Leo woke up and actually felt more tired than the night before. He hadn't felt like that since the days of his chemo treatments when the fevers, the shaking, the puking kept him from really sleeping. Only now it was his thoughts keeping him awake.

He couldn't stop going over what happened, trying to figure out how he didn't see that something was seriously wrong. He had lived more or less exactly what Jordi was going through, how did he miss it. How did all of them? They were together so much, way more than the doctor or nurses were around them, they should have noticed. Had he really been so self centered that he wasn't paying attention to the rest of them? So much for being a 'band of brothers'.

The notion actually made Leo feel disgusted at himself. He had clued in when Dr McAndrew insisted that Jordi room with Leo, he understood that he was supposed to be a kind of big brother, a pseudo mentor that Jordi would hopefully open up to and admit the stuff he wouldn't say to the doctors and nurses, like he was scared shitless about what was going to happen. It didn't take a near genius like Emma to see any of that. But it did take a near jackass to screw it up. The question now was how to fix it, if it could be fixed.

Leo climbed out of bed and into the shower. He wasn't sure what he was going to do but he knew he had to do something.

"Morning Leo" Nurse Dobler was all smiles as she brought in his breakfast. Then again she was always smiles. It was like she was on some permanent sugar high. Well all the time other than the whole Homecoming night. She actually acted a little irritated that night. It was the first time Leo hadn't thought she was a robot.

"Morning." Leo half grunted as he pulled on his shirt. He plopped down on his bed and lifted the tray cover. "Scrambled eggs with salsa and sausage."

"You prefer sausage over bacon and eggs with salsa is your favorite, right?" It was amazing and kind of creepy that she knew things like that. Leo had heard a rumor that she could even tell what other staff members had been doing the night before based on what they wore to work. Like how she knew if Dr McAndrew had a date because he always wore a certain tie if he'd gotten laid. Leo wasn't sure if the rumor was true but it had given them all a good laugh.

"Yeah, it is."

"You've been such a grump this past week I thought you might cheer up if you got something you really like."

"uh, Nurse Dobler. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Say you did something bad and you know it was bad"

"Leo, have you just tried just apologizing to Jordi."

"It's not that simple."

"Sure it is. You got mad, He got mad, you both probably said some stuff you didn't totally mean and yeah hitting him was a really jerk move. But you're teenagers, lack of impulse control kind of comes with the raging flood of hormones. And if he's really a friend then he'll forgive you if you admit it was a jerk move and say you're sorry. And if he doesn't forgive you then, cold hard truth, he's not really a friend and you should just move on. It's not like you're going to be here forever.

"As for the rest of them, they're mad at you because they think you don't think you did anything wrong. They think you think Jordi deserved getting punched. If you apologize, and they're your friends, they'll forgive you even if Jordi doesn't."

"But that means making people pick sides. And if they all pick me over Jordi that makes him alone. He doesn't even have his parents."

"Maybe. But the other option is that you let them keep hating you and feel awful."

"Thanks." Leo picked at his breakfast.

"Sure." She stopped in the doorway and turned back to give him a smile. "You have a good heart, Leo. I know you'll do the right thing."

Her parting words echoed in his mind as Leo walked to class. Leo barely got to the room before the teacher. He tried to focus on the lesson but he found himself watching the others from his seat of banishment in the back of the room. It wasn't that they were doing anything in particular, they just seemed totally relaxed and normal. Emma was sharing her book with Jordi, Dash was drawing something on Kara's notebook. It was like they weren't even in a hospital.

"Okay, for next week I want everyone to write five pages on how World War I changed gender roles, both in homes and in the workplace. And please remember that grammar and spelling do matter."

Leo shoved his stuff into his book bag as quickly as he could. He scrambled to catch up with the others in the hallway.

"We can work on our papers in my room." He could hear them talking as he got closer.

"Isn't that cheating?"

"Kara, I just meant we could talk about what stuff we could talk about and then write our own papers."

"I'm in. J-Man?"

"Sure. Why not spend my last day before I restart chemo doing homework."

"That's right." Kara grimaced. "You get all pukey again."

"Well its only five pages. And we only need a rough draft today, there's time to edit it later. So a couple of hours of work on our papers and then we can watch a movie. Jordi's pick."

"Wait, is this Emma or have you been replaced by some kind of Emma looking alien that actually knows how to not study all the time." Dash laughed and tossed an arm around her shoulder.

"You can forget about asking me to proof read your paper to fix your hideous spelling."

"Hey Jordi." Leo cut in as he reached them. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He got no reply.

"Let's eat outside."

"It looks like it's going to rain."

"Oh please, it never rains in LA."

"Seriously, Jordi." Leo stepped in front of them. "I really need to talk to you."

They walked around him without a glance.