"What the hell are you doing in here?"
Hicks turned slowly around to face Dr. Roman with a smile on his lips, even thought it made his facial wounds ache. "Doing what I said I was doing, Doc. I'm following my orders to protect this child."
"The child won't be any more protected with you hanging around in here," the chief biotech said angrily. "It's more like the opposite, especially if you messed with any of the controls! And just who unstrapped you from the bed anyway?"
Hicks continued smiling, although it wasn't a friendly-looking one. After the sedation had worn off, he had found that he was alone in the medical ward. Given time, patience, and a lot of pain tolerance he'd managed to wrestle out his limbs from the restraints and afterwards it was child's play to unbuckle the rest of the straps - and then he'd gotten out of bed to walk directly into the next room with the tank where Newt was treated inside. He had stayed by her side all that time until Dr. Roman had found him in there.
"The rumors were right about you marine soldiers being stubborn medical troublemakers," Roman muttered with her knuckles placed on her hips. "I see you even removed the bandages from your face."
"They were uncomfortable," Hicks said, holding up a bunch of journals regarding the conditions and the treatments given to both he and the child. Roman tried to snatch them away from her annoying patient, but he was quicker to move them out of her reach.
"Those journals are for medical eyes only!" she snapped.
"Not anymore they are. I want to know what's going on!" He nodded his head towards the girl in the tank. "Who the hell conducted an autopsy on her?"
"It's not my place to tell you," Roman's tone was high-stemmed and stern. "I'm only your doctor, and I want you back in your bed A.S.A.P.!"
"Forget the bed!" Hicks said, matching her voice-level. "I've read through these journals. I know that my jaw-bone has been re-attached, that I have a new lung and an artificial heart implanted together with some titanium rib-bones after I'd been impaled by a strut in a crash, so I know what to be careful of."
"No you don't! Although we grew a new lung based on your DNA, it will still take some time for it to work properly. We injected drugs to help adapting it, but it won't do much good with you walking around tearing on your wounds!"
"I'll manage, Doc, but I'm not sure the girl will. Screw the Company and treat her ribcage too. She's been through enough already; I doubt she'll be able to handle the pain like I can."
"And who is going to pay for that treatment? You?"
"I will if I have to, and I'll be happy to do it! You don't know it Doc, but I owe that little girl my life. None of us would have gotten out of the complex back on her planet if it wasn't for her escape route through the air-ducts!"
"That's not my concern, and neither is it yours. The colonel knows that the Company has declined further work with the E.I.S. on her, therefore we are forbidden by orders to do so."
"But what the fu…" Hicks became angry now. "I'm going to have a chat with the colonel!"
"You do that, but do it elsewhere! We're about to get the girl out of the tank and we'll manage better without you standing in our way." Roman started to show Hicks out of the room, managing to retrieve the journals from him in the process.
"I still object to it, Doc," Hicks argued.
"Noted. Now get out, and get to bed!" Getting Hicks out, Roman admitted Arnolds who had just arrived late as usual and then she slammed the door shut and locked it. Still feeling reluctant to accept the situation, Hicks started to walk towards the door out of the infirmary to find that uncaring Colonel Decker. He was taken aback though when he saw that somebody was already standing there, watching him. The figure didn't look like a standard soldier, therefore he couldn't be a guard assigned to restrain him. But neither by the look of all the metal-plates that covered most of his head was he a human.
"Hello Hicks. I heard that you were awake," the figure said.
Hicks recognized him once he heard the voice, but he found it impossible to believe the appearance of the other. "Bishop?! Is that you?!" He stared confounded at the armor-clad being.
"We've all been through a lot lately. I understand that my present appearance is kind of confusing."
"Confusing? Had it not been for your voice I would never have guessed it was you. How did you become like that? Last time I saw you, you were still your old self!"
"This is the result of a close encounter with an alien hitch-hiker onboard the dropship that later got worse when we crash-landed on Fiorina 161. I'm lucky to still be functioning."
"Fiorina 161? The prison planet?"
"The very one. An accident caused us to be ejected from the Sulaco and we crashed there, unfortunately much too roughly. That crash killed both you and the girl."
"Only us? Then Ripley is still alive? Where is she?"
"No. I've been informed that she died only a few days afterwards."
"WHAT? She's dead? No! No, you must be mista…" Hicks suddenly gasped in pain, clutching his chest as a sudden agony spread over his damaged torso and he staggered. He would have fallen hard to the floor had Bishop not been there to catch him. He helped Hicks over to the bed and sat him down so that the corporal would be able to calm down.
"My mistake," Bishop said softly. "I shouldn't have told you that yet. I know what kind of injuries you suffered when we crashed. It's all in the flight recorder now serving as the hard-drive for my memory banks. Are you okay?"
