During the next day's phone call, Ryan excitedly said," Guess what, lads! I get to go home this weekend!"
"For good?" Neil asked, surprised.
"No, just for the day, but at least I'll be out of here for a while. It'll be good to be back home again - well, with my parents, anyway. And I'll get to see some of my friends in the Moy."
"That's great, man!" Keith agreed. "Get something besides hospital food into you!"
Ryan hadn't told anyone in CT that he couldn't smell or taste anything, as he was hoping it would come back. So even though the way the food tasted didn't matter to him, he agreed that it would be good to get some home cooking again.
Sharon put out a blog saying that Ryan would get a visit home for a day and that he was still complaining about being in the hospital. She said she was expecting that he'd be exhausted by lunchtime and would realize he wasn't ready to go home yet, and again, it was a source of great relief for the fans to know that he was well enough to go home even for the day. It was also a relief to Sharon that she could be a bit more open about where he really was in his recovery.
When the boys spoke to him again after his trip home, they were surprised to hear him somewhat subdued. Initially they assumed that he was just upset to have had to come back to the hospital, until he told them what had happened.
"I guess I'm not doing as good as I thought I was," he said sadly. "I couldn't even get through the trip home and talking with my parents without overloading. I couldn't keep track of what we were talking about in the car, and I just completely shut down when I got to the house. It was kind of embarrassing."
"Take it easy on yourself, Ryan," advised George. "You took a pounding in that fall, it's going to take time for everything to work itself right again. You're getting better every day, and we've still got weeks until rehearsals start; use it. Tell us what was good about being home."
He talked to them then about seeing Molly and Rory, his dog and cat, and how excited Molly had been, and that Rory had immediately curled up on his legs and barely left him. It had been good for him to see them and be with them. He also told them that his friend Dermot, who had been on the ambulance crew the night he was hurt, had come to see him, and how emotional he'd been to see Ryan doing so well. Dermot had been very worried indeed over the last weeks, even though he'd heard the updates that got passed throughout the whole village, and had spoken to some people who'd had a chance to visit with Ryan after he was out of intensive care. It had done him a great deal of good to see and talk to Ryan, and for Ryan to know that there was at least one person in the Moy who understood how the head injury affected everything.
Ryan then told them that he would have his laptop and phone back in a few days, and that he had his guitar and was already working on drills to loosen up his fingers. He would also be getting music from David Munro to start working on for Mythology. This was the first concrete sign that he might be back with them for that show, and it made all of them feel much better. Ryan promised to text them all the moment he got his phone back. Then Keith remembered something.
"Hey, I just realized we'll be home after this week! I'm going to talk to Sharon and see if she'll set something up so we can all come and see you," he said.
"That would be great," Ryan said, and they could hear the smile in his voice. "I miss you guys so much, you have no idea."
"Oh yes, we do," Emmet said. "We miss you just as much. Colm's a great guy, and he may be singing for you, but there's still a huge empty space over here. Having him here is fine, but it's not you." This led to a load of slagging on Emmet about how close he and Colm had already gotten and how they were in a 'bromance' with each other, leaving Ryan laughing as they ended the call.
Keith immediately went and found Sharon and asked her if there was a way they could visit Ryan when they got home, as a group. Sharon thought that was a fantastic idea, and promised to see if Ryan could get a pass to get out of the hospital and go to dinner with them on the Friday evening after they got home, and to arrange a van to get everyone there. After talking with Shivaun, she decided to limit the group to the other singers and the band, as she was afraid that more than that at once would be too much for Ryan to cope with yet. The crew wasn't too happy to be 'left out' once again, but cheered up when Sharon told them that there was no reason they couldn't visit Ryan individually, she just didn't want to overwhelm him with the whole CT family at once.