Author's Note: This story is a follow on from the last two stories in my Katiya series. (A Long Time In Coming; and The Wire). To recap, Illya had been kidnapped by the KGB and kept in solitary for a year under intense interrogation. Only his faith in his friend Napoleon and his love for his adoptive daughter Katiya kept him going. Now he has finally been rescued by UNCLE and returned home to New York.
Dedicated to Lindafishes8 who asked for an update on Katiya a long time ago. Sorry to take so long my friend, but I hope the wait was worth it!
Katiya was worried about her papa.
From the time uncle Napoleon had sat her down and explained to her that he had been taken away, and that everyone was looking for him, she had kept her eyes open everywhere she went.
Although she had always known it was silly, every time she saw a skinny man around papa's height she had wondered if it was papa come home again. Then the person would turn around and she would see his face and realize that this was not her papa. It was another stranger.
At first, she had tried to be brave, but as the weeks and months went on so slowly without Uncle Napoleon or his and papa's boss Mister Waverly finding any sign of him, Katiya had started to lose hope.
Her guardians, Uncle Napoleon's brother and his wife, Uncle Wint and Auntie Ce and their daughter Polly had been extra kind to her, but the time had passed by very slowly, and Katiya had been so sad almost all the time. Uncle Napoleon had come to visit as often as he could and spent time with her and his niece Polly when he wasn't working or looking for papa.
Then one day, Uncle Napoleon had come to see Uncle Wint and Auntie Ce, and they had locked themselves in Uncle Wint's study for some time before coming out and inviting her to go in and join them.
"I have something to tell you." Uncle Napoleon had told her; and had gone on to explain that her papa had been found by members of UNCLE working in another country, and that Mister Waverly was sending a special jet plane to pick him up and bring him home.
"What would make your papa very happy is if you would come with us, so that you can be together on the plane when we bring him back home. Would you like to come with me to collect papa?"
That question, Katiya had decided, was about the easiest question she had ever been asked. Of-course she wanted to come! She couldn't help wondering if he was joking, or if she were dreaming it all. Even when she kissed Auntie Ce goodbye at the UNCLE airfield and got on the plane with uncle Napoleon, it had still felt like a dream.
And then it had happened.
She had been made to stay on the plane when they first landed, and she had fallen asleep whilst she waited. Then, after take-off, someone had awakened her and told her there was someone who hadn't seen her in a long while. Papa.
Her reunion with papa had been strange, Katiya remembered. He didn't look like papa anymore. He had always been skinny, but he was skinnier than ever, this face thin and pinched looking, his face white and his eyes looked strange…sort of glassy and almost unfocussed.
He had spoken to her in Ukrainian, mixed in with Russian. It had been so long since she had used either of her native languages, that she had had to think and concentrate a little to bring the once familiar sounds and phrases back to her mind again.
They had taken papa back to UNCLE headquarters first of all, to the medical bay. She had remained closely by her side. Papa had refused to leave go of her hand even for a single moment, so the doctors had had to examine him with her firmly beside him. Papa had been quiet and polite at first, but after a while, Katiya had had the shock of her life when her usually quiet-voiced papa started to shout and complain loudly, in Ukrainian rather than English, that he had had enough and was going home. They could damn well shoot him if they disagreed, but he was going!
This was how she remembered her natural father behaving. He had been papa's older brother. Papa was, in reality, her uncle Illya. Her natural, her first papa had been a loud, shouty, fisty sort of person that Katiya had feared as much as she loved. But papa, uncle Illya had never been like that. He had always been quiet and gentle and caring. How could she help being worried about him?
She put out her hand and touched his arm, almost timidly.
"Please papa!" she said softly, in English. "The doctors have missed you too, like me."
The soft voice and timid touch penetrated and stopped Illya mid-rant, causing him to look down. He slid off the bed and knelt on the floor beside her and took her into his arms and buried his face into her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry Little One." He said quietly. "I've missed you too, so much."
Illya looked up at the doctor.
"Forgive me doctor Simpson. I have not been home in a long time."
The doctor nodded. He had predicted Illya's likely reaction to the thought of being incarcerated in medical as soon as he returned.
"It's alright, Mister Kuryakin." He replied with a kindly twinkle in his eye. "I won't force you to stay here, but I cannot allow you to go home alone at first either. I would be happier if you could be in company for the first… month or so. Until you regain some of your strength, and you have become acclimatized to your life once more."
"Funny you should say that, Doc'." Said a voice from the doorway. Katiya looked up and smiled as Uncle Napoleon came into the room. She watched him clap papa on the shoulder.
"Sorry to take so long to join you down here my friend." Napoleon said. "I had a few things to sort out, but now I am free. I have taken six weeks holiday. You and Katiya are coming with me. We are going down to my parents' place whilst you recover."
Illya glanced at his daughter, frowning slightly.
"But what of my apartment? And Katiya's schooling?"
Napoleon grinned.
"One of the things I was sorting out. I have spoken to Katiya's school, and they are agreed that you need to be together for a while. They have given me a copy of her school curriculum for the next couple of months. We can teach her between us until you're ready to return to work. That way you two can start to make up for lost time…"
He glanced from Illya to Katiya and back again, puzzled at the tears he saw on both faces.
"That's alright, isn't it?"
Illya turned to him and gave him a rare smile, clutching his daughter into a one-armed hug at the same time.
"Oh yes my friend." He said warmly. "That will be very alright!"