said softly.

Alex started crying.

"I didn't mean too, It's just it would be so much easier on everyone if I died," Alex sobbed.

"Hey, no it wouldn't. We love you too much," Abigail said bending down and hugging Alex.

Alex hadn't forgotten what he had seen today, but he couldn't help but notice how he tied everyone down.

Alex hugged Abigail for half an hour.

Alex stopped hugging Abigail and got up. He got out of the hot tub and grabbed a towel. He dried himself off and walked to his room. He undressed and climbed into bed. Before Abigail could even make it there Alex was fast asleep.

"Dad is Alex going to be ok?" Nat asked as he ate dinner with his dad.

"I hope so. But we have to keep a very close eye on him" Mr Wolff said softly.

"What's wrong with him?" Nat asked.

"Alex thinks and feels so much, and it builds up inside of him, because he doesn't pass any of his burden on. Alex will have massive mood swings as different moods reach breaking point. Unfortunately today was depression," Mr Wolff explained.

"How can we help him if he won't let us?"

Mr Wolff didn't know how to answer that.

It was just before 8pm when Simon, Juanita and her foster parents arrived.

Juanita went off to find Alex. She saw him in the room, he was just waking up.

"Hey Juanita," Alex yawned happily.

Juanita was still angry like she was before. She couldn't control herself as she walked up to Alex and smacked him in the face. Once she realized what she did she ran away crying.

Alex sobbed. Not only did his best friend just hit him, but he was helpless again. He put his hand up to his face and felt blood.

Nat found Juanita crying.

"What's the matter?" He asked warmly. He knew Alex would love having Juanita around.

"I just hit Alex," Juanita sobbed, she never intended on ever hurting Alex.

"You what?" Nat asked shocked.

"I was angry, he really scared me on the phone… and I hit him," Juanita sobbed.

Nat could see that Juanita wasn't coping, he knew Juanita loved Alex too much for her to ever want to hurt him.

"Come on, we should go and see him," Nat said trying to drag Juanita along.

"No Nat, I need to calm down, I don't want to hit him again," Juanita sobbed.

It was at the moment Rosalina walked back from the bathroom.

"What's going on?" She asked seeing Juanita crying.

"Juanita hit Alex… can you look after her while I check on Alex," Nat said hurriedly. He didn't wait for an answer but took off very quickly to Alex's room. He could her him sobbing from outside the room.

"Hey, Hey Alex, It's ok." Nat said softly as he walked in. He saw Alex had a cut above his eyebrow and had a massive lump. He knew that where Alex's had been hit was prone to bleeding.

Alex sobbed and took his hands away from his head, the blood dribbled into Alex's eye but he didn't pay attention.

"It's not ok. I knew you all hated me," Alex sobbed

Nat went and sat by Alex.

"Alex no one hates you." Nat said softly, he knew he would not be able to be reasonable with Alex until he had calmed down.

Nat tried to put pressure on Alex's head, but Alex slapped his hands away.

"I'm going to get some ice," Nat said quietly, he left Alex knowing Alex wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

Nat walked out to the dinning room.

"Onita do you have some ice and a facecloth?" Nat asked quietly.

"Why?" Onita asked warmly.

"Juanita hit Alex, and he's bleeding pretty bad," Nat said.

"I warned her to be careful," Juanita's foster mom said.

"Come on Laura, we both know she didn't mean to," Juanita's foster dad said standing up.

"I'll get the ice and cloth," Onita said walking off to find it.

"Where is he?" Juanita's foster dad asked.

"You know what to do?" Nat asked as began showing him the way.

"I'm an EMT" Juanita's foster father said.

"Thank you John," Mr Wolff said he watched Nat and Juanita's foster father walk away.

Nat led John to Alex's room.

Alex was softly holding his head in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Hey Alex," John said softly.

Onita came in a short time later with the ice and cloth.

"Alex can you move you hands so I can have a look?" John said softly, gently moving Alex's hands away.

Alex winced as John felt the affected area.

"You're a bit of an egg head aren't you?" John joked as he grabbed the cloth and applied pressure to the cut.

Alex gasped in pain as John applied pressure.

"Stop being funny," Alex complained trying not to laugh.

"Funny peculiar or funny ha ha?" John asked grinning.