"I… I'll be fine." The pain was easing now, and Hicks could almost breathe normally. The doctor was unfortunately right: he was in no condition to be out of bed. Surrendering to the only sensible thing to do, he stretched out along the cot and put himself in a resting position. Even though his respiratory was easy again, his heart had gone very heavy after the news of Ripley's death. He had really liked that woman, even grown to admire her despite the fact that he really hadn't known her for that long. His thoughts also went to the unlucky little girl who recently barely managed to escape with her life.
"How are we going to explain that to Newt?" he asked slowly, without looking at Bishop. "The poor child has lost everything. Ripley was the one holding her up. Now she'll go into catatonia again."
"Maybe," Bishop answered neutrally. "But perhaps maybe not. She's a strong little girl. What's best for her now is that we stay with her to help her to pull through. I'm sure she got used enough to the both of us to put her trust in our friendship to her."
"She'll certainly need it around these assholes. I know the 'Rawhides' all too well: they're not your friendly neighborhood – they're more like the local street-gang that lives for trouble."
"It is peculiar that they were picked for this assignment. Our situation on Fiorina didn't exactly require the need for an assault unit to come and rescue us."
"That means that there's something more going on here than what we are being led to believe," Hicks filled in. He turned his head to meet Bishop's eyes, or whatever he had under those dark goggles.
"You're the one that walks around. How about you do some research on what happened during our recent days? The doctors won't tell me anything."
"I've already dug up some information. It helped the time to pass. But I do believe there are one or two more things that I can look into. I suggest that you resume your rest and I'll return as soon as I know something more."
"Rest, rest, rest! That seems to be the story of my life right now."
Hicks didn't see the smile on the other's face as the synthetic turned and walked out through the door. Bishop was well aware of what kind of man Hicks were. Restlessness is a common habit in a well-trained marine, a sickness that they absolutely hate to live with. Pushing the thoughts away, he walked back towards Fixer's workshop to plug himself back into the computer-terminal. He was absolutely certain that there were more answers to get and he would find them, even if he had to break even more restrictions to do so.
Almost a whole day had gone by before Bishop returned to the sickbay and during that time Hicks had grown even more restless. Thanks to the medicines and his own physical health, his body had adapted quite fine to the new lung that was pumping air through his internal respiratory systems and his wounds were healing remarkably fast. But not every wound… When Bishop came in, Hicks was sitting in his bed staring into a hand-held mirror. His survival had not come without a price.
"Look at this…" he muttered as he stared into his own face. He spoke so low that it would be hard for anybody else to hear what he was saying, but Bishop's auditory system was more attuned than what the human ears were, so he could without any problems hear every syllable Hicks pronounced.
"I don't deny that your appearance has changed slightly," Bishop acknowledged. He knew this since it was he personally who had helped treating Hicks' facial burns aboard the second dropship which the synthetic had remotely brought down from the Sulaco. The doctors aboard the Hercules had obviously been kind enough to try to repair the damage, but they hadn't done a very good job at it. The left side of Hicks' face was now disfigured with an ugly burn-mark caused by the aliens' acidic blood. And as if that wasn't enough, his cheeks were still swollen after his jaw-bone had been knocked loose by the support strut which had also crushed his chest when the EEV crashed on Fiorina.
"Slightly, are you kidding? I look like a bloated disfigured pig!" Hicks explicitly stated. "Why didn't you say something about it yesterday?"
"You never stroke me as the vane type, so the thought never occurred to me. Besides, your strength never came from your looks, but from your character of tolerance and your affection for the 'little' people, together with your strong sense for right and wrongs."
"Yeah well, unfortunately my tolerance went down the drain the moment I was reacquainted with Colonel Decker," Hicks grumbled as he put the mirror away on the bed-table, but not with care. Fortunately it held.
"And let's not forget about your physical strength," Bishop rambled on, pretending not to take notice of Hicks' bitterness. "You're healing remarkably well, despite your severe injuries. I expect that the swelling in your face will go down quite soon. Your resilience will help you to cope with the rest, no matter how you look like."
"My resilience doesn't get me out of this bed!" Bishop's attempt to cheer the corporal up hadn't been very effective; the other's bad mood was rooted too deeply. The synthetic had been right about one thing though: Hicks wasn't all that concerned about the loss of his handsome looks, he was angry because he right now felt quite restricted and helpless. Hicks was used to being in control of his decisions – and right now the control was out of his hands. He was tired of the hospital bed, but he was not allowed to get up - Dr Roman had strictly forbidden it. Damn woman! So it was either to cooperate and obediently stay put or being strapped down again to prevent him from getting up, and that wasn't anything he could afford to let happen right now, considering the condition of the other patient whom also resided within these walls.
