"The entire colony wiped out by –"
"Thresher maws claimed the lives of the entire unit except –"
"Lt. Kathrine Shepard, daughter of –"
"How did Lt. Shepard survive when no one else did?"
Katie growled in frustration as she flipped through every news channel available, unable to find a single story that wasn't talking about her and Akuze. It had been three weeks and yet the reports kept on about it like the attack had happened mere hours ago.
The constant reports had been helpful, if wholly depressing, when she'd first woken up two weeks after the attack to find herself in a hospital in Vancouver with no memory of how she'd gotten there. But now, she wished they'd move on to something else, or at least concentrate on those who'd died, rather than continually fueling the conspiracy theories that had already started about how she'd managed to get out alive.
How had she survived? It seemed she'd heard the question a thousand times in the last week, and every single time, she'd given the same answer. I don't know.
And she really didn't. No matter how many times people prodded her for answers, she couldn't remember anything about that night other than the screams of everyone in her unit as they apparently fell one by one to the maws. But she didn't tell anyone about those. They were her own private hell, not for the analysis of others.
The doctors kept insisting she needed sleep, but she couldn't sleep. The screams of the dying were ever-present when she was awake, but it was nothing compared to the hell she was in when she closed her eyes.
Total darkness, screaming, pain so horrible not even her pain medication could take it away. But these were almost preferable to the nightmares about Marcus that still plagued her every once in awhile. Almost.
When the doctors had finally realized she wasn't going to sleep unless they sedated her again, which more than one was in favor of doing, they decided to allow her to have visitors, if only to keep her occupied and out of trouble.
Her father had already been a near-constant presence, but Katie prefered the moments when he wasn't there, or when someone else was in the room as well. She couldn't stand the look of guilt in his eyes, as if he'd been the one who'd put her on Akuze.
There were precious few visitors she could actually tolerate for longer than twenty minutes at a time. Most did little more than ask how she was doing and then sit there with a look of pity on their faces, scrabbling for something else to say. With these, she usually feigned a yawn and waited until they took the hint and left.
The ones she actually looked forward to seeing were the ones who weren't hellbent on reminding her that she was in the hospital, the ones who could distract her from the screaming in her head.
Jeff had been the first in to see her when the doctors had lifted the visitor ban, but he'd also been the first to leave as he'd only been able to get a weekend pass and he'd promised his mother he'd drop by Arcturus as well. He'd attempted to make up for the short visit by sending a large box of donuts from their favorite bakery on Arcturus, but the nurses had immediately confiscated it.
Other than her father, Jason had been one of her only frequent visitors. He'd been in several times in the two weeks she'd been in the induced coma, sitting with her to give her father a chance to sleep, not that he'd used it. But now that she was awake and not quite so physically fragile, as the doctors liked to put it, he wasn't alone when he visited, bringing his two year-old granddaughter Emma with him. Playing with her "niece" had lifted Katie's spirits more than anything else could have and she honestly contemplated trying to convince Ryan and Sarah to let her keep Emma indefinitely.
It wouldn't work, but it couldn't have hurt to ask.
Then there was Zaeed. They'd run into each other a handful of times in the three years since Ryan's wedding, but his first visit had still been a pleasant surprise. She'd had one hell of an awkward visit with Admiral Kahoku and members of his unit, the ones who'd found her on Akuze, and all she'd really wanted was to actually try sleeping for awhile. But she'd perked up immediately when she'd seen Zaeed lurking outside the door as the Marines had filed out. He'd been back several times since then, each time a surprise to her, especially since she knew he had his own aversion to hospitals.
And now that the doctors had finally had enough of her and were chucking her out on her ass, he was here once again.
"If you're here to cheer me up or something, you're a bit too late," she said, glancing at him over her shoulder as she started packing her duffel.
"So I noticed. But I'm here on official orders, sort of."
"You follow orders?"
He shrugged. "When they come from the right people, or for the right people, I consider it."
She snorted a laugh. "So what menial task has Admiral Hackett shoved your way this time?"
"Last one wasn't so goddamn menial in my book." Zaeed was right of course, but she didn't say anything because he'd muttered it so quietly she was sure she wasn't actually meant to hear it. "He thought you could use some help getting out of the hospital, past this lot," he said louder, jerking his head toward the knot of people outside. "And a push towards home as well."
"Better than a damn MP escort anyway." She turned back to finish packing. "But there's no fucking way I'm going to Arcturus. There's worse than reporters there. There's people who will be fawning over me and giving me constant looks of pity. I've had enough of that shit to last me more than a lifetime."
She loved the Moreaus like her own family, sometimes more than her own family, if she was honest. But she knew from long experience how Mrs. Moreau worked when somebody had been through hell and she couldn't handle that right now. Not to mention a likely endless stream of questions from Hilary. No, she was better off far away from all that, for now.
"Fair enough," Zaeed said, interrupting her thoughts as he pushed off the wall and walked across the room to pick up her duffel. "Where are we off to then?"
She gingerly crossed her arms. "Just like that? No arguments, just 'fair enough'?"
"What can I say? You make a more passionate argument for avoiding the place than Steven did for taking you there."
"I can live with that." She grinned. "So, when's the last time you were at the Argo?"
