...A brief moment after surgery with the team...

Seven emergency surgeries were needed to save the life of the young soldier. Thanks to her father, Johnny, the amputation of her broken leg was spared. Through his stem cell and tendon donation, the surgeons were able to reconstruct her fractured knee. There followed an artificial coma cause Cassie's blood loss was immense. Sonya wasn't even able to go to work the first few days since she donated so much blood to her daughter that she would have almost killed herself. Kung Jin, Takeda and Jacqui recovered well after the treatments of their injuries. Only Jacqui had a plaster arm since she had suffered a terrible debris fracture, and Kung Jin was forced to wear a metal plate under his skin due to a fractured skull.

"Is there nothing we can do for her?" Jacqui asked the doctor in attendance. 15 days had passed since the brutal attack. Except for Cassie, the young adults were released again from the hospital, and especially Jacqui was worried about the life of her best friend. "I'm terribly sorry, Miss Briggs, but there is nothing more we can do." One last time the doctor controlled Cassie's infusions, she got through two venous catheters, and then he filled a tank of pure oxygen. "From her coma she'll have to wake up by herself." He left the room. Jacqui sat on Cassie's bed edge, smoothed her bedcloth, and positioned a little soft teddy bear under her arm. She thought about her own wounds under the plasters on her neck but the sight of the crushed body of the young Cage almost hurt her more.

"How is she going to react when she finds out?" Jin asked quietly. Takeda looked at him indignantly. "The most important thing is that she wakes up again! Other wounds heal with time!" Jacqui looked at her boyfriend. "But this, Takeda, will never heal again. You know that." She glanced at Cassie's heavy bandage. From her head was little seen besides the tracheal tube, which led from a slit in the strapping. She closed her eyes at the thought of how she would react to it that there is nothing more? Because the wound that will never heal, remained her face. The doctors had not been able to restore it. It was erased, cut off. Two transplant experiments had already failed and it would be a shock for Cassie to have to live without a face forever. She almost had to suppress a sarcastic laugh. "If I were in her place, maybe I would never want to wake up again." Takeda looked down.

"Who wants to live without face forever, without emotions, always to be stared at? I do not know what it would make sense for me." Kung Jin looked at them tightly. "I do not think anyone wants to stuck in Cassie's skin. And none of us knows Cage well enough to know how she will deal with it. But let's stop discussing the meaning of life. I wouldn't last long in my place too, but now the gods will be able to help us and hope that she will soon be among us again!" They all agreed on this point, and so they all lingered silently in the room until Takeda again broke the silence. "Guys, it's time for our physiotherapy. Let's look again for Cassie tomorrow morning! Take care, Cass. See you tomorrow!" Kung Jin looked at him. "She cannot answer us, but she'll hear us, Jin." he replied. "Can you read her? Her thoughts?" Jacqui asked. Takeda closed his eyes. "It is difficult with coma patients. They're as blurry as lost souls. I cannot read them, nor does they process our conversations, nor can they react to them. But there is a voice in her that announces her presence. Cassie is still among us. And to be there for her as friends, we support her more than you believe!"