I was walking home from work in the midst of a summer heatwave. I knew that much. I don't remember much else thereafter, just a harsh and blinding blue light that ripped through everything. A powerful shockwave that sent me spiralling towards the ground but, instead of making contact with the unforgiving surface of the sidewalk like all the bricks, mortar and debris of the explosion, I seemed to pass right through. I felt momentarily like my soul had been ripped from it's body. I fell through the dark hole that had opened up beneath me and instead of hitting the concrete I was sent hurtling at break-neck speed towards a white, snowy ground. I shook as I fell, letting out an ear piercing scream. I didn't have much time to think of a landing strategy, all I had time for in fact, was to let out a brief ''Omph,'' as my body made impact with the ground.

''Fuck,'' I groaned, trying to open my eyes. I ached all over and I couldn't quite seem to manage opening my eyes. I must have hit my head pretty hard. It felt like my eyes were open, but all I saw was darkness.

''So you speak English then,'' a voice beside me said, I jumped. I had no idea someone was here with me, wherever here was. And why were we just sitting here in the dark? There was a machine frantically beeping beside me, sounding like it was about to explode if it was put under anymore strain. I fought with the slightly plush surface I'd been laying on, trying to push myself into an upright position in the dark but it was useless.

''Hey hey hey, steady on, you're alright,'' the voice tried to sooth. ''It's okay,'' they said. I felt a hand come down on my shoulder calloused fingertips gently brushing the exposed skin in an attempt to calm me down. I shook, trying to calm myself down. A few shaky breaths followed by some deep exhales and I was down.

''Are you alright now?'' they asked. At this point, I was pretty sure whoever was with me was a guy. But I couldn't tell much else until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I tried to answer, desperate to ask some questions but all that came out was a strangled croak. My throat was so dry, it felt almost scraped.

''You want some water?'' they asked. I nodded and then remembered I was in the dark, I tried again, to speak.

''Yeah,'' I managed and then, feeling confident, I tried to make a joke. ''Without poison.''

There was a snort from beside me before I heard what sounded like someone getting up and walking away. There was the sound of soft, returning footsteps the clank of a plastic cup on a nearby surface and the sound of that surface being pushed closer.

''Do you need help sitting up?'' he asked. I nodded, again forgetting I was in darkness, and then strong hands were around my upper arms, hoisting me to a sitting position. The surface I was on moved up behind me, I assumed it was some kind of bed or chair.

''How can you see anything?'' I asked.

''What?'' he replied, sounding confused.

''It's so dark,'' I replied. ''It's basically pitch black. I can't see anything, not even if I held my hand up in front of my face. Yet you're moving around like it's nothing. And why are we sitting in the dark anyway? Where are we?''

''Slow down,'' he replied worriedly. ''You can't see? As in you really can't see anything at all?''

''No?'' I asked. ''Surely that's not that weird, it is dark out... isn't it?''

''No,'' he said. ''All the lights are on in here. It's painfully bright. Shit, you must have hit your head hard. They put you in surgery as soon as we got you here, but, it mustn't have been enough. Maybe it's just swelling or something, hang out here, let me get a doc.'' There was a noise that sounded like the scraping of a chair across the floor and I threw my hands forward, trying to grab onto the stranger.

''NO,'' I yelled out, frightened. ''Please, don't go.''

'I won't be gone long, I'm just going to grab a doctor, to help you. It's okay, you're safe here.''

''No, you don't understand,'' I said. ''I can't remember anything, I don't know where I am or how I got here. I don't know who you are and I have no idea where I am. I can't see anything at all, it's really frightening and I don't wanna be here alone. Please don't go.'' he let out a sigh.

''I get it,'' he replied. ''Give me a sec then, I'll see if I can get one of my friends to come down here.''

''Don't leave me with them either, I don't know them,'' I said.

''You don't know me either,'' he pointed out and I paused. Closing my mouth immediately with a frown as I realised he was right. There was a soft chuckle beside me, at what I imagined was a funny sight. My face outta be pretty hilarious right now. Not that I'd ever be able to tell myself again.

''You're fault,'' I said eventually. ''You were here when I woke up. And you didn't poison me when you had the chance.''

''You don't know that, maybe it's slow acting,'' he replied and I let out a puff of air. He was doing a good job of keeping me relaxed. Nervously, I ran my thumbs over my fingers, fidgeting in the silence. I couldn't turn to look at him, study him to keep myself occupied because I couldn't see anything. I didn't know what to say to him, either. I didn't know much of anything right now.

