It was another half an hour before Mr Wolff came out with the doctor who was pushing Alex in a wheelchair. Alex was mumbling incoherently and they could still see he was freaking out. The doctor lead them down to a room in the ED and helped Alex onto the bed.

"We didn't find anything on the head scans, so we are going to have Dr Thompson come and have a look. He's the head of our diagnostic department." The doctor said quietly.

"Please just leave me alone!" Alex cried

Mr Wolff stood beside Alex.

"It's ok Alex, it's all going to be ok," Mr Wolff said quietly as he gave Alex a hug.

"No it's not the reporters know it's not, that's why they were yelling and screaming," Alex cried.

"What reporter's" Mr Wolff asked softly.

"All those ones outside," Alex sobbed.

Mr Wolff hugged Alex tighter.

"Alex, there were no reporters" he said softly

"What's happening to me?" Alex asked sobbing.

"Nothing lasting…." A new doctor said walking in.

"Is he real?" Alex asked holding his dad tightly. He knew he was losing his grip on reality, he didn't want to lose his grip on anything else.

"Yeah he's real buddy," Mr Wolff said quietly.

"Alex, lemon lime soda and your med's don't mix." Doctor Thompson said quietly. "The amount of soda you drank mixed with your meds is creating a reaction which is causing you to hallucinate. It is also copying the effects of long term addiction."

"So Alex is hooked on soda?" Juanita asked.

"Alex will have to detox, and that should take a week and a half tops. Which is about how long it will take for the soda to leave Alex's system. The good news is he won't get depressed as often. The bad news is, he will get extremely grumpy and his mood can change for absolutely no reason what so ever. and Alex will be very needy."

"Is that all?" Nat asked softly.

"Not quite, I would suggest that someone always keeps an eye on him, because he wont stop hallucinating until he's clean, and he will try and drink any soda he can get his hands on. The next few days will be even more difficult on him,"

Mr Wolff nodded

"Other than that, I think we can discharge him, and you can take him home," Dr Thompson said quietly.

Simon and John drove back to Onita's in one car while Rosalina, Juanita, Nat and Alex all crammed themselves into the back seat of the other.

Alex was holding his brothers arm so tightly that Nat would be entirely surprised if Alex broke it.

Juanita sat on the other side holding onto Alex. While he rested his head on Nat's shoulder.

Alex lifted his head off his brothers shoulder and looked at the back rest of the drivers seat where Abigail was sitting.

"How did you fit in the car, there is no room?" Alex said confused and scared.

"It's ok Alex, there is no one there," Rosalina said softly.

Alex started hitting the back of the drivers seat trying to hit his other self.

"Alex, don't do that, I'm trying to drive," Abigail said as she was distracted from traffic and almost rear ended a police car.

Nat grabbed his brother and tightly held him.

"Why can't I hit him?" Alex said crying.

Nat hated to see his brother cry at the best of times, but he seemed to be constantly upset.

"He's not there Alex, he's not real." Nat said softly.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN! HE'S RIGHT THERE!" Alex yelled angrily.

"Shhhhh Alex," Mr Wolff said quietly as Abigail swerved wildly as she got a fright.

They made it home with out any further incidents, Mr Wolff wanted Alex to sleep but he didn't think Alex was in any capacity to sleep. He decided to put some DVD's on, hopefully that would help distract Alex.

"I want to watch Ice Age," Alex grumped halfway through a DVD.

Juanita held Alex softly.

"This is Ice Age," She said holding him.

The movies sort of worked. Alex would watch them with Juanita and Big Ella, and the band. Occasionally the others would join in, but Nat, Rosalina and Abigail went to sleep, they would watch DVD's with him through the night. The problem was Alex got easily distracted through movies and would start threatening himself. Mr Wolff spent the day finding DVD's to rent and getting everyone food.

"WHY DID HE HAVE TO BLOW UP THE STUPID CAR!" Alex yelled.

