A/N: thanks for the follow :)
Admiral Hackett shot up in bed when he heard a piercing scream, followed by a loud crash and the sounds of a struggle. He ran into Katie's bedroom and found her on the floor, fighting to get out of her sheets and blanket. He knelt on the floor beside her and helped her get disentangled, dodging her still-flailing arms as he tried to calm her down.
"Sweetheart, what happened?" he asked gently as she finally stopped fighting and he pulled her into his arms.
"Dr. River told me I should start trying to wean myself off the pain meds," she said quietly. "But apparently that's the only thing that's stopping the nightmares."
"Nightmares about Marcus?" he asked carefully.
She nodded. She suddenly stood up and started pacing.
He sat on the edge of her bed and watched her for a few minutes. Finally, curiosity got the best of him. "Katie, what are you doing?"
She stopped so suddenly, he had the feeling that she'd forgotten he was even there. "Remember when..." She sighed. "Of course you do... stupid question... when I told you what happened at the bar..." She trailed off again and didn't say anything for several minutes.
"Sweetheart, whatever it is you're trying to tell me, if you don't want to say it, it's okay."
She shook her head. "Four weeks, Daddy. It wasn't just... just the two days on the Citadel. It was..." She sank to the floor, her back against the wall. "T-the entire four weeks I was staying at Uncle Jason's."
Hackett frowned. "What was four..." He suddenly realized exactly what she meant. "Jesus Christ," he muttered. He got up and stalked out of the room. "I'm gonna kill him... both of them."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katie scramble up from the floor and she grabbed his arm. "Daddy, it wasn't their fault," she said, her eyes brimming with tears.
He shook his head as he turned to wrap his arms around her. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but you're going to have to explain that to me. Because I'm having a very hard time figuring out how this could have happened for four goddamn weeks without one or both of them noticing something was going on."
"Uncle Jason did. He didn't know what was going on 'til that night at the bar, but he said he knew something was weird."
"And yet he did nothing."
"Do about what? The only thing he noticed was that we had been spending more time together than usual."
Hackett thought of something else. "Shouldn't they have noticed if you had bruises or..." He sighed. He didn't really want to think about what Marcus had actually done to her.
She shook her head. "For one, he didn't really... he didn't beat me until the two days on the Citadel. But any bruises I had, I easily covered with makeup; scratches were written off as how much I suck at rollerblading."
He pulled back to look at her and raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged. "What? Have you ever seen me trying to skate? It's not pretty." She sighed. "I don't know what to do, Daddy."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't keep taking pain pills, and I can't just replace them with sleeping pills. And, though God knows I've tried, I can't just stop sleeping altogether."
"Did you sleep at all while you were at Jason's?"
"Yes," she said quickly and walked past him into the living room where she curled up at one end of the couch.
Hackett frowned as he followed her. Something was off. He sat down on the coffee table and leaned his elbows on his knees. "How were you getting to sleep?"
She neither looked at him nor answered his question.
"Katie? I'm not angry with you sweetheart."
She sighed. "I know, Daddy. I'm kinda angry with myself, actually. I'm just... I've dug myself into a hole that I can't get out of."
"What do you mean?"
"I have to stop taking the pain meds eventually. I know that. But... the way I was getting to sleep at Uncle Jason's wasn't any better."
"Which was?" he prompted gently.
"Whiskey."
He put his head in his hands. "I'm really going to kill him," he growled. "I swear to God."
"And this is why I didn't want to tell you."
He looked up at her again. "Please, please don't try and tell me that Jason didn't notice his whiskey had started going missing."
She shook her head. "If it had been from the bar, he probably wouldn't have, since Marcus did inventory; but since I was using the bottles in Uncle Jason's apartment, I'm sure he noticed. He probably assumed it was Ryan who was drinking it."
"And the Parent of the Year Award goes to Jason Shepard," Hackett said, rolling his eyes. "You're not going back next summer."
"Daddy! That's not fair. It wasn't Uncle Jason's fault."
"He didn't even notice you were drunk, Katie."
"I wasn't," she protested. "I only drank a couple of shots every night before I went to bed. By the time I got up, the effects had worn off." She sighed and stretched out on the couch. "Can we talk about this later, Daddy? I'm really tired."
"I know, sweetheart. Do you think you'll be able to sleep without the pain medication tonight or do you want to take it?"
She looked up at him with what looked like mock surprise. "You are actually encouraging me to defy doctor's orders?"
"Orders from Dr. River? Most definitely." He chuckled. "You said she told you to start weaning off the medication. Well, you tried. It didn't work. Yet." He went into the kitchen to get her pills and a glass of water. He handed them to her and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "You'll try again tomorrow."
"And if it doesn't work then?"
Hackett smiled as he sat in the recliner beside the couch. "Patience. You'll get there eventually. But no more whiskey."
