(March 12, 2015) Officially rewritten.

I own Rebecca

Chapter 4

Commander Taylor stood over Rebecca, racked with guilt. She was still unconscious from the Slasher attack, and he knew that if he had just paid more attention to his surroundings Rebecca wouldn't have gotten hurt. He looked down on her as the attack kept playing through his head. He heard Rebecca cry out and suddenly crash into him. He saw the Slasher's tail fly inches from his face and towards Rebecca's as they both fell. But the image that would remain forever burned into his memory was that of Rebecca lying on the ground with blood pouring down her neck.

Taylor glanced around him and closed the door of the private room that he had Rebecca moved to. He let out a loud sigh and rubbed his eyes. Rebecca had a broken arm and a gash in her face because of him. She was about to go into surgery for her arm, but she would still have to recover from some muscle damage. It would take time before he could put her back into the field. And now that she was incapacitated, he realized how much he actually needed her. Taylor paced back and forth across the room. He paused by Rebecca's side and started to reach down to move a few strands of hair out of her bandaged face, but he pulled back as the door opened and a doctor walked in with surgical equipment. Taylor looked up at the doctor and said,

"Be sure to tell me when she wakes up." The doctor nodded and turned back to her work and Taylor walked out the door.

Two days later Rebecca woke up, alone.

She moaned and cursed softly under her breath as she tried to move, but her right side was tied down. She felt disoriented and she started to call out in a slightly slurred voice,

"Hello? …hey, is anyone there?" Seconds later someone walked up to her side and injected something into her arm. Instantly everything came into focus and she sucked in a breath of alarm. An apologetic voice spoke out from above her,

"I'm sorry about that. How are you feeling Rebecca?"

She looked up at a smiling middle aged man holding a clipboard.

"Where's Taylor? Did he get hurt?"

"No, he's fine. You certainly took the full force of that Slasher. Now, how are you feeling Rebecca?" Rebecca took stock of his words. So the Slasher did get her, that meant she was in the medical center. As she took a quick inventory of her body, she became very aware of how painful and stiff the left side of her face was. It even burned as she spoke. She leaned her head back slowly and closed her eyes when she responded.

"It feels like I just got hit in the face by the tail of a Slasher."

The man smiled softly for a moment, until he glanced back down at the clipboard.

"You also broke your arm from the fall. Dr. Walters patched that right up, but we did immobilize it for the time being…"

"Get to the bad news," Rebecca said quietly. This made the man frown,

"The cut to your face was extremely deep. Even with our technology, we could only do so much. Dr. Walters prevented any permanent muscle damage, but you will have a scar. You can come back here for treatments every day to make it fade away."

"I'll keep it." The man looked at her curiously. He opened his mouth to speak, but Rebecca cut him off. She spoke slowly,

"I'll keep the scar, thank you."

At that moment, Alicia walked into the room and addressed Rebecca in an indifferent tone,

"Good, you're awake." She turned to the man and said, "You can leave now." He quickly turned and left, closing the door behind him. Alicia looked down at Rebecca and smiled mockingly,

"You certainly have a funny way of showing people how you feel." Rebecca knew exactly where this conversation was going, and she didn't like it. Knowing her sister, Alicia would have brought this up eventually, so Rebecca decided to let her continue. She responded to Alicia's taunt,

"So, you're telling me that no one else would have tried to save someone who was in danger, especially the man in charge of this entire colony? Not even Guzman . . . not even you?" Alicia looked away from her sister in annoyance. Rebecca tried to laugh softly, but stopped from the pain.

"Let me guess," Rebecca continued, "you wanted to be the one to save him." It wasn't a question. "Well Alicia, what I did was what any good soldier would do. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Alicia turned back to Rebecca with a look of spite and asked,

"How long have you been in love with him Rebecca?"

