The hospital had kept all unwanted visitors and media away from Brady and Alison. However, they were still subjected to a bombardment of police and FBI agents, all wanting to know more about the basement. However, Alison and Brady were scarce on the details.

The only two people that Alison wanted to see were Max and Julia, and they had yet to show up.

The Carson's assured her that they would if they could but they were strictly on a family only visitation list. Which sucked for Alison who had no family coming to see her.

On the day they were being discharged, Brady's older brother, Hayden, came to see them.

Alison and Brady had been watching a rerun of The Simpsons when he came in. It was all they could get themselves to watch these days. There was a whole year of movies, television shows, music, pop culture references and more to catch up on. It freaked them both out so much that for now she and Brady were sticking to what they already knew.

Alison sat up at once when Hayden opened the door. She had always liked Hayden. He was two years older than them but he had always been Brady's cool older brother that let them drink at his parties and drove them around. He had been about to start football training and then college when they went missing. He had been on vacation with his friends when the news broke about them being rescued, but he came back as soon as he could, and he seemed thrilled to see them. Clearly, he had been prepared though, because he didn't try to hug Brady like Alison figured he would.

Brady offered a smile that looked more like a grimace at his brother.

"Hi Hayden," Alison said softly.

"Hello, Ali," he greeted back.

He took a seat on the chair in between the beds, facing the two of them.

"This is so crazy," Hayden said, shaking his head. "I can't believe you guys are alive."

Hayden looked between them for a second, more particularly at all the scars. It was pretty clear to Alison that he had forgotten for a moment all that the two of them had been through. The media had been quick to get the story though, so it was pretty clear he knew.

Somehow news reporters had found out about Leonard's past and how he had recreated his family through kidnapping. They had also found out about the basement and the electrocution. Alison could see on Hayden's face that it was all hitting him, especially when she caught him looking at the worst scar on Alison's leg. She moved the sheet over to cover it. Holden looked up and realized he had been caught.

"Uh, your guys' hair is the same dark brown, almost black now," he noted awkwardly.

Things grew painfully silent after that comment.

"How have you been?" she asked him softly.

Hayden chuckled. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Alison smiled faintly. "Considering where I was less than a week ago, I'm okay."

Brady tapped something on the table. Alison chuckled.

"What?" Hayden asked, confused.

"Brady said he's taller than you now," she explained.

Hayden rolled his eyes. "Maybe by an inch or two."

Brady smiled a small smile. So faint only Alison noticed.

It grew silent again.

"So what have you been up to this past year?" she asked him. "Come on, I want details."

Hayden smiled. "There's not much to tell, I pretty much just wrapped up my first year of university and played some football for fun while I was at it."

"Do you like it?" she asked. "University and stuff."

He shrugged. "School was good, it kept my mind off everything at home."

Hayden froze once he realized what he had just said.

"Uh, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," Alison said softly. "I get it."

"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It's fine," she said. "So, you must be starting your sophomore year in the fall, right? Any plans for after university?"

"Yeah, I want to go into mechanical engineering," he answered.

Alison was surprised by that. "Really? What happened to pro football?" she asked.

"Come on, Ali," he said with a laugh. "It was just a dumb fantasy, I had to get serious about my future and football just wasn't it."

"Oh," she said quietly. "I guess a lot changed this past year."

Hayden looked over at her sympathetically and then it grew silent again.

"Well, look guys, some people are getting together tonight, so I'll see you around Ali, and Brady uh, I'll see you at home, okay?"

Brady nodded.

"So I'm guessing the bonfire is tonight, huh?" Alison said softly.

Hayden paused at the door and looked over at her nervously.

Alison shrugged. "Maybe I should go, who knows what will happen this time I go to a party."

Hayden stared at her with wide eyes.

"I was kidding," she said when she saw his face.

"I think the bonfire, uh, well, it got canceled forever I think," Hayden explained awkwardly. "The whole town kind of freaked out about it. This is just a get together at someone's house."

"Oh," Alison said quietly.

This was insanely awkward for Alison, normally people got her humor. She wondered if he felt the same way about seeing them as she did seeing him. Would it be this awkward with everyone?

Hayden then left and a nurse came by a few minutes later to discharge them. As the nurse did her final examinations on them, Brady tapped something to her.

Brady thought Hayden had changed.

They all had, Alison thought to herself.

Soon the Carson's came in along with Alison's father, thankfully without his wife and kid. She and Brady looked at each other as they were brought to their parents' cars.

Brady tapped on the side of his dad's car once more before getting in. He asked if she was okay. Alison didn't tap back. She just got in the car and looked outside as her father drove.

"We did a lot of renovations on the house," Alison's father finally said as they arrived at the house. "I think you'll love it."

When she saw the house, Alison's jaw dropped.

"What did you do?"

Her old childhood home, the house she had lived in her whole life that had once been baby blue was now victorian white. The tire swing that hung from her favorite tree was gone, and the tree was cut at the stump. The house had been completely renovated and it looked like a second smaller building, a guest house had been built in the back next to the pool.

"Come inside," her father said. "You'll love it, Gabby did an amazing job."

Alison reluctantly walked into the house with her father.

The Carson's had given her some clothes to wear when they brought some for Brady, a black t-shirt and gray sweatpants. Brady's parents had always been quick to think of her alongside their son. Alison wondered if her father even cared half as much.

Her worries were proven true when she saw the inside of the house. It was so... messy. The colors in each room didn't match, the decoration was over the top, as opposed to her mother's classy style the renovations reeked of immaturity. What else could be expected though when your father at age forty, with money to blow, married a twenty-five-year-old.

Alison began walking up the stairs to her old room.

"Uh, wait Alison," her father said, trying to catch up to her.

He was too late though as Alison had already opened the door to her room, or rather her new step-sister's room.

"You got rid of my stuff?" she asked in disbelief. "We had an extra room, why would you do that?"

"The baby is in the spare room and well, Gabriella didn't want Penelope and Briana to have to play in the same room they slept in, she read that it was bad for the baby, so we moved her toys into the other room to make a playroom and this is Briana's room now."

"You didn't answer my question, where is my stuff?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Alison, we had no idea you were alive, much less that they would find you, the therapist suggested that-"

"I don't give a shit what a freaking therapist said!" Alison yelled. "This was my room, my stuff, my life, you just threw it all away like I didn't even matter or something!"

"Of course you mattered," Mr. Hart protested.

"Oh really?" Alison asked, crossing her arms. "Did I matter when you chose to sleep with some other bitch when you were married? Did I matter when you got her pregnant? Or when you just left in the middle of the night and abandoned me? Or when you decided to just move on and create your own little do over family?"

Alison had tears in her green eyes as she glared at her father who had no response. She stormed back down the stairs and out of the house. He heard her father yelling after her, but Alison had always been a fast runner and her anger carried her much farther than Mr. Hart could keep up with.