I blinked myself awake and then sighed. Still darkness. I reached a hand up to my face to wipe the sleep from my eyes. I had no idea what time it was, what day it was. Nothing. How long had I slept for? How long had I been in this infirmary?

''I was hoping all of this was some shitty dream,'' I said, mostly to myself.

''Still blind then?'' a new male voice asked. I jumped. ''Sorry, I'm Wash.. I mean agent Washington.''

''It's fine,'' I said. ''I'm still getting used to the whole, blind thing.''

''I hope you don't have to,'' he replied and I smiled softly.

''Yeah, me too,'' I answered quietly. ''How long was I out for this time?''

''Not long, or long… I don't know.. My shift is almost over,'' he replied. ''But they're short shifts between the volunteers.''

''Volunteers?'' I asked.

''Yeah, you're not exactly a threat you know,'' he explained. ''So the team who found you just volunteered some of themselves to be your guard for the easy money. York seemed to be the only one legitimately worried about you. Mind you, he did find you. Also.. I realise that makes me sound like an asshole, I just mean..''

''Shut up Wash, it's fine,'' I replied. ''Tell me more about where I was found.''

''Venezia?'' Wash asked. ''Yeah, York mentioned you don't remember how you got there.''

''I just remember seeing the pine trees, and the icy mountain tops,'' I replied. ''I had enough time to think, oh shit, I can't do anything about this and then I came into contact with the ground. I tried to flip myself I think, I don't know why but I seemed to get it into my panicked mind that if I could just land on my feet I'd be fine. Although I would have certainly broken my legs, maybe more from that fall. It must be because of that that I hit my head, because I remember falling face first. I don't know how the damage could have been at the back of my head.''

''I know I saw him carrying you, there was a lot of blood,'' Wash told me. ''You're pretty lucky to be alive, even if this situation isn't ideal..''

''I know,'' I sighed. ''I should be more grateful, it's just.. You ever spend a long time working towards something and then in the flash of an eye is bursts into flames in front of you?''

''I tried to ask out this girl once, and I'd been working up the courage for months, I finally see her outside of work, I'm going over to her, and just as I'm about to say, 'Hey, can I buy you a drink?' she gets up, walks over to the bar and ends up leaving immediately for a one night stand with York, so yeah, I know a little about that,'' he replied bitterly and I snorted. ''Oh, I'm glad you can see this as funny.''

''Sorry, you just sound so angry right now,'' I said. ''And I know that itself shouldn't be funny, but I've just been so caught up in the drama of this whole situation it's nice to hear something normal for a change.''

''Hear that Wash, someone thinks you're normal,'' I heard a new male voice in the doorway. ''Hi Marisa, I'm North Dakota.'' The voice introduced. There was no other sound and the voice didn't move, that must mean he stayed put by the door.

''Hi,'' I replied. ''Are you guys older than Wash, he sounds younger?''

''How could you tell that?!'' Wash cried out and I chuckled.

''Yeah, most of us are in our 30s, Wash is probably about your age,'' North replied. ''You have good ears, that'll probably be a big help to you.''

''What'll be a big help to her?'' I heard York's voice and couldn't help but smile. I don't know what made me trust him, having only spoken to him for a few hours, but I did and I felt a great deal of comfort with his presence.

''North says I have a good ear,'' I replied and I heard the sound of footsteps entering the room. They were light and quick, I wondered who's they were.

''Just one?'' he teased.

''Hey, why are you here York, it's not your shift,'' I heard Wash say standing up from the chair. ''I thought it was North's time to take over.''

''I know,'' he replied. ''Thought the two of them might like some company.''

''How thoughtful,'' Wash grumbled. ''It's a shame you didn't extend the same courtesy to me.''

''I had to sleep, Wash, I'd just done twelve hours in an op and then six hours here,'' York replied. ''Which is more than I can say for you, lazy, who just came in here, took a nap and then have nothing else scheduled for the day.''

''That's not true,'' he whined, I couldn't tell if he was blushing but for some reason it sounded like it. He sounded bashful. ''I had plans later with Carolina. She was going to train with me.''

''You mean you were going to get your ass handed to you by her,'' North teased.

''Hey, if I've learned anything about Carolina it's that those two are one in the same,'' York replied. ''Pretty much any activity with her ends like that.''