''You okay?'' he asked.

''Where are we?'' I asked.

''We're back at the ship,'' he told me. ''We flew you back here when you hit the ground.''

''That doesn't make any sense,'' I told him. ''Missouri is landlocked. If you were going to airlift me anywhere for medical treatment, why a naval ship?''

''No, sorry, I meant our spaceship. Why do you think you're Missouri? We picked you up on Venezia. Is Missouri where you were before? What were you doing there?'' he asked.

''I'm sorry, where?'' I spluttered. 'I've never left the US. And I can't tell you much about what I was doing in Missouri, I work for the Military. And are you fucking serious, a space ship? What, you think because I'm blind I'm fucking stupid?''

''No, but I'm starting to think you're concussed,'' he replied. ''Look, I can't tell you the name of the ship, for the same reasons you can't tell me what you were doing in Missouri, if you're telling the truth about your job. But I can assure you, you are in fact in space. We're orbiting... wait, I can't tell you that either..''

''So she's awake then,'' I heard someone else say and I jumped. I searched for the voice but couldn't quite pinpoint it. Why had her footsteps been so quiet? ''Why'd you call me and not a doctor?''

''She can't see,'' the other guy replied.

''All the more reason to call a doctor, York,'' she scolded. 'Instead you're getting interrogated by her.''

''You know I'm right fucking here, right? I might not be able to see but I'm not deaf,'' I snapped. ''Now, instead of bullshitting me because you know I can't fucking see, tell me, where the hell am I? Who the fuck are you and why I'm suddenly blind!''

''Woah, calm down, it's okay,'' York soothed. ''Carolina is going to go and get a doctor and we're gonna be able to figure out what happened to you, why you can't see. Someone will come talk to you, about who you are, and once we're sure you're not a threat, we'll be able to tell you where you are, who we are.''

''I'm fucking BLIND how much of a threat do you think I can be?'' I screamed. ''I'm a fucking scientist, even with my sight my go-to fighting tactic is hiding in the cupboards while the marines take care of the bad guys. And that's just drills.''

''Alright, then that should be easy then,'' York reasoned. ''I'm Agent New York, you've been out since we brought you here. We've had someone sitting here with you until you woke up because you had a head wound. Just so happens I was the one here when you woke up. My friend who's gone to go get the surgeon who worked on you is Agent Carolina. I promise you, unless you give us reason, you'll be okay. No one will hurt you necessarily. You're safe.''

''Forgive me if I don't believe you, weirdo, but I wasn't blind before I met you, and I also wasn't in fucking outer space either,'' I snarled.

''I get it,'' he told me. ''You're frightened, but you need to calm down, if only so you don't make your heart-rate monitor explode.'' That did explain the frantic beeping that had been happening somewhere beside me the entire time I'd been yelling.

''Here she is,'' I heard Carolina say and I moved my head towards the sound, still unable to actually tell where she was.

''Ahh, Miss Doe, you're awake then,'' another male voice said. I bit my tongue, trying not to bite his head off for pointing out the opposite, ''Agent Carolina here tells me you're having trouble seeing.''

''If you call opening my eyes to nothing but the dark abyss, having some trouble, then yes,' I replied. Well, so much for that. 'I suppose I am having some trouble seeing. What the fuck did you do, you quack, and why does the back of my head feel like someone hit me with a lead pipe?'

'We had to open you up to reduce the swelling,'' he answered simply. ''My guess is we were too late to prevent damage to the occipital lobe, but the scans show no major damage to the brain. Which is good news. We'll have to run tests to find out why exactly your visual processing relay isn't working as it should be. Still, it's good news you woke up at all. After the surgery there was very little brain function observed at all. We put you in an induced coma to recover and when brain function returned we brought you out of it. It's taken an alarming number of days to actually get some response from you. I had little faith you'd be stringing full sentences together, let alone swearing and carrying on like a teenager. Still, it is rather marvellous, isn't it?''

''I'm glad you see it that way,'' I muttered, hearing York make a choking noise next to me. ''Is it permanent?''

''Until more testing..'' I sent a glare in his vague direction. ''Most likely.''

''Fuck,'' I put a hand up to my face. ''My whole job revolves around being able to see. I... I can't even fix this problem because I'd need to see to be able to. Fuck.. fuck. Oh shit... what a waste of student loans. Fuck me. Oh this is just great. You know what just shoot me. Fuck it, if we really are in space just send me out the airlock. Fuck.''

