It was another long while before anyone bothered showing up. She spent most of it staring up at the ceiling and trying to move any part of her body that wasn't her eyelids. She was sure she managed to fall asleep yet again because when she opened her eyes for what felt like the billionth time, the light was on and making its best attempt to sear them out of her skull.

"Uunnnuughhh..." she groaned, though her mouth barely opened. A sound! She'd made a sound! An awful sound, but a sound nonetheless.

"What the-?"

Damn. She better not've woken up for Jack.

"Oh my god." A face appeared in the periphery of her vision. Then moved so it was staring down at her. It was not a half bad face to wake up to, with dark eyes and dark hair. The lines around its eyes screamed of a constant, mild irritation but when he looked at her he waas grinning.

"You're awake!" he cried, and the girl knew who he was.

'Owen?' she tried to ask, but it came out more along the lines of "Uuuuoooonnnn..."

"Oh my god... You're awake!"

Why the hell was he so excited? She was still in pain. She couldn't move at all. All she could do was blink and make loud groaning noises. Screw consciousness, in this state she might as well be dead.

"Can you speak? Please tell me you can speak..."

Was he daft? Did he hear the noises she was making. No she couldn't speak. This should've been damned obvious from the long loud groaning sounds. Still, she might as well give it a try. "Nnnnnnuuuuuu." Well, so much for that attempt.

The beeping from the nearby machine was getting faster. It pierced her skull and made her feel like her mind was going to burst. She tried looking its direction, internally begging him to turn it off so she could think.

He followed her gaze with his own, quickly reaching over and turning the machine to a lower volume. She sighed in relief. That felt much better. Her body still felt like every inch of it was being smashed by a hammer, but at least she was free to think for a little while. She turned her gaze back to him.

He was studying her face with a certain intensity. "I should let the others know..." he muttered.

She frowned, or at least attempted to. The last thing she wanted was for a bunch of people to staring at her as she tried to articulate thoughts into phrases when she couldn't even move her lips to say the simplest words. He must've somehow understood her because he smiled.

"Or Jack can screw himself and I can try to get what information I can. It's nothing too personal, just who you are and what you remember along with some quick medical tests."

She wished she could've nodded for him, but all she could manage was the slight almost upturn at the corners of her mouth.

He smiled back and nodded slightly. "Good glad we can agree on something. Just let me get some paperwork..." He disappeared out of her sight, looking couldn't imagine why, all he needed was the papers and his pen. He reappeared a moment later, "I'm Owen by the way. Just so you know."

His footsteps remained in the room. He moved about the room muttering to himself. "Pen... Pen... Where's a damn pen?"

Another set of footsteps approached. The girl quickly shut her eyes. She didn't even know why she didn't want Jack to find out she was awake. The thought of it simply terrified her in a way she couldn't put words to.

"Owen?" it was a girls voice. It was Gwen's voice!

"Is it noon already?" Owen asked. Did that mean Gwen visited everyday at noon? Did people on this planet actually do that?

"I'm actually running late," Gwen replied. Her voice was light and humorous. The girl kept her eyes closed, waiting to see if Owen would tell Gwen she was awake.

"Oh, well I was just going to run some quick tests..." Owen said. He sounded distinctly nervous.

"Owen you're a terrible liar." The girl had to agree with Gwen on that one. He sounded far too rushed and nervous to be telling the truth. If the girl knew anything, she knew he was probably averting his eyes and playing with his paperwork.

"Fine... But she didn't want me to tell anyone." Specifically Jack. She was actually fine with Gwen knowing.

"She's awake?!" Gwen cried.

"Shh!" Owen replied, "I don't want the others to know just yet. I want her to be able to, I don't know, process whatever she learns in privacy, rather than with everyone staring at her."

The girl wished she could thank him. That was all she wanted at the moment.

"Do you think it would help if I held her hand?" Gwen asked.

"You'd have to ask her..." She could feel their eyes on her. It made her wish she could wiggle off the table and fly off to hide in a cloud.

"Excuse me..." she felt a hand on her shoulder and opened her eyes. The woman had black hair. It fell straight down. She also had crooked teeth which the girl found endearing. Her eyes were dark and full of care. The girl already knew that this woman had a heart of gold. She could see it in those eyes. "I'm Gwen." She was nervous, so incredibly nervous. The girl smiled at her, encouraging her to continue. "I-," Gwen took a deep breath, "I know everything is kind of... strange right now, and..."

