The next day, when North entered the infirmary, he could see Ala sitting upright in her bed with an expression he could only describe as bored out of her skull and fed-up at the same time.

Beside her, there was a bunch of people standing around her, tinkering at her left arm and talking in such a gobbledygook, North immediately tuned it out. He recognized Simmons, Sarge and Dr. Grey in the bunch, all of them at the front of tinkering. Alas arm was propped up on some kind of special armrest where the specialists could prod and poke at the limp piece of metal scrap.

Walking past the group, the Freelancer threw the woman a sympathetic smile, which god answered with a crooked one herself.

Sitting down beside the black haired, he could see that she looked paler than usual and still a bit wrecked from yesterday. It was itching under his fingernails to ask her about what happened yesterday, but he refrained since there were many other, mostly foreign people around. The story she would have to tell probably wasn't for them to hear too since it looked rather private as not even Tucker could tell him what was up or only could tell the minimum about it.

While sitting beside the bed as he did during the last weeks, observing the scientists prodding and tinkering around at her arm.

Whilst watching, Drews thoughts again took off to another realm. What did he tell Tucker yesterday? That he barely knew the woman he once used to know? He wasn't so far off the subject when he said that given the fact, that she still looked the same, some wrinkles and signs of aging taken aside. But her character was completely different.

He could understand that there were ten years between their last and next meeting and he could understand that people tend to change during those times. But it was still so damn difficult. He saw the woman he loved sitting here. At least the woman he used to love – He would have to get used to her different behavior. But haven't they been any different during the project. They were swearing and doing shit as much as they do here, but it was just somewhat unused to hear the cursing and this behavior from this special person.

However, her character wasn't the only thing he had to get used to. The most apparent and blaring thing that changed was her arm. Tucker had told her at some point what happened and why she had a cybernetic arm. Still, it was unused. Last time he saw her, she was whole, including the flesh arm. She didn't not only change psychically, but also physically – Obviously.

Anyway, back to the topic. He could understand that she had changed, but they also needed to talk out what happened from the point North had left the apartment in his armor to help South up to the point where Felix knocked off Macs helmet.

But right now, didn't seem to be the right time. Too many people around who didn't need to hear of them talking about what they went through together.

Besides, during the time he had been thinking about everything he previously did, Ala looked even more irritable and if the occasional twitch of her body is any indication, she seemed to feel some amount of pain.

Some moments later, Mac jerked up pulling way the arm with a shout. "Ouch, watch it, man!" growling, she pressed her cybernetic arm to her chest.

"Oh, that's wonderful! That means that the reconstruction of the nerves and the wires during the emergency surgery indeed helped! Let's fix the rest and then you're going to get used to that new arm of yours again!" The doctor chirped happily, making North feeling weirded out. And he didn't seem to be the only one given Simmons blanching and some of the scientists looking a bit pale and freaked out.

North had already gotten used to the rather weird and crazy behavior of the doc. She's an expert on her field and fucking awesome given how she patched Wash, Smmons and Ala back together, also Tucker after having gotten stabbed as he got told and also seemed to have a decent amount of knowledge of Sangheili biology to treat Juniors wounds correctly and avoid any infection and possible lethal bacteria entering his system.

And she had a disturbingly big knack for psychoanalysis and torture.

With a low growl and a pointed glare at the doctor, she reluctantly laid her arm back on the armrest. Immediately, Sarge and the doc were back all over it again and talking shop about it, starting to tinker on it again. Thankfully, if her a bit more relaxed face was any indication, it wasn't as painful as previous anymore.

"Freaking fucking with my nerves." Ala growled, rubbing her free hand over her face. "If it wouldn't be for leaving today I wouldn't allow them to keep on fucking with my arm."

Looking over a bit quizzical, North mustered the woman, who seemed even more pale. She seemed to notice his stare and answered. "Dr. Grey allowed me to go to my room for the rest of the recovery when she would be able to properly set up my arm today. They're on since about three hours."

"Set up? I thought the arm needed repairs and no set-up?" Drew asked a bit confused.