Gazing over to his right, he examined the other bed that was occupied since the last 20 hours past. Newt was still unconscious and hadn't moved the slightest after the doctors had taken her out of the tank that had treated her frostbitten tissue. She was in such a deep comatose state that her respiratory had become dangerously reduced… it would've stopped completely if it hadn't been for the heart stimulator of the life-support machine which helped her heart to beat. The beeping sounds from those systems were the only thing that declared that she was still alive and stabilized.
While Hicks' restlessness grew for each minute, his concern for the child grew with it. He waited nervously for the unavoidable moment if… no, when she would wake up and he would have to break the news to her of Ripley's death. Or worse, the child could at any moment begin to have a nightmare and then she would possibly start to trash around in her sleep. He would in that case quickly need to get out of bed to be at her side so that he could try to calm her down; therefore being strapped down was a situation that could be hazardous for the girl's health. But right now she was completely motionless with no signs of any bad dreams, but neither were there any signs of her waking up.
"If only there was something we could do to help her," Hicks said melancholy.
"She's most likely on hold," Bishop explained from his own scientific perspective. "The coma is simply her body saving the psyche from pain. Eventually she will wake up when she's ready for it."
"That's no guarantee!" Where Bishop tried to be optimistic, Hicks was quite the opposite, a definite deviation from his usual standards as he otherwise used to be of a positive character. "Some cases have been known to last a whole lifetime, it could take forever before she's ready! And I doubt Colonel Decker will be willing to let her wait that long!"
As on cue, the door opened and Dr Roman entered, followed by the colonel in question. She only threw a quick glance over at Hicks, satisfied with him staying put – instead she walked over to Newt's bedside. Taking her small wrist, the doctor checked the child's pulse and opened the eyelid to check for contractions in her pupil.
"Well?" Decker asked simply and without emotion.
"No change what so ever," Roman answered neutrally releasing Newts arm.
"Will she come out of it any time soon?"
"To early to tell. I believe her condition is like this because of a delayed case of shock. Her mind has drifted deeply into her brain as a form of self-preservation. No matter what I do I can't seem to reach her."
"Well, what did you expect?" Hicks cut in suddenly. "She doesn't feel safe being surrounded by strangers."
Roman put her hands on her hips and glared at her other patient with irritation. "Do you think you're a better physicist than I am, Corporal?"
"You may be a good physicist, but in the department of psychiatry you've certainly convinced me that you're a definite second-rate, Doc!"
"How dare you, you…!" Hicks almost thought that Roman was going to jump him. To his own surprise he had actually hoped she would, it would have felt good to test his own strength against that annoying medtech and put her to the deck. But Bishop came in between to keep them from tearing each other's eyes out.
"Hicks, what are you doing?" the synthetic questioned the corporal.
"Let me handle this, Bishop!" the other told him. Decker then came into view, glaring at the corporal with his usual icy stare.
"Just what do you think you know about her condition, Corporal?" he asked with his cold uncaring voice.
"Back in the colony on her own planet she only knew the people who lived there with her, she's not used to any other population. When we arrived there she certainly didn't approach us by herself, we more like stumbled over each other and then she ran away, finding us terrifying. She hardly acknowledged our presence back there, so why would she acknowledge your presence here?"
"You're wasting my time, Corporal. It had been enough just to say that she simply doesn't like us."
"Well, that's just the thing, she doesn't! That's why she won't respond."
"Then she's of no use to our mission. Cease all treatments, Dr. Roman. Disconnect the life-support." With that he turned to leave, and also leaving Hicks in a state of sudden panic. This was never his intention; he had just said that Newt didn't feel safe around strangers because he had wanted them to keep a distance from the girl. He had just wanted them to leave her alone, not to kill her! Desperately Hicks called out to the colonel.
"WAIT! She knows me! Maybe I can reach her!"
The colonel turned around and looked at him coldly. "Then her life is in your hands now," he said. Hicks knew with a horrifying realization what Decker meant by that. If he couldn't wake the girl, no one alive could, and that would sentence her to an immediate death. And the colonel had just shifted the responsibility of her fate on to him! If she died, it would be his fault!
Wasting no time, he got out of his bed and sat down beside the girl, taking her left-side little hand in his while his other caressed the honey-blond tresses. Bishop watched with a programmed anxiety while Colonel Decker and Dr. Roman just watched with crossed arms and expressionless faces, waiting for a result. Hicks leaned closer to the angel-like face, speaking gently to her.
"Hey, Newt. It's me, Hicks. I just wanted to tell you that we're safe now. You're safe; there are no more monsters around."
There was no response – no acknowledgements whatsoever.
"Newt, please answer me," Hicks continued, but the child still didn't move. "There's nothing to be afraid of anymore. The pain you feel in your chest is not a monster; it's the result of an accident. You're going to live." There was no indication that the girl had heard any word that had been said and Hicks began to feel the disgusting feeling of helplessness creep over him.