''What's the matter York, can't keep up?'' I teased, myself, making North and Wash laugh and 'oooh' at it.

''Looks like she's not the only one who can run rings around you, Yorkie,'' North commented. ''We'd better watch this one. Come on Wash, you'd better get out of here, wouldn't wanna make you late for your date.''

''It's not a date,'' he whined.

''Yeah sure,'' York chuckled.

There was some more shuffling of footsteps, three sets I think. One set headed towards the door, one into the room towards the chair and one from somewhere in the middle of the room closer to me. There was a huffing noise from the plush mattress and then the shifting of some weight a little farther down from me and then the sound of a chair scraping.

''Hey kiddo,'' York said from the end of my bed. I must have looked confused. I smiled in his rough direction and went back to trying to listen to the room. The heart rate monitor was still beeping away rhythmically, the rubber cuff around my finger sweaty and pinching uncomfortable.

''So was he blushing when he left?'' I asked. York and North laughed in surprise.

''How'd you tell that?'' North asked.

''He sounded bashful when you teased him,'' I replied. ''He has a crush on her, I'd bet money on it.''

''You don't have any money,'' York said. ''But I think you're right.''

''He's not exactly subtle,'' North agreed. ''Has your blindness changed in any way since yesterday?''

''No,'' I sighed, tilting my head down towards my lap. ''I was hoping, if I didn't wake up to this all being a weird dream that I'd at least see blurs, flashes of light, shapes or something. But still nothing but darkness.''

''Man, that sucks,'' York grumbled from beside me.

''I did start brainstorming ideas on how to fix it though,'' I perked up, thinking about the technology I'd been dreaming about last night. ''I'll have to see what the tests come back with though. Well, not see…''

''The doc actually came by at the end of my shit to say they had the results back, I imagine she just wanted to let you sleep,'' York told me.

''Do you guys know if there's anyone on this ship in a similar field?'' I asked. ''I might not be able to see but I bet if I told him how to do it, they could build what I need.''

''I don't know,'' North replied. ''We're not exactly a science vessel. We mostly just have people who know specifically about our project and that's that.''

''Way to give her hope, North,'' York grumbled. I smirked, chuckling to myself.

''It's fine,'' I said. ''It's day one, I'll figure something out.''

''You're a lot more optimistic than you were yesterday,'' York pointed out.

''I'm always excited when I get a new project,'' I shrugged.

''That's good to hear, Miss Holtz,'' I heard the Director's southern drawl in the doorway. I frowned, I hadn't heard him coming either.

''It's Doctor,'' I replied. ''It may have been issued hundreds of years ago, but I'm sure my PHD still stands. Also are you aware you have very quiet footsteps? They rival even Carolina's in audibility. I thought if there was anyone who'd have assasin-like footsteps it would be someone on some kind of stealth team or something.''

''I'll keep that in mind, Dr Holtz,'' he said, sounding amused. ''Now, we can't send you back. We don't know how you got here in the first place and if we did it's unlikely we'd be able to replicate the process, but I'm here to offer a silver lining.''

''Oh?''

''A job,'' he replied. ''Having researched you extensively last night, you were once regarded as one of the most promising minds of the 21st century. And after familiarising myself with your work, I think you could do great things here for our project too.''

''Yeah one problem,'' I replied. ''In case you hadn't noticed, I'm still blind.''

''For now it would be consulting work,'' he explained. ''And you'd have free reign of out labs where you could work on your own visual impairment should it not improve on its own.''

''What about files?'' I asked.

''What about them?''

''I want free reign on information,'' I replied. ''My files, Earth's history, anything I'll be working. I want everything.''

''Very well,'' he agreed, sounding caught off guard. ''I'll give you what you'll find useful in regards to what you'll be working on, your own files and anything you want to catch you up on recent history.''

''Can I have a dog?''

''Now you're getting ridiculous,'' he told me.

''I'm blind,'' I deadpanned. ''I mean a seeing eye dog.''

''For now you can have an escort,'' he said. ''York will do for now.''

I heard him turn this time, the light footsteps barely audible as he exited. I chuckled to myself, turning to York's general direction last I heard him.

''What are you chuckling about?'' he asked, confirming his location.

