Part Two: The Sleeper Wakes

Standard disclaimer applies; not my characters or settings or backgrounds. But they are my words.

Late the following afternoon, Delenn arrived back in MedLab to see how Anna Sheridan's surgery had gone. Her bed was empty, and Delenn's heart froze. She had played the possible scenes over and over in her mind. If...when...John returned, telling him that Anna had not survived was not something she was certain she could do. Stephen came out of an inner bay and greeted her with a warm smile. "She's in here. It's looking good, for now. She's still unconscious."

"May I sit with her a while?" asked Delenn. "Have you completed the treatment?"

Stephen shook his head. "I want to let the swelling recede before I upload her memories. We only recorded the electronic impulses from the undamaged and isolated areas. I just hope it's enough."

Delenn smiled faintly. "I will pray. If your skill does not suffice, perhaps faith will."

Stephen looked at her with one eyebrow raised, and Delenn began to explain hastily. "It is not that I doubt your skill," she began, but stopped when he smiled broadly.

"It's all right. Not like I have a track record to show you. But I really think it will work. The bits of tech came out easily. They have a specific resonance and it's all gone. Scarring was minimal, not like the telepaths. We'll upload in the morning and then we'll see." He frowned. "Commander Ivanova wants Lyta to do a deep scan on her, to make sure every bit of the Shadow personality is gone. But I'm afraid she won't be stable enough for quite a while."

"Let us hope she will be soon." Delenn bowed to him, and entered the room. She stood for a moment, looking down at Anna's white face. There was a chair along the glass wall of the cubicle, and after a moment she pulled it over next to the bed and sat down. Sighing lightly, she began to run through a series of ritual prayers for the ill and injured. The level of relationship she had chosen was that of acquaintance, but shaded into potential friend. It seemed the best she could do in the circumstances.

Anna began to shift uneasily under the thin blanket. Her hands lay outside the coverlet, and her long white fingers plucked at the fabric. Delenn noted the thin gold ring on Anna's left hand, and moved to settle the blankets back over the restless woman. But as she reached across Anna's body, she felt fingers reach up and slide down her arm, catching on the intricate embroideries of her cuff. Delenn instinctively caught at Anna's hand and felt the other woman clutch at her fingers like a child anxious to locate its mother. She sat back down and resumed her prayers, keeping tight hold of Anna's hand for the remainder of her vigil.

The next day was occupied with meetings and conferences, attempts to strong-arm the League first into staying to protect the station, then into a rescue mission. Delenn was exhausted by the end of the grueling series of head-on encounters. But she did not forget her responsibility, as she saw it, to Anna Sheridan, and by early evening she found time to make her way back to MedLab. Stephen was still there.

"Do you ever sleep?" Delenn asked him, saying the words without thinking. It sounded critical rather than concerned, and it wasn't as if she'd been getting adequate rest lately herself.

"I find sleep is sometimes optional," Stephen replied dryly. "She's not awake yet, but it seemed to go well." His voice was light, but there was a tense and anxious tone under the professional demeanor. "Are you going to stay long? I have a 24 hour watch on her, but everyone's kind of busy. We're stretched pretty thin between here and the surface of Epsilon 3. I wondered if you could keep an eye on her while I take some time for a shower and a meal?" He rubbed the back of his neck wearily. "I can't remember the last break I had."

Delenn nodded. "I will notify your staff if she awakens, or if there is any change at all." She headed back and Stephen stopped her with a gesture.

"The EEG is showing patterns consistent with normal human brain patterns. There are no indications of continuing damage; she's had no further seizures. It all looks good. We just have to wait for her to wake up." He smiled. "I'll be back soon. Thank you for doing this."

"It is an honor to be of assistance. She has suffered so much already," Delenn bowed to Stephen and passed him to take up her place by Anna's bed.

Sometime in the next few hours Delenn fell asleep. She woke in sudden terror, uncertain where she was. The lights had been dimmed, but the soft flashes from the monitors and steady glow of the screen above Anna's head illuminated the room. Looking over at the bed, Delenn say Anna's eyelids flutter and open.

"Where?" The voice came out in a soft croak.

"You are in a medical facility. You are safe." Delenn looked out into the main staging area, but there was no one immediately visible.

"Who?"

Delenn almost fled. How much would Anna remember? How much should she say? "I am Delenn." The words were cold and stiff in her mouth. "I will call the healers."

"Don't...go," Anna raised one hand as if to stop her. Then she licked her lips. "Thirsty."