The girl smiled again. She already knew how Gwen was going to finish the sentence, and she welcomed the small comfort offered. In fact, she believed she needed it. Gwen disappeared into her peripheral view and she felt Gwen's hand wrap around her own. The touch brought a very slight amount of pain, but the girl didn't mind, she just wished she could squeeze Gwen's hand in return.

"Alright," Owen said, returning to view, "Since you can't really answer at the moment, I'm just going to ask yes or no questions. I want you to blink once for yes, twice for no, and three times if you need a break."

The girl blinked twice to show she understood. Gwen squeezed her hand reassuringly and she winced.

"I'm gonna start with what you feel," Owen continued, she felt his hand on the bottom of her foot, "Do you feel that?" Two blinks. He did this for each foot and all the way up her legs. Then each hand and all up her arms.

It wasn't until his hand brushed the tip of her wing that she remembered they were there. But his hand was touching skin, and the slight brush of his fingers brought a searing pain that ran all the way to her back. Her heart rate jumped making Gwen squeeze her hand painfully. "Nnnggghhh..." She tried to pull her hand away but her body wouldn't let her move.

Owen immediately pulled his hand away. "C-could you feel that?" Two blinks. "Did it hurt." Two blinks. He sighed and scribbled on his paper.

She could see him in the corner of her eye, scribbling away and purposely avoiding looking at her as her heart rate slowed. She swallowed. "Uuunnnggghh..." she groaned, trying to make him tell her. She needed to know what was wrong with her wings.

He sighed. "When you crashed, your wings weren't just broken, they were shattered. It's beyond my knowledge on how to fix them..." Nothing else he said mattered after that. Wings were fragile. Everyone knew that. And hers were shattered. Beyond repair. And all she could think was that she'd never fly again. That was the cold, hard truth. In the years she had left, she would never fly again. Without her wings... She'd woken up for nothing.

The realization hit her that Owen had stopped talking. The realization hit her that Gwen was wiping a tear away from her cheek. The realization hit her that she could never fly. Not ever.

Her head tilted into Gwen's touch, barely moving more than a millimeter. Then Owen was at her other side, his hand resting on her shoulder.

"Do you want us to leave?"

One blink. No. This wasn't easy to work with anymore. She needed them. She didn't want to be alone with her thoughts. She'd already spent far too much time like that.

"Do you want me to keep telling you what's wrong?"

Two blinks. He might as well. The worst of the news had already been delivered.

"Alright..." There was the rustling of papers before Owen cleared his throat, "You had a total of two hundred and thirty broken bones throughout your body. Most of them are healed by now. The only ones that aren't completely healed are this one," he tapped her hips, "These two," her thighs, "And this one," Her upper arm. "You were fully unconscious for almost two months. Fifty-two days to be exact. You sustained severe damage to what appears to be your spine. It's rather high in your neck, with several other damaged areas in other places below it. Your cells are brilliant though, they seem to regenerate at double the rate of any human."

She blinked three times. She had heard enough. More than enough actually. It might take up to a year, but once her cells regrew and were taught what to do, she would walk and talk just like any other intelligent species. True, it would take insane amounts of work, and she was fine with that, but this planet didn't have the one thing she truly needed. A doctor who knew how to fix her wings.

"It's okay love," Gwen murmured, wiping away the tear the girl didn't know she was crying, "I promise you, everything will be fine."

The girl wanted to scream. She wanted to scream and lash out at the pair who stood above her. She wanted them to know that nothing was going to be fine. It was going to be the extreme opposite of fine. She felt the tear trails down her cheeks, cold against her burning skin. It was too much. Everything was too much. She took a deep breath and looked at Gwen. She was crying to. Black trails were clear against her pale skin. No. She wouldn't lash out at Gwen. She couldn't lash out at Gwen. No matter how frustrated she was.

"You're getting better," Owen said on her other side, "Even in ways I didn't think were possible."

Of course he didn't think they were possible. He was a human. Humans didn't think anything was possible. Still, he was trying his hardest. She looked to him. He wasn't crying. His face showed almost no emotion at all. But she could still find it. He was scared, but excited. He was a doctor of some sort, and she was his latest challenge. Something he could've never imagined facing. He was only trying to help.

She took a deep breath and mustered her will power, trying to find a way to translate all the words she wanted to say into something they might be able to understand. What she ended up with, though it sounded frightfully dull, made both of them grin ever so happily.

She opened her mouth and the words fell out. "Daeng euoo."