''You're a babysitter,'' I answered, making North laugh beside me.

''There are worse jobs I'm sure, at least this one I'm not going to get shot at,'' he replied.

I wondered what it must look like, to anyone who entered my hospital room right now, to just see me staring blankly off into space, probably unblinking. I'd been forgetting to do that, now they didn't glaze over when I was thinking to myself. I could feel them getting dry from time to time, that's usually what reminded me to do it, and then I'd have to do it a few times to make up for it. I wondered if I'd end up needing eyedrops or would I simply adjust.

''Hey York,'' I said. There was silence. ''You awake?'' I asked. I could still hear him breathing so I knew he was still here.

''If I say no will you believe me?'' he replied.

''Is that you telling me you're tired?'' I asked.

''What's up?'' he asked with a yawn.

''Does you being my babysitter mean you have to stay by my side all the time?'' I asked.

''Getting sick of me already, kiddo?'' he said but I could hear the grin in his voice.

''Hospital chairs are pretty notorious for being uncomfortable,'' I said. ''You shouldn't have to spend the foreseeable future crumpled into one. Especially not at your age..''

''I'M 32!'' he yelled in distress. I giggled, covering my mouth as I lay back against my pillows. There was a little while of comfortable silence while I could feel sleep creeping up on me even though I'd done fuckall all day. ''Tell you what, tomorrow I'll take you for a walk and we can stretch this old man's legs.''

''It'll likely be a very slow walk,'' I said. ''If you really are over 7 feet tall. Because I'm both short and blind.''

''I think I'll survive,'' he told me.

I settled myself in the bed that, for the first time since I was a child, felt rather roomy. It was an odd feeling, still being able to dream, of course I knew that was all a different part of the brain, but I could still see in my dreams. I saw projects, memories, abstract crap, I saw it all and then when I opened my eyes instead of seeing light, I was enveloped in darkness.

I was walking home from work, I'd worked late because I was trying to push myself. I had to get this latest project done as quickly as possible and it had to be the best. If not then the jerks from the same lab would be right, I should leave it to the guys. Ugh, they were so frustrating.

I heard a scuff as I was walking and looked back at my shoe, great, there was a big ass rock sticking out of it. I walked closer to the brick wall I'd been passing and leaned up against the hot surface, reaching down to pull out the stone.

Suddenly I was hurtling towards the snowy ground and I was screaming. I was seconds away from death and there was nothing I could do. I had to stop myself, if I didn't, I'd hit the hard ground and I'd die. I fought against the air current, desperately but it was no use. I felt myself make contact with the ground and then everything went black.

I threw myself up, I could feel a thin sheen of sweat coating my body, a singular bead sliding down my neck and spine. I could hear frantic beeping on my left and I tried to calm myself down. Why couldn't I see. Oh. That's right. I'm blind. Struggling to breath I tried to calm myself down some more. Tuning out the beeping I realised I wasn't the only one in the room. There were strong arms wrapped around me and a deep voice above me, speaking soothing words. I took a deep breath. Of course, York. I was still being babysat. I leant my head back, taking another deep breath and then slowing my breathing down. It was just a dream. It'd already happened. It was just a dream. It's over.

''Are you okay?'' York asked.

''Sorry,'' I said.

''That's not what I asked, you don't have to apologise for dreams, you can't control them,'' he said. ''Now, are you alright?''

''Yeah,'' I nodded. ''I just hit the ground again.''

''I'm sorry,'' he said. ''Is this the first time you've had this dream?''

''Yeah,'' I agreed.

''Then hopefully this is the last time as well,'' he said. There was a few more minutes of me trying to calm down before we spoke again. ''How's about that walk?''

''Sounds good,'' I said and he helped me down from the surprisingly tall bed. He'd helped me up off this bed once before, but I'd been freaking out so much I hadn't noticed it's height. Or his height difference. I guess he was a lot taller than me. What must it look like, for someone as short as me standing next to someone as tall as him.

I held his forearm as we walked, my bare feet on the cold metal flooring of the infirmary. It wasn't a long walkthrough there, there was a small number of beds, though, I supposed it was a spaceship. He escorted me out of the infirmary, walking me up and down a few corridors. He said he didn't want to take me too far away from the infirmary, in case something happened but I think it was also because I imagined I was still being watched. No way were they just going to have kept me under constant guard for the entire time I'd been there to just giving me free reign of the ship day 2 after waking up. Blind or not.

