AN: Okay, Kats and Kittens. Another chapter is here again! Hope It is to your liking, and, please, don't maul the author. She can't help what comes out of her brain. whimper

Chapter Seven:

() One Month Later ()

"Okay, Ernest," Kaara greets tiredly as she walks into the hospital room, staring down at her clipboard. "How's my favorite patient this morning?"

She jumps with a gasp as she hears a voice reply, "Sore. A little hungry. And I really need to go to the bathroom." She relaxes slightly when she sees who it is.

"Jack, that was not funny," she scolds as a smile breaks out on her face nevertheless.

"Yes, it was," Jack chuckles as he stands, stretching out the kinks in his back. "I heard the 'wench' resigned."

"Well, that's the nice way of putting it, I suppose," Kaara shrugs, beginning her daily routine of checking Daniel's stats. " 'Forced to quit or be fired by the chairman of the medical staff' is more like it." Jack smiles.

"Well, don't we have a cruel way of getting our kicks."

"Hey! She deserved it after all the hell she put me and poor Ernest through!" Kaara defends. "Besides, no one really thought all that much of her anyway."

"Well, when you put it that way . ." Jack teases, causing the young woman to smile again.

"So, how long are you here for this time?" She questions, turning from her duty and placing her hands on her hips.

"A few days," Jack yawns exhaustedly.

"Finally got a vacation?" Kaara asks in mock astonishment.

"Nah. Just got tired of the paper work," Jack smirks, making Kaara laugh. "God, he would love your laugh."

The young woman goes silent.

"Kaara?" Jack asks with concern, touching her shoulder lightly. She turns, and he sees a dazed look in her eyes.

"I . . ." She starts, looking to the older man with a strange gaze as if she has lost the words to say. "God, every time I see him, it's like . . . deja veux! I swear . . . I don't know why, but I think I've . . . met him before."

"What?" Jack asks in surprise.

"In a dream, I mean," Kaara explains. "Just . . . a dream."

"Well," Jack smiles. "You two would make a cute couple!" Kaara turns on him with suspicion, looking at him through narrowed eyes.

"Colonel, are you trying to set Ernest and me up?" She asks with one eyebrow raised. "Because I have to tell you, the boy can listen, but he doesn't carry on conversation well."

"Are you kiddin'? Daniel can talk for . . . hours," Jack winces as he realizes his second slip up in front of the nurse.

"Jack?" Kaara asks with concern. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Jack replies as normally as he can.

"Jack . ."

"I said I'm fine, Kaara. Really."

The young girl only nods, but inside, she knows that something is definitely not right.

0 o 0 o 0

Long days ten to exhaust people, and at this moment, Kaara is completely and utterly bushed. She can barely drag herself down the hallway to punch out. Damn nurse Keasly for playing sick today. Double shifts are not Kaara's ideal way to spend a Saturday. Suddenly, movement from down the hall catches her attention.

'There shouldn't be anyone wandering the halls at this hour,' she thinks to herself.

The graveyard shift only works at the front desk unless called by a patient, and Jack had flown back to the Springs earlier that morning. Maybe he forgot something. Kaara's senses are on full alert now. She watches as the dark figure enters one of the rooms. Ernest's room, to be precise. It must be Jack. Who else would visit at two thirty in the morning? She continues down the hall, figuring that she can pop in and see what Jack needs.

"Jack?" She whispers as she pushes the squeaky door open. Her hands fly to her mouth, and she gasps at the sight that greets her. The dark figure, most definitely not Jack, holds a pillow over Daniel's face, pressing down forcefully, the respirator tube having been removed from his throat.

"Stop!" She screeches, causing the person to whip around, startled by the sudden noise.

"Help! Security!" Kaara backs out of the room as the intruder lunges after her. She runs down the hall, her small, white shoes slipping slightly on the waxed, tiled floor.

"Security!" She yells again as she hears the other person's harsh footsteps right behind her. "Help! Someone help!" A security guard appears at the end of the hallway, and her heart flutters with relief.

"Sir!" She says breathlessly. "There's . ." She stops as she turns to find no one in the hall.

"But-" Suddenly, her mouth is covered with a smooth, white cloth, and she barely has time to struggle before her vision dims to a pitch black.

AN: Questions? Comments? Vague disregard for any or all words written and established in the mind of one who has no sanity?

Dun Dun Dunnn! One more chapter to go, Kats and Kittens! How will things fair, eh?