The black haired woman chuckled at that. "The arm was too fucked." She explained with a wry smile. "Felix obviously didn't only fuck with my flesh and blood part of my body but also with my cybernetical part."

North felt how the muscles in his shoulders and jaw tensed. He knew that he looked somewhat grimly determined with his jaw set square. He hated to think about that one. He just found out that Mac was his love he thought to have forever lost when having woken up and only moments later she was covered in her own blood, blood gurgling in her lungs and she fighting for her bare life.

Then she was in a coma for around five to six week (North didn't keep track on the actual length since it was too long, no matter if those were five or six weeks) and after having woken up she was sent in a surgery only about two weeks later because she must have had an injury during the time he hadn't been with her that still affected her and he didn't know what it was.

He felt like being here and still not knowing what it was and it drove him crazy not knowing what was up and how he could help it. But given the actual situation (again) and the fact that she still looked somewhat weak, North decided to put it off for another day to give her time. He suspected her to need some rest and have enough strength to talk this one out with her.

Theta was again moving restlessly in his head and it made him feel restless too.

'Theta, what's up?' he asked, feeling a bit unnerved, but decided to not lash out on the little fragment for the stress he was in.

'Northing!' squeaked the fragment immediately after the question, pulling further back in his mind.

'Theta, stop running away.' North gently ordered indeed soon feeling how the little Fragment came back to the front of his mind.

'Do you know what is up with Ala and what happened yesterday?' He asked, making his voice sound gentle and soothing, not demanding because he know how easily he could scare this special Fragment.

It was silent for a long time, before Theta answered. 'Yes…'

His brows knitted together on the front when he got that answer. 'And why-' He was pulled out of his thoughts however when he heard Ala speak up. "Don't beat Theta up about that. He had to promise me to not tell you either of it." She muttered, reaching for the glass on the nightstand to take a sip. "I made him promise to not tell you about my true identity and about that here." She made a motion with the hand she held the glass in, making clear that she meant the incident of yesterday.

"I see…" North muttered, making the answer sound more like a long exhale than a real answer."

"I wanted to come clean with you after everything was over. I didn't suspect myself that it would turn out like it did with Felix." She sighed, leaning her head back and patiently waiting for the doctors to stop messing around with her arm. She occasionally would comply the doctor's orders to lift a finger, her hand, her complete arm or to do some tests to see how strong her strength in her arm was and if it needed some adjustments.

"And by coming clean you meant…?" North knew that Ala was smart enough to catch up on his open question and answer it accordingly. "I planned on asking you to meet me in my room and then tell you who I really am." Her face darkened with anger as she seemed to get the feeling that North was accusing her of having planned this situation here all along. "I certainly haven't planned on getting myself killed on some rescue mission having gone south."

"And why did you do it then? Carolina or anyone else could have done it." He flared up, his voice becoming a notch louder. He earned some dirty glares of the scientists and decided to calm his temper and instead glare at the dark-haired woman. Unlike her brother, this technique didn't work on her. Never did.

"In case you haven't noticed, genius," she snapped back, obviously at the end of her patience too, "Felix had us in a death trap. It was either me or all of us. You would have done exactly the same thing!"

This gave him a pause as he looked at the woman glaring at her with an unnerved, almost angry glare and her free hand crossed over her chest. Drew was pretty positive that Dr. Grey already informed her about the origin of the wound under her left ribcage.

But given their previous argument, he couldn't say no to that. He would have sacrificed himself too to save the other and if there was only a small chance. So he didn't really have the right to say anything against it given the situation at hand.

He exhaled, letting some of the anger go with that. "Yeah, you're right, I would have done the same way. You got us worried nonetheless with that heavy injury. I don't want to think about how fucking close this call really was." He muttered then, looking down on his hands in his lap and feeling somewhat sick of all sudden.

Seeing her die would have killed him too, even if in a different way. Either because he would have gotten killed by doing something foolish or by slowly dying from grief.

As Tucker stated correctly the previous day, for him this time span of ten years wasn't that apparent as for all the others except of York. For him, the thing he and Ala had was still very fresh and very real.

