Tadashi awoke the next day to see Doctor Ito and Aunt Cass looking at him, "Good morning, Tadashi. We're just discussing the arrangements to take you home." Aunt Cass smiled optimistically. Tadashi smiled in return, "It'd be nice to be home again. Do I need to be tested again or can I just go?"

Doctor Ito nodded his head, "I do want to conduct a few final tests. I am positive you'll be just fine but I want to make sure. It'll be afternoon once you leave the hospital. You'll be assigned to go to physical therapy three days a week so that we can help your body relearn basic movements." Tadashi looked over at Hiro who seemed to be falling asleep just standing there. Tadashi gently nudged him, "Hey, late night?" Hiro straightened up quickly and a sheepish expression crossed his face, "Huh? Oh, yeah. I didn't sleep well."
"Did you stay up past your bedtime?" Aunt Cass looked at him. To appease Aunt Cass, Hiro shook his head no. Although his assigned bedtime was 10:00pm he never actually went to bed at that time. Usually he was up late watching TV well after midnight. Cass' hand brushed through Hiro's hair and then her hand moved to his shoulder, drawing him against her. "We'll leave you to finish testing and we'll come back when the nurses tell us he's ready to come home." Aunt Cass told Doctor Ito and walked off with Hiro beside her.

A few hours later the nurse came out to the waiting room with Tadashi in a wheelchair, all prepared to go home. Hiro was once again asleep in a nearby chair but Aunt Cass woke Hiro up and eventually the threesome had loaded Tadashi into the car. They were finally on their way home. Hiro sat glumbly in the backseat staring out the window, stuffed against the door by Tadashi's duffle bag. He was excited that Tadashi was now going to be home with them but something inside him wasn't sitting right. He was honestly back to square one. Hiro was simply Tadashi's little nerdy brother and while Tadashi was healing then Hiro would be home all the time. If something happened in San Fransokyo, the rest of the team would need to go without him. Needless to say, Tadashi would flip out if he found out that Hiro was risking his safety in any way. After this accident for sure but even before that, Tadashi was a safety fanatic. Hiro didn't understand why but it drove him crazy if anything. A deep sigh came from the back seat which prompted Tadashi to put down the visor mirror, looking back at the dejected teenager in the backseat, "Hey squirt, did you move our TV into the garage space? I'll be bored down there while you're out gallivanting around town without me."

Hiro rolled his eyes at Tadashi's optimism, "You didn't want me to leave, remember? I wasn't planning on doing much of anything while you're bedridden."

"That isn't what I meant, Hiro. Do you realize how long I could be down for? Months?"

"I didn't have a life before this so why change what isn't broken?" Hiro said, words dripping with sarcasm. Tadashi blinked, closed the mirror, and returned the visor back to the original position. 'Unbelievable' Tadashi huffed to himself but said out loud to Hiro, "Are there any gummy bears at home? Maybe you and I can watch a movie tonight."

"Don't feel like it." Hiro shot down Tadashi's idea. Hiro wanted to bitterly say that he felt alone. They weren't a family. Family didn't leave one another behind selfishly. Even when Tadashi was trying his hardest to be normal, life had changed. Changed way too much to ever be normal again. Hiro was having a hard time figuring out which side of his feelings he was on. Was he happy for Tadashi's return or resentful of Tadashi's actions? Even though Hiro was refusing to talk, Tadashi feared something deeper was going on. He needed to find out.

The rest of the car ride was quiet until they got to the apartment. Pandemonium ensued when they tried to get Tadashi into the basement area and into his bed. A sigh of contentment passed Tadashi's lips as his head sank into the plush pillow and he laid under the soft blankets that his brother laid over him. "Thank you...thank you." Aunt Cass gave him a kiss and proceeded to ask him questions about what he desired most to eat, if he was too hot, too cold, or if he needed a nap. While Aunt Cass was distracted, Hiro quietly retreated up the stairs and away from the inevitable big brother little brother conversation. He wanted to get as far away as possible before Tadashi asked to talk to him. His excuse? He had a robotics project he had to finish. Hiro walked to his room and looked up at the picture he had of him and Tadashi. Those were old times. They wouldn't be like that again for a long time. Once again his life would freeze for Tadashi. The first time it froze was when Tadashi died and now it had to halt again because Tadashi was alive.

Tadashi was left alone for a few minutes while Aunt Cass went to go find him something to eat. Finally he was out of the hospital and he'd have time to read about the fire and give his full attention to the needs of his family. Although he was sure he could suss out what he wanted to find, he was positive that his aunt and Hiro would try and hide the truth regarding either issue. He wasn't so sure if he could handle some of the truth either. Then one of Tadashi's primary concerns was Hiro. However hard Hiro tried to hide problems, something was bothering Hiro that day. Tadashi hoped that together with Aunt Cass and Hiro, they'd begin to get their tiny world back to normal. Not much could have happened in a month right?

Hiro stayed up in his room for the rest of the evening and didn't bother coming down for the family movie later that night. There was a hard stone of anxiety in his stomach that he couldn't seem to throw away. Hiro sat on his bed and played with the edge of his sketchbook thinking about what tomorrow would be like. Most likely Tadashi would want to talk to him, but frankly Hiro didn't want to tell him much of anything. Tadashi should be focused on resting and Hiro's job was to take care of everything else. That was his job and he wouldn't mess it up by distressing Tadashi. Why was he feeling so bitter? Tadashi was home and all Hiro had wanted was for his brother to be under their roof and in their care again. Was there something bigger that Hiro was dreading? Was it because seeing Tadashi in that bed was going to be a constant reminder that they couldn't have their past life back? When Tadashi was in the hospital, Hiro could leave and shut that part of his grief out until the next day. He had become used to isolating such feelings to certain scenarios. Hiro made a face and shook the thought away. He wasn't grieving. Grieving was something people did when someone died. He already was past that stage. Was he having a reaction to the loss of his independence? No, he could still have that. A frustrated groan came from Hiro as he rolled over onto his back. Why was it so hard to live life? Why couldn't it be as simple as computers and robotics? Someone programmed the decisions and then the robot followed.

Why was life a hall of doors, each one leading to another hall and another hall and another one? The vicious cycle of decisions and consequences when all the time you're thinking, "what if I just chose that other one?" Hiro stood up and opened a drawer, flopping again on his bed with an open bag of gummy bears. The perfect food. Slowly his mind went to his favorite thing besides gummy bears, bots. They could be anything you could think of and the one thing Hiro had control over in his life.