"I will get water." Delenn stood and searched the table by her bed, but couldn't find the carafe. "There will be some in the outer areas," she said reassuringly, thinking to summon assistance at the same time. Then, just as she reached the door, she saw a squeeze bottle of water on a cart. It already had a straw inserted in the top. After a moment's hesitation, and remembering the rasp in Anna's voice, she turned and brought it back to the bed. The lights were still set at sleep levels but the glowing faces of the monitors above the bed and along one wall put out enough illumination for her to see the patient. Slipping one arm behind Anna, she raised the woman up, and put the straw to her lips.

Anna sucked at it greedily for a moment, then let it fall from her mouth. "Thank you," she said, "that's much better." Delenn set the bottle down and continued her search for the call button. Anna's color was brighter, and although a bandage swathed one side of her head, her eyes were clear, and staring straight at Delenn.

"Delenn. That's a Minbari name." Anna's voice was getting progressively stronger but she was clearly puzzled, both by Delenn's appearance and the entire situation. "Where am I exactly?"

"You are on the Babylon 5 space station, in orbit around Epsilon 3." Delenn had found the com button that would summon the on-duty personnel and pressed it hard and repeatedly.

"Babylon 5!" Anna replied, stunned. "I heard they finally opened the place. But how did I get here?"

Delenn felt completely out of her depth. "It is a long story, and first you need to be seen by Dr. Franklin..."

Just then the orderly arrived, a nurse on her heels. "Mrs. Sheridan? How do you feel? Are you in any pain?" rattled off the night orderly as the nurse checked vital signs on the overhead monitor. Delenn shrunk back against the wall, trying to stay out of the way, wondering if she should go. She watched the two medical professionals do their jobs, and felt extraordinarily helpless. It was becoming a familiar feeling. The nurse had used her link to summon Stephen and left the room to prepare equipment for some of the tests already ordered for when Anna awoke. The orderly was rummaging through a cabinet outside the door for more blankets.

Delenn approached the bed and stared down at Anna. Her eyes were closed, but the irregular pattern of her breathing indicated she was still awake. She leaned over and said softly, "I must go now. " She did not wish to leave without proper words of farewell.

Anna's eyes opened and an anxious expression strained her face. "Will you be back?" she asked, sounding a little frightened. "I don't know anyone else here." A shy smile appeared on her still-dry and cracked lips. She licked them and rasped, "Besides, I have to hear the story behind your hair."

Delenn raised one hand self-consciously to her neck, smoothing the wayward curls, but Anna laughed weakly. "It looks good, don't get me wrong. But I've never heard of a Minbari with hair. Of course the amount we don't know about your people probably swamps what we do."

Delenn smiled. "That is true. And you are right, it is a long story."

Anna gestured around the hospital room. "It doesn't look like I'm going anywhere." She reached one hand up to the bandages on the left side of her head. "What happened to me?"

"Dr. Franklin will tell you as much as he deems wise." Delenn watched as Anna's eyes began to close. "You should rest. I will return tomorrow."

Stephen Franklin stood outside the doorway, recording something on a tablet, his attention veering between the monitors and a series of read-outs playing across the com screen in front of him. Delenn stopped beside him and looked at the numbers flashing across the screen. "What do they tell you?"

Stephen flashed a smile. "It looks very good." He gestured towards the room with his stylus. "We'll let her sleep now. The tests we're doing are all remote, and she needs the rest, just as you said." He cocked his head, examining her face, pale and strained. "You need some rest too. Are you coming back tomorrow?"

"I will be here. If you think it would help." Delenn added, "She seems to be...herself? As far as I can tell," she added doubtfully. Then, hesitantly, "How much will she recall of what has happened? Lyta indicated there were some gaps in her memories even before this procedure."

Stephen shook his head. "We'll find out eventually. Tomorrow, maybe later. She seems to trust you. If you want to help, come see me and we'll talk about how to let her know what's going on."

"Very well," replied Delenn. She bowed to him slightly, and left MedLab for her quarters, once familiar and comforting, now as cold and sterile as the medical facilities.

