Heart beat, a heart beat, I need a heart beat, a heart -tell me would you kill to save a life?

[freestyle_one]

 Kate doesn't dream. Doesn't ponder, doesn't drift, doesn't wander, the silence and the blackness in her head is absolute and enveloping. It's curled around her like a child's play cape, dark silk, thick enough with regret and memory to smother

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[dr_helen_magnus]

Helen sits in the nearly silent infirmary, going over reports and documents detailing what has gone on while she's been away. Kate had woken a few times during the day, but never when Helen's been in to check on her.

Nikola's told her the basics of what happened, but Helen has yet to speak with the younger woman for any length of time.

[freestyle_one]

Kate leaned back on the pillows, shifting uncomfortably. She knew she needed rest to recover her strength but her muscles didn't know that. They were complaining from spending so many hours in bed.

She stretched carefully, wincing as the newly knit together flesh throughout her chest and back from the bullet twinged.

[dr_helen_magnus]

Helen sets the computer down and makes her way over. "Hello, there."

[freestyle_one]

Kate looked up at the voice. Now there was a face she hadn't practically seen since she'd first arrived.

"Dr. Magnus", she replied, wondering if the lady of the house knew all that had transpired in Kate's stay here. "...Hey?"

[dr_helen_magnus]

"I imagine you're feeling rather the worse for the wear," Helen muses, checking Kate's vitals. "How is the pain? Would you like something for it?"

[freestyle_one]

Understatement of the year. Kate shrugged stiffly, but was unable to find a humorous response, "Nah, it's nothing I can't handle".

[dr_helen_magnus]

"Perhaps in a little bit then." Helen says, checking the responsiveness of Kate's pupils with a pen light. "Unfortunately we couldn't get to your hands while you were unconscious. We expect we'll be able to mend them, though." The process would be rather unpleasant but in the end she would have use of them again.

[freestyle_one]

Kate tilted her chin up to make it easier for Dr. Magnus to check her pupils. But if she had a concussion, she think she'd have noticed by now. She breathed a sigh of relief she hadn't noticed she'd been holding at the mention of her hands. With no mention from anyone and the thick gauze hiding the damage from her eyes...she'd started to secretly think the worst.

"And here I was just getting used to the idea of a trained monkey to do all my texting for me", Kate joked dryly, in an attempt to hide her relief and grattitude.

[dr_helen_magnus]

"Alas," Helen gives her a small smile. Normally it wuold be a good sign that a patient was joking, but she was given to understand it was kate's default mode. Still, her normal was better than not.

"I'm afraid the damage is quite severe, but unfortunately there were more pressing injuries. As those are on the mend, in perhaps a week or so we can begin the process with your hands." she pauses then adds, "it will require re-breaking any healing the bones have begun on their own. We've tried to set them for now in a natural pattern, but some of the damage was older."

[freestyle_one]

"A week?" Kate sputtered, she'd already been pent up on bedrest, helpless and useless long enough. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she couldn't stand the thought of being vulnerable any longer.

[dr_helen_magnus]

"A week," Helen told her. "I know it isn't what you'd like to hear, but I'd rather you have some time to recover before we attempt to heal your hands." Despite how she may be feeling now, she was extremely injured.

[freestyle_one]

Kate flopped her head back onto the pillows with a resigned sigh.

"But everything's okay now...right?" She hated how small and weak her voice sounded, but she'd gotten so used to living on fear, it was a hard habit to break. What would she find out when she tried to stand up?

[dr_helen_magnus]

"I wouldn't go so far as to say you're completely healthy, but you are getting there." Helen tells her gently. "You were extremely injured and it is only because individuals on the rescue team could promote rapid healing that you're even awake to have this conversation. You're in no immediate danger but what you went through was significant."

Helen sits on chair at her bedside. "I do expect that you will make a full recover if you take the time to heal and apply yourself to your physical therapy and aftercare."

[freestyle_one]

Kate sat back up, nodding softly as the words sunk in. In that room, in that chair, all she'd thought about when she could think at all was a way out, dead or alive. She hadn't really bet on the latter, and she certainly hadn't thought about what would come afterwards.

"I just want it to be over", She admitted softly.It was amazing how little control she seemed to have over her words these days.

[dr_helen_magnus]

Helen placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "That will come with time as well. For now, you're safe here for as long as you wish to stay."

[freestyle_one]

Kate flinched reflexively at the sudden touch. That was hardly the welcome she was expecting, assuming Magnus was well filled in on Kate's choices.