So it was only normal to still feel strongly for that woman he had fallen in love all those years ago and was ready to fight for what they had to have it again.

But he also could understand Alas aloofness and guardedness towards him after those ten years. He could understand that there had been changes to her body, soul and character during this time. It hurt nonetheless since he felt like she was carrying around a huge weight. And it didn't look like it was the weight of a woman having fought in a pointless war for too long or the weight of fear. Like fear of the Meta for having ripped out her arm.

It was a weight she was carrying around that was way heavier and that she was carrying around all on her own for most of the time.

He wanted to make her fall in love with him again and be together with her, just as they were all those years ago, but he also could understand that she couldn't trust him or love him as readily as she did back in New-Bangkok.

He first had to prove he meant it before she would start to trust him again. And to prove that he still loved her and wanted her to trust him meant being patient with said person. So he would start being patient and wait for Ala to tell him why she felt such horrible pain yesterday, so bad that she obviously had to go to the surgery immediately.

What he didn't know however, was the fact that he had her trust and love all along, but it was difficult for her to forgive him for that betrayal at the same time. Probably there also was this situation that happened all those years ago that build a wall between them and separated them.

Ala trusted Drew. She wouldn't have let him sleep in the same room with her or be close to her all the time. She would have shooed him out of her room the moment she felt vulnerable and didn't want to show him that.

Oddly enough, after all that time, she still trusted the Freelancer like she did during all those years back.

And she still loved him – She loved him dearly.

Usually, when a person dies, it is a final thing, and you start mourning and grieving, you start living your live without this person and overcome the fact that they aren't here anymore. However, North suddenly popping up again ripped all those wounds open she had carefully put a patch on. Their time had been intense and they were always close and knew what the other was thinking. Their emotions tended to boil over at some point, making them passionate lovers and fighters.

However, because of all of that, this intense way of being together, caused all the bigger wounds to be torn into her soul, this being intensified by the fact that she lost two people on that day, Drew and Sasha.

She needed time to get used to the fact that Drew again was around again and to tear down the walls she had put up around this part of her soul to protect herself from any more harm than already happened to her.

But she also knew that she had to tell North about Sasha somewhen. He would have been a dad when the baby would have been born and he had a right to know the truth for fucks sake!

She just didn't feel ready yet and needed time on how to break it into him. She probably would pull the injured-card some days more and would have to face the situation soon enough.

Sighing, she looked over to her cybernetic arm, seeing just in time how Dr. Grey screwed some bolts in tight and gave it a pat. "You're good to go and your arm is as new!" she chirped, waiting for Ala to lift her arm and move it around testingly. The weight still was about the same as was the feeling of it moving around. However, due to the chip implants and better wiring of this new arm, it reacted faster, almost as fast as her right arm. This probably would cause some problems at the beginning, but she will get used to it rather fast she mused. She needed some time to get used to the old arm, so this here would be a piece of a cake.

Nodding to Dr. Grey, she emptied her glass and put it back down on the nightstand. "Thanks doc. I will make sure to not come here again so fast."

"Oh, I don't mind having you here." The doc replied, making North doubting her sanity until he heard her continue. "However, I prefer it to be as my friend and guest and not as patient."

"I will keep that in mind, thanks Dr. Grey." Ala replied with a chuckle, sitting up and swinging her legs out of her bed.

"Are you okay to already get up?" North asked from the other side of the bed.

Looking over her shoulder, North could see, that the hair on the back of her head was a bit shorter than the hair on the front. He liked that hairstyle of hers. It looked a bit like Kimballs hairstyle, although Ala didn't have bangs twice as long as the rest of her hair. However, it suited her.

"I can walk around some steps. I'm good to go now, doc?" Ala asked this question to the Doctor who was about to leave.

Dr. Grey turned back around. "Hm? Oh yes, sure sweetheart. But you're on bedrest for the rest of the week, don't forget that. Only walking allowed to get food and for toilet breaks." She chirped, jotting down a note on her datapad.

"Got it." Ala muttered begrudgingly. "And for trips to the library to get books to read?"

