A strong sensation of cold washes over me, jerking me awake. I see nothing but darkness, and I tense, straining to hear or feel what might be around me. Eventually I catch the faint sound of beeping, and the sensation of rough fabric under my hands. I try to move and a wave a pain crashes over me.

I groan.

Almost immediately, I feel hands running softly up my arm, fingertips trailing up my neck, then a warm palm cupping my cheek.

"Korra?"

I groan again, but struggle to open eyes, to no avail. In frustration I try to sit up, lift my arms, anything.

"Hey, hey, relax, baby, everything is okay," I hear a very familiar voice murmur near my ear, and eventually I recognize the sensation of a warm body pressed against my side.

"Asami?" I eventually manage, then wince at how raspy my voice sounds.

Asami hums, and I feel a brush of lips against my jaw. "Welcome back, Colonel," she murmurs, her voice quiet with a faint but, even to my foggy brain, notable, tremor.

My stomach clenches. I say the only important thing I can, fighting to force out the words. "I love you."

I hear a sharp intake of breath. "I love you too."

I hear the hesitation. "But you're still mad at me."

Another hum against my cheek. "Furious."

I try to take a deep breath, then whimper at another wash of pain coursing over my body.

Another hint of a kiss as a cool sensation floods my arm.

"Sleep, baby," I hear before I sink once more into darkness.

—

I jerk awake, heart pounding . I feel visceral relief that I can now see a bulkhead above me — my eyes are mostly working again and I look around blearily. Across from me I see Jinora. She's perched on a stool with her back against the wall at the foot my bed. Her expression is neutral, which scares me a little.

"Wee?" I grate out. "What—" I blink furiously, trying to force my brain to function, finally settling on the most important thing. "Where's Boss?"

I wince as I hear more plea than command in my voice.

Jinora sighs, and nods towards my left. With some difficulty I turn, and catch sigh of Kuvira, her face pale and still, her visage partially distorted by the curve of stasis pod view port.

My chest tightens painfully and I gasp. I feel a hand on my shoulder pressing me back onto the bunk, and I realize I had been trying to rise. Jinora looks at me, her expression hard but her eyes filled with sorrow.

"She's not…"

"She's alive, barely" Jinora says, her voice shaking. "Doc practically broke the goddam laws of physics to drag that escape pod back to the Valkyrie to get her into stasis. We hauled ass the second she had you secured. Valkyrie's now in the hanger of Izumi's flagship and we'll get shuttled down when we make orbit." She shakes her head. "The hull breach looks even worse on the outside, by the way. We would have lasted approximately two nanoseconds if we had gotten anywhere near atmosphere, according to Wei."

"The convoy?" I manage after a minute of wading through the fog of my brain.

"Mad had to blow the antenna array off of the lead ship to get them to pay attention, but we were able to divert them around the mine," Jinora replied, with a roll of her eyes. "There's some pompous asshole who's positive he's gonna get us court-martialed for fucking up his profit margins or some shit, but whatever."

I choke out a brief laugh before pain flares across me again, but I manage to gasp out, "I'm sure Izumi will take that under advisement."

Jinora snorts, then her hand, still on my shoulder, grips me harder. "You two did it, by the way."

I stare at her blearily. "What?"

"The missiles. They reached the Terran system but detonated before they got close to anything important. Though, any closer and the explosion could have turned our favorite asteroid belt into a meteor shower, which probably would have caused even more damage. So, you know, your typical Ferret near-disaster almost pulled from the jaws of victory." A shrug and twitch at the corner of her lips is the first positive emotion I've seen and it sends a flood of warmth through me.

"Oh thank all the gods," I mutter, and I feel exhaustion settle over me, my vision starting to blur despite my best efforts. "Would hate to think we went through all of that for nothing."

"Not nothing, Avatar," Jinora says. "Never nothing."

And I descend into darkness again.

—

I gradually become aware of the sensation of fingers carding through my hair, and after enjoying it for a long while, decide it would be good to see what the hell is going on. I squint into familiar verdant eyes.

"Hey there," says Asami.

I turn slightly to press more into her touch. "Still mad at me?" I ask groggily.

"Very much so," Asami assures me. Her fingers tug at my hair to emphasize this point, but she doesn't move away. I close my eyes and just focus on enjoying the warmth from her body.

I hear the sound of a door opening and after a moment my brain registers the fact that it was the sound of an actual door and not a ship's hatch. I raise my head to gaze blearily at Asami, now noticing the bulkhead I was expecting to see was now an actual ceiling.

"Where are we?" I mutter.

"University Hospital," Asami replies.

"And once again I see you laying down on the job, Avatar."

At that very familiar voice I automatically try to rise, only to feel a firm hand on my shoulder keeping me down.

"I'm sure the Admiral doesn't expect you to stand at attention right now, Colonel," Asami says crisply, though I'm not sure if she's warning me or Izumi more. She does slide off where she had been half sitting on the edge of my bed, and I eventually convince my eyes to focus on the shape of Admiral Izumi leaning against the far wall. Her face is pale, and there are dark shadows under her eyes, totally understandable given she had placed the entire fleet, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of service members, between the civilians of the Terran home world and a planet-ending apocalypse.

"At this point," Izumi mutters, her exhaustion clear in her voice. "I'm ready to be done with salutes in hospitals, or anywhere else for that matter."

Azumi pulls a stool out from somewhere and urges the old Admiral to sit down. "You're welcome to come hide out with us anytime. You can have the whole pool to yourself if you like."

"Thank you," Izumi says quietly. One lip curls briefly before her gaze returns to me. "So, how are my pilots?"

Azumi taps my foot with her clipboard. "This one has had all her broken hardware replaced and all of the heart palpitation's have ceased."

"Heart palpitations?" I ask, bewildered.

Asami glares at me. "Your failure to get strapped down in the pod left you tumbling around when it was caught in the explosion. Several of the onboard systems failed, and a power surge blew out the control panel." She pauses and takes a deep breath. "Some of the exposed wiring was carrying a charge and naturally you floated right into them." Her voice is now noticeably shaky. "Your hardware saved you from being completely electrocuted. The failsafes built into the system were able to isolate that part of your body to avoid further damage, though we finally had to shock your heart again to get it back into a healthy sinus rhythm. Additionally, you have numerous injuries ranging from broken bones and severe tissue damage pretty much everywhere it can be damaged. You also took a good crack to your skull that absolutely covered you in blood. How you do not seem to have any kind of major brain injury I continue to be astounded by."

I swallow and nod, barely dare breathe under her glower. "That—that's good?"

After a long pause, Izumi clears her throat. "Honestly I'm not surprised. Has always been a hard-headed, stubborn, pain in my ass."

It takes all my will to stay silent at this outrageous accusation, but I don't dare bring Asami's scowl my way again.

Izumi shrugs towards the door. "And Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira?"

Now Asami brightens a bit. "No permanent damage from the blood loss, and while she lost about two feet of intestine and a chunk of her liver, we anticipate a full recovery." She chokes back a laugh. "She's already driving Doctor Moon absolutely insane."

I chortle, then wince as the various bumps, bruises, and fractures in the biologic parts of my body remind me forcefully that I had been stupid lucky. Unfortunately, Asami notices. "You need more sleep, Colonel." I sigh as I see her reach behind me, knowing I'm about to get hit with a cocktail of meds at least one of which will conk me out.

"Fine," I grumble, already feeling the drowsiness kick in. "But somebody owes me a drink."