''Now now, there's no need to swear, I understand..''

''YOU UNDERSTAND!'' I screamed. ''You're a surgeon, so much of what you do involves seeing. Being able to find what's wrong with someone and fucking cut it out, put people back together. I spent years dragging myself up and getting through high school, then countless college courses getting a fucking PHD in medical fucking robotics AND IT WAS ALL FOR NOTHING. No way you can fucking understand, you can still fucking see you asshole.''

''Okay,'' I heard York clear his throat. ''Well I think that..''

''Shut up,'' I said. ''Are you the only doctor on this magic fucking school bus of bullshit?''

''No, there's a team of surgeons..''

''Get me a new one,' I said. 'Preferably one with a bedside manor.''

''While that's your ri..''

''NOW!'' I demanded. There was the sound of leaving footsteps and I pulled my knees up to my chest, both hands on my face. I let out a frustrated sigh. I ran my fingers through my tangled hair, trying not to get them caught. ''So what do you wanna know?'' I asked.

''What you can remember to start with,'' Carolina started. ''You took a pretty hard knock to the head, it wouldn't be unexpected for you to have forgotten bits and pieces. Tell us what you were doing before the accident.''

''I work for a private facility contracted under the military,'' I said. ''They came to my high school when I was a kid, helped me graduate early and sent me to all the right programs. When I finished my doctorate, I was offered a job almost immediately. I can't really tell you much about the projects, but I worked to fix people after accidents caused them to be unable to do their various jobs. Basically, I was helping make sure the only reason soldiers retired was because they wanted to. The base I was working in, Missouri, I can't tell you any more information on it's location than that, it didn't just house myself and my team. There was a whole building full of other teams and projects going on. I'd been working late every night for the past month, I was burning myself out, I couldn't do it anymore. Last thing I remember is the heat, I was walking home and it was so hot. I didn't even make it to the parking lot. I was on the sidewalk outside. Yeah, the wall beside me. There was a spray of bricks and dust, I don't think I hit the ground. No, there was this light. It burned my eyes. It sent this shockwave through everything and I was headed for the ground but I'm sure I didn't hit it. There was no sidewalk. Everything was black. And then there was the snowy ground. I was falling through the air and I couldn't do anything. There wasn't time, there was nothing to catch myself on. I just hit the ground. And then I woke up here.''

''You can't remember anything from Missouri to Venesia?'' Carolina choked.

''I think she's saying she teleported from Missouri to Venesia,'' York replied.

''Are you retarded?'' I asked. ''There's no possible way I could have teleported from Earth to another planet, much less one that doesn't fucking exist.''

''She's got a point, we've never seen the cubes carry anyone that far, she'd have to have jumped, but, we've never seen someone do that without a vessel,'' Carolina told him.

''Maybe this is why,'' he replied. ''Maybe that's what one of the other teams was working on in her building and she just got caught up in the crossfire.''

''We can check up on that,'' Carolina said. ''The Director has contacts, he could confirm her story.''

''And then what?'' I grumbled. There was a moment of silence.

''She shrugged,'' York said. ''Lina, she's blind, you can't make gestures.''

''How about this one,'' she said and I didn't have to see what one she was making to get the gist of what she was saying.

''Now you're just being childish,'' York replied.

''I'm going to go report to the Director,'' she told him. ''You might wanna stay here until the new doctor arrives. You seem to be pretty good at calming her down. Last thing we want is someone giving her a sedative.''

''Got it,'' he replied. There was a shifting noise and then someone padded over to the seat beside me. ''Guess it's going to be me and you for a while, kiddo. You know, I don't think I got your name.''

''Marisa Holtz,'' I replied. ''No parents, no family and no middle name.''

''That's sad,'' he replied. ''I've got four brothers and five sisters. Hated how cramped my apartment always was but I always had family. And I wouldn't change that for the world. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be surrounded by people.''

''I was in foster care my whole life, never once got adopted, spent my whole life in a group home. There were plenty of people around, I was just busy,'' I replied. He snorted.

''You were a kid, what were you so busy doing?'' he asked.

''Studying for my job,'' I said. ''I saw a bunch of sci-fi movies I was too young to watch and decided this is exactly what I wanted to do. Robots were cool, and I was gonna build them. When I got older I got to meet this vet, we were learning about the wars in history class during the lead-up to veterans day and this one guy was talking about how far prosthetics were coming while he was using this slow, clunky and basically useless robot arm, and then I was sure I was gonna grow up to do it better. I was gonna give him a better arm. And I did, while I was still in college I designed a better one and he tested it for me. Got to keep it when the testing was over and I sold the design to the military. Name's still on the patent. Now I'm here and I'm not able to work on something to fix this because I can't see what I'm doing.''

