Over the next week, Ryan started doing some short runs around the Moy as well as continuing to work on his music. He got a chance to catch up with everyone there, and also got his parents to take him back to the hospital in Belfast. They'd arranged for Dr. Reilly, Fiona, Nadine, and Tim to all be there to see him. It was an emotional reunion, the hospital staff being thrilled to see how well he had recovered and how quickly. Nadine and Fiona were glad to have him sing to them after the mayhem that had resulted after the last time they'd asked him to. Ryan had brought tickets for the show at the Helix for them, having also left some at the rehab hospital, and asked if they could please come to see the show. He was still very nervous about how it would go, but he knew they above all deserved the chance to see him back on the stage.

Ryan's parents drove him to Dublin for rehearsal, as none of them, including Ryan, was comfortable with him driving himself anywhere yet. For his parents, it was something like leaving him at University for the first time, although even more nerve-wracking. But they knew that every single person involved with CT would be watching out for him.

Ryan was glad to get back with everyone again, and a bit nervous about meeting Colm. He still felt bad for calling Colm names all those weeks before, even though he knew that Sharon hadn't told anyone he'd done so. As it happened, they hit it off as friends instantly and it quickly became Colm who would run with Ryan in the mornings - no one was willing to let him run on his own, either. If Colm couldn't do it, Declan would make a special trip in to go with him. The only thing that made Ryan feel like he'd missed something was the close friendship that had developed between Colm and Emmet - it seemed as if they'd known each other forever rather than only 6 weeks. He talked to the other guys about it one day when Colm and Emmet had headed off on their daily Starbucks run.

"What is the deal with those two?" he said, laughing, as the door closed behind them. "I feel like I was gone for a year!"

"Ah, they're just joined at the hip," Keith said off-handedly, messing about with his guitar as usual. "Been like that since the day they met."

George agreed. "It's like they grew up together," he said, shaking his head. "Never seen anything like it."

"If we're all brothers, they're the twins," Neil threw in. "Be interesting to see what the fans make of it once we start touring." They all started laughing at that - as much as they were slagging the two of them, they knew the fans would be doing exactly the same thing.

Ryan let out a happy sigh. "God, it's good to be back with you guys," he said. "You have no idea how much I missed your nonsense. I know you guys missed me, too, but you at least had each other. I can't tell you how many times those recordings you made me kept me sorted out. You must have spent hours recording them."

"It was all worth it if they helped you even once," George said. "We felt awful leaving you behind - in fact, these younger lads were fighting with Sharon about it, at the hospital!"

"Really?" Ryan said. He hadn't heard this story yet. He jumped as Sharon's voice came from behind them.

"Aye," she said, "George had to thunder at them to shut them up." She looked around quickly and seeing that Emmet was not around, said "Emmet even accused me of caring more about money than you!" She laughed at the horrified look on Ryan's face. "Don't worry about it, Ryan, I knew what the real reason was - they were worried you'd have a turn for the worse after we had to leave. Good thing Damian was able to stay for a few days."

"I wish I'd gotten a chance to see him," Ryan said wistfully. "It's nice to know he was able to come, but I didn't even know he was there."

"You did, actually," Keith said.

Ryan looked at him, puzzled. "I was still unconscious," he said. "How could I have known he was there? I don't remember any of you being there, I just know what you and my family told me. I barely remember even being in that hospital, even after I woke up."

"At some level, you knew we were all there," George said. "For a while, if we stopped singing even for a few seconds, it was like you were panicking and your heart rate would go crazy and you'd tense up. They thought you were having seizures when it first started, but you weren't. As long as we kept singing you stayed relaxed."

"Then, later on," Neil continued, "we could stop for a little while, but after a few minutes your heart rate would start to go up slowly, but as soon as we even spoke to you, it would settle right back down. You even smiled one time when Keith pranked me while I was singing to you." He told Ryan the story of what Keith had done to him by making him jump octaves in the middle of a song, making Ryan's mouth twitch just as it happened. "Then as soon as Damian started singing in your room, you got a huge, full smile on your face - just for a second, but it was obvious you knew he was there."

"I wish I could remember it," Ryan said again. "There's still so much missing." He remembered being home now after the ABC tour, but nobody was sure if he actually remembered up until the day he fell.

Keith looked squarely at him. "Be glad you can't remember it," he said seriously. "It was a waking nightmare. AC was, too. Always worrying about you, never knowing what was going to happen next, always scared. It was miserable. The only thing that kept any of us going was the fact that we were all there together."

Ryan looked down. "I'm sorry I put you through -" he started, but George and Sharon cut him off at the same time.

"Don't even go there," George said. "If you passed out on us right now, we'd all be back there again. It was awful, but it wasn't your fault."

"Don't blame yourself, Ryan," Sharon said. "You didn't choose to have that happen, you didn't do anything to make it happen. You had an accident."

"But how do we know it wasn't my fault?" Ryan said quietly. "I don't know what happened and neither does anyone else. Maybe I did something stupid that made me fall."

Keith put down the guitar, came over in front of Ryan, put both hands on his shoulders, and looked him right in the eyes. "Ryan," he said quietly, "Even if you did do something stupid, it's still an accident - unless you've remembered that you were trying to see if you could fly by jumping down the steps. Crap happens. Remember, I'm the one who broke my wrist 2 days before a tour by doing stupid stuff on a skateboard? I could have broken my neck, I was just lucky I didn't. You at least were just walking down the steps and tripped or slipped or something. I know it's what I said that made you feel that way, but that's not what I meant, I wasn't blaming you for it at all. Whatever you do, don't start guilting yourself about it. It's done, it's over, nothing can change it. Just take care of yourself and keep getting better."

Ryan looked deep into Keith's eyes, and couldn't help but smile. There was a calm, steady, confident look there, one that he'd only seen a few times before, but it made him feel sure that Keith was absolutely right, absolutely trustworthy, and that at this moment he was speaking absolute truth. He nodded. "You're right," he said. "It doesn't matter now why it happened. What matters is that we got through it together, and I'm getting better. You may just need to keep reminding me of that once in a while."