"I will tell you all about it later, let the doctor finish," Jason said. He wanted to hear everything Dr. Coykendall had to say.

"Thank you. We can probably release him tomorrow if he takes it easy. I know it is early, but I think that he is a very lucky person. Most people do not wake up the way you did Adam. I would like to have some of the hospital interns do some testing of the brain and I would like to see some final brain scans. If everything checks out, you can go home tomorrow. However, you can't go running around immediately. You body is very bruised and your muscles may be a little awkward after the trauma. You need to give yourself time to heal," Dr. Coykendall said, looking over at Adam. "You still have to do some recovery time. It is up to you whether you spend it at home or here."

"We will make sure that he rests," Mr. Kramer said to the doctor.

"Okay then, I will arrange for the tests. I will have a nurse come for him when they are ready," Dr. Coykendall replied as he started to walk out the door. "I will have the results tomorrow morning."

After the doctor left the room, Adam looked over and asked his mother, "Mom, when can I see Alyssa?"

"I think that with the circumstances being what they are with accident, I would wait until you are home and the both of you have gained your strength back." Mr. Kramer said to his son. He knew that an investigation was going to follow after everything that they had discovered about the incident. He did not want to upset Adam at this time.

"The nurse brought her by this morning and she said that you guys could get together when things settled down. She just wanted you to get better and she is praying for you," His mother answered. "Don't worry, sweetheart."

"But she doesn't know that I am awake," Adam said, looking over at his mother. Everyone could tell that he really wanted to se her.

"I will go up and see if she is awake," Jason finally volunteered. He was not crazy about the idea, but he was going to do it to make his brother happy.

"Please tell her that I am sorry and to get in touch," Adam said to his brother. " I really do care about her." The brothers locked eyes. Jason's stomach did flip-flops. He just could not shake his anger for what had happened, especially after hearing about Adam's condition. But he loved his brother enough to put that anger aside for this one favor. "I promise I will."

"Jason, we are going to go home. We will drop off Craig and Chuck. Adam is going to need his rest since they are going to be testing him tonight." Mr. Kramer said. Just then two nurses walked into the room to get Adam.

"Yeah, this is the only time that we can fit him into the scanning equipment. This hospital never sleeps you know," the one nurse said with a smile. "We had better get down there before an emergency comes in. We always get a rush after midnight."

Everyone said their good-byes and Jason promised to see Adam in the morning along with his parents.

Jason walked up to the fourth floor to Alyssa's room. He peered into the room not knowing if she would be awake at this time. It was after eleven, but no one stopped him when he passed the nurses' station. Alyssa was watching the nightly news so he walked on into the room.

"Hello, how are you doing?" Jason said softly trying not to startle her.

"Jason! I am so glad to see you. I have not seen you since before the accident," she replied. Jason could once again see why his brother liked her. Even though her face was bruised, she was still beautiful. "I guess I am doing well for the circumstances. At least I will get to use the school elevator now."

'Is there any hope that you will walk again?" Jason asked.

"Not at this time, but maybe in the future. But I have to be thankful for my life. I mean, there are children who are dying here. I am very lucky compared to them," She said with such faith. This impressed Jason. She was a fighter like Adam. "How is Adam?"

"He is awake and he is going to be fine. They might let him go tomorrow on the agreement that he rests when he gets home," Jason said. He just could not say the rest. It was still hard for him to believe that his brother was brain damaged from the accident.

"Chuck and your mom mentioned that he may have some brain problems because of the head trauma," Alyssa asked.

"The doctor said that his short-term memory and brain processing has been damaged. He may have to receive extra help processing information to his long-term memory, but I plan to help him instead. I don't want my brother in those special classes," Jason said with determination. "They are doing some tests tonight to double check everything."

"Does he remember me? Or the accident?" She asked, with tears in her eyes.

"He was asking about you. He asked me to come up to see how you were doing. He said to call when you are feeling better," Jason replied. "He remembers little about the accident and maybe that is good. I saw the accident scene."

"I just remember that the car's steering acted funny, like it was loose. Then Adam took over and everything just seemed to break at once. He tried to get it under control. He even told us to secure our seatbelts," Alyssa said as she started to tremble. "I really thought that we were going to die because it just kept rolling and rolling. Everything was just crashing and breaking around us."

Jason walked over and touched her hand. "Everything is going to be fine now. I will try to see to it that you see Adam when you are both better. I had better go, I want to be back in the morning to hear the results."

"Please let me know if anything changes. Here is the number that leads to my own personal phone. I have a message machine. That way you will not have to talk to my uncle," Alyssa said as she reached over and got a piece of paper from he notebook. " They are remodeling one of the cabins just for Clara and me."

"I will," Jason said as he took the number and put it in his wallet. "I will see you later, take care."

"Thank you Jason. I really do care about Adam," Alyssa said, looking over at Jason.

"He cares about you too," Jason said with a smile. His anger had seemed to disappear after meeting with Alyssa. But his anger towards her uncle grew even greater. They had to bring him to justice before he really kills someone--- including Alyssa.

* * *

In the morning the Kramer family got up early to head to the hospital to hear about Adam. Mr. Kramer had decided to go to Los Angeles to the State Department's main office. He was going to find everything out that he could find on Ashita Rawlins by using the computer system and contacting the police officials back in North Carolina. He also wanted to check out hospital and birth records from Alyssa's family. So while Mr. Kramer started on his way to Los Angeles, Mrs. Kramer and her eldest son went to the hospital. They all had agreed to tell Adam that his father was called out of town on important business. They did not want to upset him by telling him that they were investigating Alyssa's family.

