"I'm sorry!" Alex finally cried out at 4 am. "Can someone help me?"

Simon and John stood up. John picked up an aspirin and a glass of water and walked with Simon into Alex.

"I'm sorry Alex, but you had to admit it." John said softly and gave Alex the aspirin.

Alex took the aspirin and washed it down with water.

"Alex you need to tell me what's wrong," Simon said seriously as he sat down on the bed.

"I've told you," Alex sobbed.

Simon suddenly found himself ready to employ the tactic he was so angry about only hours ago.

"Let's go John," Simon said and started to walk out.

"Don't go!" Alex sobbed, "I'll tell you…"

Simon sighed and sat back down.

"What's going on?" Simon asked seriously.

"I'm sick of everyone lying to me." Alex sniffed.

"Alex no one is lying to you…." Simon said softly.

"Oh Alex your so strong" Alex mimicked. "You are the strongest person I know"

"Alex they're not lying," Simon said softly.

"Yes they are! 'Oh Alex you can't do that,''Oh Alex you need to rest,''Oh Alex we are just saying one thing and doing another'" Alex said angrily.

"Alex we're not lying when we say that your strong…." Simon said trying to comfort Alex.

"Yes you are! I've been trying for the last four hours to move…. AND I COULDN'T DO IT!" Alex screamed and started sobbing.

"Shhhhh Alex, everyone is sleeping," John said softly.

"I don't care," Alex said quietly, "Nat doesn't care… 'Hey Alex, look at me get up by myself and walk around everywhere because I can,'"

"You blame him don't you?" Simon asked, he could see that Alex resented Nat a lot.

Alex stared at his feet for 2 minutes before he gave Simon a teary eyed nod.

"Please don't tell him," Alex pleaded quietly.

"Alex, I think you need to talk to your brother," Simon said softly.

"He'll hate me," Alex cried

"Alex, your brother wants to hear what you really feel… everyone does." Simon said softly.

"Humph!" Alex said grumpily.

"Alex, we are going to have a group therapy session when everyone wakes up." Simon said

Alex was even more annoyed by this, but didn't speak.

"I'm still hungry you know!" Alex grumped looking at John.

"Alex, it's four in the morn…."

"I don't care no one gave me dinner!" Alex said, he looked as though he was about to start shouting again.

"Alex it's not our house, we can't go snooping through other peoples stuff to find you something to eat," John tried to reason with him.

"Get me food or I'll wake everyone up!" Alex said growing closer to yelling.

"Alex….."

Alex took a deep breath.

"ARRRRRRRRRGH!" He yelled at the top of his voice before either John or Simon could stop him.

Simon was annoyed with Alex as he heard the sounds of people getting out of bed.

"Alex, it's four in the morning," Juanita yawned walking in rubbing her eyes.

"I don't care! I want food!" Alex said forcefully.

"It's not my house…."

"I DON'T CARE!" Alex yelled.

"Fine, we'll see if we can find you something," Simon said annoyed and he walked out of the room with Juanita and John.

"Alex isn't a happy camper," John said quietly to Juanita.

"I wish things were easier for him," Juanita said softly.

"I know you do." John said and hugged Juanita.

"What was Alex yelling about?" Mr Wolff asked rubbing his eyes.

"Anything, everything and food," John said quietly.

"Might as well cook breakfast seeing as he woke everyone up," Mr Wolff said softly.

Abigail walked out shortly after.

"Do you want to help Alex up and I'll cook breakfast." Abigail said tiredly.

"Yeah," Mr Wolff said.

He walked into Alex's room and sat beside him. He gently stroked Alex's hair.

"Al, I want you to calm down, you've been worked up all night," Mr Wolff said softly. "Can you do that for me?"

Alex nodded quietly and let his dad hug him. He did so for quarter of an hour. His dad could sense that Alex had calmed down a lot, and only wanted a bit of comforting.

Mr Wolff grabbed some shorts and helped Alex into them, before he picked up Alex and put him in his wheelchair. He looked at Alex's face, it wasn't until he did that he remember Alex had bled last night.

He was squinting through one eye as the other was cemented shut by dried blood. Alex had a massive lump on his head.

"How's your head?" He asked quietly.

"It hurts," Alex said.

Mr Wolff wheeled Alex into the bathroom and with a wet face cloth began wiping the blood off Alex, especially around his eye.

With that done he gave Alex a singlet to put on and wheeled him out to the dining room. It was only then Alex saw that he had indeed woken everyone up.

"Morning Alex!" Big Ella said tiredly but excitedly before she came over and sat on Alex. Alex suppressed a groan as she did.

"Morning Big Ella," Alex said hugging her tightly. He was in a hugging mood.

They all had breakfast as it was cooked Big Ella sitting on Alex the whole time. Alex forced himself to eat three helpings before he was full. It was 7 O'clock when Mr Wolff wheeled Alex back into his room.

He helped Alex with his exercises before allowing Alex to have a shower and get dressed properly. Alex had just tied on a do rag when he heard Big Ella shouting.

"IT'S NOT FAIR! I WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH ALEX!" She screamed before running into Alex's room.

"I want to spend time with you. But mom says that I have to stay away from you all morning," Big Ella sobbed.

"We'll have our time." Alex said as Nat walked in.

"You could make a scavenger hunt in my room for me with ……" Alex whispered to Big Ella, "But you can't tell anyone, it'll be our little secret."

"Come on man, Simon want's to get started." Nat said.

Alex put something in Big Ella's hand and stood up. He deliberately avoided looking at Nat, and walked to a room at the back of the house.

"Alex take a seat," Simon instructed as he followed Nat in. Nat had sat himself down on a bean bag.

"I don't want a seat," Alex protested.

"Come on Alex you can sit on me," Mr Wolff said softly.

