Once down in the Emergency department, Roy found that although somewhat busy, Doctor Brackett had enough time to take a short break. Updating him, along with Dixie, on what had just occurred, Roy felt a lot better once everything was out in the open.

"Sounds like things are going better than expected," Kel said, pleased.

"Yeah, and I was grateful that he was fine when you two showed up with Doctor Early for his morning check-up," Roy admitted. "I was a bit worried before."

"It goes back to the fact that you and he have always had a unique bond. Even if Johnny doesn't know who to trust, and is struggling with trusting you, his natural instinct is to follow your lead. Therefore, if someone isn't a threat to you, Johnny tries his best to accept them as safe," Dixie pointed out.

Pondering that, Roy slowly nodded, "I can see that. I hate to do this, but Joanne should be coming with lunch soon and then we got to prepare Johnny for occupational therapy right after so I should get back upstairs."

Standing up, Dixie gave him a quick hug, "Alright, you just remember to take care of yourself mister."

"I will," he smiled at her as he waved.

Reaching Johnny's room, he found his wife already there and together they set up the food before waking John.

"Hey, Junior, time for lunch," Roy shook him gently.

"Hmmm?"

"Lunchtime," Jo repeated. "I got tomato bisque soup, some more yogurt and milk."

Nodding, John began struggling to sit up. At this, Joanne used the bed controllers to slowly raise the top of the bed while Roy helped him to sit up. Tucking a napkin around his neck, Jo pushed his bedside table near him and allowed her husband to help guide the spoon. When a little more than half of the food was gone, Johnny could no longer eat anymore and so the two of them quickly finished up. Ten minutes later, the therapist came in having heard from the nurse that the remaining lunch had been put away.

"Hi, Johnny," Ms. Scarlett smiled. "Are you ready to have some fun?"

Raising his eyebrows, Johnny looked towards her, than towards Roy.

Giggling a bit, she showed him what she had brought in-marbles, clay, coloring books and crayons, along with pages with mazes and hidden objects.

"We're going to start with there. Then, once you are doing well with these and are able to use your hands better, we will move on to other things," Scarlett explained. "Now, for the marbles, I want you to move them one at a time from this dish to another."

Although it took what seemed a long time for Johnny to manipulate his fingers to grasp each individual marble, pick it up and move it, he eventually was able to do so. Scarlett then had him move the marbles back to the original container. Sighing, Johnny did so.

"Great!" Scarlett praised. "The second time you did that, you went a lot faster! You keep up this work and in a couple days, this will be too easy for you to do! Now, these mazes are so you can follow between two lines and help you move your hand how you need to. It is the same with the hidden object pages when you trace the object."

Taking him through a couple pages of each, she was pleased with how much better Johnny got after learning how to complete the task.

"I'm going to leave the pages here with you. If you feel you are up to it, I would like you to work on it. Now, these coloring pages may be harder, but are helpful," she warned. "They will help your hand learn how to grip something properly and also build up strength in your hands. You can color any way you want with any colors you'd like. Try to stay inside the lines, but if you can't, don't worry."

Picking out a page, she had Johnny begin. Soon however, he went over the lines and became frustrated. Grabbing the paper, he balled it up and threw it as hard as he could. Reaching towards the crayon box, he tried to knock it off the table, but was thwarted by Roy.

"Hey, none of that," Roy said sternly.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Johnny began repeating in a low growl, pounding his fist against the bed.

Holding onto the fist, Roy and Joanne tried to soothe him while Scarlett tried to reason with him.

"Johnny, look at me," she asked. When that didn't work, she grasped his chin gently and tilted it up so he could see what she was about to say. "It is okay that you messed up. It happens. We just want you to try."

"Deep breathes," Roy coached. "Come on, just relax. Everything is fine."

Slowly, but surely, the anger and frustration left Johnny.

"Sorry," he mumbled, embarrassed.

"You're forgiven," Joanne said. "We know that right now it will be hard to control how you feel so this may happen. Now, how about we try this coloring thing again?"

Nodding, John swiped his runny nose with the tissue he was offered. Distracted by the activity, he soon forgot about the temper tantrum.

A half-hour later, Scarlett tapped Johnny on the hand and said, "Okay, I think you got the hang of this. How…"

"What you mean?" Johnny interrupted to ask.

"By got the hang of this?" she wondered. Seeing his nod, Scarlett clarified, "I mean, that you know what to do and understand."

"Got hang of it," Johnny whispered.

"Yep," Scarlet smiled. "You can color when you have free time, but before I go, I want to show you one last thing. To help your muscles get stronger and be able to move better, I want you to work with this clay."

Demonstrating different ways, she saw Johnny watching in fascination.

"Alright, your turn."

Quickly, Johnny picked up the clay and began to mimic what he had been shown.

"Excellent," Scarlett praised. "Keep working on this until I come back tomorrow. I'll make sure we do something different and harder to help get you ready to get out of this bed."

"Alright," John said, distracted by manipulating the clay.

Smiling, Scarlett left after obtaining a promise that if anyone needed anything, that they would page her since she was on until five that night.

