The next day was very busy, with interviews all morning and then an afternoon show. It didn't stop everyone from talking and thinking about Ryan whenever they had a chance, wondering how he was doing today. No one was going to have a chance to call and check on him until after the afternoon show.

Near the end of the show, Sharon was standing backstage watching Ireland's Call and thinking about how fantastically Colm had stepped in when she felt her phone vibrate. Looking at it, she saw the call was from Raymond, so she took it even though she normally wouldn't have taken a call backstage. The CT folks had been calling for updates, so if Raymond was calling her, it had to be important.

"Yes, Raymond? What's going on?" she said quietly.

"I'm sorry to call during the show," he said, "But we need you to talk to Ryan. He's curled up in a ball on his bed crying because he thinks you fired him."

"Oh no." Sharon raised a hand to her head and turned away from the stage, walking to a quieter area where she could talk at length. She didn't know that Keith had seen her take the phone call and was now quietly passing the word that there was a problem. "How did he get that idea?" she asked, puzzled.

"Put 2 and 2 together and ended up with 43," said Raymond bitterly. "Normally his math's better than that. Anyway, he realized tonight that no one from CT is here, and he thought you'd given up on him. So we ended up having to tell him where you were - or actually, he realized it himself after we told him when he fell and how long he'd been unconscious. The tour schedule seems to be firmly in his memory, anyway. But he thinks you hired Colm to replace him, even though we told him he's only understudying. He doesn't remember you hiring Colm before he fell. He figures that between the mess last summer and now this, you think he's too much trouble to keep on."

"Oh, heavens," Sharon said helplessly. "I suppose I might have seen that coming - I could probably have managed to free somebody from the crew to stay behind at least. Well, nothing to do about it now except to talk to him."

"I'll warn you, he's been pretty agitated a lot of the day. He's likely to yell or curse at you if he doesn't shut down entirely," Raymond said.

"I'll take my chances," Sharon said, trying to work out a strategy in her mind. It was hard, knowing that Ryan's reactions weren't likely to be what she would expect from him.

She waited as Raymond stepped back into Ryan's room and told him he had a phone call. She heard him asking who was on the phone and smiled to hear his voice, even though he sounded pretty upset. Raymond didn't tell him, just told him to take the call.

"Hello?" Ryan said curiously

"Ryan, it's so good to hear you! It's Sharon," she said, thinking that perhaps if she sounded upbeat he would mirror her mood. It didn't work.

"Calling to tell me you fired me, you bitch?" "RYAN!" came an interjection from his father that was not quite loud enough to cover the word he'd used.

"No." Sharon decided that being stern and getting right to the point might be best. "You listen to me," using the voice she reserved for the boys when they had done or planned something totally idiotic. She hoped that, as it usually did on tour, it would shock him into listening without talking for at least a moment or two. It worked. "I would NEVER fire you. You are part of CT for as long as you want to be. Got that?" He didn't reply. On the other end, Ryan's family was trying not to laugh at the look on his face as they heard Sharon sounding like she was scolding a naughty child, although they couldn't hear the words. "I'll hold your spot until you're ready to come back, I don't care how long it takes."

"Then what's with this Colm bastard?" "RYAN, watch your language!" came again from his father. Sharon was startled; she'd never imagined Ryan being this volatile and disrespectful.

"Colm was hired before you fell," Sharon said firmly, ignoring the rudeness. "He was hired to be part of the Mythology tour. I asked him to understudy for you for Atlantic City because we needed another singer with you down. When you're back, he will have his own parts."

"Well, best of luck to him." Ryan said grudgingly. "But how could you just leave me here..." Now his voice was sounding tearful. It physically hurt Sharon to hear him mood-swinging from one negative emotion to another like this.

"I wish we hadn't had to," said Sharon gently. "It tore all of us up, but we didn't have a choice. If there was any way we could have stayed with you, or brought you along with us, we would have, but you know that wasn't possible."

"I know," Ryan said sadly. Now that his emotions had calmed a little, he knew that he'd been inexcusably rude." I'm sorry for yelling at you, Sharon. This is so hard. I can't even sit up by myself, and I keep losing control of myself. I get scared and then I get angry, and then I explode."

"It's all right, Ryan, it's all part of getting better," Sharon said. "Your doctor warned us this would happen before we left, that you'd have problems like this. It will take a while, but you can come back to us whenever you're ready, even if we need to back things down for you for a while so it's not so hard or tiring. You're part of us, Ryan," she said softly, finding tears running down her cheeks. "Don't ever forget that. You know there are recordings in your Ipod from the other boys? When you need us, listen to them; we left them for you for that reason."

"I know," Ryan said. "How are they, are they OK?"

"Worried sick about you mostly, snapping at each other and getting into even more trouble than usual. If one of them doesn't break something coming off a jet ski, it'll be a miracle."

"God, I miss them," Ryan said quietly. "You're going to tell them I talked to you, right?"

"Yes, I'll tell them," Sharon said, smiling now through her tears as Ryan sounded more like himself.

"Please don't tell them what I said about being scared or about me calling you and Colm..."