Eventually we had to go back, I was getting kinda tired, you can't undergo major brain surgery and then come out of a coma and expect yourself to be olympic level fit. There was a lot more recovering to be done. But at least I still functioned right, even if incredibly slow. My limbs still knew how to walk, to hold, to move.

York hoisted me back up onto the bed with relative ease and I started day-dreaming about how I was going to fix my eyes. Give myself the gift of sight. There was a shift change, York left and I barely noticed the two shift changes until his return. I was too focused on how the mechanics would work, figuring out what would overload it. What factors would I have to consider if I made it an entirely internal system.

When York did return I was kind of tired so I settled myself on top of the pillows and closed my eyes. I fell into darkness like I did everytime I went to sleep only to be brought back into the light. I was dreaming again. The world had colour, I could see things. The burnt orange bricks on the wall I was walking past had hairline fractures in them, only visible if you got incredibly close. They were grainy in texture. The setting sunlight was casting a warm, yellow glow on everything. The pavement beneath my feet was hot, I could feel it through my sneakers.

Tomorrow would be better. I'd get more progress on the project I'd been working on and then I'd show those sexist scientists a thing or two. I heard a scuff on the sidewalk and looked down at my shoe. There was a rock stuck in it. I stepped closer to the wall and leaned against the burning surface, flicking the stone out from the soul. I pushed off again, heading to the parking lot where I kept my old bomb of a car.

The air felt electric, I felt goosebumps on my arm. The atmosphere around me felt like it was going to burst open, but I couldn't explain why it felt like that. I turned my head to the side, the building next to mine was the first thing I saw. It was nothing. But, why did I need to look. There was a flash inside visible through one of the windows and it piqued my interest. But before I could think further on it, there was a blinding blue ring that built around the building. I opened my mouth to scream, what the hell was that.

And then I was screaming. I was seconds away from hitting the cold snowy ground. I fought against the aircurrent, but it was no use. I made impact with the cold, hard ground and suddenly I was enveloped by darkness.

I shot up in bed, a scream falling from my mouth before I could catch it. My heart raced again and I could hear the heart rate monitor going off again and I sighed. It was just a dream. It's over. It already happened. It's over.

''Marisa,'' York said, hands on my shoulders.

''It was just a dream,'' I told him. ''I know,'' I sighed. ''I'm good now.''

''This is two nights in a row,'' he told me. ''Was it the same one?''

''Kinda,'' I said. ''I saw more this time, I wonder if it'll be the same tomorrow.''

''I don't want to see you like this again tomorrow, maybe I should talk to the doctor, stop these dreams if we can,'' he said.

''No,'' I replied. ''They're useful,'' I ran a hand through my hair. ''I remember once, when I was a kid the people running my group home sent me to therapy. I don't remember my parents dying, or I didn't until one day. I think it was just after parents day at school, another year having no one to come, I sat up in bed, just like now, covered in sweat. I was just a toddler, there's no way I could have remembered that but there I was, reliving it. As traumatic as it was having to remember it all in detail, I found it helpful. Once it was over. My therapist said our dreams are our unconscious mind's way of working through our problems and sometimes it's more helpful to see it through, rather than to stop them. She said something about people who weren't very good at communicating or dealing with their issues are more prone to dreams but I'm electing to ignore that part.''

York chuckled. ''Yeah, no idea where that came from. Let me know if it gets too much, if this goes on too long we need to find another way to deal with it.''

''I know,'' I said. ''I just wanna see where this goes.''

And so I settled back into the pillows and followed my routine. Wake up, chat to York for a little while, climb out of bed and walk with him. Go back to bed, chat some more, have a shift change, think about my sight problem, shift change, more thinking. York comes back, more sleep. More nightmare, wake up, chat, walk ect.

''We've been using vibrations to simulate the electrical impulses the brain is failing to send and we've been having promising results, too bad the government shut down that project,'' I heard someone say as I was walking out the door. I paid no attention to the cluster of men in white lab coats.