Soon after she left, Johnny abandoned the clay to begin coloring again. Leaving him to his work, Roy and Joanne picked up their books. Amazingly, all three continued to do this until Chris and Jenny were brought up to the room by their Uncle Mike.

Seeing who had come in, Johnny called out cheerful greetings. A bit startled, Mike Stoker threw a questioning glance at Roy. As he got up to help get supper laid out, Roy explained the events of the day.

"I think Johnny is just finally starting to realize that he can trust us and that leaving here is possible," Roy reported. "I mean, we've had our bad moments, don't get me wrong, but overall, things seem to be good. Why don't you stay and see for yourself if you don't have plans. There is plenty of food."

Agreeing, Mike stuck around and found himself opening up more than he usually did. Johnny, too began to feel even more secure knowing that this family that claimed to want him as part of it were willing to open up more areas of their lives to him. It gave him a sense of peace he hadn't known since his parents had gone and it made him start to believe that maybe, just maybe, he could be loved again.

Seeing the effects that the day had on Johnny as well as everyone else, the doctors and therapists stuck to the same schedule for the next four days. After that, since Johnny had been unhooked from his remaining monitors and equipment for over a day, the decision was made to have him try to sit up with his feet over the bed. Doctor Early, Dixie, Davis and Scarlett all gathered around while Roy and Joanne tried their best to stay out of the way, yet still in the view of Johnny.

"Alright, we are going to take this nice and slow," Davis told everyone as he focused on Johnny.

Explaining what would take place before it happen, Davis and Scarlett braced Johnny as he slowly slid to the edge of the bed and his feet dangled over. Breathing heavily, Johnny closed his eyes as the world tilted slightly and a rush of dizziness threatened to push him over.

"Are you okay?" Joe Early asked a bit frantic, trying his best not to rush over and check on him.

After a long minute, John finally raised his head slowly and grinned slightly, "Think yes. Dizzy before."

"That's normal," Davis assured him. "Are you still dizzy?"

"No."

"You ready to try and stand?" Scarlett asked.

"Yes!" Johnny said impatiently.

As the adults tried suppressing their chuckles, Dixie brought over the walker.

"Okay, just as we talked about," Scarlett reminded him. "Grip the handles nice and tightly."

Doing so, Scarlett smiled, "Good, okay, now slowly slide down until your feet touch the floor. That's it, slowly. Almost there. Perfect!"

Eyes widen, Johnny couldn't believe he was standing.

"How bad is the pain?" Davis questioned.

"Little bad than before," came the answer.

Nodding, Davis and Scarlett allowed Johnny to stand for a few more minutes before helping him back into bed. As Doctor Early and Dixie were checking him over, both of them as well as Roy and Jo were praising him.

"Just think, soon we'll have you walking a bit," Davis reminded Johnny. "Once you do that, I hear that you can go home."

"Yeah," John said happily. "Doctor I talk to say family and I good together. Still see him two time a week when I go."

"That's wonderful," Scarlett was pleased at the news.

"Just wish didn't have to come back here for work," Johnny yawned through his discontentment.

"At least it won't be every day. Just three times a week," Roy pointed out.

Smiling sadly, Joe added in, "And you won't see me too much either."

Realizing how he sounded, John apologized quickly.

"Sweetie, it is okay. No one likes being in the hospital or having to go through what you have had to go through," Joanne pointed out. "Everyone here understands and is happy for you."

Looking around, Johnny saw that each person was nodding. Yawning again, he was told to get some sleep as they would be going through this again later again. Closing his eyes, John quickly fell asleep, only awakening when it was lunch. Knowing the sooner he finished eating, the sooner he could stand again, Johnny quickly ate the noodle dish his Aunt Joanne had prepared.

Sure enough, as soon as the nurse saw that clean-up was starting, she paged Dr. Davis and Ms. Scarlett. Eager to begin, Johnny started moving on his own before being halted.

"How about we help you out for a bit yet?" Davis teased. "We want to make sure that you don't hurt yourself."

Sighing, Johnny wondered, "When can I do on own?"

"I am not sure," Davis truthfully told him. "I want you strong enough first. Once you get your cast off, we can start working on that, okay?"

"When that happening?"

"You need another few days in the cast and then you will have a brace you will need to wear until your ankle is strong again. Like before, we'll be having you do the same exercises as we did with the other leg, but it may take longer since you haven't used the leg in a while. I promise, we'll get you there, alright?"

"Okay," Johnny sighed out the word.

Smiling, Davis and Scarlett worked on getting him to stand once again. This time, Johnny lasted close to ten minutes before he began to tire. Seeing this, Davis decided that he would start seeing if John could begin walking a few steps tomorrow.

No way am I telling him that though! With my luck, he'd start on his own, Davis thought to himself. Besides, if Johnny has a mood swing where he is angry or shuts down due to depression again, there is no telling how much worse it would be telling him I don't feel like it would be a good idea to do so while he is feeling that way.

Happy with his decision, Davis left with Scarlett, incredibly pleased with the progress Johnny had made despite the side effects from the brain injury and medications.