Starting to move into Jak III here. A lot of this is based on my own assumptions, especially where things are taking place… I've played the game several times but the intro scene gets a little confusing! As always, characters and locations belong to Naughty Dog, this is just me writing for fun.
Keira sat on her new bed in the Palace, knees drawn up to her chin. She tried to take in her surroundings, but her mind felt fuzzy and overwhelmed. Things were happening too fast. One minute things had been relatively normal – she'd had a garage of her own, an apartment of her own. A place to work in calmness and privacy, and a place to invite friends over if she chose. Keira had never particularly like living in Haven City, but at least she'd known how things worked. At least she'd had a familiar routine, and had been working on things she loved.
But now she looked out the large window across the room and could see smoke rising from many parts of the city. She shivered to think of the Metal Heads and robots ravaging the streets. Her garage and apartment were destroyed. When they'd arrived at the Palace, Torn had deposited her in this lavish room, saying that she would be staying here for a while. Apparently Samos had demanded that his daughter be housed in safety, with rooms near his, which made Keira roll her eyes with embarrassment.
Now alone, she stood and crossed to the window to lean her forehead against the glass. She dug her toes into the soft carpet and watched a phalanx of Hellcat Cruisers hovering slowly around the perimeter of the Palace. Where is the good in this? she thought sadly. Her fingers itched to take hold of a screwdriver, a wrench, anything to take her mind off of the madness. All there was in this room was the soft bed, plush carpet, and a fancy but empty closet. She'd go insane within a day.
"Torn told me to stay put… he said that my father was busy," Keira mused out loud. She drummed her fingers against the window and then snapped her fingers. "He didn't say how long I had to stay put." She stood up with a mischievous smile and a new sense of purpose, walking quickly towards the door of the room. She cautiously pushed the button that slid the door open and poked her head out. No one to the left… no one to the right… and no security cameras that she could see. If she ran into any Krimzon Guards, she'd be confident and demand that she be taken to her father or Torn. Easy. She could be helpful to them. She could do something. Hell, she'd even repair the coffee maker if it meant she could be involved and not sitting useless in that fancy room.
Finding people in the Palace, however, was a harder task than it seemed. Keira wandered through corridor after corridor until she felt like she was walking through a maze. There were no people around, not even any guards, which made her feel uneasy. The walls were so thick that she couldn't hear any of the fighting outside. All the silence eventually made her thoughts wander – straight to Jak, of course. Her heartbeat quickened when she thought of their latest almost-kiss. Maybe they were finally getting somewhere. Keira shook her head suddenly. How many times had they "almost kissed" now? Three? Nothing ever changed. Maybe it was stupid to think that it would this time.
Her morose thoughts were interrupted when she heard voices coming from a guest room up a flight of stairs from where she was standing. As she got closer, she started to recognize one of them – it was none other than Daxter, and he didn't sound too happy. As Keira walked closer, she started to realize that the other voice was Jak's. Suddenly, stupidly, her palms began to sweat and her heart started pounding. Annoyed with herself, Keira strode boldly up the rest of the stairs and stopped in the doorway, ready to start a breezy, casual conversation. The words died in her throat when she saw just why Daxter sounded so upset.
Jak sat on the bed with his back to her, his shoulders hunched with pain. He had stripped his shirt and gun holster, and he held a blood-soaked medical pad to his side with one hand. Daxter stood on the bed next to him, looking extremely distressed. He held a huge unraveling roll of gauze in his paws, and despite his best efforts, couldn't get it properly wound around Jak.
"Let's see… if I roll it this way… no, no… um…." The ottsel's normal joking tone was gone, and his ears and tail drooped. He had obviously been trying to bandage Jak up for a while, given the mess of gauze draped all over the bed. Jak, on the other hand, was obviously in pain and losing patience. Every time Daxter would try to get the bandage wrapped, he'd pull too tight or poke his fingers too close to the wound. "Aaagh! Jak, I can't do this, man! I'm screwing it all up!" He flung the bandages up in the air, finally unrolling them completely. "I gotta go find someone who actually knows what they're doing." He turned around to face the door, whacking Jak's side with his tail, and finally noticed Keira standing there.
Daxter jumped off the bed and streaked over to the doorway. "Keira! You gotta help! Jak's gonna bleed to death!"
"I am not, Dax!" Jak growled irritably. Keira noticed that he wouldn't turn around.
Daxter ignored him and snatched Keira's hand, doing his best to drag her over the bed. He scurried back up and thrust the wads of gauze into her arms. "Fix him, will ya?" he pleaded.
"I'll do my best, I guess," Keira answered hesitantly. She glanced at Jak, who continued to stare resolutely at the wall. "Daxter, can you find me some antiseptic? There should be a medical wing somewhere in this place."
"Jak didn't want to go to the medical wing," answered Daxter. "Mr. High and Mighty Grouchypants over there – "
"Just go find me some, ok?" interrupted Keira, glaring at him.
Jak finally looked at her when Daxter had left the room. He looked exhausted, but there was an amused look on his face. "You know there's some antiseptic on the table, right?"
"Of course," she answered briskly, rolling up some of the gauze. "I could tell you were ready to kill Daxter. He'll run around for a while and it'll give me a chance to get you patched up." Keira sat down next to him on the bed. "Here, lift up that pad and let me get you a fresh one. I'll try to do this fast."
Keira tried not to wince when she saw the ragged slash in Jak's side where the Metal Head's claws had dug in. It wasn't deep, but the skin around it flared an angry red. It looked clean enough, so she pressed a fresh medical pad soaked in antiseptic over it. Jak clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, but didn't make a sound.
"Hold it there, 'kay?" Keira started to wrap the bandage around him, but the angle was too awkward. "Hang on," she said, shuffling sideways on her knees until she sat behind him on the bed. She leaned forward to bring the gauze around his body, and in doing so pressed her cheek against his back. Jak held very still, not even breathing. For one second she was tempted to stay there, and leave her arms wrapped around him.
The moment passed, and Keira forced herself to sit up and stick some medical tape on the gauze to hold it in place. "There," she said lightly. "Good as new, as long as you don't move around too much for a while."
"Thanks, Keira," he answered, standing up and rolling his shoulder. Keira tried not to stare at the way his back muscles moved, or at the series of scars across one shoulder blade, or… damn, she was staring. She covered her cheeks to hide the blush traveling across them, but that was too obvious. She jumped off the bed, spilling all of the medical supplies onto the ground. Jak finally turned around, and before he started picking things up, she noticed that his cheeks were red.
The hell with this, thought Keira. I'm tired of all this dancing around and nothing ever happening between us!
"Jak," she began. "I want to talk about – "
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" shouted Samos from the doorway.
"Daddy? Where did you come from?" asked Keira in bewilderment. She noticed Jak edging away from her, his cheeks getting even redder.
"I expected better from you, Keira! And you, Jak, seducing my daughter with your shirt off! It's perfectly indecent!" The green sage tromped across the room and hauled Keira up by the arm.
"Daddy, seriously, it's not – "
"I don't want to hear it, Keira. You're coming with me."
"Samos, it wasn't like that," Jak protested after pulling his shirt on. Samos thumped him in the chest with his cane, pushing him back against the wall.
"Not another word, young man. Keira, you are coming to the command center where I can keep an eye on you."
Samos dragged his daughter out of the room so quickly that she didn't have time to say anything to Jak. At least I'm getting what I wanted, Keira thought. At least I get to be useful. She couldn't help looking back down the hallway, but Jak wasn't following them.