"I would never," she assured him quickly. "I'll let them know you've had a rough day and that I told you that you can always come back, that's it. We love you, Ryan, and we'll see you as soon as we get home, I promise."

"OK," he said, sounding exhausted. "Bye, Sharon." Raymond took the phone back and stepped out into the hall again.

"Sorry about that, Sharon," he said. "I don't think any of us expected him to blow up at you like that."

"Is that what you've been dealing with all day, Raymond?" Sharon said, distressed.

"Pretty much, yeah. That, and shoving things and people and throwing things. If he's not doing that, he kind of disappears. You know the phrase 'the lights are on but nobody's home'?" Raymond sounded pretty exhausted himself.

"Yes..." Sharon said, not liking the sound of this.

"Well, sometimes that's exactly what he's like. His eyes are open, but they look completely empty - no emotions, no intelligence, nothing. Just blank. And he doesn't respond to anything, it's like he's gone."

"Did you talk to Dr. Reilly about it?"

"Yeah, he said it means that Ryan's brain is overloaded, that he can't process everything that's happening so his brain shuts out everything else until he can get things sorted out. He said it's normal for this stage of his recovery."

"Well, that's a relief, at least," Sharon said. "There's always such a light in Ryan's eyes, I can't imagine them the way you're describing them. Is there any good news for today beyond his being awake?"

"Yes! I was so upset about earlier that I forgot to tell you. He's out of intensive care, on a regular ward, he's starting physical and occupational therapy, and he's eating and drinking on his own, no more feeding tube!"

"Wow, now that is good news!" Sharon said. "Raymond, I've got to go, the afternoon show has got to be done by now and I'm really surprised no one's come looking for me yet." She said good-bye and hung up, and suddenly found herself crying again, for Ryan's confusion and distress and for his family having to deal with it. The Ryan she'd spoken to had been such an odd mix of the man she knew and a complete stranger, she could only imagine what it was like for his family being around that all day. Pulling herself together, she headed back towards the stage - and was surprised to see every single person from CT huddled together there, looking scared. The she realized what must have happened.

"Ok," she said, trying to look stern, "Who was looking offstage instead of paying attention to what they were doing?"

"Me," Keith said.

"I should have known," she said with a watery smile. "It would be you. Well, I won't keep you in suspense." She sighed. "As you've probably guessed, the call was about Ryan. Physically, he's fine - out of intensive care, eating, starting therapies. His memory for the few weeks right before he fell still hasn't returned. He's had a rough day today, lots of things to cope with and lots of stress. He suddenly realized tonight that none of you are there. Somehow, he took that, and the fact that he realized that we're here performing without him, and the memory of having to leave us last summer, and the news that Colm was acting as his understudy, to mean that we'd left him behind and I'd permanently replaced him with Colm."

"No!" "How can he think that?" "He knows we'd never leave him behind!"

"We all know that," Sharon said, "but Ryan can't help the fact that his brain is making up things to fill in the gaps he can't remember. To him, right now, since he doesn't remember knowing that Colm was on board BEFORE he was hurt, it's logical that Colm is his replacement rather than his understudy."

"Surely you didn't let him keep believing that?" Emmet said.

"Of course not! I told him directly - yes , I spoke to him - that he has a permanent place with Celtic Thunder, that his space is here whenever he is ready to come back, and that he can come back in whatever capacity he is able to, whenever he is able to."

"Did that ease his mind?" Nicole asked.

"It seems to have," Sharon replied. "But as I said, it's been a hard day for him; he's lost his temper a number of times, as Neil told us he did last night. He's even been throwing things. He's feeling as though he's not himself anymore, and thinking he'd lost his spot with us just made that worse."

Half the cast and crew were crying now, holding each other. George suddenly said, "Sharon, can you get Ryan back on the phone?"

"Probably, why?"

"I think he needs to hear it from all of us."

Sharon placed the call to Raymond's phone. He picked it up in surprise. "What is it, Sharon?"

"Tell Ryan he's got another call, and then put us on speaker phone." Sharon sounded mischievous and happy.

"O-kayyyy," Raymond said, and turning to the others he said, "Sharon asked me to put my phone on speaker. I don't know what she's up to." Setting it up, he said, "Sharon, can you hear us?"

"Yes. Hold on a second." Then they heard George counting "3-2-1" and the phone suddenly vibrated with many voices calling "We love you, Ryan!" followed by a variety of voices saying they missed Ryan, get well wishes, etc. Everyone was crying, and Ryan was staring at the phone in shock, a huge grin on his face. Then the voices stopped.

Ryan spoke up, his eyes shining and his voice thick with tears. "I miss you all," he said, "so much. I'll be back, I promise. I'm not letting you do Mythology without me!"

Suddenly a voice they didn't know came out of the phone. "Ryan, this is Colm!" Ryan looked bemused to hear the voice of the person who was replacing him. "You'd better come back soon, singing those high parts of yours is going to kill me!" They heard laughter on the other end and then a voice that was unmistakably Keith, the impish smile with which he was speaking clearly audible even over the noise. "Aye, if we have to keep yanking the poor lad's shorts up around his ears every night, we'll do him a permanent mischief!" Ryan literally laughed so hard that he started crying from sheer joy at hearing their nonsense again.