It wasn't until just after breakfast on the fifth day before Johnny began to make movements. Immediately alerted, Roy began holding his hand, reassuring him that everything was okay, that it was okay to wake. Every time Roy felt Johnny move, he would just calmly repeated the same things. Just before noon, the brown eyes opened slowly.

Looking around the room, Johnny could not recognize anything. He began to struggle, setting off the vent and heart alarms, scaring him more. Unfortunately for Johnny, Roy had chosen that moment for a bathroom break. Hearing the noise, he finished up quickly and hurried back in.

"Johnny, Johnny," Roy soothed, grabbing on to the flaying hand. "Its ok, its ok. Everything is okay. I'm here. I got you. Let the machine breath for you. I know you are confused. It's okay. Just relax."

The nurse working on the floor saw Roy had everything under control, and knowing about the possible situation, didn't bother to stop to check for vitals. Instead, she called downstairs to the ER to let Dr. Early and Dixie know Johnny was awake.

Five minutes late, both Dixie and Dr. Early enter slowly in hopes of not startling Johnny. Thankfully, he was focused on Roy and breathing with the machine. When Dr. Early got Roy's attention, Roy switched the focus from breathing to the doctor and nurse.

"Ok, Johnny, here's Doctor Early and Nurse Dixie again. They want to see how you are doing, okay? Maybe get that yucky tube out of your mouth?" Roy joked, knowing if Johnny was back to his old self, he would be teased relentlessly for a long time, but right now he didn't care. He would rather error on the side of caution. Besides, Johnny still wasn't acting right. Maybe he was just panicking since he couldn't remember anything.

Yeah, and maybe pigs fly, Roy thought.

Taking the time and care to explain everything to Johnny, Roy held his hand, praying that things would be back to normal.

"Johnny, it looks like you can breathe good without any help. So we are going to take the tube from your mouth out, alright?" Dr. Early said to both Johnny and Roy. "It may hurt, but it will be worth it."

Leaving the explanation on just how it would be done to Roy, Dixie and Dr. Early got everything they needed to extubate.

"Ready, sweetheart?" Dixie asked.

Nodding, Johnny tried coughing as Dr. Early began pulling the tube. It hurt a lot as if felt as if they were trying to pull out his insides and after it was done, he ended up in tears. He curled up in a ball, feeling miserable and alone.

"What's wrong, Johnny," Roy gently prodded, rubbing his back.

"Mo... da gone where. Want 'em," he rasped, his throat on fire for some reason unknown to him.

Looking up at Dr. Early, Roy didn't know what to do. At this point, Dr. Early came around and sat on the bed by Johnny.

"Hey, Johnny."

"Hi," was the meek reply.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

A small shrug with a nod was the only answer.

"Thanks," Dr. Early smiled at the pouting look on his face. Hopefully, the CT scan results from yesterday would be ready soon. Those, along with some questions, should help with the diagnoses.

"Can you tell me how old you are?"

"Sv'n," Johnny softly replied.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Cli…nic?"

"Close, it's a hospital. It's sort of like a hospital, but we have more things to help people here," Dr. Early explained. "Do you know what state you are in?"

"Ok…la…home, …snows a fallin'."

"Ahhh, must be winter huh?" Dixie asked with a smile, relieved his speech was slowly clearing up as he went on.

"Yep."

"So what month is it?" she asked. "I forgot."

"Like me?" he asked with wonder.

"Yep," she stated, smiling at him.

"Novem'er. Birthday not long go."

"Cool. My birthdays in November," Roy said, glad to see Johnny was at least smiling a bit more.

"Real?"

"Yep, November 7. When's yours?"

"Aug…gust 28."

"Wow."

"Yea. Is ma and dad here soooon?" Johnny went back to his original question. These seemed like nice people, but he wanted his parents.

Dr. Early, Dixie and Roy exchanged glances. None of them knew what to tell him. To Johnny, he was just a boy, in fact, in his mind, he had just turned seven and his parents were alive. How were they supposed to break the news that his parents were gone; in fact, they had died at least 20 years ago?

"Dr. Early, here are your results you wanted," the ICU nurse assigned to Johnny's case saved them all for at least a little bit longer.

"Johnny, we have to look at some pictures now. It will tell us something's about you and we can talk more later, ok?" Roy said, rubbing his back. Seeing the tears building in Johnny's eyes, he gave him a quick hug, pulling the blanket up and around him tight to tuck him in. "Try to rest some more. I will be back soon, I promise. Plus, I have someone who would like to meet you, okay?"

Nodding, Johnny tried to stop the tears and closed his eyes, happy to be allowed to fall back asleep so he wouldn't have to think anymore. To him, this was a scary place and everything hurt.

In a consulting room, Dr. Early was going over the results of the CT scan when Roy walked in. He had just called Joanne and let her know that so far, no change was apparent, but she was more than welcome to come down.

"So, doc, what's new?"

"Unfortunately, not much, Roy," Dr. Early sighed as he slipped into a seat. "The swelling is so minimal a day, maybe two on the medication yet and we can start reducing the medications. Hopefully, within five days, Johnny can be off of the steroid completely. At least, it seems his speech is clearing up the more he is talking, so that issue was likely caused by the swelling and bruising. However, the regression doesn't seem to have the same cause."

"In other words, it is the bruising causing the regression."

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Also, the bruises have had a chance to 'settle' as it were and are about as bad as they are going to get at this point. What I see is even worse than what I had suspected and I really am unsure what to do. I have called other neurosurgeons to consult on his cases, anonymously of course, but as of now, no medications will help. Only time is known to help settle the bruising.

