For notes, warnings and disclaimers see scene 1

Scene 18: Of Doors and Windows
(Age: 18)

Kara was staring --or rather glaring-- at her raised knee in almost total disbelief.

It wasn't so much that it hurt, not really. After all, pain was something she was intimately familiar with, something she could deal with. No, the problem was that she was well aware of what the consequences of what had happened to her were going to be. Unlike what had been the case when she'd been little and her mom had broken her fingers --when she hadn't understood that those injuries meant she would never really be able to play the piano again-- this time around she knew what the price was going to be.

The doctor had already been by to tell her exactly what was wrong. It had been a very long explanation, full of unpronounceable words such as 'anterior cruciate ligament', 'medial meniscus' and some other crap that basically boiled down to the fact that she had managed to royally frak some cursed ligaments in her knee. According to the doctor her injury was a fairly common one, especially among female athletes. She didn't even bother to try to point out to him the obvious fact that --seeing how hers had been a contact injury-- her gender probably had had nothing to do with it, besides it didn't really matter. What mattered was what he had told her in terms of what she could expect in the near future. That had been the part she had found to be utterly devastating.

She was looking at major reconstructive surgery and after that she would have two or three weeks before she'd even be able to walk and start an intensive regime of physical therapy. It would be three months before she'd be able to do so much as think of jogging, four months to running and at least six months before she'd be able to go back to something that could possibly be described as 'normal' training. In fact it would probably take her almost a year to get back to her previous form... if she ever did. That was the part she was having a hard time trying to come to terms with... especially because she didn't have six months, much less a year. She had spent the past four and a half years training with a single goal in mind: to make it to the pros as a pyramid player. That was the only thing she was good at... or rather that had been the only thing she had been good at.

Sure, at least in theory she was expected to make a complete recovery but there were no guarantees that she would ever be able to go back to her previous form, not to mention that even in a best case scenario --one in which she only required six months of intensive physical therapy-- that wouldn't even be enough to get her into a college team before the next school year... and no school was likely to waste a perfectly good scholarship on a freshman that was likely to miss most of the season anyway, not if they didn't absolutely have to. Kara knew that if only she had accepted one of the offers she had received she probably would have been just fine, as the school would have been unlikely to back out of a 'done deal' because that wouldn't have looked good, but she hadn't made up her mind and that was the real problem.

The game had been less than twenty-four hours before and three of the schools that had been fighting to have her attend had already contacted her to let her know that, while they regretted what had happened to her, they had no choice but to withdraw their offer of a full scholarship. Kara knew it was only a matter of time before she would hear from the others and the truth was that --seeing how she didn't exactly have a college fund and that in order to qualify for some sort of student aid she should have checked the appropriate boxes in her original application forms-- she didn't have a clue as to what her next step was supposed to be. Getting hurt was not an eventuality she had ever considered, at least not seriously, but seeing how she was going to be stuck in bed for a while, it looked like she was going to have plenty of time to think about it.

To make matters worse, seeing how colleges for the most part recruited their athletes straight out of high school and the pros recruited mostly from the college pool, Kara knew that missing her freshman year meant that --even if she could manage to make a complete recovery--chances were that she was forever out of the loop.

Well, the good news was that at least she was eighteen... barely. That meant that she was legally an adult so the hospital hadn't called her mother. That had spared her from having to hear her mocking her, taunting her... besides, she hadn't been alone, not really.

Her coach had been with her almost constantly, trying to comfort her and cheer her up --even though there was nothing he could do to make things better-- and most of her teammates had been in and out of her room, keeping her company... and probably driving the nurses crazy in the process. Either that or --knowing some of the guys-- they had been chasing after them, flirting and trying to get a date.

Even the guy who had fouled her had dropped by to apologize, looking really sorry about what had happened.

Deep down Kara knew that the whole thing had been nothing but a stupid accident and she had tried to tell him that but the truth was that she probably hadn't sounded all that convincing... especially because she hadn't really been able to forgive him, not yet. It may have been just a stupid accident but it had been a stupid accident that had come at the worst possible time as far as she was concerned. It had been a stupid accident that had cost her everything.

She was still thinking about that --and not really paying much attention to her coach's attempts to distract her-- when the man let out a resigned sigh, grabbed the duffle bag he had brought with him and handed her a brand new 100-page sketchbook and some fancy color pencils.

Kara was incredibly touched. She remembered some of her hospital stays back when she was little and no one had ever done anything like that for her. In fact what she remembered the most about those stays was being scared, in pain and alone... and --once the pain had subsided a little-- being really, really bored.

After that her coach gave her a box of chocolates, a big one, telling her that she should probably keep those well away from her teammates.

She was still looking at him, not quite knowing what to say or do, when she saw him reaching into his bag for the third time and pulling out an envelope, one he promptly handed over to her without saying a word.

Kara eyed him with some suspicion, wondering just what the hell it was that he was up to, but rather than telling her he just gestured for her to open the damn thing already. Looking down at it she saw the official seal decorating it and did a double take. She looked at her coach again and this time he just nodded at her.

With a trembling hand she tore it open but she was too scared to even make sense out of the words she was reading so it took her a couple of minutes to recognize the significance of just what it was that she was holding in her hands.

She couldn't believe it, so she read it again and again but no matter how many times she did that, the words remained the same.

What she was holding in her hands was a letter... an acceptance letter welcoming her to Colonial Flight School.

THE BEGINNING...

Author's notes: Hi guys, as you can see you've reached the end of Shards and I really hope you liked it.

I know Kara is not quite where she was when the mini started just yet but please keep in mind that there are about ten years in between so that probably accounts for some of the differences. Seeing how this was supposed to be a character study dealing with her childhood, that gap was kind of unavoidable.

I also wanted to thank you for your reviews. They have been deeply appreciated, especially because I ran into some problems with a couple of fans (no one from this site though) that came close to causing me to give up on the fandom altogether.

Well, that's it for now (though hopefully I'll be back in a couple of weeks),

Alec