"And for that, but nothing more, you got me sweetheart?"

"Yes." Ala sighed deeply. North already picked up on her hating that pet name Dr. Grey had given her from the first day after she woke up.

"How about I walk you to your room?" North suggested, getting up on his feet with that.

The black haired woman was staring straight ahead for some seconds and North already started to feel somewhat uncomfortable at the lack of response, until she then said. "Okay, if you promise to not make a fuzz when cough or sneeze."

"You're not going to drop dead, I know." North sighed defeated, walking up to her right side and offering his arm for her to hook hers in. "Shall we then?"

He could feel her scrutinizing glare on him, but he didn't let his smile falter or the gentle expression in his eyes waver. Eventually, the black haired woman laid her hand on his lower arm, not exactly the way he had imagined it, but he was okay with that too, and they took off towards her room. He felt like there would be a long way for them to go, but if it was for their future to be together, North felt oddly okay with that.

After a short stop in the library and Ala renting out a shit ton of books, they made their way back to the barracks the captains were having their rooms. North was insisting on carrying all the books. Seriously, when did she think on going to read all of them?

If she still was the way she was ten years ago, she would read them within three or four days tops, including reading and writing reports and planning the training schedule for the different groups of lieutenants she got assigned to train.

They were all pretty much the same. Boredom was the source of many problems and keeping yourself and others busy kept them from arguing. Mostly. If you're not Grif and Simmons or Tucker and Wash who were somewhat constantly arguing with each other.

Putting down the books on Alas desk after arriving, he could see the photographs of them from more than ten years ago, they were lying in a neat stack on the nightstand.

"You kept them?" he asked, mustering the top photograph. It was the one of them and Theta. It looked like a family photograph.

"My piece of memory." She replied simply, putting down his old dog tags along with the ring beside the photographs. "Aside of the photos, the dog tags and the ring I haven't had much to take with me in the war. Besides that, we haven't been much to decorate and make much photographs since we were both living undercover at that time." She explained, sitting down on the bed and checking her four canteens.

They were all empty, what a surprise.

Before the black-haired woman even was able to get up, North took them with a muttered "I'll go." And left her room.

If he felt awkward in the hospital, he felt completely and utterly alien and misplaced in Macs room. There were the photographs for them but also the clear signs of a war having raged on up until some weeks ago with documents with tactical schemes and inventory lists and army set-ups lying around, a report ready to be filled in on the datapad and her armor sitting in a corner of her room.

Tucker and probably Wash too must have cleaned and polished it since it all was clean and neat again, no traces of blood left on the white surface.

There also were her weapons. North didn't fail to note that she was using his sniper rifles he had with him when they first met.

He could see the small emblem of Project Freelancer etched into each of the barrels along with his name. Agent North Dakota.

After filling the canteens, he splashed some water in his face and took some moments to calm his nerves.

He was happy to be with Ala again, to have her back safe and sound. But there still was this huge elephant in the room he had to address eventually and the fact that they seem to be so familiar but total strangers to each other all the same.

Leaving the mens bathroom and entering the room of his love, he could see her sit on the bed and tapping away on the datapad. Her writing got better over the years he noticed, her speed in writing was incredible. She didn't even look what she was typing, completely focused on the datapad and on the text appearing there.

At least it seemed so. That was until she suddenly stopped and looked up to him. "Already back?" she asked conversationally and North felt somewhat reminded of the time he almost gave her a heart attack after unintentionally sneaking up on her.

"Yeah, I thought you might be thirsty." He replied lamely, putting the canteens down on the floor in front of the nightstand and then decided to give her some space.

"I am going to check on the others. Just… call me or the others if you need something." He said awkwardly.

Ala again looked at him with a long glance, before nodding. "Okay, I will do that." Before turning back to her datapad.

North took it as a cue to leave.

It still felt so awkward and North felt hollow and alone when he closed the door to Alas room and left the floor to get to his own room. He only hoped to be able to fix everything again. He didn't really know if he could bear being around Ala all the time and not being with her like he had been all those years ago.