"And with the amount and depth of bruising, well, I am honestly unsure how long this might last. The one thing I along with my colleagues are sure of however is that as long as there is no new trauma, eventually the bruises will heal. The damage left over in that case, however…"

"Is unknown. And you don't know how long it will last or how permanent the regression will be, right?" Roy stated back frustrated and scared.

Jo chose that moment to walk in, having heard her husband.

"Honey, we will get through this, somehow. We have to for Johnny."

"I know, but what do we do? He doesn't know where he is, he thinks its November, not May. He thinks he's still in Oklahoma. He thinks he just turned seven years old and is waiting to go home with his parents yet. How do we tell him he's in California and he's actually close to 30? What are we supposed to do if this last a while like Dr. Early seems to think? Where will he go? What will he do? What will we do?" All the stress, fear and frustration seemed to bubble over at that point. So many things were uncertain. "We called his aunt, she already said that there was no point in coming down and that everything was up to us. She has basically washed her hands of him."

Jo just gathered him up in his arms. She too was terrified, but what he didn't know is that she had talked to the kids last night about their Uncle Johnny.

Dr. Early chose that moment to offer them what he viewed as the logical choices, "Well, right now, he needs to stay in the ICU at least another couple of days before we move him to a regular floor. After that, we have at least another week and a half to figure things out since both Dr. Brackett and I want to ensure that all of his antibiotics are through IV, not mouth. Now, you are right, by then, I don't believe the problem will be solved. However, we have a week to find a nice place where they can take care of him, until he gets better or…"

"Or what? Or he wastes away in some type of nursing home?" Roy asked, furious.

"No, Roy. They have what is called an 'Adult Care Home' now. I am sure..."

"No!" This time it was Jo who interrupted with anger in her voice, startling both men who had rarely seen her angry. "With Roy's permission, and if Johnny is comfortable with the family, who we will let him meet over his time here, we will take him HOME. He belongs with us. I have already talked to Chris and Jenny. They asked what would happen to him and when I mentioned possibly putting him in such a place, they begged me to make sure it didn't happen. We all love him way too much for that to happen. He needs to be with family. They know it will mean things will be different, that they will have to be an older sibling to him, but as both stated, they have always wanted a younger sibling so might as well be one who they already love."

"Jo, are you sure? I mean, how would you handle basically three kids?" Roy was amazed at his family and loved them all the more.

"Well, I have already raised two seven year olds, at least this time, I know what to expect. If he never changes, I will love him just how he is. It is simple as that. He will have to follow the basic family rules and be a part of the family, but I really believe it could work."

"Well, doc, I think you heard my wife," Roy smiled smugly.

"It will be a lot of responsibility, Jo."

"I can learn whatever I need to. Roy only works one out of three days. I am sure I can manage, especially since the kids volunteered to help. Plus, I am sure others are more than willing to help. Even if not, I and Roy, don't care." Jo had glanced at Roy, seeing he was just as determined as she was to protect and fight for Johnny.

"I know Dr. Brackett was thinking about asking me to take on the paramedic training. It would mean I could be home every night and week night. I would still be able to take the promotion to captain that Johnny and I just found out we got," Roy saddened at the thought, knowing his friend may never get to realize his dream now. "Plus, I believe that this is a work related injury, correct?"

"Yes, that's right," Dr. Early said, reluctant to agree. "Why don't we just take things one day at a time right now? In a week's time, we should have a better time frame of how long it might be before the bruises might heal. I know how much you care about Johnny and accept him as one of the family, but I am not sure you understand what you might be undertaking, even if his condition is a short term issue.

"You have to understand, Johnny is going to go through a lot. There is the physical aspect of his injury which could mean many different things from mood swings, to memory problems, to speech problems to a number of other issues. Then, you have to take into account the emotional factor. Even if this is temporary, he will have to deal with the issue of losing his parents all over again. Plus, he may have to come to terms with the fact that despite feeling, thinking and in all sense, acting like a young boy, he looks a lot older. That fact alone, knowing that his perspective is vastly different than what he knows it will be hard to conceive. On top of all that, yes, he does seem to respond positively to you Roy, but you and your family are strangers to him. To him, he doesn't know you nor has never met you before. Trust will need to be built.

"At the very least, if you are still willing to take this on after really thinking about all this, I want all of you, not just Johnny, but your entire family to attend counseling sessions. Not just separately, but with just your family and then together with Johnny before you take him home. I won't agree to even think about releasing him into your care until I see a counselor's recommendations as well as how Johnny interacts with everyone. I also want to know what a physical therapist says, because he may need inpatient rehabilitation. I know it will be a lot to cram into a short time period, but considering his injuries, we can justifiably keep him here an extra week if needed on the rehab floor. After all that, if I agree to it, if this is something you really do want to take on, I can come over and explain things as well so everyone knows what to look for just in case something happens. I will also try to get you some resources to help you out."

"Thanks, doc. That'll help, but I think our kids might just surprise you," Roy stated.

"Roy here has taught them all about first-aid, and I doubt it is what is considered normal first-aid in fact," Jo laughed a bit, knowing a paramedics definition of 'basic' meant much more was covered than would normally be covered by a community course for babysitters. Besides what was taught at Scouts, her kids already had learned how to look for signs of shock, how to control different types of bleeding, what to look for if someone might have a concussion and various other things by the time they were nine years old. Their Uncle Johnny and dad had even made sure to test them often.

Steeling themselves for the grim task ahead, Roy and Joanne clasped hands together, ready to face whatever new direction life might take them.

AN: The Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act of the California State Legislature was passed by Governor Reagan on July 14, 1970. There is also the fact that Johnny and Roy were working with Nurses during his birthday which is reported as August 28th. I am just assuming based on how slow I know government can work that ten months for a bill to pass is not too long. Therefore, I put the two of them meeting at the recruiting time as April and training May through July of 1969.