The next day Delenn returned carrying a small box in one hand. She nodded to the on-duty nurse and continued further into the medical facility, towards the more private rooms in the back. Stephen Franklin was talking to a member of his staff, and held up one hand to her, indicating she should wait. Stopping obediently, Delenn looked around the room, relatively empty and quiet, unusual for what was normally a bustling center of healing. People were keeping to their quarters, the ones who had not already fled. It was a strange time, the building tension was pulling everyone further and further apart. The League was fracturing, despite all her efforts to hold it together. Ivanova she talked to two or three times a day, but brief status reports were mostly what they exchanged. There was no time to talk to anyone else, and no one to talk to. Time not spent trying to salvage what was left of the alliances she had spent years building was spent in prayer, and in hoping for a miracle.

"Delenn?" came a voice, breaking into her reverie, and she saw that Stephen was looking intently at her.

"Yes?" she replied, for a moment not remembering why he'd wanted to speak to her. These days conversation came hard to her, like she was moving through thin cold air that took away her breath.

"Come into my office, and we'll discuss what we're going to do," said Stephen, holding open a glass door. The room was small, and glass on all sides. With better lighting it would have been attractive enough. Stephen threw some files off a chair next to his desk and Delenn took the offered seat. The package she carried she kept carefully on her lap. Stephen began, "We'll have to take it slow. I've spoken with her twice so far; once late last night and once this morning. She doesn't seem to remember anything beyond the crash of the Icarus. Well, some things she remembers, but they probably happened before the Shadows' intervention. She started to ask after her fellow crew members, then her eyes got this fixed expression, and she told me they were dead. There is undoubtedly some traumatic amnesia. As for the upload, I don't know whether we have re-established her long term memories and she's only lost the past few years, or whether she's lost more." He pushed back in his chair, tipping the front wheels up slightly. "Might be just as well if she never remembers."

Delenn shook her head. "It is never better to lose part of yourself, even the parts that cause you pain. You are the sum of all the events that shape your life; to lose some is to lose part of yourself." Shifting uneasily, she asked, "How much have you told her of recent events, and how she came to be here?"

Stephen laced his fingers behind his head, and examined Delenn, his expression guarded. "Not too much. That she was injured, that her memory may be affected. Where she is, what happened to the Icarus. She wants to know more, but she's been asleep all morning." He continued, "She asked after the Captain, and when I told her he wasn't here, she asked for you, by name. You must have made an impression on her."

"I suppose I was the first one to speak with her, and she remembers that. An accident of chance. Should I tell her any more than you have already?" Delenn looked at him anxiously.

"Take it slow, tell her what you're comfortable with, and stop if she becomes agitated. I don't want to lie to the woman, but some of this is going to come as quite a shock," Stephen advised brusquely. "What's in the box?" he asked, changing the subject.

"It is a crystal pyramid, for the table next to her bed. It gives off diffused light, green like a living plant. John...Captain Sheridan said it reminded him of the trees your people light for the winter holidays. I thought she might like the remembrance, as it is the time for those celebrations on your homeworld." Delenn bit her lip anxiously. "I believe it is a human custom to bring gifts to those confined to medical facilities, is it not?"

Stephen laughed, "That's right. And I'd forgotten what day it is! Not much of a Christmas, is it?" He shook his head. "It's a lovely thought, and I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Wouldn't take much to brighten up these bays. Working here, you get used to the surroundings but they're pretty grim." His comlink sounded, and he glanced down at it, where a bright red light was blinking. "That's a priority call from the mobile hospital unit on Epsilon 3. I'll have to take this; you go on in. Conversation will help integrate her memories and speed up the new neural connections being formed. Let me or the staff know if either of you need anything." Suddenly serious, he set down his chair and leaned forward, saying earnestly, "This is a good thing you're doing, Delenn. I know it must be hard for you, after all that has happened. Especially given who she is."

"Compassion is an obligation that honors both the one who offers it and the one who accepts it." Delenn stood and took a careful grip of the box. "I will see if she is awake, and leave this if she is not."

Stephen had already begun speaking into the link, and was activating a video link on his comscreen. Delenn backed out of his office, trying not to upset the stacks of files and unknown equipment that lay on a metal cart by the door. Walking back to Anna's bed, she took several deep breaths of calming, wondering what lay ahead, trying not to think of what she might be asked to explain.

Anna was propped up on a pillow, her bed tilted slightly. Her eyes lit up when she saw Delenn come into view. "Hey," she said in weak delight. "You came back."

"I said that I would," Delenn replied. "I cannot stay long, however." Examining the patient, she said in surprise, "You are looking well!"

"Not so bad," replied Anna. Then, her eyes twinkling, she said, "What's in the box? Lunch, I hope. The food here is terrible!"