"Why don't you just say that Ripley is here to see her," Decker interrupted him. "Maybe then she will react?"
Hicks turned his angry face towards the Colonel. "You want me to lie to her? Do you think I'll win her respect by that? And she knows Ripley's not around; otherwise she wouldn't be so far out from our grasp. I am not going to ruin her trust in me by deceiving her!"
"That means you can't wake her, and therefore I'll repeat my orders: disconnect the life-support!"
"Wait!" Hicks pleaded as Dr. Roman's hand reached for the main switch of the life-support system. "Give me a chance, please! Bishop, help me!"
"I think you will need to try a different approach," Bishop suggested. "Comatose patients usually react to either something familiar, or sometimes to something that they don't like to hear in order for them to find their way back. Perhaps you should try to address her by her name."
"I did address her by her name. It didn't help!"
"Not that name," the synthetic replied. "Try with her birth name." Catching on to what Bishop suggested, Hicks leaned in over the girl again and spoke to her in a gentle tone:
"Rebecca? Honey, can you hear me?" He paused for a few seconds. "Rebecca? Are you in there?" There was still no reaction coming from the child. Hicks started to feel the panic grip on to his shoulders like a bird of prey with cold sharp talons.
"Rebecca, please! You've got to respond!" But she didn't, and now the colonel's patience had run out.
"This is a waste of time," he declared. "Doctor..." There was a quick hand-signal, and Dr. Roman inserted a key to the apparatus to lock up the safety catch that prevented the machine to be shut off by mistake. She turned the key, flipped the main switch to the life-support to 'off'-mode and then locked it down again. She had done this so fast with a practiced hand that Hicks didn't register what had happened until he realized that the beeping sounds of the heart stimulator had silenced.
"NO! DON'T DO THAT!" Hicks shouted in despair and rushed around Newt's bed to the controls. "TURN IT BACK ON!" He tried to switch the system back on himself but it wouldn't start up as controls were locked. "Give me the key!"
"Get back to bed, soldier," was all she said as she pocketed the key. "You're still too fresh out of surgery to allow yourself to get all worked up like that."
"I SAID GIVE ME THE KEY! GIVE IT TO ME!" Beyond reason now, Hicks actually made a charge against the biotech. But Bishop came in between them once again and held him back.
"Don't do it, Hicks," the synthetic said. "It won't help anything."
"Stand down, Corporal!" Decker commanded. "That's an order!"
"Turn the system back on!" Hicks persisted, trying to wrestle his way out of Bishop's hold.
"That would be a waste of resources." Decker showed no emotion what so ever. "She's dead and that's obviously what she's been all along."
"No, she's alive! She's alive!" Somewhere deep inside his mind behind his despair Hicks remembered that those were the exact words Ripley had uttered after Newt had been abducted by the alien under the floors of the complex on LV-426. It was in the middle of their escape when Newt had slipped and slid down a chute. He and Ripley had tried to rescue her from underneath a grating, but one of the monsters had beaten them to it. Ripley had gone quite desperate back then and Hicks had had to drag her out of there, being the voice of reason. Now he was in Ripley's position, feeling the same despair she had felt when Newt had been taken from her. But Ripley had been able to go in after the girl, going inside the very nest of the creatures despite the danger it presented. Ripley had prevailed, getting the child out of there - but Hicks was failing. He didn't have the luxury to go in somewhere after the girl. Newt was slipping out of his grasp, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"DAMN YOU, YOU MURDEROUS BASTARDS!" he roared, still struggling in Bishop's hold. "DAMN YOU BOTH!"
"A good soldier is supposed to be detached from emotions, Corporal." Decker was completely immune to Hicks' outburst. "I'll overlook it just this once since you've obviously gone sissy under the command of Sgt. Apone. I'll even overlook that insult this time - but if you raise your voice to your commanding officer again, you will face dire consequences! Now, stand down!"
"Hicks, please!" Bishop tried to talk sense into the soldier. "There's nothing more we can do for her. But you will hurt yourself considerably if you keep up this struggle. You must take it easy!" Somewhere deep down Hicks registered what Bishop was saying because his wounds were hurting extremely bad from the strain he had enforced upon those. Bishop released him, but he no longer found the strength to uphold his legs. Hicks slid down on the floor beside Newt's cot and there he buried his face in his hand as the sorrow overwhelmed him. He had failed the child. He also felt like he had failed Ripley as her rescuing of the girl had been for naught. He felt like he had failed everything.
"God, Rebecca. I'm so very sorry," he sobbed.
"Don't…"
Hicks jerked his head towards the girl. Had he really heard a very faint and tiny whisper? "Rebecca?"
"Don't call… m-me that. M-my name's... Newt."