Playing with Carly, Perry and Portia were only alerted to the fact that Kane was back when he had already left again. They were told, however, that Kane had brought somebody from ARCHANGEL to be treated by Apollo.

So Perry and Portia rushed down to the hospital bay, leaving Carly with Pinky, but Perry stopped at the entrance.

"What's wrong?" Portia asked gently.

"I don't know who Kane brought from ARCHANGEL. Chances are it's not going to be someone we know. But what if it is someone we know and they hate us?"

Portia put her arms round Perry, who rested his head on her shoulder. "Most of our generation of Taskers feel that we betrayed them. We will just have to accept it if whoever's in there knows us and hates us. Okay?"

"Yeah."

Perry took a deep breath and entered the medical bay with Portia right behind him. The only bed that was occupied—apart from Georgia's—was one at the very end of the medical bay. Apollo was blocking the two platypuses from seeing whoever was on the bed. As Perry walked past Georgia on their way to the other bed, Perry saw that her hospital blanket was drawn back, clearly to make space for some kind of test or operation. Perry took a moment to tenderly tuck the hospital blanket back around Georgia before he forced himself to keep walking.

Apollo moved out of the way as they approached, allowing Perry and Portia to see who was on the bed. Portia immediately had tears in her eyes, but Perry placed his hand on the furry grey arm.

"Leslie," muttered Perry.

The ring-tailed lemur was awake, and when she saw Perry, her eyes widened. Perry quickly backed away but Portia caught Leslie's attention. "Portia…?" she croaked.

"Are you okay?" Portia asked worriedly.

"Her injury's not life-threatening," Apollo said, adjusting Leslie's pillow. "She should be up and about within a few days."

As Apollo left, Leslie turned her head and saw Georgia in the bed several metres away. Her face creased into a worried frown. "So that's where Georgia went."

"Did you see what happened to her and Oliver?" Portia asked softly.

"Not exactly what happened, no," Leslie replied, coughing briefly. "All I saw was a really beat-up Georgia running away from Kirk. I didn't know if she'd been caught, but…did she make it here?"

"She was in a critical condition, but yes," Portia replied. "She's…uh…she's in a coma, but Apollo's doing his best to help her."

"Good." Leslie lay back in her bed.

"About Oliver…is there a chance he's still alive?" ventured Perry.

Leslie closed her eyes and her face creased into an expression of sadness. "I know this isn't what you want to hear but…after Georgia left, I went into the main hall and found Oliver's body. I wasn't able to get close enough because Kirk blocked me but…he wasn't moving and he didn't look like he was breathing."

Portia turned away and Perry bowed his head. Both platypuses felt a stab of grief in their heart. Here was confirmation that Oliver was dead, and yet they wouldn't know what had actually happened until—if—Georgia recovered from her coma.

"But what about you?" Leslie asked, looking back at Portia. "Georgia and Oliver said you were still in interrogation when they left."

Portia frowned, remembering. She knew this wasn't true but she knew she had to protect her friends. "I joined OWCA," she replied carefully. "I decided it was the right thing to do."

Leslie gave a small nod. "Indeed."

"And Perry and I are mates now," added Portia. "We have a daughter together."

The lemur smiled. "Maybe…maybe I should stay."

The two platypuses stared at her. "Really?" gasped Portia.

"Without Kane, I would have died," Leslie replied. "Kirk was going to punish me for getting shot. I wouldn't have survived. Here, you get medical care for something as minor as a sprained limb. That's not what we got in ARCHANGEL. They starved me."

Leslie weakly pulled down the covers of the bed and the two platypuses saw how thin and clearly starved she was.

"Kirk said starving Taskers was a punishment," Perry stated.

Leslie gave a bitter laugh. "Punishment? He starved all of us, regardless of whether we did something wrong or not, and it certainly wasn't for lack of money."

Perry felt a stab of anger hit his chest at the thought of all those helpless animals, slowly starving to death. When he saw Kirk again, he was definitely going to smack him in the face for all the animals he had starved.

"Well, we'll leave you to rest now," Perry said, giving Leslie one more awkward pat on the arm.

As he turned away, Leslie reached out and caught his wrist. "I don't blame you for leaving. I used to hate you for abandoning us but now I see you had no choice. Just as I had no choice today."

Perry gave a small smile. "Just rest now."

Leslie smiled back and closed her eyes. Perry and Portia left the hospital bay. As they headed to collect their daughter, Portia spoke her fear aloud: "They're not going to accept her. You know that, right?"

"I know." Perry knitted his brows. "She's been part of ARCHANGEL for too long. I was for five years, you were for ten years, Leslie was for fourteen years. Very few people are going to trust her."

"But it'll be the same with Georgia when she wakes up," Portia said. "If she decides to stay too, I mean. They just have to prove that they can commit. I think that if they prove they can be loyal to us, OWCA will begin to accept them."

"I think so too," agreed Perry. "But first we have to tell Major Monogram that-."

"Perry!" yelled a voice.

Perry turned to find Apollo racing round the corner after them. Panting, the doctor stopped in front of the two platypuses.

Perry's heart immediately turned cold. "What is it?"

"It-it's Georgia…"

…

AAAAAAAND CLIFFHANGER! Unfortunately this one won't be resolved for a while because we're returning to Kane next chapter!