''I'm sorry,'' he told me. ''I know it's hard, but you will learn how to work with this me. Trust me, I know.''

''Forgive me, I've been awake less than an hour and things are already looking pretty fucking bleak,'' I said. ''I don't know I can really do optimism right now.''

''And you know what, that's okay,'' he said. ''You be angry if you gotta, because you've been given some really heavy news. You have every right to be pissed, life just threw you a fucking curve ball and it knocked you down. Just make sure you don't stay down. When you're ready, get up again.''

''And do what?'' I replied.

''Whatever you want,'' he said. I let out a sigh and then lay back against the bed I was perched on. I wondered what the room looked like, I knew it was a hospital room, now, or infirmary. But what did everything look like? Was I really on a space ship? No, that was crazy. We sat in silence for a few moments while I tried to figure out what to do, or say.

''You wanna play iSpy?'' I asked and I heard the sound of York choking beside me.

''What?'' he asked, almost laughing.

''Sorry, I thought I'd make light,'' I said. ''It's really bugging me this whole, not seeing thing. Like, yeah I know I've been complaining about it since I woke up but I never noticed just how much I used my eyes until I couldn't see anything. I can't even stare out the window or people watch because I'm bored. I can't count the ceiling tiles or how many wall lights there are.''

''You couldn't do that anyway, this ceiling is metal panels and ceiling lights,'' York replied. ''But I get it. You don't realise how good you've got it sometimes until things are taken from you.''

''Tell me about this room,'' I said. ''Am I in a ward, are there other people? Are they ugly? Do they look stupid without even talking to them? Are they models? What colour are the walls, is the floor metal too? Is it cold?''

''Man, slow down,'' he said. ''There is an infirmary ward, but you're in isolation, you were in a coma and you'd just had brain surgery so you were put here for infection risks and stuff. Plus you literally falling from the sky caused a bit of a stir. So there's a door directly in front of you, windows all along the wall either side. Um, the wall to your left has a long light above it, it's um, beige? there's nothing on it, it's boring. Same with the other side but no light. The wall behind you's interesting. Bunch of wires and shit poking out to connect to various things. Ceiling's also beige. Floor's brown, metal, looks cold, not touching it to find out.''

I started giggling before having to clutch the back of my head, the laughing hurting my fragile brain. ''Okay,'' I managed after a moment. ''What about um, describe something to me. Someplace. Uh, tell me about your favourite place. I'll probably never see it anyway, even if I do fix my sight so you don't have to worry about describing it wrong.''

''What do you mean, describing it wrong? I did a great job,'' he mock argued.

''You didn't seem real sure about the colour of the walls,'' I replied.

''Okay, fine you have me on that one, but that's not my fault, men and women see colours differently,'' he argued. ''Okay, my favourite place is this little coffee shop near my mom's apartment building. I used to work there when I was in high school because they would let me bring my siblings there while I worked. They'd sit at one of the tables in the back by the holographic fireplace and draw, while I bussed tables. I used to go there every morning with my mom on my commute to college, because I thought she could use the break.''

''You said you had a lot of siblings, I can imagine she had her hands full,'' I replied.

''It wasn't too bad but my dad worked long hours, so did she and then just before my youngest brother was born my dad got into an accident at his construction site and didn't make it, I was in college then, so I coped fine, but I feel bad for the younger ones. They'll never know him like I did,'' he said. ''But I tried my best to be a good role model, and it's that place, it's filled with so many good memories that I'm sure even after I enlisted here they can still go there, it's their place too.''

''It sounds nice, but you didn't describe what it looked like at all, all I know is it's in suburbia and there's a fake fire,'' I told him and he laughed.

''Sorry,'' he chuckled. ''I thought we were just sharing.''

''I like the library by my old group home,'' I told him. ''I don't even live close anymore but sometimes, when I'm nearby I just go in to read or to just sit and stare at the walls. I spent so much time there growing up that just the peeling green paint, the graffiti on the walls and dingy, dusty smell, it feels like home. I miss the weight of a fat stack of books, having to walk so carefully home so I didn't drop on on the way. Carrying to many to even have in a bag. God, I miss it so much.''

''Your library had paper books?'' York said.

