"Come on Nat, we'll drop you off before we take Alex to hospital." Mr Wolff said as they followed Abigail and Alex out to the car.
Nat spent the whole trip just watching Alex. Alex wasn't saying anything and Nat wouldn't be surprised if he didn't notice anyone talking to him. He seemed to be concentrating all his energy on not crying out in pain.
There were times where Nat just wished he could read his brothers mind. Because Alex was very guarded about giving any information away. He couldn't comprehend what it was like to be Alex.
It was with a small sense of relief that Nat got out at school and had a chance to not feel guilty about Alex.
Mr Wolff got out and quickly made his way into Alex's school before coming back a couple of minutes later.
It took nearly 45 minutes to finally get to see Alex's specialist once they finally arrived at the hospital.
"Alex, I wasn't expecting to see you for a couple of weeks," the specialist said.
Alex didn't say anything, now that he had spilled the beans it was more difficult to try and ignore the pain to think let along talk.
"We want to put Alex on some stronger pain killers, the stuff he's on now don't seem to do anything," Abigail said quietly.
"Ok Alex, we are going to lift you onto this bed here," The doctor said before he had Abigail lifted him up.
Alex gasped in pain as he did.
"Ok Alex, on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad does it hurt?" The specialist asked.
'2 Billion!" Alex yelled in pain.
"Ok how about now," The specialist asked pressing down lightly on Alex's back.
"I don't know, it hurts too feel anything!" Alex yelled.
"Alex, we are going to give you some morphine and then go from the there." The specialist said searching through a cabinet for it.
Alex never felt the needle go in, but he soon felt his pain going away and for the first time in ages Alex's felt that things were bearable.
"How's that?"
"Lots, lots better," Alex sighed with relief.
"See Alex, the doctors can make things better," Abigail said softly.
"Right, well seeing as you are here, we might as well see if Alex has gotten any better, are you able to walk for me?"
"No… We didn't do the things," Alex said feeling slower due to the morphine.
"He pretty much woke up grumpy, finally told us he was feeling this bad and we brought him in," Mr Wolff said.
"Ok, We'll take him for X Rays, afterwards we can have him do his exercises and we'll check a couple of things out." The specialist said.
It was 11:20 when they had finished. Alex was thankful for the morphine, his exercises were the most bearable they had ever been.
"Ok Alex, I want you to stand up and take a few steps."
Alex did as he was told, the doctor began feeling Alex's back, Alex felt a sharp pain in his back for a second before it was gone.
The specialist heard Alex gasp in pain.
"Ok take a seat,"
Alex took a seat in his wheelchair, which was in between Abigail and his dad.
The doctor had the X-rays on his desk and took a quick glance at them.
"So am I better?" Alex asked unsure if he wanted to know.
The doctor looked at him.
"The short answer is no, but at this early stage it is not uncommon to see no improvement." The specialist said.
Abigail squeezed Alex's hand, she knew this wasn't the news Alex wanted.
"In your case, it appears that you had made some improvements, but you have put your back under more stress than it is capable of taking while healing at the same time."
Alex sniffed a little trying to hide how upset and disappointed he was feeling.
"Until our next appointment I want you to take it easy. No climbing, No running in fact I don't want you walking anything more than a few steps." The specialist said.
"This is so unfair," Alex said and started crying.
Mr Wolff hugged Alex.
"It's just a set back Alex, give it time and everything will be alright," He said softly.
"Alex I'm just trying to make sure you don't do permanent damage," The doctor said quietly.
"That doesn't stop it being unfair," Alex cried.
"I know Alex," Abigail said softly,
"But I am trying to make it easier on you, I want to put you on Vicodin when you wake up and at lunch, and a morphine drip when you get home. It should stop you feeling the pain," The specialist said.
Alex was still unhappy when they dropped him off at school. His dad pushed into the classroom, Angela was in there talking with Juanita and another kid was there with principal Schmoke and his parents.
"Hey Alex, I thought I would come in and say hi," Juanita said smiling to him.
Alex felt very slow as he tried to respond to Juanita.
"Hey Juanita…" Alex mumbled slowly.
"You alright, you seem a bit slow." Juanita asked.
"We had to take him to the hospital and put him on stronger medication," Mr Wolff said softly.
"Hey Alex, this is Jeremy, he's going to be in your class. He just moved from Colorado" Principal Schmoke said.
Alex slowly turned and looked at him.
"Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey Alex," Jeremy said nervously, Juanita had been talking to him about Alex, he couldn't believe he was going to school with him let alone talking to him.
"Alex are you sure your alright, you seem blue." Juanita asked, she could see Alex wasn't in the mood to do anything.
"No the stupid doctor said I'm not allowed to do anything," Alex said quietly.
"Give time Alex, then it will be all ok." She said softly to him.
Alex didn't even bother to listen, he had it so many times and so many times it was wrong, it would just depress him to hear it again.
"Come on Alex, I think we should get started," Angela said, something told her that today it would take a lot of coaxing to get Alex to do anything.
"He seems really quiet, he's not usually like that is he?" Jeremy asked.
"It has been a really difficult couple of years from him. He's had one thing go wrong after another. Maybe once things start going right for him he will be himself again… I hope" Juanita said sadly.
She remembered that Alex had only been himself for a month over the last two years. She was scared he wouldn't remember who he used to be.