Juanita was concerned, not so much that Alex was yelling at movies, he did that occasionally anyway, it was more the fact that they were watching 'Finding Nemo'. She also knew that once Alex got clean, she was never watching a movie again so long as she lived.

Big Ella hugged her mom tightly, she felt really bad, she thought it was her fault Alex was like this, she got him the soda, not that she had told anyone, nor had they asked.

Qaasim looked at Alex, while Thomas swapped movies. Alex was staring at the stereo licking his lips.

"When did you get a soda machine?" Alex asked and began to crawl over to it.

"Your giving up soda, right Alex," Little Grace said to Alex, she was talking to Simon and he said it might help if they reminded Alex every time he thought something was soda.

When night fell, Abigail, Nat and Rosalina stumbled out half asleep. Mr Wolff brought out some coffee and milk, to wake them up and keep them going. He noticed Alex's hands were shaking really bad.

"Stop it you stupid hands!" Alex shouted at them, "Your not real,"

Rosalina sat by Alex and held his hands in hers.

"Is that better?" she asked as she stopped them from shaking.

"Now how am I supposed to drink my milk." Alex asked confused, he was stumbling through everything, he wasn't sure if anything that was happening was actually real.

They could see Alex was completely and utterly lost, he had no clue. It was made even more evident when at three in the morning he started licking Rosalina's arms.

"You know, for a giant can of soda your not very tasty," Alex said smiling.

"Alex, what are you doing licking giant can's of soda…. Your giving up." Nat said making a mental note of that. He wouldn't let either of them live it down.

Alex turned and looked at Nat and frowned. He then looked at Abigail.

"How does Squidwid know my name?" Alex asked curiously.

Abigail gave a hopeless smile, at least he wasn't grumpy or yelling at himself again.

"That's Nat," Abigail said softly.

"No, it's Squidwid, see I'll grab his nose," Alex said and jumped up, and grabbed Nat's nose. Seeing as he had been restless most the day he hadn't seized up.

"Alex, your squishing my nose," Nat said sounding a little like squidwid.

"See he even sounds like him," Alex said with a smile to say he was right.

"Hey Squidwid, are fish really friends not food,:" Alex asked shaking a little.

"I'll make you food in a minute if you don't let go of my nose," Nat said in a squished sort of voice.

"Really, Cool. Did you hear that Giant Soda Can, Squidwids making me breakfast.." Alex said turning back to Rosalina and licking his lips again.

Abigail grabbed a blanket and tightly wrapped Alex up in it. Although it was amusing to watch she didn't think Alex's imagination needed anymore stimulating. She put on another movie, "Wall-E" and sat down beside Alex and hugged him.

"Do you know, you are the first talking taco, I've ever met," Alex said to Abigail.

It was at 5am, that Alex began shaking very violently, he felt clammy and like he wanted to vomit. Abigail helped Alex to sit in front of the toilet and sat beside him.

Alex gagged and threw his mouth over the bowl, but nothing came out.

"Why is the toilet full with soda?" Alex asked running his shaking hand through his sweaty hair.

"Just ignore it Alex, it's not soda." Abigail said softly hugging him at the same time.

"I WANT SODA!" Alex yelled suddenly trying to drink the 'soda' in the toilet.

Abigail held Alex tightly while she tried to calm him down.

"Alex, you can't have soda. That's why your feeling so bad." Abigail said softly.

Alex still struggled he thought that if he had some soda, everything would be better.

"I WANT…." Alex yelled struggling against Abigail.

Abigail held him even tighter.

"I HATE YOU! LET ME HAVE SODA!" Alex screamed.

Abigail knew it was just the detox that was causing Alex to say these things but it still hurt none the less.

"Alex do you want to stop hallucinating? Do you want yourself to go away, because for that to happen you can't have soda, no matter how hard it gets." Abigail said softly stroking his hair.

"This is too……." Alex said before he threw himself at the toilet and threw up.

Alex then lay down on the floor and just stared at the wall while Abigail comforted him.