Katie groaned as she tried to open her eyes.

Nope, too bright. Unlike you. You're a fucking idiot.

She had never been so hungover in her entire life, and she never wanted to feel like this ever again.

No more alcohol. Ever.

Well, maybe not ever.

She had only vaguely fuzzy memories of the previous night – the only clear one was that a bottle of whiskey had been involved – and she definitely had no clue where she was.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Once her eyes finally decided to cooperate and stay open, she rolled off of an unfamiliar bed onto an equally unfamiliar floor and decided that was good enough for the moment.

"'Bout bloody time you got up, kitten."

Katie tried to lift her head to glare up at Zaeed, to tell him to be quieter, but her head felt like it was filled with sand. So, she slowly moved her head until she was eye-to-toe with the foot closest to her and spoke to it instead. "Shush. Quiet. Too loud."

He chuckled and crouched down beside her. "This better?" he asked, none too softly.

This time, she rolled onto her back so she could glare at him without moving her head. That proved to be a mistake mere moments later, as a wave of nausea overcame her without warning. She sat up faster than was probably advisable, narrowly missing smacking her head on Zaeed's knee. She looked around frantically for anything that looked solid and deep enough to barf into; she didn't think any part of her was capable of making it to a sink or toilet in time, even if she knew where one was.

Her eyes finally landed on a bucket near the bed, which she'd somehow avoided hitting on her way to the floor. She stuck a hand out, grasped the edge and pulled it over in the nick of time.

When she'd finally finished spilling her guts, for the time being, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and closed her eyes as she leaned up against the side of the bed, thankful for the cold metal of the frame against the back of her neck.

"Feel better?"

She flinched slightly, opening her eyes to find Zaeed still crouched in the same spot, the expression on his face warring between concern and amusement.

"Not the first time you've done that in the last few hours," he continued with a slight nod toward the bucket. "Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the last either. That was a stupidly impressive amount of alcohol you drank last night."

She groaned. "Bite me, Z. I was in a… bad place."

"There's no doubt of that."

"I meant emotionally. Idiot."

He heaved a sigh as he stood up. "So did I." He disappeared through a doorway she hadn't had the time to notice before and returned a moment later with a glass of water and a blissfully cool wet washcloth.

She scrubbed the cloth over her face and sipped the water, praying there wouldn't be another session with the bucket anytime soon.

"Thanks for these," she said quietly, raising the glass slightly before she put it on the floor beside her. A memory from the bar – of raising a shot glass and downing the contents – came back to her in a rush, but she pushed it away. She was pretty sure she'd said shit she'd never have said otherwise, and she didn't really want to deal with it at the moment. She forced herself to concentrate on the room, and the man now leaning against the doorway to the bathroom.

Any trace of amusement she'd seen before was gone, replaced entirely with concern. For some reason, she found it mildly unnerving so she went back to studying the room.

Wholly unfamiliar when she'd first woken up, now she vaguely recognized it, or at least thought she might have been in a similar room at some point.

"Where are we?" she asked while studying the pattern on the carpet.

"My apartment in Solana Beach."

"Oh."

"The guest room, specifically."

Katie raised an eyebrow. "You? A guest room?"

"All right, so it's my office; but right now, it's a guest room."

"Why do you have a bed in your office?"

Zaeed snorted. "You always ask this many questions when you're hungover?"

"Dunno. Been awhile."

He sat on the edge of the bed. "It's here in case I'm too tired to make it to my bed to sleep, or if I need sleep but can't go too far from the computers."

"Oh," she said again, resting her head against his leg, and then, "Thanks."

"You said that already."

"No, I mean… for…" She briefly lost her train of thought as she felt him lightly massaging his thumbs against her temple. "For last night, and… not making a big deal about… everything."

"Can't say I wasn't surprised by some of your revelations, but I don't take anything said after the third shot as gospel anyway. How d'you feel now?"

"Not spectacular, but better. My back is killing me, but I think my headache is almost gone," she murmured, all but melting into a puddle. "We should do this more often."

He chuckled. "That so?"

"Just… this part." She tried to reach up to tap a finger on his hand to emphasize exactly what she meant, but her arms felt so weighed down – by general fatigue or the hangover, she didn't know – she only succeeded in poking herself in the eye. "Fuck."

"You all right?"

"Brilliant," she grumbled, half in response to his question, half in reaction to her omni-tool chirping with a hail from her father. "And the headache's back in force."

"You're not gonna answer that, are you?" Zaeed asked after she made no move to even silence the alert. He groaned. "You're gonna make me talk to him, aren't you?"

"This face isn't exactly one I'd want him to see," she said quietly, tipping her head back to look up at Zaeed, "to prove I was okay after all the excitement from yesterday."