"Alicia, I was just about to ask you the same thing." And with that comment, they both just stared at each other, waiting for the other to yield. Rebecca gave in first, as she wanted to be left alone,

"If we let this come between us, there is nowhere for you to run away to this time. And I'm willing to bet that the object of your affection won't run away with you either. What happened all of those years ago is behind us, you were the one to convince me of that. Don't make me relive it. Let this go before it goes too far." Alicia stared at her sister with anger clouding her face. She said,

"Taylor came here several times during the last two nights to check on you Rebecca. He thought that he wasn't seen, but some of us noticed. Whatever you have been doing to get him worked, and I expected more of you. This must be some sick kind revenge Rebecca. I think you need to be the one to let this go. You're in over your head." She turned and walked stiffly out the door. Rebecca slammed her fist onto her bed with as much strength as she could manage. The wireless sensors started to beep from the strategic places on her skin, picking up the subtle change in her vitals and a woman walked into her room a few minutes later.

"You're the doctor that operated on me aren't you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Good, you can get me out of here." Rebecca started to take the sheets off of her with her good arm and sat up on the bed getting ready to stand. The doctor quickly put a hand on her shoulder to hold her down. Rebecca glared up at her and the doctor held up her other hand in apology,

"I'm sorry Rebecca. You shouldn't be getting up right now. Please, lie back down."

"Do you really think I'm that injured?" Rebecca didn't try to hide her sarcasm.

The doctor looked a little nervous when she responded.

"You lost a lot of blood, you still need rest."

"Fine, I'll go rest in my quarters." She moved to get up again but the doctor kept her hand on her good shoulder. She spoke more firmly,

"On Commander Taylor's orders, you can't leave the infirmary." Rebecca laughed softly and said,

"Let me guess, Wash told you that."

"No," she said quickly. "Commander Taylor told me himself. So please, lie back down."

Rebecca looked up at the doctor in annoyance and asked her next question in a surprisingly calm voice,

"What?" The doctor only repeated herself. This news tightened Rebecca's resolve and she quickly stood up, swaying on the spot. The doctor moved in to help her, but she pushed her away. Rebecca ripped the sensors off of her and reached over to her clothes. She reached up and lightly touched the thick gauze that covered the side of her face. She hesitated, but left the gauze on.

Rebecca steadily made her way back to her quarters. She knew that the doctor would be telling Taylor that she had left the infirmary, and she didn't care. The infirmary was the last place she wanted to be. She earned a few glances from some concerned looking Terra Novians but she kept making her way back home. When Rebecca finally made it back, she collapsed on her bed in misery. Feeling this weak tormented her. She sat up, unbound her right arm, and touched the gauze on her face again. Rebecca stood up and walked over to the mirror in her room. She readied herself and peeled the gauze off of her face. The wound was, for the most part healed, like the doctor had said, but the sight made tears come to her eyes. It started an inch above her left eyebrow, crossing over the far side of it, just missing her eye, it stretched all the way down her cheek, and curved towards her mouth before ultimately disappearing under her chin. It was thick and disgusting and it would haunt her, but this scar was hers to bear forever.

She left the gauze off and lied back down on her bed, blinking out the tears. It was hours later before anyone came to check on her. Pretty soon she found herself drifting asleep. A knock on the door startled Rebecca awake. She turned her head to the clock on the nightstand, she had only slept for an hour. Then she turneed back to the door.

"It's open," she said softly, and Commander Taylor walked in. Rebecca quickly turned her head just enough to hide the left side of her face. He walked over to her, holding a chair that he had taken out of her kitchen, and sat down a few feet away from her bed. Rebecca kept staring straight ahead at the wall as she waited for Taylor to speak. He also remained silent for a moment, still collecting his thoughts. Finally he looked up at her and said carefully,

"What you did was a brave thing Rebecca, thank you. I know this will be hard, but I do have to debrief you on what happened."

Rebecca kept her eyes forward as she realized he had used her first name, he had never done that before. She took a quick breath and told Taylor everything that she remembered about the attack. She spoke softly and steadily, but she wanted more than anything to know what Taylor was thinking. As she finished, Taylor got up to leave. She turned her head slightly to look at his face, and she was sad to see that it was grim. He turned and paused, pulling something out of his pocket. It was the barb from the tail of a Slasher, and she could only assume that it was from the very one that had attacked them. He placed it on her dresser and looked back at Rebecca.

"Who killed it?" She asked.

"Guzman."

"He can keep it. I have a trophy of my own."

Taylor held Rebecca's gaze and said,

"Rest up Miles." He paused as if to say more, but he just picked up the barb and turned, leaving Rebecca in a stunned silence.

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