Notice: 1st and 2nd chapter of Escape From Hell Fire sequel - Rising From The Ashes are now up!

Below is another teaser sneak peak. Didn't want to post full new chapter - just something to hopefully whet yawls fanfic appetites! Hope ya'll go read the new chapters to my latest story, and review! It would be an awesome 23rd b-day present to me if you did!

"Alan…come on, wake up." A gentle voice spoke, rousing the boy from his slumber.

'Not right now…please.' Alan tried to ignore the voice gently prodding him from his fluffy soft dream world. He felt no pain in his fluffy dream world – why was whoever bothering him trying to drag him out of his safe haven…it just wasn't fair.

"Alan, come on… wake up sleepyhead." Alan pried his eyes open to hear that annoying beep that he'd grown accustomed to hearing and he looked up to meet the gaze of Dr. Warner – the man's face was hidden behind a surgical mask. "There we go. You slept for a good twelve hours, must have really needed the sleep."

"Yeah, maybe." Alan agreed lightly.

"We're just going to get you sat up a little so you can have a sip of water." The mechanical whirring of the bed sounded fuzzy to Alan – like how one's hearing was always a bit obscured after having just woken up. When he was sat up, Alan looked around slowly – blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Oops, we don't want this falling off."

Dr. Warner's hand came up by Alan's face and he flinched until it occurred to him that the doctor was simply looping the fallen cannula tubing back around his ear. The hiss of oxygen and the cool rush of air up his nose tickled and Alan reached up to rub at his nose – attempting to dislodge the oxygen cannula from his nostrils.

"No, we don't want to do that Alan. You need the oxygen for a little while longer – just until tomorrow morning." Dr. Warner lightly brushed Alan's fingers away from his nose before settling a look on the boy. "So how are you feeling – any pain anywhere?"

Alan paused as he took account of any and all pain he may be experiencing. Shaking his head, Alan sent a grateful look at the doctor.

"No, no pain anywhere." Alan settled back into his pillows before a thought occurred to him. "Hang on, how long until we find out whether or not my surgery failed or not?"

"You've got another twelve hours. But so far you're doing well. I and my nurses have been monitoring you every hour and you haven't shown a sign one that your body is going to reject the donor skin." Dr. Warner sat on the edge of the bed and settled a straightforward look on his young patient. "You were quite the trooper during surgery."

Alan blushed at the sort of compliment. All he did was sleep.

"You know, I was quite impressed with how you did during surgery. Your blood pressure, O2 sats, heart rate – everything remained at an even keel." Dr. Warner felt it was necessary to reassure his patient of how well he did in surgery.

"When will we know about the nerves in my feet?" Alan looked at his doctor pleadingly. He was hoping to not hear bad news.

"Well, once the twenty-four hours are up – we'll know if the donation took. If it took, then in about two weeks we'll do what's called a feather touch. Once the bandages are removed from your feet, I or one of the nurses will come in and use either a feather, pen, paperclip even pinches and we'll test your reflexes – primarily when you're least expecting it. Like two weeks from now, you might be asleep and one of the nurses may come in and use a Q-tip and run it along the bottom of your feet and see if you react."

"What will happen if I don't react?" Alan bit his lip as he asked.

"Well, we'll continue to check you daily – if you show signs of reacting but its faint then we know your nerves are trying to repair themselves. If you show no signs of reacting at all then like the first option we'll continue to check you until we either see a reaction or we don't. The kind of reaction we are hoping for would be you jerking your foot away or nudging whatever is touching you away. If we don't see a reaction then you'll just remain stationary." Dr. Warner was straightforward with his patient.

"Okay." Alan accepted the answer. It wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear, but it'd do for now.

"So, do you have any questions at all?" Dr. Warner inquired softly.

"How bad will the scarring be?" Alan was curious about how deformed he'd be once everything was done.

" Well, judging on the slight variation in your skin tone compared to Virgil's – I'd say the scarring will be minimal. You and Virgil are close enough in skin tone that it won't change too much." Dr. Warner pointed at Alan's arm – near his collarbone. "Despite blondes normally being significantly fairer skinned as compared to those with brown hair, you and your brother share a similar shade of skin tone."

Alan nodded his acceptance of the answer once more. He was hoping that when the surgical sites healed that it wouldn't be too obvious that something had happened to him. He personally didn't feel up to explaining everything to everyone who hadn't heard about the fire. He just wanted to put it behind himself.

"Any other questions for me then Alan?" Dr. Warner began readjusting Alan's hospital blankets as he patiently waited for his patient to ask any other questions he could come up with.

Alan opened his mouth but found himself fighting a yawn instead. "None r-ight now…sir." Alan shook his head as the yawn zapped him of his remaining energy.

"Okay, well best get on back to bed. I'll let your father and brothers know that you've woken up and that you are doing fairly well." Dr. Warner pulled Alan's blankets up to the boy's chin as he started to return to sleep.

"Thank you." Alan whispered as he snuggled to the best of his ability into his bedding. However just before he went to bed Alan pried open his sleep heavy eyes to look one last time at the doctor. "How's Virgil doing?"

"He's good. Woke up a few hours ago and wanted to know anything he could about how you were doing. I believe he's eating dinner right now though. I can let him know that you send your well wishes." Dr. Warner offered.

"No, I'll call him." Alan reached out a hand to grab his laptop, but Dr. Warner stopped him.

"Alan, I must advise against it right now. You've only just woken up and a few minutes ago you were ready to go back to sleep. Why don't you ease back, close your eyes and catch a few more hours of rest. You can contact Virgil in the morning, but right now it's bedtime." Dr. Warner gestured for Alan to lie back down and he intentionally lowered the bed back so that Alan would have no choice but to sleep at present. Alan didn't fight the doctor on it and he was asleep before the doctor left the room.