Chapter 27: Tough As Nails

Etta's whinging stirred Casey from an uncomfortable sleep from her seat by Pope's bed. Casey had dozed off leaning against her elbow and now her neck and shoulders ached from the awkward way she'd leant on them. She wondered how long she'd been asleep. It had to have been at least a few hours. Casey checked on Etta. Her eyes were closed but she was making a little grunting whinging sound. Her little brow was crinkled and she was wriggling about in her car seat. Casey gently patted Etta's tummy and stroked her head. "Sssh," Casey whispered. "You're just dreaming, love."

After a few moments, Etta's little face softened and she stopped fidgeting. Casey kept stroking the baby's head until she was pretty sure Etta was back to sleep. Casey stretched out her neck from side to side and rose to check on Pope. His pallor was better; the IV had certainly helped rehydrate him. His breathing seemed even and calm, but he had been unconscious for longer than Casey expected. She noticed the tape holding IV tube on the inside of his elbow was peeling off, so Casey gently pressed it back down when Pope's arm suddenly jerked away. Casey jumped back a little, then realised Pope's eyes were open.

"H-Hey," Casey hesitated. "You're awake." She smiled a little, he was giving her a weird look like he wasn't sure who the heck she was. "You got knocked out, but you're okay." He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but all he managed was a dry cough.

Casey grabbed her water bottle off the table by the bed and unscrewed the lid. "Here," she held the bottle to his lips. "Drink it slowly."

Pope took a drink, but he watched Casey with an uncertain eye. He coughed again. "Why are you being nice to me?" He managed to say. His voice was hoarse and gravelly.

Casey screwed the lid back onto her water bottle and tried to glare without smiling. "Don't get used to it."

Pope coughed and rested back against the pillow. Then he began to look around like he had just realised he was in a room. "Where are we?"

"A hospital in Waverly."

"What?" Pope lurched forwards. "No!"

"Hey, careful!" Casey grabbed his arm to keep the IV in place and tried to push him down, but he kicked off his blanket and tried to shove her away.

"If we're still in Waverly we have to get the hell out of here!"

Etta woke up and began to scream. Casey looked out into the hall and saw Anthony chatting with Dai and Lyle. "Anthony!" Casey called. He turned when he heard his name. "Help!"

"Mason!" Pope grabbed Casey's wrist and squeezed it. "Where's Mason? I need to speak to him, now!"

Anthony, Dai and Lyle burst into the room. "Hey, morning sunshine!" Anthony grabbed Pope's arm off Casey and tried to hold him down. "Calm yourself, alright?"

"Get Mason, he needs to hear this!" Pope yelled.

"Chill, boss," Lyle said as he pushed Pope down by the shoulders.

"Hear what?" Casey asked him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dai lifting a screaming Etta into his arms and rocking her.

"Get Mason!"

Casey looked up to Lyle. "Go get Tom."

Lyle reluctantly loosened his grip on Pope and fled out of the room. Casey tried to take over for Lyle, but she didn't have his strength and Pope just flailed.

"Pope—" Anthony tried to hold down his arms but he kept wrenching free.

"Calm down!" Casey tried to force him back down on the bed but he kept rocking back up.

"I'm getting out of here," Pope said frantically. "We all need to get out of here now!"

"You need to calm yourself down," Anthony said.

"All right, Pope," Tom announced lackadaisically as he entered the room with Lyle. "What's your problem? You're here. You're safe."

"No. No, Professor," Pope snapped as he shrugged free of both Casey and Anthony. "I am not safe. We are anything but safe." Pope ripped his IV out and swung his legs over the bed. "They're on their way," he told Tom. "They're on their way to you."

"Who is?" Tom asked.

"The fish-heads. They're looking for you." Pope grabbed his shirt from the tray by the bed and pulled it over his head. "To be more precise, they're looking for your boy - Ben."

That caught Tom's attention. "Ben? Why?"

"Skitters had me pinned down, overrun." Pope climbed out of bed and stood face to face with Tom. "Next thing I know, I'm staring straight at a fish-head who wants to know exactly where you guys are."

"Us?" Tom looked sceptical. "How did it know that you were part of the 2nd Mass?"

"They had a harnessed girl who was there," Pope explained. "She's the one who did all the talking. You know the one, the blonde. The one your oldest boy was sweet on."

"Karen?"

Pope nodded. "That's her. Scary as hell. Man, it's like she could take her hand, reach right into your brain and squeeze." Pope made a fist and squeezed it before Tom's eyes.

Now, Tom looked worried. "What did they want with Ben?

"I heard some crazy ass talk about a Skitter rebellion and your lizard boy being a part of it."

"How long ago was this?" Tom asked.

"I don't know," Pope shrugged and looked to Anthony.