Delenn laughed at this, the sound almost shocking after the last few days. "I did not think of that. Next time I will bring the kind of delicacies humans favor, or whatever you request. No, this is a halma gift, a wish for light in the darkness and the swift return of health." Opening the box, she set up the pyramid, and slid one finger along the control panel. It lit immediately, giving a soft green glow to the room.

Anna sighed at the sight, "It's lovely, thank you." She kept her head turned, looking at the glass, green light bathing her face. "Why this, I wonder? Is it a Minbari tradition?"

Delenn shook her head. "It is a human tradition, this giving of gifts." Taking a deep breath, she went on, "It is the time of your main winter holiday, Dr. Sheridan. It is Christmas of the year 2260 as humans calculate it."

Anna stared at her in shock. "But I left, the Icarus left, in 2257! It can't have been that long..." Her eyes widened. "Dr. Franklin told me the ship exploded. When? What happened after that? Have I been ill, in a coma or something? For three years?" Her hands clutched the blankets as if desperate to hold onto something.

"It was believed that you, and all the crew, were killed in the explosion, at Z'ha'dum soon after you reached the planet," Delenn began, wondering again how much to say. She kept an eye on the monitors; there must be alarms that would sound if any of Anna's vital signs went too far out of normal range.

Anna turned her head away, closing her eyes briefly before opening them to stare at the ceiling. "I don't remember anything!" Then she began to sit up in agitation, "Oh my God, John must have been frantic! Does he know yet? Does he know I'm alive? Where is he?"

Several of the lights on the monitor, which had been glowing a steady yellow began to pulse orange. Delenn's heart raced. How much should she say? And what should she say? "He knows some of it," she began slowly. "That is one reason you are here, on Babylon 5. Captain Sheridan is in command of this station."

"John took a desk job?" said Anna in disbelief. "He left the Agamemnon? When did this happen?"

"He came here early in 2259," replied Delenn. "I am the Minbari ambassador to this station, and have been since it became operational."

"But where is he now?" Anna persisted. "If he runs this place, why isn't he here?"

"That," began Delenn slowly, "is a long story, full of history once thought to be dead, recent as well as current events, and ancient prophecies. Not all of this is clear to any one of us."

"Give me the highlights then," demanded Anna. "And then set me up with a link to EarthNet. I'll research the rest myself." Her eyes flashed with a keen intelligence, the shock giving way to a determined curiosity.

Delenn complied, giving her a brief history of political events on Earth, elections and assassinations, revolts and martial law, and the station's separation from her homeworld's government. At first she avoided naming the Shadows, outlining the current conflict in which they were engage as one with an old and malevolent race familiar to her own people from the distant past. Anna's jaw dropped open more than once, but the monitors remained silent. When she was done, Anna dropped her head back onto the pillow. "That is...amazing. Confusing. Terrible in many ways." Looking over at Delenn, she said, "And you still haven't told me where John is. Is it something to do with this war? Or," and her voice faltered, "Is it something to do with me? Who found me anyway? Who brought me here?"

Delenn's throat closed on the thought of where John was at this very moment. Looking down at her hands, clasped tightly together in her lap, she gave a brief shudder and replied. "You came here to find him. From Z'ha'dum, which is the homeworld of our ancient enemy. But it was not you, not then."

Anna's eyes narrowed, and she said slowly, emphasizing each word. "Where..is..John?"

"He has gone to Z'ha'dum to confront the Shadows directly. He went alone." Delenn's eyes remained focused on her hands. If she met Anna's eyes, the other woman would read the pain in them and her heart would be laid bare. "They sent you here, to bring him back with you. I believe he did not want to risk your life, and so he left you behind."

"Risk my life?" replied Anna. "It was a trap, wasn't it?" She said, her voice laced with guilt and misery. "I was the trap."

"It is not your fault," Delenn hastened to reassure her. "They changed you, altered your mind. You were not in control of your actions."

Anna choked back tears. "Did John know? That it wasn't me?" She grasped Delenn's hands in emphasis. "I would never harm him!"

"I know," said Delenn wearily. "And he knew. He knew the risks, and he knew what might happen if he went. But he went in any case."

"What do you mean, what might happen?" asked Anna anxiously. It was just beginning to dawn on her the extent of the danger John faced. "What will they do to him?"

"I do not know what they want from him," Delenn said softly. "But I do know this. No one returns from Z'ha'dum."

Anna looked back at her, fierce and stubborn, her eyes flashing. "I did."