Adam was asleep when they arrived and Dr. Coykendall was still reading the test results. So they just waited until the doctor came in. Soon Adam woke up and asked for his father. Mrs. Kramer briefly told him he got called to the main office in LA. About that time, Dr. Coykendall came in to tell them about the results.

"Everything looks pretty clear. My original diagnosis is correct though, however Adam is a very lucky person to have come out of this with such minimal injuries. Usually, people have to relearn everything. I will contact the school sometime today to discuss Adam's injuries. I want him to continue to receive physical therapy through the hospital. I will need to see him weekly so I can monitor his progress. His motor skills are a little awkward, but time and therapy will take care of that," Dr. Coykendall said with a smile. "Now, he will need to keep taking his medication and have plenty of rest. I don't want him back in school for two weeks. I don't want him to fall and hurt his head again. Adam will have to be very cautious of that in the future. I will have the nurse come and prepare his things and medicine to go home."

"Okay, but what does that mean for this football season?" Adam asked. He loved to play football and was part of the starting line-up as a running back.

"I don't know Adam. You may be able to play a little, but I want your body to heal. Plus that is a high contact sport. You would have to be very cautious. I just know that you will not be playing in the next two weeks though," Dr. Coykendall said. "Adam, you will have plenty of time to play football in your lifetime. To be honest, I thought for sure that you would not even be able to walk out of this hospital without months and months of intense therapy. Please be thankful for the health that you do have."

After Mrs. Kramer had signed Adam out and received all of his things, they family left for home. Adam was a little wobbly when we walked, but seemed happy to be out in the fresh fall air. When they reached the house, Mrs. Kramer needed to go to the pharmacy to get Adam's prescriptions filled for the next day. Even though they insisted that Adam get into bed and rest, Adam wanted to take a ride in the van.

"Well, I guess it would not hurt of you stayed in the van. But not for too long," his mother said, giving them both a kiss on the cheek. "I will go and get your medicine and stop by the grocery store."

Adam waited until Jason got to the main road before he said anything. "Jason, I want you to take me to the accident scene. I want to see it," Adam said.

" I don't know Adam," Jason replied. He did not know if it would be a good idea, but he could tell by his brother's face that he really wanted to see it. Maybe it would do him good to see how luck he is, Jason thought. "Okay, but that is it."

Jason drove the van out to the accident scene. He turned the van around in the road so Adam would not have to get out of the van to see it. However, Adam opened his door the minute the van stopped.

"Adam, wait up a minute," Jason said, turning the van off and rushing over to help his brother. "You remember what the doctor said."

Adam ignored the last comment, but waited until his older brother could help him steady himself. He could not believe how far the Cherokee rolled down the hill. He could see the path of the vehicle and some debris lying around the area. 'I guess I am lucky. We are all lucky."

"You should see the Cherokee. It is completely totaled. They had to cut into it just to get you out," Jason said, still holding onto Adam's arm and shoulder.

"So what caused it? I remember the steering going completely out and then the thing stalled and the brakes did not want to work right," Adam said, still looking down the mountainside.

"Uh, there were a lot of problems," Jason said. He did not want to lie to his brother, but he did not know how much he should know about the accident.

"Jason, I want the truth. I find it funny that all of a sudden that Dad has to go out of town. I think you are not telling me everything," Adam said, with a stern voice. 'You are my brother. I trust you 100%. Now don't break that trust."

Jason looked at him. He knew what his parents had said, but the brothers had a very strong bond and he did not want to jeopardize that. He told Adam about what had happened and what his father was doing in Los Angeles. He hoped Adam would remember, but he was not for sure how much Adam truly took in. Then Adam repeated the events back to Jason to make sure he understood everything right. There was a moment of silence. Jason thought that Adam was just sorting the information out in his head.

"But why would he want to hurt Alyssa?" Adam said. He was getting angry at the thought that anyone would want to hurt Alyssa.

"We think it has to do with money, but Dad is going to find out," Jason answered.

"Then if Alyssa went home today, she is still in danger," Adam replied.

'He won't pull anything this soon. It would really be suspicious," Jason said. "Don't get any crazy ideas. Dad is going to protect Alyssa. Plus Clara will watch over Alyssa too."

"Good, but I WILL be involved in this. Don't even think of leaving me out," Adam warned. "At least Chuck and Alyssa came out of the wreck in better shape than me."

Jason looked away from his brother. He did not want to tell him the truth at that time, but he was afraid that Adam would never forgive him for not telling him the truth. They worked together so well and depended on each other during their cases. They needed to keep that trust. But how would Adam handle it?

"Jason? What are you thinking?" Adam said, noticing his brother's expression.

"Adam, Alyssa is gong to be just fine, but the accident severed her spinal cord near her waist," Jason said, looking down at the ground.

"And....Oh God, No!" Adam screeched out. "She is not...," Adam said as he turned and grabbed his brother's arms.

"She is paralyzed from the waist down. She will have to use a wheelchair," Jason said gently. He reached over and hugged his brother. Adam was already sobbing at the thought. Adam could not believe that his beloved Alyssa would never walk again and that it was all entirely Ashita's fault. He wished that he could change places with her. Another thought crossed his head. He leaned back to wipe his eyes and looked down the hill.