''Excuse me?'' I replied.

''Like, physical paper that you turned the pages of?'' he continued.

''Yeah, oh not more of this space crap, don't tell me, what did your library have? Holograms?'' I crossed my arms.

''Well, yeah,'' he said. ''You had a holo-board and you could just plug it into one of the stations to download a new book that you could project out of it and then you could take it home or you could go sit somewhere and read it there,' he explained awkwardly. 'And then if you didn't remember to renew your lease it would delete itself from your board and you had to go back and re-download it.. you really didn't have any of those? Man, I thought we were poor.''

''I wasn't that poor, I just grew up in the 20th century, on Earth before you get started on that,'' I rolled my eyes, or at least I think I did. I don't know if I can do that anymore.

''How hard did you hit your head Marisa,'' York said seriously. ''No, something's defiantly wrong with you.''

''Fuck you,'' I told him and he grabbed one of my hands.

''I'm really, really serious,'' he told me. ''It's the 26th century. Do you know how old you'd be to have been born back then? I don't know what's wrong, how you don't believe in space travel, why you don't understand about holo-boards and different planet, but something is really wrong.''

''Look, this is going too far. Just stop it, I don't wanna play your stupid fucking games, Jesus, York, we were having a good time, why can't you just talk to me rather than spinning this joke. I'm fucking sick of it! Is this some kind of stupid attempt at getting me to leak top secret information or something?'' I screamed at him. ''Well fine! My name is Marisa Holtz, I'm 5ft 3 but I always lie and tell people I'm average height which is 5" 5' because I'm sick of the short jokes and people using me as an armrest. I'm 120 pounds and I used to take kickboxing classes as a kick because there were these thugs that used to hang out by the library and nobody was gonna get between me and those fucking books. I'm 25 years old I'll be 26 in two months and that'll officially mean I've been alive longer than both my parents by a year. I hate celebrating my birthday because even though I didn't wanna be around people when I was a kid that's how I always ended up on the day and it fucking sucked. I hated feeling lonely and like I needed people so if I didn't celebrate I wouldn't get my hopes up. I've been working towards this fucking job for years and I'm finally making headway amongst all the sexist jerks and then I got fucking blown up and lost my sight. So just quit it okay, we're not in the 26th century, we're not in space and holo-boards or whatever aren't fucking real.''

''I..'' he stuttered and then there was the sound of a door opening up.

''Hello you two,'' I heard a cheery female, Scottish voice and some footsteps entering further into the door. ''Sorry to interrupt whatever you were yelling about, but I thought we might try to get to the bottom of this sight problem.''

''Please,'' I replied, swallowing the rock in my throat.

''Now, looking at your eyes, the irises haven't gone, milky or cloudy as you might see if you had an infected cornea or if you'd had the trauma to the eyes rather than the back of your head. Which is good news. We had a good look when we did your scan, there's no vitreous haemorrhaging and no retinal detachment and while that does mean we don't exactly know what's causing your blindness and it's permanence, it is actually good news, it means we've narrowed it down significantly.''

''So what now?'' I asked.

''Well, I think it's an issue with signals getting to the eye from the back of your head, which is where the swelling damage was. But if it's not that, the only other thing it could be is damage to the optic nerves themselves. Which will be a pain. If it's what I think it is, once your brain settles back down, you should get your sight back by itself, but if not, I'm not really sure we have a lot of options. It's the 26th century but we still really don't know a lot about the human brain,'' the doctor said and I scoffed.

''You too huh?'' I asked.

'I beg your pardon?' she asked.

''You're in on it too,'' I replied.

''She thinks it's the 20th century still,'' York explained.

''No I don't,'' I corrected. ''I grew up in the 20th century, it's now the 21st.''

''Still incorrect,'' he argued.

''This is troubling,'' the doctor hummed. ''Perhaps we should do that scan now..''

''That won't be necessary,'' I heard a southern male voice in the doorway. I heard York frantically throwing himself up in the chair beside me and a snort by the door. I wondered what was going on.

''Marisa,'' I heard Carolina's voice again. ''Let me introduce you to the Director.''

''Uh.. hi..'' I waved a singular wave in the vague direction of the door.

''Leonard Church,'' he greeted suavely. ''And Doctor, while the specifics are still up in the air, I believe miss Holtz is telling the truth. You really are from the 21st century aren't you?''

''At fucking last, someone sees sense,'' I sighed in relief. ''No, I'm from 21st Century Missouri where I was..''