Alex went and sat on his dad and his dad hugged him tightly.

"Ok, it appears there are a number of issues we need to address, it's time to be honest," Simon said quietly.

"Yeah stop lying to me!" Alex said forcefully.

"We're not lying to you buddy," his dad whispered into his ear.

"What, we haven't lied to you." Nat said looking at his brother.

Alex didn't look at Nat.

"Oh Alex you are so strong!" Alex mimicked.

"Alex, that's the truth," Juanita said softly. "You are…"

"A stupid weak useless loser!" Alex said angrily.

"No Alex, your not any of those," Laura said quietly. "When we say you are strong we mean it."

"If I'm so strong was someone have to help me get up in the morning? If I'm not useless why am I never asked to help with anything? If I'm so smart why is everyone always say, 'no you cant do that Alex' huh?" Alex asked looking at everyone except Nat.

"Alex…." Abigail said softly.

"What the hell am I supposed to think?" Alex asked outloud, the hurt clear in his voice..

Mr Wolff hugged Alex tighter.

"I'm sorry Alex, I didn't realize how much this was eating at you," Mr Wolff said softly.

"Well it is," Alex sobbed and turned and buried himself in his dads shoulder.

Mr Wolff gently took off Alex's do rag and began stroking his hair.

It made him feel bad to think that him trying to help Alex with everything was hurting him.

It took 15 minutes before Alex finally pulled himself out of his dads shoulder.

"Alex why didn't you say something?" Abigail asked quietly.

"Because I didn't want to lump anything else on you," Alex said quietly.

"Alex, you are not lumping enough on us," Nat said quietly.

Alex didn't look at him.

"Everyone bends over backwards for me," Alex said softly, "I'm sick of everyone wanting to take all my problems off me…"

"Alex we are here for you. We want to help lift some of the burden off you so you can get better," Laura said quietly.

"It's not fair, I didn't want any of this," Alex said frustrated.

"We know Alex, that's why we want to make things easier for you." Mr Wolff said softly.

"You can't make it easier, you come in and it's like 'Look at me Alex, I don't need anyone to help me get out of bed'" Alex said angrily shooting Nat a dark look through the corner of his eyes.

Nat caught his brothers look.

"You blame me don't you Alex?" Nat asked scared of the answer.

Everyone turned and looked at Alex. He wished they didn't.

After a few very tense minutes Alex slowly nodded.

Nat was crushed, the one thing that kept him sane was the idea that Alex didn't blame him.

"Please don't hate me" Alex sobbed.

"I don't hate you," Nat said hollowly.

"Stop lying to me!" Alex shouted through the sobs.

"You lied to me first!" Nat shouted back.

"HOW!" Alex shouted back.

"Boy's calm down," Mr Wolff said, he hated to see his sons fighting.

"You told me you didn't blame me!" Nat shouted back.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Boys. Calm down" Simon said forcefully.

Nat and Alex glared at each other.

"Settle down Al," Mr Wolff said softly.

"He broke my back and he gets to walk around like every things all normal." Alex cried.

"Alex, your brother would have rather that he be stuck with the problems you have. He hates seeing you suffer," Mr Wolff said softly.

"He gave them to me," Alex cried.

"Alex he didn't mean to… do you remember what happened?" Mr Wolff asked quietly.

"All I remember is that I was piñata and Nat came out and kept hitting me… and you all just watched.:" Alex sniffed.

"Do you remember anyone else there?" Mr Wolff asked quietly.

"No" Alex said softly.

"You don't remember Juanita's aunt there?" Simon asked softly.

"No," Alex said quietly.

"Alex, it wasn't Nat's fault. Juanita's aunt forced him to do it, he had no idea what he was doing to you." Mr Wolff explained.

"He still did this to me, he's able to do anything he wants…" Alex said sadly.

"Alex do you blame Nat, or are you jealous of him," Juanita asked softly.

"I don't know…" Alex said softly.

"I know it's tough for you. And it must be hard watching your brother being able to do things normally knowing that he put you like this, against his knowledge." Mr Wolff said softly. "But he never ever, ever meant to hurt you."

Nat looked at his brother, he couldn't stay angry at him.

"Al, I thought I was saving you, she said it was a pig carcass and if I hit it, she wouldn't hurt you," Nat said softly.

"You believed her?" Alex asked still confused and angry.

"I was scared, you were getting so much better, I didn't want her to ruin everything for you," Nat said as tears slowly ran down his cheeks.

Alex got off his dad and sat on Nat.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you and said I blamed you." Alex said crying into his brother shoulder.

Nat stroked his brothers hair.

"It's ok Al, I'm sorry I yelled at you as well," Nat said as he comforted his brother.

Simon watched pleased with the progress, but he knew he still had one thing that need to be done.

Once Alex had calmed down and was happyish again Simon got things going again.

"Ok, I think we need to give Alex some milestones to strive towards," Simon began, "If we need to give him goals to accomplish just to make things easier."

"Like what?" Juanita asked

"Something for Alex to measure his progress, maybe we could see if he can climb the Statue of Liberty unaided by Halloween," Simon suggested.

Alex eyes brightened with the thought of a challenge, but he wanted it tougher.

"What about the end of August?" Alex asked excitedly.

"That's a big ask Alex," Abigail said softly, Alex had tried to walk up the stairs at the hotel in Vancouver, he was completely exhausted by the end of the first flight.

"I know… but I really want to," Alex said looking for support.

"Ok Alex, well help you aim for the end of August." Abigail said softly.

Mr Wolff ruffled Alex's hair.

"Happy now kiddo," He said, he could see Alex was happy with the prospect of climbing the statue of Liberty himself.

Alex nodded.

They talked for another half an hour sussing everything out.