"It was two days ago when I grabbed you," Anthony said.

Casey's throat went dry. "They know we're here."

"Dai, Lyle," Tom backed swiftly out of the room. "Come with me."

Dai handed Etta to Casey as he passed her and tailed Tom and Lyle out of the room. Casey followed with Etta, not wanting to stay in the room alone with Pope and Anthony. A muffled but familiar, low voice caught her attention when she stepped into the hall. She walked to Weaver's room next door and what she saw through the window spread a smile across her face. Weaver was awake and talking. Lourdes was holding a plastic cup and put a straw in Weaver's mouth to help him drink. The door squeaked a little as Casey opened it and the noise caught Weaver's attention.

When he saw Casey entering the room, his eyes widened and he pulled his mouth from the straw. "No!"

Casey froze on the spot.

He weakly raised his hand and pointed at Etta. "Keep her away."

"You're not contagious, Captain," Lourdes said.

"Not taking a chance with an alien virus," Weaver wheezed. "Take her out of here, Casey. That's an order."

"Yes, sir," Casey turned to leave.

"But Casey," Weaver called after her. "Don't take her far."

Casey backed out of Weaver's room and closed the door. She stood behind the glass window and lifted Etta so that Weaver could see her. Casey wanted to tell Weaver about Karen, about what Pope said about the fish-heads. They were in danger here at the hospital. But Weaver looked so weak, and Casey knew if she told him what was going on he would force himself out of that bed way sooner than his body could handle.

Etta reached out and slapped her hand against the glass a couple of times. Weaver took that as a wave and slowly lifted his hand to wave back. "Happy he's awake, huh?" Casey kissed the top of Etta's head. "Yeah, me too."

Scuffing footsteps made Casey turned to her left and saw Pope standing a few feet away from her. The wild craziness that had been in his eyes after he woke up had evaporated. He looked normal again. "Sorry I yelled," he said slightly sheepishly.

"What?"

"Not talking to you," Pope took a couple of steps towards Casey then reached out and played with Etta's hand. She grabbed his finger and tried to put it in her mouth but he took it away from her before she could eat it. "You're good," Pope said quietly.

Casey thought he was still talking to Etta, but when he straightened she realised he was speaking to her.

"For the 2nd Mass," Pope said somewhat apprehensively. "Especially for Etta. You're good." He tickled Etta under her chin, turned and walked off.

The uneasy realisation that Pope had heard Casey rambling about her mother while he was unconscious was quickly interrupted by Casey blurting out: "I'm glad you're not dead." He stopped briefly in his step and looked at her over his shoulder. Casey could see him make that weird half-smile thing he did sometimes, and then he kept walking.

xxx

Karen was gone. Ben was gone. Maggie was injured and the aliens were coming.

The 2nd Mass's relief at Weaver's improving condition had taken a backseat, and finding Ben had taken over as top priority. According to Maggie, Karen had stabbed her with a shard of broken glass and the commotion had brought Ben into the room. Then Ben had taken off with Karen. Tom enlisted Hal, Grace, Anthony and half of the Berserkers and went out to follow Ben and Karen's trail. Tom left with strict instructions to the 2nd Mass to keep packing up for Charleston.

With both Weaver and Pope conscious again, Casey only had to concern herself with Etta. The baby needed to take nap, but she was resisting for some reason, so Casey walked her up and down the halls of the first level of the hospital trying to make her drowsy. During her walking, Casey noticed Matt poised with a rifle in his hand by a window near the front entrance of the hospital.

After Casey completed four laps of the first level and realised Matt hadn't moved an inch, she went to talk to him. "Matt?"

The young boy turned and briefly looked at her. "Yeah?" he said, and then went right back to staring.

"Wanna come get something to eat with me?" Casey asked. "I heard they found chocolate pudding somewhere."

Matt shook his head. "No, thanks."

Casey followed his stare out the window. All she saw were members of the 2nd Mass slowly shifting supplies from the hospital and packing them onto the trucks. Even though Tom maintained the move to Charleston was still their goal, the urgency wasn't as great as it had been when Weaver was still unconscious. Now that it looked like their Captain would recover, people seemed to be relishing in their last couple of days in the comfort of the hospital. "They'll be back soon," Casey said to Matt. "Your dad, your brothers and sister; they'll all be back soon."

Matt looked up at her with an expression like he wasn't in the mood for her trying to make him feel better. But he managed to give her a somewhat appreciative smile. Casey really wasn't keen to try out hospital grade chocolate pudding, and Etta was finally dosing off in her arms, so Casey stayed put beside Matt and the pair quietly stood guard waiting for the rest of the Masons to return.