He raised an eyebrow. "And you think he wants to see this ugly mug instead?"

"You're so not ugly." She shook her head. "In any case, one of us should answer it before he gives up, or panics or something, and calls you. Or worse, comes over."

"I'm still thinking it should be you, kitten."

"And I'm thinking 'bite me.'"

Zaeed chuckled. "Say that again and I might just do it."

Katie stuck her tongue out at him and tossed her still-chirping omni-tool to him. "Tag, you're it."

He grumbled half-heartedly as he tapped the button to answer the hail and they both braced for the inevitable barrage of questions from her father.

Instead, they heard a high pitched squeal, followed by a brief pause, and then –

"That is not Kay-dee!" Emma shouted in a matter-of-fact tone that Katie was positive she'd picked up from her great-grandmother.

"What do you mean that's not Katie?" Admiral Hackett shouted back almost immediately from the other room. "Who the hell is it?"

Katie snorted a laugh when she heard Sarah chiding him. "Language, Admiral!"

Emma had an immediate answer to his question. "Is Zeeeeeeeee," she squealed again, drawing out the pronunciation to an absurd length.

Katie groaned. That was sure to get her father's attention.

She glanced up at Zaeed and squeezed his hand in a silent plea for help; he slid off the bed to sit beside her not a moment before her father appeared on the screen alongside Emma.

"Hi Kay-dee!" Emma waved enthusiastically.

Katie smiled. "Hiya, Em."

"When you comin' to see me?"

"Soon, I promise."

"Yay!"

"Hey Emma, I gotta talk to your uncle Steven, 'k?" Katie said gently, noticing the growing frustration on her father's face. "But hopefully I'll be by your grandpa's house in a little bit."

"'K. Bye-bye!" A moment later, Emma toppled from view, chanting "Kay-dee's comin'!" as she went on her way.

Katie couldn't help but laugh. "So that's what you've been dealing with the last few days?"

Her father nodded. "Non-stop all day long except during naptime, which is entirely too short." He sighed and abruptly changed the subject. "So how was last night?"

She shrugged. "All right, I guess."

"You sure? You look a little… green."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Dad," she said, plastering an innocent smile on her face. "I'm perfectly –"

Before she could finish the sentence, she felt her stomach preparing for another escape attempt. She immediately clamped her mouth shut and scrambled up to make a mad dash for the bathroom, praying she wouldn't fall on her face before she got there.

By the time she was done and slumped against the wall beside the toilet, she'd decided she'd rather die than go through that again. Her throat was raw, her stomach was beyond sore, and she was almost positive she'd pulled a muscle in her back at some point.

A few minutes later, Zaeed knocked on the door but didn't open it. "You still alive in there, kitten?"

"Not sure," she croaked. She slowly pushed herself up the wall until she stood on her own two feet. "I'm gonna take a shower, then I'll let you know."

He chuckled and she heard his footsteps fading as he left the bedroom. Once she was sure he was gone, she inched her way to the door and out into the bedroom to retrieve her duffel, and the bucket she'd used earlier. Carrying the bucket the few feet back to the bathroom nearly made her sick again, but she held herself together long enough to dump the contents into the toilet and clean the bucket in the shower.

Almost an hour later, she finally emerged from the bathroom. The process of showering – not to mention brushing her teeth several times over – had been both slow and painful. Her burns were still sensitive to water pressure, and whatever muscle she'd pulled had protested vehemently with every movement she'd made. She'd nearly bitten through her lip trying not to scream while toweling off, and again while gingerly pulling on a tank top and shorts.

She shuffled into the living room only to find it empty.

"Zaeed?"

"Out here," he called from the balcony, where he leaned against the railing, a cigar clenched between his teeth.

"Well, this sight sure looks familiar," Katie said as she stood in the doorway, briefly admiring the view.

"That so?" He turned and grinned around the cigar. "You look a right sight better than you did an hour ago. Feeling any better?"

She shrugged slightly and walked over to flop down in the nearest chair – and immediately jumped up again, yelping in pain as the cushion pressed against her burns, and the sudden movement pulled her sore muscle even more. "Shitshitshitshitshit!"

Zaeed raised an eyebrow. "That was unexpected. What's wrong?"

"Remember how I said earlier that my back hurt? Well, it hurts more now." Katie sighed. "And I can't do anything about it, because I have to eat to take my pain pills, and I don't trust my stomach with food yet."

"What about the cream for your burns?" Zaeed stubbed out his cigar. "At least those would feel better?"

Katie gave another half-shrug. "Worth a shot."

Zaeed rolled his eyes. "Your faith in modern medicine is bloody astounding."

