7th February

7.15 P.M

Well, I missed out making an entry yesterday, but not through lack of anything to say, believe me!

Darkly and Fielding arrived back just as I was leaving to take Katiya to school. She has been very restive, and she begged me to let her stay out of school for the day. And I was tempted, because if she was there, I would be able to stay too, and I desperately wanted to know what was happening, and whether or not the two agents had returned with anything that might help medical come up with a treatment for our two sleeping beauties. After all, they'd been `unconscious' for surely close to a month by now?

However, I listened to my common sense and stoutly ignored my pleading heart, and I took Katiya to school. I spoke to her teacher, explaining to her that Katiya's papa had taken a turn for the worse, and that Katiya was having trouble dealing with it...just in case she got any trouble from the poor little girl.

I had so many chores backing up at home…washing and ironing for the most part… and I got a lot of it done, although by no means all. I made a stew for Wint's dinner, and a cherry pie and on a whim…and for the life of me I cannot think why I did it…I made an apple pie for Illya! Why? I wrapped it up and after picking the girls up from school, we took it carefully with us and carried it down into medical.

You will never guess what we found when we arrived? Napoleon was sitting up in bed eating a bowl of ice-cream, and Illya was missing altogether! As we stood in the doorway, hardly able to believe our eyes, the bathroom door opened and Illya stood there, leaning heavily on the doorframe, but he was awake and vertical!

Katiya screamed "Papa!" at the top of her lungs, and she ran to him and almost climbed up him to hug him! The two were hugging so closely, that the rest of us started to wonder whether we should make ourselves scarce and leave them to it. Katiya was crying aloud, and by the look on his face, I gather it was the first time Illya had heard or even seen her cry quite so openly. Those two need to spend some quality time together. I am going to have a quiet word with Mister Waverly, I think. Mind you, that old man is sharper than a knife. There's a good chance I won't need to say a thing.

What transpired was that medical were almost there with the work they had been doing, but there was some vital element missing, some piece of information that they didn't have. Perhaps they meant an ingredient in the original chemical concoction that they had not been able to identify? I don't know, but whatever it was, apparently Darkly and Fielding brought back with them all the work notebooks and paperwork from the THRUSH lab that they had invaded and destroyed. Using the information contained in those notebooks, the lab were able to fill in the blanks to create a simple antidote. I was told that once the two men had been given the treatment, they had started to move and mumble in their sleep within half an hour, and then within two hours they were both waking up. Napoleon and Illya are both still very weak, having been so poorly for so long, so neither of them is being allowed to leave medical for at least a week. Illya was not happy to hear that, until I informed him that there was a young nurse nearby anxious to stay beside him and wait on him hand and foot. As soon as he realized I was referring to his little girl, he stopped complaining and gave her a smile I have never seen him bestow on anyone else. So here my entries end on this matter. I have been temporarily relieved of my guardianship of Katarina Kuryakin, and I have to return to being a farmer's wife. Katiya is to stay with her papa at UNCLE headquarters whilst Illya is still laid up in medical. They have set up an extra bed for her in her papa's room, and the medical duty staff will take care of her when her papa cannot. When she needs to leave the room, Mister Waverly tells me he will have her in his office. He apparently has things he can teach her. I wonder what that could be?

I'll let you know more when I find out. If I do. At least I know that at the moment, Katiya is exactly where she wants to be. By her papa's side.