The peace treaty with the turians had been signed and the war was officially over. Everyone was on their way home.
Suddenly, the shuttle was on the ground and the soldiers were at the gate. Floods of men and women being greeted by their loved ones. Steven was standing with Jason, scanning the crowds for any sign of a familiar face, when he saw a tiny turquoise-and-white polka dot dress with dark red pigtails hurtling towards them; he caught it just as it squealed and launched itself at his chest. Parting the mass of curls the pigtails had become, Steven found himself looking at a grinning Katie.
"Daddy!" She squealed again. "I miss'd you."
He smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I missed you too, sweetheart." He glanced over and saw Jason having a similar reunion with a camo sweatshirt and mop of brown hair that was Ryan. Looking past Katie, he saw his father-in-law Ben standing to the side, smirking. Steven shook his head with a laugh as he switched kids with Jason, saying hello to his nephew.
"Lieutenants." Ben snapped a salute as the two soldiers, each with their own child atop their shoulders, walked up to him.
"Hey, Dad," Jason said as he returned the salute, Steven doing the same. "Um... not that we're not glad to see you but –"
"Where are our wives?" Steven finished with a smirk.
Ben chuckled. "The ladies are at home planning your welcome home party. The three of us got kicked out."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Dare we ask why?"
"Don't look at me. Ask your children."
"Meemaw kicked her out for being dis... disr... loud," Ryan said, glaring at Katie.
"He was being loud too!" she protested. Loudly.
Steven and Jason rolled their eyes. "And you, Dad?" Jason asked as they followed him to the skycar lot. "What'd you do to get kicked out?"
Ben shrugged. "I believe the words 'too many cooks' and 'always underfoot' may have been used."
Hackett was suddenly awakened by an incessant drumming noise. He looked up and was startled to see Dr. River standing on the other side of his desk, her arms folded and tapping her foot impatiently.
He raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
She frowned. "You have an odd look on your face, Steven. Are you alright?"
"I'm... fine. Just a dream, a memory actually. The day we came back from the war. One of the last good days we all had as a whole family." He sighed. "It's not the first time I've had that one in the last week and a half."
"I can imagine."
He scrubbed a hand across his face and sat up more fully at his desk. "So... what, um... why are you here, Melody?"
"Oh. Right. They're gone," the doctor said. "Kathrine and Jeff. Just... left the med-bay."
The Admiral bit the inside of his cheek, trying to keep a straight face. "I tried to warn you, Melody. They've been getting into copious amounts of trouble since the day they met on their first day of kindergarten. It's also not the first time they've broken out of a medical facility. Hospitals make Katie itch, she says; the few times she's had to be in one, she's gotten out before she was supposed to. Though she also does tend to break in to see Jeff when he's had to be alone."
She glared at him.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I have patients to take care of. I can't go off and find them."
"They are your patients, Melody. And, you're not the only medical officer on this ship."
"I believe they may have been the ones to help Kathrine and Jeff escape in the first place. He wouldn't be getting far quickly on his own, and she's not going to be much help with as much pain medication as she's on."
Hackett rolled his eyes. "You can't use the ship's VI to find them?" He shook his head. He knew what was coming as soon as he said the words.
"Kathrine left a note saying that she'd disabled their locators."
"Of course she did." He sighed again. "Fine. I'll go. Not like I need sleep or anything," he grumbled as he stood up and walked past her.
Twenty minutes later, he stood in the doorway of his own quarters. He'd found Katie and Jeff, but whatever trouble Dr. River thought they'd be in, they weren't in it. Instead, Jeff was sitting in the overstuffed loveseat, his leg propped up on an ottoman; he had his arms wrapped carefully around Katie as she curled up against him. To the untrained eye, they'd fallen asleep watching a vid, but Hackett quickly spotted the chips and cards hastily shoved in between the cushions. Obviously, they'd been playing poker before he walked in.
He shook his head and chuckled to himself as he stepped back out into the hallway to call Dr. River.
"I found them."
"Where? Where the bloody hell are they?" the irate doctor screeched.
"Relax, Melody. They're fine."
"Fine? What did I say about making judgment calls on my patients?"
"You're the one who didn't want to take the time to come find them," he said pointedly.
Dr. River growled. "Where are they, Admiral?"
"They're safe and surprisingly not actually getting into any trouble. They're... asleep." He knew there would be hell to pay if she found out what they'd actually been doing, innocent as it was, and they were going to be in enough trouble for breaking out of the med-bay.
She huffed. "That doesn't answer my question."
"If you're so damn interested in where they are, ask the VI where I am right now," Hackett snapped. "But you'd better do it quickly, because I'm going back to my office. I have to go yell at my yeoman for letting you in in the first place."
Katie cracked one eye open and lifted her head slightly. "All right, coast is clear," she whispered as the Admiral's footsteps retreated away from the door.
"Was it your dad?" Jeff asked, shifting a bit to sit up more fully in the loveseat.
She nodded. "Yeah, and he was alone." She carefully slid to the floor to retrieve a few chips that had fallen under the ottoman. "You know if the doc had been with him, she'd be dragging us back to the med-bay by our ears right now."
"True." He began reshuffling the cards. "Ya know, sometimes she's nice, like the other day when she let me sit with you before you woke up; other times, I'm surprised we're even allowed to look at each other."
She giggled as she got up and settled back in the seat, sitting cross-legged beside him. "After this, we won't. She'll confiscate our omni-tools and everything. Totally worth it for an hour of peace though."
He nodded. "Definitely. All right, where were we? My deal or yours?"