"Says the man who cringes every time he sets foot in a hospital."

"And the woman who tries escape every time she's in a hospital." She gawked at him and he snorted. "Yes, I definitely heard all about your escape attempt from St. Luke's that New Year's before the wedding."

"Buncha gossipy bastards," she grumbled as she followed him back into the bedroom. She rifled through her duffel until she finally found the cream, hidden in a tangle of socks. "I wasn't escaping the hospital, just my dad."

"Oh well that's different, and completely understandable."

"At least someone understands, even if it's years after the fact." She started to pull up the hem of her tank top and almost immediately stopped. "I don't think I can do this."

"Do what?"

"Take off my shirt. I can't lift my arms that high."

"How the hell'd you get it on in the first place?"

"Pure stubbornness."

Zaeed snorted a laugh. "That sounds about right." He gestured to the bed. "Lay down on your stomach and I can just pull the shirt up enough to get to your back."

Katie shook her head. "Don't think I can do that either. If I lay down, I'm not getting back up."

"Fair enough." He sat in the middle of the bed and patted the spot in front of him. "Sit here. It should work almost as well as laying down."

She gingerly climbed onto the bed and sat down with her back facing him, hugging her chest as he lifted the back of her shirt up until it was bunched at her neck. She shivered faintly when his fingers glided across her bare skin.

"Cold?"

She nearly lied and said "yes" – until the cream hit the burn between her shoulder blades and all that came out was an indignant squeak.

He didn't laugh, but she could hear the smirk in his voice when he said "sorry," a moment before he repeated the action with the burn in the center of her back.

If she'd been able to move more easily, she'd have spun around to glare at him. "Shit! Warn me before you do that again."

"Sorry," he said again, this time with a chuckle. "Figured I'd get the worst of it done first, y'know?"

"That's not how you did it the other night."

"Yeah, and it was bloody disgusting, this shit all over the place." The bed bounced slightly as he shuddered. "Not something I want to repeat if I can help it."

She conceded the point and bobbed her head once in a slight nod. "Go on," she said, bracing for the next blast of cream. "Get it over with."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, until the tube of cream landed with a thud on the bedside table.

"Done with part one," Zaeed said. "But unless your back's feeling better and you can stretch, you're gonna have to stand up. It's fucking awkward trying to reach your lower back."

Katie didn't even attempt to stretch forward, only carefully scooted across to the edge of the bed and stood up. She shivered again when she felt him move to sit right behind her and one hand settled on her waist while the other went to work rubbing in the cream.

She scrambled to think of something to keep her mind off of the way his hands felt, the one on her waist flexing each time the other moved to a different location on her back.

Finally, she blurted out the question that had been on her mind all morning. "So, what was it that I said that surprised you last night?"

Both hands tensed for a moment before the one on her back resumed its work, but Zaeed said nothing until he'd finished altogether and pulled her shirt back into place.

Katie turned to face him but he ignored her in favor of concentrating on cleaning the cream from his hands with a washcloth.

Once he'd finished, he tossed the cloth onto the nightstand and patted the space beside him on the bed. "Sit."

"Okay…" Apprehension set in as she eased back onto the bed. "It wasn't something I said, was it? I did something horrible and stupid and –"

"Relax, kitten." Zaeed shook his head as he took one of her hands in his. "It was nothing like that."

"Then…"

He hesitated a second more before he said, "After a bloody spectacular rant about jealousy, that came out of nowhere by the way, the last thing you said before we left the bar was 'I'd be lying if I said I'd never thought about us, you and me, but…'"

Katie thought if it was possible to die of embarrassment, she'd have dropped dead in that moment. She finally found enough voice to ask, "But what?"

Zaeed shrugged. "Hell if I know. That was literally the last thing you said until you told my feet to shut up this morning."

"Oh." Katie looked down at her hands, picking at the polish Emma had attempted to put on her nails the last time Jason had brought her to visit. "The end of that sentence, whenever it crosses my mind,is 'but I didn't think you'd be interested.' But not like a… relationship-y thing, just friends with benefits or whatever." She chewed her lip and glanced up at Zaeed. "Figures my stupid drunk voice would bring it up."

"For what it's worth," he said after a prolonged silence, "I wasn't surprised at the idea, just that you'd thought about it too."

Her head shot up so fast she winced as her back protested. "'Too'?"

He nodded. "But as you said, I didn't think you'd be interested."

"Fuck." She sagged against the headboard and giggled. "We're a pair of fucking idiots."

"Interesting choice of words."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

He chuckled and brought one of her hands up to kiss her knuckles. "Yes, yes I do."

Her head fell back against the headboard and she heaved a sigh. "The next three weeks are going to be pure torture."