"Beep, beep, beep, beep," the steady beeping slowly brought Mira around to conciousness.  Was it morning already?  She was dead tired, she must have been playing video games with Tomas late again last night.  She wondered who won, she couldn't remember, let alone she couldn't really remember that much...Her skin was wet, and there was some sort of mask over her face, what was all of this?

Then the shock flowed through her body settling in her stomach making her want to puke.  The explosion, the screaming, her being pinned underneath rubble, the fire...the fire.  She could almost feel the flames licking at her, she had passed out but she remembered the pain.  Why wasn't she dead, well the Bacca surrounding was one explination.  Tom?  Tomas!  Was he alright?  She could vaguely remember him being trapped and lying still, very still.

"Long term memory loss," Mira's eyes flickered a little, she had a feeling this voice was talking about her, "Shouldn't effect her flying knowledge.  Her leg was crushed, we managed to save it but she'll always have a limp.  And within time the burn scars will heal and fade."

So in a sense she was all in one, 'piece,' nice.  Mira let out a cough, it was bitter and smokey.  Opening her eyes she looked around the room.  A guy in a lab coat...the doctor?  And one other man...Tomas?  No not Tomas, Ibram, how strange.  As the liquid was drained out of her pod, Mira sunk to her feet in dispare?  Was he dead? 

"Mira?  Mira are you alright?  Is it your leg?" Ibram asked running up with a towel and wrapping it around her as she sobbed.

"Tomas?" she sobbed managing a question.

"He's fine, bruised, but fine," Ibram murmured a frown on his face as he helped Mira to her feet.  Silently, she was guided to the showers, after she washed the Bacca off of herself she limped out in a towel to the large mirror, staring at herself.  Her right leg was a mangled mess, red a riddled with scars.  Mira turned to see the mess of burn scars on her back, her eyes filling with tears

A dream, if she wished as hard as she could and squeezed her eyes shut tight, then she could almost believe the shearing pain running across her skin down to the dull ache in her leg didn't exist and that she was still in one piece.  If she pretended.  Mira forced her eyes open, burying her face in her pillow to force the tears in her eyes back.  Nearby her alarm went off, her skin stretched and seemed to crinkle as she reached out and turned it off.  Once again she knew she hadn't set it and at some point in the night Ibram had snuck into her room to set it to try to wake her up for physical therapy.  Two weeks and every session she had skipped and instead wandered around feeling lost.

Today she planned to limp to the nearby park, find her favorite bench in front of the duck pond and take a nap for a few hours.  After a labored struggle she managed to get out of bed.  Taking her pain meds she got dressed in a white long sleeved shirt and pants.  Picking up her cane she headed out the door, ducking around the corner in time to miss Ibram for his usual failed try to get her to her appointment.  Mira chuckled to herself as she limped out the door.  Sheilding her eyes from the bright sun she continued her struggle to the green, blooming park.

The park was filled with beautiful flowers and as Mira sat down in the bench in front of the duck pond a warm breeze moved the scent of flowers around her.  Soon the warm weather and lulling sounds of the pond made Mira drift into a light sleep.  A shadow over her a few hours later caused her to wake up.  Looking up she saw the blue eyed blond haired figure of Ibram.

"Hey," she yawned smiling sleepily.

"I'm not going to rehab," Mira stated pulling out a bag of bread from her book bag and starting to feed the ducks. "I hate it."

"Come on Mira you haven't been to a single one," Ibram sighed rolling his eyes.

"I have, one, it was pointless," Mira pointed out poking one of the ducks with the tip of her shoe, "I have my own exercises I've been doing and as a result I was walking a half a year before they expected."

'I believe your version of rehab is running away from me to stay away from your scheduled rehab," Ibram said, "O'Riley."

"Don't call me O'Riley, I'm not going to rehab, the guy in charge is creepy and has a wandering eye," Mira said brushing the crumbs from her fingers.

"Fine show me what this rehab you do, and if I think you need to go to a real session then I'll order you to," Ibram sighed getting up from the bench and helping Mira up.

"If I said my version of rehab was hot sweaty sex, what then?" Mira asked and laughed, playfully shoving Ibram as he looked at her and stuttered a little, "Relax pretty boy."

A short time later Ibram and Mira were on a large mat in the gym. Mira had changed into a tank top and a pair of stretch pants.

"Scars are looking good," Ibram commented as Mira stretched.

"They still hurt, pretty bad sometimes," she answered back before starting on a meditation movements to find her center.

"This is it then, you slowly moving around?" Ibram asked walking around Mira. That is until her hand shot out and flipped him over her shoulder. Her fist threatened to cave in his chest but she stopped it just in time and leaned in inches from Ibram's ear.

"I've been sparring everyday, try to keep up," she chuckled hotly into his ear before limp/hopping backwards, "Now get up."

'this isn't fair, you're injured and Ieeeee," Ibram went before Mira came forward her elbow digging into his stomach and her leg twisting his throwing him off balance and knocking him to the floor again.