''Where you were working on developing semi bio-organic replacement limbs, I know,'' the Director told me and I stuttered. How could he know that? ''Are you aware the United States Government thinks you're dead? According to Earth's records you died the night of the explosion alongside hundreds of other personnel in space. Imagine our surprise when you pop up over 6 hundred years later on Venezia, a completely different galaxy. So, do you have any theories on how you ended up here?''

''I.. I'm sorry what?'' I blurted out eventually. ''I thought you believed me, that you were on my side. But you can't possibly… it's not possible. No. NO. This isn't real. You can't just jump hundreds of years into the future, you can't jump galaxies. We don't even have the technology to jump from room to room. It's all just theories, fiction… This is some ridiculous joke.''

''Marisa, how tall are you?'' York asked.

''I already said, 5ft 3. Why is that what you're thinking about right now?'' I demanded. I heard shifting beside me. The tray table that had been brought forwards so I could drink my water earlier was moved away.

''I'm going to help you stand up,'' he told me. There was a firm grip at the top of both my arms and then I was yanked up out of the bed. My bare feet hit the decidedly cold metal ground of the room, which, thanks to York I knew was brown. I never really noticed before how large his hands were until he had them resting on my upper arms. Before they'd been there only seconds, now they lingered, they were huge. I figured his would be bigger than mine, he was a guy after all, but there were bigger and then some.

''Okay, now what genius,'' I snapped.

''You wanna know how tall I am?'' he asked.

''Not really,'' I replied and he sighed.

'''I'm 7ft 6,'' he told me. ''Let me explain something to you..''

''No you genetic freak,'' I cut him off. ''I'm not taking in any new information right now. This has been enough for today. I can't do this anymore. It's too much.''

''I'm kinda curious as to where you were going with that, York,'' Carolina chuckled. ''Last I checked height doesn't actually affect you..''

''Shut up,'' he replied. ''I was going to explain all the Spartan stuff, I figured the medical stuff might help catch her up on the history, get her to believe it because living breathing proof of it is standing in front of her. And you're here, what are you 7" 4?''

''7" 2," she replied. "But most people are above 6 foot now. It's not that special.."

"Hey guys I'm still fucking here and I don't care how tall you are,'' I yelled. Although now that I thought about it, now I was on the ground, all the conversation was happening rather far above my head. I lifted an arm up towards my face and then put it out in front of me, jabbing angrily at the body in front of me.

''Ow stop that,'' York scolded.

''Where'd I jab?'' I asked.

''You're jabbing me in the belly button, what's wrong with you?'' he asked.

''Okay, I believe you're a giant, now put me the fuck back to bed,'' I yelled. ''Or else you're not going to like the next place I jab.''

''Come on York,'' Carolina said. ''It's getting late, let's clear off like the others.''

''Wait, everyone else left?'' I asked, turning in her vague direction.

''Pretty much as soon as York started talking about his height,'' Carolina answered. ''I'll stop by tomorrow, mostly because I wanna see you punch York. Night Marisa''

''Yeah, night,'' I sighed. I was still stood in front of York, his hands still resting on my biceps. I brought my jabbing hand up to my face and ran my hand over it. This was all so much to take in.

''Hey, don't cry,'' York said.

''I didn't know I was…'' I said, wiping away the tears pooling in the corners of my eyes. ''This is just all so much,'' I was almost choking on the rock in my throat. I leaned forward, wrapping my arms around the person in front of me. My head hit just below his ribs, in the soft underside of his belly covered just by a thin t-shirt. He was radiating heat. I didn't realise I was shaking. One of his hands gently held the back of my head. There was still a large dressing on the back of it, I could feel it now his hand was resting on it. I wondered if I'd been too harsh on my first doc. He was a prick though.

''It's going to be alright,'' he told me. ''If what the Director says is true, then I understand this is a lot to take in. The head injury alone is a lot, and now you've got to deal with jumping centuries and galaxies. But I'm here for you, we've got this.''

''Okay,'' I nodded. ''But I'm going to hold you to that. You better not leave me till this is over.''

''I promise,'' he said.

A few more minutes of us standing there like that passed and then he helped me back into my bed, bringing the water over close enough I could get some if I wanted it but not so close I'd knock it over in my blindness. He gave the top of my head a gentle ruffle before flicking off the lights. I didn't know why, considering I was blind now, but then I heard the chair beside me scrape a little and a weight sink into it. Of course, I still probably had a guard. Well, at least it was him.