Chapter 17

The Benriya repair Connie's gun shop and Alex recalls a surprisingly important memory from her past.

Full Synopsis
Alex is working hard repairing Connie's shop when Connie invites her to take a break, which Worick allows her to. Connie pours tea and talks about the common brawls that occur in her shop. Connie then extends a hand of greeting but gropes Alex's breast instead, much to Alex's chagrin. Suddenly Worick yells in pain after smashing his thumb and Nic throws him some aspirin before complaining about being assigned to "grunt work" by Chad. An irritated Worick retorts that it was Nic's fault and the latter admits it was but warns Worick not to go near "those two". Worick then asks why Nic was carrying aspirin but he replies that it was the return of a favour from Dr. Theo and it does nothing for him anyway. After seeing a momentary image of Veronica, Worick then smashes Nic in the shin with a hammer and chuckles as Nic sits on his arse in irked agony.

Granny Joel then arrives and jabs Worick in the arse and chastises the two for slacking off. She then goes inside the shop and is surprised when she sees Alex. Joel then asks Alex if she had left the Benriya yet and Connie realises that she was the person her grandmother had been talking about. When Alex replies to Connie's question of whether she'd put her prostitute life behind her, Granny Joel retorts that she would relapse soon enough. As she is speaking Connie begins to tell Alex a secret but is stopped when Joel swiftly yanks her ear making Connie alter what she said next.

Connie asks Alex when she would return to her family and Alex suddenly realises that she had a younger brother but she didn't know how he was doing. As Connie explains that the multi-purpose Benriya could probably help locate him, Alex realises in horror that she had forgotten her brother's existence and questions whether it was because of the Tb pills Barry fed her. She suddenly has a frightening hallucination of Barry behind her and her body begins shaking from anxiety as she nervously reaches for her medication. Nic, noticing Alex's sudden change, comes from behind her, steadies her shaking and helps her to open her medicine. As she calms down, she calls Nic's name and looks around to find him not there.

Later, after finishing the repairs, Connie pays a grateful Worick and as they prepare to leave Granny Joel calls out to the Benriya, inviting them to eat with her since she had made too much food. As Connie excitedly rushes to eat, dragging Nic with her, Worick apologises to Alex for not monitoring her and then asks if she had a mother. Alex explains that she didn't and thus had to take care of her little brother herself; she goes on to say that her memories of him were fine until she met Barry. Worick reassures her and then tells her to get out of the city as soon as possible but until then she was free to stay with the Benriya, leaving Alex choked up with tears from his gentleness.