A/N: I know the last chapter didn't give you any "What happened to Kara?!?!?!" resolution. That's why you get this chapter. It started to run too long to be a flashback, so now you get to see what happened afterwards. Enjoy!

Kara woke to the sound of beeps and something pumping air. Her throat was dry and she couldn't swallow properly. Her entire body throbbed with pain, while her head spun with thoughts. Opening her eyes felt impossible, her lids felt heavier than anything in the universe. Instead she just tried to twitch them open against the pain.

"Kara?" She heard a voice, and felt someone squeeze her hand. "Open your eyes Kara do it for me." The voice was familiar; she could have sworn she had heard it calling to her from far away.

Finally one eye opened. The other she could barely get to move, it felt swollen, like a huge blister was over it. It took a minute for her eye to focus, but eventually Karl's face came into view. He looked scared through his smile. She could see the dark circles under his eyes, and his forehead was crinkled like he was worried.

She tried to speak, but couldn't even close her mouth. She could feel the air being pushed in and out of her lungs, every time the machine clicked her chest ached. A strangled noise came from her and she sort of struggled.

"Hold on a minute." Helo put his hand on her forehead and pressed a button on the bed. It was starting to sink in. Bed with buttons, beeps and clicks, horrible mint green walls, the smell of antiseptic, she must have been in a hospital.

A black man in a white coat and spectacles came into the room. He was tall and bald. She thought the name on his coat was Simon, but she couldn't be sure. He had a clipboard, a stethoscope and an irritated look on his face. It was obvious he hadn't wanted to be bothered. "What do you need now Mr. Agathon?" He asked curtly.

"She's awake." The doctor figure hadn't even looked at her as he came in. Clearly he hadn't noticed and looked surprised when his glance met her eye. Helo never left her side and she could still slightly sense his hand in hers.

"Oh." The doctor's demeanor changed quickly and he went about recording the numbers on her machines and flashing a bright light in her eye. She squinted and it hurt like hell.

"Doc, she was trying to talk."

"Of course." The doctor looked at a monitor and looked back at her. "Miss Thrace, there's a tube down your throat to help you breath. You appear to be stable enough to remove it. On the count of three I'm going to pull it out and I need to you try to cough while I do that. You are probably going to feel like you need to retch, which is perfectly normal. This might be a little uncomfortable." He pulled some tape off of her face, and disconnected the hose. Finally the chest pain subsided.

He counted to three and it felt like he was tearing out part of her throat. The sensation wasn't just uncomfortable, it was downright unnatural. She should have known that any time a doctor uses the word "uncomfortable" it means awful. When it was out she heaved twice, but nothing came up.

"You probably won't be able to talk, you might be able to whisper, but keep it to a minimum. We can't give you water, but some ice chips should help with the dryness. We'll get you some balm for your lips."

She nodded as best she could.

"Mr. Agathon, I am going to order those tests for your fiancé that we spoke about a few days ago." The doctor said days, she couldn't understand what he meant. Had she been asleep for days?

"Sure Doc, that sounds great." His hand was still on hers, and he smiled a great beaming Karl smile.

"Welcome back to the living Miss Thrace. You are lucky, we weren't sure you were going to pull through in the beginning. This guy here insisted you would. I can see why you'd marry him." The doctor smiled, all she saw was a snake. "I'll leave you two for a while." He left.

She looked up at Helo, still with only one eye, and tried to say his name. What came out was a squeak, and it hurt. She tried to gesture for paper and a pen, but she couldn't move her right arm. Looking down she saw it was in a cast from shoulder to fingertips. She attempted to lift her less dominant hand, but pain shot across her collar bone, feeling like she was being stabbed in the chest.

"Kara, be careful, you've got a lot of injuries there." The relief and care in his voice soothed her for a moment. She wished he could read her mind, so she tried to flash him a What the Frak Happened look single eyed.

"You fell down a flight of stairs at Socrata's, I don't know the circumstances of it, but I found you at the bottom of the stairs. I called an ambulance and they stabilized you. Dad pulled a few strings and got you transferred here to the Academy Hospital. They have the best orthopedists in the colonies."

Again she flashed a look.

"Gods Kara, you've been in a coma for over a week." His voice cracked slightly, as if it were the first time he had really said it out loud. "Your head got knocked around pretty good." He reached out and touched her cheek. "I'm glad you came back to me."

She rolled her eyes as an orderly brought in a cup of ice chips. Helo placed two in her mouth and they felt so good. Never did she think ice could be so satisfying.

"Even without words, you're still a bit of a bitch." He laughed. Karl's laugh should have been one of the 13 wonders of the Colonies.

The water helped her parched throat begin to work properly. She whispered "Fiancé?"

"It was the only way they'd let me stay with you and make medical decisions for you. Your mother was more than happy to confirm it, and to turn over the responsibility to me."

For a moment Kara remembered fighting with her mother about her being a pyramid player. She remembered the fit of rage in her mother's eyes, and then nothing.

"How bad?" She managed to get out.

"You don't want to know that right now."

"Do too."

"Your right arm was broken in 3 places, your left collarbone and left cheekbone were also broken, so were your nose and your left ankle. You tore all of the ligaments off of your right knee. Other than that you have a sprained neck, and a lot of cuts, scrapes and bruises."

She closed her eye and felt her dreams die and a tear slide down her cheek. Karl wiped it away with his thumb and kissed her on her forehead.

"There is no permanent damage really. Everything was repaired. They even used some fancy new lab generated tendons and ligaments to repair your knee. You're going to be just fine, but it's going to take some time. "

"But?"

"You won't be able to play pyramid. The rotation of the knee might snap the new graphs until they've fully healed, which might take years."

She tried to roll her head away from him but couldn't with the neck brace on, the lone tear from before was followed by many more, she even felt the swelled shut eye begin to leak. The sobs choked and made her already sore throat hurt even more.

"Kara, it's going to be fine." He tried to comfort her, but he knew that the future she had wanted so badly for herself just snapped. He climbed into the bed and sidled up to her less injured side and held her as gently as possible. "The academy has already made preparations for you. They are going to forward you to officer's school until you can get into a cockpit. Part of your therapy will be working in the simulator. They are going to cater a program just for you."

She suspected that Karl's dad was responsible for this, but didn't care. If she couldn't be on a pyramid court, she would at least get to swim among the stars, eventually.

Even though she had slept for days she was tired. Even though she was sore, and it hurt to have him in her bed, physically, she shifted to lay against him, thankful he was there. Without him she probably would have died. Correction. Without him she wouldn't have even made it this far.