The nurse, a young wisp of a girl, barely out of school herself, refused to tell her anything. She restored her oxygen mask and gently slapped away Kate's attempt to remove it again. Kate, too tired to be properly demanding, spent the remainder of the nurse's time in the room inhaling the oxygen and trying to breathe in a way that didn't cause extreme pain. She pushed the utter confusion and panic to a far corner of her mind and allowed herself the indignity of wallowing in the pain and discomfort.
She must have fallen asleep again, because someone was holding her hand. It was an overly warm and sweaty hand, full of callouses. The rough finger pads were tracing nervous circles around her knuckles. It was not a comfortable hand, but it was a familiar hand and she wouldn't pull away even if she could.
"Daddy." She almost didn't recognize her own voice, it was so raspy and breathless. Her lids reluctantly parted and the first thing she noticed was that the light patterns had moved. She squinted against the light in her face and her hand was released as her father rose to close the blinds.
He squeezed her hand again as he sat down. "Hey, sweetheart."
She rolled her head sideways, "They took the neck brace off." Her lips were dry and her jaw felt like lead. It came out totally unintelligible.
Jim Beckett cocked his head sideways. "What was that?" Kate thought about trying again, then snorted bemusedly to herself and settled for drinking in her father's face and the feel of her hand in his.
"How…long…was I out?" she skirted the question really on her mind with something she hoped was a little more harmless.
It would seem not. He sat, not looking at her face, but at her hand, fingers still tracing their nervous patterns. A single tear slid down the cheek she just noticed betrayed an ashen pallor. "Three days," He choked out, coughing into his hand to cover a subtle swipe of the eye. Kate saw it anyway.
She concentrated, and squeezed his hand. It was more of a twitch of the fingers, but it was enough. "Hey…its nobody's fault, okay? I'm here."
The floodgates opened, and Jim Beckett wept into his daughter's hand.