The sun was beating down on me as I walked the two blocks to my old, beat up car. I passed the burnt orange bricks quickly, stopping only when I heard scuffing on the pavement. There was a small rock stuck in the rubber soul of my sneakers. I leaned up against the wall of the building to knock it out and then continued on my way.

The electricity in the air caught my attention. Goosebumps formed on my skin. There was a flash off to my right and I turned. A harsh blue light circled the building. I opened my mouth to scream. The circle shrunk momentarily and started to close in around the building before it grew brighter than I even thought possible and blew, sending a massive shockwave powerful enough to total the buildings around, sending bricks and debris flying everywhere. The ground beneath me ripped open to reveal a black void and I was knocked off my feet by the wave, sending me hurtling into the rift.

The hot air was gone, suddenly I was cold all over, my skin burned with the wind ripping by me as I was hurtling towards the ground. But I was going too fast. And then I hit the ground. I threw myself up in the darkness. This time my scream wasn't of fear, it was anger. I growled.

''NO,'' I yelled. ''Fuck. God fucking damn it. What did he say? What was he talking about?''

''Are you okay?'' I heard North say. I turned to the sound. North wasn't usually here.

''Yeah,'' I sighed. ''I'm just mad at myself for not paying attention to my coworkers when I had the chance.'' I heard a snort beside me.

''Not what I was expecting you to be mad about,'' York said and reached down for my hand. He placed a slightly wet with condensation cup in my hand.

''What is this?'' I asked, looking up and to the side to where I thought he was.

''I told you I was a barista before this, didn't I?'' he replied. ''Well the thought occurred to me, that there has never been a better opportunity for a blind taste test than now.''

''You're a weird man,'' I told him and then brought the cup closer to my face. ''I take it it's iced coffee.''

''Nurses wouldn't let me bring in hot coffee in case you threw it at someone,'' he replied. I snorted. ''You laugh but people have done it.''

''How far were they expecting me to throw it,'' I replied. ''And accurately.''

''Just drink the damn coffee,'' he said. I put the bamboo straw up to my lips and screwed up my face instantly. I was overwhelmed almost immediately with overbearing sugar. I pulled it away from my mouth, trying to work out what it was.

''Okay,'' I choked. ''I'm getting caramel, was I supposed to?''

''Yes,'' he said. ''What else.''

''I don't know,'' I told him. ''I drink black coffee that someone burned hours earlier. Um, it's milky. But I mean, it's iced….''

''You're hopeless,'' he told me. ''It's an iced caramel macchiato.''

''Ah, you're favourite,'' North commented. ''Wanted to start strong I see.''

''Please take this away from me,'' I said and heard North chuckling.

''And she seems to like it about as much as the rest of us,'' he continued.

''She's got brain damage, her opinion can't be trusted,'' he slumped down in the chair, and I assumed he was sulking.

''Is he pouting,'' I asked.

''No,'' ''Yes,'' they responded at the same time and I giggled.

''I keep thinking I'm getting close to figuring out how I can repair the part of me that's broken and then I figured out what I'm missing,'' I said. ''And then I remembered, there was this guy I hated back at my old job who said something about the visual centre of the brain just as I was walking out of the building on the day of the accident. So I've been dreaming about it, but I can't quite catch what he said. I know it has something to do with vibrations mimicking the electricity the brain fires to send signals. But that's all I got.''

''That's not a bad place to start, Marisa,'' North encouraged. ''You've been working on this, what, a week and a half?''

''And it's only going to get harder from here on out,'' I told him.

''Optimistic,'' York said sarcastically.

''I'm serious, how am I supposed to build and test anything if I'm blind?'' I said. ''I'm using myself as a guinea pig. Because even if there was someone else I could practice on, I'm too blind to see the results.''

''You'll figure it out,'' York told me.

''Didn't the Director refer to you as one of the most promising minds of the 21st century?'' North asked.

''How do I know he's not just schmoozing?'' I asked.

''You don't know him like we do,'' York muttered.

''Trust us,'' North said a little louder. ''He's not the kind of guy to give out compliments, much less to people he doesn't see the value in. He doesn't really do the whole flattery to get what you want thing, either.''

''You can trust if he wants you, he has a plan for you,'' York said. ''You're incredibly useful to him, or you wouldn't still be here.''