The sedatives made the kid sick, which he felt awful about but, he guessed, was largely why they let him stay in the room with her, once she was awake he was the only one willing to get close enough to push the garbage can over to her every time she started gagging up stomach bile. It didn't really surprise him that there was nothing much for her to vomit up, her physical exam had concluded that she was a little malnourished, though otherwise in good health, and any attempts to tempt her into eating anything they offered her failed. The medics had hooked her up to an IV while she was unconscious, hoping to get some fluids and calories into her, but upon waking she had promptly torn it out and then thankfully been too weak to fight having her arm bandaged.

She was looking pretty sorry for herself now, pale and a little shaky, laying on her side in the hospital bed with one wrist cuffed the the side rail so she couldn't escape. Even if she did, someone would report her straight away, he mused, a lone eight year old was an odd enough sight in the Home Office, forget one with little smears of blood on her adult sized hospital pajamas from the IV incident. And he doubted that she would get too far while nauseous and still half sedated, a fact he'd pointed out, but Lester insisted on restraining her anyways.

She did look a little more normal now, he noted, she'd been given a sponge bath by one of the female medics and Claudia had kindly offered to give her hair a bit of a comb while she was out, though there had really only been so much she could do with the tangled mess without a proper wash and trim. Even the giant pajamas made a huge improvement on her previous combination of what appeared to be a small adult's t-shirt over what may have actually been jeans made for a young boy, but were several sizes too big and held up by a piece of cord. Instead of a wild animal, she was beginning to look more like a little kid having a sick day and, he realized, incredibly like the childhood photos he'd seen of Helen.

They were both, it seems, startled out of their thoughts by a knock on the door, the child sending a weak glare in the general direction of the sound. He couldn't fault her for that he decided as he spotted Lester through the windowed portion, motioning for him to step outside. He hesitated, glancing at the girl, but reluctantly complied, slipping out the door and greeting the government man with a tired grunt, "Lester."

Lester wrinkled up his nose at the sight of him, "Good lord, you look awful."

"Thanks." Cutter retorted flatly, rubbing his hands over his face, "Didn't sleep much, the drugs made the kid sick."

"Well they wouldn't have been necessary if she wasn't such a hellion."

Lester's tone was defensive and maybe undercut with a hint of remorse, but Cutter wasn't in the mood to try and decipher the purposefully restrained emotions of the other man, so instead he just glared at him, "Lester, I'm very tired and waiting for test results that confirm whether or not I'm a father, so forgive me if I'm a little short on patience, but was there something you wanted?"

"Ah, yes." cleared his throat and nodded, producing a previously unseen bag from behind his back and holding it out to Cutter.

"What…?" Cutter wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting, but the tired blue astronaut print backpack dangling from Lester's fingers wasn't it. He took the bag hesitantly, opening it up and poking through the contents.

"Hand-me-downs." Lester clarified, "Mostly things my boys out grew but there's the odd thing in there that my wife bought for Elizabeth to grow into."

Cutter stared at the bag dumbly for a moment before nodding, "Um, thank you."

"Right, well, having a child running around here will be bad enough. Least we can do is ensure she's not naked." Lester huffed, though his excuse sounded lame even to Cutter's over tired brain.

Maybe it sounded lame to Lester as well because he sniffed and stalked off towards his office without waiting for a response. Cutter glanced from Lester's retreating back to the t-shirt with the little cartoon alien that he had in his hand with a bemused look that Claudia matched as she approached him in the hall, "Are those from Lester?"

"Strictly speaking I think his kids are the ones who wore them," Cutter joked, nodded, "But yes, he's donated them to my cause."

"How unusually kind of him." Claudia chuckled, then sobered, "How is she?"

"Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck, "She was sick most of the night, won't eat a thing we offer her, and she ripped out her IV about a minute after waking up."

"And you were up all night with her." She stated it like it was obvious and, well, given Lester's comment, it very likely was.

"I was that." He admitted a little sheepishly.

He thought she might scold him, he'd certainly had enough comments from others over the past twelve hours to get the sense that most people were less than impressed with his choices regarding this matter, but instead Claudia gave him a kind look, "Alright, why don't you go lay down a while on that spare bed in there and I'll take over sitting up with her for a bit?"

He couldn't help a slight smile, "Thank you, but you don't have to do that."

"It's no trouble." She insisted, "I sit in with my niece when she's sick all the time. And when she's feeling better, I brought some things that may interest her a little more than cafeteria meatloaf."

His smile widened a little as she showed him the tupperware of fresh fruit and veggies she had stashed in her purse, "Claudia Brown, you're… you're a good person."

"I do my best." She returned his smile with gentle one of her own, holding the door open for him before following him in. The girl regarded them warily as they entered the room, eyes darting from him to her in such a way that he could almost hear the question.

"This is Claudia." He explained, his tone kind, but firm, "She is very nice and has agreed to keep you company while I get some sleep. I would very much appreciate it if you would be nice to her, okay? I'm going to be right over there."

As usual, the girl gave no indication that she understood him beyond eyeing Claudia with slightly narrowed eyes, which, to Claudia's credit, didn't appear to phase her much. She smiled and settled herself in the chair that he had left near, but out of arm's reach of, the bed, "I'm sure we'll be just fine."

"Okay." He chuckled, dropping the backpack by the door, heading over to the far side of the room to the unused bed and drawing the curtain closed for privacy. Making himself as comfortable as he could on the thin, rubber covered mattress, he closed his eyes and did his best to rest, though he doubted he'd actually manage sleep.

The room was quiet for a few minutes, only ambient sounds catching his attention like the buzz of the over head lights and the occasional sound of metal on metal as the girl shifted and her handcuff clanked against the guard rail. After a few minutes, he heard what sounded like Claudia's chair sliding a little closer and her whispered voice, like she was trying not to wake him.

"You know, Captain Ryan, he's the man who brought you here, he has a theory." She murmured, "He thinks that maybe you don't know how to talk."

There was a pause, like she was giving the girl a chance to reply, but of course, she didn't get any sort of response so she just continued on, "I don't think that's true. I think you're smarter than they're giving you credit for. You must be. Helen, your mother, she's a very… well, to be honest, I don't care much for her, but she's a very clever woman. And Cutter is a very clever man and he thinks he might be your daddy. If really he is, I can't imagine you're anything less than a little genius. And I can see in your eyes, you have a lot to say, but you don't trust us. That's okay, I understand. I wouldn't trust us either after the way we brought you here, but I hope you can understand, we didn't mean to hurt you."

Cutter couldn't help a smile as she paused again, giving opportunity for a response neither of them really expected, her ability to speak so kindly to a child who behaved in such a difficult manner impressed him. Of course, the child did not speak, but he did hear that little clacking sound associated with her changing position and he heard the sound of Claudia opening her tupperware and placing it on the side table.

"I brought you these in case you felt like eating." She whispered encouragingly, "We've got apples, strawberries, carrots, celery, and little tomatoes. Much better than meatloaf, huh? I'll leave them there for you if you want them..."

Cutter was vaguely aware that Claudia quietly continued her one-sided conversation with the girl, but he felt his exhaustion finally catching up with him and he drifted of to sleep.