Why hello everyone. I must say that the title of this chapter sucks. I'm sorry this took so long (damn Xbox and Reach…) but I've been busy with school work, my medical problems, and my other fics (mostly WISE). I apologize for the lateness but hopefully some Carter/Kat makes up for it! Note that I haven't mastered these to characters yet but hopefully this is still good.

I do not own Halo.

Enjoy : )

Kat's eyes opened slowly, immediately blinded by the bright light that greeted her vision. Where am I? She could hear beeping as she became more aware of her surroundings, and as her eyes focused she realized where she was, a medical bay. Her eyes widened with surprise and she immediately began picking through her memories, trying to find the reason she was here. She remembered running through the battle field when… a Banshee shot hit near her, she had felt pain in her arm and then... Her arm! She turned her head to the right to see her arm, and wished she hadn't. Her right arm was gone, in its place was a grey robotic prosthetic. It had been that bad? She turned her head away, not wanting to look at it. She closed her eyes, but all she could see was Thom picking up that bomb while she had been on the ground helpless, and jetpacking it up to the Covenant cruiser, and then the explosion as the cruiser was destroyed by the bomb. She cringed. Because of her stupid plan and her inability to be aware of everything going on in the battlefield and in the sky, Thom was probably hurt... or dead. She shut her eyes tighter, but not before a nurse noticed her movement.

"Oh good you're awake. Thank God you Spartans never die or we might not have been able to save you." She smiled sweetly, too sweetly for Kat's liking. "I'll go get the doctor so we can get you out of here in no time." The nurse disappeared from view. Kat chanced a glance at her arm again, the entire thing, shoulder joint and all, gone. She bit her lip, this would take some getting used to.

She didn't have to wait long for the overly peppy nurse to return with the doctor. The middle-aged man looked over her vitals on the equipment she was hooked up to with a satisfied look on his face.

"Well it looks like you've made a full recovery Spartan." He told her, pressing something on the holopad in his hand before closing it and placing it in his pocket. "You're a lucky soldier, a hit like that would have killed a normal human. Then again, you would have probably died if they hadn't gotten you off the field so fast." He clicked his tongue. "Lucky, lucky, lucky." He turned back to her. "I'm supposing you would like to know how to work that new arm of yours?" Kat could only nod as she tried to take everything in. "Well, it will take some time getting used to, but it works just as well as a normal arm. Its hooked up to your nervous system so you should be able to control all the movement and at least have some feeling."

He asked her to do a series of movements and after what seemed like hours of exercises, tests, and prodding, she was done and released from the med-bay.

Noble Two stepped out into the halls of the base she was in and immediately spotted a welcome sight that brought a smile to her lips. Carter was sitting on one of the benches against the wall, his head hanging to the side as he slept. She walked up to him and gently shook his shoulder with her left arm.

"Commander." She said with a shake. He jolted awake and looked around until he spotted Kat. He got up from his seat so fast he nearly knocked her over.

"Kat, you're awake!" A relieved smile spread across his face. Seeing her alive and standing made it feel like a weight had been lifted off of his soldiers and he just looked her over, happy that she was still with him. When his eyes reached her right arm, the relieved smile disappeared. "How is it?" He asked, his tone gentle yet serious.

"Its different, but it'll be fine. I was always better with machines anyway." She said but Carter's demeanor remained stiff and serious. The Commander sat back down and motioned to the seat next to him, she took the hint. They sat in silence for a while, a silence that Kat couldn't stand.

"How long was I out?" She asked, turning slightly in her seat to face him. Carter's head was back against the wall and his eyes were closed.

"Almost a week." His voice was tired and as Kat examined his face closer, she could see the bags that rimmed his eyes. She was about to ask another question when he spoke again. "Don't worry, you didn't miss any missions. Weren't out for that long." He said, knowing that she would ask that particular question. He opened his eyes and turned to face her. "I'm glad to see that you're all right Kat." He said, placing a hand on her new robotic arm.

"You don't have to worry about me, Commander." She reassured, he looked and sounded exhausted. "I do have a question though."

"When don't you?" He asked with a small smirk. She bumped his shoulder with her prosthetic as she smiled as well. Her face turned serious.

"We lost Thom didn't we." She said, the question she was going to ask evaporating, she already knew the answer. He sat in silence for a while, his expression darkening. When he did reply, she was surprised at his response.

"It's my fault. If I had prepared us for that mission better we would still have him, and you would still have your arm." He was angry with himself about the whole ordeal. If he had been a better leader, maybe none of this would have happened, just maybe…

"It was my plan." He turned again to face her, her head was bent down and away from him. "It's my fault, don't blame yourself." He wanted to argue, but an open hallway wasn't the place to do it. He decided to leave the stalemate for now. Carter let out a sigh of defeat before he stood up, Kat looking at him questioningly.

"I've gotta report to command that you're awake, let them know that Noble's still got its second in command." He took a few steps away from her before glancing at her over his shoulder. "I'm glad to have you back, Kat." He said before walking down the hall.

Kat sighed after Carter had disappeared from sight. There was still one question lingering on her mind. How had they gotten her off the field so fast? She had blacked out after the Covenant ship was destroyed and couldn't remember anything up to where she had just woken up in the med bay. Curious as always, Kat went looking for an answer.

Kat had been unable to find any of her remaining team mates during the course of the last hour and her frustration was beginning to hit its peak. Giving up for the time being, she headed for the Spartan barracks. She rubbed her prosthetic arm, where the metal joined the skin was growing more sore by the minute, at this point all Kat wanted to do was take a nap and find her team when she woke up. She entered the barracks, heading straight for her bunk.

"Glad to see you're still up and running." Kat nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden deep voice coming from the other side of the room.

"Dear God, Jorge! You surprised me. He gave a guilty smile.

"Sorry 'bout that." His eyes found her new arm and stopped. "How is it?" He asked, his voice full of concern.

"I'll manage." She said curtly before sitting down on her bunk, rubbing her right shoulder blade. Jorge nodded, understanding in his hazel eyes. The large Spartan stood up from his seat on his own bunk, knowing that the Lieutenant Commander either wanted some alone time or a nap, both best done without anyone else in the room. "Wait, Jorge."

"Yes?" He asked, sitting down on the bed across from her. He fingers fidgeted with each other for a moment before she sighed. "The doctor said that I wouldn't have made it if I hadn't been removed from the field as fast as I was…" Another sigh. "Do you know how I got out so fast?" Much to Noble Two's surprise, Jorge smiled slightly.

"The Commander." He said simply.

"What?" She asked, she raised her eyebrows in question.

"The Commander was the first of us to show up where you fell. He told me and Jun to provide cover fire while he got you to a Falcon, he just picked you up and ran you to it. I tell ya' it surprised me, I've never seen a III run that fast." He smiled at her again. "We're in good hands." He said knowingly before standing back up. "I'll leave you to your nap, Kat." He said before exiting the room.

Kat couldn't help but smile. She knew that Carter would always be there for her, to help her when she needed it the most, she knew he cared.

Wow this turned out waaay longer than I expected but I hope you liked it! (man I'm using hope a lot lol) Any requests for this story would be great and would definitely help me punch them out faster, though I will say it might still take a while because of my recent focus on my main Halo fic as I mentioned earlier. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and favorited this, it means a lot to know that my work is appreciated : ). Got to say I don't really like the conversation between 2 and 5 but meh. Sorry if this chap seems rushed but when I hit 3 pages I knew I had to ease up a bit haha.

Thanks for reading : ).

SS out.

P.S. Please pardon my grammatical failures : (.