"Come on Ibram," Mira said leaning down again and laughing huskily, "Or has all that paperwork made you grow fat and slow?" she asked hopping back again.

If this ever get’s out, I’m going to be a laughing stock…

Ibram was once again on his back, Mira having thrown him down to the ground for a third time in a row.

“You know, for a cripple, you’re un-shamefully agile today.”

“For an Executive Officer, you’re un-shamefully wimpish.”

Ibram sighed and got back up, assuming his ready stance. Mira came forward with a side kick which turned out to feint as she wrapped her leg round his, and shoved forward. Ibram managed to twist himself round as they fell so that he ended up on top of her instead.

“I’m also not an idiot.”

Ibram smiled down at her. Mira started to blush under the attention.

“Yeah alright, gerroff me. I think that’s it for today.”

Ibram and Mira sat there on the mat, neither saying anything, yet neither feeling the need to say anything. It was one of those rare moments of silence where you were completely at ease with each other.

Their revere was broken as Ibram’s comlink beeped.

“Tyrol here.”

“Mr. Tyrol? This is Dr. Gates. Your Commander is showing signs of consciousness, I think he’s going to wake up soon.”

Ibram looked over at Mira and winked.

“Good news, we’ll be right over.”

Helping Mira to her feet, they both made for the door.

“Let’s go say hello to sleeping beauty.”

-------------------------------------------------------------

The two of them walked through the door just as Thomas started stirring.

"Well well, sleepyhead's awake now!" Mira teased.

Ibram stood next to her as she leant on him.
“Good to see you up and about sir.”

Thomas’ voice was hoarse and croaky.

“How long have I been out?”

“About a week sir, you were pretty seriously injured.”

“And the rest of the Squadron?”

“Most of them are in the same condition as you are, although some of us were lucky enough to remain relatively unscathed. Sicario is in the Brig for gross insurbordination.”

Thomas chuckled.

“Seems like you’ve been handling things rather well XO.”

Ibram smiled, “I’ve been doing my best sir.”

He noticed Mira was staring at the skipper with a strange expression. Thomas noticed it too.

Ibram walked Mira over to a seat next to the recovery bed, and headed for the door.

“Ill leave you two alone.”

He saluted before leaving.

Tomas sighed inwardly as Mira slipped out the door, and waited patiently for Ibram to take her place. He wished Mira could’ve been the one to stay with him for the rest of the visitation hours, but recognized that following such a harmful incident to the squadron and the Commander himself stuck in a hospital bed it’d be up to Ibram to keep things going.

Tomas couldn’t help but smile, as he allowed himself to recount Mira’s visit, which albeit brief had managed to somewhat lift his spirits. He was ecstatic to see she was okay, minus the limp of course. Even in his current state she had managed to make him laugh, despite clumsily resting her head on his recently repaired shoulder. Just having her there had temporarily washed the pain away. Of course, the steady stream of pain meds was doing its job too, but that was beside the point.

“Heya Skipper,” Ibram’s voice spoke up from the doorway causing the injured pilot to shake himself out of his current thoughts. “How’s the shoulder feeling?”

“Oh you know … great … provided I don’t move it at all. It’ll be fine before long I’m sure, especially once I cleared to do rehab on it,” as Tomas finished his statement, an awkward silence took its place for a couple minute. It was something that had never really been present between the two, though the slight tension seemed to have emerged now. “They really can do some amazing with medicine these days though, I gotta say.”

“Without a doubt, sir. I’ve been trying to get Mira go to rehab for her leg ever since the accident but she’s been … reluctant.”

“Heh, she was telling me she kicked you ass in the gym today,” Tomas replied with a forced chuckle before putting on a more serious face. “But honestly, I think you should keep at her about it. Find a way to do so without making it sound like you’re nagging her, at you should be fine. It’s a lot of hard, tedious work now, but it’s worth it if it means having full use of your limbs for many years to come.”

“I’ll try, sir. But you and I both know how stubborn she can be.” The two pilots laughed, an awkwardness still lingering between them.

“So Sicario’s in the Brig? Pilots are in Sick Bay … what exactly happened down there?”

"You don't remember, eh sir?"

"It's all a big blur really. Explosion, pain, black, you know?"

"I can imagine, sir." Short, straight forward, to the point. "Well, that  was most of it ... for all of us. Confusion, scrambling to rescue you guys. It was pretty crazy in there. We're fortunate we got out as healthy as we did, sir."

"Yeah, no kidding," Tomas replied grimacing as he attempted to move his arm.

"You look like you need some rest, sir. I'll leave you be."

"Keep my squadron in one piece, Tyrol."

"You got it, sir." And with that Ibram was gone and yet another person was in the room. The nurse had returned, and was doing something with the IV on the side of the bed. Before long, Tomas' eyes felt heavy and he drifted off again to a dream world.