After a few silent moments, Casey's ears caught wind of a conversation at the end of the hall. It caught her attention because she heard someone say Matt's name. She looked and saw Jamil and Lourdes chatting and looking over in Matt and Casey's direction. And while Lourdes was watching Matt, Jamil seemed more interested in watching Lourdes. Their relationship was still new, but they sure weren't shy about it. Casey had seen them holding hands in the halls and sharing kisses at meals. In Casey's opinion, Lourdes had always seemed quite timid and reserved. So it was nice to see a boldness come through in her. Although she could stand to lower her voice, Casey could hear everything that she was saying. And from the way Matt suddenly went rigid Casey figured he could hear her, too.

"He hasn't left the window since they went after Ben," Lourdes said.

"How long do we wait?" Jamil replied. "If Karen knew we're here, so do the aliens. Only a matter of time before they lower the hammer. And for all we know, Tom's patrol could have been in an ambush—"

"They're coming back!" Matt finally shifted from his position so he could yell at Jamil. "They're bringing Ben back, and we're not leaving until they do!"

"Damn straight," Weaver's commanding voice filled the hallway as the Captain came limping into the hall resting his weight on a walking stick.

Casey felt her mouth drop open a little. Damn, how was he on his feet? Only hours ago he'd been at death's door! Casey and Matt drifted closer to Weaver. He still looked very pale, but he was back in his uniform, his baseball cap was in place, and he looked ready to bark orders. And that's exactly what he did. "Jamil, what are you doing when we still can't get the GTO working right?"

Jamil straightened. "I'm on it, sir."

"You better be," Weaver continued as Jamil scurried away. "Because we're moving out as soon as Tom's back."

"Captain Weaver!" Anne marched into the hall with her arms out at her sides, a look of bewilderment across her face. "What are you doing out of bed?"

Weaver seemed to wriggle uncomfortably in his uniform. "My job."

"You've got no business walking around after what you've just been through," Anne scolded him.

"Noted. Now, is the med unit gonna be ready to move out?"

"Lourdes just sent the last stretcher down," Anne told him. "But there's still a lot of medical supplies down in the basement we could use. No telling when we'll come across a cache like this again."

Weaver nodded. "Okay, take Lourdes and Casey; liberate what you can. Be back in twenty minutes." Weaver looked towards Matt. "They're gonna need security," he continued. "That's you, Matt. Start moving, soldier."

Matt stood straighter and gave the captain an eager nod. "Yes, sir."

So the four of them went on the move. On her way back to her room to get her gun, Casey ran into Lyle and tentatively handed him a sleepy Etta with strict instructions to take her right to Lee. Lyle looked quite adorable cradling Etta, but the look on his face said he wasn't all that thrilled to be holding a baby. Casey grabbed her rifle and an empty satchel bag from her room and slung both over her back, then met up with Matt, Lourdes and Anne at the door of the stairway to the basement.

Anne led the way down to the basement to the medical store room. It was a room Casey hadn't been to, and one that was strangely untouched like the rest of hospital had been when the 2nd Mass first arrived. The steel shelves were lined with medication bottles and packages as well as bandages, tubes and what Casey realised, unsettlingly, were needles. Thankfully, Anne didn't send her towards that shelf.

"Casey, grab all the bandages you can," Anne directed. "Lourdes, get the antibiotics. Matt, watch the door, okay?" Matt nodded and stood firm at in the doorway with his back to the room.

Casey began to fill her bag with packages of bandages. It didn't take long for her to have it filled but she kept cramming packages in. It reminded her of months and months ago when she, Pope, Maggie and Hal had gone searching for supplies for Etta. They'd left that pharmacy with bags almost splitting under the weight of baby formula. Casey hoped Etta was still asleep upstairs, but even if she woke up, Lee was good at calming her down.

A sharp thrumming sound from above ripped Casey from her daydream like a hook in her gut.

Patta-patta-patta-patta-patta!

Gunfire.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Mechs.

Casey heart jumped into her throat.

Etta.

"Dr. Glass?!" Matt cried from the door. His sweet face was torn and his eyes frightened.

"We gotta move," Casey forced closed the buckle of her satchel and swivelled her rifle off her shoulder into her hands. "Now, move!" She grabbed Lourdes by the arm and directed her towards Matt. Anne shrugged on her backpack as she jogged out of the room with Casey.

The four of them raced down the hall with Casey bringing up the rear. Suddenly, the path back upstairs seemed a hell of a long way away. The gunfire intensified above them and the solid stomping of Mech footsteps made the roof rumble. Casey heard a whistling sound like a boiling tea kettle, then she heard a violent snap and looked up just in time to see the roof split open. Lourdes screamed, Anne ducked to the ground and Casey had no time to grab for Matt as her body pitched backwards and the roof crumbled on top of all of them.

xxx