"Both" Alex moaned trying harder not to laugh.

Nat and Onita watched interested, John had a knack for making people feel better.

"Not to worry, your not the only guy Juanita's beaten up, she does me weekly," John joked again.

"Don't, it hurts when I laugh," Alex complained laughing.

"You know Alex, you making difficult to keep pressure on you cut." John said.

"No you're making it hard," Alex responded.

John held the cloth on the cut for another few minutes until he was satisfied the bleeding had stopped.

He then grabbed the ice pack and put it on Alex's head.

Alex gasped again.

"That's cold," Alex moaned.

"It's probably why it's called an ice pack," John said.

"Your enjoying this aren't you?" Alex pretended to sulk.

Nat started to get a bit tired and walked towards the wall the lean on it.

"Can I have something to eat?" Alex asked while wincing as John continued to hold the ice to Alex's head.

Nat missed the wall he was aiming for and landed on the floor embarrassed.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ow ow ow" Alex said wincing as his head hurt as he laughed.

"Alex, only you would think of food at a time like this." Nat said slowly getting up.

"Was a knuckle sandwich not good enough for you Alex?" John joked.

"If that was a knuckle sandwich then Juanita has the worst aim…." Alex said softly.

"Alex!" Juanita said looking at him laughing a little.

John gave Juanita a compassionate look.

"I'm sorry Alex, I didn't mean to hit you," Juanita said softly.

"I deserved it," Alex said softly.

Rosalina looked at Alex with scorn.

"Alex, you know damn well you didn't. You can't help getting depressed." She said frustrated.

"How do you know?" Alex asked aggressively.

"We had someone talk about it at school," Rosalina said. "And Simon told us,"

"I hate this! Ow!" Alex said frustrated.

"I know, man," Nat said quietly.

"How do you know? Your not going through it!" Alex said aggressively.

"Calm down Alex," Rosalina said softly.

"WHY SHOULD I? YOU ALL PRETEND TO KNOW WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH! BUT YOU DON'T!" Alex yelled frustrated and angry.

"Your right Alex, we don't know what it's like…" Onita said softly.

"How about you share it!?" Juanita said aggressively. She didn't know why she kept getting so angry with Alex.

Alex looked furiously at Juanita.

"Alex please don't do this," Nat said softly.

"I'LL DO WHAT I WANT!" Alex yelled.

"Please Alex, we just want to help you," Rosalina said as warmly as she could.

"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! I'M FINE BY MYSELF!" Alex screamed.

"Fine let's go! Give us a call when you're ready to swallow your pride," Juanita said angrily and stormed out.

Everyone was stunned, Onita less so. Out of all of them Juanita was usually the only one who stood any chance at calming Alex down when he got this worked up.

Everyone looked around for about 20 seconds. The words left Nat's mouth before he realized he was saying it.

"She's right,"

Nat walked out before he knew what he had done. He walked back to dinning room and sat down. Everyone else walked out shortly after and sat around the table.

Alex suddenly found himself left alone, with no distractions he began to feel the headache his yelling had caused on top of the thumping he had received.

"My head," Alex sobbed as he begun clutching his head. He wanted to curl up into a ball but he physically couldn't do it.

"Things didn't go well did they?" Simon said softly.

No one said anything, they didn't need to.

"I'll go help him out," Simon said softly.

"No!" Nat said forcefully and Juanita gave a nod in agreement.

"Nat…"

"When he admits he needs help, then you can help him." Nat said more strongly than he felt.

"Nat you're playing Russian Roulette with your brother," Simon said frustrated.

"Didn't you say that admitting it, is the first step?" Nat asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't…." Simon said defensively.

"You're not going to get anywhere until he admits it." Nat said firmly announcing that the matter was closed.

Simon walked away angrily, no doubt to find Mr Wolff and have him convince Nat otherwise.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Juanita asked, she could her Alex's sobbing and desperately wanted to go in and hug him.

"I don't know anymore," Nat said softly.

Rosalina gave Nat a reassuring hug, just like John did to Juanita.

Despite his many misgivings Mr Wolff sided with Nat, so Simon had to wait it out. At half past ten everyone went to bed except Simon and John. They could still hear Alex sobbing.

Both men sat silently as the hours passed by.